The Calm Between

With the car inspection behind me, the loft cleared yesterday, my godson coming to visit tomorrow, followed by the landlord's contractors putting on a new roof next week, this was our only day to rest, and I took full advantage. At least 2-3 naps during the day when I wasn't watching footie and baseball. I don't exactly feel refreshed, I'm a bit too travel-nervous for that, but I definitely needed the break!

Wedding Out the Window

White Rabbits! And I thought this was going to be an especially lucky day, what with my usual weekend chores all done before 8 AM and the grocery shopping (and gas station) before noon and the lovely emotional nostalgia kick I got from the 1986 NY Mets reunion ceremony... but that all came to a crashing halt around six hours ago when extremely loud music started emanating from the Hot Tub House outside our Yonkers-facing windows (home office and bedroom). Apparently it wasn't a run-of-the-mill party, but a complete wedding party, all in white and enjoying music that must have been too loud for them, and was certainly too loud for a suburban-city enclave surrounded by neighbors. I'm usually not that passive aggressive any more but I called the cops as the speakers blasted it out well above the 60db allowed before 10 PM (and the 50db allowed after 10 PM). No idea if the gendarmes ever arrived, but I've spent much of the last six hours in a very shaky state, wearing earplugs as well as the new noise-cancelling headphones Robin purchased for our flights to and from England. Unfortunately we couldn't get the earphones to work with the bedroom TV, but they worked well enough with my iPhone that I was able to listen to (and thoroughly enjoy despite the circumstances) the new Paul McCartney album. But the wedding noise put paid to my plans to, you know, get a nap in which I couldn't do earlier in the afternoon because screechy children, or even take a much-needed shower which will now have to wait another day. The music is finally winding down now, although loud voices still prevail, so the earphones are off (tried in vain to doze with them on) and the earplugs are in until the madness abates entirely. I reckon I'll be a wreck tomorrow, when I do hope to get in at least one nap and definitely a shower, and am very grateful it's a Sunday as I'll need the extra day to recover.

Drug Induced

I woke up earlier than I'd planned with what I guess was a touch of indigestion, and my heart area didn't feel quite right for most of the morning. As a result I felt drugged, and although I got a lot done around the apartment (emptying recycling bags, putting away laundry, dealing with more Mom Estate stuff) I felt quite inadequate work-wise, so I took four hours of PTO and just sat quietly, playing my online games and watching the Yankees lose the first game of their double-header, and the Mets lose as well. Not the best day for NY baseball. Oh, and we've responded to a cousin's invite for his wedding in Philadelphia for the weekend before we head to England, so that'll be a fun "dry run" of Being Away. Now, of course, it's evening and I'm wide awake.

Back on the Bike

Well, at least for today, and it was only ten minutes. But when I actually feel rested enough and I have the energy and incentive from watching the Tour de France, yeah, I can do ten minutes. Besides, I relaxed the rest of the day, watching the boring-ass World Cup final (yesterday's game was so much better!) and bits of baseball games (Mets won, Yankees split their day-night double header) and even some golf. Mostly sports-less tomorrow, but that's a work day anyway. I hope my body kicks into gear and makes the bike a habit! Particularly since I now have new flexible watch bands in multiple colors (and some wires to hang them on) so wearing my Apple watch to time my exercise won't bother me as much. And if I don't go on? Not beating myself up over it, I have to listen to my body and whether it needs sleep or movement.

A Game for the Ages?

England has moved up in the FIFA world rankings with today's defeat of France in a truly bizarre and memorable World Cup third-place game. They were up 4-0 at halftime, and it was clear to most thinking people that France had no real intention of playing. I mean, I wore an "I Love England Football" t-shirt today, i know they're good, but they're normally not "beat France" good. AI claims "France's lack of effort or intensity in their games stems from two main issues: tactical frustration in their World Cup exit to Spain and morale issues," but considering FIFA's longstanding corruption I believe money changing hands must also have been involved somehow. Alas, we'll never know. At least I can take some comfort in believing that Tadej Pogačar won this stage of the Tour de France fair and square, he's phenomenal and so pleasant to watch! Mets lost today, of course, and the Yankees game has been postponed until tomorrow as the weather is really nasty. It started raining about when we exited the supermarket so we got a tad wet when bringing up the groceries, but driving conditions weren't dangerous until a bit later and now... well, I wouldn't want to go out in this mess. Maybe it'll finally cleanse the air quality. In other unsurprising news, we continue to organize for our England trip, and Robin's been amazing at frothing heavy cream so it almost got to the consistency of proper English cream so I could enjoy it with my strawberries, as well as sorting my iPad charger as the one I'd been using suddenly stopped working. All I've done is consolidate some more shopping bags as the ones we've been using are starting to fray, file away the Mom's estate paperwork, apply a solution on which to hang my Apple watch bands so I can sort through them the way I do my earrings, and of course buy more watch bands as I don't have any real vibrant ones (or blue ones that resemble KPMG's corporate colors and I want one of those for our Family Day at the Bronx Zoo in two weeks). Nothing much really.

Ping Ponging

Fun day at work and at home, trying to juggle lots of job and personal stuff at the same time. I feel like I'm at a ping pong game or something. But personal stuff (more things from Mom's estate) is done, I have a bunch more papers to file, and I'm in good shape at work as usual. Even had a chance to speak with my uncle this afternoon in his new senior living complex (via FaceTime no less, Mom could never have done that!). Big weekend awaits for footie, with England/France tomorrow in the consolation game and Spain v. Argentina in the big one, commandeered to a ludicrous extent by US insistence on four quarters throughout the tournament (these "hydration breaks" totally ruin the flow of the game) and an actual Halftime Show. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get back on the bike over the weekend, if I can breathe by that point.

Quality of Life

The air quality rose to dangerous levels today due to the Canadian wildfires wafting down to cover much of the northern US. Thank goodness I work from home on most Wednesdays so I didn't have to go out anywhere, although I believe some of the bad air did come through to our apartment. Certainly it affected us both physically, because we're Olds. Something else that came through our apartment was our downstairs neighbor with his daughter - huge comic book fans, and the daughter is an illustrator. She was positively drooling over Robin's work, and they showed us photos from the various cosplays they've done at comic conventions. Made me long for my "previous" life before it got too unwieldy to travel and Friends of Lulu's mission was more or less accomplished and Robin wasn't really having that much fun any more (hey, those cons are work for him). But it's wonderful to have "fans" living in the same house as us! Not coming through today was England; I honestly didn't expect them to win the semi-finals against friggin' Argentina, but I also didn't expect things to get so nasty. Ah well, I get to see them battle France for third place in the Hundred Hours War on Saturday, sans England shirt as that's finally in the laundry.

Gearing Up

A very hot, windy day where I work, but no issues walking, so the hallux is holding up okay. I schlepped an Amazon return into Whole Foods, where I usually get my lunch, and because of the weather I decided to splurge for a 2-liter bottle of iced tea to pour from during the afternoon. Well, enough of it was left over by the time for my homeward commute that I took it home along with my laptop and, while I was glad to have it during the few minutes in direct sunshine waiting for the local bus, I really can't carry that much stuff any more over great distances. But I'm home now, the All-Star game is underway, I cannot believe France is out of the World Cup on Bastille Day!, and I'm ready for bed again. More heat tomorrow but I'm working from home again.

Steamy

I didn't go out today, although Robin's been downstairs to the front door at least once with an Amazon pickup (I laid out my weekly pills and supplements this morning and found I needed to order more of the latter, so those will be here any minute), but the heat still permeates and makes us both feel kind of drugged. So I watched some Tour de France and both NY baseball teams (so not worth it) and odd sports like cricket, but mostly rested and did the dishes and... oh yeah, steamed about 7 shirts for work, so I consider that a good day. Next I'll have to get up enough energy (which I did NOT have today) to get back on the exercise bike. But for now, I'm catching up on my debit accounts...

Through to the Semis!

I can't believe I'm undergoing World Cup withdrawal, but I really got into it this year. I mean, I'm not as obsessive as our mayor, but once you get to the quarter finals (even the Gang of 8) there have been some enjoyable games. And I didn't expect England to beat Norway, so the fact that they did made it even more fun for this binational household. Certainly more fun than the crispy rice hot dog we had at Kura. Folks, please stay away from that, if you value your palates and stomachs. Other than that, the sushi was lovely, the food shopping reasonable, and my hallux behaved. Next on the weekend agenda, catching up on personal finances (as opposed to inherited ones) and steaming some tops to wear to work because I'm definitely not going to want to do that with the rising temps.

Silly Site o' the Day

We continue to enjoy the World Cup as the quarter finals start to wrap up, but I'm not sure I'd go to this sort of lengths even if I had this person's immense talents:

 Via Laughing Squid.

A Day Without World Cup

I had the opportunity yesterday to watch the Egypt-Argentina match either in my office or out on Manhattan West Plaza, but after the first half I was kind of falling asleep so opted to go back to my workstation instead. Fortunately we recorded the playback on our home DVR last night, and I finally watched that this morning. And yeah, I can see where the corrupt FIFA (but I repeat myself) seems to have greatly favored Argentina, especially on that brilliant disallowed goal, but unlike the overturned American red card it's not like you can prove anything was amiss. So it was fun to hear the incident alluded to by our footie-loving mayor this morning, and I think going forward I'm going to record all the remaining games, or at least tomorrow's as that will be taking place as I get ready to leave the office for my homeward commute. Meanwhile, the NY baseball teams are either winning or losing, and both could really use an All Star Game break.

Easing In

I was right, I didn't sleep well at all last night, maybe 3-4 hours at most, and it took its toll today. Thank goodness it was a work-from-home day! I'd also been tossing and turning over work stuff which came to fruition today when I could least handle it, but it's out of my hands now and moved up the chain of command so I think I'll sleep well tonight. Especially as the US men look to be going down in World Cup defeat. Serves our country right for having the grifter in chief get involved.

Footies

The heat continues to dissipate, so for the first time in almost a week (not counting when I had to move my car) we went out today to do our grocery shopping. And my left hallux no longer hurt! Whatever the shoe place did when they reupholstered my orthotics, it worked like a charm. So happy I can now make plans to actually walk when we're in England! Might have been nice to get some sleep this evening, as I have work in the morning, but too many idiots decided they had to shoot off more fireworks despite the torrential rains this evening, and besides, England beat Mexico in a World Cup game for the ages, so we had to stay up for that. I suspect I'll be something of a zombie tomorrow.

The Paradox of Intolerance

For mysterious reasons, I've spent much of this July 4 thinking about the Nazis in Skokie and the paradox of tolerance. As I age I have less and less patience for bigotry and hatred and bullying, and wonder more and more what can be done to curb it, stop it before it starts, and punish it to the full extent of the law. But I do despair, especially when I look around and see warmongering glorified (the tall ships were lovely and the flybys awe-inspiring to an extent, but they're all symbols of war when you get right down to it) and cheating rewarded, even when the media doesn't call it out. I mean, the World Cup commentators looked like they were itching to discuss how much Paraguay cheated and were repeatedly rewarded for it whilst France was punished for their reactions to being punched and kicked and such, but they couldn't bring themselves to use the "C" word at all, cowed as much as our political media not using the "L" word to describe the everyday utterances of those in power. And my goodness, when will we stop idolizing billionaires as if their gains are not mostly ill-gotten? But even amidst the despair there is hope. We have a lovely mayor and tons of lovely citizens who deeply care about making this country better, the TV fireworks were pretty (and we even saw some local bursts out our front window), I got to watch bits of 1776 and Yankee Doodle Dandy again, and once this awful animal-frightening noise is over I look forward to the heat wave finally dissipating.

Forward Into the Past

White Rabbits, and the heat wave begins. Although I decided to make an English breakfast (lots of different breakfast meets plus eggs plus caramelized onions) I knew I'd be taking it easy the rest of the day. But I'd promised a work colleague that I'd send her a photo of all the old gum wrapper chains I'd made during my childhood and even into my young adult years, so I had to get out the five tin containers in which I've kept them lo these many decades, and while I was at it I dragged out the three or so jars of buttons I've kept for nearly that long. I even tried my hand at lengthening a couple chains with some wrappers still in the tins and, hey, I've still got it. I'm not crafty but by golly I can still chain gum wrappers! Anyway, Robin and I will devise a photo shoot tomorrow in the hopes that someone may want to give these sentimental treasures a good home. Meanwhile, more World Cup (England won, hoorah, USA winning at the moment but down to 10 men) and sending out of laundry (since put away!) and just not trying to move around too much in this heat. The living room blinds and shades are drawn closed until at least Saturday. Ugh...

Seeping In

We're starting to discover how extreme heat, even the onset of same, affects older people. Because, you know, we're Olds. I have various stomach and muscle ailments, Robin has been having trouble focusing, and we're not even going to try doing any more housework for the rest of the week. The living room blinds are drawn against the afternoon sun, I'm getting through my analog reading, and we're in a holding pattern watching the World Cup and baseball. Our downstairs neighbor Pablo volunteered to help us throw out our very old air conditioner, but we're not taking him up on his offer until the heat wave subsides. I'm just glad the kitchen trash is out. Whatever limited mail we get can wait until maybe Sunday; I'm content to have finally received notice that my $300/month pension from my first job will start coming in Any little bit helps!

Won't You Be My Neighbor

The family downstairs seems to have begun moving in, although the folks coming and going don't seem to be the same ones we met earlier this month. Robin calls them "the advance guard," and assumes they're mainly there to install air conditioning and other necessities since we have yet to see a moving van either. They do seem to do it during the evenings though, which tends to be disruptive to a 9 PM bedtime or even, in some cases, an afternoon nap. Ah well, the noise isn't that excessive (I'm just hyper-sensitive) and it's not like I have to deal with getting up early this coming week so I presume my circadian rhythm will right itself eventually. In the meantime, only one World Cup game today, the first of the "gang of 32" lose-and-you're-out round. Mets won their first game under their new interim manager, Yanks seem to be winning but Boston has won the first three already and who knows what's going on with New York baseball?

Footie Foodie!

With the heat wave coming later this week, we decided to get our food shopping and my orthotic refurbishing out of the way today. I don't anticipate leaving the house any time in the next few days that would normally require the orthotics in my sneakers, so this was the best opportunity to get it done before I'll really need nice inserts for all that England walking in September. And it's nice to have a stocked fridge leading up to the 4th, again because we might not feel like going out much before that due to the heat. I started catching up on financial things, speaking with my brother about how to fill out my paperwork for the last of Mom's estate IRAs (it's all going to require sending out via FedEx from the office next week, but at least I know how to get everything ready for that) and organizing my receipts. And then it was on to World Cup watching, an activity I plan to do the most in the coming week.

Sports Rapports

I woke up to the news that the US did not win all three group stage games in the World Cup, which delighted me because I've found the Neanderthalish "oo-ess-eh" chant repulsive since its debut at the 1980 Olympics, and I think the fans and media needed taking down a peg or two. Who didn't need taking down? Carlos Mendoza, the victim of Steve Cohen's bad decisions to sell or give away the heart of the Mets during the off-season resulting in a lousy, injury-prone team with no cohesion. And as with all corporations, the folks at the top who bear ultimate responsibility for the debacle remain in their jobs and the managers or below get the axe. Mendoza's undoubtedly rich and will be sought after by another team, but I mean, really. So the Mets lost again. And the Yankees lost. And Uruguay just lost to Spain in the World Cup group stage and will be going home, just as well considering their dirty play towards the end of that game. Anything going on besides sports? Well, I've logged off work until July 6, although I will be peeping in next week to do a few things like 14-day advance seat bookings and grabbing weekly reports, but for the most part I'm now on a firm-mandated vacation week! And boy howdy do I need it.