Baseball Summer

So, we found out relatively late in the planning game that the lovely wife would not only have the 4th off, but also the 5th as well. We decided to get out of the valley for a little family trip. We headed to Aberdeen to catch a 4th of July baseball game between the Ironbirds and the Brooklyn Cyclones. The home team won and one of their players (a 19 yr old 1B named Hector Veloz) put on a power show with 2 HR and 4 RBI. We stayed the whole game and caught a fireworks display at the end of the night. The next day we made it to Baltimore and visited the national aquarium there. Had a great time, but we were not the only ones with the idea of visiting there for the holiday weekend. It was packed! Visited family in Harrisburg on the way back and we are now recuperating with a lazy lazy family day at home. I have now visited four ballparks this summer (our hometown Rail Riders, the Phillies, the Phillies' AAA team in Lehigh Valley, and now Cal Ripken Stadium) and we are visiting another one next week as we head to Pittsburgh. Add in a visit to Holman Stadium while I am in FLA and it's looking like a great baseball summer for me. There's still an outside chance of a Binghamton game as well as I'd love to see Noah Syndergaard before he heads to Vegas.

Steve and Edie

Here is a lovely performance on one of the songs they played last night

Highs and Lows

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go out with my lovely wife and with some good friends to see Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers play. We went out for snacks and drinks and then were treated to a fantastic show. Steve Martin recently released an album with Edie Brickell and she joined the band for a number of songs. Great night, the band played like crazy, Steve peppered some comedy in between songs and we rejoined our pals after the show. While we were out my phone buzzed and it was my little brother calling. I knew I could not talk at length so I let the call go to voicemail. When we got home I checked my voicemail and my email. Well, my joyous feeling from the evening disappeared quickly as I was notified that my old pal and boss from my record store geek days died of a heart attack yesterday. On my brother's message he mentioned that he heard this news through social media. I have, for some reasons I think I can articulate and for others that I cannot make sense of completely, avoided this world. Last night, I was sad about the news regarding Chaz as well as the fact that I was not tapped into a world where people would be sharing lovely memories of the man. My friend that sent me the news article knows I am not part of that world and I appreciate him sending me the news. Here is a passage regarding my friend Chaz - this piece is written by another old record store pal Gary Gordon

Charlie "Chaz" Scales, also not in Bill's article, is still one of Gainesville's most incredible guitarists. I met Chaz at The Alibi when the Archer Road Band was playing there. He came in with the lady who would later be my wife (now ex). Chaz replaced me in the Archer Road Band when I quit. A year later I hired him to work at Hyde & Zeke Records when I was manager. A few years later he became manager after I left. Now he owns the place. We worked together a lot in various versions of The Archer Road Band in the late 80s (and in The Band That Never Was with Don David and Bob Harris) and to this day I have no idea how he thinks on guitar. He is clever, inventive and thoroughly unpredictable. He plays the tune. He's got the right tone. But his leads are his leads, like no one else. Enjoyable, moody, exciting, climactic. It is wonderful to hear him play.

Feels Like Starting Over

So, we've asked the boy to take up the discipline of writing regularly to record his ideas and keep his grandparents posted on life. He has encouraged me to start doing the same again. July started yesterday, feels like as good a reason as any to start working on this myself. I think I can find 5 - 10 minutes every few days to check in with the world. The summer has been more relaxing than I had planned since the class I was supposed to teach got cancelled. As a result, I have taken more time away from work than I usually do and I am already thinking ahead to make sure that I start doing some of the prep I have promised myself I'd do. I am going into my fourth year here (!!!) and will be teaching Stats for the fourth time. I am comfortable enough with the course now that I can start doing some serious advance prep for it. We've had some local fun with friends recently and are starting a month of family adventures this weekend with a Maryland trip. I'll post about it after we return. Here are some recent family photos.

Winter weary

This is what our building looks like today. On Friday afternoon it was in the 60s and people were outside playing frisbee and throwing a baseball around. This is what kids were doing today. I would wave a white flag but no one would be able to see it. Oh yeah, it's another snow day where school is canceled. Either four or five now for the high school, I am too tired to remember the count.

Photo Round Up

It's been a while since I posted some new photos. Here are a few recent favorites

Nor'Easter

Since we moved to the northeast in 2007 we have been pretty lucky with the weather, I must admit. After a few years in So Fla where we got pummeled by hurricane after hurricane, our life has been blissfully without terrifying weather events. This week saw another near miss for us. Last year we had two different weeks where monster snowstorms were supposed to pound us, but we were spared. Well, the same thing just happened. Yesterday we got an inch or two of snow while our old town in Jersey got a couple of feet in the past day or two (according to weather.com) while we are just getting wind and cold cold cold here. It has probably been two weeks since the temperature was above 35 degrees. I must say that it is getting tiring, especially trying to make sure the kids are bundled up appropriately. Speaking of bundling up, the boy and I are off to a birthday party at a mountain resort tomorrow. He is going snow tubing for the first time ever and I hope it goes well. He has been on the fence about this event, but he decided to go for it.

We had a terrific xmas here with family in and the kids eating up all the attention. It's fun to see them connect with their grandparents and uncle and aunt. It's been a good break.