"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"

 And some folks thought 't was a dream they'd dreamed

Of sailing that beautiful sea---

But I shall name you the fishermen three:

                     Wynken,

                     Blynken,

                     And Nod.

And then there was . . . .

 Hey youngest child of mine, I'm sorry that neither you or your brothers could make it yesterday (a holiday) to the Lost Dog at noon but you've got a birthday coming up this month! Maybe I'll see you at noon at the Lost Dog then ;-) and you can fill me in on your doin's for the last decade and a half; whether you graduated finally from that safety school you went to that you asked me in your last communication fifteen years ago to provide full payment for tuition and fees for, which I did, and how your wedding was and whether you're still married to that same ambitious lady Laura (whom I have never met), and how it's going being a sales clerk at that lightbulb store you work in, and whether you sired one or both of the grandchildren I reputedly have and how they're doing. You know, basic stuff like what their names are, when they were born and to whom, what sex they are, normal stuff that any parent would tell a child's grandparent about.

And I can fill you in on what's going on in the Lamberton world, not that you or your brothers have ever expressed a scintilla of basic human concern or even curiosity about your close kin for the last two decades. Come on, we'll party hardy for an hour!

Hope springs . . . away?

 After church and then an enjoyable lunch with a friend yesterday at the Lost Dog pizzeria, where we hoisted a toast to the always empty chair, I went to drop-in pickleball in my town and in very tricky windy conditions had about a break-even day on the court.

My breathing was labored due to my rib injury but my game apparently finally is getting better and I sat out every other game, win or lose.

Overall it was an enjoyable day even though I missed having my oldest son finally appear for his birthday party after all these years.

But today is a holiday, Presidents Day, so it is another chance for that rascal oldest child of mine, and any or all of his brothers, all of whom are in their thirties and apparently all very hateful men, to appear for lunch finally. ;-)

The Prodigal Son

Hey oldest son of mine, you've got a birthday coming up soon as you blaze your way through your mid-thirties! Come join me for lunch at noon on that day at the Lost Dog and you can tell me all about what you've been up to for the last 15 years, beyond changing your name on your 18th birthday, barely making it out of your magnet nationally esteemed public high school with a third-tier showing-you-the-door state diploma (not a TJ diploma), eschewing going to college which I would have provided full payment for in-state tuition and fees for, being an office boy at the divorce law firm you hired to baselessly and incompetently sue me (for which your mother was assessed almost $50,000 in costs and sanctions years later when the unjustified harassment petition got tossed out), launching a Go-Fund-Me campaign which collected its full allotment of money but accomplished nothing else of note, and engaging in gambling both on the internet and in Vegas. I can't wait to hear about all the other stuff you've been up to. I'll see you there then!

The Past Year VIII: Last winter.

 Last winter, I spent a lot of time on my porch, oftentimes with a friend, watching the world go by, eating and drinking a little, while I waited for my vaccination date to come around, which finally arrived in March for my first and second doses.  January and February were filled with fruitless 6 am computer searches for vaccine appointments which was supposedly the time that new appointment dates were uploaded.  My friend stumbled upon an appointment date for me because she would get up early every day and spend a couple of hours hitting refresh refresh refresh, trying secure appointments for herself, me and a couple of other friends.  She was like a saint because she found appointments finally for us all, although she had to drive one friend to York, PA for his appointment--twice.

I tried my hand at some political cartoons on Facebook.  I also read a lot, about the Revolutionary War and World War II..

Occasionally I went to have lunch at restaurants with outdoor seating.  I remember I was cold a lot last winter. With my covid beard, I looked like a real good Amurican, you know, like the type that would stroll by the Capitol and find the windows and doors smashed in and just go in to look around peaceful like, never looking for "Naaaanceee. Oh, Naaanceee, where are you?" or to "hang Mike Pence." Scum sucking bastards, those January 6th murderous miscreants. 

On January 6th I had lunch at the Lost Dog, it being the birthday of one of my boys, then went home to watch on TV the jaw-dropping spectacle that was unfolding a mere ten miles away as a band of seditionist white supremacists ransacked our two and a half century Republic and impugned our standing in the world as the beacon of democracy to the world. Traitorous bastards.

There were plenty of TV spectacles last winter.  The Trump era seemed to be full of them, like the Charlottesville Neo-Nazi riot and the brutal clearing of Lafayette Park by the police so Trump could have a photo-op. Not the least of them was the second trial of our disgraced, incompetent, antidemocratic president. Who ever voted for this boob even once, much less twice?

As the spring approached, I started to do yard work, building a berm, planting flowers, etc. I found a veritable platoon of my middle child's toy plastic soldiers, lost in the yard after he played with them outside during the last decade of the last century. A sign of a return to normalcy or of dreams forever lost? Goodbye and good riddance to 2021.