Making It Up As I Go Along #324

MONDAY...
— Work 11 to 7 today. Softball after that. I’m on the mound for most of the game and pitch alright... we don’t win the game though. Still pretty fun.
— Hot today. Around 37 or 38 with humidity. I like it.
— The Hockey Night in Canada theme song has gone from CBC to TSN. I suppose it’s good that it’s still to be used but it won’t be the same hearing that tune played on a Wednesday night hockey game. It belongs on Saturday nights on CBC and it bothers me that they weren’t able to come to some understanding to make it so.

TUESDAY...
— Walk around the pond before work. Take a few pics as I go and the hamstring is coming along.
— Work is alright... not much out of the ordinary.

WEDNESDAY...
— Work is alright. Broken up in the middle of it for a physio appointment. And that goes well. The hamstring is improving and they seem pretty positive about it heading in the right direction.
— Groceries at Farm Boy before work... and meet up with Karl after work. I don’t get home until after 1:30 in the morning.
— There’s something slightly depressing about coming home after a long day and finding about 20 spam e-mails and no real ones. Sometimes you just expect something to be there but it often isn’t.

THURSDAY...
— To Mazda for a service on the car before work. Work is fine, lots of busy times early, Greek for supper, and a walk with Melissa in the evening.

FRIDAY...
— In early for a staff meeting. Work goes fine after that and I’m home around 8:30 tonight. The Exorcist on TV tonight... with a bit of thunder and lightning outside early on in the movie... the weather adds to the spookiness.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day. A ball game on TV... a walk around the pond... some laundry.


Fatherless Father’s Day
Father’s Day is here. There’s no celebrating it in the company of my father though. He’s off the coast of Spain on a cruise ship right about now. My brother-in-law is also thousands of kilometres away, in BC. And of my uncles out there, the closest of the bunch is probably hanging out about a five hour drive away in the Mississauga area.

So Father’s Day is something I’m in no way close to today. I’ll have to celebrate it on my own, thinking of my father, and all those other father’s in my family, from afar.

So to celebrate Father’s Day, I think I’ll watch a baseball game and some golf on TV. I know it’s a hard sacrifice for me to make. To force myself to sit and take in two such sports when there could be so much else to do. But because I love those fathers out there, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

I’ll have to break out some nacho chips and salsa while in front of the TV. It’s true, my father thinks nacho chips are like cardboard. But I’ll be eating the chips thinking of the fact that my dad thinks this way. So in the eating will be the remembering. I’ve never quite understood the logic in that statement by my father anyway. He sees nacho chips as bland and tasteless cardboard. But he always enjoyed an oven baked potato. I can’t see getting any more bland than a baked potato straight out of the oven. The taste is dirt itself.

I think, since my father is now usually the one to prepare meals in my family, I shall order out for supper tonight... to give him a break. Again, like with watching baseball, it’s a sacrifice on my part. But it’s Father’s Day after all. Feels like a pizza day. Maybe I’ll have to order the Mediterranean pizza... again, thinking of dad and his current location.

Well the baseball game is on as I now write, and I can see it will be most difficult to get through it for dear old dad. With each extended stoppage of play... and in baseball there are many such stoppages... the CBC pan the crowd for those special father/child moments. So rather than actually paying attention to the game on the field, we’ll see lots of kids ignoring the game and eating a hot dog... while dad just stares off zombie like, lips smacking slowly and rhythmically, giving us glimpses of his half chewed food.

You see, our society is too geared now towards giving everyone their moment of publicity. We turn on the TV to see the game! Not to see some dad sucking down a hotdog with kiddie seated next to him. Soon the cell phones will be out, and we’ll all share in the moment as meat head lives a “can you see me?” scenario. Oh how I wish for a screaming foul ball when I see those guys waving to the camera while on their phone. Now that would make for some good television.

But this day is not for the wishing of mishit baseballs lining off of the foreheads of inattentive spectators. It’s a day about fathers.

And I’ll be thinking of the fathers I know.

The fatherly uncle, who’ll probably be cursed at by my aunt as he tries to watch the US Open... she’ll tell him “for Jesus’ sake, you’re not a father, now get up and set the table!”

The brother-in-law, who’ll also be watching the same US Open... with the volume turned up a touch in order not to hear my sister telling my youngest niece that she’s driving her crazy and needs to go outside for a while.

Then there’s my own father. Floating on the Mediterranean. I imagine him a little overwhelmed by a ship the size of a couple of hotels, just wanting to find a quite place to sit and read while my mother tells him they need to get a move on in order to get to the theatre in time for tonight’s live show. A show that’ll be some four hours away... but mom will push the issue, saying:

“by the time we get showered and dressed, and meet up with the others, and make our way up two decks and to the other end of the ship... and we’ll want to be there early for good seats...”

Dad will finish the page he’s on, mark his place with a pen for a bookmark, and mutter something about mom being out of control. And they’ll go off to have a terrific night, for Father’s Day cruising the Spanish seas.