The Eclipse, Basketball and Pollen

The solar eclipse has come and gone and if not for a random trip to the bank I would have missed it. When I pulled into the parking lot there was Clarice, my banker, gazing upward with bright red sunglasses. She loaned them to me for a second, I looked up and there it was. I’m told that the next one is in 2044. I’ll probably be dead by then so this was it. I must say that I don’t quite get the fascination. The moon comes between the sun and the earth and momentarily and blocks our view. Let’s all lose our minds.

Then there’s college basketball. Now that Connecticut has won its second title in a row I can admit the fact that I haven’t watched a single game of the tournament. The Caitlin Clark story was pretty cool but I didn’t watch a single woman’s game either. Sure, I watched some highlights and read a few recaps of the more pivotal games, but to sit down for three hours and watch a basketball game? Nope. My sister Paula is a sportsaholic and watches practically everything and gets annoyed with me when I don’t. I used to be just like her, watched everything. I suppose I’ve become semi-obsessed with writing and thinking about writing. The only thing it hasn’t affected is my devotion to baseball. We’re only ten games into a 162 game season and I’m already pouring over box scores every morning! I’m a hopeless addict.

I suppose that mention needs to be made of the beginning of pollen season. Suddenly, the stuff is everywhere, a soft coating of yellow goo has descended on our world coating every single surface, including the inside of my lungs. I made the dreadful mistake yesterday afternoon of going out for a short run. By the time I returned I was a coughing, gasping mess, a 100% self-inflicted wound. What was I thinking? When I got back I decided to sit out on the deck. But first I had to crank up the leaf blower to clear the pollen. When I did a cloud of yellow swirled up from the deck’s surface like a sneezy fog—another idiotic idea. Instead, I went upstairs, took a shower and snorted in a couple poofs of Flonase. It will be like this for another month. Lucky us!

Lastly, as of this morning only 19 people have RSVP-ed for my book launch party. I don’t know what to make of this. Its awfully early, its a full four weeks away. Maybe a lot of people thought the rapture was gonna happen because of the eclipse and thought, why bother? I’m sure business will pick up as the day gets closer. If not I might have to put a FREE BEER sign out by the railroad tracks?