All Things Must Pass

I love the smell of freshly-cut grass.

It signifies warmth to me and BBQs and longer stretches of daylight.

It also means I've mowed the lawn and I'm finished.

That happened for the first time in 2020 today. It doesn't mean that I did the whole yard. Only the part that grows the most needed it.

So while my back hurts from pushing the mower, my pride is satisfied.

Plus it's another day -- and another sign -- that we're getting closer.

Perhaps most of all, the smell of freshly-cut grass reminds me of baseball. Five years ago, I was in Cooperstown at Doubleday Field with (then) HAN Radio.

I was tour guide in my home state, leading a group of cars to our hotel 45 minutes away in Herkimer. (Truth: I'd never been to Herkimer, save for passing by on the New York State Thruway. This fact is making at least a few of you smile).

Five years ago today, we called the game at Doubleday between Norwalk and Brien McMahon. As I listened back to the little part that exists in my archive, I can hear how excited I am. I was probably talking too much though.

It's also the last game Paul Silverfarb and I called together at HAN.

There's a much-longer story to all of this, but I will tell you my son will occasionally halt a conversation and say, "Everybody STOP. Where are the extension cords?!?"

It's an homage to this very weekend, when it appeared (correctly) we didn't have any power cords. That happened at the end of the long weekend of power outages and heavy rain.

Truth: Sean wasn't even there that weekend, but my telling of the story stayed with him.

I was the first to get to Cooperstown and the last to leave.

Such is the power of stories and memories. Happy memories. Some of the happiest of my time working at the HAN Network.

I was thinking about this song today. We're getting there. Slowly. Believe it. In the darkness, just remember to face another day.