Really Happy to Be Home

 

He's happy we're home. At least I think he is.

Let's start this post with a "Meet the Beatles" thought. I honestly loved today's show. I was inspired by what I thought was a foolish social media post from a few days back.

Look, I let a lot of stuff go. I even bit my tongue on a post about Vin Scully broadcasting the 1985 World Series.

Nope. He did not. He did the '85 NLCS on NBC but the '85 Fall Classic ran on ABC with Al Michaels in the play-by-play seat for Cardinals/Royals. Before you say, "Vinny did radio," that too would be incorrect. Jack Buck called the Series on CBS Radio.

Vin was probably home in Hidden Hills, CA with his beloved wife and family.

But, I let it go. Some people also can't handle...well...the truth, honestly.

I also don't feel the need to be that person. I see it all the time. The person who has to correct everything.

But when the same person erroneously spoke about John Lennon and his lack of emotion, well, I took that as inspiration for today's show.

John Lennon was an enormously complicated soul. He was a difficult man. He was also enormously good-hearted and deliriously funny. That didn't mean he was going to bear his soul while chatting. At least, not publicly.

That was reserved for his music.

I started with "In My Life." I included "Nowhere Man." I could have thrown in "Mother." I also used "Jealous Guy," "I'm a Loser," "Julia," "How?" "Watching the Wheels," and even "Help."

Oh, there was also "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." Plus, I threw in George, Paul, and Ringo singing "Ain't She Sweet" from the Anthology sessions. The "Threetles," these "unfeeling types, sat together, singing and laughing and saying how wonderful it was to be together.

I mean, it was too easy. I added in things like "Eleanor Rigby" and "I Want to Tell You" and "Something" to show the sensitivity of Paul and George.

Oh, and then I went for Paul's "Here Today" and told the story of Paul and George holding hands as Harrison was ten days away from dying.

Honestly, the show should win an award. 

OK, maybe not an award but it's something I'm really proud of. I like that I gave it a lot of thought and, while there's always a spontaneous nature to my work, it came together so nicely. So fluidly.

Feel free to give it a listen.

There is no intended malice in this but there are those who are either too stubborn, stuck in their ways, or too arrogant. Sometimes it's nice to refute them a bit.

For the record, we're not talking about Toxic Positivity, whom I took the weekend off from. Yet he's still continuing to bloviate. If I go back in, expect shock and awe.

*****

OK, so I've really buried the lead here, but as the title implies, it's nice to be home. I bought a receiver for my old Sony amplifier to make it Bluetooth-compatible, thus bringing it into the 20th Century. As we speak, I'm playing a Sirius XM jazz channel though it off my phone.

Bliss, I tell you.

But I'm not kidding. I think I bought this amplifier (from Costco) in the late 90s. Probably around 1997. I added a turntable, cassette deck, and brought the TV and DVD/Blu-ray into it as well. It sounds pretty great through a pair of Polk Audio bookcase speakers that might date to the early 00s since I got them at Circuit City.

Yes. I'm that old.

But my two-plus weeks of baseball are over. As I wrote a few nights ago, that was (over*) 29 games of play-by-play. Now, three Renegades games on the public address have come to a close.

* I couldn't call a game but could see it from a field away, so I narrated that while calling the game I was at. I'm weird that way.

But I'm thrilled, relieved, and just happy to be done with everything for a moment. This was a grind, topped by a couple of stressful days and nights in the minor leagues. There were a lot of moving parts and it felt good to navigate all of it without incident.

Plus, if I may, there was supposed to be a producer in the booth both last night and today. But he was sick so that duty was left to me to do .... in addition to handling the PA announcing. It's no major hardship. It's just extra massaging of things, I suppose.

But I felt a good sense of achievement when it was over and, for the first time in a while, I'm home and can focus a bit on this place. I've hung just a few things, including the important spaghetti and meatballs recipe from my mother and my beloved Aunt Fay. One day I have to work up the guts to try to make it.

For tonight, the Adams boys had chili dogs. Tired after our day(s) at the stadium, we stopped at Wegmans and picked up dogs and rolls. Plus French fries.

And it was all delicious.

Now it's time for just relaxing, cooling down, hanging with The Cat, and getting myself ready for the week. For now, I only have Doubleheader on my mind. I will tell you that there is a pending play-by-play offer that is hanging around to be dealt with. I'm waiting to hear if we're approved to do it.

Otherwise, the equipment is all sitting in the living room a few feet from where I'm typing.

There are plenty of other things to be done, such as car work.

Oh, and back to the Bluetooth receiver. So, I ordered it on a whim yesterday (it was quite affordable) and set about my day. Later in the day, it struck me.

I had it delivered to Bruce Park. You know, as in the apartment we no longer live in.

Ah, oh well. Our old landlord would have shot me a text had he seen it, but it wasn't necessary. We ran over after stopping at Wegmans tonight and that was that.

I did love the grind of these two weeks. The hours were long and the toll was physical and mental. But I'm drained. I need ... something tonight, but for now, chili dogs and jazz will suffice.

I'll be back on the radio tomorrow.

Talking sports.

Which is what I do.

*****

I'm aware of the news of the day, with the President announcing he would step aside from running for reelection. It's sad that we simply can't discuss such things without rancor. Friendships get destroyed and blood pressures rise.

Thus, I think it's simply best for me to keep my thoughts on the topic to myself until the time I think I can compose anything coherent.

For now, I'll stay out of it except to say I worry about this great country.