Picking up where we left off last week, the Schloss-Blog has some more musings about life in the age of COVID. It's not all pleasant.
But some of it is (my daughter is getting married today).
Sports fan, and reporter, that I am, I'm watching some great NHL playoff games (Islanders-Flyers and Canucks-Avalanche are intense series), but am noticing that some of the broadcast play-by-play team is in studio, either in New York or Toronto or even at home (Eddie Olczyk). I guess it works but I guess I'll never get accustomed to it. I like to feel like I'm at the game when I watch it on TV or at least that the announcer's perspective in-arena gives him an advantage in analyzing for me what is going on. Technology has evened that up though, in every sport.
NFL, NBA, MLS and MLB are all broadcasting games that way, with at least one analyst not at the stadium.
What's heartening to me is that the NBA (Doris Burke), NHL (U.S. National-Teamer A.J. Mleczko) and MLB (Jessica Mendoza) have female analysts just as good as any guy, especially Burke and Mleczko, where Mendoza has a conflict, being employed by the Mets.
Not as much fighting in NHL games either now, as players realize that major misconduct penalties are not something their teams can afford to suffer in critical playoff games.
But back to lifestyles in general (my daughter is getting married today).
Me, I have gotten even more dependent on my electronic life than ever in the age of COVID, in my shopping, my dining, my friendships, my family relations, my information gathering and even my socializing.
Catherine Wolf, I miss our monthly dinners, our traditional BBQ and then soft-serve dessert. Emily Capdevielle, I miss our monthly beverages, whether they be blended by a barista or a bartender.
But I am enjoying my monthly Zoom calls with dozens of my fraternity brothers, from San Francisco to Boston, North Carolina to Oklahoma, Minnesota to Louisiana. It would still be better in person, but that's a reunion we can't schedule.
Yet. (My daughter is getting married today,)
I am enjoying discovering through renewed communication that Betsy Buenzow Petrie, about whom I once wrote an award-winning profile about her life as a track star/rock star in college, has had a successful, professional career and a handsome family.
I am enjoying that my Radio Free Phoenix compadre Jane Snyder Pecorella was someone who I probably bumped into once or twice at now-closed Nathan's on Long Island, when, in high school, my friends and I would go cruising for Long Island girls to pick up. Nathan's was the place to go. I admire her memory of that revered pickup hot spot.
(My daughter is getting married today.)
But I'm not enjoying some other things. Going into stores and locations in Wisconsin and Arizona where not everyone wears facemasks or socially distances. Not even close.
Not enjoying hearing that so many colleges are closing down no sooner than they opened up. We'll see how their football teams hold up.
I'm hoping that all the coaches who petitioned their high school and college administrations, respectively, really can keep their players COVID free. I wonder if those schools that are playing will finish their seasons. I'm hoping yes, and yes, but fearing no, and no.
I'm disgusted that Donald Trump is using the Post Office and the threat of minorities moving into the suburbs as political campaign tools. Slowing the mail only hurts veterans and shut-ins who depend on the mail for their medications. His racist taunts are his trademark. If you vote for him, you support racism, period.
He is so afraid of losing and being indicted, as he will be, that he'll do anything, promise a vaccine by election day, albeit not fully vetted, authenticated nor proven, let alone that it would be rejected outright by even his own supporters who are diehard "anti-vaxxers" who will jeopardize the country's chances of gaining full immunization against this devastating virus.
(My daughter is getting married today.)
I'm sad that I couldn't attend my beloved cousin's funeral in New Jersey, couldn't hold my best friend's granddaughter at a small gathering to send his daughter off to her new, very lucrative-looking career outpost, even if it is in Green Bay.
I'm sad whenever Trump says men clad in black boarded a plane to reap destruction on Washington and then reversed himself and said they were leaving Washington to do that, which means he must have dispatched them. Even Trump cheerleader Laura Ingraham didn't comprehend that one.
I'm sad Trump publicly encouraged people to vote twice, a felony.
And I'm sad I couldn't give my daughter the wedding she deserved, in a big ballroom with the family all around after a twilight ceremony under the stars and cocktails too.
But she's getting married today, in front of 25 people on a grassy field in Wisconsin, and I couldn't be happier for her.
I'd love to be able to say that my next Schloss-Blog post will see you on the other side of COVID, but we all know that won't happen, not even by Election Day, regardless of what Trump says or what he tells the CDC to say.
Sorry, Dr. Trump, we know better.
Good night Mrs. Calabash. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
More tonight on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.
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