Thursday, May 24, 2007
please hold
I was put on hold for 23 minutes today, calliing to change a doctor's appointment. I would've hung up except it was my shrink, & although I spend only ten minutes with him every month, an official cancellation assures him that I'm probably not hiding under a blanket in a darkened room, which accomplishes almost the same purpose as showing up. His clinic has not yet found a replacement for the multi-tasking receptionist who retired last year.
***
Summer is here. But unless a woman with a reliable car shows up who adores me & wants to drive to the shore, the only difference from any other season is that I put an air-conditioner in the window & feel disappointed because another summer is coming when I probably won't visit Wildwood & Cape May or wander the Seaside Heights boardwalk late on a balmy evening. Here I am, the greatest boardwalk benny poet in New Jersey, & I can't ride the classic Dentzel/Looff Carousel on Casino Pier, the one with a band organ that plays "Obla Di Obla Da." Sure, I can get to Point Pleasant Beach directly by train. But I can do the main section of that boardwalk in under 30 minutes & it's about as interesting as an indoor mall.
***
Listening to the Yankees/Boston game on the radio last night, they squeeze an actual baseball game in around the commercials, plugs, & weird sponsorships (That 3rd Inning pop up out was brought to you by Geico). Color commentator Suzyn Waldman is a much more overt management shill than play-by-play announcer John Sterling, who's been calling Yankees games since 1989. It's difficult for Suzyn to grasp that the Yanks drifting along about ten games behind Boston at this point in the season is not a freak aberration in the standings; the Red Sox are a better team in part because Coco Crisp can hit a home run to deep right off struggling John Farnsworth with the Yanks leading by 6 in the 8th, & yes, Boston could come back & win the game. This so upset Suzyn ("Farnsworth is in there to get guys like that out!") that John - who enjoys anything that makes a game more interesting if it doesn't make it a lot longer - had to reason her down to calmness.
***
Summer is here. But unless a woman with a reliable car shows up who adores me & wants to drive to the shore, the only difference from any other season is that I put an air-conditioner in the window & feel disappointed because another summer is coming when I probably won't visit Wildwood & Cape May or wander the Seaside Heights boardwalk late on a balmy evening. Here I am, the greatest boardwalk benny poet in New Jersey, & I can't ride the classic Dentzel/Looff Carousel on Casino Pier, the one with a band organ that plays "Obla Di Obla Da." Sure, I can get to Point Pleasant Beach directly by train. But I can do the main section of that boardwalk in under 30 minutes & it's about as interesting as an indoor mall.
***
Listening to the Yankees/Boston game on the radio last night, they squeeze an actual baseball game in around the commercials, plugs, & weird sponsorships (That 3rd Inning pop up out was brought to you by Geico). Color commentator Suzyn Waldman is a much more overt management shill than play-by-play announcer John Sterling, who's been calling Yankees games since 1989. It's difficult for Suzyn to grasp that the Yanks drifting along about ten games behind Boston at this point in the season is not a freak aberration in the standings; the Red Sox are a better team in part because Coco Crisp can hit a home run to deep right off struggling John Farnsworth with the Yanks leading by 6 in the 8th, & yes, Boston could come back & win the game. This so upset Suzyn ("Farnsworth is in there to get guys like that out!") that John - who enjoys anything that makes a game more interesting if it doesn't make it a lot longer - had to reason her down to calmness.
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
We've made it down to Seaside Heights for the last three summers but most likely won't go this year. I'll miss it too.
I never vacationed in Seaside Heights or thereabouts. Always a day trip, or more likely I'm arriving in town after 6 pm. Love the boardwalk as night comes on.
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