Rain Outfoxed

There’s something about a persistently raining day that calls for Irish ballads.  As I drove in this morning through the third day of rain I was lucky enough to have my old friend Seamus Kennedy playing which went a long way towards alleviating the inherent gloom this type weather inflicts.  Seamus also helped pass the time as I waded through the second straight day of uncommonly brutal traffic.  Why does rain seem to rob a certain percentage of people of their competence on the roadway?

If You've Never Heard Seamus - I Find You Lacking

I hate sitting in traffic almost as much as I hate shopping.  It was one of the main reasons when I left the military I chose not to live in the Northern Virginia area where the rhythms of life are dictated by the horrendous traffic.  Your social standing there can skyrocket if you know how to bypass the worst of it.  Every time someone around here complains about having to wait five minutes in traffic I tell them to count themselves fortunate they weren’t imprisoned on I-395 with an important Pentagon meeting’s start time inexorably advancing on you.

 Son with Semi-Goatee and I on Wednesday

I failed to mention yesterday in my Canadian think to mention I lucked into a hump day lunch with my favorite son.  He’s bravely trying to grow a goatee with limited resources.  Our conversation covered some fantasy football tactics where he bemoaned the ABFA’s over the top reaction to her stunning victory over him.  He’s about to move to another project which will prevent these lunches so I have to sneak in as many as possible.  It’s almost like recharging parental batteries just to spend time with either of the kids.  I hope they don’t mind donating the energy.

I finished yet another Travis McGee novel yesterday, The Quick Red Fox.  I’m trying to slow myself down and savor reconnecting with this old friend but MacDonald is just too compelling.  Trav picks up a movie star client who’s trying to stop a blackmailer in possession of some incriminating photos.  This was the 1960’s, so well before these type photos wouldn’t immediately appear on the internet and at a time when a movie star’s reputation really mattered.

Trav crisscrosses the US accompanied by a complicated female assistant who comes to appreciate the depth of McGee’s soul, among other things.  I liked what MacDonald had to say about the illusion of celebrity relevance.  Maybe I can trace my own disdain back to reading this book in my youth.  The climatic events were typically bittersweet with McGee headed back to the Busted Flush with another bruise on his battered soul.  As with any McGee novel the wordsmithing was on the galactic level of competence.  Here’s McGee waxing about the demise of one of his (and my) favorite cities, San Francisco:

“She was like a wild classy kook of a gal, one of those rain walkers, laughing gray eyes, tousle of dark hair-sea misty, a lithe and lively lady, who could laugh at you or with you, and at herself when needs be.  A sayer of strange and lovely things.  A girl to be in love with, with love like a heady magic.  But she had lost it, boy.  She used to give it away, and now she sells it to the tourists.  She imitates herself.  The things she says now are mechanical and memorized.  She overcharges for cynical services…..That’s why she’s so depressing to those of us who knew her when.  We all know what she could have been, and we all know the lousy choice she made.  She has driven away the ones who loved her best.”

I felt a little guilty after reading this because I’m one of those tourists the city by the bay lifted her skirts for.  Could this be the discovery of the genesis of my obsession with that city?  The newest NFL fan, my wife, demanded to approve some fantasy football roster movies I made before last night’s game (I’m not kidding).  We’re up against our daughter again this week so the prospects are dim.  However we did get off to a good start and my wife took solace in approving my roster moves when one of the players I activated scored 3 touchdowns.  We just need to get the ABFA’s parents some help now – they started a guy last night that’s on the disabled list (3^rd week in a row) and have three other players on bye this week.  My sister and brother in law heartily hope they don’t see this post.  My wife insisted we message the ABFA last night about her own roster since her husband has abrogated that role.

Finally, today marks the First Friday of The Week, cue the happy feet!