It's A Wrap
Hello World,
Greetings and then some! And so here we find ourselves on the other side of Mother's Day already, and very nearly staring down both barrels of Memorial Day, which will be observed this year on May 29th. That's a scant ten days hence, for those math-challenged among you out there in the vast vastity of vastness, or wherever you might be, so don't say I didn't warn you. For racing fans with a need for speed, it's about twenty past the Kentucky Derby, and nearly quarter to the Indianapolis 500, with the Preakness nipping at its heels. Of course, these days, Memorial Day is considered to mark the unofficial start of the summer season, although any climatologist will tell you that the true summer solstice is not until June 21st or thereabouts. As for myself, I think all of the climate people are in league with the Devil, and wouldn't believe anything they had to say at this point, but I admit that is just a personal prejudice I have against diabolical heathens who have sold their souls to Satan. In exchange for what, I don't know, because it certainly didn't make the weather any better for the rest of us, no thank you very much.
Many people in the local area will tell you that Mother's Day around here did not feature the world's best weather, but we outsmarted them this year by celebrating the holiday with Mom a day early, on the Saturday before Mother's Day, when it couldn't have been nicer. In fact, it was nice enough to have sandwiches out in the back yard and watch the bunnies cavorting in the tall grass. Mom was aglow in a pretty new outfit, and looking every inch a lady, or at least, every other inch. Of course, there were presents, and there are very few things that Mom likes better than opening presents, so she was in her glory. I'm sure she appreciated all of the time and attention lavished upon her, although I can't help but notice that once you hand her a box of Mallomars, everything else sort of fades into the distance in her mind, which is a humbling experience for those of us who like to feel that we have more to offer than a chocolate-covered marshmallow. However, be that as it may, we had a lovely day and a good time was had by all.
We also celebrated Mother's Day at home on Sunday, with a line-up of presents from all the major gift-giving categories, from the household practical, through apparel and entertainment, and straight out to the wildly impractical. It was a veritable cornucopia of excess, an embarrassment of riches, that is, if I were the type to be embarrassed by too many presents, which fortunately for me, I'm not in the least. And for the curious, let me assure you that the apparel and entertainment items did not include any long black sun-dresses or shiny pink RAZR cell phones, in spite of their presumed popularity among the population at large.
For music fans who might be wondering about the Sunday afternoon concert series from the nearby band-shell, you'll be glad to know that the powers-that-be in their infinite wisdom decided that Mother's Day was just the time to have their Latin music festival, so we were treated to the salsa rhythms of trumpets and maracas at full blast. I have to say that a little of that goes a long way with me, and I found myself feeding the birds as fast as I could, so I could retreat into the relative quiet of the house, and away from the bongos and pulsating guitars, coming through loud and clear from the park. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that the Dinosaurs of Rock would have been any more appropriate for Mother's Day, but I can't say that this choice exactly hit the nail on the head for the occasion either, so it would seem that there's still some room for improvement in this system, at least in the scheduling of events, if nothing else.
Although it does seem like the year is just charging right along, the way they do nowadays, for certain things, such as the baseball season, the year is still young, although you'd never know it. We've been watching the Mets on their new channel, and every game is treated with an urgency that entirely belies the Boys of Summer traditions of yore. With a 162-game season stretching out ahead of us, and barely 40 games played, it's a surprise to find the broadcasters scoreboard watching already, and breathlessly announcing the out of town scores as if momentous events hang in the balance. You see even the hardened veterans making plays in the outfield, like diving catches and running into fences that you expect in division-deciding pennant races in September, not in these "it's too early for this game to make any difference" contests in April. In fact, one of the Mets announcers when showing the standings, actually said that the Mets and Phillies are vying for first place, with the Braves closing the gap right behind them, while the other two teams in the division "are basically out of it," and this was the first week of May! I hate to be on the side of the nay-sayers, but there's still a lot of baseball yet to be played, and an awful lot can happen over the next 120 games that can't even begin to be hinted at in the first quarter of the season. You can quote me on that.
Normally, this would be about when I'd be telling everyone what was afoot in the wonderful world of the Metro New York Synod Assembly, except for two things. One of them is that they re-scheduled the 2006 Assembly for June instead of May, and the other is that I'm boycotting the Assembly this year as a protest against the prohibitive expense of it. I mean, I can take a joke as well as the next grouchy Lutheran, but I think that $200 per person is an outrage, especially on top of making us all tramp to Poughkeepsie for three days besides. Every year, people complain that the Assembly is too expensive, and then every year, somehow it manages to get even more expensive. Last year, when we were expecting it to be less, it blew out our church budget of $100, by turning out to be $120 each for the three people we sent. So at our budget meeting in December, we duly increased our budget to $400, so we could send three people without breaking our budget, only to find that we would still over-extend ourselves by the same $200, since the cost per person has nearly doubled over last year. What I object to most is that the actual cost to attend the Assembly is only $100 per person, but they make you also buy the meal plan for $100, regardless of whether you want to eat all of your meals with them or not, it's not optional. Personally, I'd much rather forage for myself than fork over $100 for boxed lunches and catering hall steam tray food for three days, and I finally just put my foot down and refused to go. So don't watch this space for upcoming Adventures in Assembly Land, with 500 grouchy Lutherans and tales of the three hour pitched battles about prayer at the Melville Marriott in 2002, reports of the gift shop inadequacies and freezing in the ballroom at the posh Rye Town Hilton in 2004, or the further exploits of freezing in the tents outside of St. Peter's in Huntington from last year. There will be no dispatches from Poughkeepsie, as I have drawn a line at the meal plan that I will staunchly refuse to cross, and let me say that I am unanimous in that.
Greetings and then some! And so here we find ourselves on the other side of Mother's Day already, and very nearly staring down both barrels of Memorial Day, which will be observed this year on May 29th. That's a scant ten days hence, for those math-challenged among you out there in the vast vastity of vastness, or wherever you might be, so don't say I didn't warn you. For racing fans with a need for speed, it's about twenty past the Kentucky Derby, and nearly quarter to the Indianapolis 500, with the Preakness nipping at its heels. Of course, these days, Memorial Day is considered to mark the unofficial start of the summer season, although any climatologist will tell you that the true summer solstice is not until June 21st or thereabouts. As for myself, I think all of the climate people are in league with the Devil, and wouldn't believe anything they had to say at this point, but I admit that is just a personal prejudice I have against diabolical heathens who have sold their souls to Satan. In exchange for what, I don't know, because it certainly didn't make the weather any better for the rest of us, no thank you very much.
Many people in the local area will tell you that Mother's Day around here did not feature the world's best weather, but we outsmarted them this year by celebrating the holiday with Mom a day early, on the Saturday before Mother's Day, when it couldn't have been nicer. In fact, it was nice enough to have sandwiches out in the back yard and watch the bunnies cavorting in the tall grass. Mom was aglow in a pretty new outfit, and looking every inch a lady, or at least, every other inch. Of course, there were presents, and there are very few things that Mom likes better than opening presents, so she was in her glory. I'm sure she appreciated all of the time and attention lavished upon her, although I can't help but notice that once you hand her a box of Mallomars, everything else sort of fades into the distance in her mind, which is a humbling experience for those of us who like to feel that we have more to offer than a chocolate-covered marshmallow. However, be that as it may, we had a lovely day and a good time was had by all.
We also celebrated Mother's Day at home on Sunday, with a line-up of presents from all the major gift-giving categories, from the household practical, through apparel and entertainment, and straight out to the wildly impractical. It was a veritable cornucopia of excess, an embarrassment of riches, that is, if I were the type to be embarrassed by too many presents, which fortunately for me, I'm not in the least. And for the curious, let me assure you that the apparel and entertainment items did not include any long black sun-dresses or shiny pink RAZR cell phones, in spite of their presumed popularity among the population at large.
For music fans who might be wondering about the Sunday afternoon concert series from the nearby band-shell, you'll be glad to know that the powers-that-be in their infinite wisdom decided that Mother's Day was just the time to have their Latin music festival, so we were treated to the salsa rhythms of trumpets and maracas at full blast. I have to say that a little of that goes a long way with me, and I found myself feeding the birds as fast as I could, so I could retreat into the relative quiet of the house, and away from the bongos and pulsating guitars, coming through loud and clear from the park. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that the Dinosaurs of Rock would have been any more appropriate for Mother's Day, but I can't say that this choice exactly hit the nail on the head for the occasion either, so it would seem that there's still some room for improvement in this system, at least in the scheduling of events, if nothing else.
Although it does seem like the year is just charging right along, the way they do nowadays, for certain things, such as the baseball season, the year is still young, although you'd never know it. We've been watching the Mets on their new channel, and every game is treated with an urgency that entirely belies the Boys of Summer traditions of yore. With a 162-game season stretching out ahead of us, and barely 40 games played, it's a surprise to find the broadcasters scoreboard watching already, and breathlessly announcing the out of town scores as if momentous events hang in the balance. You see even the hardened veterans making plays in the outfield, like diving catches and running into fences that you expect in division-deciding pennant races in September, not in these "it's too early for this game to make any difference" contests in April. In fact, one of the Mets announcers when showing the standings, actually said that the Mets and Phillies are vying for first place, with the Braves closing the gap right behind them, while the other two teams in the division "are basically out of it," and this was the first week of May! I hate to be on the side of the nay-sayers, but there's still a lot of baseball yet to be played, and an awful lot can happen over the next 120 games that can't even begin to be hinted at in the first quarter of the season. You can quote me on that.
Normally, this would be about when I'd be telling everyone what was afoot in the wonderful world of the Metro New York Synod Assembly, except for two things. One of them is that they re-scheduled the 2006 Assembly for June instead of May, and the other is that I'm boycotting the Assembly this year as a protest against the prohibitive expense of it. I mean, I can take a joke as well as the next grouchy Lutheran, but I think that $200 per person is an outrage, especially on top of making us all tramp to Poughkeepsie for three days besides. Every year, people complain that the Assembly is too expensive, and then every year, somehow it manages to get even more expensive. Last year, when we were expecting it to be less, it blew out our church budget of $100, by turning out to be $120 each for the three people we sent. So at our budget meeting in December, we duly increased our budget to $400, so we could send three people without breaking our budget, only to find that we would still over-extend ourselves by the same $200, since the cost per person has nearly doubled over last year. What I object to most is that the actual cost to attend the Assembly is only $100 per person, but they make you also buy the meal plan for $100, regardless of whether you want to eat all of your meals with them or not, it's not optional. Personally, I'd much rather forage for myself than fork over $100 for boxed lunches and catering hall steam tray food for three days, and I finally just put my foot down and refused to go. So don't watch this space for upcoming Adventures in Assembly Land, with 500 grouchy Lutherans and tales of the three hour pitched battles about prayer at the Melville Marriott in 2002, reports of the gift shop inadequacies and freezing in the ballroom at the posh Rye Town Hilton in 2004, or the further exploits of freezing in the tents outside of St. Peter's in Huntington from last year. There will be no dispatches from Poughkeepsie, as I have drawn a line at the meal plan that I will staunchly refuse to cross, and let me say that I am unanimous in that.
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 10:07 PM
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