Vacation After a Busy Month

Yup, it's been a while, and quite a month at that. We've had a lot going on involving health and school issues, but all is moving along well enough at this juncture. For the moment our focus is on... VACATION!!! Next week we're leaving on a (close to) two-week trip to Disney World, probably our favorite destination. Though I was able to make a trip down there with my sister last fall (made memorable by Hurricane Jeanne), C & The Momma haven't been there in two and a half years (since C was still in kindergarten). Now that we're homeschooling C we're able to make a trip down without having to worry about the crowds of school vacation or the heat of the summer.

C is really looking forward to this trip. Though he's been to WDW many times before, as we own a timeshare nearby for a week each September, it's been so long that he doesn't remember a lot of it that clearly any more. And of course he's seven now (and in fact we'll be celebrating his eighth birthday while we're down there next month!), and a much more, uh, sophisticated kid than the five-year-old that he was last time he visited. He made himself a countdown calendar at home several weeks ago, a poster board covered with numbered Post-It notes, and he loves removing a number each day as we get closer to our trip. (The number now: 8!)

Also over the past month we've seen the Red Sox get off to a very inconsistent start, and the news today has Curt Schilling joining starters David Wells and Wade Miller on the disabled list... not good news. Nonetheless, Curt put it all on the line last fall to win the championship, and we can be patient with him this spring. After all, the Red Sox won the world series!!! Hopefully they'll be back to the post-season dance this fall, but at this early point in the season I'm not too worried about it yet.

Speaking of the World Series champions, The Trophy visited our home town earlier this month. I'll try and get a picture or two posted here later this week... seeing it in person was indeed a wonderful experience for the soul!

I've been to a couple of games already at Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium, once for their opening night with The Hey and Cap'n Ho, the other time with C when they were displaying The Trophy there. Both games great fun! Opening night got cold by the end, but the Sunday afternoon game C & I went to was in the mid-70's and couldn't have been a more pleasant day. (Helped by our seats, second row behind home plate... have to put a picture up from that too!)

I can't promise another update before our trip, but hey, it may happen. At the least though I'll try and get a photo or two posted this week.

Play Ball!

It's been a very, very long winter this year, and spring still feels just slightly out of reach, but Baseball Season begins anew tonight. Each season I find opening day one of the most exciting days of the year... second perhaps though to Opening Day, when baseball comes to Fenway (the Red Sox play in the Bronx tonight, so it's just "opening day")... that happens next week. (Though apparantly without us in attendance... but that's a whine for a different time.)

So as always I can't wait for tonight's game, to have baseball to watch again. Like many I'm a bit bummed out that Curt Schilling won't be able to start for the Sox against the Yanks' new hired gun, Randy Johnson... but big Curt owes us nothing, he put it all on the line for us last fall (and indeed you could argue he knowingly put his entire remaining career on the line). So yeah, he's entitled to an extra week or two to be back in playing shape!

However, I also find this opening day somewhat bittersweet. This was a long winter, but it was also the offseason that I was in no hurry to have end. The memories and emotions of the Sox winning it all last October haven't dimmed a bit. Indeed, any time over the past five months when C has noticed I'm in a bad mood or upset about something, he has come over and either told me or even written me a little note reading, "Remember, Dad, the Red Sox won the World Series!" Without fail it would instantly bring a smile back to my face, in part because it made me feel good to know he realized how special the event had been, and mostly just because, well, THE RED SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES!!

But tonight, sometime around 8:10pm EDT, the Red Sox are no longer the World Series champions. Oh sure, they're certainly the defending champions, but as of that first pitch tonight they're just a team with an 0-0 record trying to get to the 2005 World Series.

I can't wait for the game, I can't wait for the season. But I'm not, on a gut emotional level, as excited about that first pitch tonight as I usually am. Of course, once the season is underway and I've myself dealt with putting last year really in the past, it'll be as much fun as always. And possibly more... I do feel I'm going into this season hoping they'll again win the Series, but I don't feel it's necessary... I'm looking forward to just enjoying some great baseball this season. Oh, and C is genuinely very excited and looking forward to the baseball season for the first time in his young life too this year... Play Ball!!

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On another note, happy birthday to my friend Doc today!! And happy 19th anniversary to the USS Christa McAuliffe, the Star Trek fan group I've been fortunate enough to be a part of for almost all of that time!