On This Date in 1998

The weather has quickly shifted into summer gear. The temperature might hit 90 degrees today. It’s humid, too. A strong breeze kept me from sweltering. I suppose I could have turned on the a-c, but I wanted to experience fully the first real heat of the year.

My shopping trip was for domestic purposes. The boys need new underwear. I like the sock at Shopko; they have a gray, stain-resistant sole. They do hide the dirt a little bit better after they’ve been worn a few times. However, a newer, more important reason for returning to this particular brand is that I now have a sure-fire way to differentiate between Andy’s and my socks. His feet are getting big, almost a size 8, I think.

Another reason for the underwear purchase. While folding a load of laundry this weekend, I found two pairs of Eddie’s underpants with holes in the backside. That’s some strong flatulence.

A busy, mostly sports-oriented weekend. Andy played soccer Friday evening, his team losing 2-0. They just couldn’t work up any offense. JoAnna worked late, so she missed a night out with the boys. We went to Damon’s for dinner and trivia. I let the glutton take over and ordered the special: prime rib and a small rack of bbq ribs. It was indeed a hearty meal, but I’d only eaten two grapefruit for breakfast and a light lunch. I cleared my plate and could have eaten a rich, chocolate dessert, but thought better of it. Andy ordered the chicken strips, and Eddie surprised me by ordering the kids’ portion of ribs. On the game front, although we stumbled a big during our first trivia round, we were in first place by the time we left. JoAnna was home watching TV, special programming on the life and music of Frank Sinatra, unavoidable TV fare this past weekend.

On Saturday, Andy played soccer again at 9 a.m. Eddie had the same starting time, too, the first of three games for him, as he was participating in a tournament involving the first-grade teams. After watching Andy’s games, I dropped him off at home and Joined JoAnna and Eddie. We spent the next four hours at the soccer fields at West Middleton Elementary School. It was a blustery but gorgeously sunny day, with only a few wispy clouds here and there. By the late afternoon, I ended up with a face the color of a boiled lobster – okay, maybe a slight exaggeration – a combination of too much sun and wind. I didn’t complain it felt good to have the heat of the sun embedded into my face.

During the latter half of the afternoon, JoAnna and I tackled some yard work. She planted annuals, and I did some more lawn doctoring in the back yard. That evening we went to a “70s prom night” theme party. We both found “costumes” at this funky clothing store on State Street in Madison. JoAnna bought a long dress with a flowery print design; I got a pair of flared polyester slacks, a cream color, and a  navy long-sleeve western shirt, (snaps instead of buttons, of course) with a subtle pattern of what looked like red and baby-blue brush strokes. Unfortunately, there were no leisure suits in stock. Some friends of ours took pictures; I hope I can get a copy to send to you.

The party was held on the rooftop patio of a 6-story apartment building about a half mile east of the capitol. We had a great view of the Isthmus as well as a breathtaking sunset. There must have been 50-60 people in attendance, everyone easily ten years younger than me. But the crowd included a number of people from JoAnna’s office, and it was a real friendly crowd, a refrigerator full of beer helping bring about that mood.

Sunday was very lowkey. I escorted Andy to a baseball tryout, expecting to see hordes of kids, but they hardly had enough to field a team. While waiting for Andy, Eddie and I flew his kite, a cheap $4 model we bought a couple weeks ago at Target. It was a windy day providing excellent flight conditions. We had fun doing that. Later on, I did some more lawn doctoring, this time in the front yard, and then sacked out in the hammock and dozed off for an hour. Eddie woke me up when supper was ready. The evening included more Sinatra retrospectives on TV.

I started to put together a summer schedule of activities, baseball taking priority this year. JoAnna wants the boys to attend her family reunion this year, which is scheduled for the first weekend in August. That leaves a couple weeks (August 3-16) for the boys to visit. I don’t think I’ll be attending my high school reunion. The timing’s all wrong. Oh well, it wasn’t on my list of thing I absolutely gotta do.

So much for this edition of the news from Middleton. Stay tuned for further bulletins