Hello on Tuesday

Dear Friends,

I slept like a rock last evening due to the manual labor of working in our garage for several hours. I cleaned the deck furniture before I hauled it to the back yard. Does the average two person family have 16 chairs, two regular size tables, and two Bistro tables for the main deck, and another table with four chairs in our screened in room as well as a synthetic wicker couch with two chairs, 2 end tables, and a coffee table? I couldn't put any of the furniture on the main deck yet because the top half got stained at 4 PM on Monday, and the bottom half will be stained this afternoon weather permitting.

While I was doing my thing, Linda spent most of her waking hours packing for her 6 day trip to Cape Cod (she has been doing so for the past couple of days). You would think that she was packing for a month long trip. Besides her clothes, she also packed beverages and snack food, a sand chair, etc. Her girlfriend will be picking her up around 10 AM today, and I will help with loading her stuff into the friend's car. The friend has a small sized SUV, and I know that it will be packed to the rafters before they leave our house. Linda will be missing her Tuesday Mah Jongg session. Linda will enjoy a few calm and quiet days with her girlfriend. She will enjoy her days at the Cape especially when the 14 other women arrive on Thursday. As soon as she arrives home on Monday of the following week, she will be back to a full Social Calendar including a baby sitting gig for MAX, and a multitude of Fourth of July activities.

Social Calendar -- I am going back in the garage in a couple of hours, and start working on the shelves and workbench that are out of control. UNICO will be having a scholarship awards night at the Italian American Club at 6 PM. I am going to go early to help out making some finger sandwiches. I have a golf committee meeting on Wednesday night. I think Thursday I don't have to go out in the evening.

Sports -- The Red Sox and the Yankees won their games last night, but Boston did it with a multiple run game. They spanked the San Diego Padres by a 14 to 5 score. I will be watching the Red Sox after my evening gathering.

Observation -- As I was watching the Red Sox pre game show, I got to thinking about our dreadful economy. The broadcast is done outside of Fenway Park on a raised platform. In the background, there always is a sea of people milling around the gates into the ballpark. Some were eating food from vendors, and some were going in and out of restaurants bordering the ball park. You would have no clue that there are any economic woes in the United States. These people are paying extremely high prices for tickets to the game which is after what they paid for parking near the park. Inside Fenway, you better have a wallet full of money to pay for food and beverages because those prices are so huge that you can't afford to take your family to the game. I will give you an example of high prices. While at the graduation picnic the other day, the grandfather of the graduate told me that he took his male grandchild to a game at Yankee Stadium. They were at a restaurant in the Stadium, and he ordered a Canadian Club on the rocks. They bar tender put in one ounce of alcohol in the drink. The bar tender asked if he wanted a double shot. The grandfather says yes. The drink coast Grandpa $26. They ordered a hamburger during the game, and it cost $16. Grandpa and his grandchild split the burger. When you are watching a game which takes place at Yankee Stadium, the seats that you see behind the batter are over $2000 per ticket. Who can afford to take a family to a baseball game in Boston or New York? When our military son took his family to a game in Kansas City, he paid $10 per ticket. The average price of a ticket in Fenway is $117. 85 % of the tickets at Fenway are already owned by season ticket holders. Can the economy be that bad when I am watching the Red Sox game where every seat in the ball park is filled?

Well, I have to read the Berkshire Eagle, and then put on my work clothes and get to work. I will squeeze in an afternoon nap too. Have a great Tuesday. I will let you know how mine went without Linda in the morning. Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad