Personal Pastime

And on this day, we do not quarrel.  Refraining from quarrelling stops angry accusations.

On this day in 1975, during the 12th inning of Game 6 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, Carlton Fisk hit a long fly ball down the left-field line of Fenway Park. In an iconic moment, Fisk, watching the ball while he trotted down the first base line, started waving his arms to his right as if he was trying to coax the ball to "stay fair." The ball did indeed stay fair and the Red Sox won the game, 7-6, and tied the Series (they lost Game 7 and the Series as 1975 was still part of "the curse" years). 

The Red Sox didn't fare so well in Game 5 of the ALCS last night.  In fact, they were downright awful, losing the game to the Houston Astros, 9-1.  At one point, combined with the previous Game 4, the Sox had gone 14 innings without scoring a run.  You don't win pennants like that.  The series resumes tomorrow in Houston and Boston has to win both games to advance to the World Series.  Anything's possible and miracles do happen in baseball, frequently to the Boston Red Sox, but it's hard to be optimistic about their chances.  Also, if they don't start hitting again, they probably don't deserve to be in the World Series.

The puzzling thing is that the Sox were hitting so well earlier in this series and in the ALDS before that.  They hit a total of three grand-slam home runs in two games earlier in this series.  But starting with Game 4, their bats suddenly went cold and they seemingly couldn't buy a hit.  Baseball is a game of confidence and momentum, but I'll leave it to others to determine what exactly happened that made the hit parade suddenly come to a halt.

I'll say this for retirement - you've got all the time you need to watch complete baseball games.  3½ to 4 hours for one single entertainment?  No problem - there's plenty of time to engage in all my other leisure activities.  

There are several things I try to fit into each waking day.  In addition to the usual, mundane activities of cooking and eating, showering, and meditating, I try to walk at least two miles each day, usually on the Beltline trail near my home, and I try to keep up with current events.  I subscribe to several daily newsletters (the NY Times' morning briefing, Axios' Atlanta newsletter, Heather Cox Richardson, and others) which I read over morning breakfast and coffee. In the evening, if I can also catch Rachel Maddow, The Daily Show, and Colbert's opening monologue, all the better. 

Some time is spent each day composing something on this blog.  In addition to writing, I also try to read for at least one hour each day; right now, I'm on book two (The Dark Forest) of The Three-Body Problem trilogy. After the trilogy, I'm looking forward to reading Richard Powers' Bewilderment and the new Jonathan Franzen novel.  There's also the weekly issues of The New Yorker to keep up with.  On the other end of the intellectual spectrum, I try to spend some time each day with comic books - I have the Marvel Unlimited app on my phone, giving me access to the complete library of all Marvel comic books.  I'm currently working my way chronologically through the Fantastic Four series, from its 1961 origin to present.  That's well over 500 comics. My work is cut out for me, and I'm reading two books per day.

To keep my mind sharp, I try to complete the NY Times crossword puzzle each day, as well as their Spelling Bee puzzle.  On Fridays, I look forward to their weekly news quiz.  How long all that takes me depends on how difficult the puzzles and quizzes are and how sharp my mind is that day.  

The video game pastime is well documented on this blog and doesn't need elaboration at this time, other than noting that it takes a lot of self-control not to let the games gobble up all my time.  In fact, I've instituted an informal, self-imposed rule - no video game playing before 4:00 p.m. I don't want to be that guy sitting indoors glued to a computer screen on a lovely day.  However, I do allow myself exceptions, such as rainy days, or days when I simply don't want to do the other things (fyi, it's raining here today).

Music has always been an important part of my life, and it fits in so well with everything else that I don't have to set some time aside specifically for that.  I can listen to music while reading, while writing, while out for a walk.  But sometimes I do find myself just perusing the New Releases on Spotify, or browsing through Bandcamp, or clicking through suggested YouTube videos, or revisiting some old MP3 files on my backup hard drive. Little sonic adventures.

I don't like to mindlessly watch "whatever's on" television any more like I once did, but instead I seek out shows and movies to stream that I enjoy.  Right now, I'm on my own, personal Pedro Almodovar film festival - I've seen many of them before, but it's fun to watch them sequentially. Recently, I've watched Volver (my personal favorite of his), Tie Me Up Tie Me Down, The Skin I Live In, Bad Education, Broken Embraces, and I'm So Excited, as well as his recent short The Human Voice.  I still have Talk to Her, Julieta, Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Pain and Glory, Pepi Luci Bom, Live Flesh, and High Heels to look forward to, among many others.

One final note: alcohol, while enjoyable, dulls the mind and precludes some other activities (it's hard to concentrate on a book while drunk and impossible to meditate).  So another self-imposed rule I've instituted is I don't drink on weekdays.  On weekends, I don't drink until after dinner, and I don't eat dinner until after I've fed the cats, and the cats don't get fed until 7:00 p.m.  

What keeps my days interesting is that I can't squeeze all of these activities in on most days.  Sometimes, walking time eats into comic book time, or a difficult puzzle will preempt my reading.  Prime-time sporting events like the Red Sox games almost always blocks me from streaming movies.  

I know the stereotypical retiree is supposed to putter around the garden all day or redecorate the home, and eventually I may get around to that, but right now my little distractions and diversions are entertaining enough for me.  So until I get bored of all this, the house and garden may have to wait.

Go, Red Sox!