Treading water

So, where are we? I’ve drifted away from debate almost completely, I hate to admit. I did just send some Academy thoughts up to Montwegia, also known as the Venice of Sullivan County (but only to people who have never been either to Venice or to Sullivan County), and there has been the odd email about this and that, like venues and dates for MHLs and the like, but mostly, if you’re still in it you’re thinking of CatNats and NatNats, and if you’re not in it, you’re not thinking about it. Then again, the Pups are keeping me up to date on this and that, so it’s not as if the 13-14 season isn’t already being worked on. But it’s not real work yet. Not until August, at which point we wonder where all the time went.

I hate to admit it, but I do sort of wish I was going CatNats. It’s always a bit of a grueling experience, but I have this inexplicable fondness for the event. It might be because it’s one of the few tournaments of the year when the weather is nice. Around here we pretty much put away the Hawaiian shirts and the huaraches and the woodies on Labor Day, and the odd nice day after that is pleasant but not meaningful, whereas in Spring, every nice day is a blessing and we don’t want to miss a minute of it. Given the weather this recent season, any day with winds under a hundred miles an hour is a blessing, come to think of it. CatNats is also a valedictory moment in many ways, my normal end of the year. I just seemed to peter out starting around March this season, what with the young team that is the Sailors. And since I’m still on golf sabbatical (and enjoying every minute of it), I need to throw a few logs on my idle mind to keep the fires banked until reentry. (What?)

Of course, there is trip planning. At this point, actually, it’s trip detailing. What exactly needs to be packed, for instance? I don’t worry so much about clothes—I’ve got some, and I’ll bring them—as much as, say, entertainment on the iPad. There’s a lot of travel time to account for. Are the right books on the device? And a decent variety of movies? Do I have the right chargers? Should I bring the Kindle? Internationalize or turn off the iPhone? And don’t get me started on playlists. Podcasts? Audiobooks? And then there’s magazines (aside from the collection of New Yorkers building up on the old Newsstand). The bind moggles.

And considering that we’re going first to France, there’s the question of who’s going to be on strike. We know that, it being France, someone will be trying to bollix up life for all and sundry. On our first trip way back when, it was the trains. As in, who needs trains? After a while we started deliberately visiting Paris in August because, since everyone was on vacation, there wouldn’t be any strikes because there’s no one left working within a fifty mile radius of the Eiffel Tower. And then there’s London, where security cameras catch your every move and everybody sounds really posh even if they’re picking your pocket and throwing a gypsy baby at you. You call this a vacation? Don't they have any openings at Guantanamo?

Oh, well. We’ve still got some time Stateside, including the long Memorial Day weekend sans CatNats. We’ll keep busy one way or the other.