2017 Life Logs, Day 22: Separation of Sport and State
Date: Sunday, January 22, 2017
Weather: Overcast, Drizzle in Late Evening; High 52, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
Bruce and Jane Woodin invited me over for dinner and to watch the Patriots versus Pittsburgh Steelers football game tonight. Soon after I arrived I got a couple of text messages. Knowing my political stand against Donald Trump, my daughter Heather sent me a link to a Newsweek article pointing out that some Patriot loyalists are feeling very uncomfortable with the friendship between Patriot owner Robert Kraft and Trump and coach Bill Belichick’s and quarterback Tom Brady’s apparent support of Trump. I’m not much of a sports fan, but I have been loyal to the Patriots. Never thought I’d ever have to question that allegiance because of politics! But then there are a lot of things that are happening right now that I never expected to question. But back to the text messages. Just before Heather’s text, my niece in Nashville, Janet, sent a message to see if I was watching the game. I responded that I was, but then told her about Heather’s text which was making me question my allegiance to the Patriots. She sent back a great response saying that I could give up my allegiance or we can all just say, “There is a separation between sport and state.” I’ll stick with that until after the SuperBowl!
I spent my day with Heather, Jed, and boys. I got a kick out of Heather’s early morning Facebook post saying, “There are six boys that have spent the past two hours engaged in a running Nerf gun battle in my yard. One of them is 45 years old.” #nevergrowup When I arrived the battle was still raging. Sam’s greatest hope for his birthday was to have a full-blown Nerf gun battle, something that Heather and Jed have really tried to circumvent in the past. But they gave in and Sam was having the time of his life. He also really enjoyed having his friends for the sleep-over. So Sam had a fantastic birthday and everyone else survived. We’ll call that a success.
While the big boys were outside battling it out with the Nerf guns, Ollie and I stayed inside and built with Legos. Then after lunch, Heather, Jed, and I had time to do a little organizing. Jed put new basement shelving together and I helped to start filling those shelves. Heather reorganized things on the shelves in the dining room and I assisted her with that task. And then there was the never-ending laundry task that I kept going throughout the day. None of us accomplished anything earth shattering, but it felt really good to have a relaxed day helping out. We also took time to discuss travel plans. There has not been a gathering of the entire Handley clan for years, so after Mark’s death, his sister Mary Ellen proposed that we try to do that sometime this year. We had thought that might happen in April, but after today’s discussion, we are going to suggest having Thanksgiving together in Florida. The time the Goldstone kids have off school in April is around Easter and the cost of travel and accommodations in Florida at that time just proved to be too much for us. I have been waiting for this decision to be made before making reservations for a trip to Puerto Rico and a return trip to Nashville. I can do that now, so that will be tomorrow’s task.
