Had I But Known...
Fri., June 26, 08:45 AM
…I would have walked to Cromwell.
It is very hard to believe that nearly seven years have passed since I first wrote about Sandy Koufax. More than forty years after he retired, he is still my favorite player of all time. (It’s strange that my favorite should be a pitcher; I played second base.)
So imagine my surprise when I saw this article on the front page of yesterday’s paper. It is a little hard to tell from this picture (because they want to sell some pictures!), but he really is a good-lookin’ ol’ man — as I may have mentioned previously.
I was planning to write about this yesterday, as would have been appropriate, but the day got away from me. We began by taking Husband to the doctor — the psychiatrist this time. Mostly I wanted refills on his prescriptions. The turnover in this department is so constant that he seldom sees the same doctor twice, and they only have their predecessors’ notes for reference. He is still “stable”; he slept through most of the interview, because he really wasn’t interested. Nevertheless, it takes two of us to bring him there and get him where he has to be.
I offered to take him out to lunch as a treat, but he declined when I said he couldn’t go without his oxygen. He turned on the radio when we got home, and the first news I heard (’cause you can hear it all over the house) was the story of Farrah Fawcett.
U.D. was getting ready to leave for a long weekend, and we did the necessary stuff around the house. Husband got peanut butter and jelly for lunch, which, incidentally, is not a punishment. He asks for it. It is certainly easier for me than making a salad…
U.D. had not been gone long when she phoned me to ask, “Is it just a rumor or did Michael Jackson die?” It had not yet been confirmed, even on news websites, and I told her I would let them know as soon as it was. I did so, wondering where my day had gone.
WQUN, my local radio station, has been playing a lot of Jackson this morning. It is one of the best things about live radio, that they can choose music that is timely. Michael’s death evoked memories of the untimely death of Elvis, and they played some of that too. But as I listened to that sweet voice singing “Ben,” I wondered once more where he took a wrong turn. I was listening to bystanders’ interviews on last night’s news. Mostly they said good things, but one woman said that, as far as she was concerned, he could go straight to hell. I was never a fan, but …
It was a day of reminders, to live for the present, because you never know what the future can bring.
