A Real Phenomenon

I’ve been sitting at this keyboard for about fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to start a Blog about a phenomenon. For many years now my brother has been insisting that Marge and I attend a Paul McCartney concert. On his last tour I found enough excuses not to join him at each venue until the tour ran out. Trust me, it’s not because I dislike McCartney, quite the contrary, but at 74 years of age I don’t look at myself as a concert type. I personally abhor crowds. His enthusiasm finally won me over this year and I agreed to have him get tickets for his performance at Citi Field in New York. How can you continue to fight someone who has, to date, attended 17 McCartney performances?

Was I sorry? Hell no! I was finally witness to a phenomenon. Think about this. Thousands of fans, old, young, and middle aged like me…..lol, standing, swaying, singing and screaming to the music of a 67 year old man. And sing and sway they did to 33 songs for two and one half hours. And this after doing two other concerts two days ago. What other 67 year old could draw that much attention and, yes, even reverence? Unbelievable! And all this in a rainy mist on wet seats. I must say I was greatly impressed and, yes, I really enjoyed myself.

It was interesting talking to the people around us; some were McCartney virgins like me and others like my brother who had followed Paul all over the country on his tours. As I looked around me, the mix of the audience was really something. In the seats right in front of me was a young couple, who knew the music and words to every song. And sing and dance they did. My only downer for the evening was having the bad luck sitting next to a fellow who was larger than me and was as excited as a 60’s teenager to be there. He spent the entire evening bouncing his naked legs (he wore shorts) up and down to the music as well as singing. In case you don’t know, stadium seats are not that wide. Not the kind of thrill I was looking for, couldn’t it have been the girl in front with the purple mini skirt hah!

Never one to show any degree of being hip, I did, however, have my moments. One of them occurred during the performance of “Let it Be”. I began to feel people poking me in the back. I looked turned and saw that the young women in back of me were saying something as they continued to poke me in the back. I finally realized that I was wearing a shirt my daughter bought me that had “Let it Be” emblazoned on the back. Man I really felt with it then! Back at the hotel lobby where we stayed, a man stopped me and was quite impressed with this old fart wearing his “Let it Be” shirt.

I had another interesting thing happen on the way from one of my bathroom trips. I had forgotten that I was wearing my NCIS cap (I’m a big fan), and a fellow stopped me and asked if I worked for NCIS. I said I wish I did then I could meet all the cast (Ziva and Abby especially). Well anyway it turns out that this guy is friends with Donald Bellisario, the creator of the show. What a small world. Some day you can ask me about another “small world occurrence”.

Stressed for nothing!

It’s been raining now for about two hours, although the word rain doesn’t seem strong enough to describe the downpour. It almost looks as though the velocity and size of the water drops are enough to put dents in your skull (notice I called hem water drops not that gentle work “rain”). I’ve been sitting watching TV and trying to relax, but I just know I’m not going to be happy at what I see if I look outside. We have a pool and paved deck and patio area right outside of the family room and I just know I will be witnessing a flood. I finally got enough courage to turn on the spots and go outside. Well, of course I was right, pool totally filled and overflowing, entire deck area under a couple inches of water and believe it or not it is still pouring. I know that many people have much bigger problems with this storm, but for me, it is my little hell. Great timing, twenty nine people coming for a July 4th picnic and swim. What to do now?

Well first order of business is to get some water out of the pool. Set the backwash on the filter and let it rip for over a half an hour. Dropped the level a little and created a new stream flowing down Hidden Hills Drive. Now I can only hope all the water drips down the seams in the pavers……fat chance of that.

My first glance at the pool area early this morning proved one thing to me….I worry too much and should learn to take things in stride. Water had all seeped into the ground and bricks had begun to dry. Let some more water out, dead headed all the soaked plants, and swept up the junk that washed into the pool area.
Looked like new again and I’m all set for the next downpour which seems to be the norm this past year in Connecticut. Now I need a sunny 4th. Twenty nine people don’t fit well indoors and there is no way I can eat all that prepared food by my self