October 22, 2021
(Diarists’ note: Friday, Oct. 22 was an unusual day, as thoughts and actions of Friday proved to be heavily influenced by the days preceding and following the actual Diary Day. Please resist skipping ahead to learn how any of these other events transpired.)
Today’s diary day is off to a bit of uncertainty due to the baseball playoffs last evening and a full day of “family togetherness” on par for Saturday. Thursday night began with a glimmer of hope that my favorite baseball team of 36 years can finally cast loose a monkey of postseason failure and clinch a spot in its first World Series of the 21st Century. Alas, they fall 11-2, setting the stage for two weekend games (both at home) to finally wrap up the series. Or is another collapse and resurrection of an admittedly superior opponent in the cards again?
I have some reports and assorted tasks in preparation of next week on the schedule for this Friday. Nearly all of these are related to various employee activities of my healthcare organization.
Saturday will bring about Ball State’s annual homecoming parade, football game and other festivities. My family have been local and enthusiastic supporters since they transplanted to Muncie and have raised me to adulthood within the shadow of the Teachers’ College. While I have never been shy about supporting the university’s athletic teams, this community spirit sometimes includes my family’s participation in more social events, such as the parade. I’ve never been a parade guy, but nevertheless I’ve seen the BSU version make many changes through the years. Those longtime kid-favorites, the Shriner’s on their minibikes, and mounted police have been replaced over the years with politicians and special-interest campus organizations. The parade gathering has also been a mutually-endeavored effort of continuity of my children’s grandparents, namely my own family and that of my (former) in-laws. Usually I dread the occasion, but with one of my children currently attending BSU and the other a recent graduate, Saturday offers the chance to see one or both of them in person, and I’m planning on going along for the ride on Saturday.
Speaking of nostalgia, that “delicate, but potent” motive of Mad Men fame, I’ve planned to golf on Sunday, likely one of the last seasonable days of the fall with my son at the “home course” of my own youth. There I learned the game under my father’s direction, ultimately to feel maybe I had played my last rounds after his passing in 2017. My son would pick up the game two years later, and I more or less assumed my dad’s role, minus the talent and patience, of developing him as a player. He already has a stronger mental attitude on the course than I did, then or now, so maybe I’ve succeeded?
Friday closes as others do, yet with a twist. I’ll sometimes meet friends downtown to look back on the week, unwind and tell jokes and play some music. That unfolds as normal, but I also have a surprisingly agonizing conversation with a close friend over the legal limbo they have been involved in for almost two years. This all comes to an end with a somewhat-immaculate water spill back home in my kitchen, a late-night cleanup and search for my phone, and bedding down well after midnight. I’ll attempt to reconstruct Friday for my own purposes and that of this Diary Saturday morning over a walk and the parade.
Epilogue: Saturday morning is rather uneventful, aside from my rather cynical admonition of a parade participant’s thinly-coded “Let’s Go Brandon!” sign. BSU falls in the Homecoming football game, 24-17, to Miami of Ohio. And the Atlanta Braves overcome their long west coast nemesis, Los Angeles, 4-2 to claim the best-of-seven series by the same count and advance to the World Series.