Half Way/Half Way

 I try to keep track of the milestones in life -- I keep an old fashioned calendar in my closet, so each morning I remind myself of the date. And today is June 15th, which means we're halfway through the month whose end marks the half way point of this year - 2025.

Yesterday Wifey and I attended Teddy's first birthday -- Mike and Loni's wonderful grandson. Chris and Rachel just moved into a lovely, large house in Palmetto Bay -- Rachel's Dad Tony is a leading realtor, and he found the house for them and gave them a bridge loan until they sold their smaller, first house. As Mike noted, Chris has learned a key life lesson: never hurts to marry a rich girl. Alas, I never learned that lesson.

Teddy is a joy -- reminded us of D1, the world's easiest baby and toddler. I sent photos of the party to the Ds, and D1 noted it was classic "First grandchild vibes -- the next ones will be lucky to get a cupcake." She has my snarky sense of humor all right. I'm very proud of that.

As we walked back memory lane with Mike and Loni, we noted how time truly DOES change as you age. The 3 years of law school took FOREVER, or so it seemed. Now, 3 years of a grandson's life flies by supersonically. 

Mike joked at the end of the party that it was time for Teddy and Mike's afternoon nap. I took that as a fine suggestion, and came home and fell asleep, as I often do, to Smithsonian Channel's "Mayday -- Air Disasters." I'm not sure why I find these shows so soporific -- I guess it's the fact that I'm not sitting on the ill fated airliners.

It was a lazy Saturday night. Wifey and I watched some of "Hard Days' Night," which I hadn't seen in decades, and Wifey told me how it's considered a great film -- really the first music video, and sort of an avante-garde romp. Eh. I went to bed after an hour, and watched the Panthers win -- one more Tuesday night and they'll have a second Stanley Cup.

It brought me back to my childhood, and the new team that came about in Junior High, the Islanders. Our assistant principal at Salk, Jim Garvey, was the Islanders' announcer, and we got to lots of games. The team got better and better, but never won the Cup while I lived on Long Island. They finally did in 1980, and I watched on a tiny black and white TV in the dorm during Summer Classes -- surrounded by Saudi guys who thought hockey the silliest sport they had ever seen. I was outnumbered, so I avoided saying anything involving camels...

The Isles went on to win 4 straight Cups -- an amazing dynasty. The Panthers may be on track for the same. They've sure become the team of the hour in So Fla -- but there are rumblings the Heat may trade for Kevin Durant -- that'd be cool, too. Sports.

Today is FD, and the plans are to meet the Ds and Jonathan at Beauty and the Butcher in South Miami. We were there once before -- nice place -- where the longtime Shula's was -- one of our go-tos. 

We spoke to Mike and Loni about maybe taking a luxe cruise post Xmas -- including fireworks on NYE. We haven't really made a big deal about NYE in years -- I told Loni that her husband and I would be halfway to 65 in January -- how many of the turns of the year did we have left? Nothing like cheering up your friend at her grandson's first birthday party.

But there's that half thing again. The clock keeps running...