Easter come and gone

It's been a week since I last posted, nothing much has changed with me, nor I expect with my fellow expats.  I think we had one nice day but it was snowing this morning.

Good Friday I had a meeting with that friend of mine I used to see every other week at the Corner Bakery but a couple weeks ago the only place where you could sit inside was Union Station, and last Friday we were going to walk around in his neighborhood.  We met at an el stop and got on a bus.  I offered him an extra mask, but he said he had his own, but then he wouldn't put it on.  I didn't mind so much when we were outside in the cool breeze waiting for the bus, but when we were on it in that stagnant air he still didn't put it on.  Put it on I said, and he said well he wasn't facing me when he was talking.  We were sitting together in one of those side seats facing parallel, and that wasn't good enough for me.  I'm getting more and more stringent as this thing goes on.  I'm not going to quarantine myself for five weeks and then catch it because somebody is uncomfortable wearing a mask.

I got off the bus and caught a train back downtown and rode the Orange Line, the one that goes out to Midway passing within a mile and a half of the bungalow where I grew up, to the end of the line and back.  It was chilly but it was one of those super clear days, actually days are much clearer under the corona. and the city looked just beautiful in an eerie ascetic way.  I was the only one in my car on the way out, and on the way back there were maybe five, still plenty of room between us all.

I have a niece in El Sobronte and together with her and her hubby and my nephew who lives downtown and my sister who lives on the north shore we had a duo Easter,  Kind of a skype like thing, where you can see everybody's face on your phone.  A lot of people think these things are the berries but I thought it was kind of stoopid, but you know I am kind of a grumpy old man.

Tuesday I went out and got more finch food and now my balcony is alive with the sound of the finches, two couples, Lucy and Desi, and Fred and Ethel,  It's not a bird paradise like Fred and Nena have in their bosky dell, but it is pretty good for a downtown tower.  Here they are and here is Sweetie looking out unfazed at them.  Can you see the tiger?

RIP Beckert and Frey and it seems like there was another Cub that bit the dust lately too, but I can't remember who.  Had a bit of nostalgia reading about the Cubs of the Beckert period.  Getting to the bigs in those days was like working for General Motors, you found a spot like second base on a team like the Cubs and that's where you spent your career, you know, sort of like third base on the Leather Shop.  It was much easier for the fans.  Is it that much of an improvement that now the players are all filthy rich and Republicans.  I'm not one of those old grumps that go on and on about how much money the ballplayers make, but I would make them run as fast as their billion dollar legs could carry them to first base every single time, every single fucking time, they made contact with the ball or else they could spend the rest of the season using their billion dollar arms to toss peanuts in the stands.

Am I right?  Am I right???  You know Goddamn well I am.

Madden just popped into my mind.  It would have been interesting to see how he was doing in Florida was it?

I was reading a column in the Trib today and one of the columnists happened to mention the Universal Baseball Association Inc, (Coover).  Wow that took me back.  Does anybody else remember it?  Discovered it is still in my bookcase though the pages fell out like Autumn leaves, and I think I will take it for a spin this long afternoon to the sound of birdsong.

How was everybody else's holy week?