Rant #2,482: Surrealistic Pillow

Weird.

Yes, this past weekend was kind of weird for me.

Not that my life hasn't been weird for the past many months--as it has been for everyone--but this past weekend, at least for me, was weird.

Maybe even put a capital "W" on it.

It was Weird.

On Saturday, it was Record Store Day, or at least the first of three such days scheduled this year. It was supposed to be as it always is in April, but most record stores were closed back then due to the coronavirus, so it has been split up into three separate days, the next one being in September.

I hadn't been to my local record store since they reopened in, what was it, early July or something like that, but after trying to do something beforehand without any success--cashing in my bottles and cans at my local supermarket, but the redemption centers opened after the actual stores were open--I moseyed down to my local record store--where I found a line of people forming to get in.

I thought to myself, "The bottles can wait," and I went on the line myself.

People were social distancing, to an extent, everyone had on a mask, and once they let us in, we were only let in one or two at a time, and we were asked if we were comfortable when more people were ready to be let in.

I didn't buy much of the Record Store Day fare, but using my gift certificate that my mother got me for Hanukkah so many months ago, I was able to buy some other records, so I was happy.

And then I went to the supermarket again to cash in my bottles and cans, and the machines were very uncooperative--constantly breaking down--so somehow, I cashed in two of my three bags of bottles and went home getting my arm exercise for the day.

But not quite.

It was a depressing rainy day by me on Saturday, and I had promised that I would take my son to the bowling alley for his personal "spring training" of bowling, preparing for his league to begin on Sept. 19.

So we went to the alley, but this time, I bowled too--the first time in at least 15 years that I did so.

I found my bowling ball--dating from the mid-to-late 1970s--in the basement, but it was not with its bag or my shoes. I have no idea what happened to the bag and shoes, but the ball was laying there without any protection for those 15 years, so it had a lot of dust on it and looked a little ragged.

And when I picked it up, I knew that I was not in my 20s or 30s anymore; it felt like I had picked up a boulder.

But my son gave me one of his extra bags, and off to the alley we went.

It felt so weird bowling after so many years of not doing so.

And when I bowled, my ball had no power behind it, but I was able to get the ball down the lane and I did the best that I could/

A 1970s-era ball rolling down a 2000s-era alley and hitting a 2000sera set of pins ... bring back the disco ball--I am back!

I will say that the first frame I bowled, I actually got a spare, and the last frame I bowled, I actually got a strike.

What was in between was a bit less than that, but I enjoyed the experience ...

And I think my son did too, bowling with me. And the enjoyment was reciprocal.

Then on Sunday, I went on the unemployment sites and tried to register for the past week, basically letting them know that myself and my son were still not working, an exercise that might take 10 minutes to complete if even that.

But yesterday, being the weird day that it was, I had trouble putting in my circumstances first, I finally got it through, but when I tried to do my son's stuff, the site was completely down. I tried several times on three different devices, but I could not get into the site--the New York State Department of Labor site--at all.

Panicking and with sweat dripping down my back, I called up their phone filling number, and I was able to file for him over the phone.

I don't trust it, so I will check the site again today, and refile for him, and both of us, if necessary.

my family and I traveled out to a beer festival in Jamesport, which is on Long Island, and is more than an hour away from our home.

It doesn't even look like the Long Island I know, you would swear you were in another state, but yes, there are parts of Long Island that are still in the sticks, and Jamesport is one of those places.

It probably won't be for long, though, because of the influx of city dwellers who have tired of the chaos in New York City and have decided to move permanently as far away from the five boroughs as they possibly can.

Anyway, me going to a beer festival is like a diabetic going to a candy convention; I don't imbibe at all, and I mean, I don't drink anything but water, milk, seltzer and soda.

But my wife has an occasional drink, and she likes beer, as does her brothers and their wives, so we all met out east for a nice time.

And, along with my nephew and his wife, we had just that, even though we were social distanced--they had strict regulations about that--and we could not sit together, only a maximum six to a table.

So while the others drank, my son and I had our respective water and seltzer as our drinks, and the day went by swimmingly.

At about 3 p.m. or so--or maybe it was later, I don't remember--I checked my phone to see the score of the first game of the doubleheader between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets.

Honestly, I have not been so invested in this season as I have been others. There is too much swirling around myself and my family to actually have the time to sit down and watch a game, and when I do, because of the lack of fans and the changes to the game that have been implemented this year, I often think I am watching a Strat-O-Matic baseball game rather than a real one.

Anyway, I checked the score of the first game of the doubleheader--two seven-inning games--and the Mets had bases loaded with no outs in I think the fifth inning, and they would eventually pad their lead to 7-2 after they scored a few runs that inning.

I went over to my brother in law and my nephew--Mets fans, natch--and conceded. With the Yankees just breaking a seven-game losing streak and looking awful in doing it--and having already lost one doubleheader during this five-game series to the Mets--I figured that this game was a lost cause too.

About an hour later, I decided to check the score again, just for kicks. I knew the Yankees had lost, but I guess I just wanted to experience the finality of another horrid exercise in futility.

I checked the score, and I did a double take. I actually had to look at the score again to make sure I wasn't reading it incorrectly, or completely losing it.

The Yankees came back and won the game, 8-7 bolstered by a five-run outburst against the Mets' bullpen.

I went over to my nephew and told him the news, and he took it very matter of factly.

"It's the Mets," he said, and that was the end of that.

And later, in the nightcap, the Yankees won again, this on a pinch hit grand slam from their catcher, Gary Sanchez, who is hitting like .130 or something like that.

Surreal ... I tell you surreal ...

And then my son and I watched a pay-per-view event from the WWE, which has its own weirdness even on a regular day, which yesterday was not.

So yes, yesterday was weird, very weird ...

Will this week follow suit.

Stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel.

I wonder if I should open my eyes.