Day 69

Well good evening my Corona friends and foes. I hope everyone is having a great evening and thank goodness for the weekend. Friday just kind of sneaks up on you now a days, and it is definitely not the same heartfelt meaning as it used to have. Back in the time when you picked up the kids from school; or day care and threw those backpacks to the corner till Sunday night. Now every day is groundhogs day and you just have to figure out how to get through it. I am pretty sure I have established that I will get through it with Kettel One, on the rocks, with a splash of soda and a little lime. Works like a charm. So techie and I find ourselves in South Philly for the next few days and after fits and starts, we find ourselves getting in to the groove of the city culture, a bit different than Boston but hey we are among the Eagles fans. Their idea of steak and cheese is with Cheez whiz, seriously I challenge most any sub shop in Boston to put out a steak and cheese that would put these all to shame. What I did find in Philly today to my great surprise was an Urban Refuge right in the city. John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge is right in the city and a few million people live within 10 miles of the refuge. It has become the go to place for my granddaughter Tilda. She loves chasing all the birds and looking after the turtles. I guess it is more about this Pandemic, and the fact that we really can’t stop anywhere on our walks, but this city is so much more congested than the city where I live. Granted it could be the neighborhood. It is a bit gritty and worn. It kind of colors it, when you have to stroll with a mask on all the time. But at the same time the neighborhood has more flavor than most. A lot of small family owned businesses and I hope they will survive. My ride down here yesterday from Boston was remarkable in some ways as we saw so many tractor trailer trucks with the big amazon smile on the side.  I can tell you they are not on their way to fill up the empty stores on Passyunk Ave and if people don’t start giving a shit about it, the most popular small business on a busy commercial avenue is going to be all going to FOR RENT. We are all waiting for a reopening of so many businesses. Lets just all hope that someday we can return to life as we knew it, before Corona.  Sitting in my son’s backyard patio this evening, patio might be generous, we could hear the neighbors laughing and talking but we were separated by a high wall.  I was reminded that my own neighborhood has gone eerily silent, without any of the loud drunks late on weekend nights, in the alley behind out building. Just the same old lady sitting out there smoking every day clearly ignoring the no smoking signs. At least she doesn’t have to fear for her life for breaking a few rules. What is noticeably different is we don’t hear any airplanes, and that is something we got used to after moving to the city. We loved to travel and I always loved that I lived 7 minutes to Logan and now I could skirt the timing of getting to the airport, even more dangerously close than usual. Now we sail by the airport in the harbor and see or hear almost nothing. Well glad to see and hear that there is life still happening in South Philly, even if it is a stir from a neighbor about the trash, or you parked a bit too close to my car. I will take it as a sign that life can go on , just with a mask. We also went to another park later in the day, again right near the stadium, where the Philly teams play, and we found a lone swing. Now I know parks are closed and before anyone gets a bit crazy about putting Tilda in the swing, just know this grandma travels with her own Clorox wipes and we cleaned it pretty darned good. Of course maybe it was because she has been cooped up in the house with no one but her Mom and dad for the past 9 weeks but she would not get out of that swing. We pushed her for over an hour and then we had to pry her little hands lose to get her out of there. I mean seriously it was after cocktail hour.  We had planned to go back for a dinner picnic but didn’t make it so looking forward to tomorrow’s adventure.  The world has changed and I know we have been living it for some time now, but you really even notice it more when you visit a place you have become so familiar with and you have to learn to love it all over again. Max has been here a long time and it did take some getting used to, and I finally learned to embrace what I perceived as flaws and absorb the culture. It is just that today I want to just stuff Alana, Max and Tilda in the car and take them away. They really never became Philly fans anyway.

 Just sayin