Post Father's Day, Will Goes Retro, Monday Metal

We had a pleasant Father's Day. We got in a morning gym session. Then we went to our sister's in Pelham, which necessitated crossing the Hudson. Traffic on the George Washington Bridge was terrible, there was a game at nearby Yankee Stadium. So we took the long way around, up the Hudson and across at the Tappan Zee, and then back down. We avoided NYC altogether, thank god. The girls got us a great Father's Day Card:

Mrs. Stroock posting something on FB that made us downright emotional. This isn't about me, but she and all she's seen: 'Happy Father’s Day to my best friend, the best Daddy our girls could ask for, the guy who has kept this house going for the last few months while I have been back and forth to Indiana, the reason our kids actually survived online learning, and so much more! You are loved and appreciate more than you ever know William Stroock'. Well if that just doesn't....anyway. Because it was Father's Day, I was allowed to chose what kind of takeout we got: Mexican.

What Will's Watching: Last week we caught Alan Alda's The Four Seasons (1981) on Netflix. This was one of those serious adult movies our parents watched when we were a kid. To Vivaldi's Four Seasons, three couples go on vacation together and end up sniping at one another. Interestingly these are all pre-boomers, one of the characters is 43, so there's no kvetching about the 60's man. This ain't The Big Chill, without looking we're quite sure The Big Chill is unwatchable today. Alan Alda plays...Alan Alda and is very good in the roll. But overall none of these people are very likable. This film can give a younger viewer a good sense for what 1981 felt like. Coincidently, Christian Toto just reviewed another Alan Alda project, Sweet Liberty. 3/4.

The Jews, is there nothing they can't do? From the JPost: 'Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant underwent an emergency shutdown, Iranian media reported on Sunday.' The Iranians claim a 'technical defect.' This is Farsi for 'The Jews did it'. The government may change but Mossad remains the same. It's never an accident. For the Imams are right. 

There's a ton to do this week. We need to write ad-hoc corps' planning scene, add to the 8th Mechanized Division's planning scene, flesh out the Soviet's operational concept, add a couple of Apache scenes and finish up the chapter. We'd like it done by 1 July. We'll see. We'll be picking up The Great Nuclear War of 1975.

Monday Metal. Let's see...what have we been listening to on the treadmill lately? That's right, The Black Crowes, Twice as Hard. We had actually forgotten this song existed for at least two decades:

Those are some serious power chords and blues based riffs. Just clubs ya over the head, don't it?

Notes on Father's Day

Our dad spent Father's Day weekend with us. Among other things we and the Stroocklettes saw a Somerset Patriots game, our local minor league team.

In our youth Dad and I used to go to a lot of Yankees games, it was one of our things. Giants too, during  the Parcells-LT era. So this was nice. I don't think we'd been to a ballgame together since 2003.

In 1993 we saw the Yankees play the Milwaukee Brewers. Early in the game Yankees catcher Mike Stanley hit a home run that landed right at our feet. We still have the ball somewhere.

Last night, after our online thingy with Cindy Sheehan, we attended a neighborhood block party. The girls had a great time, as always.

Things like that put us in mind of our grandfather, our second father's day without the old bastard.

He was a powerful man, a dominant man, a patriarchal man. In his final years Mark Stroock the II was simply an old man who liked hearing about what his great grandchildren were up to and he loved knowing that the family was enjoying the lake house he bought in 1973. Nothing made him happier. 

In a relationship that was often difficult, and filled with stress for me, we enjoyed those evening phone calls from Massachusetts and simply stating when we got off the phone, 'He is pleased.'

He would have loved hearing about the ballgame and block party and I wish I could tell him about it.