Tomahawk Chops, Massachusetts, Olde Burien, Cutting the Cord and Miscellany

Central Park, summer 2022.

I ordered an SUV and hotel rooms for our trip to Massachusetts and Mt. Holyoke the other day. Abby will have lots of stuff shipped to Jenny's best friend's house in Swansea. We will pick up the stuff the day after we arrive. The following day is orientation. I am already stressed about parking--nebbish fuck that I am.

In a theme in my life that has happened a few times in the last year, I discovered extra money in my bank account yesterday. I filed my taxes on time, but the IRS took its sweet time sending my refund of almost 10k. I am not complaining and its certainly a game changer for the summer.  

Leiney is going home on the 2nd, and then Jane and I will have a few days to explore Boston. I had a great time last summer wandering the streets of Boston's downtown with Abby. I didn't get to do all the exploring I would have liked, but I did have a lobster roll. I am excited to go again and see more of our early history.

Friday night I had dinner with Paul. We had tomahawk chops. They were huge steaks--Costco sized. I'd never had this cut of beef. It was delicious, as broiled by Paul, and smothered with the Bearnaise sauce he made. I am not much of a social being these days, but am trying. Went to see a show with my friend Sara last week at the zoo, and then this week Paul's. I am doing more than that, because I am trying my hardest to spend as much time with Abby as possible. We went to a parade in Burien last week or the week before, and last night went to the Burien Block Party--which was a little more populated than downtown Seattle on any given night after 9. I felt sad for the merchants, although all the restaurants were doing well.

I have neighbors down the street on our quiet dead end who have two kids under 7 with autism. I knew about one, because two years ago, the older child, ran into our yard as I was looking out the window. When I tried to talk to her she smiled but said nothing. She was nonverbal. Jenny stayed with her as I went door to door asking if anyone knew who the missing little girl was, until I saw the dad outside and he retrieved the girl. Friday night, as I was getting into my truck to go to Paul's, I saw a little boy about 4 years old running up the street. He turned into the neighbor's yard across the street and hid in the dense brush. He didn't seem scared. I was on the phone with my neighbor Oscar at the time, and it turns out we were both outside. We both went and tried to talk to the child, who was not responding to us. We stood there a bit befuddled for a couple minutes, until I saw the same dad from the original incident and his daughter frantically searching. We flagged them up the street, and the kid was reunited with his dad. The little girl, who was with him, attempted to run into our yard, but there is a fence now, so she was stymied. Parenting is hard when your kids don't have autism. I can't imagine the challenge of having two non-verbal kids with autism and a penchant to run.

If I am not mistaken, today is the day we are cutting the cord--ditching cable. Abby and I will head down to Xfinity and start saving almost $300 bucks a month. With all the streaming services, and the smart TV stations, it is a tremendous waste of money. At the same time, I have started ripping my hundreds of DVDs that I can stream for free. We have been so conditioned to streaming on demand that I simply haven't touched the DVDs more than maybe 2x a year. Being able to stream them will be game-changing. I suppose I will also need to get an HD antenna or 2 so I can watch those stations. The only thing left to figure out is how to get a DVR that I can use.