Leap of Dave

Monday, July 13, 2020

White Sox set to open 2020 season on 7/24

When the year began the Chicago White Sox were all set to have a record breaking season. Maybe they wouldn't hit 242 home runs like they did in 2004 or strike out 1,359 opponents like in 2015, but when the umpire shouted "play ball" in their game on Thrusday, March 26th against the Kansas City Royals it would be their earliest opening day ever.

This, of course did not happen. The White Sox, none the less, will be breaking records this year if their home opener scheduled against the Minnesota Twins on July 24th doesn't get cancelled or delayed it will certainly set the record for latest opening day ever. The planned 60 game schedule should contain many records even if many of them will come with asterisks. Teams will certainly have the least errors and strikeouts and fewest hits and home runs allowed. Attendance should be record breaking as well with most teams unsure if they will be able to sell any tickets. .

With Covid numbers continuing to grow in the U.S. I'm not sure how I feel about the season being played at all. As a fan, I am eager for the sason to get under way, but thher is part of me, like a true baseball purest, that feels that everyone should be safe at home.

Monday, July 6, 2020

The Library at Last

March 13, 2020 was a Friday. It turned out to be a true Friday the 13th in the sense that something scary started occurring. Friday March 13th was the day that many things in the U.S. started shutting down because of Covid 19. For me it was a day of lasts. It was one of the last days I worked at the movie theatre I used to work at. It was the last day I subbed during the 2020 school year. It was the last day I went to a public indoor event (a college talent show, wher my daughter was reciting her poetry).

During this time I've switched jobs, (although I still hope I can sub in the Fall.) jumped back into blogging, and navigated the new normal with help from God and my family. Because of that and that I am a particularly resilient kind of guy social distancing, face masks and zoom chats have been fairly easy to adapt to. What's been difficult is LOL. LOL is no laughing matter, it stands for lack of libraries.

I love libraries. I have really missed ours (Gail Borden in Elgin, Illinois) being open during the stay at home order. They have handled it greatly but I still missed them. The first thing they did after closing was expand the amount of materials you could take out virtually using Hoopla. In late May or Early June the drive through opened and you were able to start checking out mterials. Today they reopened in person,

When we went to Wisconsin last month we stopped in an open library and there was a 30 minute time limit and not much to do because we didn;t have borrowing priviliges. It felt good to be back at a library even for a half hour, but today felt more like coming home.

Instead of lasts it was a day of covid-19 era firsts. First time back at Gail Borden ,first time bugging reference people, first time checking out books in person. , first time back at my bank (my credit union is in the same building as the library), first time running into and talking with someone I knew while at the library, and first time using a library computer. I even started this post while using it.

Home Sweet Library

Quarantine Chic: Library Style

I must have told 8 employees of the library how glad I was that they were open. A kid in a candy store had absolutely nothing at me. Now if you could borrow candy and then return it when you were finished, that would be similar. A library is an everlasting gobstopper for the soul.