Country Roads - Part 2

Orange Chicken, Baseball Cards & A Classic Song

I'll keep it simple for this second entry. 

I smiled while sitting in a bit of traffic this afternoon. Sure, people are clearly reverting to pre-pandemic driving dopiness. Failures to signal lane changes, last-second decisions to turn into strip malls for some fast food and "Honor Student" bumper stickers signaled the triumphant return to action for Hawthorne Boulevard. 

So, while this crowded street added a few minutes to my route, it made for a quick feel of normalcy. 

OK, I wasn't enamored with it in the moment. It delayed my final show prep a few minutes. I grabbed my water jug and brewed some coffee and sat down to compile a few additional notes. We'd gone with a quick comfort food lunch option, and the takeout included a pile of orange chicken and chow mein. Therefore, dinner wasn't on the brain. 

It's the end of a long week --- just keep the caffeine flowing.

I flipped on the television for background noise and then saw a reminder on social media that today commemorated a huge rite of spring. The new 2020 Bowman set from Topps arrived. We don't have games on the diamond yet, but fans were jonesing to celebrate the new class. The hype machine is in full effect for 17-year old Jasson Dominguez, a prospect in the Yankees organization. And the Bowman set is the traditional home for rookie cards. I loaded the Instagram page of the local shop that was commemorating the release with a huge break session. Someone pulled an autographed version of the card numbered out of /25. That'll net the owner a nice car on the secondary market.

Finally, we've been celebrating a lot of pop culture on the show during the quarantine. The re-watching of classic movies, binge-watching shows we'd missed in their first runs and the release anniversaries and stars. One of the songs appearing frequently across Tik-Tok, as I've been told, is the Kingsman rendition of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver. I don't recall what triggered it in my head, but I started belting it out, just like Merlin (Mark Strong) in "Kingsman: The Golden Circle." It brought another pretty good laugh shortly after a heated debate on the show. 

And then we started pondering the Mount Rushmore of video games. We'll revisit that in a future blog.

Peace and love, all. Sing it loud. 

"Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze"

(Note to self: There's a lot of country out there to traverse.)