Chapter 76.7: National "Take A Hike" Day

You may not have known it, but today is National Trails Day -- or as I like to call it: National 'Take a Hike' Day. While I'm sure the purpose of this day is to encourage people to walk through some of the many beautiful areas of our country -- mountain trails, forested areas, shorelines -- but I like the idea of telling people to take a hike.

The possibilities for corporate tie-ins are incredible. For example, Timberland might love this: "I can tell your wife's a hiker by that Timberland treadmark on your ass... Timberland: Take a hike!"

Ok, probably not what they have in mind.

Of course, today, the last thing I wanted to do was walk around in this oppressive heat; 96 degrees in early June is not my idea of fun. And tomorrow is expected to be worse. I already bought a six pack of cold beer. I'm in for the night, thank you!

So any one who wants me to head to a bar tonight ... Take A Hike!

Chapter 76.6: Remembering Old Friends

I've been blessed with an abundance of friends -- though I'm not always the best at showing my appreciation of their positive influence in my life. It turns out that my friends may be helping me in ways I'd never dreamed of before. Apparently, having more friends helps a person maintain a strong memory longer. Not only that, but my having graduated college helps me in that regard too, though the study also suggests that I should avoid the fatty foods and cholesterol. Damn, and I was really looking forward to eating monkey brains!

The study was conducted over six years, which may mean little, I don't really know, though it seems to suggest a bit more serious research than something that's only studying effects over a 12-18 month period. Surely, the impact of good friends cannot be measured over so short a period.

While it is unclear how social isolation and disconnected from others could affect memory loss, the implication is that seniors should continue to engage in social activities and increase the number of people in their social network. I can see it now: Senior Facebook! [Full disclosure, I do not have a Facebook page]

To be serious for a moment, these types of studies could be incredibly important as we the largest generation enter their senior years. Indeed, many of them don't even see their sixties as being old -- and at this point they're probably right. The fact remains, however, that their health is more likely to deteriorate than improve as they get older, and if engaging in more social interactions with people, developing more friendships with people, will help as life moves inexorably forward, then we should all do our best to help.

So my advice is call your parents regulary. See if they're spending time with their neighbors, their church group, their bridge club, at the nudist beach down the shore, whatever. It will help their memories, and they'll have reason to remember. Encourage them to make new friends and keep the old. They're all gold.

Chapter 76.5: Another Day, Another Month...

Soon we will enter June, but in the final beautiful days of May, I sense a calmness in the New York area. For the Mets have started to win.

The streak is modest, to be sure; three game winning streaks should be commonplace for good teams. But these are Willie's Mets. Willie Randolph, who many fans thought would be fired this week, has survived so far and has his team looking more stable (albeit at the .500 mark) than they've looked since banging the Yankees ... my goodness, was it only two weeks ago!

As coincidence would have it, Willie's former colleague, Joe Torre, was back in New York as well, his Dodgers competing against the Mets, which allowed for an interesting article to appear in the New York Times. Harvey Araton, in his column, noted that the Yankees weren't quite as whiny when Torre was being insulted last fall as was being remembered this spring.

Araton writes:

Last October, Mike Mussina said of Torre, “If we don’t perform, it shouldn’t be a reflection on his ability.” Johnny Damon said: “We’re not just playing for him. We’re playing for a bunch of players in there.” ... Alex Rodriguez was too busy opting out and begging back in to worry about a manager. Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera were supposedly factoring Torre into their free-agent strategy, but the Yankees substituted an alternate Joe (Girardi) along with keys to the Steinbrenner vault. The band played on.

And the Mets fan looks at the standings, recognizes that the team is 3.5 games out of first place after taking two of three from the first-place Marlins (who are on their own three game losing streak), and says "Ok, Willie's safe for now. But don't let it happen again!"

We're fickle, we Mets fans.

As I've said to fellow Mets fans, who else is there right now? Short of importing Bobby Valentine from Japan, I don't think the Mets have a clear option that's better than -- or more importantly different from -- Willie. Jerry Manuel was a decent manager in Chicago (Cammy, Frank, correct me if I'm wrong), but his casual approach eventually allowed the players to get lazy. Laziness and complacency are killing the Mets. As for other options that have been voiced: Ken Oberkfell (Mets AAA manager) might have the chops, I really don't know; Gary Carter shot himself in the foot, which he'd already shoved in his mouth; Jim Fregosi doesn't impress me; and Tom Kelly is too smart to leave retirement for the New York circus.

I'd love to hear other people suggest other managers for the Mets, because I'm not convinced Willie's going to remain regardless of this little winning streak.

What I'd really love to see are Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran start to hit like they used to, Luis Castillo demonstrate why Omar lavished millions on him this past winter, and the pitching staff to work consistently and well into the latter third of the game. Is that too much to ask of a "championship-calibre team"?

Chapter 76.4: Cat Calls

I know that I shouldn't expect much of a cat, but our boy's been clammoring for the past 10 minutes for me to play with him. I've been trying to write (having already "enjoyed" cleaning the gutters; God, that stuff is disgusting!), and he keeps popping his mouth off, flicking his tail at my nose, and bopping his head under my chin.

Or maybe he's saying, if you let me out in the back yard on this lovely day, you can finish the last few pages of revisions to your novel in the porch you cleaned up. Wouldn't that be nice?

Maybe with a scotch.