….And The Livin’ Was Easy

Another summer is exiting stage right, and I am left with the usual mixed feelings about it all. Part of me welcomes a return to the predictable grind of the September-May life, with its school schedules and alarm clocks. But I’m also gonna miss summer – the late evenings and outdoor cookouts, and the long, hot days accented by a few vacations that excite the soul and empty the bank account.

This has been an especially memorable summer for us, mainly because it was our first full summer back in the States since 2017. We took a couple of road trips this summer after pausing such things during our five-and-a-half carless years in London. There is something very special about an American road trip. The highways go on forever, the sky is endless, and there’s a fast-food joint about every 1.7 miles.

Early in the summer we took a long road trip from our home in northern New Jersey to parts south. That adventure spanned about 1,320 miles round trip, or roughly the distance from London to Sarajevo. Here’s the blog about it, in case you missed it the first time ‘round.

Our most recent road trip, in late August, was in the other direction – north, to Boston. It was a much shorter drive, only about 500 miles round trip. This was my sixth or seventh visit to Boston, and easily the most enjoyable. On previous trips we usually went from Point A to Point B as efficiently as possible, without taking much time to soak it all in. This time we explored much of the city on foot, which is the best way to explore any city.

I was not exactly smitten with Boston during previous visits, but that changed during our recent trip because I finally got to absorb it all. It’s a pretty amazing city, with no shortage of things to do and see, and more than a few postcard-worthy sights. There’s a diverse mix of neighborhoods, each with its own look and vibe, from the modern high-rises of the Seaport district to the Colonial charm of Charlestown – two places I had never been before, at least that I can remember.

Oh, and I visited the famous “Cheers” bar for the first time and even had a dork tourist photo taken in front of it. But let us not dwell on that….

It was a great way to cap off the summer — road tripping up to Boston on the interstate, visiting family and friends (including an impossibly cute baby grandniece) – and then motoring back down through my wife’s hometown of Bethel, Connecticut, a sweet little slice of Americana that also has my all-time favorite pizza joint (Famous Pizza – check it out if you’re ever in the area).

We packed in a couple visits from a few old friends to our Jersey hometown this summer. It’s a swell time to show visitors around, too, because the area tends to empty out during the summer, what with everyone venturing hither and yon.

I took in some baseball at a nearby minor league park over the summer — something else I couldn’t do in the UK.

Well, it was a fun summer – and one of the remaining few when our daughters will be living with us full-time, year-round, under our constant care and supervision. Elder Daughter started her sophomore year in high school this week, and Younger Daughter entered 7^th grade. Next summer, Elder Daughter will be driving a car (I have been teaching her the finer points of motoring these past few months) and will finally be of age to land a summer job. That will introduce a whole new dynamic into our family life.

Time doesn’t fly – it disappears, and then disappears some more, and keeps on disappearing until it’s just a speck in the distance.

The weather turned cool this week, pretty much overnight. I used to love this time of year, the early days of fall. I still like it well enough, but I can’t say I love it because Dreaded Winter is right around the corner, and the less said about that, the better (though the holidays are cool).

It will still be good to be back to the September-May routine. Early mornings. Empty house much of the time. Kids in school. Days fairly well plotted out. I need that routine. It’s a comfort.

Oh, and this:

It will be good to save money again. Summer is a blast. But man, it can drain your finances in a quick minute.

*****

Meanwhile…..

We got to experience a classic American summer event recently, and one that is becoming more (and more and more and more) common in this age of global warming and extreme weather events: A power outage at our Old New Jersey Home.

It happened a couple weeks ago and lasted several hours in the evening, which I suppose was good because it’s cooler at night, and you’re not at work, and we had time to eat the dinner I prepared before the outage had a chance to keep me from preparing it.

We got by just fine, thanks, being rugged pioneers. Our iPhones and laptops got by on battery power. And if the battery power ran out, we could charge them in those mobile charging gizmos with the USB ports.

I dug up our trusty battery-powered flashlight and camping lantern to help guide us in the dark, even though the other three family members either guided themselves around with candles or iPhone flashlights.

I even worked a bit, being the dedicated and enterprising dude I am. Although the Wi-Fi (and internet) were down, I had the foresight to put together some Word files with all the research and quotes needed to write some web content. I couldn’t send the files to the editors – but I could write the articles. And I did, I did!

One thing I was reminded of during this stupidass power outage is how dependent we are on the power grid. We use it to power the lights and air conditioning, the stoves and refrigerators, the microwave oven and small appliances and Wi-Fi and TV.

Another thing I learned is that we are much less dependent on the power grid than we were, say, 30 or 40 years ago. The rise of the internet has led to a rise in laptops, tablets and smartphones. This in turn has led to a rise in rechargeable battery-powered devices because we’re not always near electrical outlets to plug these things into. And that led to a rise in USB connections and portable chargers, meaning you can be wired pretty much wherever you go (literally and figuratively).

This wasn’t the case as recently as 1995 – or even 2005 for many folks. I came up in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and when there was a power outage, you had a flashlight, candles, and not much else. You could read a book. Or play a board game. Or listen to the transistor radio. Or draw a picture. Not much else.

During our recent power outage we could fire up our laptops for hours because of the backup battery power. We could plug portable fans into our laptop USB ports to stay moderately cool. We could play games on our laptop or iPhone hard drives. I could do work on my laptop. We could check the internet on our iPhones using the satellite connection. We could even watch sports or TV shows.

Smartphones are an amazing invention, something we never would have imagined in the 20th century. They’re a flashlight, music player, TV, game arcade, news source, research tool, bank, noise machine, book, shopping mall, sports network, entertainment center and – oh what isn’t a smartphone, really? It’s everything except a nice bowl of soup — and that day is probably coming.

Of course, it’s also a phone – and I used it to call PSE&G, our local power provider, to find out when exactly our power might come back on. They gave us updates via text messages, which was fine at first. The first message said power would be restored at 8 pm or so. Then it said 10:30 pm. Then 1 am, and then 2 am, and then they dropped the estimate altogether and let us know they were “reassessing the situation.”

After that reassessment, I called a live human and spent a few minutes barking into his ear. We traded a few verbal barbs, then he hung up on me before I could hang up on him. Ain’t humanity grand?

Technology will probably eat us all for breakfast some fine day. But for now, it can do some pretty cool shit.

Note: Boston photo by a daughter, the others from yours truly.