Weekly Mail August 21, 2016

So the other day, I went to the end of camp carnival at Timmy's day camp. I was chatting with one of our friends,whose daughter went to camp with Tim. And she was lamenting the end of summer. "I hate seeing her go back to school." she told me.

I agree.

I haven't been in school in a long time, I swear, the end of the summer is more painful for me than it is for Timmy. He was a bit melancholy after camp let out on Friday, which was strange only because anyone who knows Tim knows he is rarely sad or melancholy. He actually enjoys school for the most part.

But Tara and I are the ones who seem to get all depressed. I'll never forget walking him to his classroom for his first day of first grade, He ran right into the classroom like he owned the joint. Meanwhile, Tara was visibly upset (so much so that a woman walked passed us and put her hand over her heart as she did so) and I was having a rough go of it as well.

Obviously, having a child who is school age makes this all the more tougher. But in reality, even in my freewheeling single days, I hated the end of summer. It really does seem silly. There was nothing preventing me from heading to Rockaway on a Saturday during the fall, most of my peeps from Rockaway, I saw in the city during the year, it wasn't like my work hours were any different. It's just that summer means so much good.

Longer days, warm weather, shorts, t-shirts. Beaches, pools, baseball (even the crap being served up this summer by our Mets and Yankees is better than football)

And it's not that I haven't had some $h-tty summers in my lifetime, but for the most part, summer is always a time to make things right again.

I'll always be a summer person. It's in my DNA. These next two weeks should be fun, but after that, I'm not looking forward to it.

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I was really on the fence about bringing this up, but it's been bugging me so,

NEWS ITEM: SOUTHERN FLOODS

Last week, in a scene eerily and sadly familiar, parts of Louisiana and Mississippi were underwater due to severe flooding. For many, it brought back horrible memories of Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005. Closer to home, it reminded us of Superstorm Sandy.

And while these sorts of tragedies always bring out the best in many people, it also brings out the evil in some. Insurance companies are already backtracking on paying out, There was on story on CNN.com about a guy claiming to be a pastor from a local church who was collecting FEMA ID numbers offering to help, but in reality was running a scam.

Then there were the politicians. Namely, President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.


Let's play a game... Guess who did what last week.


Politician A went down to Louisiana to meet with and help out flood victims.

Politician B attended fund raisers in Miami

Politician C played golf on Martha's Vineyard.

One would think that A would be President Obama. Certainly Donald Trump would have to be either B or C and Hillary would either be A or B.

Well, Trump, love him or loathe him, found his way down to Louisiana on Friday to help hand out supplies and meet with flood victims. A shameless photo op you say? Maybe, but also he could have been legitimately looking to help out. And the people he did meet with seemed genuinely happy to see him.

The President, meanwhile, refused to cut short his vacation on Martha's Vineyard. I've written many times before, I never begrudge any President taking time off during the summer, or taking an occasional vacation, but in wouldn't have done him any harm to come down one day and assure the people of Louisiana that he had their backs.

I always see these memes on Facebook: imagine if President Obama showed up with 5 kids from 3 marriages, or imagine if Hillary Clinton praised Vladimir Putin. Well I've got one for you..Imagine if during Hurricane Katrina, President Bush spent a week golfing or hanging out at his ranch in Crawford. As it was, he went to Louisiana and got his a$$ chewed out for praising Mike Brown and generally bungling the relief effort.

But $h-t, at least he tried.

Obama? Hillary? Nowhere to be found.

Shameful.

Speaking of Shameful

SPORTS: THE OLYMPICS

I was one of the last holdouts in believing Ryan Lochte's story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio. As other news outlets began to report that Lochte's story was about as true as Brian Williams getting shot down over Macho Grande (he never really got over Macho Grande) I kept the faith and believed the lying MoFo. Why? Well as I reported two weeks ago, there were so many issues with the Rio Games, that I had very little faith the the Brazilian government (in general) and the Rio city government (in particular) had any real credibility. Factor in the lack of adequate security, the inability to contain the Zika virus, and the sewer like conditions of the rowing/sailing venues, and can you blame me for thinking maybe Lochte was telling the truth? I mean who would you believe?

It wasn't till he finally acknowledged that he concocted most of the story (meaning he probably concocted the whole thing) did I finally believe that he did something wrong. I understand the Brazilians wanting to make an example out of him, and I'm certainly not condoning what he did, but it's probably in everybody's best interests if both sides just let the matter drop. Brazil has little to gain by prosecuting him, and now Lochte will have this shame hanging around his neck, to go slong with the shame of not being able to carry Michael Phelps water. (no pun intended)

The good news is, once again we kicked some serious a$$ in these games. We even lost some events we normally dominate, (beach volleyball, women's soccer, men's volleyball) and we just made up for it in other events. Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas in gymnastics, Kate Ledecky and Lilly King in Women's Swimming, and of course Michael Phelps on the Men's side,  The women's track team sweeping the 110 meter hurdles. Pure domination. And without 'roids either.

The men's basketball team,made things interesting by not blowing every team out by 30 points. But again, no LeBron, no Steph Curry, no Russell Westbrook. With those 3, we may have waltzed to the gold.


So to wrap things up, I'm going to go on hiatus for a couple of weeks. Agian, I thank all of you who read this and especially to those who give feedback, whwether it be a like on FB, or a comment or two. Yes even when you disagree with what I write, actually especially if you do because I do want to hear all sides. My goal with this comeback was really to try to keep it light, try to write more stories that we could joke about rather than try to solve the worlds problems. I know this week I got away from that, and in the coming weeks, I'm going to give my two cents about Trump and Hillary and the legacy of President Obama. I'm going to kick things off with some essays dealing with 9/11, as my season premiere blog post will be posted on 9/11/2016. But I also promise to have some funs, provide some laughs and get back to the real reason I restarted this thing in the first place.

Life is too short, too fragile. We have to do the things we enjoy. I enjoy writing. I enjoy it even moire if I can entertain people while I do it. And that's the goal every week.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!