It has been nearly two full days since the seemingly impossible dream came true at long last. And in that time, I haven't done all that much. It's been mostly relaxing, and basking in the glow of the sun - literally. The fates seem to have been informed of my separation, as it has been nothing but sun over my ancestral home. This provided some good photographic opportunities. I have taken hundreds of shots of downtown Northport, but it never gets old, because the place is so damn beautiful. I had considered leaping headlong off the dock into Northport Harbor at midnight on Monday night, but the chilly temperatures and questionable legality of the act prevented me from doing so.
Today I was suffering some boredom, so I took a drive out east, to one of the true landmarks of Long Island - the Big Duck. It is, literally, a building in the shape of a duck, and it's over seventy-five years old. It's also, according to that Wikipedia article, the first of the seven wonders of Long Island (as voted by the listeners of 106.1 BLI). But when I got out there, I was surprised to find the place CLOSED! At 12:40 pm on Wednesday! That is definitely NOT in accordance with the hours posted on the Suffolk County website. Oh well. I got some pictures, and then turned around and headed home.
My first entry of this month concerned the high school ritual known as prom. I am seriously tempted to seriously rewrite it, having discovered some things on Northport High School's website today. Parent-student informational meetings? Prom contracts? Serious vetting for all guests outside the current NHS community? None of this existed in 1999 - it didn't need to, and I'm not sure it needs to now. Do we not trust these young adults to keep it awesome and safe on this one night? Back in my day, we just bought our tickets and went to the prom. It was that simple. And we walked five miles to school, uphill, both ways.
Tomorrow I head back into New York City, to celebrate a high school classmate who ran a half-marathon in support of the fight against leukemia and lymphoma. This will - correction, it MUST - be different from the two experiences in that city last week. Neither of those ended in true disaster, but they both ended with slight regret...and memorable and good stories. On the whole, a winnar is...ME!