Get What’s Coming

Though it’s apparently been around for years, I just recently learned about the USPS’s Informed Delivery service, which sends a daily email digest of your soon-to-arrive postal mail – scans of the front of letters that will be showing up later that day in your mailbox, and tracking updates and delivery timing for packages coming in the next few days. It’s a free service, and though I was dubious as to whether it would work, in fact, it totally does.

If you live in a house, Informed Delivery might be genuinely useful; from the dashboard, you can schedule deliveries for specific times, leave delivery instructions (“put it on the back porch”), and the like. But here in my NYC apartment, with a doorman able to accept and safeguard packages at any point, it don’t much help me out. Indeed, in my own life, I can’t really make a functional case for the service at all. And, at the same time, it makes me genuinely happy. There’s just something delightful about opening my mailbox, already knowing what’s going to be inside.

I know that’s a bit dumb. But, in these crazy times, perhaps I’m just happy for anything that makes me feel some small amount of power and control in the world. It may be a small win, but in this environment, I’ll take any win I can get.

June 26, 2020

On Paws

It’s been several years since Jess and I had a dog, and we’re now feeling that absence acutely. So, after talking about it abstractly for the last year, we’re now concretely on the search. We’re committed to adopting, though I’m slightly dog-allergic, which means we’re looking for a friend with hair rather than fur. And, given the space constraints (and lack of backyard) of an NYC apartment, we’re trying to stay below 25 pounds. (Though, conversely as I’d like a dog who’s rough and tumble enough to take on adventures, we’re also trying not to go too far below 15.)

In the midst of this pandemic, it seems we’re not unique. In what’s excellent news for all the dogs involved, nearby shelters have all been pretty much adopted clean. From our end, however, that’s sent us both searching further abreast for pups who might be transportable here, and refreshing shelters’ sites daily, hoping to pounce fast on a four-legged friend.

Hopefully, update soon. Though if any eagle-eyed (and rescue-connected) readers have leads, we’d love to hear about it. We have plenty of love – and treats – to go around. 🐶

June 25, 2020

2020-06-21

“Son, how can I help you see?
May I give you my shoulders
to stand on?
Now you see farther than me.
Now you see for both of us.
Won’t you tell me what you see?”
– H. Jackson Brown

June 21, 2020

Macaroni, Redux

I posted this on Father’s Day almost fifteen years back, but it still holds as true today. This year, even if we’re socially distanced to opposite coasts, I’m sending my father transcontinental love and best wishes. I’ve been glad to celebrate so many Father’s Days with him – and even more glad to have him in my life for all the days in between them – and I look forward to hopefully many, many more years, celebrating live and in person, ahead.

When I was growing up, I loved macaroni and cheese. But, for some reason, I believed the dish was best served for breakfast. The strange preference passed to my younger brother as well, and on most weekends, he and I would put in a request for macaroni brunch.

Complicating matters further, however, I liked Kraft’s Deluxe, which featured a large packet of congealed Velveeta, while my brother remained partial to Kraft Dinner and its powdery (even once cooked) orange ‘cheese’.

So, in an act of kindness and child-humoring that astounds me even to this day, my father (official school lunch and breakfast preparer of our family) would brew up two parallel pots, one of each, for my brother and me.

I think of this each Fathers’ Day, and of the countless other big and small wonderful things my father Andrew did (and still does) for us, and realize that, as far as dads go, my brother and I got it really, really, remarkably good.