Why whine about the Mets’ loss to the Yankees when there’s so much wine?

The end of the line greeted me Friday morning as I planned my strategy for the that night’s game for my New York Mets. The Subway Series, the New York Yankees, the Four Train from CitiField in Flushing to the Bronx with a team-tying-record 11-game winning streak lied ahead with great promise. On my wide…

A quick glimpse at a portable grilling paradise

A trip to the nearby Home Depot to buy some energy-efficient lightbulbs for the back porch ceiling fans earlier this week led to a parking lot discovery that proved some more that summer, she’s a coming. Orange-coned off in the outskirts of the big box parking lot was a lonely tractor-trailer that was drawing a…

And the Earth still does what she wants

And on the day after Earth Day, my dear wife Karen and I wake up in the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city Eastwood neighborhood to a reminder that spring can still be mean. The new flowers and greening lawn were hit with overnight snow. It stuck. The temperature now at 8:45 a.m. reads 37º…

Throwback: Baseball please, with window cut pie for dinner and cold drafts after work

I spotted Bob the Mailman at the ballpark last weekend, and Tommy Hrim’s favorite expression this time of year screamed inside my head. “Baseball, please,” I said to the graying gent who had plopped down two rows in front of my dear wife Karen and I at NBT Bank Stadium, scorecard in hand to better…

A walk in the Lake park

Everybody, their cousin and whatever kid they could find was taking advantage of the sunny Sunday at Onondaga Lake Park. The Wegmans area set up with all the play equipment to keep children happy and their parents and grandparents busy watching them was chock full on the breezy, 60º F early afternoon. My dear wife…

Coming clean at my dentist’s office

I learned something new at the dentist today. Well, two things, actually. As my kind and gentle hygienist Joanne did her usual great twice-yearly job of picking my teeth clean of that bothersome plaque and tartar build-up, she casually mentioned to me that she also was removing gravel from the site — my mouth, that…

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire engines

My dear wife Karen looked out the living room window of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood early this Sunday evening and spotted thick, black smoke billowing over the end of our block. I heard her uh-oh and looked out past the empty lot, past the neighbor’s house, and saw the…

Green backyard grass, except for that one patch

The mower will be out of the shed soon in the yard of my dear wife Karen and I’s Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. A good portion of our backyard is looking lush, considering it’s the year-round playground for Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle. Playground-plus, actually, if you know what I’m…

Getting out on the green with lots of action

The weather was right Thursday to start the golf season in the Syracuse area. After a winter of waiting, I was more than pleased when the trip 25 or so miles east of Syracuse to Kanon Valley Country Club took me out of my car to find KP and Tater and sun and ever-warming temperatures.…

Guarding their galaxies

The things Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I spy on our walks beyond our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhoods of Eastwood and Lyncourt. Tuesday’s eyeful started with odd. Eccentric. Provocative. Well, odd. Anybody can put a basketball hoop at the peak of their garage. And it doesn’t take much chutzpah to hang…