I am back after 2½ months.

During that time I managed to

• get into the doghouse at work, thanks to an ugly suite mate who snitched on me, but I also got moved out of that room and back to the floor with the rest of my department;
• create some new websites;
• Seeing Hairspray in the movies;
• see the Staten Island Yankees baseball team play.

We all had a full plate this weekend.  Yesterday my wife, daughter and I drove to St. John’s University to participate in University Service Day.  It’s a time when students, alumni and family members go out into the community at large and perform community service for a day.  We all met in the cafeteria in one of the main academic buildings, and judging from the number of tables, quite a large number of people showed up.  Our group was sponsored by Delta Rho (Δ&Rho sorority, as the leader was a member.  Since St. John’s is a Catholic university, there was a brief prayer service, and then the dozen members of our group piled into cars to head over to a homeless shelter in Jamaica, right off of Hillside Avenue.  We were detailed to help the residents’ children by conducting an arts & crafts day.  We spent the day making felt puppets, paper chains, and pictures (both with crayons and by gluing foam rubber sheets).  We also went outside into the playground where I got to shoot some hoops with a few of the young residents.  While I don’t think any NBA scouts will be coming to my house, I did have fun doing it.  At around 2 PM we were finished.  My wife and I had a good time, and my duaghter was able to draw a jack o’ lantern that was hung up on the wall in the room we worked in.  Besides being able to do something for people less fortunate than we are, it gave the 3 of us a chance to do something as a family.  As for my daughter, she was able to make a few items for people less fortunate than she is, as well as work with people whom she had never met before.
One of the members of our group was wearing a baseball cap saying Power Memorial and had a picture of a panther.  That was the boys’ catholic high school that used to be near Lincoln Center at Amsterdam Avenue and West 61^st Street.  I recognized this man from other St. John’s alumni functions and knew that he was a few years older.  I also knew that one of Power Memorial’s most famous, if not THE most famous alumnus is Kareem Abdul Jabbar (former know as Lew Alcindor). I asked other member if he remembered Lew when he was there, and it turns out that he graduated with him!  He spoke very highly of him as being a class act, as well as a great basketball ballplayer.
In the evening the 3 of us went to the East Islip Lanes since the St. Mary’s Parish Bowling League began its 2007-2008 season.  As what has happened in the past, the other team that would share the lanes with us did not make it, so we were finished quite quickly.  I also suffer from the law of diminishing returns, as with each successive game, my average went down.  I ended up with a 90 average for three games.  Wait until next month.
My daighter had soccer with the West Islip Soccer Club this morning, and like last week, my wife and I were able to stand on the sidelines and watch with the other parents.  The coaches feel that she is making progress.
Over this weekend and the next, the Islip Fire Department is doing its annual fund drive walk.  Earlier in the year we send out letters in two separate mailings requesting donations.  When it’s time for the walk, we will go to homes that did not mail anything in to us at the time of the mailings.  Personally, I hate imposing on people in this manner, but since the members voted to do it, I feel that I should participate.  However, since my plate was quite full this weekend, I will go out and walk next Saturday (the 29^th).  So it you live in Islip and did not send in a donation, I just might be knocking on your door!

I went to the Islip Library and took out a book that I had noticed at the NBA Store on 5^th Avenue.  It was written by Kareem Abdul Jabbar and is titled On the Shoulders of Giants – My Trip through the Harlem Renaissance.  In the first chapter, Kareem wrote that if he never played basketball, he would have been a history teacher.  As I am also a history buff, it looks as if he and I have one thing in common.  While I only started reading it this morning, I have already finished two chapters.  I would recommend the book to any history buff, basketball fan, or native New Yorker.  

     

It was 50 years ago this evening that the Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field.  Their opponents were the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Dodgers won, 2-0 in front of less than 7,000 fans.  They would play a few more games on the road as Brooklyn Dodgers, and then when they took the field in April 1958, it would be in the Los Angeles Coliseum.  Professional baseball would not return to Brooklyn until June 25, 2001 when the Brooklyn Cyclones played their first game at Keyspan Park.  And not to be outdone, major league sports will be back soon, in the form of the Brooklyn Nets – the NBA is coming to town.

An article in Yahoo News said that there is not going to be any commemoration of the last game today.  It went on to say that most of today’s Brooklynites were not around in 1957 or not old enough to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers when they were here.  I also think that since 1957 Brooklyn has become more upscale, and unfortunately, more like Manhattanized to the point that they would not care any longer.

Since last weekend I have been busy at work, as we’re approaching the end of the fiscal year.  I managed to finish Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s book, On the Shoulders of Giants and recommend it highly.

Yesterday morning I participated in the 2007 Islip Fire Department Fund Drive.  Only two other members of my company went out with me, and I covered one street that extends for ¼ mile, while the other two men covered my street, which is about ¾ mile each taking one side of the street (I had both sides).  For all of our trouble, we got less than $1,000 among the three of us.  Since it was late Saturday morning, quite a few people did not answer their doors.  Maybe they were not home, but some may have deliberately not come to the door because they did not want to give.  After all, some other volunteer departments gave all of us black eyes with their mismanagement of funds, dishonesty, showing porn films at the firehouses, and recklessness with the apparatus for starters.  It just takes a few to make it bad for all of us. 

This morning we all went to soccer at the West Islip Soccer Club, and like last week my wife and I were able to sit on the sidelines and watch, along with the other parents.

After the practice and game I went to church and then we all drove to Queens to visit my mom & dad.    I watched a few minutes of the Mets-Marlins game at their house and once I saw that the Marlins were winning 8-1, I knew that it was over.  Philadelphia had to lose, but they have been on a winning streak.  While my wife was shopping I went for a walk and saw numerous Mets fans, in their jerseys, tee shirts, and sweatshirts walking back from Shea Stadium to get the busses that run along Main Street to other parts of the Flushing area. They all looked dejected, since they knew that the game was lost, and also the season.  While we were having dinner at the Green Papaya Thai restaurant on Prince Street, a couple at the table next to us was also a bit dejected that the Mets lost.  The only hope was that the Phillies lost too, and that would force a play off game tomorrow.  A check of the cell phone told us that the Phillies won, so it was definitely “wait until next year” as the Mets finished in 2^nd place in the National League East, 1 game out.