Month: <span>July 2000</span>

One of my machines died yesterday. The poor little thing wouldn’t even beep when I tried to turn it on.

Fortunately, it wasn’t an essential machine. I can still get things done, but Sally is none too happy, since it’s her main axe.

I took it in to get it repaired. It’s still new enough that it’s worth the money. Hopefully the damage isn’t too bad.

I’m generally not a big sports fan.

I was never very good at most athletic sports myself. I’m too small to play football or basketball. Wressling is too agressive for me. Softball is fun, but I never was a very good batter. I played on a soccer team for a couple of seasons in grade school, and we even won the county championship one of those seasons, but that was largely due to the fact that we had one player on our team, Perry, who developed early, and was much faster and stronger than most other kids in the league.

I think that my lack of interest in watching most sports comes from the fact that I never got very good at any of them, aside from bowling and 8-ball — and those arren’t very athletic, are they?

But I always liked to watch tennis. Singles tennis in particular. It’s a very suspenseful game, when played well. A whole match can be made or broken on the outcome of a single game, or even a single service. When a match is close, and players are winning or losing break points, it builds the suspense even more.

On the other hand, there aren’t many things more boring than watching a bad tennis match.

“Sure, the fireworks tonight will be spectacular. They’re spectacular every year, and this time they’re supposed to be bigger than ever.

“But four centuries ago, when people really had imagination, they staged fireworks displays on the Arno River in Florence in which mock battles between dyers and silk weavers vying for the queen’s favor ended with the weavers’ getting tossed in the river and the god Vulcan erupting in the form of a huge fireball.

“Good clean mayhem and educational, too! That and other historical nuggets can be
learned from ‘Fireworks!,’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through Sept. 17. I suggest you spare yourself the happy crowds, the bombs bursting in air, the balmy breezes of a long summer evening. Stay home watching reruns tonight after spending a few hours this afternoon in the Met perusing old prints and drawings of long-forgotten pyrotechnical displays.”