Slip N Slide forever...

Slip 'N Slide. Remember that? Long sheet of plastic with a garden hose attachment? You'd lay it out on a nice hot summer day and turn the water on and viola! Instant Good Times.
Except I grew up in Brooklyn where soft grass covering the earth was in short supply. So the only time we got to see a Slip 'N Slide was on TV.
It's not like you could roll out the slide on the sidewalk. Imagine the lawsuits. Nope. We had to settle for fire hydrants with sprinkler heads attached. Instant waterpark. Nothing like cold clean water pouring out in the summer heat. Zooming through the spray on your bike at full speed, until the baseball cards lodged in the spokes were soggy.
The local DJ on the stoop blaring out the Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam on the two story boom box that needed a car battery or 48 D Cell batteries to run.
Click. Yo, flip the tape over.
Yeah. Run DMC.
Good times.
Now, I live in a subtropical suburbia. Complete with clear, clorinated swimming pool and those fold up deck chairs that are part slapstick, part bear trap. Dangerous and funny at the same time.
My kids learned to swim years before I did. Moslty because it's impossible to learn the breast stroke in 6 inches of water streaming along the gutters on Prospect Place. They get 5 feet of ceramic tile ensconsed watery goodness.
Still, I think they would have gotten a kick out of the fire hydrants. That is until New York's Bravest drive by and shut off the water, grumbling something about water pressure and the whole city going up in flames on account of us kids getting a little soaking wet.
(Okay, so the hydrant was wide open and we were using a can with both ends cut off to knock each other off our feet...)
My kids will have to read the history books to find out what that was like. They'll have to make do with the community pool.
Who am I kidding? We would have killed for a pool.
In fact, we would willingly ride for miles on bikes to get to Sunset pool in Sunset park and the cute girls in the bikinis and Cherry lip gloss.
Do they still make that stuff? Does it come in other flavors now?
Now those were good times.
I miss the summer vacations.
I miss riding my yellow magged, chromed out sporty dirtbike with the yellow pads and the lightning emblazoned across, trick pegs front and back thank you very much.
It was the equivalent of a pimp'd out caprice with 20" rims.
Circa 1985.
Remeber when? Remember the cool feel of the water under that blazing august sun when the Mets were hot and those poor hapless Yankees were trading Ricky Henderson away?
I remember.
Sure it's the not Mantle and Mays of another generation but Don Mattingly going 8 straight games with yard shots, Dave Winfield and his outrageoulsy long arms smacking frozen rope home runs over the 385ft sign and that guy that was Mariano Rivera before Mariano Rivera saving game after game.
Hey Rags, I still remember you and that left arm and that high kick and saving both games of a double header.
I miss those days.
I wonder what my kids will remember when they are 20 years older? When the bright summer days have faded into work and home and new families and their own kids? What will they hold onto from the coming summer? Will they remember the new and improved bouncy house / slip N slide that was the main attraction at the local birthday party?
I was impressed.
Yes. Yep. Uh huh, I sure did.
Twice.
It's amazing how fast you can hurtle down that thing when you get a good running start.
Will they remember standing on my shoulders and jumping off? I hope so.
I'll remember their laughter and the miles of smiles. It reminded me of my own summers.
I wish I could save these moments for them. They pass too quickly.
Sure, there will be other summers.
But will there still be Slip N Slides?
I hope so.

Got my whiney pants on today..

Can I tell you what I miss? I miss writing more often. I miss the freedom of words splattered across a page in open defiance to restraint and common courtesy. I miss just gushing out ink-stained irritations and mindless commentary on the little things that drive me nuts.
But I haven't got the time. I am too busy being busy.
When did that happen?
Better yet? Why?
My head hurts from staring at the screen lately. Means I need glasses probably. That's another thing that sort of snuck in there unannounced.
[INCOMING TANGENT]
The Yankees are still sub .500 and we are supposed to be happy about a soon-to-be 45 year old pitcher? This so doesn't bode well for the post season. But its too early to get all Boston on them yet. And by Boston I mean defeatist. You know constantly expecting the worst to happen. Boston.
[END INCOMING TANGENT]
We have been needing rain here in the sunshine state something fierce. We finally got it in the form of a massive line of Thunderstorms yesterday.
[START WHINE]
Great. Softball was basically a wash. Why can't it rain while I am working? That would be great. If I could, I'd hook up the rain in the summer here to one of those automatic sprinkler timing systems...
[END WHINE]
Oh wait. We have that now. The 4 o'clock afternoon shower.
Good times.
Oh well.
I'm rambling. Frustrated and rambling on incoherently.
I have nothing really to complain about. Just feeling a little whiney. You know what? Just ignore the last few paragraphs. I'll come up with something better and post later.