Arrivederci Atlanta; Back to Boston

Seven months ago today, I arrived in Atlanta.

Today marks my last full day in Atlanta.

Tomorrow afternoon I return to Boston.

So what happened?

Earlier this month, I lost my job. I sprung into action. What other choice did I have? I had to move forward.

Late last week, I was offered a position in Boston. In a little over three weeks form now, I'll be starting a job working in legal records for yet another outsourcing company. I've been assigned to a large law firm in the Seaport District. I won't be making as much money as I did down here but I'll be making more money than I made in New York.

This marks the third time I have moved out of city and out of state in less than three years. Hopefully this will be the last move for a long time to come.

But if I had to move anywhere I'm glad it will be back to Boston. I lived in Boston longer than I've ever lived anywhere else. It's my spiritual home - JP, Cambridge, day trips to Walden Pond. There's something about walking along Mass Ave across the Longfellow Bridge from Back Bay to Harvard Square. I've never had that feeling during my time in Canada, in New York City or here in Atlanta.

Now I lived in a lovely apartment in Midtown Atlanta a couple of blocks from Piedmont Park. But outside of that vicinity Atlanta is just too spread out for my liking and public transportation isn't equal to the task. I never went to Downtown Atlanta and only went to Buckhead once and that was to get a COVID test. I had hoped for a trip down to Savannah or at least to Decatur but this will not come to pass. Aside from a large procession of young kids without a care in the world riding their scooters on the sidewalk at full speed, I hardly got to know Atlanta let alone The South.

There were some joyous moments during my time here. The spontaneous street celebration after it was announced Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump that Saturday afternoon last November. Not quite two months later, the election of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the Senate. I even managed to write an article in The Forward about casting a vote for Warnock despite some reservations about his views on Israel. I even got interviewed by a correspondent with the Christian Science Monitor in response to the article. 

Although Ossoff and Warnock were instrumental in getting the stimulus bill passed, this triumph has been tempered by the attempted insurrection at the Capitol the day after they were elected accompanied by the passage of a voter suppression bill here in Georgia which gives the legislature the power to overturn the will of the people. Georgians will probably elect Stacey Abrams Governor in 2022 but the Republican legislature will probably say to hell with that.

Then there was the sadness of the massacre at several Atlanta spas which claimed the lives of 8 people - six of them Asian women. I visited the site of the two massacres on Piedmont Road days later and will never forget the young man who carried the sign, "I Am Not a Virus". 

Of course, there is good and bad everywhere. Boston had the Boston Marathon attack and New York had 9/11. As for Atlanta perhaps if I had moved here in my late 20's it too would have become my spiritual home. Naturally, the pandemic complicated matters considerably. Still, it is lot harder to meet people when you are approaching 50 than when you're approaching 30. I do have a small network of people in Boston and the surrounding area with whom I can renew acquaintances. I also intend to explore new outlets starting with candlepin bowling. 

While the cost of living is lower in Atlanta than it is in Boston so too is the quality of public services. When I applied for unemployment insurance in both Massachusetts and New York I had a wait time of less than a week. As of this writing, nearly a month after applying, I have yet to hear from the Georgia Department of Labor regarding my unemployment claim. My efforts to contact the Georgia DOL as well as my state representative were all for naught. Fortunately, the job offer in Boston has rendered this moot. But what if that hadn't come to pass? Who knows how long I might have waited. Georgia is also one of those Republican states which has opted out of the enhanced unemployment insurance program.

Mind you I'm not sure where I will be living in Boston just yet. But this was the case when I first went there more than 20 years ago. This time around, I will be staying with friends for a few days. I do have an appointment on Sunday morning to look at an apartment in Cambridge. Hopefully I will have something in fairly quick order. If this is the case then I will likely head to New York City to visit my Dad for a few days before making my way back to fully reacclimate and reconnect in Boston. 

When I said goodbye to Boston in September 2018, I made this observation:

Honestly, I don't know when I'll be back. The past year or so has been one swift kick in the ass after the other. Despite good people here and there, on the whole, Boston was getting me down. It is not a friendly place. There's an aloofness which precludes kindness and warmth and I have not been immune to its effects. As time has passed, I have become more uncomfortable around people and generally more anxious being out and about....Boston is not without good memories. But I will need time and space to better appreciate those memories.

As it turns out, my exile from Boston lasted nearly a 1,000 days. This has given me plenty of time to better appreciate my memories of Boston both good and bad. There will be unpleasant people I will meet along the way. That unpleasantness while momentary has a way of lingering. There will be struggles and bad days accompanied by anxiety and uncertainty. This too can linger. But hopefully this will be tempered by my existing social network and my efforts to expand upon it. Given the impact of the pandemic, I can only hope that more people might be receptive to saying hello and sticking around.

Needless to say, anxiety has been the order of the day in both losing my job and abruptly having to pull up stakes yet again. But there is something to which I can look forward. My new journey in Boston will begin by having dinner with my neighbors Monica and Stephanie. This should help put me at ease. Perhaps the appetizers will come with good omens.

I suppose a trip to Fenway Park is in order even though I've cooled to baseball over these past several years. I never did get to Truist Park and had little way and no desire to travel to Cobb County to see the Braves. I remember the days when I could walk to Fenway from my apartment in all of 10 minutes. Even when I moved to JP, it was a short subway ride away. It is a truly a neighborhood hangout. When the Red Sox win, "Dirty Water" by The Standells is played. Boston, you're my home.

Facing The World Unmasked

In observance of being fully vaccinated, for the first time in more than 13 months, I went outside without wearing a mask.

To say that it felt weird would be an understatement. It was an unfamiliar sensation for my mouth and nose after being led by my mouth and nose uncovered for more than 47 years. It was a weird feeling, but a good feeling.

Now walking outside without a mask in Georgia is far from unusual. There was never a statewide mask mandate and local mask ordinances were limited to indoor facilities. But picking up from where I left off in New York, I continued to choose to wear a mask in public. I tentatively planned to stop wearing a mask outdoors once I was fully vaccinated after my first shot. Moments before getting my second shot, the CDC announced mask rules would be loosened for fully vaccinated people. At that point, things truly began to round the turn. But as I waited my turn to be vaccinated, I waited my turn to remove my mask outdoors.

I walked along the BeltLine. Although it was a comfortable evening crowds were scarce. But one young lady said something to me I haven't heard in over a year - "I love your mustache." Well, at least one Atlanta resident had the chance to go on the record.

Mind you, I kept my mask close at hand and promptly put one on when I went inside Kroger although many shoppers were unmasked. I'm going to continue to take things slow even as things around me move fast.

Israel Wins Military Battle But Hamas Wins Propaganda War in Ceasefire

Israel and Hamas will enter an Egyptian brokered ceasefire effective at 2 a.m. Tel Aviv time (or 7 p.m. EST) after 11 days of fighting.

While Israel won the battle militarily with the help of the Iron Dome which kept Israeli casualties down significantly, Hamas won the propaganda war.

When Israel and Hamas last faced off in earnest in 2014 the fighting lasted for six weeks. Israel is on a very short leash even in the United States and Hamas knows this all too well. While President Biden has said Israel had a right to defend itself, he was otherwise tepid and a significant segment of the Democratic Party is sympathetic to Hamas and trying to cut off military aid to Israel altogether. This dynamic did not exist 15-20 years ago. How long will it be before Democrats demand the U.S. State Department remove Hamas from its list of terrorist organizations?

My guess is that by Hamas will begin launching missiles into Israel after re-stocking within the next two years and Israel will have even less time to respond in kind if at all. But if Hamas didn't keep launching rockets there would be no conflict in the first place. 

Another Night, Another No-Hitter as Corey Kluber Renders Rangers Hitless

Another night, another no-hitter.

Less than 24 hours after Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull no-hit the Seattle Mariners, Corey Kluber threw a no-hitter against theTexas Rangers giving the New York Yankees a 2-0 victory. Last year, Kluber was a member of the Rangers. 

It is the sixth no-hitter of the 2021 season (seven if you count Madison Bumgarner's 7 inning doubleheader gem). It is the second time the Rangers have been no-hit at Globe Life Park. They were no-hit last month by San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove.

The Rangers, Mariners and Cleveland Indians have been no-hit twice this season. Of the six no-hitters thrown this season, five have been thrown on the road. So as with the Mariners, the Rangers have been no-hit in front of their fans who have loved every minute of it.

This is the first no-hitter thrown by a Yankees pitcher since David Cone's perfect game against the Montreal Expos in 1999. Fittingly, Cone called this no-hitter for the YES Network.

Kluber, 35, won two AL Cy Young Awards with the Cleveland Indians in 2014 and 2017, missed most of the 2019 and 2020 seasons due to injury, has gone 4-2 with a 2.86 ERA in 9 starts with the Yankees this season. So far the Yankees have spent $11 million very wisely.

I Can't Stand GOP Insurrectionists/Quislings or The Hamas Wing of the Democratic Party

There a lot of people who annoy me on both sides of the political aisle.

I cannot stand Republicans whether they worship at the altar of Donald Trump (GOP Insurrectionists) or are just too cowardly to say 2 + 2 = 4 (GOP Quislings) and indulge Trump in his delusions that he won an election he lost by 8 million votes.

While many in the GOP including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minoriity Leader Mitch McConnell were quick to condemn the actions of Trump and his supporters on 1/6 they now cannot bring themselves to support a public inquiry into the matter and act like that day never happened or claim the insurrectionists were benign as tourists as Georgia Republican Congressman Andrew Clyde did despite all evidence to the contrary. 

Their time is spent on so-called election integrity which loosely translated from Russian means they cannot persuade people to vote for them. For a party that decries cancel culture the GOP Insurrectionists and Quislings sure seem ready to cancel millions of votes cast against them. At this stage, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who have firmly spoken out against Trump and his nonsense are voices in the wilderness.

Nor can I stand the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party which seeks to single out Israel for having the temerity to defend itself. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar accuses Israel of "terrorism", AOC invokes "apartheid" while Congresswoman Tlaib publicly berates President Biden for his public support for Israel's right to defend itself. Now they are seeking to block a $735 million arms sale to Israel. Delaware Senator Chris Coons says the view of The Squad (and the Far Left) does not represent the Democratic Party. I have to say the jury is out on that one. At the very minimum, the Democratic Party is indulging the anti-Semitism of Hamas wing of the Democratic Party as GOP Insurrectionists and Quislings are indulging the authoritarian aspirations of former President Trump.

At the best of times politicians are duplicitous creatures worthy only of contempt. Now we have a Republican Party that has hitched its fortunes to a businessman who traffics in conspiracy theory and demands to be worshipped as a false idol while a critical mass of the Democratic Party sees fit to single out the world's only Jewish state for all the world's ills while its mainstream appears to be where the Republican Party was five years ago. I shudder to think what the Democratic Party will be if The Squad becomes its masters.

If these are the only two options I have on the ballot then the only side I can choose is my own.

New York Lifts Mask Mandate as U.S. COVID-19 Cases Reach 33 Million

Today, New York (which was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic) lifted its statewide mask mandate. More than half of all New York residents over the age of 18 have been fully vaccinated. 

As masks come off in the Empire State, the United States has now recorded more than 33 million cases of COVID-19. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been 33,012,767 cases resulting in the deaths of 587,564 Americans representing a mortality rate of 1.8%. 

The good news is that community spread of COVID-19 has dropped dramatically over the past several weeks. When the U.S. reached 32 million cases on April 24th, I expressed anxiety that case numbers will accelerate as it took 15 days to get from 31 million to 32 million cases after it took 16 days to get from 28 million to 29 million, 29 million to 30 million and 30 million to 31 million cases. 

Well, it has taken 25 days to get from 32 million to 33 million cases. Over the past 25 days, the number of new cases has dropped from 66,000 to 27,000 cases a day with daily cases below 30,000 for the fourth straight day. Obviously, the vaccines and the Biden Administration's dissemination of said vaccines across the country has done wonders. The Biden Administration is now in a position to send vaccine doses abroad and plans to send out 20 million by the end of June. 

It is quite possible we could soon reach Dr. Fauci's long stated goal of getting down to fewer than 10,000 new cases a day. Of course, it's quite possible that New York and other jurisdictions lifting their mask mandates could cause cases to climb as not everyone will agree to be vaccinated. So what happens if it takes 20 days to get from 33 million to 34 million COVID-19 cases? Will vaccines be enough? We might never reach herd immunity though not for lack of trying.

The wild card is if COVID variants are resistant to the vaccines. If they are will new vaccines need to be developed? Or will monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutics help ease the burden? Of course, there is also the question of fully vaccinated Americans requiring a booster shot. Pfizer has indicated that a booster might be required after 8 to 12 months but is in the midst of conducting clinical trials.

While lingering questions remain we are far closer to rounding the turn on COVID-19 than we have ever been. We can only hope there will be no detours, roadblocks or speedbumps before we get there.

Tigers Pitcher Spencer Turnbull Tosses No-Hitter; Mariners No-Hit Twice in Two Weeks

The no-hits just keep coming. On Tuesday night, Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull tossed the fifth no-hitter of the 2021 season en route to a 5-0 victory. 

Turnbull, 28, became the first Tigers pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Justin Verlander did it 10 years ago this month against the Toronto Blue Jays. 

As for the Mariners, the no-hitter was not such a rare event. They were on the wrong end of a no-hitter only 13 days earlier by John Means of the Baltimore Orioles. Both no-hitters took place in Safeco Field. Indeed, four of the five no-hitters thrown in 2021 have been on the road. At least, the Mariners have company. The Cleveland Indians have also been no-hit twice in 2021 first by Chicago White Sox pitcher Carlos Rodon on April 14th and then by Cincinnati Reds starter Wade Miley on May 7th. The only other team to be victimized by a no-hitter was the Texas Rangers when Joe Musgrove threw the first no-hitter in San Diego Padres history on April 9th. Of course, if not for the baseball gods, Madison Bumgarner of the Arizona Diamondbacks would have been in the mix but he was restricted to 7 innings due to MLB's new doubleheader rule.

As for Turnbull, it was only his 10th career victory. Turnbull, a 2nd round draft pick of the Tigers in 2014, reached the majors in 2018 and would lead the AL in losses in 2019 with 17. At the end of spring training this season, Turnbull tested positive for COVID-19 and had symptoms which kept him out of action for a month. Under any circumstances, this would have been a triumphant night but surviving COVID undoubtedly made this achievement considerably sweeter.