From 60 to zero, and back again – shaken up in and by Peru

The world is certainly a tricky place. One day you’re celebrating a significant anniversary and you’re happy and sassy and thankful and feeling cozy and the next day there’s an earthquake in Peru. At first when I heard there was an earthquake outside of Lima, I felt bad, but not scared, because my daughter lives far to the north of Peru..in a town well out of harm’s way. Then my wife reminded me that every Peace Corp worker in Peru is in Lima for medical checkups. The heart, which just a few hours ago was all warmth and cheer suddenly sank.We called Washington…and finally got a call back. All Peace Call workers in Lima were supposedly accounted for and safe, but no details. I felt a little better but I wanted more. Parents can be greedy like that. Then..an email…thank God:

Dad, hey I am fine. I am sorry that you are worried. I tried to call but there are no phone lines. My hostal is situated in an old second story building. I was with a ton of volunteers and all of a sudden the floor started shaking. For the first 20 seconds we stayed put thinking it would pass, then things hanging on the wall started shaking. We all ran under a doorpost. Things were shaking really bad and a window got knocked out and shattered three feet from us. Some idiot drunk ass backpackers were hanging out in the balcony drinking, but luckily everbody was and is okay. This earthquake was a 7.9 and originated in the jungle were everything, especially the buildings are really primitive, so keep these people in your thoughts, they are the ones who are suffering.

Damn…and..whewwwww. In the middle of all this, our electricity went out in our neighborhood…I may have aged a little faster tonight than the calendar would allow. We’re back, fully cooled, fully electrified and my daughter appears to be safe.

Your kids leave and they are out of your control. Truth be told, the control deal was over a good long time ago. You wanna keep them safe, but you want them to be able to handle the hard times themselves. On the other hand, EARTHQUAKES??? That’s not supposed to be part of the deal.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Paradise by the dashboard light..

No, I’m not referring to my anniversary evening, nice as that was.  When Meatloaf was looking for THE baseball voice to perform the role of the baseball announcer in the middle of his classic hit (the subject line of this post), he chose a voice familiar to every Yankee fan and millions of others: Phil Rizzuto.

Phil later said he had no idea what the song was REALLY about, and I don’t doubt him for a minute.  When I lived in New York, I probably listened to parts of more than two hundred games.  The Hall of Fame former shortstop of the Yankees back in the days of Dimaggio, was unassuming and totally himself.  His worst insult was to call somebody a ‘huckleberry’.   He loved his Yankees and was an unabashed ‘homer’.  His devotion to family and the realization that baseball was just a game were always refreshing, as was his candor about his own shortcomings.   Listening to Rizutto was like listening to one of your uncles who happened to know a lot about baseball.

I hadn’t heard his voice in years when I found out that he had passed away.  I’m an unabashed Yankee fan, and a bit of a ‘homer’ myself.   My thanks to Phil for being one of us, for living his life the same way he played shortstop – gracefully.