Well, the Mets season is over.  Third place came quickly.  One game over .500.  What a disappointment, but being a Mets fan I shouldn't have expected anything else.

 July 1, 2021.  The year is half over, at least in months.  In days it is a couple days short of half.  It doesn't seem possible that half a year is gone already.  Why does it seem that as we get older time seems to go by so much quicker.  A theory I have is that when you are young a year is a major portion of your life.  At ten one year is one tenth of your life so it seems long.  But at seventy three a year is a mere 1.4% of your life.  A poor theory?  Maybe, but I need something to grab onto as life goes zipping by.  A bit depressing I think.

Also a bit depressing is the state of the Mets.  They made it through June, which has always been the month they fade into oblivion,  still in first place.  But that is a precarious perch atop the division.  It is down to two games now and I have a feeling their hold on the top spot will be gone in a few days.  Mets fans are notoriously pessimistic. 

 Our years are noted as AD, anno domini or "in the year of our lord".  So we are in 2021AD.  But for BC, obviously "before Christ", how did they refer to the years?  I mean if you asked someone in 10BC what year it is, what would they say?

 This was supposed to be the year the Mets were going to be contenders.  All the analysts said they would score a lot of runs to support the great pitching.  Well, the pitching has been really really good but the hitting has been way less than expected.  Granted there have been some glimpses of what could be but nothing to truly get excited about.  Here's hoping that when I look back at this post in a month or two I'll laugh at how I saw the glass as half empty.  

I'm going through a bit of withdrawal because I haven't been geocaching in nine days.  I had planned on going out this past Monday, the 19th, but my back betrayed me on Sunday and I have been in considerable discomfort for four days.  Today it is about 85% but still not well enough to go hiking anywhere.  

I did go grocery shopping this morning and it wasn't too painful so I am on the mend, hopefully.  I had to go alone because Pat is in quarantine after her pre-surgical covid test.  So, with her first week home after surgery next week, I don't think I will be caching for a while.   

I returned the snowblower to the shed after an early season tuneup and more than a few opportunities for use after that.  

Now bring on the late season snowstorm. 

 I went geocaching today with a short list of caches.  The first five were in Leonardo and were quick ones where I only had to walk a couple hundred feet to make the easy grabs.  Then I headed out to Hartshorne Woods in Atlantic Highlands.  Three caches to grab which involved much hiking and much climbing steep hills.  According to my iPhone apps I walked 5.2 miles with an accumulated elevation of thirty four floors.  Needless to say my legs were sore, especially the knees.  I have to remember to only put one hiking cache per list because my mind says I am young but my body is a bit older. 

Today I went for my second ride outdoors this year.  In the fall I had decided that this was the first year in a while where I would ride outdoors all winter, barring any sub freezing temps.  But one big snowfall which didn't melt for months put a stop to that.  Difficult to ride when there is no shoulder on the road.  So, today I went just over ten miles. Granted, that isn't a long ride but I am going to ease myself back into it.  Riding outside is different than riding with the bike on the trainer and watching TV.  Next ride should be Wednesday when again it will be around sixty.  That ride will be twelve or thirteen miles.  

 Last day of winter.  It really wasn't a bad one, but bad enough that I got to use my snowblower more than a couple times.  I did have to have it serviced mid season because it was running only in choke mode.  Now it runs like a charm.  On April 1st I will drain the gas and put it away until next year.  

In case anyone is interested, my reading list from last year totaled seventy books.  I chose not to provide a list here because it takes a bit of work and since nobody is reading this post it seems like a waste of time.

Perhaps the title of this blog should be changed since my lovely spouse has never contributed anything.  

 To think that I could have been blogging through the pandemic, with each daily post being almost exactly the same as the previous day.