The Big Hook — Feb. 28, 2024

John Agliata

4 months ago

white baseball ball on brown leather baseball mitt

🧩 Today’s Puzzle Pieces 🧩
Joy 🎶
Water Sounds💧
Glove Love ⚾

THE DAILY UPDATE

The song in my head when I woke up: “Don’t Let Me Down,” by Joy Williams

Favorite line from the song in my head when I woke up: Crashing, hit a wall/Right now I need a miracle/Hurry up now, I need a miracle/Stranded, reaching out/I call your name but you’re not around/I say your name but you’re not around

Commute Tunes: A very similar drive today compared to yesterday’s. Podcast and punk

Daily Stoic Podcast, “You Can Always Possess This.”
Everythign I Ask For, The Maine
Nine in the Afternoon, Panic! At The Disco
1985, Bowling For Soup
Tell Me I’m Alive, All Time Low
Blitzkrieg Bop, Ramones
Institutionalized, Suicidal Tendancies
Sk8er Boi, Avril Lavigne
What’s My Age Again? blink-182
American Hearts, Piebald
Until the Day I Die, Story of the Year
The Boys of Summer, The Ataris (side note: The O.G. version of this song by Don Henley turns FORTY this year. Ugh.)
Face Down, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Dancing With Myself, Billy Idol
Feel Good Drag, Anberlin
People Are Vomit, The Used
estella//, KennyHoopla & Travis Barker
Fell in Love, blink-182
Teenagers, My Chemical Romance
I’m Just a Kid, Simple Plan

Something I’m looking forward to today: Polishing off a first draft on a white paper for a Johnny Boy Marketing client about the best way to transport fresh poultry. My work can be quite eclectic!

Something I’m looking forward to in the next seven days: Graduating from Level 2 improv on Sunday! Boo-yah, though I’m sad I then have to take time off because I have to coach baseball on weekends. I’ll miss improv time, but I’ll be back!

Something I’m grateful for from yesterday: Figuring out a little bit more about an insane person in my life right now and how to manage her.

What I’m writing: Yesterday’s Two Crappy Pages involved a story for my day job about a priest’s visit to Lourdes, France.

What I’ve written: A story for a Johnny Boy Marketing client about artificial intelligence and how it’s being used to understand sounds in water.

What I’m reading: Needful Things by Stephen King yesterday.

Today’s STD (Stoic Though of the Day, you perv): “The soul is like a bowl of water, and our impressions are like the ray of light falling upon the water. When the water is troubled, it appears that the light itself is moved too, but it isn’t.” — Epictetus

John’s translation of Today’s STD: “The aim of your Stoic life isn’t changed by the turbulence of the moment. So you screwed up. So you encountered an asshole who knocked you off course. So you freaked out. So fucking what! Stop. Regain your composure. Carry on.”

baseball glove

When I turned 14 years old, I was gifted a first baseman’s mitt. It was embossed with the name “The Big Hook,” and for the remainder of my baseball career, it was my glove of choice when I wasn’t pitching.

The Big Hook is turning 36 years old this year, and though it hasn’t gotten nearly the use in years three through 36 that it did in its first two (thanks, stupid-ass elbow), it has been there for me as I’ve taught both my boys the game of my youth.

At the end of the fall season last year, I noticed a lace had broken. I started thinking about having The Big Hook worked on so it’d be in better shape for the spring/summer season. I didn’t get to it. As winter workouts have progressed, more and more laces have been breaking, and my glove is now held together by the pure grit and obstinance of an Old Thing.

So yesterday on my way home from work, I stopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods to talk with someone about getting it relaced. Turns out they do that sort of thing there. A full relace costs $80, and when I got home, Wifey Poo asked “Why don’t you just get a new glove?”

A new glove? A new glove!?!? Would I trade in my wife for a new wife just because my old wife isn’t as young and supple as she used to be? Would I get a new child just because my existing child is an adult? Absofreakinglutely not! I would no sooner dump The Big Hook for one of those newfangled gloves the kids are wearing these days than I would stop listening to the awesome music I listen to just because it’s now considered old and antiquated.

The Big Hook is in the glove hospital now. I’m told I can pick her back up in a week. She’ll be kinda sorta good as new. And I’ll be ready once again to play ball.

need help

Would you please help a brutha out? I’ve created a weekly eNewsletter called News-B-Nuts in which I’ll be sending out news nuggets and witty commentary to subscribers. If you can, would you support this endeavor for just $5 a month via Patreon?

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