the inauguration so nice, they performed it twice

So Tuesday there was that whole inauguration shebang. Pretty cool. They inaugurated the hell out of that one dude. Then they went back and inaugurated him again in private just to make sure. Now he's got the grim task of fixing all the broke stuff. Probably too much to fix in 4 years, or even 8, or maybe even 100, but I think he'll leave the place better than he found it. Just like when a friend from out of town comes to stay with you, that's all you can really hope for.

During the inauguration, a friend's status update on facebook said something like, "Bush begins drinking again in 10, 9, 8..." I had this image of a bad SNL open where Obama is delivering his speech, and there is a dramatic pause in the speech, and then you hear the unmistakable pop of a beer can being opened. All eyes turn to Bush, who's sheepishly slurping the excess foam off the top of a can of Coors Light and says, "My bad, Barack...keep going man." Then as the speech continues he gets more and more rowdy. Tune in Saturday and see what they come up with.

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town...

Or actually, earlier that morning...my sis and her husband and my pop's lady friend completed our mission of spreading my pop's ashes off of the Morton Street Pier, as he had wished.

First of all, the Morton Street Pier is really parallel to Christopher Street, if you're looking for it. It's been completely redone and it's now totally spiffed out and I'm sure in the summer it's jammed. But it was pretty empty on Tuesday, just a couple security guys reading books and trying to stay warm in little Parks Department one-man motorpod things, and the occasional jogger or strolling couple.

We found a good spot and opened the bag. I didn't take any pictures of it. My brother in law reached into the ashes and spread some over the side to check their dispersal capability, and seemed satisfied. Of course, I had assumed we'd just hold the bag out into the wind and shake it until the ashes were all gone, but once he reached in we all felt like it would only be right to take a barehandful for ourselves. So we all reached in one by one and said our little private somethings and heaved the ashes over the side.

The Hudson looked cold and unwelcoming. I can only assume pop wasn't feeling anything.

Finally I took the rest of the bag and shook it all out over the railing. It was probably about two pounds of ashes, and although quite a bit dispersed into the wind, a lot of it just kind of plopped down on the side of the pier and sat there, a big grey blotch in the snow. I'm sure my dad would have gotten a laugh at the un-poeticness of that moment.

The ash dump mission was an overall success, although it didn't provide me with the kind of instant closure I had hoped for. And it wasn't as emotional as I thought it would be. If anything, it made me realize how much I've locked off my feelings about his death, about the fact that he's not coming back, about how sad it all is. I guess I'm just not prepared to deal with it yet and I've become kind of robotic about it as a result. At some point it's gonna hit me again, the way it did when it first happened, and then maybe I'll come to a better understanding of what it means.

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Unrelated:

1) How are there people out there who still look up to Lance Armstrong? I guess it's OK if you admire him as a cancer awareness-raiser, but as an athlete I consider him as tainted as Barry Bonds. How does he escape the public criticism?

2) The NBA and the Knicks. Kind of a strange season overall, I have no idea who I think is the strongest team. If I had to pick an eventual champ right now I'd say it'll be the Lakers. I like the direction the Knicks are going, they are actually watchable. I like that they got rid of most of the douchewads, and I think LeBron is going to fit in beautifully. Although if you're him, are there any players on the Knicks who you're genuinely excited to pursue a championship with? Maybe David Lee. But overall the Cavs have more useful parts than the Knicks, and the Knicks have a year to change that.

3) I have been getting some awesome spam email subject lines lately, I really should have been saving them. Instead I will share this comment that accompanied a dunk video on yahoo:

damit nuts all up in your mouth like some chicken head at the club at 4am

4) Finally and most importantly, I need a new cute phrase for when there are multiple haloscan comments. I am OK with 'awkward silence (0)' and '1 honest cop', but the ideas for multiple commenters have been completely eluding me. Help me out.