The Silver Lining in the Disastrous Red Sox Season: Free Time; Lots of it!

The Silver Lining in the Disastrous Red Sox Season: Free Time; Lots of it!

 

It has been some time since I looked at my phone before going to sleep at night to find out the Red Sox score. I suspect that I am not alone in this laissez-faire attitude towards the Sox at this point in the season. Peruse a Sox box score?  I don’t know half the players anymore. Where have you gone Mookie Betts?  A lonely Sox Nation longs for you.

Those Red Sox tickets I got at Christmas for “Box Seats” in the right field corner?  I can’t give them away.  Nobody wants to sing “Sweet Caroline” and watch the Sox get three hits and lose 6-1.

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It dawned on me recently that by putting the Red Sox in the deep recesses of my brain, I have gobs of time in my life to do other things.  Not as much surplus time as COVID when I spent weeks re-designing the landscaping of my yard, and then did nothing.  I still regret my sloth-like behavior back then.

This year’s edition of the Red Sox has given me a wonderful gift: lots of free time for the next three months. What to do with all that free time?  Ironically, thinking of how to use this free time has been paralyzing. I am a great list maker.  I start most days with a list on a 3”x5” card; some days the list starts out with “Find yesterday’s list.”  I have written several lists of things I can do with Sox Surplus Time for the next three months.

I am beginning to hone in on some valuable ideas on what to do with my Sox Surplus Time.  This list is still in draft form. Here’s what I’ve got so far.

 

• Write a Rhode Island-themed play for Trinity or Gamm titled “Not for Nothing,” a story about the midnight heist of the Blue Bug.

 

• Run a summer camp for those interested in sharpening their Wordle skills.

 

• Watch the ESPN highlight film of the first X Games held in Providence way back when. (I worked at Roger Williams Park at the time, and at lunch with my colleagues several months before the X-Games, we tossed around ideas for an event at Roger Williams Park.  I whimsically suggested: barefoot water skiing on the Park lakes.  ESPN went with the idea.)

 

• Write a paper on how to solve the algae problem at the Washington reflecting pool.

 

• Run a campaign for Dawn the Duck for Rhode Island Lt. Governor.  She checks all the boxes for Lt. Governor: pleasant personality, gets along with everyone, is not interested in making policy, loves to walk in parades and to make school visits, and can be hard to find for long stretches of time.

 

• Work with a RISD student to see if it’s possible to make something out of all the political yard signs that seem to explode in number every night in Providence.

 

• Figure out if a tunnel connecting Providence to East Providence would be cheaper than rebuilding the Washington Bridge.

 

• Survey Rhode Islanders on this question: “Would you have preferred to spend $138 million on renovating McCoy Stadium to keep the Paw Sox or spend the $138 million on the Centreville Bank Stadium?”

 

• Write a television script for Bravo that better reflects our state, “The Real Housewives of Johnston.”

 

• Work on my garden.

 

Please feel free to send me suggestions via the wonderful folks on the GoLocal News Team.  I need to pick an idea by July 1 to ensure a full three months of Sox Surplus Time.