(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 34)

Stay with me here because this is a story I’ve definitely told before in various forms…but it all ties together in a weird way this weekend.

It starts with earlier this week when my cousin (that’s him pictured - he’s the guy who’s not me or my brother or Huey Lewis) texted me to say he came across the picture of us with Huey.

And we traded texts back and forth telling what turned out to be the same stories about that time we met Huey at the Huey Lewis & The News concert.

And then I went back into some of what I’ve written about Huey before.

And you won’t believe what I found.

Sorry. That was a little click-baity of me. But really, it’s a little weird.

So first of all, let me share some of the previous Huey Lewis recaps.

I think this was the first time I wrote about the encounter. That’s from ‘365 New Things In 2013’ - one of the Music Monday entires, when I wrote about young Huey Lewis’s music. I say “encounter” like it was random…but it was set up by my brother Matt’s job at a radio station. He made it happen.
Then, Eddie (my cousin, whose name I will heretofore use so I don’t have to keep writing ‘my cousin,’) reminded me I had written something about meeting Huey (which happened in 2005) around the early part of the pandemic. I searched through previous Sunday Papers and couldn’t find anything and then I realized it was this “Every Week On Wednesday” post. (I hope that link to a Facebook picture works.)

Not unlike my text exchange with my cousin this week, those posts have some of the same stories told over and over. (The orange shirt story I’ve told many many times.) I had forgotten the detail that the woman in front of us kissed Huey and when it was our turn I opened with, “We’re going to pass on the kiss.” Eddie reminded me of that one.

I also had forgotten that detail about Kathy being both at Jets camp and a Huey Lewis concert.

So I’m not going to re-tell the same Huey Lewis stories. You can just read those other posts…but I think that’s just what we do as old people. We have such a good time when we’re young and then we spend our old days talking about it.

So let’s get to this crazy connection.

When I was searching for the piece I had written that Eddie said was around the start of the pandemic I went back through all of these old posts from March and February 2020. It’s really fascinating to have that peek at what life was like before we realized how everything was about to change. I think this link will take you back to a set of posts from that time.

And here’s the kicker that ties it all together: After COVID thwarted so many concert plans (not Huey Lewis, but Kathy and I missed out on a Keane concert in March of 2020 and I missed my chance to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden in July 2020), this weekend my daughter was going to go to a Harry Styles concert, something she’s very badly wanted to do.

Wouldn’t you know it, this week for the first time one of our girls got COVID.

Somehow we managed to contain it to just her…and my oldest daughter and I were able to test negative throughout the week and get the heck out of the house on Saturday so she could go to the concert, at Madison Square Garden, on Sunday night.

So here we are, doing an activity that we wouldn’t have thought twice about before COVID, except it was heavily affected - and nearly thwarted - by COVID.

I say we…but really it’s just her.

She’s going to the concert with Matt. Just like I did back when I was young. Although I don’t think meeting Harry Styles is in the cards - he’s not that connected.

But hopefully many years from now she’ll be able to tell the same stories about a fun night with Uncle Matt that she’s told many times before.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

“Solar Power” - Lorde
“Blood Sugar Sex Magik” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Weather” - Huey Lewis & The News
“Total Freedom” - Kathleen Edwards
Space Jam
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Semi-Pro
Catch Me If You Can

This week it was the reshuffling of everyone that cost me some movie-watching time. My youngest daughter was bumped out of her room and camped out where I would watch a movie, so I had an abrupt end to movies this week. Which is also my exercise space. It’s been a different kind of week over here.

I did squeeze in Catch Me If You Can before heading down to New York Saturday. Kathy had that book here for what turns out to be about 20 years…and I had always intended to read it. I finally did last week…and wanted to watch the movie pretty soon after.

Notes

*How about this little note from the February 16, 2020 Sunday Paper:

Kind of funny, the way things ended up turning out for me.

*Little rough patch for the Mets in Atlanta this week, but they’re allowed one. It’s been a good season. One bad series is OK. (That’s what I keep telling myself.)

*I should make sure to stress: COVID-wise, everyone is doing OK. We’ve managed, my daughter who had COVID didn’t seem to be terribly sick, and she seemed relatively OK with being isolated. It certainly could have been much worse. Not the ideal way to wrap up summer vacation, though, as you can imagine.

*I don’t expect anyone to remember the weird way I think about my vitamins…but in case you do: I opened a new bottle of Vitamin D this week which will last me until next July. That always impresses me.

*The social media links are below. Give ‘em a follow. And thanks!