(FYI this is a repost) Wow, the last few weeks have been quite eventful. It's been a while since I have blogged, and so much has happened. Where do I start? Well, I will start with sports. Over the last few weeks, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup Hockey Championship, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team that clinched the Cup the preceding two years (yes, a south Florida team won the Stanley Cup, not once, but two years in a row)! And then there's Dustin Johnson. Dustin is a native South Carolinian and a top touring golf professional who happens to be married to the daughter of hockey great, Wayne Gretzky. Dustin has announced that he, along with some of the most prestigious names in golf, has signed on with the new Saudi Arabian Tour, called the LIV Tour, which will be competing with the American PGA Tour. One of the other defectors is golf great, Phil Mickelson, btw. And while American golfers are joining the Saudi Arabian Tour, the Golf US Open was just won by a Brit named Matt Fitzpatrick. Currently, in the world of tennis, England is holding the iconic Wimbledon Tournament, but this year is quite different. Russian and Belarusian players have been banned because of the war in Ukraine. This eliminates tennis greats like Daniil Medvedev (last year's US Open champ) from the draw but helps the odds that Wimbledon will be won by notables like Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic, who are competing for the most majors ever won. But even if Djokovic wins Wimbledon, at this point he can't compete in the US Open in NYC at the end of the summer because he is not vaccinated against Covid. But our Covid Czar, Anthony Fauci, who presumably has had all of the vaccines and boosters has been battling a Covid infection. And sadly, we are seeing another uptick in Covid infections, but fortunately, we are not seeing lockdowns or closures, and in fact, restrictions on travel, such as negative tests for Americans returning to the US from abroad, have been lifted. So is your head spinning yet from all of the craziness? And I haven't even mentioned the other monumental events over the last few weeks, like the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, the January 6 hearings, and rising interest rates and escalating gas prices.
In the midst of all of this, I had the privilege of moving my daughter. Sophie, into her dorm at the University of Florida last week. Sophie started her freshman year this summer so she could enroll in Summer B term to get some credits under her belt before the school tennis season really kicks into gear. And while we live in an age of high-tech and smartphones, it was heartwarming to see that the time-honored rituals of moving into college and your first dormitory have not really changed that much. I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that it has been 35 years since I stepped on the campus of Dartmouth College as a freshman (can I really be that old?), those memories remain clear in my head and it was so special to repeat the tradition with Sophie. While making the obligatory runs to Walmart and Target to gather the essentials, I heard the song "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart, and thought the store music speakers were talking directly to me! Check out the video, and maybe it will bring tears to your eyes like it did for me!
Another time-honored tradition is the celebration of the 4th of July. I hope that everyone can enjoy the holiday that honors the signing of our Declaration of Independence, and also hope that the weather holds out! I am sick of this rain! I am lucky that I can see the summertime fireworks from the Joe Riley Stadium after baseball games from my backyard. Happy 4th!
'Til next time.
Heidi Williams