Pumping gas the other evening after coming home on the late side, a woman came bouncing out of the convenience store, looked at me as she passed, and yelled "SMILE!"   She was judging me.  I wondered if I go around looking like a grouch, though I have to admit that at that time I was feeling a little grouchy.  It must have showed.  So I smiled back, and suddenly felt less unsmiley.  

I'm blogging live from Citifield and the score is 1-1 in the 6th inning. The chant is up...Lets go Mets...Lets go Yankees. I don't know who's going to win. I hope it's the Yankees. I'm with 124 fellow Gothamites and their friends and families. The game is sold out with good playoff possibilities for both teams. A beautiful night, perfect weather and, of course, the planes flying overhead. Another great tribal event.

As a life long Yankee fan I was flexible enough in 1962 to let former Yankee Manager and then Met Manager Casey Stengel's "Metsies" in as my second favorite team and am proud to say that Joanne and I won Banner Day at Shea Stadium in 1964 and I caught my only foul ball (off the bat of Felix Millan) in 1976 at Shea.

When I was a teenager, I printed business cards for myself and my best friend that said "Nachas Machers". (My father was a printer so I had access to my own little letterpress printing press.)

Another glorious perk from being a New York City resident. Today I applied for my NYCID. Yes, I have a perfectly legal driver's license and even an up-to-date passport, but the NYCID is the gift that keeps on giving. It was easy breezy, you go to the website: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/idnyc/index.page and set up your appointment. There are many locations, I went to GMHC on West 33rd St. So convenient.

  Around the dinner table last night, we were talking about family tree. My daughter recounted a story we had not heard before.

  As I’m writing this blog, I have chicken soup simmering on the stove. My kitchen is filled with the wonderful comforting smell of the soup. As I smell the soup, I can’t help but think about my parents and watching my mother cook in our kitchen for Rosh Hashanah.