Second Monitor

(AKA: Hunkered Down, Day 39)

The other day I grabbed the HD TV monitor Max used back when he was in college and attached it to my work-at-home computer. Having a second monitor would give me more screen real estate for animating. That’s what I thought anyway. I quickly discovered I was using it for only one task: displaying pictures from my photo library.

Every five minutes, one of over 14,000 photos randomly pops up on that Second Monitor. Half the time I don’t even remember it’s going, but then I’ll glance over to be greeted by an image that makes me happy, or takes me somewhere else. Just a glance. A vacation packed into one second.

Yesterday, Friday, Day 39 of the Quarantine, I undertook a little experiment. During my work day, every time I’d glance over at the Second Monitor, I’d quickly do a screen capture. Command-Shift-3 on my Mac. Image saved to the desktop. Today, I compiled it.

Here then, is Day 39. No editing. No going back and finding better or different images to make the story better. April 24, 2020, as told by the Second Monitor:

---

5:45 AM

Wildwood Crest, NJ. I see Jack, Jimmy, and me in the background. Our kids (and a few others I don’t know) are up front posing. Those kids are in their twenties now, forging their own paths.

5:55 AM

Nags Head, NC. Joshua, Max, and the incredible vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder what they’re talking about.

6:15 AM

Avalon, NJ. Max catches some kind of squishy ball that’s been whipped at him as he jumps into the hotel pool. I remember it seemed like we had the pool to ourselves that entire day.

6:45 AM

Allentown, PA. I’ve got a ton of photos like this: Group shots at my company’s corporate suite at the PPL Center at a Lehigh Valley Phantoms hockey game. This one is special because I was given every ticket in the suite and invited the entire family. It’s even more special because Mom and Leslie are there.

7:41 AM

Hershey, PA. Waiting for Paul McCartney to go onstage. This was the second time Max and I saw McCartney, and this photo was taken about an hour before the show started. I consider it a personal triumph that Max is as big a Beatles nut as me.

7:53 AM

Nags Head, NC. Chelsea on the upper deck of the cottage we rented in 2018. There are always a lot of photos of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It is a place overflowing with special memories.

8:20 AM

Allentown, PA. My Phantoms Youth Bantam B team. Around 2016? We were able to have a practice at the empty 9000 seat PPL Center Arena. This was the last team I coached. I miss it. I don’t miss it.

8:47 AM

30,000 feet above the midwest United States. Me and Bobby “Trains” McClure. Trains and I, along with Jack, Jimmy, and Tommy, are flying to California on our “Group 9” excursion to visit Guy Ackerman. (There’s a blog post for that.) It was the first time on an airplane for Trains. He’s a big guy. Here we are, jammed into coach like people who are … well … jammed into coach. Trains survived, although every fifteen minutes or so he’d lean forward and moan forlornly.

9:09 AM

Allentown, PA. Told you I had a lot of photos taken from the corporate suite. This is me and Brian. We coached hockey together for a number of years. He and I have a goal to attend NHL games in as many different cities and arenas as possible. So far it’s a pretty meager list: The Flyers in Philly, the Islanders in Brooklyn, and the Red Wings in Detroit. He lives in Wisconsin now. I need to give him a call.

9:17 AM

Whitehall, PA. Daisy sits patiently in the back yard, waiting for a squirrel to make a mistake. She was a spectacularly wonderful dog.

9:20 AM

Nags Head, NC. Empty beach. Morning walk with Laura. Heaven.

9:35 AM

Hellertown, PA. Christmas night, just before the madness of the gift exchange. The calm before the storm. I keep telling myself I need to make an audio recording of the entire event. Lots of jokesters in that group.

10:02 AM

Bloomsburg, PA. Polaroids taken at the wedding of Taylor Galley, daughter of Jimmy Galley, who I’ve known forever. I was Best Man at Jimmy’s wedding back in 1984. Funny how back then it would never enter our minds that thirty-six years later we would be together at one of our kid’s weddings, saying the same stupid shit.

10:07 AM

Ocean City, NJ. This shaky-cam shot perfectly encapsulates a night on the Ocean City boardwalk to me. I can feel the ocean breeze, and smell the salty sea air mingling with aroma of cotton candy, caramel popcorn, fudge, salt water taffy, and Mack & Manco pizza. Those Jersey shore vacations with Jack and Leslie were perfect.

10:29 AM

Bethlehem, PA. Summer, 2013-ish. At the Steel Ice Center, they’re taking one of the hockey rinks off line, dumping the ice out back. Not sure that this is the proper procedure. Chemicals? Jack, let me know.

10:49 AM

Staten Island, NY. The Keefes at Felicity and Feona’s wedding. The skyline of Manhattan is just out of view to the right, the new World Trade Center/Freedom Tower not quite topped out. Such a happy day.

11:12 AM

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. This is the Niagara River, a few miles after the falls. Unrelenting, endless, raging water.

11:18 AM

Hellertown, PA. 1980s I’m guessing. Lindy at bat. Perfect form, of course. Mom ready to catch. Thank goodness there was no foul tip. Pure joy.

11:20 AM

Bethlehem, PA. Members of Max’s Lehigh Valley Flames hockey team playing bubble hockey at Hometown Heroes after a practice. Organized youth sports foists relationships upon the players. Some of them last, a lot of them don’t. That’s true in this photograph.

11:59 AM

Cleveland, OH. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame wristband from our 2017 Road Trip. I did more than just a block post for that … I made an entire website.

1:15 PM

Wildwood Crest, NJ. Max and Brian. So much joy. So much heartache.

1:46 PM

Hellertown, PA. The beach blanket Mom made for Max. Dune Burger is a required lunchtime destination for Max and me on every trip to the Outer Banks. Mom made countless beach blankets for all of us … each of them an original … each of them made to match our own personality. Mom was a genius with a needle and thread.

1:58 PM

Hellertown, PA. Funny how with 14,517 photos to choose from, these pictures of Max and me, displaying something for the camera, came up so close to each other. I’m holding an old, old t-shirt from the 1970s. It celebrates my very first hockey team, the Hellertown Southstars. Lynn designed the logo, Jonathan silkscreened the shirts. The actual uniforms? Well, that’s Mom again. She sewed every jersey for the entire team. Each jersey. Handmade. As I said, Mom was a genius with a needle and thread.

2:04 PM

Highlands, NJ. Liam. His first steps are tantalizingly close.

2:45 PM

Orlando, FL. Max and Isabelle. Hey, all you parents out there…. You know how indescribably happy you become when your child is happy? Then you know how Laura and I feel.

3:00 PM

Hellertown, PA. Kaie contemplates her Uncle David as he steals a photo with his phone. These are the best kinds of photos.

3:20 PM

Hellertown, PA. Beautiful Beedle women and two handsome young men.

4:15 PM

Toronto, Canada. At Wayne Gretzky’s restaurant in Toronto, the Great One’s number 99 is toasted right onto the hamburger bun. Nice touch from the man with the untouchable records.

4:50 PM

Whitehall, PA. Do-dads! The ultimate Christmastime snack.

5:22 PM

Zion National Park, Utah. Quite possibly one of the most beautiful places on Earth, after it’s cousin, Bryce Canyon, who lives just up the road. We saw both Bryce and Zion in one, long, glorious day during our 2017 USA Road Trip. Pictures … words … they don’t measure up to Zion’s indescribable beauty.

---

The randomness of the imagery on the Second Monitor is what makes it special. You never know what’s coming next. Spectacular vistas and intimate closeups. Dramatic lighting and shaky cameras. Close friends and complete strangers.

And of course, it’s the same with everyone. We all have a camera roll. And photo albums. The images are an instant jolt and connection of the people and places who’ve shaped our lives right up to this day.

I glance at the photo on the Second Monitor and in a millisecond I am there, remembering the time of day, the aroma, the motivation to take the photo. Sometimes I look closer and find a detail I missed, and it opens up a memory that for so long was locked away, waiting for this moment to burst free.

It turns out that even though the Second Monitor is serving no worthwhile purpose for my work, it is fulfilling a much more important service. It is providing me with a reminder of just how rich life can be, even if it is something as simple as a t-shirt, a beach blanket, a dog, or a hockey game.