Monday, November 11, 2019

Sunday

Today is Sunday and it is not snowing, yet. Even Though the weathermen were hysterical about the cold weather and the possibility of snow.

I guess that is what makes a good weatherman or weatherperson to be politically correct if that person gets hysterical about any weather. If it is too cold that or if it is too hot that. If it rains that is news, if it snows that is news. If there is none of that that is also news.

This does not seem to be a bad job providing that person is working. TV stations lately are filled with more and more weather people who are not meteorologists by profession only took some courses in college in order not to look totally stupid front of the cameras. They hire a meteorologist who works in the background and does the real scientific work for a fraction of the glory and money than the on-camera people get. Is this fair?

But then this America.

Yesterday, Donald Trump went to Alabama to attend the LSU Alabama football game. There were some apprehensions that there would be interruptions to the game but it went on without a hitch LSU winning. Interestingly, before the start of the game the President and his wife were introduced to the crowd. He was greeted with a sufficient roar but then the crowd went wild when the First Lady was introduced. I guess regardless to all the stupid press comments and criticisms she is pretty likable.

And this also America.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Saturday

Today my wife decided that because winter is on our doorstep we should take our window air conditioners out of the windows and put them in storage until spring. Not a small task!

Lately it has been cold. Fortunately the building is providing good heat but the disadvantage of these air conditioners is that cold air come through the windows where they are installed. So, my wife got to the task of uninstalling them. Three unit not very large but still. They had to be taken out then carried to the car and taken to the storage. It is a good thing we have an SUV because this way they fitted in fairly comfortable.

That was today's task. I'm so glad that we always find tasks to do. I don't dare to think what tasks might we have if we lived in a house.

Question: why only women think of tasks to do? We man totally believe in the status quo. Leave everything just the way they are. If it ain't broken don't fix it theory. As far as I'm concerned the silver is always good as it is. Why it need to be polished? And what's with spring cleaning? Clean the house once in a while should be enough.

It seems to me that women have different eyesights that men. They claim to see things we don't notice. Like discolorations, dust, faded furniture, wrinkled clothing etc.

But as good soldiers we complain, quietly but go along with them because we want to keep the peace.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Friday

Today is TGI Friday. The "very busy" week is over. Fortunately Monday is Veteran's Day meaning it is a federal holiday and there will be no mail.

I love these holidays. I don't remember getting time off from work at any of the holidays that government employees and public school teachers get. Even presidential election day was only off for me maybe up to fifteen years ago. Since then we only got about two hours off.

Anyway, lately Abigail is getting a fair amount of time off from school because of these special days.

By the way. President Trump announced that he was moving his official residence from New York City to Florida's Palm Beach. Governor Cuomo say "good riddence". Since then he spends more time in New York then before. Now he is coming here for the Veteran's Day parade. I think he is doing it just to piss the governor off. Good for him!

I was very busy today and it is now late night and I am tired and my creative juices are all dry.




Thursday, November 7, 2019

Tuesday/Wednesday

Like I said earlier, I would try to write every day. Well, yesterday I didn't write. No particular reason just did not get to it. But today, Wednesday I am here, for what it's worth.

Yesterday was Election Day here. It is not a holiday, yet public schools were closed meaning Abigail was home. I keep saying working for the public school system is the best job of all. They have more no-school days than anybody. At least in New York City.

Next Monday is another off day, it will be Veteran's Day. Last week they had a teacher's conference day which was another no school day.

Like I said it was Election Day. Here in New York it was such an unimportant election that I was surprised people did go out and vote. I usually vote but only on major elections. I will not waste my time on unimportan and strictly politicalt issues. Next year will be a different story!
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For a year now we are going to Cleveland. My wife and I have been doing some business there and that makes the trips necessary. It about 470 miles one way and we usually make the roundtrip in one day. I was surprised to see what a beautiful city it is. It is clean, it has several light rails criss-crossing the city and compared to New York traffic is very pleasant.

Cleveland use to have a formidable Hungarian population whose remnants are still there. We already know a good Hungarian restaurant. There are Hungarian meat stores, pastry shops and several Hungarian churches. It seems that we are everywhere.

The drive there is not unpleasant. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The worst is Pennsylvania. It is 310 miles long and boring as hell. Part of the road (Route 80) leads through the Poconos which is humongous wilderness. Somewhere along the road there is a sign saying that this was the highest point east of the Mississippi.

We left home a little after 4 am because this is a seven hour drive, spent some hours there, had lunch then headed back to New York. Got home by midnight. My darling wife was doing all the driving and understandably she was exhausted. But I gave her all the moral support.

What are husbands for?

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Monday

It is Monday and I have to think about something to write of. It is not easy but with so many things going on in the world I'm sure I'll think of something.

Actually, we changed the clock here in New York and everywhere in the US from Saturday to Sunday. Like in many other things we lag behind the world in this too. So yesterday when we woke up at 8 am it was only 7 am. Honestly, time dragged on. The day just didn't want to end. Five o'clock it was already dark and we though it was night. But like everything else we'll get used to this one too.

I understand that some countries in Europe, like Hungary will stop changing times in the future. I don't see the reason why we have to do it. What difference one hour change will make to our lives. It does nothing except confuses our body clocks.

Changing work start times for an hour earlier is a lot easier than changing time for an entire country. At least this is my scientific opinion.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Temple

About a year ago my wife decided that we should be better people than we are. That meant we should search for a congregation to belong to. The area we currently live in is practically saturated with synagogues meaning research was not very difficult.

The problem was that they are either sephardic, bucharian, orthodox or other kind but none of them was reformed and that what we were looking for. So we expanded our search and eventually found a very nice and prestigious temple in Manhattan, the Central Synagogue.

This one is open to the public and unbeknown to us at least not at the time of our choosing it is a replica of the famous Budapest Dohany utca synagogue.

So, in about April of this year we started to attend Friday night services. One has no need to join and pay a hefty fee, this is open to the public. The services are very interesting, they are in English and Hebrew as are their prayer books. That is a lot of help because my Hebrew is as good as my Sanskrit.

I remember back in the fifties, early fifties, we had to from school attend Friday services at the Dohany utca synagogue we never knew where to keep the prayer boys open because I couldn't read Hebrew. Now I feel the same way. It is a good thing that here the Hebrew version is also written phonetically. It is another story that I have no clue what the words mean.

But still, it is a good feeling to be there. And at my age I can use every help I can get.

This temple has a very ritzy congregation and because of that their staff is first grade. First, the congregation is Manhattan East Side crowd. All American, all English speaking.  Well dressed and a mixture of young and. It never ceases to amaze me how younger people are familiar with the mysteries of the Hebrew writings. They know how to read it, they know all the prayers, they know all the songs.

Where I come from, as far as I know my generation knows very little if anything about religion. We received almost zero religious education both in school and at home. Seeing all these people comfortably repeating the prayers after the rabbis and read the prayer books like I read a newspaper just enforces in me that we are coming from different worlds.

Here is a little personal comment.

Years ago the Pope issued an edict that latin would no longer be the language of the catholic church and masses would be held in every country on their own languages. And, God understood this.

Why jewish services still have to be held in Hebrew?

Saturday, November 2, 2019

TGI Friday

Holloween is over. We survived it without a scratch. This building have some very well mannered kids because nobody came to ring our bells. Years ago kids came into the buildings and rang all the bells asking for candy. I know children live here but nobody came around yesterday.
Maybe they know that a "grouchy old man" lives here.

Abigail is in her last year of high school and that is a big change in her life. One of the requirements before school is finished is that she has to do 12 hours of volunteer work.
That is pretty hard for someone who hasn't done any work in her life. And they are fairly specific what is acceptable and what is not.

Like a hospital is acceptable but a doctor's office is not. They say the doctor's office is a profit making place.

Abigail found out that volunteering at the New York City Marathon for this coming Sunday qualifies and she signed up to hand out refreshments for the runners for a solid eight hours. It won't be easy but she is determined to do it. She still has seven more hours of mandatory volunteering to do so she is trying to find something else.

Colleges charge for applicants for the applications. I think the fee is around $80 per school. She selected ten schools that she would like to submit to and by midnight last night, October 31, the fees had to be in. Our first excursion into the land of continuing education begun. I know this is only the beginning, what is coming will be much worse but what one can do?

Monday there is a meeting at her high school about the financial implications, scholarships etc. Of course we will attend this.

Maybe when Bernie or Elizabeth will be elected this will not be an issue but until then we have to deal with it.

Friday, November 1, 2019

Holloween

There is nothing wrong with Hallmark Chanel movies. They are schmaltzy and squeaky clean. They are so clean that it is totally unrealistic. Unfortunately they have absolutely no educational value.Today's singles want to go to bed before anything else. If that didn't happen by the third date there will be no fourth date. And that is reality.

But in the Hallmark world that never happens.

What bugs me the most is that every solitary movie they play we already saw at least three times. Yet, my darling wife insists on watching them again and again. In some I know the words by heart already.

They were boring the first time can you imagine how boring they are now the third or fourth time?

I just checked out Hallmark movie schedule, they have about 91 Christmas movies. Older ones, newer ones. I am looking forward to an exciting Holiday Season TV program. 91 movies, over and over again.

But love conquers all! To make my wife happy, I will not complain but patiently watch them one after the other. The world might collapse around us but we will be oblivious to it and be happily grinning throughout it all.

Now on a more somber note. If one carefully watches and observes these movies one can notice that they are extremely prejudicial and racist.
Most of the storylines center around lily-white people. There is extremely rarely a story that would show a black couple as the main subject of the story.

Just for show they frequently insert a black person who is the main character's boss or best friend or confidante. But the story inevitably veers away from them and centers around the white people.

I have the impression that Hallmark is a Southern Christian encampment where they keep their stable of performers and are churning out their movies like an assembly line production. Same actresses and actors mixed to play agains different partners in their movies. Eventually all the guys will get all the girls. Just like the Batchelor and the Batcherolett TV show.

I am very surprised that in today's extremely sensitive society nobody ever noticed this and never commented on it.

For what it's worth, I am commenting.
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By the way, I know that in recent times I bored everybody to death with this item so one more time it doesn't matter.

Today is Halloween and it is 62 years ago that I stepped off the plane at good old Idlewild International Airport in New York and blessed this country with my presence. Time flies when one is having fun. And fun I did have!


Thursday, October 31, 2019

Wednesday

Not long ago there was a psychiatric conference in Vienna. The purpose of this conference was to determine the mental status of the population of the world. Many fames doctors for all parts of the world made speeches listing their professional experiences.

At the end of this conference all "shrinks" agreed on this: the population of the world or more specifically our Earth is composed of 50% normal and 50% not normal (crazy) people.

The problem as they see is that the the not normal people can camouflage their condition so well that others think they are normal while the normal people act in such a way that it makes everybody think that they are not normal.

These scientific minds also agreed on that fact that the greatest concentration of these people is in Washington, DC.

We are governed by a mix of people who are either normal but acting not normal and people who are not normal but hiding behind looking normal.

Now, what one supposed to do?

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Tuesday's Politicking

Barnum and Bailey circus went out of business. It was a shame because they were the best three ring circus in this country.

We the American people are very lucky that there is a new emerging circus that keeps us entertained. Senate - House of Reps. - White House. Who can ask for better and classier entertainment? They don't have to spend any money for advertising because this circus is getting more media attention (free) than Donald Trump's presidential run did back in 2016.

The ringmaster is Nancy Pelosi with Senator Schumer playing second fiddle in case the old lady gets tired of whipping her whip. All other democrats play the roles of the trained tigers and elephants. What did the tigers do? They snarled a lot but at the end they jumped as commanded. Now, what did the trained elephants do? Stood behind one another (very, very close) on their hind legs. As the old saying goes "never turn your back on an elephant on his hind legs"!

These politicians are foaming at the mouth (maybe they are rabid) about Russian election interference, impeachment and anything else they can find. And good OLD Nancy is snapping her whip to keep everybody in line and the good ole boys do the elephant dance! She also snarls a lot. At her press conferences she snarls so much that her teeth are almost falling out. Now that would be a site!

Nancy was elected to Congress by a small California area which now encompasses San Francisco. No way, no how she represents this country. But she somehow she finagled her way into the leadership. Now that small time politician claims to speak for the entire country. A country she no clue about.

This country did not elect her, her cronies elected her. I realize this is not an easy job. All she has to do is say no to whatever her opposition wants and that is very difficult. One can always find an explanation to one's acts primarily if that one is a politician. It is not an accident that the majority of the politicians are lawyers. They know best how to lie and cheat and get away with it.

Nancy is so full of herself that her personal cult is almost as big as that fat guy's in N. Korea.

Good old Nancy is 79 years old. Why doesn't she go home and start to be a grandmother?



Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Monday

Today is mondaine Monday.

Today's major event was that Robin got a haircut. Actually it was a little more than a haircut, it was a full grooming job.
Bath,  trimming, nails. The whole nine yards. It took two and a half hours of work and when we got him back we just didn't recognize him. If it weren't that he jumped on us and was happy to see us we might have mistook him for another dog.
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We drink an enormous amount of water in this house. My wife decided that we should buy a water cooler, the one that comes with the 5 gallon bottle. According to Amazon, they have very attractive types, ones that would fit nicely in a home.

I started to call around stores, supermarkets to find out how one can obtain these water bottles. It boggles one's mind how little people who answer the telephones know about what goes on in their stores. Without exception, every person I talked to had to ask somebody else for the answer after I put them the question. I wonder what basis people get assigned to answer the telephone. The stupider they are?

Anyway, we still don't know where we will get the water from. But this is something to keep me busy.
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I don't know what happened in the world today but the market went up 132.66 points. Most of the time there is no rhyme or reason behind these moves but as long as it is up it is welcomed.
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I think I might have mentioned it earlier that my wife is in love with the Hallmark Channel's movies. This channel show nothing but squeaky clean love stories where the guy gets the girl or the girl gets the guy. In most of these stories the first kiss is about five minutes before the film is ending.

The majority of the movies are filmed in Canada and primarily on the northwest. They show picture book, utopian towns where everybody is always smiling and where the only preoccupation is the harvest festival, Christmas or Valentine's Day.

In most of these stories one of the heroes gives up a well paying city job and career so he or she could move out to the country and raise goats, run an inn, become a farmer or run an eatery.

Never ever the question of money comes into the story. Here everybody live happily ever after.
Now, they are running a Christmas series. Two months before Christmas! We have the TV set on this channel totally oblivious to the outside world and I am ready to climb the walls from all this happiness that they exhibit.


Monday, October 28, 2019

Sunday

Today is Sunday and as forecasted raining all day. What can a family in times like this do? Stay home and relax. Since I am not working seemingly forever I am so relaxed out that I can go out of my mind.

The "beauty" of having a dog is that no matter what the weather is he has to pee. The difference is that in good weather he pees slowly while in lousy weather he pees fast. Finish it and quickly back to the apartment.

As I mentioned it yesterday, this is a very small, barely nine pounds of a dog. But he is convinced that he is a giant. Barks at everything and if things don't go his way he nips or even bites. I am his favorite target, I have more bites on my hands than I can count. But when he curls up in my lap or snuggles up to me all is forgiven.

My wife takes him down mostly and naturally she is the one he warmed up to. Even though Abigail insists that this is her dog it is in name only. She "delegates" all the dog related chores. We have him now for almost year and it is hard to imagine our life without him.

Week before last we went to the Metropolitan Opera and saw Madama Butterfly. It was a very nice performance, we had good seats and enjoyed it immensely. A little culture never hurts.

Speaking of culture. My poor wife and a friend were forced to go to the movies with Abigail to see a new movie called The Joker. Total disaster! I excused myself and stayed home and read the libretto of Madama Butterfly.

I have a little trouble walking and my wife is taking care of me. The result of it is that I am putting on the pounds. She cooks whatever I desire. Might that be American or Hungarian. For example tonight's dinner consisted of salad and poppyseed noodles. I love this and had two helpings. Might be up all night because of the poppyseed.

A couple of days ago she made the famous Hungarian "langos" for dinner. Only complaint I had that was not enough for me.  I feel sorry for people who don't appreciate this kind of food. The way I see it food wise, there is us and then there is the rest of the world.

Just one more thing. There is this Jewish food called "solet" or cholent. This is slow cooke or baked beans with hardboiled eggs and meat in it. I love it. I could eat enormous portions. There is a kosher restaurant in Budapest that serves about seven different types of this food. Been there a lot!
Anyway, the beauty of this meal is (besides that it gives you gas) that as the days go by it tastes better and better, like stuffed cabbage. On the third day it was just the best.

Here is a little politics.

Recently there were about 22 democratic candidates for the presidency. Each equally unqualified as the next but they kept pushing on. Eventually, at least by now about half dropped out. I guess they realized that their chances were between zero and nil. The remaining ones still keep dreaming and keep spending their donors' money.

This is a very modern country. Unfortunately its thinking is still backward. Until three years ago we had a black president. I don't think there will be one for awhile. We never had a woman president and I don't think we will have one in the near future. We never had a gay president and I don't think we will have on now. We never had a socialist president and I don't think we will elect one.

It is nice to have everything for free as Bernie and Elizabeth promise but as far as I know as long as schools and doctors cost money these things will have to be paid for. From what? These people promise the moon and if elected they will just keep postponing their promises like all other politicians do.

Bottom line is that the opposition can not produce a good, electable candidate, one who can take up the fight against Trump.

Bottom line is that he will likely have a second term.

Fake news.  It didn't rain all day. The sun came out in the afternoon.



Saturday, October 26, 2019

Reentry

Today is October 27, 2019. My last entry was March 11, 2017. Two and a half years ago and time went by very, very swiftly.

Not much happened except that I started showing (and acting) my age.

My family is doing well. Abigail is finishing her last year of high school and now is in college search mode. She gave up the urge for culinary sciences and actively looking forward to a forensic science career. Finding colleges with this kind of curriculum is not easy but she is adamant in her search. She is a good student with good grades and her mom and I are convinced she will find a good school.

She is still a homebody. 17 years old, beautiful and thank God has no boyfriend. Not that she doesn't talk about it all the time. I kind of implied that if she dares to bring a boy to this house I would probably kill him and finish my life in prison. She is our little girl and would like to keep it that way (at least for a while).

For years Abigail was telling us that she wanted a dog. Naturally I was against it. And, naturally I lost the fight! Now we are the proud (?) owners of an almost three year old maltese who goes by the name of Robin. He is a pain in the butt. Has to be walked every three to four hours and barks a lot. But he is very lovable and is attached to all of us. Mainly to my wife since she is the one who takes care of him the most. Honestly, I love the little guy.

My wife is the rock of this family. Putting up with a teenage and demanding daughter and a grouchy, old husband I am constantly amazed at her energy.

In the time since my last correspondence we visited Canada three times, Hungary a couple of times, went to Hawaii a few times, visited Las Vegas more than once and this August spent a week in St. Maarten. So as you can see we were and are busy.

St. Maarten was exceptionally good. My family had never been there and every year I was dying to have the opportunity to take them, but it couldn't happen. But this year it finally did. I think they loved the place. The weather wa great and the water was even greater. My wife and Abigail met all my friends and they all showed so much love towards all of us that it was very heartening. It was good for me to see them again and it was good for them to meet my family.

Since the year is not up yet we are planning another, shorter trip but we'll see. If flying would be free it would be very easy to go on trips but since it is not it does take some planning!