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.
Monday, November 11, 2019
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.
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.
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!
_________________________________________________________________________________
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?
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!
_________________________________________________________________________________
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.
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?
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.
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.
________________________________________________________________________________
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!
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.
________________________________________________________________________________
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!
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