Robin, again

Just an update on Robin, and other stuff.

First, I did not win the billion dollar Mega Millions lottery. Disappointing because I was getting ready for a change of lifestyle. I guess I just to get used to this one! I just can't imagine the headaches such an amount of money would create. It is not a headache I would very much object to but still it would make life more complicated than it already is. In short, I don't think I would mind.

The second thing is that we took Robin to the vet yesterday for his 24th hour bloodtest. He behaved like a trooper. I was really proud of him. According to the vet his blood results were good and if they are still good tonight then we will not have to go back anymore. Strong little guy!

It amazes me how much animal emergency there are. Yesterday we saw different pets with different problems. I guess no matter how we try to protect them there are still problems. Just like with people. And this business is built on that. This company has 33 clinics in the country, from Florida through California and they are dealing exclusively with emergencies. Not many return visits. And I guess they make good money.

This is the American way. Find something the public don't have and capitalize on it.

Good country America!

Robin

Yesterday/today we had a very busy and eventful day. Around 9pm my wife and I to watch tv and an old Elvis movie. While watching we were eating fresh grapes. Robin came over and sniffed around the grapes. My wife felt sorry for him and gave him two small grapes which Robin gratefully ate. Little later Abigail came out of her room and went ballistic when she found out Robin ate the grapes.

According to her, grapes are poisonous for dogs. They are toxic and can cause all kinds of kidney problems. Well, you can imagine how nervous we all got. I called our vet's office who were already closed but somebody on their emergency line told me to call ASPCA Poison Hotline. Easier said than done. We did but we had to wait almost 45 minutes until a human got connected. 45 minutes when every second counts? Unheard of! Anyway, they told us to try to induce vomit because that would help to get rid if the undigested food. We tried, the poor thing did throw up, but no foods were found.

We decided to go to a 24-hour vet place. The one nearby us, around midnight was open but they told us they had a major emergency, and everybody was involved in an operation. So, we drove out to Long Island where they were open, and he was looked at. Very nice place, only dealing with pet emergencies. One would think that at 1am such a place would be empty. No, almost full house. Cats and dogs and all emergencies. 

We were there for about an hour while they worked on Robin. Vomiting was induced and he did eventually throw up the grapes and everything else. We got home by 2:30am. Now, we have to go back 24 hours after and 48 hours after because they want to monitor his blood and kidney functions to be sure he is ok. It wasn't cheap but who cares as long as the little guy is ok.

At this vet we all sat in one large room where we could see all the other patients and the ones they were working on. It is quite interesting and heartbreaking at the same time. These cats and dogs are brought in by their owners because of some kind of emergency. They are brought in to help them, to cure them, to make them better. The sad thing is that they don't understand what is happening. All they know is that their masters, owners brought them and whatever will happen will not be very comfortable. But they endure, mostly silently because they all trust their masters. Sad to see how they don't take their eyes off their owners, and they all have those questioning looks.                                                                            

I felt sorry for all of them. 

Never a dull moment!

LIV

I read in the new a while back that a new golf group was established by the name of LIV. This group has Saudi money in it and it supposed to make it more worthwhile for the players to join in. Since being a professional golf is strictly for the money it started to be very popular among the pros. They promise to pay out more than the PGA does.  

Named professional players went over in large numbers and that scared the PGA to the point that they announced that whoever joins LIV is no longer a PGA member. Well, money talks and the players did not scare.

Why am I writing all this? Because no matter what happens in this country there are always people who don't like it and will object to it. There is a golf tour coming up in Boston i middle of September and people are already speaking up against it. They claim it is unethical or immoral or something like that to promote such event that has Saudi money in it. They say remember the World Trade Center, 9-11. Saudi Arabia was responsible for that so how can we accept their money for golf?

On that count why they are not objecting for Mercedeses, BMWs and other German products because of the Holocaust, or Nissan, Honda, Yamaha and other Japanese products because of WWII? Or interning the American Japanese makes us even?

Americans are very interesting. There are always the martyrs who play on public sentiment to get their points across. 

I guess we can accept their oil but not their golf money! 

The Wall, again

I am getting more and more amazed by the Wall. The Western Wall in Jerusalem, that is. Thanks to the webcam system, with just a flick of a button I am there, electronically that is. I find the daily routine very interesting. Since the Wall is open for prayers 24/7 there is never a dull moment.

It is peculiar that through night when everybody is asleep the Wall is almost filled with orthodox people. Between midnight and 5-6 in the morning there is almost no room to pray. Then during the day, they disappear, and I guess, tourists come out and take up most of the day.

The orthodox don't sleep? Right now, it is 4pm in New York, that is 11pm in Jerusalem. The wall is slowly getting crowded by the orthodox. By their 4am it will be almost full. And they are also pouring concrete for something. I am very moved by the sights where I see a father with his little boy(s) walking up to the Wall and as far as I can see it explaining its meaning and the children reacting.

On the other hand, it bothers me that the women's section is separated from the men. That is a not a nice thing. Their section is shorter and consequently more crowded. 

I am a cynic. I call the black dressed, orthodox men the professionals. In my mind that is all they do. Just pray all day. Not a bad way to make living.                                                                                                       

Sitting

I feel like Sitting Bull. Except I am not Indian, and I am surely better looking than the old Bull was. Today I did a lot of sitting.

Before noon. my wife had some chores to take care of and I decided to go with her. That led to an hour sitting in the car and waiting. After that we had some banking business to attend to and that meant another hour sitting in the bank. In the afternoon I had a doctor's appointment where I sat for an hour in the waiting area before being called in. After being in another 45 minutes wait in the examination room before the doctor showed up. 

Actually, I waited longer than the entire visit took but at the end it was worth it because he was very satisfied with my lab results. This is not bragging just communicating what he said. He is a hematologist and keeps watching my blood for any sign of cancer. 

Regardless of what country a doctor comes from I am convinced that in any medical school there is a course about how to treat patients. Not medically but physically. Every doctor I visited with do the exact same thing: first they make you wait then call you in and then they make you wait even more.

The funny thing was that many times I was called in at my appointment time but the doctor did not come in for another 45 minutes to an hour. I know somebody who quit his doctor saying that his time was just as valuable as the doctor's.

Webcam

The Western Wall in Jerusalem is one of the holiest sites in the Jewish religion. It is believed that prayers emanating from there reach God directly and many more believes. Part of the wall was built over two thousand years ago, and it is still standing. Huge crowds of people go there daily to pray. It is open 24/7 and theoretically it is for all religions, but I think Jews are the primary attendees. 

I like web cameras because they rarely lie. Also, I like to see things as they happen and not the sanitized versions. Anyway, I found a website that shows 24/7 the Wall. My wife and I are now hooked on it. Find it extremely interesting and moving. I never had any urge to visit Israel but now that I am seeing this I really would like to go.

I grew up in a non-religious environment that was the result of the prevailing political system. I also suffered because I am Jewish. Consequently, I did not go around loudly advertising my religion. My religion and my believes are between me and my Maker!

Watching the Wall, I find it very interesting the number of young people who visit it and pray alongside of it.I don't know how many Americans or other nationalities are there but that is not important. The important thing is that not all young people are about playing, drinking and not being useful. Young boys and girls come to the Wall and pray. Not because their parents say so but because they believe in it. And this is what I find very refreshing.   

I wish I could see such a devotion in this country! 

Sunday

 Sunday, hot day!

Congress, again

Yesterday, I started my tirade against the clowns who sit in the House of Representatives. Today I am continuing it. Like I said, these people are running around beating their chests screaming I am a representative, I am a representative! Beside themselves, who do they represent? There is a communist (OC) and a Muslim who is openly antisemitic in their numbers. These certainly do not represent the American people.

This past Thursday they took their circus on prime time tv. This joke of the January 6 Commission went on live tv to air their hearing. Do these people honestly believe that the American people really care about what happened way back? Or this just part of ringmaster Pelozzi's plan to continue discrediting the legally elected American president?

What is she hoping to achieve republicans into that commission just to show hou with this circus? She placed a few republicans, like Chaney into the commission just to show how bipartisan and fair she is. She wouldn't know fair if it would hit her. Pelozzi's anti trump behavior is sickening, childish and ridiculous. Like her tearing up his State of the Union speech. 

Why there is no commission and hearings about the current inflation, the high gas prices, the shortages at the supermarkets? Because all these and more are caused by her beloved and senile democratic president. Why there is no investigation about Pelosi's son in law, Michael Voss being at the Capitol on January 6. Every report about him had been erased. Why there are no Congressional hearings abou Biden's son, Hunter about his cxrooked dealings? Because daddy is the president and Pelosi will not go up against him.

The American people would be more interested in a "cause of inflation" hearing than prime time January 6 stuff, where these members act upset and read their prepared speeches and ask their pre rehearsed questions.

In November there is a new election coming up. All these jokers are up for reelection. If the democrats' numbers are up, come January 2023 all of them will be looking for work. Nobody can tell me that they are not looking out for themselves! 

Good country, America!

Congress

When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they set up a two-house legislative branch called the United State Congress. It comprises the House of Representatives and the Senate. The members are elected by popular vote. Senators, two per each state and for six-year terms. The representatives are elected for only two-year terms.

Two become senator is a huge accomplishment. It is a respectable position and there are only one hundred of them. 

In my view, to become a representative is something for the small minds. They are elected for two year terms understanding not to get too comfortable. Their seats are up for grabs very frequently. To become a representative all they need is a little popularity to be able sell themselves withi their election district. But they have to do this every two year. The ones who have been serving for several periods were able to sell themselves to their constituents or the constituents just got bored and did not care. 

These reps. believe they represent the people. They are wrong. They only represent themselves and the highest bidder. To be a representative is a direct road to a cushy job once they are not in the Congress. To be a Republican or Democrat is no difference at all. It just reflects who sits in the White House.

These reps are running around beating their chests, like gorillas and scream I represent the American people. The difference is that gorillas can not be trained while these representatives are trained like circus animals. When Nancy says jump all they ask is how high? A perfect example is their behavior in that January 6 commission. Nancy Pelosi is obsessed with Donald Trump's presidency, and she will go to no end to discredit him. That is exactly what this January 6 commission is supposed to do.

To be continued.

Driving

I live in Queens, NY and frequently we need to drive into Manhattan. That is not a small task. Aside from the never missing traffic conditions we also have to deal with idiot drivers. And idiots we have plenty of.

New york City has a mandatory speed limit of 25 miles per hour. That is pretty slow when the roads are not bumper to bumper traffic. Also, traffic cameras became major money makers for the City. Because of these cameras people are hesitant to drive faster. Getting a ticket with one's car photographed does not leave room for any argument. Just be quiet and pay is the attitude.

The worst drivers are the car service and taxi drivers. For one, in a 25 mph zone, they drive at around 18 mph speed. They just don't seem to be in a hurry. They also don't seem to know the city, their city. They are apt to make last minute turns, abruptly change lanes or just slow down while they check their GPS or talk on their cell phones.

It is unbelievable that some of the car service and taxi drivers know very little about this city. If and when we take a cab at the airport, we always have to give instructions how to get to our house. Once in Budapest I got into a taxi, gave the street address and the driver immediately asked me if it was in XYZ neighborhood or in ZXY neighborhood. Expect that here in New York, good luck.

America

Life in Hungary getting more and more difficult as days go by. Prices are skyrocketing, gasoline is in scarce supply and there are shortages in stores. Cost of living is increasing. Income tax is raised to16% and sales tax was raised by 2%. All these and many other rules make the population very unhappy. Unhappiness is reflected in several antigovernment demonstrations. But since the ruling party is in huge plurality, the government's actions and decisions are rarely questioned.

Interestingly, the government-controlled media blames the war in Ukraine for all the shortcomings. BUT the Ukraine war is blamed by the US. Hungarian media openly blames America for all their shortcomings saying the America instigated the war in Ukraine and it is in their (financial) interest to keep it going.

This kind of propaganda results in very strong anti-American sentiment. Our friends and family keep asking us why is this happening? They make us responsible for the American behavior. It is well known that now is not a good time to be in Hungary as an American. As far as I know there were no violent acts against Americans but there are many subtle ways to show dislikes. 

Personally, I would hesitate to go to a restaurant and order food while the staff knows where I came from. Even though they live off tourists, English speaking tourists are now the exceptions. I know as a fact that travelers who arrived at Budapest Airport and showed their USA passport were treated in a very unfriendly way.

I don't need such a problem. As much as I like that country and would love to go there, at this time I would hesitate! 

Hot

I mentioned before they are working on the facade of our building. To say that they don't make a mess would be lying. At the end of each day there is dust and small pieces everywhere. My wife and I usually go out and hose down our windows and walls to get rid of the dust. 

Yesterday, Monday they didn't work because it was a rain on, rain off day. I guess when they don't work they don't get paid. Today it was a slow start and later I didn't see anybody working again. Today it was the heat. I think when the temperature gets to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, they just don't work. I can understand that. It is not very pleasant working in that heat with the sun beating down on one's back.

Just wonder what these delays will do to our schedules. So far they lost about five days because of weather. The apartment is fairly comfortable. We have portable a/c units in each, and they keep every room pretty livable. Since these a/cs are going all day long I wonder what our electric bills will look like.

Everey day Con Edison sends out messages about the heat and how we should control the use of electricity. Air conditioners are to be used when it is hot outside and not when they are not needed.

Golf

I like to watch golf on tv. I really don't understand it but I know that they have to get that white ball into the hole as quickly as possible. Ok, that is enough to enjoy the intricacies of the game. I also know that there is a lot of money involved and golfers make a good living being pros.

Every week there are tournaments being broadcasted with a large number of different aspiring pros. I like the beauty of the American golf courses. The grass, the traps, the entire surroundings. They are very pleasant to the eye. Now, in the past few days they are broadcasting from Scotland from St. Andrew's golf course. This is an old course that celebrate its 150th anniversary and they are doing the British Open. The cream of the world's best are there. Sure, they are, the winner will get a $2.5 million paycheck. That is not bad for a week's work.

My problem with this is that this golf course is the ugliest I have ever seen. The grass is as manicured as a Neanderthal's hands, the traps are deeper than a man's size and there are no trees anywhere. It is next to the North Sea and there is a constant wind that makes it difficult for the golf balls to fly straight. I believe that most of the results are not because the players are so good but because of sheer luck. 

I don't understand what the charm of such a golf course is. Just because it is old? Ok, I go along with this because that would also make us all old people very charming, no?

Sunday

 Sunday, off day!

Dinner

For a wife, housewife, mother to come up with a daily menu is one of the most difficult things in the world. In our house we are three of us and each one likes different things. If my wife makes something I really like it is pretty definite that at least one member of the household will not like it. 

Hungarian cuisine.

It got to the point that I don't suggest any longer. She puts it front of me and I eat it. I also learned throughout the years that it is not worth criticizing. Years ago, I was told you ctiticize it, you will wear it! Keeping this in mind I just eat it. Occasionally my wife what would I like to eat, but this does not happen very frequently.

Abigail is not a great fan of Hungarian cooking. There is a long list of things she does not like. Weirdly, she likes Japanese, Thai, Spanish and Chinese foods a lot. I don't know where she picked up this custom. I could easily live on Hungarian cooking.

Yesterday Abigail said she would like to have Hungarian fish soup for dinner. The expression fish soup doesn't give justice to this meal. In Hungarian it is called halaszle. This is a soup with chunks of good fish in it. It is costumary to spice it up with hot paprika. The home of this meal is Szeged but there are many variations to it. Probably as many as many housewives are making it. 

Last night's fish soup turned out fantastic. We had two kinds of fish in it and I can't wait for tonight when we will have the leftovers. This is the kind of food that tastes better and better as time goes by, like goulash soup, stuffed cabbage and solet (cholent).

Vive la Hungarian cuisine!

Biden, again

Biden again showed his dislike of Israel. His State Department is in the process of opening a consular office in East Jerusalem dealing with the Palestinians. Israel against it, the world is against it, but good old Biden doesn't listen to anybody. During the Trump presidency it was accepted that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. Not part of Jerusalem but the entire city. Now how can this senile old man go and do this against the best ally this country has in that region.

During his campaign he swore that he would not meet with the Saudi prince, the heir to the throne. Today he sat next to him in Ryadh. He went there, hat in hand sucking up for oil. The man is a laughingstock of the world. How can he be trusted with his promises? The funny thing is that when prompted he keeps saying that he would run for another term. Who in his right mind would vote to somebody like him? Even his party is embarrassed about some of the things he is doing.

I love watching him doddering here and there when he is at a public event. And that is the leader of the free world! Good country America land of equal opportunity!

Senate

The United States Senate needs to confirm 1,200 presidential appointees. This needs background investigation (wetting), personal interviews with the senators, then submitted to the Senate for vote. In these days, 17 months after Biden took office the main business is still voting for the candidates. I love these proceedings because it is so political it is ridiculous. 

The individual senators come into the main chamber and vote. Before they do their votes, I can already tell which way it will go. The Democratic senators will always vote yes while the Republicans will always be against the nominee. Since there is a slim Democratic majority, their candidates will invariably win. But they still waste their time doing this jockeying.

It does not matter how talented, good the person is for the position his or her allegiance counts. Very democratic. This process will be stretched out so long that by the time the last nominee is voted on, Biden's presidential term had come to an end. Ha, ha!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Biden yesterday visited Yad Vashem in Israel. When he came out, he signed a visitor's book. In my opinion he looked like clown. The yarmulke he was wearing was very large and made him look like a clown. Everybody around him wore distinguished sized yarmulkes but they gave him one that was circus size. I think they did this purposely and him being himself had no idea what was going on around him. Being in office for 17 months this was the first time he visited Israel. Good friend!

Election

We have a sorry sight for a president. Other heads of states are distinguished looking, attention commanding people. The only attention ours commands is help from other people who would watch him not to trip and fall.

This morning they showed Biden arriving in Israel. He was a sorry sight. I am not even sure he knew where he was. He had that senile grin on his face, was not sure what he was supposed to do and whom he was supposed to talk to. At least he knew how to read the prepared speech. I am sure the world is no longer takes him seriously.

I don't understand the reason behind his Israeli visit. That country right now has a caretaker government, with elections coming up. As far as I know caretaker governments usually don't have state visitors since they have not much authority to engage in international affairs. If that is the case, why did he go there? Because he likes to travel? 

He is playing the I am the president game. He likes to be surrounded and made believe that he is important. While he is sucking up to the Saudis for more oil, at home everything is going to the dogs. Inflation is over 9%, prices are going up, and there are shortages everywhere. But he is preoccupied giving more money to Ukraine. And blaming the Ukraine affair for our shortfalls. It is good politics blaming others for our mistakes!

I can't wait for the 2024 elections when his ass will be kicked out of the White House.

Dubai

It is good to have a lot of money. The problem that comes with it is what to do with a huge wealth. Thinking as an ordinary person money can create headaches. There is an old Hungarian saying that one can not sit on two horses with one arse. What is the point having 25 cars when one can only drive one at a time? Why have several houses or homes when one can only sleep in one bed at a time? At this list can go on and on. But we are human and love to show off.

Now when a country has more money, wealth that they know what do with that is a different story. Extravagance takes on a different meaning. Case in point is Dubai. Thanks to oil their wealth is beyond one's imagination. Poverty is not known in that country, but splurging is. Dubai is in the Arad Desert where temperatures range up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a hot desert country. So what did they not have? Snow skiing. But they do now.

In 2005 they opened Ski Dubai. Ski Dubai is an indoor ski resort with 22,500 square meters of indoor ski area. The park maintains a temperature of -1 degree to 2 degrees Celsius throughout the year. It is a part of the Mall of the Emirates, one of the largest shopping malls in the world, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This indoor resort features an 85-metre-high indoor mountain (equivalent to a 25-story building).

A day ticket costs around $80 which doesn't sound too unreasonable. I was watching their webcams and noticed that the place was fairly busy. That means it is popular. Snow skiing in the middle of the Arabian Desert must be popular.

This article just wants to show that there are no limits as what man can do if the funds and technology are available.

If I were younger and have more money, I might just go off in August to Dubai for a ski vacation. But as it is now...

 

The Torys

Today I was watching a news program on the American BBC station. Their main subject was the prospective new leaders of the British government. Boris Johnson resigned, and his party will designate a new leader, thus the prime minister. It is interesting to see how little or none at all the authority the Queen has. She is nothing more than a ceremonial figurehead with absolutely no power at all. Stays out of politics, has no comment and her speeches are written by the current government. A job with no responsibility but with a huge income potential. 

They showed 14 aspiring conservative candidates who all want to be prime ministers. It was a very interesting list It looked like a Bombay, sorry Mumbai telephone directory. Whatever happened to the good old English names? Looking at those names it looks like a systematic takeover by second generation non-brits.

I don't know how the English feel about this but if I were one of them, I certainly wouldn't like it. Is this what their Conservative Party became? Sad, very sad!

Sunday

 Sunday!

Hilton 2

My Hilton saga is continuing. It is frightening the number of people who answer costumer service calls and have no clue how to solve problems. They make believe they have all the answers, yet they have none. They come up with non-answer responses just to get rid of us. And when I insist that I need to speak with a supervisor they make every effort not to transfer you.

The routine response to such a request is, well why don't you just tell me what this is all about and then we will see. No way will they transfer you to a supervisor. I am convinced that they have standing orders not to connect and also there is no supervisor.

I had the misfortune to call costumer services a few times and I am not even sure that these people don't work from home. There is always so much background noise and frequently children's noises that I am convinced these people work from home. Hopefully in this country!

Years ago, I listened to a very wise old man on the radio who always maintained that if we want to get certain things taken care of, never deal with an underling. Go straight to the top. And exactly that is what I did. I wrote to the president of Hilton and explained my problem. I hope he can persuade his people to look into what happened. I am very hopeful that something good will come out of this.

Hilton

It is interesting and very disturbing how the internet works. We are at their mercy and getting back at their good graces is very difficult. Case in point:

My wife and I have a Hilton account, accompanied with a Hilton Amex card. We have this account for years and years. Through purchases we accumulate points that can be used for stays at Hilton establishments. Just recently, Abigail stayed with a friend at such place during the July 4th weekend and we have a huge amount of points it did not cost anything. 

Yesterday, my wife tried to log on to our account to check the point status and was unsuccessful because the Hilton website was not able to find our account number. After several attempts I called their customer service and was told that they were not able to find our account number. Same response was given when they tried by name, telephone number and email address. This situation became more and more upsetting.

Not that our account disappeared, our 400,000 point as well. I was on the line for about 45 minutes, listened to various canned classical sonatas until finally the person came back with an answer, not a solution just an answer.

He said he did find the account and he did see the points but because there is or was a glitch in the system it would take 24 hours to straighten it out. According to him by tonight everything should be in order. Now I either believe him or not. Maybe he just wanted to get rid of me, that was why he said what he did. So far, we didn't try to log on, it is too early, but we will try later.

Update: we tried, and it is still not working!  

Lidl

Everybody has their favorite supermarkets. Some because of the price, or the cleanliness, or the variety of foods, or many different variables. We like Stop 'n Shop and ShopRite. The first more than the second. These are real American stores, with nothing exciting on the shelves. Addition to these two we also like Aldi which is a German chain, low priced, lots of German products and fairly low keyed store.

Recently, not fat from us with lots of fanfare a Lidl Supermarket opened. I heard of this store and was very curious how it will turn out. I never knew that this store is aggressively expanding in the US and there are quite a few not far from us. Anyway, on June 15 they opened their mega store not far. My wife and I were curious to see what they have to offer, so last week we visited it.

In short, this was a double visit: first time and last time! I don't understand what these people think of us. Prices high, selection poor, quality of food poor, availability of European or German food very poor. How can they survive with this kind of merchandising? Aldi is ten times better than they are. 

We went into this store with certain expectations and left with a lot of disappointments. They can bully their way into the market, but they can not force the public to buy their products. Time will tell if they will learn.

Trip

Going, driving to Cleveland, Ohio is not much fun. I did the trip several times and as much as I like being there the getting there is the difficult part. My wife did the trip a lot more than I did because most of the time I had to stay home to babysit for Abigail and Robin. But this time it was just Robin and us two. The trip is about 480 miles, mainly on I-80. That alone is not bad because the average speed limit is about 70 miles per hour. However, at that speed everybody leaves you in the dust. It is amazing how fast people drive. Actually, we did, too.

I always tell my wife, drive with the flow. That is the safest way not getting a ticket. 480 miles take us about 7 1/2 to 8 hours of driving. The most boring part is Pennsylvania. That alone is about 310 miles of woodlands, the Poconos and countryside. I dread that part. It is long and boring. Pennsylvania has some very peculiar locality names along this road. One is Snowshoe. Why in the world they name a town Snowshoe? The other one is Jersey Shore. 

Can you imagine one says he owns a home in Jersey Shore and people will say ooh, aah, this person has a home on the Jersey Shore, not realizing that this Jersey Shore is a small town of about 4,100 people in the middle of Pennsylvania, with no ocean access. Why such a weird name? Then there is Corsica. Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to France. Why was this town named after that island? Did they run out of names and had to pick these weird names? South of Cleveland there is a town named Macedonia. On these drives one has the felling that he is traveling around the world.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Back in business

The long weekend is over and now back to the grind! This is what we used to say, when life was more fruitful. But now that just does not apply any longer. Long weekend or short weekend has no special meaning. Since in New York everything is open seven days a week it is hard to tell weekdays apart from weekends. In my neighborhood the only difference is that being predominantly Jewish, all stores are closed on Saturdays.

When I worked, I used to like these three-day weekends. If the weather was nice, it was always good to have it. Now we are having seven-day weekends. It is called retirement! Being a nice guy, I always root for the working people. This time they were very lucky. The three day, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were beautiful. Sunny and hot every single day. I could just imagine how crowded the beaches must have been.

Saturday and Sunday we were not home, went on an overnight trip to Ohio. This was a business trip and we figured going in the middle of the weekend we would miss traffic. And we were right. I wouldn't say the roads were empty, but nothing compared to Monday when everybody was heading home. This is a seven to eight hour drive and fortunately my wife loves these long haul trips. I don't drive, my job is to keep her company and that means I can not fall asleep at all. That is the hardest part of the trip.

This time it was just the two of us and Robin. Abigail spent the weekend with a friend. Robin really likes car travel. He behaved admirably. He slept most of the way. He is allowed, me no! Is this fair?

Long weekend

 This is a long weekend coming and I will take advantage of it. I shall return on Tuesday, probably.

Applaud

Whenever there is a kind of assembly with a larger number of people, applauding is inevitable. It is interesting to see how certain people do applaud. The styles vary as much as many people are there. Applauding is not something they teach in school, it is not even being taught by one's parents. It is something that should come natural to every civilized person.

Yet, styles do vary from the childish clapping to a very serious banging one's hands together. There are people who's applause look like seals clapping with their flippers. There are people who bang the bottoms of their hands together while there are some who create a deep sound with their fists. These last ones are very annoying because they overwhelm everybody, and their clapping can be heard over all noises.

Some grownups clap like little kids who just saw some miracle. While it is cute on a child it looks ridiculous on an adult, and they just don't realise it. Some people clap non stop, They clap like their life depends on it, just don't want to stop it. In Hungary and I'm sure other Eastern European countries rhythmic clapping is the norm. I think it dates back to the soviet days because that was the wa they did it during Stalin. But the habit stayed. 

Anyway, for me watching other people clap is an entertaining thing.