Sunday

 This is my day off!

Holloween

To me Halloween has only one meaning. As I remarked every year, I landed in New York on Halloween in 1957. I arrived at JFK Airport that was named Idlewild in those days. I had no clue what Halloween was, actually I didn't even know what day of the week it was because our trip took so long.

The only thing I noticed that little kids were dressed funny, and I thought American kids are really weird. Now, I know better, they are weird.

My daughter, Abigail on the other hand is obsessed with Halloween. For her this is a major event of the year. She and her boyfriend went to Salem, Mass because she read that a few hundred years ago that was where they burnt witches. The place became a tourist attraction, and this was what they had to see.

Now tell me, are these kids normal or what? They spend their hard erned money to see places where witches were burnt in the 1600s. I wish I had money when I was at their age to spend on idiotic things like this. But I had to work, study and pay rent all at the same time.

The only thing I can say, country America!

Garbage

They always said that the Covid thing caused all kinds of problems, confusions in our daily life. Every official place blamed the Covid for their inefficiency. They claimed lack of manpower hindered their operations. 

The thing is that now Covid is gone, people should be back at work, but the inefficiency stayed. People should be back at work! But not all people are back. For some weird reason people just don't want to work. Great number of places are looking for employees to hire but they are not succeeding. I don't understand that how come people don't need money to live on? Or everybody is so cash rich that there is no need to work?

An interesting side effect of the Covid thing. Our building super was kind of complaining that there is too much garbage collecting in our building. His explanation was that in this building many people work from home and the result of that is increased domestic garbage. He said that before the pandemic there was not this much garbage to collect. 

This is not a fascinating story just interesting.

Campaign

Lawyers are like used car dealers. They cheat and lie and represent falsehood. Their only aim is to take the money of the unsuspecting customer. It is not a coincident that most politicians have law degrees. They know how to double talk, how to mislead the public. The public's interest is the furthest thing in their mind. The aim is to assure a bright and financially rewarding future for the time their glory days end.

Why am I lamenting this? Because whenever we turn on the tv we are bombarded with political campaign ads. The incumbents who never cared for the public come on showing how interested they are about our well beings and how much good they did during their terms. While the challengers are showing how bad the incumbents were and how good they would be. These people go on and promise everything well knowing that they will not deliver but hoping to garner the votes.

I love to watch the campaign appearances. Candidates meet the people, kiss babies and promise the sky. The funny thing is that they always want to look like they are one of us and the men wear open necked shirts, no ties or plaid shirts. This costume will not make them seem everyday Joes.

They don't realize that with all these campaigns they are degrading the voters by indicating they assume we are all stupid and need guidance. They believe that people are like sheep, they have to be led to the water.

Don't tell me who to vote for. I will make up my mind when the time is here. And that time is when I will be in the voting booth. 

My wife

God bless my wife. I love every ounce of her, but at times she drives me up the wall. We live in a fairly large apartment with more rooms that we actually need. And that is what causes my anxiety. At times she looks around and decides that things should be changed. What she sees is always a mystery because to me things are good as they are.

Before I met her, I lived in a smaller apartment from 1963 until 2025. That is about 62 years. During that time the only move we made was to move chair maybe from here to there. Otherwise, everything was good the way we originally set them up. But not here in this home. It seems to me that we have the setups of the seasons.

As the seasons change so do our furniture layout. We do have a spare room that served as a guest room and an office alternating. We also have a fairly large office desk and a homogenous long sofa. These two items are changing locations when the rearrangements take place. Not easy to move these. The building super usually helps but this week he was not available, and this was the time when my wife decided to change the layout. 

I had to gather up all my muscles and help her out. It was very strenuous thing mainly because I realized that I was not as strong as I used to be. My eyes are strong, my mouth is strong, and my mind is strong. But none of these are helpful when one needs sheer strength. So, I struggled and eventually we succeeded. All furniture found their correct (for now) locations.

I just wonder when the next relocations will happen. When will she decide that maybe things were better the way they used to be.

 

Eggs

The other day we went to the supermarket, and I saw a sign that kind of upset me. The sign said that there is an egg shortage and because of that the price of egg is going up. 

There is no chicken shortage so why is there an egg shortage? Are the hens striking and not laying eggs? That would be self defeating since laying eggs is their life insurance policy. The minute they stop that activity they become fryers.

This also reminds me that after the war there was a general food shortage in my country and that necessitated rationings. That was achieved by families getting ration coupons and were able to buy only what was on those coupons. I think a family of three (ours) got maybe three eggs a week, subject to availability. 

That was when connections came to the picture. If one had a friend who had a friend than he was able to get extra stuff. Otherwise, we just had to live on what was on the ration coupons. Are we heading in that direction? This might sound an extreme solution but finding critical shortages it is not inconceivable. 

I have to check my map if this is still the land of milk and honey? I think the milk went sour and the honey is rancid.

Ageing

Being at this age (80+) is nothing less than weird, and unusual. I know that I already elaborated this subject but I'm sorry, and since I am in this situation it is an everyday event.

There are pains and discomforts associated with the daily life. Things that I used to be able to do are becoming more and more difficult. A very peculiar occurrence is that while I am sitting down, I feel perfectly fine, I feel as good as I felt maybe 30 years ago. I am imagining things that I might be able to do at those moments. But as soon as I stand up reality kicks me in the behind. 

To start walking after a long sitting spell I feel like a windup toy. I have trouble starting to move.  As I already said it before, I have no trouble bending down, I have difficulty straightening up. I am like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. Need oiling. 

I know that people of my age all have a common subject, their health. When they meet all they talk about where it hurts and what did the doctor say. To avoid this depressing situation, I do not congregate with old people. With the exception of a few very dear and close friends I do not associate with oldsters. Only younger people. 

It is easy to associate with the younger ones. I am familiar with all their problems, and I also have all the answers. And I know that they don't listen to me and it is not even tiring to be with them because I don't have to talk much. Just smile and make believe that I do care.

Sunday

 It is Sunday and we all know what it means,

Wild West

We are living in an absolutely crazy world, where it seems the crazies rule. We are having a wild west/zombie world atmosphere. Crazy and senseless killings fill the daily newscasts. People are afraid to go out on the streets or in New York to take the subways.

Attacks on innocent individuals are frequent occurrences and also innocent victims get hurt by senseless shootings just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Now what kind of a life this is?

New York City has a new and black mayor. Ever since he took office crime went drastically up. Manhattan has a black district attorney who downplays criminal charges to offenders and eventually releases them. New York State has a black attorney general who is obsessed with attacking Trump in person, his family and his business instead of fighting crime. Oh yes, and New York City has a new police commissioner who is female and black. But this doesn't stop at the local level. We have an inefficient president whose vice president is a black female.

Does this reflect some kind of a pattern? Is this the future we are looking into? And all these office holders played their race cards to win at their elections. Very sad!

A person should not win because of their race or creed but because of being the best for the job. Our mayor never misses an opportunity to mention that he is black. We know, we see it, it does not need constant mentioning! This just emphasizes that politics rule.

Promise everything, get the votes then talk one's way out from delivering. This is what politics is today.

Nostalgia, again

Life is getting more and more complicated as the time goes by. Do you all remember when it was so simple to get a cup of coffee from any diner, luncheonette or coffee shop?  The only question the server usually asked if you wanted it black or with milk? Well, those days are gone.

Now to get a simple cup of coffee you have myriad choices. Cappuccino, latte, flavored, with or without whip cream, type of milk from goat to any four-legged animal and probably even more choices. Many times, I felt embarrassed to go into Starbuck and just ask for a cup of regular (overpriced) coffee. They always gave me the hey, you slob what are you doing here, you don't belong to our elite club look.

The same goes with teas. Whenever we went to a restaurant and asked for te they used to bring the hot water and a Lipton tea bag. Now there are questions, what kind do you desire then they bring a box with about two dozen different types of teas in it. 

Years ago, we left home, went to work, got home in the evening and then discussed the day's events. Now, everybody needs three hands. The third one is to hold that frigging cell phone without which people seem to be lost. There is constant, non-stop communication going on between people. Abigail feels that if she does not instantly answer her messages, she will miss out huge social happenings. Without any attention to other people's current status, it is always expected to immediately respond to any communication regardless how mundane the subject might be. In older workplaces a telephone was not always available, yet we all survived. How? There used to be public phones everywhere

The same goes for water. We used to leave home, got to wherever we were going to and if it was absolutely necessary drank a glass of water. Now everybody drags a bottle of water with them and every few minutes take a sip. What causes this humongous thirst? Or is this just a fashion statement?

This world is getting crazier and crazier by the minute! 

End of the road

Thank God I feel fairly good. But there is a dark cloud over me, and I am sure over all my friends of this same age. I am 85 1/2 years old. Aside from a few discomforting things I feel ok. Some of my friends are even in better shape. I guess we just don't want to give in to ageing. But how long will this last?

Lately I read and hear too many people passing away who are between the ages of 80 and 90. This is very scary, to say the least. We are at a very dangerous age. There is only a limited future and that makes planning almost impossible for the lack of a distant future. 

Can't help but think how and where will it happen when the time comes? This is pretty morbid way of thinking, but it is reality. As the saying goes one can not escape death and taxes.

I would love to try it, though, both of it. 

I used to have an older friend whose favorite saying was whenever he came from the doctor that everything was ok, nothing was wrong I am in a perfect condition, I would probably be hit by a truck. Unfortunately, he did become sick and passed away. What is the meaning of this? We really can not tell what is ahead of us. And that is what terrifying. We have to live our life one day at a time and try to enjoy it as much as possible. 

Ode to my teeth

There are things we got accustomed to, they are with us like forever and suddenly they are not. Once they are not with us, occasionally we miss them other times we don't even know we had them.

Case in point, for at least 80 years I had my teeth in my mouth. Most of these teeth are my own with a few exceptions. Recently one of them started to hurt. I didn't pay much attention, figuring I can live with a little pain. Unfortunately, my tooth had different ideas. It started to hurt more and more so that I was living on painkillers.

At that point I decided to go and see my dentist. My dentist is a very lovely Russian lady who has offices her nearby and at another location outside of the City. Unfortunately, on the day I needed the assistance her local office was closed but she said I should go to her other office.

It is not professional for a dentist to refuse a patient with a killing toothache. So, we drove out to wherever she was at. I had to wait about two hours for her to see me because of other patients but eventually she did see me. After taking a few x-rays she determined that not one, but two teeth need to be pulled. I said go ahead.

After 25 minutes of sitting in the dentist chair my two teeth were unceremoniously pulled. After 80 years of excellent service, living in a nice, warm and comfortable environment they were suddenly homeless. Looking at them on the dentist's table I was a little sad. But actually, they got what they deserved, they hurt me. Me, their one and only landlord who provided them with a nice home in all these years. With all the injections I was totally numb and felt nothing which made the entire process almost painless.

Since they are the last two teeth in the row, at my age replacing them is not an issue anymore. The lack of them will have no effect on my exterior aesthetics.

I'm back

It is very easy to decide to take a hiatus from one's self observed obligations. But what is difficult is deciding to end it and go back to some sort of regularity. 

But "duty" calls and I will return to my writing. I chose to do it and darn it, I will!

The reason of my hiatus was that my wife had some health issues and I wanted to devote all my time and energy to being there and be available to give her as much moral and physical support as I am able to. Thank God, and the good doctors she is all right, it all turned out well.

She had post op visits and the doctors were satisfied with the progress of her healing. Now, we just have to be patient and go through the complete healing process. A few more weeks and all are done. She has to be very careful because stitches can tear if she exerts herself. For that I am here to make sure there are no heavy liftings. 

Doctors very easily say it needs 10-12 weeks for complete healing. They don't take into account the daily discomfort one needs to deal with. I know, some things just can not be rushed so we just have to be patient.

Sunday

 I will keep the "tradition" of not writing on Sundays. But Mondays I will. I promise.