Sunday

 It is Sunday and I do what I usually do on Sunday. TRest!

Medicare

Now I will give away my age. Ha, ha, ha.

Sometime in October I received a copy of the book titled Medicare & You 2022. I guess they know my age! The purpose of this book is to confuse us older people more than we already are. This is a thick book that explains the different type of Medicare coverages that exist and we might be entitled to.

An entire year goes by where I am convinced that the insurance, additional to Medicare, is good and satisfactory to my needs, and then this book comes out and totally confuses me. Through about 20 pages it lists various insurance companies in my state and county that offer different types of coverages, and I suppose to be the smart one to chose from them. 

This is all fine. Nowadays most doctors accept Medicare but they are very selective in accepting the various advantage plans. I might have a primary physician who accepts my plan and she sends me to a specialist who does not. Then what do I do? This is terrible that doctors chose insurance plans they want to affiliate with and reject some others. 

I am sure this is based on money. Some plans reimburse the doctors better and quicker than others and that is what effecting their choices. I guess doctors being individual businesses they have the right to work with whichever insurance company they chose to.

I usually go to doctors that are affiliated with one of the major New York hospitals. But even though their practice is through the hospital each one is affiliated with different insurance companies. That makes it necessary for me to check if my plan is accepted before I make an appointment.

This is an idiotic system that should be changed.

Commercials

I am sitting front of the TV and watching (forced to) all kinds of commercials and wander. 

Furniture store chain Raymour & Flanigan, Macy's, Walmart, Burlington and many others, too long to list. Every single one shows in their ads smiling happy, clean cut people helping out costumers. This is all fake, at least in New York it is fake.

I have yet to make a sales person who is happy to assist. Maybe at the furniture store because they get a commission on their sales. But the moment they find out you are just looking, they drop you like a hot potato. They give you their card and say call when you decide to buy.

Macy's have no people on the floors. It is impossible to find somebody to help you. Many isles have clothing fallen to the floor and nobody is there to pick them up. Look like a Salvation Army Thrift Store. And when you finally force yourself on a person, that person is unfriendly, grouchy and show very little knowledge about the product you are interested in. Or frequently will tell you that he/she is really not working on this particular department just there to help out. Help out how?

Walmart is terrible. They seem to hire anybody, and naturally they have no clue where certain merchandise can be found. The fact that many do not even speak English is another thing. Burlington, at least where I live, is a dump. No matter what their ads say they sell crappy merchandise. To find a floor  person if you need help is almost impossible.

Raymour & Flanigan ads show their furniture delivery to be don by smiling, clean cut people in uniforms. We had a delivery a while back and not they were not smiling they didn't even speak English. Brought the furniture, put it together, said "thank you" (in English) for the tip and left. I tried to talk to them but did not get through.

Does anybody remember the old times when the milk man wore uniform with a tie. That is now history. Today's delivery men are totally changed. We recently bought a new refrigerator. It was delivered by a man, woman team. Likely husband and wife. Didn't speak English. Cut the box open and left the fridge front of the door. I had to run after them to give them the tip. They didn't seem too happy either.

Boy, the world is changing.

Election

Yesterday, Tuesday was election day. We voted. We, in New York were electing a new mayor. The two leading candidates were Eric Adams a democrat African American, and Curtis Sliwa a republican known for as the founder of the Guardian Angels group.

Since Biden's election we were leaning towards the republican candidates whenever it was possible. Unfortunately, our candidate did not win. Adams will be the second black mayor of New York in its history. The first was David Dinkins who. thankfully, served only one term and did not enjoy great popularity. It looks like blacks are coming in major offices. Manhattan district attorney will be a black person (the first in that office). New York City public advocate is African American as well as the current state attorney general who just announced that she has her eyes on the governor's position next year, New York City's health commissioner is a black doctor. 

It looks like pretty soon, being white will be a disadvantage in New York. The current mayor Bill DeBlasio, is of Italian origin with an African American wife, is finishing his second term and currently not enjoying great popularity amongst New Yorkers, even though he is a democrat in a democratic city. People actually can't wait for him to leave. It is very funny that it was announced that DeBlasio who came from Brooklyn where he owned his house immediately after January 1 will move to Cambridge , Massachusetts. I guess he thinks there he will be liked. Maybe he will run for dogcatcher that way he can stay in public service.

I don't have anything against blacks. I just don't like the attitude some of them have when confronted with whites or any other race. I lived through a system that was built on race discrimination and I will be damned if I will let anybody treat me as a second class citizen, again!                                               

Let's just wait and see what is ahead of us. 

Oranges

When I arrived in New York. way back then we were picked up at the airport and were taken to a hotel (Hotel Saint George) in Brooklyn. The place was set up to receive us, the refugees. It was nice, we all got our private rooms, which was a change after living in dormitory style for nine months.

They told us to go downstairs to a large cafeteria where I think soldiers were helping out. There was food in trays and we just had go around and point and ask and were served. Interestingly, for most of the food we had no idea what they were and since nobody spoke Hungarian we couldn't even be told even though they tried to enlighten us. Regardless, we ate.

We were not locked in, and this was the first time we were not restricted in our movements. So, we just went out and wondered around (not too far) the streets. I think I had a few dollars in my pocket so we went into a little grocery store next to the hotel. Me, the big internationalist and linguist said "one kilo narancs", meaning one kilo oranges.

The guy was very friendly, I guess he knew whom he was dealing with, and patiently explained that here there is no kilo but pound. At least I think that was what he said. So, we bought two oranges. And, this was the story of my first American purchase.

2021 Halloween

As I mentioned it, my first day in this country happened to fall on Halloween. Neither I nor any of my traveling companions had any idea what Halloween was, what it did represent. It took a few years until I really understood the importance or rather the meaning of it. I purposely changed it from importance to meaning because as far as I am concerned it has absolutely no importance.

As I can see it this is a typical American event created to fill the gap between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. It is a chance for merchants to sell more candy, chocolates and silly costumes. I don't want to sound like a grouchy old man, which I probably am, but to me the entire Halloween thing is a waste of time and money. 

Some people go crazy about it and naturally go overboard, while some people really don't care about it at all. In our family, Abigail goes all crazy about Halloween. She thinks it is the holiday of holidays. Like this year, she dresses up as the black swan, went into Manhattan with her girlfriend who also dressed up like something else and were wandering the streets convinced that everybody was looking at them. If I dared to criticize Halloween I got rebuffed and called old and crazy. 

I bet if I ask anybody on the street about the meaning or origin of Halloween, not one person would be able to explain it. I know that Abigail has no clue.

I think that this year because of the virus the entire Halloween thing went flat. They had a parade in the Village but in our building for example there were no kids going around ringing doorbells asking for candy as it used to be done.

So, we bought a bunch of candies to give away but there were no takers. I think I will volunteer to help to reduce the backlog.    

Flying

Thinking back 67 years, it was an interesting experience flying. As I said before I don't think anybody ever flown a plane before. Traveling was not permitted in the old regime and even then since Hungary had limited air travel possibilities riding on an American airplane was a brand new experience.

For one, nobody spoke any English and thus we had no way understanding what the stewardesses (back then they were stewardesses) were saying. We were restricted to communicate with hand signals and loud Hungarian. People believe if they speak loud their language is more understandable.

When they gave us food we ate them, when they told us to go somewhere we did. Ailine food was something none of us experienced before. We sniffed and smelled the food when we couldn't figure out what they were. We all behaved like someone from a real third country.

At one point during the night, somebody looked out the window and thought he saw one engine on fire. In total panic, he called the stewardess over who in turn notified the pilot. Somebody came out of the cockpit, looked and said something to the stewardess, probably that these idiot Hungarians are getting on my nerve. Anyway, the fire turned out to be nothing, and we arrived safe and sound at our next stop.

At that time I decided that if I fly again and see anything outside my window I will keep it to myself. Let faith be at the controls.