Abigail

I might be old fashioned, yes, I am. I have old ideas, yes, I do. But as I wrote earlier those are all good things. When I criticize Abigail, her retort is that I am old, and I think the old ways. Well, those things worked for me, and I am sure they would work for anybody else. 

I noted before, Abigail is a good student. She studies hard and gets good grades (mostly). But she is also a social butterfly. Hates to be alone, always need a friend nearby. There is nothing wrong with that if it does not cost any gradepoints.

I never ever heard studying together with other people who have nothing in common with the others are studying. And that is exactly what Abigail loves to do. She gets together with her girlfriend, and they study together. The friend studies photography while Abigail studies forensic science. There is absolutely no common subject that they could do together.

Abigail's boyfriend studies accounting, yet they like to study together. In my book that kind of studying has absolutely no value. Friends can not stop talking to each other, and unless they concentrate on their work that kind of studying has zero value.

But what do I know. I am an old stogie who is behind the times. At least that is what I am being told.

April 4

Yesterday, Monday was April 4. During the Soviet era that was a national holiday in Hungary. That was the day when the soviet army liberated Hungary from the Nazis. Actually, while Budapest was liberated in January, the last of the Germans were kicked out of Hungary by April 4. Once the regime changed this day stopped to be a holiday.

Now, here is my take on April 4. I was in the Budapest ghetto from December 1944 until about the middle of January 1945. The ghetto was surrounded with a wall, no exit, no entrance. The few access openings were guarded by armed Hungarian nazis, the Arrow Cross thugs. On that particular day of January 1945, we awoke to a very quiet day. No noises, no shootings, nothing. Very eerie. Some brave elements went toward the wall and noticed that all the guards were gone. Once we heard that we started to go outside the wall. Scared and careful.

Not a person in sight. Suddenly a truck approached. It was a Russian military truck loaded up with bread. It stopped front of us, and they started to distribute the bread. At that time we were starving and the bread was welcomed wit thanks and tears.

After we went back to our living quarters, packed up and started to go back to our homes. We all had our homes from which we were taken earlier by the nazis. As we were walking on the street we came up a line of Russian soldiers, blocking the street, with knives in their hands. Oyvey, I would have said if I knew Yiddish. Naturally we all got very scared.

What these soldiers did was that they cut the yellow star of David off our outer garments that we were still wearing. They made us understand that this was of no importance anymore, we were free.

I know that the soviets did a lot of bad things in Hungary but as far as I am concerned if they didn't liberate us at that time I would by dead. For me April 4 is still Liberation Day.

Spring?

It supposed to be springtime. Spring usually ushers in nice and mild weather, the end of winter. But this time I think winter likes it so much that it does not want to leave. In short, it is uncomfortably cold and wet. According to New York City law apartment buildings must provide heat when the outside temperature drops below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Well, lately it does not go much above 45 degrees, and that is pretty uncomfortable for my old bones. 

This world is going to the dogs. Nothing is like it supposed to be or as we are used to it. The trouble with living long is that we get used to things and when those things change, we complain. But complaining is a right we, old(er) people have. In today's world we don't have too many rights but complaining is one of the few.

There are two reasons we complain. One of the two is because we know better. We lived long, we did everything and with that come experience. As much as we remember everything we did was done perfectly. And that gives us the right to complain.

The other reason we complain is comfort. Every change in our lives come with exerting more energy than we really want to. That makes these changes uncomfortable and that is a capital reason for complaining.

Putting these two elements together, and God created the grouchy old men.

Sunday

 This week I was good. Did not forget anything. So, today I rest.

April 1

April first is April Fool/s day. We used to play tricks on our friends. parents, family members and anybody near us. Unfortunately, life is so screwed up that this custom went out of style. There are so many problems, issues in life that scaring somebody just for the fun of it could have the opposite effect. 

Everybody is on edge with the constant terrible news in the media. Crime, war, economy, virus. There is really no room for pulling a joke on someone. So, on these bases the first of the month came and went without any ballyhoo. Just as well.

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Technology is great. I love to watch webcams, and my two favorite webcam locations is a Vermont ski place and my favorite Caribbean island of St. Maarten. In winter it is very interesting to keep switching between these locations. One has a temperature of about 10 degrees Fahrenheit while the other is in the 80s and people are bathing in the warm Caribbean waters.

Since I like both I can not make up my mind where I would rather like to be. But this is no problem because I am only in my living room in NY with no plans to be at any of these places. But I can dream, right? Thanks for the technology.

Ukraine, again

 Back to Ukraine

In my opinion if I am asking for help, asking for assistance, the worst thing to do is demand. Demanding will not result in anything but being scorned. But that is exactly what the Ukrainian PM is doing. He is demanding, and harshly criticizing those who don't provide what he demands.

I am not saying that he is not smart, and he does not have his country's interest in heart, but does he not realize that fulfilling his demands would definitely lead to WWIII. No one country is worth starting a new world war and nobody in his right mind want to create an excuse for such a calamity.

I think Zelensky is so narrow sighted that he does not care about the possible outcomes if his demands are met. It seems to me that in his thinking if his country goes down then might as well the rest of Europe should go down, too. 

We already lived through WWII and it was terrible. To start another WW is unconscionable because I believe we have no idea how terrible that could be. Furthermore the last world war skipped the US but now with the improved technology there is no place on Earth that could be safe from destruction. Now, I wonder if Mr. Z knows this or even cares.

Booster

So far, we were advised to take a booster shot after the first two vaccine shots. This booster was not what they hoped it to be. There were several complications with it, dormant illnesses came to life and other medical issues surfaced. They were pushing the booster on 65+ people. I guess that is the class of people that cost the most.

They are mostly retired, collect Social Security and use Medicare. So, they are non-productive. These are the ones they want to get rid of. But not enough took to the bait, and they had to come up with another solution. And that solution is the fourth shot or second booster shot for people over 50. This supposed to be for the omicron subvariant that is spreading. I have no idea what omicron subvariant is but I don't believe them at all.

I am convinced they came up with it because not enough older people died and this fourth shot might help the statistics. I will not take any boosters until it becomes absolutely necessary for my everyday life. I just don't trust the system and the explanations they come up with.

This entire thing is so controversial and ridiculous and political that my head is spinning from all the stories and comments I hear. It is a joke when politicians talk like medical experts and give advise to us mortals. That alone is enough to lose it credibility.