Rant #2,624: When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

I overslept today.
 
I admit it.
 
My allergies are haywire, and the old body just gave out last night into this morning, and I slept way past the time I normally wake up.
 
My left eye is bothering me today, tearing all over the place, and I am blowing my nose so much that it is ready to fall off.
 
That is what happens when the weather is so haywire, going from 89 to 40 and everything in between just over the course of a week or 10 days or so.
 
And then we have the wind and the rain, which isn’t helping me very much.
 
I know that the next two days are going to supposedly be fairly decent days, in the 50s, with some raindrops mixed in, but on Friday, the temperature is going down to the low 40s—and it just happens to be the day that I get my second vaccine shot.
 
The first time, we had to wait on a line outside to get inside, and at least that day was a nice one … it doesn’t look like this Friday will be that great.
 
As I have said, I’m not afraid of getting the shot at all—I am more afraid of everything surrounding my getting of that shot.
 
Let’s see what happens.
 
Maybe I need recreational pot to make me feel better.
 
On second thought, maybe not.
 
As you probably know, New York State just passed a bill that makes recreational marijuana use legal, and to that, I say bah!
 
This is nothing but a money grab, everyone knows it, but few will actually say it out loud.
 
People will now, within time, be able to buy marijuana, grow the plants in their homes, and basically use it when they want to use it.
 
People are likening it to our use of alcohol, but it is so different that that comparison really is a bogus one.
 
First of all, if you drink, you are imbibing the alcohol yourself.
 
No one else is getting any of the drink into them but you.
 
When you smoke pot, or when you smoke tobacco, there is second hand smoke, and if you are with people who are imbibing, then you are going to get it too.
 
And I don’t want it, not with my allergies, and that goes for marijuana and tobacco.
 
If it makes you feel better with your ills, get yourself medical marijuana, which is dispensed and regulated.
 
Also, for a society that says “follow the science” when we are talking about the coronavirus, it is funny—no, make that sad—that we are not doing the same with pot.
 
We still don’t know about the long-term effects of pot usage, although we do know that there ARE affects, including loss of brain cells, much like alcohol.

Heck, the Biden Administration even recognizes that, having recently relieved several members of the team from their responsibilities because of long-term pot use.
 
And we are putting the cart before the horse when we decriminalize marijuana before devising accurate tests to be used for drivers who are impaired.
 
We have accurate tests for drivers who get behind the wheel after they drink, but we do not yet have accurate tests related to smoking pot and getting behind the wheel.
 
We have been assured that they are being worked on right now, and that they are coming, but so is Christmas, as they say, and what’s the use of decriminalizing a drug if you can’t fully recognize it while testing drivers for DUI?
 
Look, New York State—and the country in general—is in the midst of not only a pandemic, but an opioid crisis that is killing people on a daily basis.
 
In my neck of the woods alone, opioid use is at an accelerated pace, especially among our youth, who don’t understand the dangers of using these drugs, drugs that are usually prescribed by doctors but which can be obtained on the black market.
 
Remember, a while back, I told you about my own doctor—my GP, who actually gave me my allergy shots each month--who was thrown in jail for dispensing opioids to kids around the corner of his office in our high school here.
 
Do you really think that this is the time to add another drug to the list of something that can be abused by kids—and you just know that kids are going to get hold of the pot, as they get hold of cigarettes and alcohol and the painkillers, too, and abuse them.
 
When we are fighting the scourge of opioid addiction, is this the time to make legal another drug to abuse?
 
There are so many other reasons to not make recreational marijuana use legal, but for it to happen in New York State really demonstrates the double talk we have been fed in the state for decades.
 
New York State was one of the first states to ban cigarette and tobacco use in certain situations, and the way it has promoted its anti-smoking campaign has been applauded by many, and irked others.
 
It has used TV commercials to tell us the dangers of smoking, commercials that have shown the very insides of people who smoke, the voice boxes that they have had to use to replace the ones that are cancerous, and the people who are hooked up to devices so that they can breath. We have even seen in these commercials people who have lost their limbs through smoking.
 
And now recreational marijuana use is legal, so aren’t we going against what this ad campaign has told us for years, that smoking is dangerous to your health?
 
As I said earlier, this is nothing but a money grab, and nothing else.
 
Every state that has legalized the drug has seen an increase in auto accidents, and we will certainly see it here.
 
We will see more people get addicted to drugs in general, because marijuana has always been thought of as a gateway drug to worse things, including heroin. You don’t start out using heroin, you start with pot and work your way to something harder.

And as for the argument that by decriminalizing the drug, we are making amends to certain communities which have been "targeted" by law enforcement for its drug use ... please, don't get me started.

Maybe there is a solid, valid reason these communities have been "targeted," as they say, for drug use and other infractions that go against the law?
 
But what do I know?
 
One poll after another suggests that New York State citizens want marijuana use legalized, with many polls saying that two-thirds of the state’s citizens want it to be legal.

I have no doubt that the majority of people will use pot in a responsible way, but those are the people we do not have to worry about.
 
But remember, once the cat is out of the bag, it will never go back in again, and with all the regulations that our legislators promise to watch over the drug once it is legal, you just know that just about every one of these regulations will end up being circumvented by enterprising pot smokers and others looking to make an even bigger buck.
 
For instance, you can only grow three pot plants in your home … please explain to me how this is going to be regulated?
 
So that cat IS out of the bag now, and no, I am not for it at all.
 
And I don’t look forward to “smelling that smell,” no way, no how.
 
The whole thing stinks. 

Rant #2,623: Eat to the Beat

It’s Passover, and I just finished off one box of matzoh for breakfast, eating the last board with cream cheese on it right before I sat down at the computer to tell you about it.
 
I just love matzoh, and so far, no ill effects, but as anyone who eats matzoh for the holiday knows, that could be coming.
 
Anyway, yesterday morning, I needed to go to the local supermarket to get rid of two bags of bottles and cans and to do a little shopping.
 
I got to the market early, and there was no one in the recycling area, so I made it through there in just a few minutes. Usually, the machines don’t work very well, and it takes forever, but this time, it went quite well, even though one of the machines was not working after I put just one bottle in.
 
But since that went pretty quickly, I was able to get into the store quickly, cash in my bottle receipts, and do what I came there for.
 
We needed paper plates—better than real plates if you are going to eat matzoh for breakfast, lunch and dinner—and we also needed hot dogs—which I love to eat with matzoh, with mustard all over it—and we also needed toothpaste—which we ran out of for the first time in a long time.
 
And when I retrieved all of these items, I though I would meander over to the Passover section—a separate section from the rest of the aisles in the store, which the store uses for different occasions as a flex area—and see what was left.
 
We are running out of matzoh and macaroons, so I thought I might be able to get reinforcements there, but when I got there, I completely forgot about what I really needed, because my eyes turned to see that they had not what I needed, but what I wanted—
 
Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola.
 
It is widely known that Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola is the top of the line of colas that come out during the course of the calendar year, because it is the only domestically produced Coke that uses real sugar as its sweetener.
 
During the rest of the year, Coke uses corn syrup, and while corn syrup probably has its virtues, it is not kosher.
 
So during Passover, Coke offers Kosher for Passover cola sweetened with real sugar, and boy, can you taste the difference.
 
It is smoother, and gives a better and bigger kick than the usual Coke with corn syrup.
 
But every year, it is being increasingly more difficult to find, and this year, I though I was going to have to settle for Kosher for Passover Pepsi and Dr. Brown’s instead of what literally is “the real thing.”
 
I was in the same supermarket the other day—King Kullen, by the way—and they did not have any of this type of Coke, and I do mean nothing. Then yesterday, I innocently go over to the Kosher for Passover section looking for something else, and what hits my eye? The good stuff, and you know it is the good stuff because it has the yellow cap that tells you that it is Kosher for Passover.
 
I bought two bottles and it was as if I had hit the lottery.
 
I know that even non-Jews wait for this time of year to get Kosher for Passover Coke, and in the old days, I even remember people buying boxes full of this stuff—like 12 20-oz, bottles at a time—and they would drink it throughout the year, held for special occasions.
 
Now, with the drink being scarce, you can’t do that—there were only about 18 or 20 bottles at the supermarket yesterday—but I figured that I should get my two bottles and be happy about it.
 
I truly thought that this would be the Passover where I would not be able to get the good stuff, but perseverance certainly paid off.
 
I had some yesterday, and boy, was it good!
 
Just as a side note, some stores, knowing that people love Coke sweetened with real sugar, have started to carry Mexican Coke in bottles. Mexican Coke is also sweetened with real sugar only—I don’t know the reason why—and they carry it throughout the year, and do it at a premium price.
 
I have had it, it is really good, but I am not going to pay exorbitant prices for Coke with real sugar, and I don’t have to if I just stock up during Passover with the kosher batch, but like I said, they are getting more difficult to find each year.
 
Look, I will drink the Pepsi and the Dr. Brown, but there is nothing like Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola. It is the version of Coke that I grew up with before the cheaper corn syrup replaced the real sugar as the drink’s sweetener, and while it is OK, there is nothing like “the real thing.”
 
So let me get back to my matzoh and my soda and my cream cheese—Temp Tee only please-and my tuna fish and my hot dogs and my macaroons and even my “from a mix” Kosher for Passover potato pancakes and let me eat the holiday away …
 
Is matzoh stomach coming?
 
Stay tuned, same Bat time, same Bat channel, and find out … . 

Rant #2,622: Hit Me With Your Best Shot

How was your weekend?
 
This is a big week coming up, at least for me.
 
Our Passover seders were good this past weekend, and the holiday continues.
 
I am truly in my glory this week, with matzoh my go-to food.
 
I have eaten up half a box at this point, and there is no stopping me, as I plan to finish that box and start another one.
 
And so far, so good with matzoh stomach, which may or may not reach these shores as I plug away at the matzoh.
 
Let’s see what happens.
 
And then we have baseball, and nothing goes better with matzoh than our national pastime (cream cheese is actually my first choice).
 
Major League Baseball begins its season on April 1, April Fool’s Day, but unlike last season—which was an abbreviated 60-game season which was altered by the coronavirus—this season is at least planned to operate on the usual 162-game schedule.
 
I guess in retrospect, the 2020 season was good for what it was, but to me, it wasn’t the baseball that I craved, in particular with a pandemic and a lot more time on my hands as I was out of work looking for a job. 

I could not bathe my sorrows into a full season, because what we got was, to me, a Strat-O-Matic season, not anything that you could sink your teeth into.
 
The 2021 season promises to be the real deal, so I can’t wait for it to begin … and I think most baseball fans would agree with me.
 
And then we have Friday, April 2, which I hope is not a day that will live in infamy in my life, but based on past experience, I have to keep all options open.
 
On Friday, I am set to receive my second coronavirus vaccine shot, and again, based on past experience, I am dreading the experience …
 
Not the getting of the shot, which is a piece of cake for me, as I get shots all the time based on my monthly allergy shots.
 
I am dreading the experience based on the horror show I went through three weeks ago at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, a place that is better know for horseracing than for vaccinations.
 
I kind of felt like a horse at this place, and during my time there waiting to get vaccinated—and then waiting to get out of there—I kind of felt like a horse that was waiting for his fate at the glue factory … it was absolutely horrible.
 
The place was mismanaged, truly overwhelmed by what was gong on, and nothing went smoothly, from check-in—they could not find my name, and found out it was entered in the reverse, with my last name my first name and my first name as my last name, even though my paperwork was correct—to the check-out—where the final interminable line we had to stand on was made even worse by some people on the line deciding that since they received their first shot, they did not have to wear their masks anymore.
 
It was a horror show, and at least I know that I won’t have to wait on another line to check out, since this presumably is the second and final shot of the Pfizer series, so this is it.
 
I have received some better reports about Belmont, so maybe things have gotten better there.
 
And then there is the aftermath … I am not expecting anything to happen to me after getting the shot, but I know some people who have suffered after getting their second shot, and others who have not had anything at all … so let’s see that happens.
 
I have until Friday to worry about that.
 
So what do I do in the interim?
 
Do my remote job, do things around the house, go on the computer and the Internet, listen to and digitize some records, take my son to and from work, make dinner once or twice this week, do the wash a few times, help my mom out … believe me, my day is a full one, and I might even have some time to watch TV a bit.
 
So this should be a very interesting week for me, personally, and as we take baby steps to get back to normal, it should be an interesting week for a lot of people.
 
This is the holiday break for a lot of us, the confluence of Passover and Easter, and a lot of people are off from their jobs and off from school.
 
They will have plenty of time on their hands to take a break from whatever their normal schedules may be, and look forward to their respective holidays, if they follow them.
 
Otherwise, it is time to just wind down and relax for a few days.
 
Me, I don’t really know what relaxation is.
 
I have a big week ahead of me, and I am looking forward to it.
 
And as for Belmont, as Pat Benatar says, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”
 
I am ready for anything, and I am certainly ready to get that second shot in my arm.
 
Once that happens, and I am out of that place, then I will know what the word “relaxation” really means ...

I think.

Fire away!

Rant #2,621: Holiday

Happy Friday!
 
We are nearly at the finish line of the week!
 
Hooray!
 
I have had a typical semi-retirement week.
 
Some days have been busy, some days have been just the opposite.
 
But I have always found things to do to keep me occupied.
 
One of the things that I have kept myself occupied with is planning for Passover, which begins at sunset on Saturday.
 
It is probably my favorite of all the Jewish holidays, because it is 1,000-percent family oriented.
 
You get together with your loved ones, you do the seder, you discuss why this night is different from all other nights, and you eat until you can’t get up from your chair at the table.
 
And you have matzoh, which I love so much that it often gives me “matzoh stomach” because I eat too much of it.
 
The coronavirus certainly has shaped our seder, and it did last year.
 
But in my family, the absence of my father will shape the seders we have—one each on the first two nights of the holiday—even more.
 
My father was the patriarch of our family, our male link to our past, and his absence will certainly be felt … but he would certainly want us to go on with the traditions of the holiday, so we are going to do it as best as we can.
 
Here is what I wrote just a year ago about Passover, in Rant #2,382, dated April 8, 2020. Remember, we were really just at the beginning of the pandemic when we celebrated the holiday last year. Now we are in something of the stretch run of the virus, we hope, but it bears worth mentioning again what I said, so here it is in edited form:
 
“Passover is one of the most joyous holidays celebrated by Jews the world over.
 
This year, when we ask the four questions beginning with "Why is this night different from other nights?," we will certainly have an answer to that question that we never thought we would ever have in our lifetimes.
 
We are celebrating the eight-day holiday with seders that will be quite different from any we have had before.
 
Due to the coronavirus and social distancing edicts, this most joyous of family holidays will be celebrated in isolation from our loved ones. Instead of having friends and family at our Passover table, we will simply have those who we are closest with, figuratively and literally.
 
In my house, where my parents live on the first floor and my family lives on the second, we are going to have two seders. Sure, the five of us--myself, my wife and son, and my parents--do interact with each other, we feel it is safer, in particular since my wife is on the front lines as a bank teller. My father, in particular, is susceptible to just about anything due to his recent physical problems, so we feel it is better just to celebrate alone this year.”
 
But nothing stops Passover, not even a pandemic.
 
Here is what I wrote about Passover in Rant No. 1,185, dated April 14, 2014. Although edited a bit, it still stands true in 2021:
 
"For Jews around the world, Passover is here, which means the first seder, the first of two seders during the eight-day observance, will be held.
 
Passover celebrates the Jews' flight from Egypt in Biblical times, and it also solidifies the fact that the Jewish religion remains a strong one.
 
It is a family holiday, one where young and old alike gather to go over the traditions of the holiday, first and foremost, and at the center of the celebration, the recitation of "The Four Questions."
 
Matzoh signifies the most visible link to the holiday.
 
When the Jews, who were kept in slavery by the Egyptians but were later expelled, fled Egypt, they had to do it quickly. Whatever foodstuffs they brought with them had to be used quickly, and thus, any materials that they used to create bread did not have time to rise, and became a cracker-like food known as matzoh.
 
So matzoh, rather than bread, is eaten on this holiday, and personally, I love matzoh, and for eight days, that is what I exist on.
 
Matzoh may be the most visible link to Passover, but the most important link during the holiday is known as "The Four Questions," when the youngest children attending the seder ask the adults "Why is this night different than all other nights?"
 
Actually, anyone can read "The Four Questions," but the younger people usually do it. It is the real centerpiece of the celebration, and it is something that all participants look forward to.
 
The first two nights are the seder nights, with families gathering to look at the Jews' flight from Egypt, and the modern seders are real family gatherings, with the traditions reinforced.
 
Modern influences are also included, and new Kosher for Passover foods are always being created to whet the appetites of all who are present.
 
And other things permeate the seder, including world events.
 
The holiday takes lots of preparation, lots of cooking, but it is all well worth it.”
 
Yes it does, and yes, it is all well worth it.
 
My family will have a small, somewhat impromptu seder on Saturday, and then on Sunday, we will have the the main seder at my sister’s house.
 
They have all had the coronavirus, have had their shots, and are doing well.
 
Our family has not had the virus, but my mother has had her two shots, I have had one, and my wife and son will get their shots somewhere down the line.
 
It will be a great weekend, but when we look to the head of the table, my father won’t be there.
 
That will take some getting used to, but we will have our seder knowing that he is there in spirit, and that spirit carries over to each and every one of us.
 
To my Jewish friends, have a great holiday, and to all, have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.