Rant #2,864: Allergies

Today is March 31,  2022, the 90th day of the year.
 
And my allergies are really, really bothering me today.
 
I am having problems seeing clearly out of my left eye, and it is tearing up and presenting me with some problems right now.
 
When I get this way, it takes about two hours or so to fix itself, so I am looking at the 8:00 a.m. hour before I can see the right way again.
 
My nose is also running pretty badly today, so right now, I am something of a mess.
 
What is causing all of this agita for me?
 
It is certainly the weather, which has become really weird in my neck of the woods in recent days.
 
On Monday, we barely got into the 30s in temperature, and today, we are goi8ng to be about 25 degrees warmer than we were yesterday, when we were in the low 40s, so we might hit the high 60s or even the low 70s if we are lucky … and yes, rain is in the forecast too.
 
Now, I don’t have to tell you how this type of temperature change impacts you if you are an allergy sufferer like me, but if you aren’t—and you should thank your lucky stars for that, as it is a curse to suffer like I do—let me tell you about it.
 
Such a rapid shift in temperature opens up things in our environment that should not be here at this time of year, increases the various pollen counts exponentially—including that for the dreaded tree pollen—and makes people like me as miserable as can be.
 
I get my monthly allergy shots religiously, and I guess that helps protects me from such instances getting much worse than they already are, but quite frankly, there is nothing someone like me can do about the situation.
 
I pretty much just have to wait it out and hope for the best.
 
I went outside to get the newspaper out of the driveway, and it was pretty warm outside, but everything was wet, as if we had already experienced some rain.
 
And then I brought the paper into the house, started to eat breakfast, and found that I really could not focus on the newsprint at all, and I barely got through one story while eating my cereal.
 
Things did not get much better when I went on the computer and started to write this Rant, so here I am, rubbing my eyes while I try to focus on the words that I am typing out on my computer screen.
 
It ain’t an easy task, and thank goodness for spell check.
 
I will be OK, but it is going to take some time for my eyes to acclimate themselves so I can see clearly again.
 
And I say this as I wipe another tear from my left eye.
 
Over my nearly 65 years, I have to say that I have learned to live with days like this, and today will become just another blip on the radar in due time.
 
You know, a number of years ago, Paul Simon put out a single whose A side was a song called “Allergies,” a single which I snapped up when it was released without even hearing the song before purchasing it.
 
I figured that if he could name a song “Allergies,” it was almost as if the song was calling out to me to buy it.
 
It is a decent song, not one of Simon’s best, but still highly listenable. It reached #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983, so like today is for me, the song was basically a blip on his career radar for Simon.
 
Here are the lyrics to the song, as posted on the azlyrics.com site:
 
“Maladies
Melodies
Allergies to dust and grain
Maladies
Remedies
Still these allergies remain
My hand can't touch a guitar string
My fingers just burn and ache
My head intercedes with my bodily needs
And my body won't give it a break
My heart can stand a disaster
My heart can take a disgrace
But my heart is allergic
To the women I love
And it's changing the shape of my face
Allergies
Allergies
Something's living on my skin
Doctor please
Doctor please
Open up it's me again
I go to a famous physician
I sleep in the local hotel
From what I can see of the people like me
We get better
But we never get well
So I ask myself this question
It's a question I often repeat
Where do allergies go
When it's after a show
And they want to get something to eat?
Allergies
Allergies
Something's living on my skin
Doctor please
Doctor please
Open up it's me again
Maladies
Melodies
Allergies to dust and grain
Maladies
Remedies
Still these allergies remain”
 
I guess I can relate to those lyrics, especially the line “Still these allergies remain.”
 
I have had these allergies my whole life, and to my chagrin, they simply are not going to go away.

Rant #2,863: One Hit (To the Body)

Although millions upon millions of people will say they actually saw what happened live and in real time, we know that the past Academy Awards telecast was one of the lowest-rated Oscar shows ever.
 
What millions who didn’t watch the show—me included, I haven’t watched these shows in years—did see on replay after replay after replay was Chris Rock being assaulted by Will Smith.
 
Rock, one of the most popular comedians of his generation, made a joke in reference to Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her ailment, alopecia, an affliction where seemingly healthy people all of a sudden lose their hair.
 
The comic said something to the effect that Pinkett Smith would be in line for the next “G.I. Jane” film, with her non-existent coif like Demi  Moore had in the film, and her husband--one of the most popular actors of his generation--went up to the podium and slapped Rock silly, then yelled to the comic to never say his wife’s name again.
 
The replay was shown ad nauseum on every show imaginable, and a lot of people thought it was a set up, even though, evidently, it wasn’t.
 
The Academy did not remove Smith from the audience after his act, obviously because he ended up winning an Academy Award a few minutes later.
 
Look, there are so many various aspects of this nonsense that one can talk about a few days after the fact, but I think the one thing that it might be good to focus on is the emergence of “trash culture” as the predominant culture that our country—and perhaps the world—follows now.
 
“Trash culture” has always been around, or at least it has been around since the 20th century, when the movies made people of dubious distinction famous.
 
It may have started with Fatty Arbuckle and his sexual peccadilloes during the silent era, or it might have continued with Charlie Chaplin’s predilection for young girls, but by the time the 1950s came, celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Elvis Presley and even Jerry Lee Lewis fostered this culture into the national consciousness.
 
TV just added fuel to the fire, and became the roost of a number of “trash culture” icons, including the Gabor sisters and even Ed Sullivan and the skirmishes he had with the talent on his show, such as Jackie Mason.
 
This continued unabated into the 1970s through the present time, with people like Richard Pryor, Pamela Anderson and right now, the Kardashians, and everyone associated with that family, providing fuel for that fire.
 
“Trash Culture” really is undefined, but it has to do with people who revel in excess of one kind or another, and do things that at one time were whispered about … but in today’s world, everything is out in the open and treated as real “news.”
 
In days past, you had various newspaper columns whose very existence was based on “trash culture,” including Earl Wilson’s rag sheet, which described in veiled references this one sleeping with that one and this actress wearing a plunging neckline to show off her ample bosom.

Press agents gave their eye teeth to get one of these references in for one of their clientele, and this column was the place to go to find out about such stuff.
 
Today, everything is so out in the open with the Internet that Earl Wilson’s type of column is as passé as Betamax tapes are.
 
News is generated not just by the news services, but also by shows like “Entertainment Tonight” and “The View,” the latter being the absolute nadir of “trash culture” in our world today.
 
So you have Smith hitting Rock and it becomes a larger story than the war in the Ukraine and the pandemic … combined!
 
Every news show worth its salt covered this non-event as if the two had just landed on the moon, and some news shows even spoke to psychologists and alopecia specialists to get a different glint on what had happened.
 
It is simple what had happened, and it didn’t demand such news coverage as it received.
 
We have forgotten how to laugh at one another and our own human peccadilloes.
 
That is the basis of comedy, and has been since the beginning of time.
 
A fat woman trips on a banana peel, we laugh.
 
Today, such a scene would be derided by organizations representing people with weight problems.
 
So in the current instance, we have a comedian, perhaps pushing the envelope a bit, but still making fun of a human foible, and doing it not directly, but by using a movie reference during an Oscars telecast.
 
A “gallant” man wants to defend the honor of his wife, and punches the comedian.
 
World headlines ensue.
 
“Trash culture” wins out again.
 
And you can bet that Pinkett Smith will soon pose in a bikini to demonstrate how one can live with alopecia … it wouldn’t be the first time, you know.
 
Yes, we live in a very sick world, and “trash culture” pretty much adds to that sickness.
 
And when the Kardashians' newest series draws record ratings, you will just know that yes, we have gone off the deep end …
 
And done it without a life preserver.
 
Good luck to us all, because we definitely need it.

Rant #2,862: Remember the Time

Today, March 29, is a day like any other day for most of us.
 
But today is an actual holiday, but you would never know it if you look at your desk calendar, because it probably is not listed on there.
 
And this holiday is eerily tied into the conflict that is going on in Europe right now, or it will be if we go against our gut and get further involved in the Ukraine.
 
We should think about today’s holiday, remember what the repercussions are when we step into someone else’s war, and hold back as much as we can from getting fully involved, even if we are being goaded into doing so.
 
It is not worth it to set off World War III for the sake of saving the Ukraine.
 
So what is today’s holiday that few people know about?
 
Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day, a holiday that was created to honor those who served during what was perhaps this country’s most hated and reviled war.
 
The Vietnam War lasted in total about 20 years, with our main participation being from about 1963 to 1973.
 
It was a battle between communist forces in North Vietnam and non-communist forces in South Vietnam, and once France gave up its governance of the area in the early 1950s, we stepped in, assuming financial and military support for South Vietnam.
 
Other countries got involved, and the war escalated for the entirety of the 1960s and into the early 1970s, with thousands of U.S. soldiers serving their country there in a war that we really could not win.
 
This was not a war where everyone on the home front did what they could to support our participation in; it was the direct reverse of that, with the 1960s and Baby Boomers being staunch opponents of the war and our participation in it.
 
During the years of this war, our country lost an estimated 58,000 soldiers, and many more were injured, some severely.
 
But during the years of the war, those who fought on the front lines were considered to be cowards by many in the U.S. population, and unlike in other ware, they generally came home with little fanfare and a lot of hate from their fellow citizens.
 
It has taken decades to try to fix all of that and make it right, make these veterans as heralded as veterans of other wars, but many Vietnam vets still bear the stigma of what they did, which was to serve their country on the front lines, which should never have been considered anything but them doing their patriotic duty, but it was frowned upon by many in this country.
 
One of the things that needed to be done was that the perception of those serving in Vietnam needed to change, and it has over time, and thus, an element of this was that a day needed to be set up where Vietnam vets were heralded for their work, just like other veterans were during other conflicts the U.S. has participated in over the generations.
 
On Mar. 28, 2017, the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act was signed. This act officially recognizes March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.
 
The day isn’t publicized as much as other holidays—including the greater and all encompassing Veterans Day—but to those who served in Vietnam, it is an incredibly important day, because it gives credence to their duty in that conflict, a duty that was snubbed by the American public for decades.
 
Tributes and special events are held all day to honor these veterans, some as simple as giving out lapel pins to those who served in the war to larger events not only celebrating these veterans but also those who never made it home.
 
The other day, there was a ceremony highlighting the groundbreaking of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial’s groundbreaking, which took place 40 years ago, which stands as a permanent reminder of the valor and dignity displayed by those who fought in Vietnam.
 
And have we learned anything since the Vietnam War?
 
We should have learned that we should stay out of others’ conflicts, but it is only several months ago that our participation in Afghanistan ended, another lost war where thousands of Americans perished.
 
And now we have this conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, where Russia is not only trying to stake its claim in the Ukraine, but it is trying to obliterate it in the process.
 
The Ukrainian president is trying to goad us into that conflict, demanding more and more weapons to fight off the Russians, but also to patrol its airspace and to shoot down Russian planes, which would put us directly in the center of this war.
 
Thus far, we have done everything we can to help the Ukrainians except for patrolling the air space, and the Ukrainians keep on demanding more and more and more.
 
Let’s remember what happened a generation ago in Vietnam … let’s help the Ukrainians in every way possible, but let’s not step into a war that has nothing to do with us.
 
We should learn from what happened in Vietnam, and that is why although most people do not even know it exists, today’s National Vietnam War Veterans Day is perhaps one of the most important holidays on the calendar, because with what is currently happening in Eastern Europe, it forces us to remember what happened in Southeast Asia a generation ago.
 
Do we want to repeat the mistakes that we made then, the most prominent being getting involved in a war that we should have stayed away from to begin with?
 
Hopefully, lessons were learned from our participation in that conflict, and the one in Afghanistan, but time will tell if it is truly “lessons learned” or “back to school” in our handling of this newest war that we have to make major and serious decisions on.

Today's National Vietnam War Veterans Day forces us to not make the mistakes we made in the conflict, and also honors those who simply did their duty as Americans.

Let's never forget their sacrifice.

Rant #2,861: Relax

Today is National Hot Tub Day, so that industry tells me that I can relax.
 
The problem is that I don’t own a hot tub, and I have things on my plate to take care of, so I can’t relax.
 
Perhaps if things were different, and I had a hot tub, I could relax, but the fact of the matter is that I don’t … and I can’t.
 
Exactly one month from today, I celebrate my birthday, and it is a big one, the 65th birthday of my existence on earth, and I will really and truly be a “senior citizen” by definition, even though I don’t feel like one.
 
Fred Mertz from “I Love Lucy” … now that was a senior citizen.
 
Me, I feel like a young’un compared to Fred, more like Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show” than like dear old Fred.
 
But in reality, I am more like Fred now than Opie, and how old was actor William Frawley when he played Fred? Was he even 65 years of age?
 
Nope. When the show started in 1951, he was the same age that I am now, 64 years of age.
 
I don’t think I look as old as dear old Fred did back then, but maybe to some real young’uns, I do.
 
And this is a very important week for me as far as my health is concerned.
 
This is the final week that I have to use my horrid interim health plan, the one I was forced to get by the government because I lost my health insurance when my wife retired, as the health insurance that my family had all came from her place of work.
 
This health insurance is absolutely horrid, and I have had problems with it from the get-go.
 
I vowed not to use it for the five months that I have had it, but I did have a few prior appointments to fulfill … and as expected, I paid through the nose for them, with my bills being four times as much as they were when I was under my wife’s plan.
 
Now, this week, on April 1—yes, April Fools Day—I can put that all behind me, as I will officially dovetail into Medicare, and can use that and the supplementary plan I have to get the best bang for my health insurance buck.
 
Sure, I have to pay for Medicare—which is reprehensible, as it has to come out of my monthly Social Security payment, which is miniscule to begin with—but it cannot be as bad as what I had … even the doctors I have had to visit have concurred that the plan I had was the worst possible plan, so I figure that Medicare just has to be better …
 
No assumptions here, because as you know, once you assume something … 
 
So let’s say that I hope Medicare is better than what I once had … and for those of you out there that don’t have to use Medicare because your retirement benefits allow you to use what you have been using, just kiss the floor that you don’t have to go through what I have been through since my wife left her job.
 
It has been an experience—and not a Jimi Hendrix Experience—to say the least.
 
So I just have to get through today, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, and if I can successfully maneuver those days, I can chuck my current insurance card into the garbage pail and move on to Medicare.
 
And to even alert both New York State and the insurance company that I would not be using their services anymore was a chore in itself, so when I chuck the current insurance card, I will bury it way down in the garbage pail for good measure.
 
But the pain reverberates, as I will have to pay the federal government in taxes for the three months I used this horrid plan, because whatever stipend I got from New York State to pay for the plan is considered earned income by the feds, so I look at it as the health plan that keeps on giving …
 
Giving me agita.
 
But at least it will be over and done with by the time I have to pay my taxes for 2023.
 
Hooray for that!
 
So this week, I just have to get through today and the three days after that, and I will be home free.
 
No lightning striking me … no trips or falls … no falling down the stairs … no nothing this week.
 
I have to keep safe so that I can kiss this insurance goodbye!
 
And it all leads into my birthday month, which I hope will be a good one.
 
But all the fun begins on April 1, April Fool’s Day, so I have to be wary of that …
 
No, there is no relaxation for me at all.
 
But happy National Hot Tub Day to all anyway.
 
Everybody into the pool!