The Good …
The Bad …
And the Ugly.
That is what I have to tell you about today.
What order do you want it in?
Let’s do it backwards—
The Ugly.
The Bad.
And the Good.
OK, let’s do “The Ugly” first.
Major League Baseball finally settled their differences and it is “Play Ball!” finally after 99 days of acrimony.
There is a bit of good in this, as there will be a full 162-game season, and lots of interesting changes, including the establishment of the universal designated hitter.
But the road to get to an agreement was as ugly as can be, and it put off a lot of people, who looked at these negotiations over millions of dollars of greed as so against what the current world is going through, what with “real” problems like COVID and a raging war in Europe.
People were turned off, but the two warring sides feel that this will all be better for the fans, who will now bear the brunt of their greed with higher prices related to everything related to the sport.
And we fans will just have to learn to like it.
Further, with the threat of games being permanently canceled, do you think that the two sides wanted a further public relations disaster if those games that were threatened to be canceled included the hallowed “Jackie Robinson Day” event that is held every year, which would have been among the next games on the chopping block if an agreement was not reached?
So yes, it is good that there is going to be baseball played, but the whole thing was as ugly as my feral-eaten garbage was yesterday, and the stench will remain.
“The Bad” …
Well, unlike baseball, this is the real world, and this really is bad, folks.
My son lost one of his jobs yesterday due to a cut in payroll at the business he worked at for the past year and a half or so.
What’s worse is that they strung him out for three weeks to tell him this, and if he didn’t call his former employer each week to find out his schedule, he might still be sitting at home wondering what was going on.
It is not as if this came as a total surprise.
After he was put on “furlough” for seven months by the firm he was working for, we got a tip from a long-time friend about this particular job, and he started off working five days a week there, part time but still 20 hours a week.
He was hired as a COVID clean-up person—wiping down shopping carts for customers—and also as a shopping cart person, retrieving these carts for people who shopped there.
As the rate of COVID diminished, he was let go from the job about a year ago and then quickly rehired … so goes COVID.
Anyway, in the interim, he got another job, a much better job, a job in the very same company that put him on furlough, a job where he works four days a week on a part-time basis, 16 hours a week.
So for several months he worked two jobs, but the job he eventually lost cut him down to one day a week, if he was lucky, so the job really became expendable, leading up to yesterday’s chop block move, which he was told had to do with cutting payroll and had nothing to do with his job performance, which was good.
So he now has the one job, and in the long run, he might just be better off with that situation.
If you live on Long Island, you know that the mall that the business operates in—Sunrise Mall in Massapequa—has a fate that is completely unknown at this stage, and current owners are asking tenants to terminate their leases, so that the owners can use the land for another purpose.
So, the store that he worked in—one of two successful stores in the entire mall—has a fate that isn’t good, so for once, a member of this family won’t go down with the ship when the business they work for is down and out.
“The Good”
“The Good” is not only really good, but it is stupendous!
My mother turns 91 years young today, and heck, let’s all rejoice!
She is doing well in this crazy world, and while she doesn’t get out and about as much as she used to do, she is still dong quite well.
In fact, we always tell her that she is probably the healthiest one of all of us in our house—including my wife, my son and I—and there is no stopping her at all.
We are going to have a lot of stuff going on during the next few days related to her birthday.
My sister and I are taking her out to dinner separately, making twice the fun, we will have a cake today for her, we will present her with a few gifts, and there is going to be a lot of laughs and fun for her over the next few days.
I wish my father was here to revel in all of this too, but he will be here in spirit, that’s for sure.
We often tell my mother that in this topsy turvy world we live in, her age is really reversed, and she is not 91 … she is really 19 years of age.
While he body tells her that that is not possible, her mind tells her that it is.
My family and my sister’s family are so blessed to have her with us … she is our Rock of Gibraltar, and she simply makes us stronger as a family and as people in general.
So happy 91st birthday mom … and many, many more!
That type of “Good” pretty much wipes out “The Bad” and “The Ugly,” wouldn’t you agree?
Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.
The Bad …
And the Ugly.
That is what I have to tell you about today.
What order do you want it in?
Let’s do it backwards—
The Ugly.
The Bad.
And the Good.
OK, let’s do “The Ugly” first.
Major League Baseball finally settled their differences and it is “Play Ball!” finally after 99 days of acrimony.
There is a bit of good in this, as there will be a full 162-game season, and lots of interesting changes, including the establishment of the universal designated hitter.
But the road to get to an agreement was as ugly as can be, and it put off a lot of people, who looked at these negotiations over millions of dollars of greed as so against what the current world is going through, what with “real” problems like COVID and a raging war in Europe.
People were turned off, but the two warring sides feel that this will all be better for the fans, who will now bear the brunt of their greed with higher prices related to everything related to the sport.
And we fans will just have to learn to like it.
Further, with the threat of games being permanently canceled, do you think that the two sides wanted a further public relations disaster if those games that were threatened to be canceled included the hallowed “Jackie Robinson Day” event that is held every year, which would have been among the next games on the chopping block if an agreement was not reached?
So yes, it is good that there is going to be baseball played, but the whole thing was as ugly as my feral-eaten garbage was yesterday, and the stench will remain.
“The Bad” …
Well, unlike baseball, this is the real world, and this really is bad, folks.
My son lost one of his jobs yesterday due to a cut in payroll at the business he worked at for the past year and a half or so.
What’s worse is that they strung him out for three weeks to tell him this, and if he didn’t call his former employer each week to find out his schedule, he might still be sitting at home wondering what was going on.
It is not as if this came as a total surprise.
After he was put on “furlough” for seven months by the firm he was working for, we got a tip from a long-time friend about this particular job, and he started off working five days a week there, part time but still 20 hours a week.
He was hired as a COVID clean-up person—wiping down shopping carts for customers—and also as a shopping cart person, retrieving these carts for people who shopped there.
As the rate of COVID diminished, he was let go from the job about a year ago and then quickly rehired … so goes COVID.
Anyway, in the interim, he got another job, a much better job, a job in the very same company that put him on furlough, a job where he works four days a week on a part-time basis, 16 hours a week.
So for several months he worked two jobs, but the job he eventually lost cut him down to one day a week, if he was lucky, so the job really became expendable, leading up to yesterday’s chop block move, which he was told had to do with cutting payroll and had nothing to do with his job performance, which was good.
So he now has the one job, and in the long run, he might just be better off with that situation.
If you live on Long Island, you know that the mall that the business operates in—Sunrise Mall in Massapequa—has a fate that is completely unknown at this stage, and current owners are asking tenants to terminate their leases, so that the owners can use the land for another purpose.
So, the store that he worked in—one of two successful stores in the entire mall—has a fate that isn’t good, so for once, a member of this family won’t go down with the ship when the business they work for is down and out.
“The Good”
“The Good” is not only really good, but it is stupendous!
My mother turns 91 years young today, and heck, let’s all rejoice!
She is doing well in this crazy world, and while she doesn’t get out and about as much as she used to do, she is still dong quite well.
In fact, we always tell her that she is probably the healthiest one of all of us in our house—including my wife, my son and I—and there is no stopping her at all.
We are going to have a lot of stuff going on during the next few days related to her birthday.
My sister and I are taking her out to dinner separately, making twice the fun, we will have a cake today for her, we will present her with a few gifts, and there is going to be a lot of laughs and fun for her over the next few days.
I wish my father was here to revel in all of this too, but he will be here in spirit, that’s for sure.
We often tell my mother that in this topsy turvy world we live in, her age is really reversed, and she is not 91 … she is really 19 years of age.
While he body tells her that that is not possible, her mind tells her that it is.
My family and my sister’s family are so blessed to have her with us … she is our Rock of Gibraltar, and she simply makes us stronger as a family and as people in general.
So happy 91st birthday mom … and many, many more!
That type of “Good” pretty much wipes out “The Bad” and “The Ugly,” wouldn’t you agree?
Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.
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