Rant #3,381: Had Enough

No, I did not watch the presidential debate last night. I fell asleep really early as a result of what became a very busy day related to work and other things I needed to do.

But I really don't think i missed very much of anything.

People like me, called "double haters," are supposedly going to decide this election.

I will absolutely not be voting for either Joe Biden or Donald Trump during thus election, but it is said that people who dislike both of them will eventually give in, and vote for one against the other.

Staunch Democrats are going to vote for Biden, while staunch Republicans are going to vote for Trump, so, as usual, that leaves independent voters--who aren't in bed with either party--to decide who is going to win this thing.

And as "double haters," as we are now known, most of us are eventually going to go ome way or the other.

Not me--

I wouldn't vote for Biden because I don't agree with any of his policies, or, for that matter, any policies proferred by the Democrats.

As for Trump, I simply cannot and will not vote for him again, certainly not after he egged on those imbeciles during the Insurrection.

His crybaby behavior after losing the election was also revolting.

But the funny thing is that with him being attacked at every angle, and now as a felon, I believe he is going to win this time around, because he is going to get a large sympathy vote ... 

These subsequent court appearances, trials, and losses have made him something of a sympathetic figure to a wide swath of Americans, and I think in the long run, it will all benefit him, in a bizarro-world-that-we-live-in sort of way.

I do believe the election will be a close one, maybe as close as the last one.

And if Trump loses, let's not hear about the election being stolen from him again.

Enough is enough.

Well, if i am not voting for Biden or Trump, just who am i voting for?

in the past, when I was dissatisfied with the two major candidates, I often voted for myself as a write-in candidate.

I never voted for either Bush father and son, and in 1980, I voted for John Anderson, so I have done this before.

I honestly have no idea who I am going to vote for, but it definitely won't be Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who I feel is a bit of a goofball.

Nikki Haley? ... Aaron Judge? ... Mickey Mouse?

I have no idea at the moment.

And do you think that i will be the only one to vote outside the box?

You can bet that this time around, I will be joined by millions of others who simply cannot vote for Biden or Trump--

Or they will simply leave those spaces blank on the ballot, and vote for no one.

I truly do not feel that it is a wasted non-vote.

At least for me, it cements the fact that i am completely and totally turned off by Biden and Trump, and the only way I can make my feelings known is to not vote for either one.

I won't tell you how to vote, but I wish more people would do what I am going to do.

It would send a direct message to the winner--and to the loser too--that these two candidates are horrible, and we need better choices in 2028 and into the future.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday. 

Rant #3,380: Shop Around

Just picking up from yesterday, I continued to digitize my Rolling Stones singles in between work and everything else I had to do during the day.

I finally finished, but to keep that vibe going, next up are several solo Stones singles I have in my collection from Bill Wyman, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

Should be fun.

My wife and I did our weekly food shopping today, or at least a portion of it.

We go to the local dollar store once a week, and we have been doing that since they started to do business in our neck of the woods at least a decade ago.

We have found that we can save money in our weekly food shopping--which we usually do on Friday morning--by doing at least a little bit of it in the dollar store.

And with food and grocery prices going sky high, it has become a necessity to shop in these stores.

And now that I am up and about, I see thst we are spending much more at the dollar store than we used to.

Part of it is certainly the fact that the dollar stores aren't really that anymore--

They charge a minimum $1.25 per item, with some items priced as high as $5.

But even so, and with this new pricing in place, before I hurt myself, I was spending about $16, $17 or $18 a week in the dollar store.

Now, slightly less than a year later, I am spending anywhere from $25 to $30 a week in these stores.

My wife and I are buying more cleaning products, more snacks, and more beverages in these stores, and we are doing it in an attempt to keep our costs down.

Still, last week, I spent $170 fir groceries at Walmart, which means I would have spent upwards if $200 if I shopped elsewhere.

Prices are ridiculous, and our groceries are for three people ... but when you add up our main grocery shopping, our dollar store shopping, and the shopping that my wife and son do, we are spending from $200 to $250 a week on groceries per week.

And it is not like we are buying stuff we don't really need.

We are buying things that are necessary for our quality of life, keeping it at the level we are accustomed to, or even slightly less.

I cannot tell you how many times I have checked out a price on an item and put the item back on the shelf because it costs too much.

We buy plenty of store brands to try and keep our grocery bill down, but even some of these items are outtasite as far as price is concerned.

We do count our pennies, but I really don't know whst else we can do to keep our grocery bills down.

And no, Social Security doesn't really help, and no, my son, at least, does not qualify for SNAP ... because he makes too much money (if you knew how much money he makes each week from his part-time job, you would shake your head as we do).

Thank God I have my little job, and my wife is furiously trying to find a part-time job.

She has another interview today, but like what i went through a while back, ageism definitely exists--

But go prove it.

So we are doing the best we can with what we have, but at least we know thst it isn't just us ...

There are millions of families going through the same thing.

We will survive, but something has to give, don't you think?

Rant #3,379: We Love You

As regular readers of this Blog well know, I have a massive record collection of some 10,000 pieces.

Also, those same people also know that since my family and I moved to a much smaller residence, I was forced to put my LPs in storage, which pains me, but there is simply no space to keep my albums in our small apartment.

But my singles have come with me.

I have all my 45s in our apartment, and I am having a grand old time digitizing them so I can listen to them in the car.

I could literally go years until I digitized all of my 45s, but I have vowed to try to do so for all 5,000 or so of them.

When I have time, I try to do at lesst one a day, sometimes more if I can.

It eats away a lot of time, keeps me active in between the work i have to do, and it is just a lot of fun to listen to records I, in some cases, probably haven't listened to in decades 

I try to pick records to digitize at random, and sometimes I digitize everything I have of a particular artist, and other times, I do just a few of a particular artist's singles and then I move on to another artist.

Right now, I am on a Rolling Stomes binge.

I have more than two dozen of their singles, stretching from 1965 to just about the present time.

And I have to tell you, it is a lot of fun to rediscover an artist that I haven't listened to in a long time.

Some of the Stones' singles I have digitized over the past 20 years or so, but I found that several of their 45s haven't been put through this process yet, for whatever reason.

Such was the case for one of my favorite singles of theirs, "Dandelion" backed with "We Love You."

I have no idea why I never digitized this single, as I have had this record in my collection for several decades.

So this afternoon, after I did what work I had--a couple of stories to edit--I set about digitizing this record, and some others..

I hadn't heard either song for quite a long time, and it was just so much fun to listen to this single as it was being digitized and turned into an MP3 file.

The single is in decent shape for a 57-year-old record.

Sure, there are nicks and pops, but generally both sides of the record play quite well, and with some other Stones singles that I digitized today--with more to go the next time I have a chance--I can say that it is really a revelation to hear how good these records sound decades after the fact.

The next Rolling Stones single that I have to digitize is "Mixed Emotions" backed with "Fancy Man Blues" from 1989, and I will do it when I have a chance.

In fact, right now, when i am in the car, I am listening to my digitized singles under the letters A, B and C, so we are talking about several hundred singles that I will enjoy listening to while I drive from here to there, all on a single thumb drive.

I won't even come close to listening to all of these during this week, and maybe not even next week, but it is just so much fun to do ... and to me, the real benchmark for whether a record is really any good or not is if it sounds good on your car radio.

If it does, then it is like a real gift of sound.

If not, the song only lasts a few minutes, and then you move on to another one, so there isn't much torture involved.

And for someone who is admittedly tone deaf--I can't sing or play a musical instrument--I always had a pretty good ear for pop music, and my collection is as eclectic as can be.

Through the years, I moved from one method to another to listen to my music in the car, from putting everything on cassette to burning CDs ...

And now, who would have thought that all these years later, I am using the latest technology to listen to all of this--

And in my car yet!

You can describe it in one single word ...

And that word is--

"Satisfaction!" 

Rant #3,378: T.V.O.D.

Anyone else have Verizon for their TV service?

I have had a long-standing problem with them that after probably st least a dozen calls, still has not been resolved.

When we moved to our new residence, we stayed with Verizon, because we had been with them for way more than two decades and never had much of a problem with the service--TV, Internet and phone.

Well, we moved to our new residence, and we have had nothing but problems with the service for the seven months we have been here.

The problem is simple to describe, but evidently difficult--or impossible--to fix.

Our TV screen freezes periodically, sometimes for a millisecond, oftentimes for longer.

Sometimes it happens every once in a while, and other times it happens one time after the other--it just happened back to back as I am typing this out.

I have called and explained this problem to a variety of so-called experts, and each one has given me another reason for it happening, but as of yet, they have provided absolutely no solution to the problem.

I have spoken to associates from India and stateside, and they all have opinions as to what is causing this problem, but nothing seems to work.

They have told me to take the HDMI wire out of the back of the TV, to reset the system.

They have told me to take the wires out of the box myself and put them back in, again to reboot the system.

I have also asked for them to replace the hardware, but they won't do it, as they claim the boxes and modem are working.

They have rebooted the various components of the system from wherever they are, and it still freezes up.

Sunday evening, I simply got fed up, after watching the TV all day and the freezing up happening all day at various levels and frequencies.

One thing led to another, and after a lengthy discussion about what could be wrong, the associate told me that the modem was put up in the wrong place--behind a large piece of living room furniture that is, in essence, a several-hundred-pound entertainment unit where we have our living room TV.

The associate told me that the unit was in the wrong place, hampering the signal to our master bedroom TV, where the problem is.

If that is in fact true, that is Verizon's error, not mine, because the technician who came here should have known that this was the wrong place to put up the modem.

In fact, I was bedridden at the time, and no one else was home when the Verizon setup was put up.

So, if this is, in fact, the problem, I did the logical thing: I asked Verizon to come to our residence and move the modem to a better place.

The associate told me the following:

"I can do that, but I am going to have to charge you."

I was aghast.

I told him the following:

"If this was a problem caused by the ineptitude of your own technician, why am I being charged?"

He basically said that that is the way it is.

He then said that since I refuse to pay a technician to come to our residence, that "as part of my plan" they would send me an extender, which I would have to install myself.

Again, I asked if one of theitlr technicians could install it for me, as I am all thumbs when it comes to such things, and they refused, saying I would have to install it myself.

I told him to simply reboot the system, as had already been done a dozen times already, because there was no way I was paying for their mistake.

He did that, and I told him that if things did not improve, I would drop the service, and that was that.

Verizon sent me a text to rate my experience, and I gave it the lowest score.

Another text message came asking me why, and I told them.

I have not yet heard back from them.

I told you the entire story, but I left out two things.

1) Not only does the picture freeze, but when I order a pay per view event--which we often do because my son loves his wrestling pay per views--I invariably get charged double.

I have called Verizon about this problem separately, but they do not have a solution to that problem either.

2) Someone that we assume is from the neighborhood has periodically knocked on our front door, asking us if we wanted to change from Verizon to another available service.

We have turned him away repeatedly, but I will bet that we are not the only people who live here who has spoken with this guy ... and he feels he has a real leg up, because we are probably not the only people who have had this recurring problem in this area.

So why not try? He came again on the weekend. Maybe one day, we will finally give in.

A friend of mine has told me that the problem is systemic, as he has had similar problems, and I believe him.

But there is no way that I am going to pay for someone to fix a problem that Verizon, itself, caused, so at least right now, I guess I am going to have to live with this--

To a point ...

But it simply shouldn't be ...

And I am reaching my breaking point.

Rant #3,377: Roll With It

It remains hot, hot and hotter, and I can't take it.

The town pools that we joined don't open until later this week ... ironically, the town pools from where we moved from opened last week, and some were free.

It figures ...

But at least the bowling alley was cool.

My son's bowling league season ended on Saturday, and while he and his team did not bring in the top prize this season, it was still a very successful one.

The team ended up in fifth place out of 14 teams this season, finishing just a half point out of fourth place, one and a half points out of third place, and two points out of second place.

The league was much more competitive this season, and it was more difficult to be victorious this season than it was in past seasons.

Looking at my son's personal numbers ...

My son tied for first place with four others for the number of games bowled, at 68.

He had the sixth highest average in the league at 138, and he totaled the fourth highest total pins, at 9,389.

My son rolled the second highest game in the league this season, at 224, and he had two turkeys--three strikes in a row--which was tied for third place with several other bowlers.

This is highly impressive, as is the league itself, because the league, which is run by the Police Activities League (PAL) Special Meeds Unit, is exactly what it says, a sports and activities league for special needs young adults.

I know from.my own son's experience that even in this supposedly enlightened era, these people are often cast off, with a lot of people--supposed experts--not giving them much chance at success in life.

I have learned up close that these people can do just about anything they put their minds to, and some of them are excellent in what they do, including athletics.

My wife and I were told that our son would not have much of a chance in this world, and he was pigeonholed in school because they had no idea how to classify him and what to do with him.

Since he graduated high school 10 years ago yesterday, he has blossomed in so many ways, putting the experts' diagnoses firmly into the garbage pail where they belong.

And his performance in this league, and in his basketball league, is really the cherry on the top of everything.

He is still learning every day, and my wife and I are just so proud of him in every way!

He will be playing summer basketball, and the bowling league begins again in September.

He can't wait to get into the swing of things once again, and my wife and I can't wait to see how he does and progresses further in every which way.

Sure, they didn't win it all this time around, but it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

As far as my wife and I are concerned, our son knocked down all the pins and then some, and that is all that really matters.

Rant #3,376: Do the Swim

My family and I finally joined a pool ... or actually we paid for a pool pass where we can go to any pool in our town.

After decades of having a pool in our backyard, this experience will certainly be quite different.

I haven't been to a town pool since the early 1970s, and beyond the loss of privacy, there are probably a lot of other things we are going to have to get used to when we go to a town pool.

But we need something to do on those sweltering summer days, so we will just have to get used to it.

Honestly, my wife will probably benefit from this more than my son and I will.

Since my son works during the week, and I have to take him to work and pick him up, and i also have physical therapy, our time at the pool will be less than my wife, who can go when they open and stay there for several hours.

And let's not forget, I still have my job, so I need time to do it, which will also cut down on my pool use.

My son and I will probably get the most out of the pool on the weekend, and on days when he is not working.

So it certainly isn't as convenient as having our own pool in the backyard, but we will definitely make a go of it.

For me, it is a bit more than just cooling off ... my physical therapist has given me the OK to do some of my exercises in the water.

The natural resistance provided by the water will aid in my therapy to improve the mobility of my left leg.

But getting in and out of the pool is something else I will have to deal with, but let me get there, and I will worry about it then.

Whatever the case, it should be fun, gives us something to do, and give us something to look forward to.

And no, the pool is not around the corner ... whichever of the town pools we go to will take a good drive to get to.

But that is our reality now.

You simply do not realize the massive changes that you make when you move from a house--where you lived for decades--to an apartment.

Funny, we are less than five miles away from where we lived, but it might as well be 500 miles away--

So close, yet so far.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,375: Say Hey

Yesterday, Juneteenth, was a national and federal holiday, so banks and post offices were closed, but my son's workplace was open, so I was busy transporting him back and forth to work.

It is warm out, very warm, but at least right now, it could be worse ... much worse.

In my neck of the woods, it got up to 86 yesterday, but we are supposed to hit into the 90s for the next few days.

And happy summer ... today is the first day of the season, isn't it?

The summer for my family will be a bit different this year.

Without a house, we don't have our pool anymore, so my wife and I decided that we would join a town pool ...

But we couldn't do it yesterday, because it was Juneteenth, and such offices were closed for the holiday.

We are going to try and do it today before I go to physical therapy.

And that leads me to the gist of this Rant, because when you talk about summer, you invariably talk about baseball, and that leads me to one of the greatest "boys of summer" of them all, Willie Mays.

Mays passed away at age 92 on Tuesday.

Not to knock.players like Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron, but some believe Mays was the greatest baseball.player of them all.

He certainly could do.it all, that's for sure.

Mays was a great hitter, a great fielder, and if not the best bsseball player ever, he was certainly in the top 10, or perhaps in the top five.

Everyone of a certain age has a Willie Mays story, and beyond all the statistics and the basket catches and everything else he did which you can readily read about all.over the Internet, I have my own story of Mays, one that has stayed with me for the past 50-plus years.

I am a long-time New York Yankees fan, as you very well know if you are a regular reader here, and I don't root for any other baseball team--

Except one time.

Most of Mays' exploits were done with the New York/San Francisco Giants, but he spent his last two seasons with the New York Mets.

He was not the same player when he got to the Mets, but he still had the same fire he had when he was a younger player, and help the Mets get to the World Series in 1973.

Anyway, I went with some friends to old Shea Stadium to see a doubleheader during that 1973 season.

I don't remember who the Mets played, but my friends and I were there for the entire two games. 

We sat in the upper deck, which was the only level of tickets we could afford, as we were all 16 years old or so.

Anyway, during about the fifth inning of the first game of the doubleheader, an older man came to the previously vacant seats and sat right in front of us with a young man, who i presumed was his son.

His son did not look right, not that he was sick, but to me, he looked shaken.

The young man, who must have been in his 30s, was sickly, and you could visibly see the young man was not right.

He was very restless, and I kind of knew something was not right when he kept on saying, or screaming, "Willie Mays!" Over and over and over again.

I could see that the young man was mentally disabled. The more he said, or screamed, "Willie Mays," the more I could see his condition, and I really felt sorry for his father, who kept on telling his son to tone it down a bit and hugged his son many times to comfort him.

It was late in the game, and if I remember correctly, the score was tied.

For several innings, the young man kept on screaming "Willie Mays" no.matter who came up to.the plate, but when Mays actually came up in what I think was the bottom of the ninth with the score tied, I really felt for the father and his son, and when Mays singled, the son was just so excited.

I really felt for the father, and i decided right then and there that for the first time--and probably only time--in my life, I was rooting for the Mets to win.

I believe there was an out or two in between, but Mays was on third base, the potential winning run.

As the young man in front of me kept on screaming "Willie Mays!" over and over and over again--and with his father trying to calm him down--the Mets batter--I don't remember who it was--got a base hit and with the throw coming from the left fielder, it was going to be a close play at the plate.

The ball and Mays came to home plate at just about the same time, Mays made his signature slide, and the catcher's outstretched glove just couldn't get to him with a tag.

The Mets won the game, but more importantly, the son and the father were jumping up and down hugging each other, with the son now screeching "Wille Mays!" over and over and over again.

I just felt so good for the father, as he could have a real father and son moment together in what must have been a normally difficult situation.

The father and son did not stay for the second game, leaving as the son continued to yell "Willie Mays!" over and over again.

That was who Willie Mays was to me.

Even in his 40s, he could change the complexion of a game with one move, and even though he didn't know it, he gave a father and son a memory that I guarantee they never forgot.

And I never forgot it either.

R.I.P. Willie.

You were the best.

Rant #3,374: Is There Something I Should Know?

A very happy Juneteenth to you and yours!

And in honor of Juneteenth, I will do my work like I do on other weekdays, because sorry, I won't be participating in any Juneteenth events.

And during Pride Month, we have the continuing saga of Caitlin Clark, who has become the face of the WNBA, the league that the media so wants us to care about.

Well, I think some WNBA players are not taking to Clark's popularity so readily.

She has had to withstand several overly hard fouls in recent games, some so hard that she has been knocked on her toukis on a number of occasions, for no reason other than to send some type of message to her ...

But wait ... it is so very obvious why she is being attacked, and I have spoken about this elsewhere--

Clark has been fouled hard, knocking her off her feet ... yes, she is being targeted, because she has become the face of the league so quickly ... and she is not only heterosexual, she is white. 

Don't tell me that there isn't plenty of jealousy, racism and sexism at play here. The media refuses to cover this angle, because they so want the public to be interested in a league that few care about--

And this has evidently been going on for years, while the WNBA, NBA and the media turn away from this imbecility and do nothing about it.

According to an article that has resurfaced from the New York Post in 2017, Clark is not the first player to ne targeted in the league because of her sexuality.

According to the article from seven years ago entitled "Straight WNBA Star: Lesbian Culture Broke My Spirit," former WNBA player Candice Wiggins told writer Mark W. Sanchez that there is a "very, very harmful" culture in the league, and she was bullied during her eight-year career because she is heterosexual.

Wiggins retired prematurely in 2015 because she could not take it anymore.

The former player estimated that 98 percent of WNBA players are lesbians, and her dreams were quashed by the attitude of many of those players towards her.

"The experience did not lend itself to.my mental state," Wiggins told the San Diego Tribune, where the story originally was published.

"I didn't like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me ... my spirit was being broken."

She said that she was harassed for being a straight player in a predominantly gay league, and her being vocal in her identity, coupled with the fact that the league starves for attention, was not a happy situation for her, made worse by the mainly lesbian players.

"It was a conformity type of place," she related. "There was a whole different set of rules the other players could apply."

Now we have Clark, whose popularity as a college player has translsted over to the still-flegdling league ... and it is so obvious thst some of the players don't like this young upstart, who is not only straight but also caucasian, taking the spotlight away from them.

When they attack Clark like they are doing, yet look at Britney Greiner as something of a conquering hero, it is obvious thst there is something very wrong here.

You might remember Greiner spoke negatively about our country and disparaged our flag and freedoms ... except when she needed our nation's help to be set free from a Russian jail, where she was serving time for pot possession.

Greiner is a hero, Clark is a pariah ... go figure.

So you can bet Clark will find herself back on her toukis again, and again, and again, until something is done about it--

I am not holding my breath on that, and neither should she.

Email

Rant #3,373: Cover Me

That lesion that I had on my head was removed, but it was not pre-cancerous.

If I heard the doctor correctly, it was already cancerous, and he froze it and scraped it out, so hopefully, I won't have to worry about this thing anymore.

I have to apply a lotion to it twice a day for at least a week, which will help in the skin healing, and I was told that I have to do one other thing to protect this spot:

I have to wear a hat for about the next month, until I see the doctor again.

When I was told this, I said to the nurse--

"No problem ... I will wear my baseball hat."

And that is exactly what I will do.

I have worn this particular hat--a New York Yankees hat, naturally--off and on for probably the last 40 or more years.

It was made in Bangladesh under the Puma name, and I have no idea if someone bought me this hat or if I purchased it myself.

All I know is that I have worn this hat off and on for several decades.

I have worn it in New York and in several other states that I have visited--as far south as Florida abd as far west as California--and I have also worn it overseas, in everywhere from Haiti to South Korea.

Its outside color is faded, and its inside has a very visible sweat stain, built up over time.

I have worn the hat both in and out of the water, in pools and in the ocean.

I have worn the hat at Yankee Stadium and at a variety of other stadiums and arenas.

It is a part of me at this point, and one day, I might just be buried in this hat--

If I don't lose it, which I have done on several occasions, only to find it almost as quickly as I lost it.

I have other baseball hats ... why continually wear this one?

Well, it has the interlocking "N" and "Y," so it is a hat showing my favorite team.

Otherwise, I don't really know ... I guess it fits my head well.

So yes, I have worn it when I was "balding," and I have worn it when I finally balded.

I just love the hat, and now, I am going to wear it as protection--

Not that I haven't already done that.

I have worn it to protect my scalp from the harmful effects of the sun for years, but with what I just had removed, it isn't foolproof, and things will get through--

Probably when i should have been wearing my hat, but wasn't doing that, for whatever reason.

And this week, with several projected days of 90-degree-and-above weather, I don't think that hat will be coming off my head when I am out of the house.

Today, at physical therapy, I had nowhere to put the hat, so I just wore it throughout my entire two-hour session.

And yes, I wore it in my car, because the hot sun can burn you through the windshield, so suffice it to say, it won't come off my head when I am outside.

So, it is literally not "Hats Off To Larry" for the next couple of weeks--sorry Del Shannon--but it will be "hats on" almost all the time during this period.

Nor will I be one of those "Men Without Hats" for now on, and i certainly won't be doing the "Safety Dance" anytime soon--

Until the doctor tells me that he got it all, and I don't have to worry about this thing ever again.

Rant #3,372: Hot, Hot, Hot

I had a pretty decent Father's Day.

I saw my daughter, received some nice gifts, ordered in pizza, and all in all, it was a good day.

Now, fast forward to today, and as you are reading this, I am in the dermatologist's office, getting a pre-cancerous lesion on my scalp removed.

Better to get it done early than let it fester.

Get it done now, and I won't have to worry about it anymore.

Then later, I have physical therapy, and hopefully that will go as good as it has been going lately.

Otherwise, this appears to be a fairly quiet week, although it is supposed to be very warm as the week goes on, with every day moving into the 90s.

I simply cannot take the heat, and I am happy that we have our air conditioners at our disposal.

Our apartment gets awfully warm and stuffy, and you just know that those air conditioners will be running strong this week.

My wife loves the heat, hates air conditioning ... and as you know, they say that opposites attract, and I guess that we prove that.

I love the air conditioning; in fact, I love it blowing directly on me.

When I have it on on the car, with the air conditioning blowing right on me, I just love it!

I don't know how I can live without it.

I consider air conditioning one of the greatest inventions of all time.

What did people do before air conditioning?

I don't know, but I can tell you that i was born at the right time, because I could not survive without air conditioning.

My allergies demand that I have this great invention at my disposal.

But anyway, I will deal with the heat the best that I can.

Maybe it will loosen up my left leg a bit.

Let's see how it all plays out.

Rant #3,371: Daddy's Home

I had a pretty decent session at physical therapy yesterday.

It went so well that one of my fellow injured clients told me that she was so impressed at how I was progressing.

I thanked her for what she said.

It is one thing for one of the therapists to say that to me, but when one of my fellow walking wounded says it to me, it just makes me feel great.

And it leads me right into what I hope is a good Father's Day this weekend.

Father's Day is very different for my family and I now.

My father and father-in-law have both left us, my mom is gone, and we don't have a house anymore.

Traditionally on Father's Day, I used to barbecue.

I did it for years, even decades, but last year was a precursor for the future, because we went out to eat at a local restaurant last year, the last Father's Day we would spend with my mother.

Without a house, there is really no way to have a barbecue unless we go to a local park, but honestly, having barbecued in the back yard for so many years, it is just not the same experience, so we won't be doing it this time around, or maybe ever again.

This year, we are having my daughter and her boyfriend over to the apartment, but I am not yet sure whether we will go out or order in.

It should be a good day whatever we do, so it should be fun.

But admittedly, it simply won't be the same as in years past.

I loved to barbecue, as my father did, and that type of food just tastes so good outdoors.

That experience just can't be beat, but it appears that it is all just a memory now.

That makes me sad almost as much as not having my parents there, but life moves on.

So to all you dads, have a great Father's Day, have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday. 

Rant #3,370: Too Much Time On My Hands

Well, I finished that meeting summary ...

Eight hours that were as boring as could be, but it went on seamlessly, and when it was over, I had a few more hours to write this thing up in slightly more than 2,000 words.

I am just happy that I was able to do it, and it is over.

And when I was in the middle of this, the workmen came to put our new air conditioners into our bedrooms, so we finally are comfortable in a very hot and stuffy apartment during the evening.

It was nice and cool in the room last night, so whatever the whole thing cost us, so be it 

And then, in a few months, we have the next problem, which is removing the air conditioners as per the rules of the development we live in ... and there is no doubt that thst is going to be a pain in the neck--

But as you know, I have dealt with worse discomfort since I injured myself, so I will get through it ... I have more important things to deal with.

Also in the middle of writing this opus for work, I received a call from my dermatologist.

I went there last week, had some scraping and freezing procedures done, and some things that were removed were sent to the lab for analysis.

Well, one of the things they sent out was found by the lab to be pre-cancerous, so on Monday morning, I have to get this thing thoroughly taken care of.

It is on my scalp, so there is very little "meat" there, and I know this procedure isn't going to tickle, but I have been through this before.

I had one or two of these things removed a few years ago, so let's get this thing over and done with ASAP.

I am not too worried about it, to be honest with you.

Each of my parents actually had more serious growths removed from them, so this should be a piece of cake in comparison.

Not a yummy piece of cake, like a seven-layer cake, but to me, at least, more like a carrot cake.

I will get through it.

Jerry West passed away yesterday, and another portion of my childhood is gone.

West was probably the greatest guard of his generation. He was a great college player, a great NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers, and a great basketball executive.

He was also the model for the NBA logo, something he didn't want to be the model for, but he was one of the faces of the NBA in the 1960s and esrly 1970s, so he deserves whatever accolades he has received, including that one.

One of the true sports greats of the past 65 years.

R.I.P. Jerry. 

New York Knicks fans always hated you, but we respected you to the max.

Rant #3,369: Roll With the Flow

Yesterday was a pretty good day.

I did not get thrashed, as I thought I would, when i went to get my car inspection yesterday.

One thing needed to be fixed--my windshield wiper blades needed to be changed--but other than that, the car passed the yearly inspection without any problem--

And my wallet is intact, which makes it all that much better.

Afterward, I had a better physical therapy session than I had experienced the last few times, as I was able to pedal at 17/18, but with a little pain.

I could not get back to that level the past few times that I tried, because my leg just was hurting a bit too much.

Yesterday, with the urging of my wife and the physical therapist, I started out at a higher level and as I got my confidence, I was able to get it down to 17/18 again, which I had not been able to do for a few sessions.

I had some pain, but it was manageable.

So I was happy for myself, and maybe next time, I can get it to even a lower level.

Otherwise, kudos go to the Israeli Defense Forces, who proved once again that Hamas is doing its business in residential, school and hospital areas.

The IDF rescued four Hamas prisoners after about eight months of captivity.

They did it during the day, and proved once again that Hamas does not operate on the same plane as groups who truly care about its people.

Now we know for sure that Hamas uses the Palestinian people as human shields, breaking every rule of international.law to reach its goal, of the annihilation Israel and all Jews worldwide, a goal that it will never reach.

They also refuse to sign a truce that Isrsel has pretty much signed off on, so the supposedly civilized world can turn away if they like, but Hamas has proven that it is a terrorist organization, and not the humanitarian group that much of the world believes that it is.

Yet Israel will continue to get the blame for everything happening in the Middle East now, but it is all too obvious why they are being treated this way.

The Hamas groupies can continue to idolize these thugs, but anyone with a brain realizes that Hamas is far from a group looking out for its constituents.

So congrats to the IDF for their actions in freeing some more hostages, and it is time for Hamas to be blamed for civilian casualties.

Today, I have a very tough day, as for work, I have to summarize an eight-hour meeting in about 2,000 words, which is not an easy thing to do.

But even though it is an all-day exercise, it is something that I have to do.

However, in the middle of everything, we are getting our air conditioners delivered and installed, so my work is certain to ne interrupted, so I am just forced to roll with the flow today, and like I told my work, "Do the best I can."

So the next time we will talk will be Thursday, as I will simply be too busy with writing up this meeting to put up a blog post on Wednesday.

I will skip tomorrow and speak to you again on Thursday.

Take care ...

Work, work, work, work--

It's the devil's playground--

But I have to work, work, work, work ... .

Rant #3,368: That's Life

I had a pretty quiet weekemd, as we did our normal stuff and one thing we don't do too often--

Which is to eat out.

We decided to eat out to celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary,.

We went to a great Italian restaurant near where we used to live, so rather than being five minutes away like it used to be, it is now maybe 10 minutes away, so we didn't have to go far to find a good restaurant to celebrate the occasion.

The place was packed even though it wasn't yet 5 p.m., and it was as noisy as it could be.

The food was excellent, but the next time we go, we will eat there during the week, when it is less busy--

And less noisy.

Again, we don't eat out much, as it is just so expensive.

Prices have even risen to ridiculous levels for fast food, so eating out isn't something we do too often.

Ironically, we are probably going to eat out next week for Father's Day, but then we probably won't do so for a couple of weeks, until we feel like doing so for a special occasion or holiday.

Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet weekend, but the week is going to be a busy one for me.

As you are reading this, I am having my car inspected, and the car will also get an oil change.

When they find things that need fixing--you just know they will--heaven knows what today is going to cost me.

I also have one of those interminable meetings to cover for work, and the fun begins tomorrow, so my week might be a bit tangled st best.

I will let you know how that all comes out.

So this weekend was a true calm before the storm, but that's life, there really is nothing you can do about it.

I am just happy that at this point, I can just get it all done and shrug it off, moving on to something else.

A few months ago, I had my doubts that I would ever reach that point again, but here I am--

I do believe that I am up to the challenge.

I will definitely speak to you tomorrow, but let's see how this meeting goes and whether I will be here again this week or not.

Hopefully, I might only miss a day at my usual perch, but we shall see what we shall see.

Rant #3,367: Frustrated

It looks like my Facebook mini-ban is over, as yesterday, I was able to put up whatever I wanted to, including a Rant about my 31st wedding anniversary.

I am just happy that it is over, and honestly, I don't know why it was put in force to begin with.

I am a little dismayed at physical therapy, because I seem to have hit a wall in my recovery.

I reached a certain point on the stationary bicycle, and not only can't I get past thst point, but it is so extremely uncomfortable when I have tried to pedal at that point that the physical therapist had to put me on a higher level so I can get some bike work in.

As you know, my doctor/surgeon warned me that the situation I was currently in might be "as good as it gets," and I did not believe him, but when I get on the bike, my frustration level rises when I do my pedaling, and I remember what he told me.

I am doing well with everything else in my exercise regimen, but the bike is a big one, and I just can't progress like I would like to ... at least right now.

I haven't given up, but I am a little frustrated.

I know I can do it ... but I just can't do it right now.

I can do more in the house, and I am very near the point where I am 100-percent back to normal in the apartment, although I am not quite there yet either.

Nearer rather than farther away ...

I just wish I was there already ... but then I have to force myself to remember that the timetable I was given was seven to 12 months in recuperation time, and I am right in the middle of that.

My wife is looking for a part-time job--no sales-- and at age 67, she is running into exactly the same thing that I did when I was looking for a full-time job after I lost my job nearly five years ago.

She gets some feelers, has had a few interviews, but so far, nothing.

Some of the jobs she has applied for probably don't exist, which I found out the hard way when I was looking myself.

Companies like to see the talent that is out there, so they advertise jobs thst don't really exist just to collect resumes and see what is available.

She also feels her age has been a big part of this.

Companies give lip service interviews to older workers, just so they can say that they do not discriminate and going by the rules as they interviewed an older person.

In my wife's case, they have no intention of hiring her, but this way they can say to whatever measuring organization that looks into who they are interviewing that they did interview an older worker.

Other times, the job has been misrepresented to her, and she knows she has wasted her time, while at the same time wondering why they interviewed her in the first place.

Let me tell you, from personal experience, ageism is the most difficult work problem to prove, and unless it is blatant, fuggedaboudit.

My wife does not give up, but she is also running into a brick wall in her pursuit.

Anyway, as far as my work, I do have a meeting to cover next week, but right now, I am unclear about what exactly I have to cover and for how long.

So I will speak to you again on Monday, but it might be a little patchy on what days I will be here and what days I will not be here.

So have a great weekend, and I will definitely speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,366: Happy Anniversary

Oy vey!

Yesterday, my Facebook ban allowed me to post on my sites but not in the overall site.

I cannot figure it out, but can anybody really figure out Facebook?

On to more important things ...

Today is a great day in my life, as it my 31st wedding anniversary.

The time has gone quickly, my wife and I have been through so much together, and we are finally settling down after more than six months of utter turmoil.

But through it all, my beautiful wife has been there--

Without her, I simply do not know where I would be.

Here is what I had to say about our wedding anniversary, in edited form, in Rant #2,157, June 6, 2018:

"Years may come, years may go ... I cannot believe where the time has gone.

I remember the day so well, it really was like yesterday.

It was a sunny day, but it was windy to what seemed like near hurricane proportions.

We had an outdoor ceremony, and everything was blowing about, but we made it through the whirlwind to the huppah, I stepped on the ceremonial glass, and we were husband and wife."

And I do mean it was windy ... I thought all the little kids there, including my daughter and my two nephews, were going to blow away, Flying Nun style, into the cosmos.

But the fierce wind did not blow us away, but my new bride did.

She was and still is beautiful, has a brain in her head ... and all these years later, we are as perfect a match as can be.

We don't agree on everything, we have our own personalities, but when it all comes down to it, we have a great marriage.

i married a Queens girl, which i think is definitely part of our success.

I was a Queens boy, but we are both so many years removed from our original roots that we both are firmly Long Islanders now.

We are parents to a great son, we both have strong family roots, and we are there when the other needs us--

Which was put to the ultimate test when i injured myself late last year.

We persevered, and made it through the worst of that storm.

We will go out to a local restaurant to celebrate the occasion this coming weekend.

I dearly love my wife, so I have said to her the following:

"Happy anniversary, and let's try for st least 31 more!"

In comparison, it makes all that Facebook stuff into the utter nonsense that it really is.

Rant #3,365: My Mistake

Well, I done did it again.

As many of you probably know by now, my G-rated post was banned by Facebook yesterday.

I guess I riled them by talking about what is happening in the Middle East, but a good portion of the Rant was about various problems my family and I are currently facing.

That gets banned and worse--and I do mean MUCH worse--gets by on Facebook?

The explanation is that the post went against the seemingly all-inclusive "community standards" reason, which is questionable, at best, when I see what posts slip by.

Completely ridiculous, but I have been down this road before.

You might remember that after my mother passed away last September, my posts were blocked, again because I went against "community standards" when I spoke about her.

And since I had the nerve to question it, I was banned entirely for about three months--

All over mention of my deceased mother.

(You might remember that they also banned me for supposedly putting up lewd photos on my sites, which, of course, I never did, and they actually rescinded that part of the ban when they found that they were wrong about this.)

So this time, I won't question Facebook's decision to not allow yesterday's post to go through, but I will monitor the situation again, and then see if I can do something about it.

I probably can't do much about it, so I am just going to have to take my poison--

And like it.

Hopefully, the ban lasts just one day, but I am going to tell you, it won't derail me from saying what I feel needs to be said.

Funny, I just told you that I put up a comment about inappropriate posts on certain sites, and right away, I was cited for a G-rated post thst fits the littany of topics that I regularly talk about.

And again, I go through Facebook and see what they consider to be OK, and I just don't get it.

I guess the target is on my back, but the arrow being shot at me is completely misdirected.

Rant #3,364: Why? Why? Why? (Is It So Hard?)

Physical therapy went fairly well yesterday.

"Why?"

My leg hurt a bit, but I did everything I was supposed to do, but I did it slowly.

I was told that I can wear shorts during the hot summer months, but if I am outside for a long period if time, I should prevent my left leg from getting sunburnt, because while the wound has healed, that six inch wound is still visibly there, so to get burnt wouldn't be too good.

I usually cover up if I am at a pool or outside for a long period of time, so that won't change.

Our air conditioning problem continues.

I think we have decided to throw caution to the wind, and buy two units, have them set up in our bedrooms, and find someone to remove them.in the fall--

And then find someone who can put the units back in the windows next summer.

"Why?"

It just gets so warm here, and a living room air conditioner simply doesn't make it comfortable in the warmer back rooms, which are our bedrooms.

I woke up pn Sunday nightat about 2:30 a.m. or so, and put on the living room air conditioner because I was overly warm and sweaty in the middle of the night.

Last night, I just put the living room air conditioner on at about 8 p.m., because the apartment was on fire.

Not a good situation at all.

The post I told you about yesterday was not taken down, and I am getting many more likes the longer thst it remains available.

"Why?"

It doesn't surprise me that so many people agree with me; and if you say what you have to say nicely ... I am learning that even if you disagree with me, you have to go with my opinion because I said what I had to say so nicely.

Now, let's look at the world we all live in, not just my own personal world.

I watched a bit of Sunday's Israel Day Parade on TV, and happily, it went on without a hitch.

But then I hear that Columbia University has once again been overrun with Hamas groupies, with even larger tents being erected on the campus than were put up a few weeks ago.

"Why?"

Because Columbia itself is allowing this to happen.

I never agree with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but what he said several weeks ago about these protests is something that the higher ups at Columbia obviously are ignoring.

What he said when pro-Hamas encampments were showing up at so many campuses was pretty much this:

"The way you stop the spread of these encampments is that when the first tent goes up, it is also the first tent to come down."

In other words, you don't let this fester right at the get go.

Columbia University simply doesn't get it at all, and at this point, the question is, 

"Why?"

Hamas rejected the latest peace proposal, and Israel doesn't fully buy into it, either.

"Why?"

I have heard a few versions of this story.

One, that Isrsel came up with the original proposal, but the Biden Administration took credit for it and amended it to a point thst Israel had severe doubts about it.

And Hamas simply doesn't want to sign amy peace proposal, period, because it goes against their reason for existence: the annihilation of the Jewish State. 

At any cost.

But the world still puts the whammy on Israel, blaming them for the failure of this proposal, which was anended to the point that it gives Israel absolutely no reason to buy into it.

if the supposedly civilized world would have galvanized behind Israel and helped them put the kibosh on Hamas after their brutal attack last October like they should have done, we would not be at this point now.

But they didn't do that.

"Why?"

It is pretty obvious, don't you think?

And as me move along to the mid-point of 2024, everything happening in this crazy, bizarro world we live in can be queried with the question "Why?"

And that fact should make all of us nervous.

"Why?"

This is not a funny "Who's On First" routine.

"Why?" 

I will let my educated readers figure that one out for themselves.

Rant #3,363: Too Much Talk

I am going to preface this post by stating that the Ranting and Raving Blog has spoken about a litany of topics during its 15 years of existence, and I never believe that any topic is completely out of bounds here.

That is here, where as moderator, I make the rules.

But for some reason, others believe thst they can take over various forums to espouse their own political beliefs, forums which really have absolutely nothing to do with politics.

I belong to one such forum, related to one of my passions, which is record collecting.

This Facebook site has delved into any and all topics related to the hobby, and I really enjoy reading--and posting myself--to like-minded people about a hobby we all cherish.

June has come, and to many, this is sort of a warm-weather Christmas, as it is Gay Pride Month, a month-long celebration of that lifestyle.

OK, that is all fine and good, but at this Facebook site, posts related to Pride Month have overrun the site, both positive and very negative.

Some people feel that the coming of Pride Month gives them license to overrun such a non-political site with things like Pride playlists and the like, and others have taken great offense to this overruning of a site with what amounts to posts with overly political, non-topic themes.

And yes, some of the posts are crude and lewd, and some are offensive.

But most of those against politicizing a non-political site asked the same question:

"I thought that this was a record collecting site?"

The moderator has had to weed out the good and the bad, and some of the respondents have taken others to task, on both sides of the coin, for the existence of this site and what its purpose is.

I don't feel such a site should be overrun by politics of any kind.

It is like I don't watch "Leave It To Beaver" for political themes, and I don't visit this particular site for political themes, either.

If you want politics, there are plenty of sites to visit and to post your views.

I certainly do it here, and I do it elsewhere, too ... but I do not post political views at a non-political site.

I responded to all the havoc at this site with the following post.

I have received several likes, and happily, the post has not been removed, although the moderator has closed down the thread to further posts as the Pride posts continue unabated.

I believe my post said everything fairly without ruffling anyone's feathers, because I believe it is a fair way to look at this situation ... and it goes for all non-political sites on Facebook or otherwise.

Here is what I said:

"Gay, heterosexual or otherwise, I don't really think this should be a forum to promote one's sexuality.

This is a record collectors' forum, and i am sure we have people with all different backgrounds who are members here, and politics really shouldn't be its focus.

This is not a forum run by me, so I don't make the rules, but I simply don't think that this page should necessarily be used by some to promote such a political Pandora's Box.

That is the nicest way I can say this. It was not meant to offend anyone, but I really do believe it gets this forum way off topic 

I run a couple of music-related groups myself, and the last thing that I want is for my groups to get political, because it gets the group way off topic, and most importantly, doesn't serve it's members well.

Just my opinion, and I did not want to offend anyone by posting my view.

This is not an anti-gay post; it is more a pro-all-record-collectors' post."

The topic just happened to be Pride Month, but what I said really does relate to the handling of any political topic on a non-political site.

What do you think?