Rant #3,978: Cold As Ice/Hot Blooded

Yesterday was another day where the temperatures got back to temperatures somewhat lesser than they had been.

It wasn't as nasty as Monday was, where the rain came down from the heavens in buckets, but it wasn't what I would call a nice day ...

But after temperatures in the 100s over the weekend, I think we all can accept two days like we had yesterday and on Monday.

On the other extreme, I remember as a kid--a really little kid, as my remembrance was from when we lived in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens--we had a day where it was zero degrees, maybe even slightly less than that.

I must have been three or four years old, so it must have been in 1960 or 1961.

All I wanted to do was go outside, and my mother was hesitant, as the temperature was just so cold.

But she finally relented, dressed me up as warmly as she could, and I went outside to play with my friends.

For whatever reason, I remember that there was no wind at all, and while it was cold, I must have spent a good hour, if not more, outside that day, because to me, it didn't feel like it was zero degrees.

You react to things differently as you get older, and, of course, I could never do that today, nor could I spend hours outside when it is 100 degrees or more at 69 years of age.

But at three or four years old, you can do things that you simply cannot do when you get older.

Ah, the follies of youth!

As you know, I hate the snow, but when it snowed when I was a kid, I just loved it.

I took my sled, went to the nearest hill, and did my thing there.

Now, when it snows, the last thing I want to do is to go outside.

I remember that when my son was a little kid, I took him sledding a couple of times, and to me, it was laborious, and I couldn't wait to get home.

Funny, I don't think he was into it, either, and the sledding never lasted that long--

Or he saw how I was, and it just took the fun away from him.

Today, he works outside in all weather--frigid to the recent 100-degree days--and he takes it all in stride.

My wife and I are very proud of him for his work dedication and in his reaction to the elements, and I think his work appreciates it too.

He has to work today, when the temperatures kind of get back to summer normal, but I know he will be OK ...

Because if he didn't tank last weekend--when he worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday in less than ideal conditions--he will be OK when the temperatures only get into the 80s.

Again, he is 30, so who knows how he will react to the weather when he is my age?

But for now, he is OK ...

And he stays hydrated, which is a major part of him being able to withstand the elements.

Me, I have heat prostration, so I really have to watch myself.

Three times I didn't, and I am really lucky to be alive.

Once, at age 14 or so, I passed out in junior high school in Rochdale Village, Queens, while running during gym class.

I didn't know how to regulate myself, so I went all out at first, and I just passed out after a couple of runs around the gravel pit, where we did our running.

The second time was the scariest time.

We had moved to Long Island by then, and at age 15 or so, I had my bicycle and was crossing Sunrise Highway to get to a friend's house on the other side of town.

It was a really hot day, and I know I completely blacked out crossing the highway, which is really a three lane thoroughfare back and forth with lights.

To this day, I have absolutely no idea how I got to the island in the middle separating the six lanes--did I get there myself and pass out or did somebody drag me onto the island seeing that I had passed out in the middle of the road?

I have absolutely no idea.

The last time this happened to me I was in my early 50s, and my family and I went to a game at Yankee Stadium where it was really, really hot.

I remember taking care of my son, pouring water on his head and getting him water to drink, but me ...

I didn't do anything to help myself.

I soon felt sick, went to the bathroom, and passed out there.

My son accompanied me to the bathroom, and he called security when I didn't come out, and I just remember them dragging me out, spraying water on me, giving me something to drink, and taking me to the members-only club that the old Yankee Stadium had to cool down.

My wife had to drive my car back home because even a few hours later, I was in no shape to drive that day, even though I felt much better.

They even checked on me days after the incident to make sure I was OK.

These things are frightening, and hopefully, these three incidents are the only three where I have suffered like this.

(I think there was another incident in summer camp when I was about 10 or 11 years old, but I simply don't have a clear remembrance of that, so I might be wrong.)

Happily, my son has never exhibited any of these things, so I can rest assured that he is OK, whether it is frigid or steamy.

Mother Nature can be unforgiving ...

And during those 100-degree days we just had, she was as brutal as can be.

Rant #3,977: Digging Your Scene

Wow, we seem to go from the ridiculous to the completely absurd when it comes to our weather the past couple of days.

We went from historic more than 100-plus degrees days this past weekend to what we had yesterday, which was monsoon-type rain, at least in my neck of the woods.

We also dropped in temperature by about one-third, which means that it was 108 degrees on Saturday afternoon, and on Monday, it was in the 60s.

Nothing brings us all together more than the weather, and we really got hit on Monday.

There were, happily, no power outages in my area, but in other places, they weren't so lucky.

Also, there is a bug going around that my wife actually has right now, and no wonder ...

When you have temperature differences like this, people tend to get sick.

And then there are people who are just sick, period ...

As a family was shot at in Coney Island in Brooklyn, and several children were hit.

On Monday, my wife and I went to the doctor for the beginning of our annual checkup, and I have to say, so far, so good.

We will hear about how our blood work came out later in the week, but right now, everything else came up roses, thank goodness.

Our blood pressure is very good, everything else appears to be good--I even lost another pound or two--so we just await the results of the blood tests we had and if that comes out good, well, then ...

We are good to go, at least for six months, when we have our followups.

I, personally, have had enough negative health news this year, and maybe, just maybe, I can report something a bit better now that I am done with that trio of operations that I just concluded a month ago.

I sure hope so.

It just takes a lot out of you when you have such uncertainty swirling around your very being.

I need some good news on the health front.

As I have told you, I still need to get things done, but for right now, everything looks OK.

Time to move on.

After fasting until about 12:30 p.m. so that the blood work is genuine, I went right to work, wrote and edited a story, did some digitizing of my records--an endless job that I will, quite frankly, never finish because I have so many records to do--and I just took it a bit easy on Monday.

I am still in the middle of the "CD shuffle" I told you about the other day, but that is going to have to wait until I can get more storage units to put the letters L-Z into.

I decided that I had to clean out the trunk of my car, since it has basically been in the same state of mess since 2023, or when I first hurt myself.

I was doing it back then as we were moving to a new dwelling, but I got hurt, and it has remained the same way since then.

Now, it is time to clean it out, as honestly, I was using it as a storage space for some things as we prepared to move from the house I lived in for roughly 50 years.

Some things were added to the mess since then--like the brace I wore on my left leg for six months or so--because we had no place to put this stuff.

So now is the time to clean it up.

I kept shopping bags in there, too--New York State forces you to shop with vinyl bags and you have to pay for anything else--and when I finally clean out the trunk, there should be plenty of room to put the bags back in there.

But other things--like my son's first laptop computer from about 20 years ago and which doesn't work--remain in there, ready to be discarded.

It is truly amazing how much stuff you can squeeze into your car's trunk, but the time has come to clean it out.

Who knows what I will find in there?

Money, other riches, a pot of gold?

I doubt it, but the more you dig, the more you find.

Rant #3,976: He's Got the Whole World In His Hands (Not)

How was your 4th of July? 

Mine was pretty quiet, even with hearing the fireworks in the distance.

My son worked--in the second straight day of more than 100 degrees of oppressive heat--so I had to take him to work and pick him up later on.

My wife and I had a quiet barbecue--just hamburgers and hot dogs--and that was pretty much it.

I digitized some records--honoring the holiday, I digitized some Paul Revere and the Raiders stuff, and getting into a New York groove, I did the same for Dion and the Belmonts--and I also watched some baseball--which I quickly turned off, as the Yankees were getting firecrackered by the Twins.

And that is pretty much it.

On Friday, it was 108 degrees, and on Saturday, it was 101 degrees, so my neck of the woods was frying.

These are not official temperatures, as the official readings come out of Islip, which is in central Suffolk County, many miles away from where I am--

But I go by my car thermostat, and where I am, it was what I said it was.

We are a bit more wide open where I am, so the readings are going to be higher.

I don't know how my son works in such weather, but it is his job, and he does what he has to do to keep cool.

He is drinking plenty of water--I think on Saturday, he said he drank seven bottles of water during his five-hour shift--so he is hydrated.

Sunday was just another day--and another day of work for my son--where the temperature finally fell.

In the morning, it was in the high 70s, but the problem was that the humidity was about 100 percent yet it wasn't raining.

It got into the low 80s in the afternoon, and still no rain.

It was warm, but Mother Nature was a little more reasonable in the heat department.

And people were parked all around where my son works, as the air show took place on Sunday afternoon.

Cars, trucks, people all over the place!

And today, we all come back to reality--

And I certainly do, because for the first time in a few weeks, today, I have a doctor's appointment.

Nothing major, but I still have to go to the doctor to begin my annual physical, so I just hope that the doctor doesn't find anything else wrong with me.

I still have up and down days related to my last surgery--not even a month ago--but I am feeling better.

I still have my eye problem, which is going to have to be taken care of later in the summer.

So I am not 100 percent--which is my ultimate goal--but perhaps I am getting there.

And that is that.

I go to this latest doctor's appointment with some hesitancy, but not with complete and utter fear like I had during the other such appointments and procedures and surgeries.

And today begins work again, not that July 4th stopped me, as I still handed in work and also edited/wrote something that I handed in today.

It's July 6th, and this mixed-up world we live in continues to revolve--

And you and I are just minor pieces of that puzzle ...

A puzzle that needs to be put together, and put together with every piece in its correct place.

Rant #3,975: Ain't No Stoppin' US Now

It is Friday!

Tomorrow is Saturday!

It is another summer weekend of 2026, and let's all take advantage of this and have a good weekend!

And this weekend includes, on Saturday, July 4, our nation's birthday!

This year's Independence Day is going to be somewhat different from other July 4 holidays because we will be celebrating our country's 250th anniversary--

Its 250th anniversary as the greatest country in the world.

Funny, back in 1976, when we celebrated our 200th anniversary, I seem to think that there were simply more things happening to honor our country on that day than there will be on the upcoming July 4.

Maybe that has to do with the fact that that was the 200th anniversary--

The Bicentennial.

This is only the 250th anniversary--

The Semiquincentennial, also called the Bisesquicentennial, the Sestercentennial, or the Quarter Millennium.

Too many names, not enough focus on what is happening during the celebration.

There will be baseball games, barbecues, parades, and lots of other events, but I think there was much more hoopla surrounding the 200th anniversary.

Maybe I feel that way because I was younger when we had the Bicentennial--19 years of age-- and maybe my eyes were more wide open then than now.

I have seen some mentions of the upcoming 250th, but a lot of them are on snacks and soda packaging, sporting American flags and bald eagles and a lot of other symbols of our culture.

But nothing to the extent of the 200th anniversary.

Whatever the case, there should be plenty going on during the 250th celebration, and while I most likely won't be around for the 300th celebration--the Tricentennial--this is going to be a day that is significant for myself and all Baby Boomers.

Me, I will most probably have a barbecue for myself and my family.

My son has to work, so he will make some money on this special day, but it will force my wife and I to stay close to home on the holiday.

That is OK with me.

July 4th has almost always signified not only our country's birthday, but also one of the major family days of the year, so we will be together in a funny sort of way.

And then on Monday, July 6, I have to again go to the doctor after a respite of a few weeks.

Nothing to worry about, but another doctor's visit keeps me shivering in my own skin, as I just hope that nothing else--or nothing new--is found to be ailing me.

I have had enough of that, but if you gotta go, you gotta go.

So tomorrow, we will be celebrating a major anniversary of our country, and as I said, through everything, this is the greatest country in the world, bar none.

And at 250 years, we are still relatively young--in a country's anniversary years, at least--and there is still no stopping us now, or in the future.

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

Ain't no stoppin' US now!

Rant #3,974: Money Changes Everything

Well, nothing new to report on any front today.

I guess we area all gearing up for the Fourth of July festivities, so everything was pretty calm in my neck of the woods.

And yes, I am still working, still toiling away--

And yes, I just want to be fully retired.

Another friend of mine told me that right after his birthday on June 29, he was retiring the very next day on June 30.

He put in his time, and now his time is his own.

Me ...

I will be working, and working. myself into the grave.

I feel bad on harping on this so much, but with so many people around me retiring, I guess it makes myself somewhat jealous that I can't do the same.

I am beyond help, but I am trying to make it better for my son.

My son is 30 going on 31, and I have told his job coach that I want him to look into the possibility of my son getting a 401k plan from his place of work.

I was fouled up by the places that I worked at over 40-plus years.

None of them were a union shop, and none of them offered a 401k plan--

Until the last stop in my full-time work career, and they didn't offer it until I had worked there for years and I was in my 50s.

That was great, I paid into it at the highest rate that I could, and everything was fine and dandy--

Until the company teetered, and then several years into the plan, they stopped it.

So I poured everything into IRAs--don't get me started on telling you how my work gave me nothing but trouble about transferring the money over the right way--and then, when the company folded in October 2019, I put it all into the stock market, where it resides today.

And it has been a bumpy ride.

Having Medicare means that you really have to be as healthy as you can, because the plans we have had have pretty much been good.

But once your health falters, like mine did, you are really up the creek without a paddle, because Medicare pays for some things, but others ...

Fuggedaboudit!

So I have had to go into my money twice to cover those costs, and I would not be at all surprised if I have to go into that money again--

And again.

I have nowhere else to turn.

So my thinking is that if I can start my son off in his early 30s with a 401K plan, then maybe, when he gets to my age, he won't have to suffer like I am, and he can retire when he wants to retire.

He had a 401K plan at his previous job, but he had to put it into an IRA when he was hired at his current job--

I won't go into the whys and wherefores of that, as I have done that previously here at the Blog, and how he really go screwed for having to do so.

Anyway, start him now--even though he is a part-timer--and see where it takes him.

You have to learn from your mistakes, although with me, personally, I really didn't make any regarding this subject--

I guess you could say that I picked the wrong places to work, but beggars can't be choosers, and yes, being out of work a few times in my life kind of makes you into something of a beggar.

So I can at least give my son some wisdom from what I have gone through, and see if we can make things right for him 30 or more years away when he is going to have to contemplate retirement.

It's the least I can do for him.

Let's see what the job coach tells me.

I am hoping it all makes dollars and cents.

Rant #3,973: You Better, You Bet

I have found that in this turgid world we live in today, you have to open your mouth and speak your mind when it is warranted ...

And it is especially important that you do this when you are ready to get ripped off, moneywise.

To prove my point, let me tell you what happened to me yesterday morning.

As you know, I am putting in alphabetical order all of my CDs, which number in the hundreds, if not even more.

I have been looking for storage receptacles for these CDs, and on the weekend, just toodling around on the Internet, I found just what I think I need to store these safely and to where I can get to them and find what I want when I want them.

I could have easily ordered these bins online, but these storage devices seemed to only come in multiple orders--like four at a time--and while I might need that amount--or more--in the future, without actually seeing the bins, I don't really know if they would work for me.

So I was only looking for one to start, and as I said, like Lay's Potato Chips, you can't eat--or with these bins, buy--just one at a time.

So I decided to go to two local department stores to find what I wanted.

I went to one, and they didn't have the exact bin that I wanted, so I went to another store, down the road from the first one.

I arrived, and found exactly what I wanted.

Shelved at the back of the store, I happily found what I wanted, looked at the bin, and decided that this was going to be the solution to my problem.

There were two of them, so I took both, each priced at $12 via a sticker just below where the bins were stored, a price which was less expensive, per bin, than I found on the Internet.

I brought the bins to the checkout, the cashier rang up my purchase, and it came to $43 and change.

I protested.

"It says $12 each on the shelf I got these from," I said.

The cashier called over another associate, who I presume went to the back of the store to see how the items were priced.

After a few minutes, she came back to where I was waiting.

"The bins are $20 apiece," she said. "Someone put them in the wrong area on the shelf, so the $12 price was incorrect.

"But since they were the last ones on the shelf, I am going to give them to you for $12 each."

EUREKA!

Finally, someone listened to what I said and agreed with me, that it was the store's fault for mislabeling the price of thus item.

I paid--with cash--exited the store, and I was a happy camper.

You absolutely have to open up your mouth in similar situations.

You cannot let the store's imbecility get you to pay more than you should on a wrongly priced item.

I have to say, I learned this from my maternal grandmother, who would say what she had to say in similar circumstances.

In today's world, where things are just so expensive and you count every penny, you better bet that I wouldn't just pay what they said and let the whole thing pass.

No, not me.

No way, no how.

So now, I have two starter bins to go on, I probably will need a few more, but at least I can start doing what I need to do to get these things in order.

(A)erosmith to the (Z)ombies and everything in between ...

I wish I could open my mouth, a magic genie would appear--

And one of the three wishes that the genie would grant me would be that all of this mess would be taken care of for me.

No, there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me when it comes to this job I have before me.

So let me get started on making this mess into the treasure it actually is.

Rant #3,972: And When I Die

Hopefully, with my most recent health woes supposedly behind me, I don't have to worry about this possibility just yet, but did you notice that satellite radio was all over this song last week--

And its lyrics were all over social media during the same time, because the song was just so fitting for the passing of a singer who made the song his own--

Although he didn't write it.

Laura Nyro's "And When I Die" seemed just so perfect, so fitting, and so natural for the occasion, as we all learned that David Clayton-Thomas left us late last week.

He was the heart and soul and lead voice of Blood, Sweat and Tears--fashioned after a Winston Churchill saying--who, for about two or maybe three  years, were on top of the musical world, then faded as fast as they ascended.

I personally saw them in concert probably about a half-dozen times--with and without Clayton-Thomas--and they dominated radio airplay in the late 1960s into the cusp of the early 1970s--

And then PFHHT--that was it--even though they continued to produce LPs and were a pretty big concert draw on the oldies circuit.

Clayton-Thomas was a wayward youth in Canada, a petty criminal whose love of music kept him from being just another statistic.

The story goes that during another episode, he found a guitar, learned to play it by himself, and somehow, the burly Clayton-Thomas engaged himself to the burgeoning Canadian music scene in the years prior to acts like the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive making themselves known internationally.

He gravitated to the States, and when Al Kooper left the original Blood, Sweat and Tears over creative matters--Kooper formed the band to meld rock and jazz and horns, but he was not happy with their first album and split--and Clayton-Thomas became the act's lead singer and sometimes songwriter.

And those hits--"Spinning Wheel," "You've Made Me So Very Happy," and yes, "And When I Die"--made the band a very commercial one, but they were one of the headliners of Woodstock and were in heavy rotation on both AM and FM stations.

As the 1960s ended, the bubble burst, and by the early 1970s, Blood, Sweat and Tears were still touring, still putting out records, but the magic had clearly left.

Clayton-Thomas was in and out of the band, he put out numerous solo LPs, but Blood, Sweat and Tears--based on a couple of AM radio hits and about four classic albums--became staples on the oldies circuit, which is where I saw them numerous times.

Yes, their music did meld jazz and rock and pop, but by the time I saw them, it wasn't such a revolutionary thing anymore.

But they persevered, and now their lead singer is gone.

And here is his epitaph, the Laura Nyro song that was one of Blood, Sweat and Tears' biggest hits, with lyrics from the Genius website (https://genius.com/Blood-sweat-and-tears-and-when-i-die-lyrics):

[Verse 1]
I'm not scared of dying
And I don't really care
If it's peace you find in dying
Well then, let the time be near

If it's peace you find in dying
Well, then dying time is near
Just bundle up my coffin
'Cause it's cold way down there
I hear that it's cold way down there, yeah
Crazy cold, way down there

[Chorus]

And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be, one child born in this world
To carry on, to carry on

{​Instrumental}​

[Verse 2]
Now troubles are many
They're as deep as a well
I can swear there ain't no Heaven
But I pray there ain't no Hell
Swear there ain't no Heaven
And I'll pray there ain't no Hell
But I'll never know by livin'
Only my dyin' will tell
Yes, only my dyin' will tell, oh yeah
Only my dyin' will tell

[Chorus]
And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be, one child born in this world
To carry on, to carry on, yeah yeah

{​Instrumental}​
Yee-ha

[Verse 3]
Give me my freedom
For as long as I be
All I ask of livin'
Is to have no chains on me
All I ask of livin'
Is to have no chains on me
And all I ask of dyin' is to
Go naturally
Only wanna go naturally

[Bridge]
Here I go, hah!
Hey hey
Here come the devil
Right behind
Look out, children, here he come
Here he come, hey

Don't wanna go by the devil
Don't wanna go by demon
Don't wanna go by Satan
Don't wanna die uneasy
Just let me go naturally

And when I die
And when I'm dead, dead and gone
There'll be one child born in our world
To carry on, to carry on

{​Outro}​