Rant #3,887: With a Little Luck

Happy President's Day today, where we honor all of our presidents, from Washington to Trump.

On Saturday, my family and I celebrated Valentine's Day at a local restaurant in our old neighborhood, am eatery we hadn't been to in a year or two.

The prices went sky-high, of course, the service was poor, the food was OK but not anything to write home about, and based on these factors, I don't think we will be going back there anytime soon.

The place was packed, so I am sure the restaurant did well that day, but they probably won't be seeing my money in the future.

Prior to that, my son had his bowling league, and again, he led his team to victory, and his team is in first place as we speak.

They are on President's Day break next Saturday, so they won't be bowling again for two weeks, but the team really poured it on on Saturday morning, and they top the league right now.

Let's see if they can keep it going through June, when the league ends.

They won it all a few years ago, so perhaps they can do it again.

Otherwise, this past weekend was pretty quiet, really nothing with nothing.

Today, I have to clean off the snow from my car as I prepare for a catscan, which I am looking forward to like getting the plague, but it all leads up to an appointment with my urologist in early March.

I have had some problems in that area over the past nearly year and a half, and I hope that this time, I get a clean bill of health and can move on with my life.

I have had a tough nearly 18 months in the urological area, but finally, all my processes have seemed to return to normal.

I was the one out of a million where these processes didn't bounce back as quickly as they should have, but right now, I can happily say that I am much better in those areas, so this catscan is simply a precaution to make sure nothing is brewing where it shouldn't be.

Baseball is roaring back onto the scene, so while there really isn't much to watch on TV right now--I have zero interest in the Olympics--that will end really soon, when Spring Training games are set to air.

After a pretty wild winter, baseball means one thing--

Warm weather is right around the corner, and I can't wait for all of this snow to melt away.

We have a solid patch of ice on part of our terrace, and I have to tell you, each day it seems to get a little bit smaller, melting away under the warmer temperatures we have had lately.

The snow we just got won't help, but ...

I just cannot wait to go out on the deck and do some barbecuing ...

But first, we have to get through the remainder of February, all of March and at least half of April to get to that point.

I hope that by then, my medical worries will be minimal, and I can get back to doing what I want to do and enjoy doing, which is enjoying my apartment and the fact that we are the only people who live here who have their own terrace.

I like to feel like the lord of the manor, even if we really aren't ... we just got lucky in getting this deck.

That is what we all need, a little luck, and in between all the horrors of the past few years, I have to say that a little luck has been mixed in in very small doses.

So I have learned to take it as it comes, and I think that is something we all have to do to get through this crazy and bizzaro world that we currently live in.

No, I don't have a four-leaf clover to pin my hopes on--and we are still a few weeks away from St. Patrick's day at that--but as we start the week, when I get my catscan, I am going to be thinking positive thoughts--

And maybe, just maybe, my dreams will come true.

I am nearly 69 years of age ...

The time has come.

Rant #3,886: My Funny Valentine

Yes, that special day is right around the corner.

Is it Friday the 13th today, which obviously isn't right around the corner, or is it Valentine's Day, which is right around the corner tomorrow?

I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Today is Friday the 13th, and this is traditionally a day where you have to have some good luck, or bad luck is going to hit you.

I don't know if I have had good luck or bad luck in the past few years, but I think I can get through today without much negative happening--

Although you just never know for sure.

Valentine's Day is what it is, celebrating your sweetheart in the best way you know possible.

My son and I hope to take out the Mrs./mom tomorrow.

We haven't been out to a restaurant since our cruise several months ago, and I think it might be high time to do it again, even though the prices are ridiculous.

It is a nice way to celebrate the one you love, whether, in our case, it is your wife or your mother.

We just buy cards for each other, no chocolates or roses or anything, and that is pretty much that, but it serves the same purpose as buying each other a gift.

It is a nice day to sit back and see how lucky you are for having a person you love right next to you--

And thus, it kind of cancels out all the bad that you are supposedly going to experience on Friday the 13th.

It has actually been 11 years since Friday the 13th on a Friday was followed by Valentine's Day on a Saturday, and honestly, I don't remember how we celebrated the occasion in 2015--

But I know that we did.

I have learned that one never forgets Valentine's Day.

My father used to say that since the day is really "St. Valentine's Day," it was a non-Jewish occasion, so he didn't have to celebrate it with my mother.

It used to irk her to no end, but my father ultimately would come around and get her something or take her out somewhere to celebrate the occasion.

Me, I guess I learned from all of that, and I never forget Valentine's Day, because if I did, the sting of Cupid's arrow would not be in my heart, but somewhere else where it would probably hurt a lot more.

And my wife, well, I feel she is the greatest lady around, so why would I ever not acknowledge the holiday?

And my son gets into it, too.

Maybe one day he will have his own sweetheart, but right now, it is his mom, and he sees how I celebrate the holiday, so it kind of rubs off on him too.

Again, we don't go overboard on all of this, but a nice dinner out will be fine.

Where will we go?

Good question.

I don't really know, and I probably won't know until we are about ready to leave to go out to eat on Saturday.

But wherever we go, it will be a nice occasion.

Friday the 13th?

By that point, it will be nothing but an afterthought.

We actually had our own Friday the 13th on Monday the 9th, when we did our taxes, so maybe we were smart to get that annoyance out of the way really early--

Making Friday the 13th pretty much nothing with nothing.

But that is how we did it.

Enjoy today as much as you can, have a great Valentine's Day and a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday--

When I have to get a catscan.

Will Monday the 16th turn into a late Friday the 13th for me?

Only the scan knows for sure.

Rant #3,885: Take a Fool's Advice

OK, I guess it is now my time to chime in on this Nancy Guthrie kidnapping episode.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on this very sad situation, and I do, too.

I am no criminologist, and maybe I am a fool to speak my opinion, but I am going to do it anyway.

As you know, the elder Guthrie, in her 80s, was kidnapped several days ago, and what made this national news is that she is the mother of Savannah Guthrie, the popular host of NBC's "Today" Show.

The woman was seemingly abducted from her home in a secluded but pricey part of Arizona, and there were blood stains that matched up with the older woman's DNA.

The police also found that her video door bell had been dislodged, as well as some other cameras in and around the property.

The family, Savannah and her brother and sister, have made video pleas to the kidnapper(s) to release her, and have even agreed to pay a ransom for her, based on supposed ransom notes that were delivered to a local TV station.

The woman is not very mobile, and takes medication for undisclosed ailments, and since removed from her home, she obviously hasn't been taking them, so there is further fear and worry about her heath and well-being.

Doorbell video that the FBI retrieved shows a hooded male who evidently disconnected the doorbell just prior to the abduction.

A person of interest was taken into custody, but then was released.

And now they have found a black glove about a mile and a half away from the house, a glove which resembles a glove the person who disabled the doorbell wore as seen in the video the FBI made public.

The police there say they hope to find the woman alive, but are pretty much open to any scenario or outcome at this point.

There are so many assumptions and opinions swirling around about this terrible episode, and whatever you think about the TV personality--like her, hate her, or somewhere in-between--your heart has to go out to the family.

This is simply a terrible, terrible tragedy, and collectively, I think we all hope that the elder Guthrie is found alive and well.

But there are some things that perplex me, and perhaps you, too.

Personally, and my opinion obviously isn't worth a hill of beans, I think it was something of an inside job--

Perhaps a family member--all have thus far checked out OK--an acquaintance, someone who has worked for the woman, perhaps even a contractor--since the woman's house's roof was just redone--might be the culprit here.

It is just too fine a story for me to think anything else, and since there were no signs of forced entry, you have to believe that the elder Guthrie somehow knew this person, even if it was somebody so benign like a newspaper delivery person, a meter reader or her landscaper.

Yes, as I mentioned, there was blood found, but I am sure this older woman put up a great fight when she realized what was happening.

And you just know that whoever did this knows there is money in this for them, because TV's Guthrie, I am sure, is paid pretty well for her job.

There are rumors about that the elder Guthrie was not an innocent old lady, that she was very involved in left-wing causes and was very well known in that sphere, but whether she was or wasn't, I guess this possible link has been checked out and not thought to be a viable one.

And the police there ...

Is it only me, but does the sheriff act like a modern-day Barney Fife and doesn't his department appear to be an annex of the Mayberry Police Department?

Whenever reporters question him, he acts like Sgt. Schultz from "Hogan's Heroes,"--

"I know nuthink."

The FBI has stepped into the fray, and maybe they can be more helpful than the local police has been.

But then again, perhaps they are all keeping mum because the case is so fresh that any verbal misstep could mean this woman's life.

We certainly haven't been told everything about this case, but I am sure that the TV host and her siblings are not just relying on the local police department and the FBI to find their mom--

They have the means to hire their own high-priced private investigators to probe into this case, and I am sure they have done that, but there has been no indication that they have.

And then again, we have the fact that a celebrity is involved in this mess, and that brings up another question:

"If it was your mother or my mother, would this horrible case get the same coverage as this one is getting?"

Probably thousands of people are kidnapped, of all ages, every year in our country for one reason or another.

I am sure that there are elderly people involved in those horrid incidents, but you just don't hear about them.

Certainly, the TV host is a well-known person, and that, alone, is fueling interest in this case.

Common-folk like us ...

No, I don't think the media would be obsessing over such a terrible thing as they are in this case, when it involves a celebrity.

As you are reading this, my hope is that the woman has been found, the kidnapper(s) put in jail, and the family can breathe a little bit.

This all might be old news by the time you read this, but something tells me that this story is far, far from over.

As for that belief, I hope that I am very, very wrong.

Rant #3,884: Taking Care of Business

We finally did our taxes, and as predicted--

My son did well--

My wife and I did not.

And just so you know, if you are over 65 years of age, you do get a tax credit, but it does not remove the tax entirely.

This credit did help us out to an extent, but we still owed plenty of money to the state and federal government.

Again, most of it can be attributed to the fact that I am considered to be an "independent contractor" with my job, and I have to pay taxes on that money that I make from being a remote worker, and I have to pay it at tax time.

Simple as that.

And if you need to take money out of other areas to pay off things, it is considered to be income, and you have to pay taxes on that too.

So what it all amounted to was that we had to pay the piper once again.

I am just glad that it is all over and done with for another year.

But this year, I found that a lot of the institutions we deal with took their time sending us our tax forms.

Now, I thought it was a law that all of these forms had to be in by January 31, and honestly, I haven't had that much of a problem with getting these forms--save one or two, including from my workplace--before this year.

This year, many of these tax forms that we needed were sent after January 31, and we even got one or two on the day we filed our taxes, a couple of days into February.

This is just plain wrong, but I guess if there was a law about this, it is not in force anymore, and if there wasn't a law, companies just sent these things out by January 31, but many simply don't anymore, for whatever reason.

But it is all done for calendar year 2025, and that is the important thing.

Tax, tax, tax ...

And you know who gets it in the end.

The poor don't/can't pay taxes because they have no money, and the rich don't/can't pay taxes because they have plenty of ways to avoid doing so--

Leaving the middle class to foot the tax bill.

It has always been like this, it isn't changing any time soon, so you just have to learn to live with it and just manage to do the best you can do under the circumstances.

Tax day is not my favorite day of the year, but after all is said and done, I am just glad that it is over and done with.

First, getting the staples out of my head, and now, paying our tax bill ...

Two things weighing on me that I don't have to worry about anymore.

What's next?

It is just too taxing on my brain to think about that right now.

Rant #3,883: Superman

Hip hip hooray!

We are finally past all of the phony Super Bowl hype--and the Bad Bunny nonsense--and we can move on from all of it.

I have absolutely no interest in the Super Bowl, and for once, there were actually things for me to do so I didn't have to get the least bit involved in this utter stupidity.

My son worked on Sunday in frigid temperatures, so he was my main priority--

Getting him to work and bringing him back home.

In the morning, my wife and I did our secondary shopping as we normally do, and we picked up a few things that we didn't get in our main shopping on the previous Friday.

I then ate lunch, and after that, I watched NBA basketball, where the Knicks played the Celtics, and the Knicks won in a runaway.

After that--and after I took my son to work--I digitized one of the LPs, the soundtrack to the 1969 film "Alice's Restaurant," the comical Vietnam War protest film that I took quite a liking to way back when.

The film was good, the music was even better, and how could you not sing along to the "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," Parts I and II?

Then came dinner, and after that--and after my daily exercise regimen, which I am back to doing after my staples incident--I sat down to watch the TV news, and then, I watched a binge of "Here's Lucy" on the "Catchy Comedy" channel.

The show is true old fashioned comedy, and the channel was showing a lot of the episodes where famous stars of the day appeared, including Helen Hayes, Joe Namath, Petula Clark and Donny Osmond.

The shows are corny, they don't really hold up at all, but they are pretty funny, so it made for a smooth transition into 1) picking up my son from work, and 2) bedtime.

And boy did I sleep!

I had one of my rare nine-hour sleeps, from 10 p.m. to about 7:30 a.m., a sleep that I only have when I am really tired.

And I guess staying away from any mention of the Super Bowl made me tired, but honestly, this was the first Super Bowl Sunday in recent memory that there were actually great alternatives for me to spend a nice weekend day, and not be pounded with the game, which has become so political that it really isn't a sporting event anymore.

And don't get me started about the Olympics, which have had little or nothing to do with athletic achievement since that fateful day in 1972 when Israeli Olympians were murdered simply because they were Jewish.

I haven't watched a minute of any Olympics since then, because even at 15 years old in 1972, I pretty much knew where the games would be headed now and into the future.

And I was correct in my assumptions.

All politics all the time, all hype, phony nationalism, etc.

Just to sum it up, I had a great, and very relaxing, Super Bowl Sunday without even a hint of the Super Bowl in my activity during the day.

(On Monday, I did have to edit a story for work about Super Bowl festivities at one of our bases in Germany, so I wasn't completely immune to this fever, but--)

Who won the Big Game?

Who cares? 

Rant #3,882: The Truth Will Set You Free

I am staple-less!

The staples came out on Friday afternoon, and to echo James Brown--

I feel good!

It hurt a little bit when they took the staples out of my scalp.

There was one staple that when the doctor took it out, for a millisecond, I felt a bit dizzy, but I got my composure back quickly, and before I knew it, it was done.

No staples, no cancer, it is over.

Now I can relax a little bit, but next month, I go to my retinologist to see how my detached retina is doing.

I have some other lingering ailments, but at least for right now, I am OK.

Let's move on ...

To something that I don't really want to talk about, but I will anyway.

President Trump.

I think he has done some good things as our President.

I did not vote for him, but some of the things he has done are impressive, including at least laying the groundwork for peace in the Middle East.

But alas, there are some things that I think he has done that have me scratching my head, with staples in it or not.

The latest is the uproar and furor surrounding his recent post, on his own platform, where he depicted former President Obama and his wife as monkeys or apes or baboons or whatever it was.

The President denies putting this video up, stating that one of his aides erroneously posted it without his knowledge--

But you know what? That explanation really doesn't register.

And the fact that he won't apologize--because he said he didn't do it--really doesn't suffice either.

The whole thing goes back to the tired--and I mean VERY tired--premise that he can't simply drop, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

It wasn't, so let's move on.

But he can't, he won't, and he refuses to do so.

He portrayed various politicians he doesn't like related to this canard by placing their heads on jungle figures--

I mean, he is the KING of the jungle, isn't he?

And Obama and his wife were portrayed as being monkeys, or baboons, or whatever it was.

This is just plain wrong.

No matter how much you despise someone, you don't do this, and being that the two are black, it just makes it more horrendous--

And to do this during Black History Month, however you feel about that, it is wrong during this month, or the other 11 months of the year.

Both Republicans and Democrats pretty much came out in unison against what he did, and for once, they were both correct--

And the President is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I don't care if his little grandchild did it, it was under grandpa's name, under his watch, and he owns it, whether he actually did it himself or not.

His press secretary, who was put in a really awkward position answering questions about this post, told reporters something to the affect that we should all "move on to something more important," but I mean, what was she going to say to try and cover for her boss?

Trump was wrong, 1,000-percent wrong, and whether he actually did it or not, he should apologize to the Obamas and to the public for this outrage.

And what's worse is the reverberations this will have in the future for the Republican Party.

Looking to the future, some of his unpopular actions are going to make it very difficult for the party to maintain its stance in the near future elections, and his behavior will make it almost impossible for the Republicans to win the next Presidential election.

His approval ratings are way down, and the Democrats have made great strides in winning a number of key elections across the country during the past year or so.

Do you think that utter nonsense like this is going to allow his party to make gains in the near future?

And it will completely doom whoever the Republicans choose to be their presidential candidate after Trump.

And based on the past, you just know what the President will do when his party's choice loses--

He will distance himself from that person, say that he won twice, and say that he actually won three times, and this guy or gal is simply a loser.

Again, I do not think that President Trump has been a bad commander in chief, but many of his actions are so based on ego, and ego alone, that it is turning off so many people--

Voters that the Republicans need to maintain their margins in Congress and in the White House.

This latest imbecility pretty much puts the focus on just how brittle his relationship with the public really is, and if I were advising him, I would tell him--implore to him--that he has got to tone it down a bit--

If not for him, then for Republicans in general.

It doesn't take staples in my head to see that he is making some great mistakes, and this latest thing might be the worst of the worst.

Take ownership of it, apologize, call onto the carpet the aide who supposedly did this--is there really one?--and move on.

You can't sleep?

Get off Truth Social, and get a hobby.

Rant #3,881: Up, Up and Away

Today, I am happy to say that I finally get the staples taken out of my scalp.

Hopefully, everything is good up there and I will be fully on the road to recovery.

It has been difficult since the cancer was removed, but somehow, I have gotten through it.

Onto other matters ...

We lost two more personalities from our Baby Boomer youths this week.

One was Mickey Lolich, one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball during the late 1960s and early 1970s, who carried the Detroit Tigers on his shoulders when they went on to win the 1968 World Series.

He won three games in that series, and that is in addition to winning more than 200 games during his career.

Lolich, 85, was second fiddle to Denny McLain, the last 30-game winner in a season, but when it came down to it, Lolich was the better pitcher and had a much longer career.

He is another guy who should be in the Hall of Fame, but isn't.

And then we have a name that you might not know well, but you certainly knew his image well at one time.

LaMonte McLemore, a founding member of The 5th Dimension, died Tuesday morning. He was 90 years of age, and he died from natural causes following a stroke suffered several years ago.

McLemore was the "tall" guy in the group, and while he usually was in the background when the group performed, he was in the foreground in the background, if you know what I mean.

He was the arranger of the group's music, so he was perhaps the most important cog in the 5th Dimension's success. In that capacity, he mapped out the music for different instruments and different voices, and based on his group's success, he was a master of his craft.

Doing a little research on this guy, I found out that he was an athlete--he had played minor league baseball--and an avid photographer, chronicling the group's hit cycle in photographs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The 5th Dimension, along with Three Dog Night — which lost Chuck Negron the other day--were perhaps our most popular singing groups during this period, and while Negron was out front with his group, McLemore was in the background in his act, but he was pivotal in the success of songs like "Go Where You Wanna Go," "One Less Bell To Answer," "Up, Up and Away," and "Aquarius," among all the massive hits the 5th Dimension had.

So, two more from that era are gone, and with the passing of Demond Wilson, this has not been too good a week for people who excelled during another time and place.

Have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday--

Without the staples in my head ...

Although there is supposed to be more snow coming to contend with.

Would I rather have snow or staples?

For once, I will take the snow.

Rant #3,880: Taxman

Yes, it is tax time!

How exciting!

My family and I always get hit pretty hard by the taxman.

My son usually makes out OK, but my wife and I ...

Fugedaboudit!

The problem is that since I am a remote worker, I am, pretty much, an independent contractor, and the taxman hits me pretty hard when it comes time to pay up.

My father, as a licensed New York City medallion cab driver, used to go through the same thing each and every year during his more than 50 years of cab driving, so I know all too well that it is now time to pay the piper.

And then we have Social Security, which greatly impacts your taxes, where you get double taxed, when you get your monthly money and then, when you have to pay Uncle Sam.

President Trump, when he was running for President this time around, told us all that one of his major thrusts would be at cleaning up Social Security, where monies were going out to those who didn't deserve it, like people who were getting monthly checks for those who had been dead for years, and in some cases, for decades.

That was clearly fraud, and he stated that he would weed those poachers out.

But he also vowed to eliminate taxes on Social Security, and I have to tell you, I am not sure if he did this in his "Big Beautiful Bill" or not.

We still pay monthly taxes on our Social Security payments, but are we supposed to be getting that money back when we do our taxes?

I thought that for the next two years--2025 and 2026--we are supposed to get that money taken off our taxes, but I have heard differing reports on this--

So I am confused, to say the least.

I guess we will find out when we go to our accountant, and yes, it greatly impacts myself, my wife and my son.

The next thing is that as of this moment, I do not have my tax material from work.

I don't know if this is because I am a remote worker or just from negligence, but it seems every year that I have to ask for the form, and this year is no different.

I have contacted the person at work who handles this several times, and I have yet to get anything.

And I have learned that it isn't just me who is waiting for this form; at least one other co-worker is in the same boat that I am.

I get my daily message from the post office about what is in my mail, and lo and behold, on Wednesday, it once again was not in the mail, so I contacted the office on Wednesday morning to tell them that it is not in the mail, and I was told that, supposedly, it is going to be taken care of.

That is fine, but it simply adds insult to injury that I have to go through this seemingly each and every year--

And this is going on six years as of this writing.

Not fair, not fair at all.

So as of this moment, I have not made our yearly tax appointment with our accountant, because while we have everything else we need, this crucial piece is still missing.

I just want to get this process over and done with, I don't want it to linger, and since it is officially tax season, let's get this thing done already.

The guillotine is sharp, it is waiting, and the time has come to get my yearly head chopping.

I may still have those staples in my head, but let's get this done already while I still have a head to chop.

Rant #3,879: Joy To the World

We lost Demond Wilson the other day, and now, we have lost another popular performer from a different time and place.

Chuck Negron died the other day at age 83, and if you don't know the name, you do know the following three words:

Three Dog Night.

Negron was one of the three lead singers of this ultra-popular band, and he was probably the most lead singer of that three-headed monster, along with Cory Wells and Danny Hutton.

With a superb backing band, the three had numerous hits from the late 1960s into the mid 1970s, and you know all of them, whether you knew Negron's name or not.

"Joy to the World," "Eli's Coming," "Mama Told Me (Not To Come)," "Black and White," and my favorite, "The Show Must Go On," where Negron's vocals, I felt, were among the top lead vocals of any song of that era.

And he was a trailblazer.

He was of Puerto Rican descent, and decades before Bad Bunny even was born, Negron was perhaps the first lead singer of Puerto Rican descent to nab top hits and albums.

Three Dog Night was not without controversy.

First off, a lot of people derided them because they sang other peoples' songs, like those from Laura Nyro, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Leo Sayer, among others--

Not realizing that the three lead singers had all been around the block, so to speak, had paid their dues, and had been business veterans even before the forming of the band.

Having three lead singers led to a lot of ego issues, and with Negron the actual lead singer on most of the hits, there was a lot of animosity between him and Wells and Hutton, which eventually led to a breakup in the late 1970s.

There was also a lot of hard drug use in the band, and Negron was a major part of that environment, by his own admission.

It got so bad for him that the other two singers broke away from him, and he was so down in the dumps at one time--spending his fortune on hard drugs--that he actually lived on Skid Row in Los Angeles for a time.

He was sick, and had a very bad case of COPD, but somehow, he rehabilitated himself, and during his last few years, he recorded a number of solo albums and was part of the "Happy Together" Tour.

His voice was unmistakable, and while his ills greatly impacted his health, the voice may have been a little more ragged, but it was still there.

I saw him during one of the "Happy Together" Tour stops on Long Island, and he sounded good--and really happy.

Wells and Hutton toured separately under the Three Dog Night banner into the 1990s, and Wells' passing left Hutton as the sole lead singer of the act.

Reports are that a few months ago, Hutton and Negron finally buried the hatchet, and there have always been persistent rumors that the two--and when Wells was alive, the three--would get back together someday, which actually happened in the late 1980s when they recorded an EP together that garnered some FM rock station airplay,

But it was nothing permanent, and with Negron's passing and Wells' own demise, Hutton remains the last Three Dog Night singer standing.

So, with Negron's passing, one of the great voices of that era is gone, but the records remain as his legacy.

Listening to Three Dog Night all these years later, a lot of those hits hold up pretty well, and Negron's voice continues to stand out from the rest.

R.I.P. Chuck Negron.

You brought a lot of "Joy to the World" with your voice, and your overall talent.

Rant #3,878: Human Nature

OK, let's get this out of the way right at the get go: 

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so we are getting six more weeks of winter.

I have no idea what the other groundhogs saw on Groundhog Day yesterday, but if you want to believe Phil, we are in for it during this winter.

Six more weeks of winter ...

Well, that only brings us into mid-March, so I think his calculations are a bit off.

Not only do we have to get through February in its entirety, but I think we have to get through the entire month of March, too, and maybe the first week or two of April before we can kiss Winter 2026 goodbye.

So, in actuality, Phil's prediction is kind of short, isn't it, and short by a couple of weeks.

Sure, the Groundhog Day's predictions are always fun, but they are far from practical, and you really have to take them with a grain of salt--

Road salt, that is, or maybe even Kosher salt.

They both will do the trick.

I just heard that in my neck of the woods, we might have some more snow on Wednesday, and of course, the temperatures have been way down too, so this winter has been a memorable one for the wrong reasons.

Some say to move south, and you won't have to experience a real winter, but we all know how false that is based on this winter, where they are even getting snow in the northern part of Florida, and frigid temperatures have even hit Miami Beach on occasion.

I guess the only way to protect yourself from a real winter is to move to Hawaii, but that isn't happening.

So Phil, thanks but no thanks for your prediction.

It doesn't hold water--or snow--during this year's winter.

And you believe a groundhog as opposed to a meterologist?

I will go with the professional weather forecasters, even though much of the time, they get their own predictions wrong--

But this year, they have pretty much been spot on.

We have Lonnie Quinn here locally on the flagship CBS station in New York, and when he rolls up his sleeves, you know that the weather is going to be disastrous, no matter what season we are in.

It is a trademark of his, and he had those sleeves rolled up when we were blasted with 12 inches of snow and frigid temperatures a few days ago.

Hopefully, he won't have to roll up his sleeves any time in the near future, but with the weather as it has been, I wouldn't bet against it happening.

The groundhogs can only see their shadow; Quinn rolls up his sleeves.

I will go with the sleeves over the shadow anytime.

And just so you know, with the staples in my head the past two weeks, I have covered up my head with my baseball hat--

And yes, pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training camps this week and into next week ...

And you just know that even with a hint of baseball on the horizon, that the warm weather is coming.

And you also just know that when the warm weather does finally get here, we will be moaning about how hot it is just as we have been moaning about how cold it is right now.

It is all just human nature, and hot and cold, that is the way we are.

So try to sit tight; keep on telling yourself--

"The warmer weather is coming, the warmer weather is coming ... ."

And it is--

At the crack of a bat.

Rant #3,877: Dummy!

Word came over this past weekend that actor Demond Wilson, 79, passed away on January 30.

Although he portrayed many characters during his decades-long acting career, he is best remembered as Fred Sanford's big-hearted son Lamont on the classic NBC sitcom, "Sanford and Son "

That show was probably one of the funniest TV shows ever, running for 135 episodes from 1972 to 1978. 

Redd Foxx, the foul-mouthed adults-only comic, somehow found his way onto prine-time TV as Fred Sanford, the lovable patriarch of a Los Angeles--Watts--junk business.

Johnny Brown was the original choice for the role, but he could not get out of his commitment to "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," so the role of Lamont went to Wilson, who had earlier appeared in a one-shot role as a burglar in "All in the Family," a Norman Lear production, as "Sanford and Son" was.

Wilson--an Army veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart during the Vietnam War--played Fred Sanford's  son Lamont, and the interplay between the two stars--with Wilson as the straight man--was stuff made of TV legends.

Boosted by a supporting cast list of chitlin' circuit mainstays who were Foxx's real-life friends, "Sanford and Son" became one of TV's most popular shows on TV in the 1970s, and was must-see TV every Friday night.

Wilson's Lamont character wanted to be upwardly mobile, but the millstone of his father around his neck kept him grounded, literally and figuratively.

And Fred often referred to his son as "you dummy!" when things didn't go right.

When the show ended, Foxx continued his role in a couple of poor "Sanford" spinoffs, but Wilson had had enough.

He starred in a couple of other sitcoms--including a black version of "The Odd Couple"--but he pretty much left the business in the early 2000s, with a drug history also on his resume--after earlier finding religion.

On screen, Foxx and Wilson seemed to have great chemistry, and they really seemed to like each other as actors.

But in recent years, in some videos that are easily accessible on the Internet, Wilson has painted a different picture of the duo's relationship.

Wilson claimed that Foxx was very narcissistic, had an ego the size of the Grand Canyon, and that Foxx treated him poorly and disrespected him up to Foxx's last breath.

Wilson also criticized show business, in general, and I have watched a couple of these videos, and quite frankly, they are very difficult to watch.

The actor came off as bitter as can be, but in a bizarre way, he is very convincing, and you don't, and can't, doubt what he is saying.

Even when making what happened to be his last visit to Foxx--right before the comic died of, you guessed it, a heart attack--Wilson said Foxx pretty much ignored him during this meeting, acting as if he barely knew his on-screen son.

It was sad hearing about this, and Wilson's candor--even if true--was a bit alarming.

Whatever the case, "Sanford and Son" was a landmark show, still funny 50 years after the fact, and Wilson was a major part of that funny-ness.

And the great thing is that it is still played pretty regularly in reruns on TV--sometimes censored, sometimes not--so it is very easily accessible.

R.I.P. Demond Wilson.

Your TV father might have called you a "dummy," but in real life, you were far from it.

Rant #3,876: Truth or Consequences

We have all heard about, and seen the video footage of, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota being sprayed with a substance during a town hall.

The guy who did this was sitting in the front row, got up, and sprayed her with what was later described as apple cider vinegar.

He was led away, and I am sure he will get the book thrown at him and serve some jail time for this episode--

If, in fact, it was a real attack, and not staged.

As much as I detest Omar--who is anti-Jew, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-American, and I could actually go on and on--she is an elected legislator in that bizarre state, and she doesn't deserve to be attacked like this--

And I would say that if she was Republican, Democrat, or whatever her party affiliation was.

An attack against an elected official is an attack on our democracy, period.

But I would also say that the attack was kind of a skivy one ...

One that so many people are claiming was staged.

This guy--who seems to be a low-level thug with some alcohol- and drug-related arrests on his resume--was sitting squarely in the front row of the room, pretty much right in front of the legislator.

I would think such seats would be reserved for those of a higher level--like her aides or other legislators--and not for such "common folk" as this idiot.

Some say she gave some type of hand signal to this guy, so he knew when to start spraying.

And her reaction--essentially that nothing was going to stop her from doing her thing, Minneapolis-strong and the like--was of such a bad actor that you could see right through it.

And what he sprayed her with--which had something of a foul odor and was thought, originally, to be urine--was something that while ridiculously used, couldn't harm anyone, except if you are the one in about a billion people who have allergies to apple cider vinegar.

What was sprayed on her was not initially known, yet she was not escorted away by her security detail, the room was not emptied of people who could have also been impacted by the spray, and rather than change her clothes right away and provide them to the FBI for further analysis, Omar just kept on going as if she spilled a bottle of water on herself.

Omar continually complains that she is oppressed, she has kind of a strange background herself--lots of rumors about her that I won't go into here--and that she might have staged this for sympathy or to deflect focus on more immediate, impactful issues.

The guy will get some time in the clink, but when he comes out, he might have a nice, fat paycheck waiting for him.

Again, all of this is speculation; I certainly don't know what really happened underneath the surface, if anything happened underneath the surface at all.

But if it was an actual attack, I don't care if you are Omar or President Trump or any other legislator, it cannot happen.

Our President was shot at, and it really is a miracle that the shooter just missed taking him out.

And through the years, we have had other legislators attacked, often with fatal results.

Again, I have no idea if this thing was real or staged.

What reason would this guy have to attack Omar?

Of course, it came out right away that he was a Trump supporter, but the guy has something of a criminal background, is not an upstanding citizen, so who knows what his real leanings are, and if they even matter at this point in time.

But if it was real, throw the book at the guy.

If it was staged, throw the book at Omar and get rid of her.

Will we ever know what really happened?

Right now, it is not being treated as something that was staged, but that does not mean that it wasn't.

So it is generally being looked at as an attack, an attack against a legislator, a member of Congress.

There have been other completely real attacks like this, things that could not be questioned, but this one is at least a little fuzzy in the reality department.

I don't even know what to think at this point; I lean one way or the other the more I see of the video and the more that I read.

Omar is, in my view, a despicable human being based on her views--even more so on our country in general, a country where she has risen to the highest ranks in our government--but she, or anyone else, should not be attacked like this.

Sure, some people even say that the attack on Trump months ago was also staged, but that has absolutely no credibility whatsoever, and both Democrats and Republicans expressed outrage over this unfortunate incident.

But I have to tell you, I believe what I said, that no one should be attacked like this, but this latest incident is very, very shady, and I, personally, haven't made my mind up on whether it was real or staged.

It is being considered to be real, so I will go with that for now, but that doesn't mean that if something comes out leaning the other way, I won't change my mind.

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

Maybe by then, we will find out more about this incident.

Rant #3,875: Count Your Blessings

Just to give you an update ...

I am still mending, I am still not 100-percent myself, but I am as good as I can be under the circumstances.

I will be getting the staples out of my head late next week, and then, maybe, I will feel a bit better.

It hasn't stopped me from doing the things I need to do, like working and driving, and on Tuesday afternoon, I actually had to clean off my car's windshield myself because an inch-thick layer of ice had formed on it, and the defroster could only do so much to melt it off.

I wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous, but since I had to pick up my son at work, I really didn't have much of a choice.

The ice came off in pizza-slice-sized pieces, so I guess I might have gotten a bit lucky that it came off in pieces rather than in small jigsaw puzzle pieces, but whatever the case, I did it myself.

One thing that I haven't mentioned is that I am unable to do my daily exercises, something I have been doing since I injured my left leg three years ago.

I hate exercising to begin with, but these exercises helped to save the use of my leg, so not doing them--even though they aren't strenuous--has been a big change in my life.

I will have to speak to the doctor and find out when I can resume them ...

Probably get back to doing it after I get these staples taken out of my scalp.

And, as I described to you earlier, I did have some troubles with the medicine I was taking, have since stopped it, and while I don't feel 100-percent physically, I do feel the medicine was adding to it all because it didn't agree with me or my system.

That is the first time that has ever happened to me in my entire life. 

I have always been very good with medicine, but not this time around.

In between doing work--and I had a work meeting yesterday too, and plenty to do after it--I have even started to digitize my records again.

Honestly, early on in this situation, all I wanted to do was to do what absolutely needed to be done, and then put on the TV and fall asleep, but now, my stamina has increased, and I have gotten back to doing some things I enjoy doing, like this fun exercise.

And I have no bleeding from my head anymore, which is a good thing.

Before you know it, I will be fully back in the saddle again--

And be forced to move on to the next health issue I am facing, one thing or another that I have been putting up with for a while now.

Whether it is the partly detached retina in my eye or issue related to my prostate, it is clearly never ending for me.

I just want it to get back to the way it was, which at this stage, might be asking for way too much.

And then we have the next thing to deal with, which is not a health thing but which can, in fact, impact your health.

Taxes.

They say that only two things are guaranteed in life--death and taxes--and while I believe I am far, far from the scrap heap, it is coming to the time of my annual tax cataclysm, where my family and I always owe money one way or the other no matter what we do to minimize or erase that situation.

We are getting the proper documents we need in the mail on an almost daily basis, so we will have everything in line for our annual tax session come early February--

And personally, I just like to get it done ASAP, out of the way, no matter how much money we owe, so I can have a clear mind and don't have to focus on this idiocy for more time than I am forced to.

Now I hear we might have another snow storm come Sunday, which will pile a still-undetermined amount of snow on top of what we already have.

These piles of snow that stand tall now will probably be around until the summer heat melts them down and away, but first, we have to get through winter--

And it is just January ...

We still have February, March and the beginning of April to go.

By the end of winter, my health should be back to normal, I hope.

But let's not put the cart before the horse.

Let's get through winter first.

And just think ...

Yesterday, I turned 68 years, nlne months old.

Three more months until 69!

Sixty-nine is supposedly a happy number--

And I plan to be happy leading up to that momentous occasion.

Let me count the days!

Rant #3,874: I Can't Explain

In Monday's Rant, I spoke about responsibility, something we have instilled in our son, whether it be to your workplace, your team, or your family.

Evidently, this is not a universal concept, or at least it isn't a universal concept anymore in this bizarro, very sick world we live in now.

The situation i am going to describe to you is not a cataclysmic one; it didn't change the world in any way, but in its own way, it demonstrates the level of total dismay that our culture has fallen to.

In fact, I will bet that it isn't an isolated incident.

During my son's bowling match on Saturday morning, I saw a complete lack of responsibility exhibited not by one of the bowlers, but by the parent of one of the bowlers.

And I was later told that I am not the only one noticing this, not by a long shot.

What happened is that my son's team was bowling another team in what was a pretty enjoyable back and forth meeting that ended up being decided by a handful of pins.

My son's team won both games, but the other team seemed lackadaisical, completely out of it, and not acting as a team.

When someone did well--getting a strike or a spare--there were no high fives, and even in between everything, there was no talking on the team, no enthusiasm, no nothing.

My son's team only had three members present--the other team had all four members present, if not fully there, if you know what I mean--and it was a good time on our side.

Look, my son's team wasn't perfect, but they high-fived when it was appropriate, talked up the place as they usually do--my son is quiet, but his team gets him going--and the three of them had a good time, win or lose, at bowling.

The other team ...

I can't tell you how many times I or one of my son's team members had to tell them that it was their turn to bowl, with only maybe one member of that team not having to be told it was his or her turn on the lane.

This holds up the game, with an ebb and flow non existent, and it does impact the bowlers.

Anyway, my son's team squeaked by in the first game, winning by two pins, and we moved on to the next game of the match.

Both teams were competing--it was up and down the entire game--but again, the other team looked like they wanted to be somewhere else.

The teams approached the ninth frame of the second game, and it was still anyone's contest.

It was one of the other team member's time to bowl, and the person could not be found.

Finally, someone on the lane saw her, and everyone is telling her that it was her turn to bowl.

She had her jacket on, which was kind of curious, but being that Saturday morning was pretty cold, you couldn't really question it.

Anyway, when she was seen, she acted as if she was "caught" for doing something, and she did not return to the lane.

Her mother--who was nowhere to be seen during the entire match--finally emerges, and says, "Oh, I promised my daughter and someone else that I would take them out to lunch."

I heard the head of the league say, "Look, you just can't walk out in the middle, if you have somewhere to go you have to tell someone."

"Well, I promised them--"

And she and her daughter left, without a care in the world.

This fouled up the two teams, as the scoring had to be updated to reflect that the bowler wasn't there anymore.

And since she wasn't there, whatever she had bowled was negated, and her average, minus five points, was used to replace what she had bowled, likely costing her team the game.

This threw everyone for a loop, and I have to tell you, if I would have had my wits about me, I would have said something to the parent, but I didn't.

I spoke to the head of the league, and I said, "We were in the ninth frame ... 10 more minutes, and she would have been out of here."

"I know all about it," he said. "We have had problems with this woman for a long time. She does this all the time. When I saw her daughter with her jacket on, I kind of knew we were going to go through this again."

He told me some other things about the parent that I will not repeat here, but there is evidently something out of whack when you have someone 40-something-going-on-10 years of age as the parent of someone with special needs who needs some direction, and can't get it from her own mother.

Without going into detail, I have seen this mother from afar, and I have wondered about her.

Again, I won't get into specifics, but just let's say that this woman might have some problems of her own that she needs to deal with--

Just from, let's say, her own "presentation."

I even apologized to the head of the league for being so concerned, and he said to me, "No, you are right about it."

So, because of a parent who doesn't seem to know what she is doing, she adversely affected her daughter's team, showing absolutely no responsibility at all.

And suffice it to say, my son's team was finishing up bowling in the 10th frame--where they did well and won the game right in that frame, that is how close it was--and not one member of the other team was present to see if they won or lost.

They finished their game, and had all gotten up and left way before my son threw his 10th frame.

Ridiculous.

Irresponsible.

Idiotic.

Maybe it was a good thing I did not have my wits about me, because if I did, I might have said something to this woman that I would regret later.

Maybe not regret, but felt I could have said in another way--

Or better yet, not at all.

But as a former Little League coach myself, I mean, you just don't do things like this.

As a kid in Rochdale Village, we used to call people like this "flat leavers," and I think, 60 years after the fact, that term still applies.

Rant #3,873: Truth

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, where we remember the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Adolph Hitler during World War II, and vow that nothing like it should ever happen again.

Eighty years later, we are witnessing what is possibly the early indicators that this actually could happen again, what with levels of anti-Semitism at their all-time highest levels not just in the United States, but worldwide.

And the level of anti-Semitic, anti-Jew and anti-Israel rhetoric on social media is growing by leaps and bounds--

And what's worse, the number of posts blatantly denying that the Holocaust ever happened, with so many actually believing that this atrocity was nothing but something of a publicity stunt to bolster Zionists' justification of a true homeland, is absolutely appalling.

I have seen this rising tide myself, where praise for Hitler and the Nazis exists--

And not only exists, but is thriving.

This can't be, but it is.

I have answered many of these imbecilic posts, but it is really amazing that while I am receiving more likes for what I have to say to these idiots, i am also seeing more and more people agreeing with these imbecilic posts being put up by the most ignorant people.

Yesterday, I had had enough, so I put up a post about this situation and my feelings about it.

Look, this stuff is nothing new.

When the Nazi crematoriums were uncovered by the Allies, Gen. Eisenhower--who had Jewish blood--ordered that as many photos as possible be taken by his troops as these camps were liberated.

He knew that visual proof would be needed not just then, but through the ages, to prove that these atrocities actually happened--

Because without visual proof, nobody would believe what took place at these camps.

And now, through the decades, we have people who are so ignorant that they believe the camps were simply propaganda to make the Jews look good, to gather sympathy for them.

As far as I know, my family was pretty lucky.

I believe that all my family was able to get out of Eastern Europe before Hitler took over, but they had witnessed many atrocities in Poland, Russia and elsewhere that happened to them simply because they were Jews.

But growing up, my father told me never to mention to my grandmother about one of her brothers who never came to America.

I knew my grandmother had one brother here, but there was another brother who was unaccounted for, and I do believe he perished during those horrible years.

He was never talked about, never spoken about, and I was told not to bring him up.

And I didn't, but I was curious.

Yesterday, Israel finally brought home the final hostage, which Hamas didn't help to return, as they had promised, and Israeli forces located.

There is a sense of relief that his remains are finally home, but the Internet remains filled with an increasing amount of vile words and imagery related to the Holocaust and the current Israel-Hamas altercation.

So like I said, I got fed up with trying to answer these imbeciles, and I posted the following.

If you haven't read it yet, please read it, and if you saw it yesterday, read it again.

Those who deny the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Hamas are sick people indeed.

"I have never dealt with such ignorant, stupid people in my life as I have recently when it comes to Israel and the retrieval, finally, of the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, an IDF soldier whose dead body was taken hostage by Hamas, and never formally returned to Israel as Hamas had been instructed to do by the ceasefire plan.

Some imbeciles I have dealt with say it was actually Israel's fault that it took so long ... some say that Israel prolonged the retrieval so that they could bombard the area once again ... some said he was not a real "hostage," because he was a member of the IDF.

One even said his body was buried under the tiny bones of babies killed by the IDF during their strikes on the area.

Yes, I know I am dealing with pro-Hamas groupies and the completely uninformed and uneducated here, but I think that this proves once again that since the world--except for the United States--pretty much abandoned Israel after the October 7, 2023, massacre, and still does, that Israel had to do what it had to do to get back the hostages and fight against this terrorist organization that so many imbeciles seem to love.

Has the United Nations ever officially condemned the actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023?

How many countries have backed Israel in its efforts, amid all the nonsensical propaganda that Hamas has thrown out to the world since that fateful day?

One person even said, on Facebook, that the Holocaust never existed, "or maybe 270,000 Jews perished, not the 6 million, that has been reported."

Another fool said that Anne Frank never existed, that she was basically a creation to add sympathy to the Jewish "plight."

This makes me angry, and the world should be angry, too ...

Even though it is obvious why they really aren't.

I could go on and on about this subject, but I will just stop it right here.

I wish I could stop all the hatred right here, too, but that is a task that is way beyond my capabilities.

But posting this message, it is perhaps my only way to describe what a very, very sick world we live in right now."

Rant #3,872: It Hurts

Snow.

I hate it as much as I hate anything.

But we finally got hit over the weekend.

I could be sad or angry about it, but I am neither right now--

Because i am alive and healthy enough to experience it.

I had my cancer surgery on Thursday, and the doctor told me that they got it all out.

I have staples in my head, and they won't be coming out for around two weeks.

I am very sore on the left side of my body; it feels like there is a knife in my back.

I have soreness--or something red-- under my left eye-- 

I can see, but it is making me feel bad about myself--

What did I do to deserve all of this?

I hurt, and I am about 75 percent myself, pretty much tired all day with the medicine I have to take.

(Note: I was able to contact my doctor via text and he told me to stop using the medicine--

It is the first time in my life that I had a negative reaction to medicine.)

But it hasn't stopped me, at least not that much.

I helped my wife do food shopping, and I took my son to basketball and bowling.

And as promised, I am back here at the Blog.

Due to the weather, my retinologist appointment was postponed until March, so hopefully, my detached retina will continue to heal on its own--

And that soreness I am feeling under my left eye goes away as quick as it came.

Honestly, I don't think my body could have taken two surgeries, one after the other, so it is all for the best.

And then we have this lousy snow ...

Due to my present condition, I cannot exert myself too much--

No exercising, no lifting, no bending ... pretty much no nothing for several weeks.

So guess who is going to have to dig my car out from the snow?

My son is going to have to do it.

His workplace closed early on Sunday, so he did not have to go in, but he lost a day of pay when they closed at 1 p.m. and his shift began at 3 p.m., so he did not have to go to work.

But now he has another responsibility.

He knows his responsibility, and he is ready to go.

And with my wife and I getting a bit older, our son has some new responsibilities, too.

After my wife and I did our food shopping on Friday, he had to help us up with all the full-to-the-brim grocery bags, in addition to bringing up a carton of water, something that he normally does anyway.

We have stairs up to our apartment, and I simply have been prohibited from doing anything like this, at least for now, so he is going to have to do it.

So right now, I am down but not out, and I am really happy that I went to my son's basketball and bowling.

Being there took my mind off of things for a few hours, and my son did well in basketball and did even better in bowling, leading his team to victory against their opponent, where a situation occurred which I will talk about with you later this week.

But I am cancer free, which is a great feeling.

And yes, I know that I am a broken record about this subject, but if you see something on your body that doesn't look right, please, please, please see a doctor about it.

Ninety-nine times out of 100 it will be nothing--maybe a wart or a simple blemish--but that one time that it is something, getting it removed as quickly as possible can actually save your life.

I found this thing myself, went to the doctor, he removed it, but then, later, I was told that a more drastic measure was needed.

I am in pain now, but I would rather be in pain than to have cancer.

So get these things checked out--it doesn't matter about your ethnicity or anything else--but it is treatable the earlier it is taken care of.

Please get these things checked out.

Even though I am not 100 percent, I am 100 percent happy that what I had was removed, and removed in the nick of time.

Do it for yourself and your family.

And if anyone needs a good dermatologist, I have one and I can recommend them to you.

I might have staples in my head, my I don't have marbles or rocks in there too.

Get this done now!

Rant #3,871: Today's the Day

Today's the day I go under the knife and have that procedure done on my scalp.

I don't know why this procedure was put off for so long in the first place--I thought that any cancer should be gotten rid of immediately--but I have to put my faith in my doctor--

And lately, I have had mixed results doing that with other doctors, so I guess I have to take a wait and see attitude on this--

And simply assume that they know what they are doing.

I don't like to assume things--you know the saying, so I won't repeat it here--but I guess I don't have much of a choice.

Let's get this thing done and out of here, and then I have my detached retina to take care of, and I will be like new--

To a certain extent.

I have some other physical problems where I put my full, 1,000-percent trust in my doctor(s), and it simply did not work out, or at least hasn't worked out for nearly a year and a half at this juncture.

But this is a different doctor, treating a totally different malady, so maybe this one knows what they are doing and will rid me of this for good.

I hate to be so negative, but I have had an up-and-down relationship with my doctors over the years, and it culminated with my original urologist, has moved on to my current urologist--the latter of which I am most disappointed with, since he was highly recommended--and I guess it has made me paranoid with my doctors.

I do have a great GP, and I just got pretty much a clean bill of health from him earlier this week, as all the tests they did on me came out well.

And I did have a great surgeon, whose mastery of his craft allowed me to walk again after two major surgeries on my leg in the course of a month.

So as you can see, it has been very up and down with myself and my doctors, so I am hoping that today goes well, and I can add this doctor onto my list of those who did what they said they were going to do, and did it well.

My agita with doctors stretches back years.

You might remember that I was the patient of a doctor who was caught red-handed giving out drugs illegally to underage teens, and he was locked up for a while, never to be heard from again.

I was also the patient of another doctor who was jilted by his fellow doctor partner in their practice, where the partner evidently stole money from the practice, and this practice went out of business.

When I tried to get my medical records from each of these doctors that I was a patient of, I could not get these records for one reason or another, or could not get them without paying for it, which I refused to do.

The jailed doctor, I was told by the attorney general's office, was incarcerated, in jail, but still held his medical license in New York State, which makes absolutely no sense to me or to anyone--it should have been taken away while he was in jail.

Anyway, being that he still had his medical license, he still "owned" my records, and there was nothing I could do to get them--

And much later, I was told that they were thrown into a dumpster, and I could sift through the dumpster if I really wanted those records.

No way was I going to do that.

Then the other doctor, who lost his practice because of he evil deeds of his partner, would not give me my records, even though it was advertised that he would.

You had to go through his wife to get them. I contacted her three times via regular mail, as I was told to do, and I never received anything from her.

Nothing.

So you can see why my trust of doctors is at a very low level, and hasn't been lifted up an iota by recent actions of some of my doctors.

But today, I am praying to God that everything goes OK, that I can fully put my trust into a doctor that knows what they are doing.

I have other stories to tell about doctors and my family--one eye doctor could not get the cataracts fully out of my father's eyes and my father left the office with one literally hanging out of his eye until it could be fully removed by another doctor--and there have been some other instances where I have to wonder how these doctors got their licenses to practice--as when I was going through a root canal with a dentist, the power went out, and I was sitting there with all these appliances hanging out of my mouth and without a clue about what was happening since the dentist decided to coffee-klatch with other dentists while all of this was going on and until power was restored 45 minutes or so later--but I won't go into all of that right now with you.

Just let's say that I hope for the best, because I deserve nothing but the best--

I have been through too much to think any other way.

So the blog will be shut down for the next few days, as on Monday, I have that detached retina appointment ... if the weather holds up.

We are supposed to have a major snowstorm this coming Sunday into Monday, so the appointment might have to be postponed.

If everything goes well in both instances, I will be back in the saddle pretty quickly, and even if it all goes well, I might need a little time to recuperate and heal.

So have a great weekend, and I hopefully will speak to you again next week.

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

I think I am going to need it.