Rant #2,336: You Can Make It If You Try

Today, March 21, is the first full day of spring.

It is also the first full day of the rest of his life for my son.

My 23-year-old son has had many ups and downs in his life, and today is the beginning of the newest stage of his life.

Today, we are going to start the process of helping him to find a job.

My son worked for three and a half years for a popular retailer, but that job ended in December.

They paid him through early January, but since that time, he has been out of work.

The problem is that my son is developmentally disabled. He is on a new medicine--personally, I wish he did not have to take any medicine, but right now, he has to. One day, I think with the proper instruction, behavior modification will be in play with his life, but not yet at this point in time.

He has a high school degree--a certificate stating that he met all the requirements for graduation under New York State's idiotic core competency guidelines--but he has not gone to college, and he might never do so.

Nor does he drive, an area that would open up a lot of doors if he could, but right now, he cannot pass the written test. I have no doubt physically that he can do what is needed to maneuver a vehicle, but he cannot take the test without first passing the written test.

He is completely able bodied, thank goodness, and can do just about anything physically and mentally, as long as he is shown how to do the task, and with repetition, he can master that task.

Yes, he is in all the agencies and government programs that he needs to be in, but their process is oh so slow, and we decided we wanted to jump start the process.

So here is what I have done and what I am going to do today, probably right after I finish writing this Rant.

I have called a few places--my son cannot do this on his own--and have gotten some interest, but not for right now.

To go outside the box with his job hunt, I am going to go right around the corner from home, where there are two small shopping centers, and I am going to put an envelope with his cover letter and resume in the door stops of each business. Yes, at 5 a.m. in the morning, so when they come in to start work, the first thing they see is this envelope.

(And yes, beyond his last job, my son has been working off and on since he was 15 years of age, so he does have a pretty substantial resume.)

Look, I realize most of these envelopes are going to be thrown in the garbage, but if at least one retailer contacts us, I will consider it to be worth it.

Look, I know some of you are shaking your head about what I am going to do, but you have to do unorthodox things to get a job today. I know from my own experience that going onto a job board and looking for work is a complete and utter waste of time, and it is even worse for someone who is himself completely out of the box to begin with.

So you have to do some crazy things to get a job today, and if this can be considered crazy, then maybe I am the head lunatic, but at least I am trying something different.

I remember before he got his last job, we did the usual stuff: fill out applications, go online, go directly to a retailer to look for work, go to a new business and leave his resume.

It amounted to a pile of nothing, except for a lot of anxiety brought on by people who spoke with him in these companies that simply were either nasty because of his situation or simply did not "get" it at all.

I assume we are going to have to go through that again, but maybe we can lessen things by doing things this way.

I feel that it is worth a shot.

And if nothing comes of it, so be it.

We will then go through the usual channels, hope that one of the agencies we contacted can come through for my son, and just do what we have to do to find him a job.

I think today is worth a shot, so let me go and see what happens.

Classic Rant #984 (June 14, 2013): The Holiest Day of the Year

This Sunday is Father's Day, and in my family, we call this the holiest day of the year.

Or at least the men in the family call it that.

It is the day to celebrate fathers and all they do for our society.

Fathers often get knocked for not doing the right thing, but fathers are important to the very framework of the family.

In the old days, it was the father who "brought home the bacon" to the rest of the family.

Today, in two-salary households, it is less so than it was a generation ago, but fathers continue to work hard and provide for their families.

I was lucky, because my father is and was solid as a rock.

He worked hard, did what he had to do with his kids, and earned the right to call Father's Day the holiest day of the year.

I have tried to follow in my father's footsteps. I work hard, do what I have to do with my kids, and I think I have earned the right to call the day the holiest day of the year too.

But my path was different than my dad's was.

I went through a divorce, and that disrupts how much influence I had on my daughter.

I have been a father since 1988, and I cherish the moment my daughter was born on the morning of May 15.

But it is really hard to parent over the phone when your child is not living with you and you are only seeing her every other week.

But that is what I went through with my daughter, and although we are on friendly terms, I don't think our bond is as strong as other fathers have with their daughters.

And that bothers me to no end.

When I remarried and my son was born in 1995, it was like I was given a second chance at being a father, and I have run with it since that day, on August 23, when he was born.

I have been his Little League coach, have gone to school meetings, have helped him with his homework, and I think I have done everything possible to being a good dad.

I hope he sees it that way.

So happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.

Even though we are often drubbed as not being around, and when we are around, clueless about what is going on, there may be nothing more important than the bond between a child and his parents.

And that includes fathers.

So have a nice barbecue, have a nice dinner or brunch, and relax on Sunday.

It is our day to do whatever we want to do.

And we deserve it, we really do.

Rant #2,335: Two For the Price of One

Today, March 20, is an interesting date on the calendar.

Later today, at 5:58 p.m. EST, we move from winter right into spring.

And around that time today, Jews celebrate the holiday of Purim.

Let's talk about the move from winter into spring first.

In many parts of the country, this winter has been one to remember but try to forget.

They have had terrible, devastating weather, with everything from massive snowstorms to floods to whatever else.

Here where I am, this has been about the mildest winter I can ever remember. We have had maybe two or three snowfalls of any great proportion, and one of them actually happened just prior to the coming of winter, in November.

We haven't had much snow because it has been too mild temperature-wise, which has made my allergies go haywire, but that is another story.

I would rather have my allergies go haywire than have to shovel snow, I can tell you that!

What will the spring bring?

Well, at my own personal estimation, these parts are not out of the woods for snow until about April 15, so we have a few weeks to go before we can really breathe a sigh of relief.

Once Tax Day comes and leaves us, there won't be anymore snow; heck, on my birthday on April 28 a few years ago, it got up to 97 degrees!

And I think the summer isn't going to be that great a summer, heat-wise.

I am sure we will have our 90 degree days, but by August, the real summer heat will have passed us by.

Global warming? I have no idea.

Now, as for Purim ...

The holiday commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all people of this persuasion way back when, during the times of the Persian Empire in the fifth century BCE.

His plans were foiled by Esther, the Queen of Persia, and this day is celebrated because rather than being the day that all the Jews were killed, it was the day that the plan was thwarted and Haman and his backers got their comeuppance.

For those into the modern interpretation of a strong woman, Esther is really the precursor to all of that, doing what she had to do to save her people.

On this day, observant Jews dress up--it is almost like Halloween--but young girls generally dress up as Esther, the hero of the story.

Hamantaschen, the traditional food eaten to celebrate the holiday, is basically what can be called a danish, usually with fruit in it, which is shaped into the headwear that Haman wore when he made his edict against the Jews.

I have also seen Hamantaschen with chocolate inside of it, but whatever it contains, and whether it is a big pastry or a small one, it must be sweet, to remember one of the sweetest and fun days on the Jewish calendar.

The Jewish community holds parties, parades, and other get-togethers to commemorate the occasion, but the focus is always on Esther, one of the first "strong" women in the Old Testament and certainly the model for such characters as Wonder Woman and other female superheroes.

Well, the coming of the spring season and Purim would be more than enough for one day, but this year, March 20 also signifies another thing.

Tonight, there will be a full moon, so in addition to spring and Purim, we have the werewolves and wolfmen coming out, too.

Take cover, Lawrence Talbot is fast on your tail!

In the classic film "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr., meets up with Bud and Lou and tells them his story of woe.

He tells them that when the moon is full, he turns into a wolf.

"You and a thousand other guys," Costello says with a wink in his eye and a smirk on his face.

Have a good day.

Classic Rant #983 (June 13, 2013): In Dreams

I don't know what it is with me.

I go through spurts where every time I go to sleep, I seem to have a dream, and then there are other times where I don't have a dream--or at least, don't remember having a dream--for months at a time.

I am in the "dream mode" right now, and as I described in yesterday's Rant, I had one involving my car on Tuesday night.

Last night, I had another kind of weird dream.

I am not a dream interpreter, so I have no idea what it all means.

Evidently, my brother-in-law (my sister's husband) went to a unnamed planet to retrieve two children for me.

There was some type of experiment going on where children were being concocted here, but being retrieved in outer space.

So, he went to some planet to get my two kids, one a boy, one a girl.

But scientists up there found that my kids would be diseased unless the aging process was sped up, so they came to earth as young adults in their 20s.

The boy was very close to me, but very immature.

The girl was not close to me at all, very aloof, and did her own thing.

The only other thing I remember is that my son in the dream had to be taken off a subway platform because he was not dressed correctly for riding the rails.

I don't get it either.

In my present situation, yes, I am very close to my son. He has lived with myself and my wife his whole life, and he turns 18 in a few weeks.

My daughter is a child of divorce, I see her occasionally, and I wish our relationship was better than it is.

Other than that, I really can't figure this dream out at all.

I remember as a kid, I would have spurts of dreams where I was falling, whether it was off a building or into the ocean. Of course, I always woke up before I crashed.

I seemingly went years without dreams that I could remember. I used to tell people that I never dreamed, although that probably was not true, I just didn't have any dreams that I could remember.

I am in a dream spurt now, but the dreams aren't recurring, so I have no idea what the next dream will be.

It is kind of eerie, I admit, but do the dreams mean anything?

I don't know.

I would love to know what my last two dreams meant, but so be it.

Maybe I am better off not knowing what the dreams mean.

One can dream, can't we?

Rant #2,334: The Gift

A long-running saga in my family seems to have reached its conclusion.

You don't know how happy I am that it has finally ended.

It involves a computer printer.

Any computer printer.

And it involves my mother's computer.

This began a few years ago, when I finally got my mother interested in computing.

It was a long time coming, but my mother has always been hot on new things--heck, she was the one who bought my sister and I our Beatles records way back in 1964--and she wanted to learn the new way to look for things and to socialize, so it was inevitable that she would get interested in computing.

And her age--then in her late 70s--wasn't going to stop her, it invigorated her--she wanted to learn about the computer, and she wanted to learn NOW.

I went out, got her a simple, relatively inexpensive computer--I bought it on Black Friday, as I remember, at Radio Shack--and she was off to the races.

Now into her third or fourth computer--I forget which one--she also has a tablet computer, but has not yet jumped on the telephone cellphone bandwagon, only having a flip phone.

But let me digress.

Now that she had a computer, she wanted to print things off the Internet, mainly restaurant and store coupons and certain articles that intrigued her, but without a printer, she couldn't do that, usually relying on me to print these things out on my computer.

(And it took her awhile to understand how to forward emails to me, which made it even more frustrating to her.)

So, of course, she needed a printer, but with my limited knowledge of computers, to be honest with you, every printer that we got her never worked correctly, and was useless.

I even tried to hook up some old printers that I had once used that I still had, but to no avail. These printers simply would not work with the computer she was using at the time.

Well, finally this year, she asked me to get her a printer for her birthday. When someone is 88 years old and asks for something, you basically do it, even though you have some trepidation based on past experiences.

So yes, I went out and got her an inexpensive printer (the one you see in the photo above), and yes, I tried to hook it up this past weekend ... again to no avail.

I spent a good hour trying to figure this out, but again, I failed.

I have hooked up other printers--to all the computers that I have had--with nary a problem.

But for some reason, I have never been successful in the least hooking up a printer to any computer my mother has ever had.

I told her that this time we would try to do things a bit differently. There must be something that I was doing incorrectly, something that I was missing, even though I responded to all the prompts on the computer screen while trying to hook up the printer.

"You will have to get in a professional," I told her. "I simply cannot do this, and I want you to be able to use this printer."

I actually had nightmares about this printer on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Even while sleeping, I was trying to figure out what I did wrong, or at least did not do right.

Yes, I was dreaming about this printer. I guess there are worse things you can dream about, but dreaming about a printer, in my mind, is not healthy.

Anyway, my mother called a professional in to try to fix this thing, and finally, on Monday afternoon, it was successfully hooked up.

My mother did not find out what I did wrong, but she did say that it took the technician upwards of 45 minutes for even him to figure out this thing.

I suspect it had to do with obtaining the proper printer drivers so this thing could work, but again, I followed all the prompts myself, and doing so, you would think that the thing would work.

Maybe something else was needed; at this point, I really don't know and I really don't care.

She has her printer, and it hopefully will work to her satisfaction.

My mother has not yet printed anything, but she says she wants to do so when I am home ... as if I can help her! I couldn't even hook the thing up right!

But when that day comes, and the paper goes into the printer, and it comes out perfectly, the long-time saga of the printer will finally be over.

I mean, dreaming of printers is not normal.

I would rather dream about ... well, I will leave that to your imagination.

Classic Rant #982 (June 12, 2013): Here In My Car

I have finally paid off my car.

After five years, it is one less bill that I have to worry about.

And that makes me happy.

I love my car, I really do.

A couple of years ago, I was driving a 13-year old car. It was a good vehicle for what it was, but after 13 years, it was giving me nothing but trouble.

It had way more than 100,000 miles on it, and it was falling apart at the seams.

I held onto it for as long as I did because I didn't want a car payment.

I figured the maintenance on the car, even though it needed lots of work each year, equaled out to less than I would have to pay for a new car.

And for a while, that thinking worked out just fine.

But the last few years of that car were something else.

Not only did it need lots of work done to it to pass inspection and to drive it, but even its outside was falling apart ... or falling off.

One Saturday, with my family in the car, something was dumped--or fell from the sky--onto the car. It was some type of waste material, and it hit the car--as well as the car ahead of us and the car behind us--while we were waiting at a light.

This mess got us more than the other cars, and I swear, it peeled the paint right off my car.

I used to joke that my car was unique, as it was the only one on the road that when you drove it, the paint blew in the wind.

But it did--you could peal it right off the surface of the car.

Anyway, now a little more than five years ago, the car broke down for good while my son played one of his last Little League games.

I went to the car dealer the next day, and within a few hours, I was the proud owner of a brand new 2008 Kia Spectra.

I was very happy with the car at the outset, although the radio was nothing to write home about.

This was right before all the gadgets on the dashboard became pretty much standard, so it really is a basic car.

And I really enjoy riding in it.

My family and I have taken the car back and forth to Florida several times since then, we use it all the time, and it has nearly 68,000 miles on it.

I hope to have this car for at least another five years. I keep up the maintenance, and I really have never had much of a problem with it.

I think it can make it.

In fact, since the line was discontinued by Kia, I have had calls about selling the car. Evidently, this make and model of the car is highly valued, and since it isn't made anymore, people want it, especially as starter cars for their children.

No deal. I love my car.

Although the car pictured here is not mine, you can basically see what it is all about.

Nothing flashy, just something reliable.

What more can you ask from your car?

But I have to tell you, the only reason I am writing this Rant is that I had a dream last night that made me shudder, and it had to do with my beloved car.

I was driving the car, and my mother, of all people, was in the car with me.

I backed up, and the car would not stop.

It roared in reverse, weaving in and out of a busy parking lot, but it didn't hit a single car.

It made its way up and down the lot, in and out of parking spaces, but it never hit a thing.

I even used the emergency brake to try to get the car to stop, but the brake, and obviously the regular brake, did not work.

Finally, I got it to go on a patch of grass that was on one side of the lot, and the thing stopped. I turned the car off and breathed a sigh of relief.

The car was towed away ... and that is when I woke up at about 3 a.m. in the morning, never really able to fall back to sleep again.

Kind of weird, and if you know anything about dreams, please let me know what it all meant.

The dream notwithstanding, I love my car, I really do.

And I love it even more now, when I have finally paid it off and can call the car mine.

It is a good feeling, it really is, and even though the radio really isn't that great, I can live with it.

The only negative thing about the car is that today, I have to drive it to work.

When will the week end? I feel like this week has amounted to three weeks of work already, and we are only on Wednesday.

But that is another story for another time.

I love my car!

Rant 2,333: Celebration

Happy post-St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you had a good weekend.

I know that my family and I did.

Continuing the theme of this past Friday's Rant, my wife, my son and I went to see Tommy James at the NYCB Theater, or whatever they call the Westbury Musid Fair nowadays, on Friday, and as usual, we had a great time.

The place was about 99 percent full, which was good, and my son was probably the youngest one there, but that is fine. He likes rap music, but when we take him to concerts like this, it gives him an all-around music education, which I think his generation needs.

But whatever the case, James--as well as the Box Tops and the Grass Roots, his opening acts--were in fine form during the concert.

The southern-pop-baked Box Tops opened the show, and while former lead singer Alex Chilton left us several years ago, they soldier on as best they can. Chilton had a unique voice--he sounded like a grizzled veteran although he was only in his late teens when the band broke it big--and while the two original members of the band can't hit the notes that Chilton did, they did do a good job even coming close to that type of perfection.

I had never seen the Box Tops live before, so it was a treat hearing the live renditions of songs like "Cry Like a Baby," "Neon Rainbow" and "The Letter" that way for the first time.

The Grass Roots followed, and this is the version of the band that Rob Grill pretty much ordained as the Grass Roots just before he passed away, so while there are no hitmaking members of this conglomeration, they have been doing this now for years, so you do get the true sound of the band when you hear them do many of the act's biggest hits.

So you get good versions of "Midnight Confessions," "Let's Live For Today," and "Where Were You When I Needed You" and all the rest when you hear the Grass Roots today, and they do an excellent job doing it.

But when Tommy James comes on with his band--there have probably been 100 different Shondells over the years--you know you are getting the real deal.

James loves to perform live in front of an adoring audience, and he got that ego boost at Westbury the other night.

He said there would be little talking and a lot of hits, and he was right. Just pick you favorite James song--"Crimson and Clover," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Draggin' the Line," and a whole lot of others--and it probably came up in this set.

And he still has the chops to do this, which makes it even better. He doesn't sound much different than he did 50 years ago when these songs were hits, nor does he look that much different (except for a few more pounds).

Now that I finally read his book and have listened to his satellite radio show, I have gotten a new appreciation of James as a performer and also as a person, and he and his music are both very endearing.

And he gives you his all when he is on stage, and he looks like he is having fun.

That is al you can ask for from a performer like this at this point in time.

I love seeing shows at this hall because when the show ends, my family and I can be home in about 20 minutes, and that is what happened after this show, too.

All the better to rest up for Saturday, when my family and my sister's family took my mom out for her 88th birthday.

We went to a Hibachi place in Carle Place--again, pretty close to where we live, maybe a half hour or so on a busy Saturday afternoon--and we had a lot of fun.

One of my nephews and my daughter were there, appearances which were good to see, the food was good, and the general atmosphere was good.

My mother had a lot of fun, which was the best part, and even though he would not admit it, I think my father had fun, too, if for nothing more than he had three of his grandchildren there.

So we had a fun Saturday afternoon, and in the evening, myself, my wife and my son pretty much passed out.

And we still had Sunday to get through.

Sunday was a true day of rest, and we got through it just fine.

So yes, it was a full weekend, and now we have a full workweek to look at and get through.

I think we can do it.

Let's see what happens.