Rant #3,765: The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore

I had quite a busy Tuesday, with a bit of work to do, as well as some other things that took up some time.

This is a slow week for my son.

He has nothing job related on his plate this week, and we are still waiting for his assessment results.

The one interview he had at a local supermarket last week ...

Well, the woman who interviewed him said that we would hear from them, one way or the other, last week--

And let's just say she lied.

As I have said in the past, based on what my son has experienced during the past several months, companies are simply not hiring special needs people right now, and those that already have these people on their payroll are cutting their hours.

Yes, it is a sad situation.

We have done everything we could to help him find other employment, but it is really like banging your head against the wall.

In fact, there are at least three new fast food restaurants opening in our environs, he has applied to each, and heard nothing.

He has been or applied to every supermarket, every bowling alley, and every department store, and many other businesses, and he has heard absolutely nothing.

At least he has the four-hours-a-week job, but if he could find something better, he could ditch that job, where they reduced his hours by 75 percent in January, which started this ball rolling, unfortunately to nowhere, at this point in time.

And as usual, I, and others, have absolutely no solution to this problem.

My son turns 30 years of age this weekend. He has proven to be a hard worker, someone you can count on to go to work and do his job.

It is almost beyond belief that no one will hire him, even for the most meager of positions.

My wife and I are simply powerless to do anything about it, other than to support him, through thick and thin--

And it is very thin right now.

Again, I plead with you ...

If you own a business on Long Island, or perhaps know someone who does, who is looking to hire someone like my son, please give me a holler.

Yes, he is special needs, but if given the chance, you will find out what a special person he is.

He just needs a break.

One break.

That is it.

Rant #3,764: Let's Twist Again

I have grown to abhor the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the years go by, because it has become too political--and less musical--to my liking 

The Hall chooses acts to be enshrined based almost solely on politics and ad revenue, and has about as much to do with rock and roll as a can of tuna does.

The latest tussle the Hall of Fame is enraptured in now revolves around finally-an-inductee Chubby Checker, who, rather unnecessarily, waited decades to  get in, and now has informed the Cleveland, Ohio-based museum that he does not plan in attending the induction ceremony on November 8, because he prefers to perform before a live audience than to be there.

Checker--real name Ernest Evans--should have bern inducted decades ago. 

He was perhaps the biggest male hitmaker on the Anerican chart in the pre-Beatle 1960s, and he has actually been performing for more than the past 60 years.

And at age 83, there seems to be no stopping Checker or "The Twist."

The main problem here is thst after Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all the top-tier rock and roll performers gained entrance into the Hall, Checker was pretty much forgotten about--

And he took great offense to it, letting the Hall know, on an almost yearly basis, how disappointed he was, and did it in barbed terms 

And he was right 

Without Checker and "The Twist," dancesable rock would not have had the door open for other formats, including disco, hip hop and rap--

Formats that the Hall has salivated over, neglecting true rockers in the process.

A lot of him being ignored had to do with Rolling Stone Magazine publisher Jan Wenner, who pretty much ran the Hall during most of its existence and who had a very publicized.disdain for various eras in rock history, including post-Beatles pop-rock and pre-Beatles pop from the 1960s, the latter of which Checker ruled in.

Thus, to this day, you have deserving performers like Lesley Gore, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Tommy James and the Shondells and the Monkees who will probably never get in because Wenner's residue still resonates in the Hall, even though the publisher is not as active in the Hall as he had been.

Anyway, Checker very publicly grilled the Hall for his annual omission, and then somehow, he was nominated and made it in--

Putting the shoe on the other foot, so to speak.

So now, still reeling from not even being considered for the Hall for decades, Checker is is doing it his own way--

By staying away.

You just know that producers of the Hall show are not too happy about this, as you know they had visions of the show ending with a "The Twist" finale featuring all the musicians there.

But with Checker not there, that is pretty much out the window.

They also probably figured that Checker's induction and appearance might bring in another demographic of viewers, boosting ratings and ad revenue, but that won't be happening.

Checker is having the last laugh, and who can blame him?

Rant #3,763: Up In Smoke

We have lived in our current community since November 2023, and i must say, I have grown to like where we are, to a point.

We aren't that far away from where we lived--where I lived for more than 50 years--so I can still easily visit my usual places without too much trouble.

This is our second location in this community, with my family and I moving to our current apartment in April, and even though the rent is much more expensive in this apartment, we are getting so much more for our money, including a larger apartment, a room to put stuff that had been in a storage facility, and a terrace--we are the only people in the development with one.

Yes, even with all that, take it from me ...

There is nothing like living in a house, and this latest place simply can't compare with a house.

And we are living in a 55-and-older community, which has taken us more than a year-and-a-half to get used to, if we are used to it at all.

There are younger people who live here--some grandparents who have custody of their grandchildren and, of course, my son.

Other than that, we only see older people here, and that, in itself, is a bit of a drawback.

It is better to be in a community with people of all ages, but you kind of get used to it.

Kinda.

Being in our late 60s, my wife and I are probably in the middle here as far as the age span, so there are some people in their 50s, and some others in their 80s, or older.

There are no real amenities here; there is a community center, where our apartment is located, and where the mailboxes and laundry room are, as well as a large meeting room, but that is it.

They do have weekly activities, like a book club and bingo, if you are interested.

It is a busy area, but honestly, it is pretty quiet.

And when you have people living here ranging from 55 years of age up through the 90s, you get a real cross section of those we consider to be senior citizens--

And yes, you have these general stereotypes of older Americans here.

You have a lot of crabby and nasty people here, as well as pleasant residents too.

Some people here are nosy, some people just want to go about their business.

On Saturday, I had a slight altercation with some of my fellow residents here.

It wasn't the first little tussle I have had, and I have found that whatever the age, some people are just simply nasty.

Since my family and I live in the community center, we park right in front of that building.

I had a couple of things to do on Saturday morning, so at about 9:30 a.m. in the morning, i left our apartment and walked down to my car.

People have a habit here of stopping their cars in the middle of the street and talking with friends, and Saturday morning, someone did just that, but they were standing in the middle of the street behind my car.

Again, this is a busy part of the development because not only are there apartments in the building, but the mailboxes and the laundry room are in the building, as is the comminity room.

As they were talking away, I needed to do what I needed to do, so here is what happened.

"Excuse me (no acknowledgment from them)."

"Excuse me (finally acknowledged) ... Excuse me, can you move your car, I need to back out? Thanks."

The woman talking to the driver turned around and said to me--

"We aren't done yet. You will have to wait," and then went back to talking as if I wasn't even there.

"Look, I asked you nicely ... could you move the car?"

The driver in the car yelled at me to get in my own car.

"You know, i don't think I asked you something so terrible. All I asked is if you could stop yakking and just move the car so I can get out. God, what is so difficult to do?"

The woman mimicked me, repeating exactly what I said, and then she and her friend went their separate ways as the car finally moved out of my way.

The woman proceeded to the front of the community center, and she gave me a nasty look as she opened the door and entered, and I pulled away.

She must have been in her 70s, and like I said, you get all kinds here.

I just had to shake my head in disbelief at this little bit of nonsense.

Again, I don't mind living here, I miss the old house, but it is what it is.

On Sunday, we had a small barbecue, so until I wrote to you about this slight tussle, this altercation pretty much went up in smoke.

Poof!

Rant #3,762: Feeling Alright

Today, my son concludes his assessment, again performing duties at a local hotel.

When this is completed, we will look forward to the results--

Because these results will help the organization performing this assessment to better guide my son on his path to a job.

Maybe something good will happen as a result of this.

We can only hope.

As for me, I had absolutely no idea that my right eye was nearing a detached retina.

Do I see as well as I once did?

No, but other than having had some episodes with my left eye that were pretty much taken care of, I really didn't notice anything with my right eye.

Now that I know there is a problem brewing, yes, I do feel some differences, but nothing horriid.

When i typed up that story on the meeting that I did for work, yes, my eye felt tired by the end ..

 It took more than six hours to do this, and constant computer work canhorrid. to you.

When it needs to be taken care of, I will do just that.

Right now, it doesn't bother me or hamper me in any way.

Again, that is right now.

Who knows about tomorrow?

I do know about yesterday, and on Thursday, I went to the urologist again for my persistent problem.

I am better, but I haven't been able to ditch the problem just yet.

I must be the one in a million who has this, but whatever the case, I have it, and it needs to be taken care of.

The urologist told me that yes, I do have this problem, but many other men have it too.

All tests came out fine yesterday, and he said there is nothing medical that can be done about it.

in mist cases it runs its course.

I shouldn't still be suffering from this, since November yet!

What a mess!

And the funny thing is that I feel fine.

In fact, yesterday, for lunch, I decided to barbecue a couple of ribs to try to soothe my ills, and at least for a few minutes, it made me feel great.

So just to sum up, let's hope that I am OK in every aspect, and then I can move on from all of this.

Most importantly, let's hope my son is one day nearer in his quest to secure a new job.

That would make me feel FANTASTIC!!!!!

Have a good weekend, and i will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,761: Read Me On

I am just too busy today, so we will have to go with a "Reading Rant."

I will be back tomorrow with a full Rant. 

Bear with me. 

Thanks.

 33

Abraham Lincoln Panim quickly took out his keys from his pocket, and opened the front door to his house. He immediately saw his mother sitting on the couch, which was unusual in itself as in the evening, she rarely sat on the couch, usually going into her bedroom to prepare for the evening.

And not only was she sitting on the couch, but an envelope was on the floor, and his mother was holding a letter in her hands. She also appeared to be staring out into space.

“Mom, what’s going on?” asked Abraham Lincoln Panim.

Mrs. Panim broke out of her stupor, but still stared into space as she said, “Son, you rushed out of the house today so quick. I wanted to tell you that we received in the mail a letter from—“

“From who?”

“From … from your father.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim stopped in his tracks, and ended up sitting on the couch with his mother.

“I wanted to open the letter with you here. He never writes letters to us, never. I thought that this was something that you needed to hear, to read along with me when I read it, but I guess you had more important things to do.”

“Mom, if I would have known—“

“It doesn’t really matter now. I read the letter myself, and maybe it was better off that I read it myself first. It was the first letter we have gotten from him, ever.”

“What did the letter say? Is he doing OK? Is he finally going to be coming home?”

Mrs. Panim did not answer her son right away, and started to shake her head, almost to herself.

“Mom, what did dad say in that letter?”

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, your father isn’t coming home. You’re father is … he is not doing too well.”

Mrs. Panim handed Abraham Lincoln Panim the letter for him to read to himself. The letter said, in Mr. Panim’s own handwriting:

“Dear Diana:

I know that you must be startled to get this letter in the mail completely out of the blue. I am not a good letter writer, so please, just bear with me. I will try to explain the best that I can.

I admit that I am a coward. You were in the hospital all those years ago, and when you gave birth, I was happy and proud, and then I saw our son. I felt bad for him. I know he has gone through a lot, because what you don’t know is that I went through the same thing when I was a child.

I had the same features that I saw in our son when I was a child. I put up with a lot of ridicule from everyone. Even when I started to shed some of those characteristics as I got older, I was still pointed out as “the rat-faced boy.”

And what is worse, and the worst thing about all of this, is that I passed on that gene—or whatever it is--to our son.

I looked at him in the hospital, and my mind raced back to when I was a kid myself, all the stuff that I had to put up with. I simply could not do it again, so I became a coward, and I ran. I simply could not go through again what I had gone through myself as a child, so I ran away from it all.

I was scared, and yes, I was nothing but a coward. What I should have done and what I did were two different things. I was wrong, and I admit it. I left you and our son hanging there without me.

I know it doesn’t mean anything now, but I apologize for my behavior. Diana, I hope that the monthly checks have come in handy, and yes, I was selfish in what I did, but I felt the checks would help our son to grow into the man I knew he could be.”

“Checks?” Abraham Lincoln Panim asked his mother as he stopped reading the letter.

“Yes, your father has sent checks to you each and every month since you were born,” Mrs. Panim said. “They were sent directly from a bank outside our area, from another state, and there was never a return address on either the checks or the envelope they came in.

“Several years ago I tried to find out where they came from, but the president of the bank told me that he could not reveal any further information about the checks and where they came from to me. I thought that maybe your father would finally come home, but he never did. I guess the monthly checks gave me hope, but he never came home,”

Abraham Lincoln Panim again started to read the letter.

“Yes, I had the same problem that our son had. I had it through my early years, and I had it during my teen years, although much of it left me by the time I was in my mid teens. By the time I was in my early 20s, I just had the problem with my face, and when I met you, Diana, I still had the problem.

A little while after, I woke up one day, and I looked like every other man around. The problem left me! I could not believe it, and it came at just the right time, because it gave me a chance to know you, and that is when our relationship really blossomed.

Anyway, you know the rest. But let me bring you up to date with the reason I am writing this letter to you.

Seeing our son grow up from afar—“

Abraham Lincoln Panim looked up from the letter.

“What is he talking about, seeing me ”growing up from afar? What is he talking about?”

Mrs. Panim looked up and turned to her son. “Keep on reading, please keep on reading.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim turned back to the letter, and once again began to read to himself.

“Seeing my son grow up from afar has not been fun. As you can tell by the envelope that the letter came in, I actually don’t live very far away from where your house is. I live on the other side of the park. I have seen you, Diana, and our son from his earliest days. I saw you from afar, and I saw him, all covered up with his scarf as I was when I was a kid.

“I hope he has outgrown his affliction like I did, as I haven’t seen either of you walking around the neighborhood together in some time.”

“Dad hasn’t seen me because I haven’t taken walks with you for a while,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said to his mother. “So he has no idea how much I have changed, because without seeing you with me, he would have never recognized me.”

“Son, please read on.”

“Diana, I am sick, I mean really sick. I have been in and out of the hospital for the past few months, and the doctors don’t give me long to live. They actually, at least initially, didn’t know why I am so sick, ruling out cancer and a lot of other things.

I wasn’t willing, at first, to tell them my background, you know, about the characteristics I had when I was younger. But I ended up telling them, and they believe that my failing health has something to do with something called ‘zoomorphism’, a very rare disease where animal characteristics are found in humans. The doctors told me that they have discovered that many more people have this than first believed, but most people outgrow the problem as they get older.

They feel that while I did outgrow it, it had some lingering effects on my body, and since they have no other explanation for my current situation, they believe that those effects are greatly impacting my health.

Me, I know that I am dying … dying of a broken heart.”

“Dad … dad is sick?” Abraham Lincoln Panim said to his mother.

“Yes, son, but please read on.”

“I am a sick man. I am not asking for forgiveness. I don’t have long to go. Just writing this letter is taking a lot out of me.

Now that you know where I live, would it be possible, would it be something that you could arrange, Diana, for me to meet our son and to speak with you?

I am hoping he is doing well, and there is nothing that I would like more than to speak with him, even if for a few seconds, a few minutes.

I know that I don’t have much more to go. I just want to meet him, in person, and tell him how sorry I was for my behavior, and really, to tell both of you how sorry I am for what I did and what I put both of you through.

Please do not call me. Simply come to the address on the envelope, and please do it soon.

I hope that I have not upset you too much with this letter. Again, I am not asking for forgiveness, but I need to see both of you, and I want to meet my son and tell him how much I love him.

Thanks. I understand if you decide that a meeting with the two of you is not the right thing to do.”

Sincerely,

Marcus Panim”

“So Mom, are we going to see him?”

His mother looked up again at him as he gave the letter to her.

“Remember what Mrs. Stottle used to say all the time … ‘Do unto others as you would have the do unto you … treat other people the way you would like to be treated yourself.’”

“So that means we are going to see him?”

“I think if Mrs. Stottle were still with us, she would recite that saying and leave it up to us to decide. So what do you think?”

“I—“

“I think that we should get there sooner rather than later.”

“How about—“

“Yes, I think we will go on Sunday morning to see your father.”

With that, Abraham Lincoln Panim got up from the couch and went into his bedroom. He sat on his bed, then laid down in it, and picked up his hand mirror, which he had left on the bed when he went to see Ariel.

He looked in the mirror.

“My father … I am finally going to meet him,” he thought while he gazed into the mirror. “Why did he have to leave like he did? He really hurt mom …

“I am sure that he will find me as good looking as everyone else does. Ariel doesn’t want me, I don’t care at this point. My father wants me, and I just know that when he sees me, he will be … “

He stopped his thought, trying to think of a word that would fit.

“Impressed. Yes, impressed. He will be so impressed at how I look.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim put down the mirror, and closed his eyes.

He fell asleep quickly.

Rant #3,760: What's Happening

Everything went well yesterday with my son.

He did well at the hotel as another part of his assessment, and he had a very good interview at the local supermarket.

He didn't get hired just yet, but maybe he will be.

We will find out at the end of the week.

Today is my own day of pain, as I have to cover a meeting for work.

It kills my day, but I guess that is why they call it "work."

Not much else is happening now in my neck of the woods ...

"Happening" is the operative word here.

I read a little while ago that Danielle Spencer, the sassy sister Dee on the sitcom " What's Happening" and periodically in its sequel, "What's Happening Now" passed away at age 60. 

She had been battling cancer and several other ailments for much of her life.

I used to watch that show, a show that existed to make you laugh.

And it was funny ... maybe stupid funny ... but you had to laugh at it.

Yes, the show--with an all black cast--tackled a lot of issues, such as teen pregnancy and unemployment, but it did it in a unique way: with a lot of laughter.

The show--extremely loosely based on the film "Cooley High"--starred Ernest Thomas, Haywood Nelson, Fred Berry, Shirley Hemphill and Mabel King.

Spencer played Dee, the younger sister of Raj (Ernest Thomas), and she could deliver a line in deadpan style as well as anyone.

You could tell from her performance just how smart she was, and when her acting days were over, she left show business to become a veterinarian.

But for a total of six seasons, she was one of the most talented young performers on TV, and she was one of those one-time child stars to successfully move into something else.

What a funny show!

R.I.P.

Now, onto my day of hell.

And that's "What's Happening" to me today.

Rant #3,759: Naked Eyes

First of all ...

You want the good news or the bad news?

I will give you the good news first.

Today will end up being a very busy day for my son in his job quest.

We found out yesterday that his assessment will, in fact, continue today, and it will be at a major chain hotel!

He will perform some hotel duties during this part of the assessment, so that is something pretty exciting.

And then right after that--

He actually has a job interview at a local supermarket!

So today, he will be busy as can be, with this lost week turning out in just the opposite way.

GREAT!

The bad news is that I might have another physical malady to deal with sometime in the near future.

I went to that special eye doctor yesterday, and after numerous tests, it apoears I have the beginnings of a detached retina in my right eye.

The doctor showed me the test results, and there appears to be a space in my right eye where there shouldn't be one, and while it is not detached just yet, it might lead to a future problem.

It is at the point where instead of going back there in a year, I have to return for another checkup in three months.

We will see then if things have changed or have stabilized.

I simply cannot get a break.

It is all age and stress related, and I seem to move from one physical crisis to another.

Funny, I don't think my vision has changed at all, but maybe it has, and I just don't realize it, because the change is so minimal.

I am not too happy about this.

I could just fall apart altogether, but you know me better by now.

I am not going to let it get me down, even if it is a situation that eventually leads to surgery.

But like I said, I don't seem to be able to get a break, and it is frustrating to me.

This cannot be retirement.

It simply cannot be. 

It just can't.

I cannot accept that.

I can't accept that not just for myself, but most importantly, for my family.

I have have had probably the worst retirement that I possibly could have had, and there is no end to the bad luck I have experienced.

I just don't get it.

God must be testing me, but by now, I should have passed that test, dontcha think?