December 4, 2009

Today I received a call from a very close and dear friend.

I asked how he was feeling.

He told me he was very very depressed, he couldn't sleep and he was sinking deeper and deeper into the dark world of depression.

I inquired about the reason of his depression and he told me it had nothing to do with the sorry state of the economy, it had nothing to do with the affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan, it had nothing to do with the fact that he was alone.

Then what can cause such a state of mental anguish, I inquired.

It was the Tiger Woods affair, he said.

In his words this is a national tragedy.

I agreed with him. I told him it is causing us also to have sleepless nights. We really worry about him and his family.

Like hell we are!

Here is this dumb-ass golfer who is worth close to a billion dollars, has a beautiful family and doesn't know what to do with himself.

I can understand that celebrity status has its temptations.

It is always easier for a man than a woman to commit indiscretions. But it doesn't mean he has to respond to every flirt or suggestive behavior.

If he can control the golf balls, why can he not control his libido? Celebrity status comes with certain responsibilities.

Even though I don't see golf as a real sport, nevertheless they are athletes. As such they have to exhibit exemplary behavior.

Tiger Woods did not fare well on this front. As an athlete of such high standing he showed very bad judgment and he showed very bad behavior.

I am really surprised that all his sponsors still stand by him. Doing that they are really condoning such a behavior. It really shows that they are only interested in the mighty dollar.

The way I see it public opinion is divided on this important issue.

Golfers are mainly men and men are mostly behind him. They are convinced that he behaved like any real man would.

Women on the other hand are convicting him of adultery. They see what he did is unforgivable.

Wives are a funny breed. Some women will kick their husbands out the door at the first sign of any indiscretion.

On the other hand, some women will stay with their man no matter what they did.

Starting with a previous First Lady, then the wife of the previous governor of New York State, then the wife of the governor of South Carolina then the wife of a presidential hopeful from the South. There must be countless others who are not chronicled.

The point is that all these women stayed with their husbands NOT out of love but for money or power or both.

I'm so happy I am not a celebrity and women are not throwing themselves at my feet. I don't know if I would be able to control my "wild desires".

But I do know that I would be out on my behind a minute after being discovered.

December 3, 2009

Today is Thursday. There is nothing special about today, it is like any other day of the week. Our calendar is empty for today except...

EXCEPT TODAY IS CLEANING DAY!

We clean house once a week, mostly on Thursdays sometimes on Wednesdays.

Believe me, it is not an easy task. When we both worked we used to have a lady who came once a week and cleaned the apartment. She was from Eastern Europe, we knew her and trusted her with our keys. Aside that she broke a few valuable china or a bottle of red wine we never had any major problem with her.

When my wife retired from regular work she decided to clean the house by herself while I was at work.

I'm saying house. It is an apartment but it has its nooks and crannies. It is not furnished in Victorian style but we do have our share of china, paintings and knickknacks. All with the ability to collect dust.

After I retired and stayed home most of the time it became natural that I would help with the cleaning chores. Being the Alpha Male I was delegated to doing the "heavy" stuff. Vacuuming, laundry, mopping up the tile floors, washing down the bathroom walls and basically cleaning up the entire bathroom. while my wife did the remaining cleaning. Things that are not for men.

We start around 8:30 in the morning and go until done which is about 1:30 pm. I tell you, this is hard work. Once we are finished then we realize how much our body hurt.

I can not believe my wife was doing all this and even more all by herself while I was working.

She always had my respect but after a day like today I respect her even more.

I'm glad we are not doing this professionally because to do this tomorrow again would be impossible.

I was talking to the wife of a very good friend of mine who is in the same boat as I am. She was telling me that while she was away at work her husband cleaned the house. Now, this is a real house! The only problem she had with his cleaning was that when he used the vacuum cleaner he never vacuumed in the corners. Well, I remembered this complaint and ever since then I never miss a corner! Our corners are spotless. Anybody can check them.

But here are some mysteries that need clearing up.

There are perfectly clean curtains hanging on the windows. What does a wife see when she suddenly says: "I want them replaced". Why? I ask, Just because, she says. And that's the end of it. She won (again)!

What makes a wife decide, out of the blue to clean certain things in the apartment that appear perfectly clean to the "untrained" eyes of the husband who is a male. Is this something only women can see?

Come on, I am a qualified domestic engineer with two years of hands on experience and over fifty years of consulting, or rather observing experience.

December 2, 2009

Last night President Obama spoke to the people from the West Point Military Academy. The subject of his speech was the sending of additional troops to Afghanistan.

Naturally we watched the speech in its entirety.

A few things come to mind even though I am not criticizing his speech. I don't know the details, I don't know what's behind door number one.

But!

As I wrote in November 24 why should we care about a country that in reality don't care about us or anything else. A country that has a government that is corrupt to the bone. A government that will surely fall after the Americans leave. And I agree with Senator McCain who said exactly that last night.

The leadership there, the warlords' only aim is to get fat off the Americans at any cost. They would sell their soul to the Taliban if riches are promised.

This morning on the radio they interviewed an older veteran. His comment was, we don't belong there, we have no business being there. Get out and bring the troops home. I think he was right.

As I was sitting in front of the TV watching the speech I was looking at the faces of all those young men and women in the audience. These are the people whose life is at stake when there is talk about war. Any war anywhere in the world.

I am sure when they signed up to be in the military and chose this career they didn't think their lives would be the pawn in the hands of the politicians.

Yes, a career in the military comes with a certain danger. But not at this magnitude we are witnessing today.

Those bright eyed young people in the audience didn't show the enthusiasm I was expecting. It was more of a restrained or rather polite response to the President's speech.

OK, after the speech he shook hands with the cadets, took photographs with them. That's all nice and kind of necessary. He is the Commander-In-Chief after all.

But somehow the whole thing had the appearance of the roman gladiators who went out into the arena knowing only a few would survive but still showed a brave demeanor.

Thank God I'm old.

December 1, 2009

Today is the first day of December. It supposed to be the beginning of winter or at least wintry weather. But nothing. The temperature didn't even get to below 40 degrees yet.

I love snow, I love skiing and I like winter with its accompanying cold. So, I'm kind of getting impatient. Will we have a winter this year?

If not then all the leaves fell off the trees for nothing.

Last weekend we visited a large shopping mall that has a small ice skating rink in the middle. It is artificial ice naturally, but in spite of the way above freezing temperature it was open.

Kids galore were there. All they were doing was going around and round. You look at it, it looks silly. I even remarked what a waste of time and energy.

But then, I remembered!

When I was a teenager I had a very close friend, the same one I couldn't identify at the Waldorf Astoria, with whom I went ice skating almost every day.

The city had a large outdoor rink with artificial ice. This was a serious place, they held hockey games there, figure skating tournaments and still allowed the public to skate.

We had our parents buy us season passes so we felt really cool.

Neither of us knew how to skate really well but we still liked to do it. Why, you ask? I tell you why, because of the girls.

This was the beginning of the raging hormones era. We knew girls were different from boys. We were also convinced that if we knock a girl over on the ice she would instantly fall in love with us because this is what real man do.

So, we went around and around day after day and while we were searching for the elusive love of our life we had a great time. We met with friends there (boys only), we were out in the fresh air, we involuntarily exercised and we always had a great time.

Thinking back now I can understand these kids who go to these rinks and as dumb as it looks they still manage to have a great time.

Here, kids go in jeans, sweaters and other warm clothes. In those days we put on a dress jacket, shirt, slacks meanwhile hiding all warm clothing underneath.

We were convinced that showing that we were cold was not cool.

November 30, 2009

Yesterday I wrote about cars or at least about my car stories. Today I will write more about cars.

It's a good subject, we all have cars and we all drive.

But now, I want to address the size of cars here in the US.

Last Summer when we were on vacation we rented a Hyundai Accent. The car was perfect for our purposes: to drive around the island, to go shopping, sight seeing and restaurants. Even our luggage fitted perfectly. It was a small car but it never seemed too small for us.

Yesterday we were driving here on a parkway and there was a Hyundai Accent front of us. I have to tell you that was one small car! I told my wife I never realized how small that car was. Maybe it didn't seem that way at the time we rented one because most of the other cars were small.

Just like with our 42" TV. In the showroom next to all the others it didn't appear large at all. But at home...

OK back to the cars. That little Hyundai goes a million miles with a tank of gas. It's economical for sure. All smaller cars are economical. In Europe we saw so many different brands, all nice and small and not gas guzzlers.

So, why we are not happy to drive these smaller cars here when we could save a bundle on gas?

For two reasons.

One for status. People have the tendency to look down on a person who drives a small car. Like a Ford Focus or a Hyundai Accent or any other brand. Except maybe a Ferrari, but then there are not too many of those around here.

The other reason is safety. You drive on the highway with all these 18 wheelers going 70-80 miles per hour bearing down on anybody in their way, their draft practically blowing any smaller car off the road. It doesn't give you the safe feeling it should.

I drive an SUV. A few years ago I was driving home on the New York State Thruway in very heavy traffic. It was stop and go for a long while. At one point someone stopped dead front of me so I also had to step on the brake.

Well, the car behind me hit me in the rear fairly strongly. You can imagine in the middle of the Thruway this was not a very comfortable situation. We both got out of our respective cars and surveyed the damages. The other car was a small Subaru, mine was a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The result of the survey was that my car didn't have a scratch however, the other car's front rolled up like a sardine can. He couldn't drive it because the engine was also damaged.

This story was just to underline the fact why larger cars are or at least give you the feeling of safety.

This is a huge country. People drive enormous distances. While in Europe one travels through six countries and languages and cultures, here doing the same distance we are still in the same state.

We all want to be in a car that we feel will protect us in case of danger. I firmly believe cars have souls. If one is good to his car it will protect its owner in return.

That's why I always say "good morning" to my car so it wouldn't get a hissy fit later.

November 29, 2009

I love to drive. I have been driving for over 40 years and still love it. When we had our first car we used to go out on weekends and just drive around. I told this to a friend of mine who already had a car. He was smiling. He said give it a few years and you would be fed up with it. But I still enjoy it.

Here are a few funny occurrences that involved cars.

In the 1960s we were in Europe. While there we rented a car. The car happened to be a Renault sedan. While driving it started to rain. Naturally, I turned on the windshield wipers. The wipers made one swoop then stopped. Later made another swoop and stopped again. It kept doing this the entire time while it rained.

I had no clue why it was doing this. I was convinced I got a car with a broken windshield wiper. At that time I never heard of intermittent wipers. At least I didn't have it on my car in the US. Fortunately it did not rain again so I never had to deal with those "broken" wipers.

Another time I rented an Opel at a European airport. The car was cool, all equipped and I really liked it. The trouble was I didn't know how to open the trunk (or boot). I tried everything with no success. I asked a nearby taxi driver thinking he might know. Had no clue. Jiggled the key back and forth and eventually it opened. Days later I read the manual and found out how easy it was.

Another time I rented a similar car. This car was with manual transmission which I really like. The funny thing with manual transmission is that Reverse is in different positions with different cars. Fortunately with this car we didn't have to go reverse because I couldn't find the correct position. Well, eventually I did find it on my own and we were able to park easily.

A few years ago on vacation we rented a small Toyota. Got to the hotel and found that I didn't know how to lock the car doors. They were not electronically lockable. I tried everything with no success. That night the car remained open.

Next day we went back to the rental place and sheepishly asked to be shown how to lock the doors. Once it was shown I realized I wasn't stupid. The way it worked couldn't be figured out by anybody who never drove a Toyota.

I used to drive cars equipped with manual transmission. I liked them. Heavy traffic never bothered me. It's interesting that in Europe a rental car with automatic transmission cost more than standard shift. Here in the US one has to look through a magnifying glass to find a car with standard shift.

Forget about renting one but even buying one is difficult. They charge extra for the automatic transmission but if you want the standard shift they look at you like you are having two heads.

There is nothing more embarrassing than stalling a car on the road for incorrect shifting and right behind is a little old lady blowing the horn impatiently.

November 27, 2009

Well, Thanksgiving is over. I'm glad. I used to like it when I worked because this provided a nice long four day weekend. But now it doesn't make any difference.

When one is retired it doesn't make any difference if it is Thanksgiving, Christmas or just any Wednesday.

But anyway I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon. No bah humbug stuff.

We had a lovely dinner with Family. But...we broke with tradition and did not have turkey. I know that this is un-American but what we had was so good that it was worth it.

My wife decided that instead that bird she would do another bird. We had Hungarian chicken paprikash. That was so good that I can not begin to explain it. It was also a huge success.

Chicken paprikash is one of those Hungarian dishes that are like me. They get better with time!

Fortunately some left for us for the next few days so, I'm happy.

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Today is Black Friday. We decided to do supermarket shopping today instead of Saturday figuring everybody is at the malls and there would be nobody at the supermarket. We were right. The store was well stocked and uncrowded.

On the way we stopped at our usual DSW. For those of the uninformed that is a huge discount shoe store. This store usually has fairly good merchandise at acceptable discounts. They were advertising Gucci bags at 50% discount as the big item for today.

We checked them out just out of curiosity. The stuff was such a crap it was unbelievable. Their 50% prices were between $250 and $350.

The only reason they were so expensive because they had the Gucci name on them. Big deal!

I'm convinced that this stuff is a different line created for discount stores, malls and such. I'm also convinced one can buy a knock off on Orchard Street for $29.95 that looks a lot better than this.

It warmed my innards that nobody was buying this stuff while we were there.

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Correction to something I wrote the day before yesterday. Next Monday is not Hi Tech Monday. It is Cyber Monday.

If I'm complaining about something at least lets be accurate about it.