Speeding

I wrote earlier that I don't like young people because of the their lack of gray hair. I am expanding that definition to also include school kids.

Why do I have to look out when I am driving in a school area as not to hit a kid? Aren't these kid getting some kind of education that would teach them not to run under a moving car? Don't their teachers tell them to look left and right before stepping off a curb? What the hell are they learning in school? How to shoot, how to be discourteous and rude with adults and basically just how to be stupid?

The reason of my outburst is that today I got in the mail a $50 ticket for speeding in a school zone. It seems that I went ten miles over the posted speed limit (actually it was eleven miles but I am not picky) and their camera caught me. These cameras are so accurate that there is really no room left to argue. Without a doubt it was me.

But had there been any children on the street I certainly would have slowed down.

Something else.

In the Jewish Arab war there was an Israeli tank in hot pursuit of an Arab machine gunner mounted on a truck who was trying to destroy the tank with his machine gun but his bullets were unable to penetrate the steel walls of the tank. He was jumping all over the place with his truck but the tank just kept on coming. Eventually he ran out of ammunition. He then realized that there was nothing he could do but stop and wait for the inevitable end.

After a while the tank also stopped its top opened up and the Israeli solder emerged.

Hey, stupid Arab, you ran out of bullets?

Allah, Akbar, yes I did.

With that the Israeli reached back to the tank, grabbed something and asked the Arab:

Do you want to buy some?

Thanksgiving Parade

Yesterday for a while I was watching the Macy's Parade. It is so lame that only a five year old can enjoy it and I gave up after a short time.

People get up early in the morning to go over there and a have good vantage point. I don't know if anybody care that the whole thing is really made for television. They only need people as props and background. It is rushed because it has to be finished right on time so the stupid dog show may start. Because of that performers are not allowed to finish their numbers because they are being pushed to move on.

Singers are lip singing because they will not take a chance with their voices in the cold weather and that is understandable. All their performances are towards the TV cameras meaning that people who are sitting on the bleachers at Herald Square only see their backs. What is the fun in that?

Some of the floats and other performances are same year after year and if one remembers those they can be quite boring.

I usually don't watch TV in the morning but just because of tradition I turned it on yesterday. I'm sorry that I did.

The media is making such a big thing about this Santa Claus craze that is not funny anymore.

Wednesday when the New York Stock Exchange closed Santa and his helpers rang the closing bell. I can't imagine that those serious traders on the floor of the Stock Exchange who are only concerned with making money really cared about that bearded old man on the balcony. Santa is for the kids and that's where he should stay.

But yesterday turned out to be a very nice day after all. I had dinner with family in a very nice French restaurant in Manhattan. Regardless that it was a French place I still managed to have turkey as it is the custom at this time. O.K. I had escargot for appetizer but that was permitted. I don't know if the pilgrims had escargot but the French settlers surely had.

My family consisted my brother in law and my sister in law and we really had a good time. We drank, we ate then we drank some more then we ate a little more but at the end we all felt fairly comfortable.

The whole thing was nice because there was no traffic going into the city and there was none on my way home either and parking was pretty good, too.

Now, one event down one more to go then the year is over.

Thanksgiving

This is a little morbid and sad thinking out loud from my part. I would understand anybody if they decide not to read any further.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday that dates back to the days of the pilgrims. They gave thanks for whatever they were thankful for. I guess not to be killed by the Indians.

As it was handed down from generation to generation the custom stayed that people sitting around the dinner table gave thanks for all the good that happened to them during the previous year.

Up to last year I kind of believed in that and also gave thanks but my feeling is now changing.

This year I am not thanking anybody for anything except whoever is paying my dinner.

I have absolutely nothing to be thankful for since nothing good happened to me and to my loved one. Last year was one of the worst I experienced in my adult life. The love of my life was taken away from me and I can find no logical explanation to what happened.

Well, logical explanation I can find but I refuse to believe it and associate it with what people believe in. They say everything is happening for a reason. I can find no reason as to what happened. We both prayed and hoped for help that never arrived. So what's the use for being thankful.

To whom?

God, Buddha, Allah, Jehovah and everybody else turned away from us and didn't think it was important enough to offer their help. So, as far as I am concerned they can all sit around the table and have a good laugh at our sufferings.

Because of this, on this Thanksgiving I am not grateful and thankful to anybody and anything and I have a feeling that I will remain this same cynical person for a very long time. Actually, I will not even call Thanksgiving Thanksgiving anymore just plain turkey day. Come to think of it turkeys should be the last to call this day Thanksgiving.

Skinny and Gray

I came upon a prize winning solution as to how to lose weight without much starving.

Yesterday I paid a visit to my podiatrist because it was due and also I had some foot problem. He did what he was supposed to do then took a sharp (I hope) knife and cut a corn out of its nice warm nest.

Today I went to visit my dermatologist who also took a sharp knife (I hope) and removed some more stuff that was not supposed to be there. Actually this one cut and burned things off me.

Therefore, by all logic I should have lost some weight because these two doctors removed stuff from body that were previously there and thus added to may "previous" weight.

I figured if I go to a few more doctors in the near future and they all remove things from me I might become a slimmer person.

Right now I have appointments for December to see my dentist, urologist and family doctor. The only one I can't see what might remove is the urologist!

Something else.

Every time I watch TV I see these young male actors either acting in a role or just showing up as "civilians" to have that unshaven face. I guess that is now the style because a lot of young men are imitating that same unshaven appearance.

To me there is nothing stylish about it. It reflects a unkempt appearance that I absolutely not find attractive.

However my comment could be sour grapes, and I will explain why.

Since I now live alone and do not have a rich social calendar there are days when I find no reason to shave. So I just skip those days and let my face get hairy. Never more than three days though.

The reason I can not look stylish with my hairy face is that all my facial hair is white. Even though my hair is not all gray my facial hair is. So no matter how much I wanted to show I can never look the same as those young hulks. I would much sooner look like Santa than a stylish man, at least with my beard.

And just because of this I hate every single one of them! No discrimination, I hate all young men who are not yet gray.

But to my satisfaction, they will be!

Drinks

I love a good drink. But, I only drink mixed drinks. Nothing straight up, no wine. All these years in this country and never ever developed a taste for whiskey. Can't stomach it.

But I do like mixed drinks primarily with vodka but basically any mixed drink is fine. So the other day when I was in the supermarket I bought a bottle of cranberry juice and a bottle of V8 juice. The latter the spicy variety.

Adding vodka to cranberry juice makes a good refreshing drink with a little zing to it. Vodka and V8 and some other "my secret" additives make a great Bloody Mary. And unfortunately, I love them both.

Right now as I am sitting front of the computer and writing this I am also sipping my freshly made Bloody Mary. And since I haven't eaten yet it tastes even better.

So now with the holidays upon us I am in training as far as drinking goes. I make me a good drink in the afternoon just to get in shape. Is that training equivalent to going to the gym?

However with V8 one has to be very careful because my doctor told me that it is high in acids and that is very bad for the stomach. It seems that not the alcohol that is bad but the tomato/vegetable juice. So I will restrain my enthusiasm for that drink.

Maybe just plain vodka is the answer.

When we go to Mexican restaurants which now a days is happening fairly frequently I drink Margaritas. As many a restaurant I have visited until now they all have different kind of Margaritas and they all claim that these are their specialties. I can't seem to find one that I like more than another because they are all different and I like them all. Also by the time I leave these restaurants I certainly don't remember what I drank.

That's O.K., this makes going out more interesting.

I don't drink wine only if there is nothing else. I never developed an appreciation for good wine which means any good wine is wasted on me. I only like sweet and fruity tasting wines, the ones a serious wine drinker wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Like during the Jewish holidays I drink Manischewitz wine because they are sweet and fruity.

I wanted to say like me but, stopped because only half of it is true. I am sweet but nor fruity!

Monday

I don't think I have amnesia but there are certain things I just don't remember. So farI have written 426 articles in this blog, some probably boring, some I hope interesting. And, I am sure there are certain subjects that I am repeating. If I did I am sorry, it was done simply because something peaked my interest and that is why I wrote about it.

Here is another subject that I might have written about a while ago.

This morning I was driving to the gym to ease my soul about my current habit of eating when listening to the radio I heard hospital and doctor advertisements.

Years ago this was unheard of. Doctors, lawyers, hospitals did not advertise. I guess their code of ethics was changed because now a days whenever one turns on the radio all it can be heard is their advertisements.

For a simple person like me this can be very confusing. Every hospital that I hear claims to be the best in a particular field and insinuates that any mortal person is committing a grave by not bringing his or her problems to them.

The way I am running my life and that's the way I always had it was that if anything critical happened that needed hospitalization I relied on my doctor's advice on where to go and did not follow any lame advertisings. My doctor is affiliated to a good New York hospital and if needed that is where I go (hope it will not be needed).

I don't even know if one can just walk in any hospital and ask to be cured simply based on their advertisings.

The hospitals and doctors are pushing their services so hard that I wouldn't be surprised if they would offer Black Friday specials just so we would bring them our businesses. I wonder if people can take competitive bids from various institutions on how much they would charge for the cure.

But you know, nothing surprise me anymore.

Sunday

Today I had a very good day. Sundays I am usually home without any real plan to go anywhere or do anything useful. So when the opportunity came to meet with my best friend and his wife I really grabbed it.

Not because it would have been a long boring day but because I love the guy and I am always happy to see him.

This time they came to New York for a brief but necessary visit to a relative and I just grabbed the chance to spend some time with each other. We had lunch all of us together then they came over my apartment and some nice conversation.

The relative they visited I knew. We used to be friends about fifty years ago but then drifted apart due to peculiarities of life. It was very interesting (and sad) to see someone again after such a long time. But that's life. We all change except some of us don't want to accept it.

When we got alone we talked about our planned trip next year so all in all it was a very pleasant day (at least for me).

Like I said at the beginning Sunday usually is a quiet day for me with not much to do. One reason I don't go anywhere is that I have nowhere to go, the other reason is that Sunday every place is more crowded than during the week. As long as I am retired and have all the time in the world might as well take advantage of the workweek quiet. People are at work thus there is less traffic and stores or eating places are less crowded.

Anyway, tomorrow another week starts. When I worked I used to like this week because it was always short due to Thanksgiving and we always got the next day off.
It was easy to work until Wednesday and get paid for the whole week.

Now it doesn't make any difference for me because there is not much variety between the days. Except maybe that on Thanksgiving we are going out to eat.

As far as Thanksgiving goes I certainly feel that I have nothing to give thanks for!