GOODBYE!

Saying goodbye is very hard to do. Writing everyday was hard, and often I didn’t really have a thought about what to say, and some days I had too much to say.

The sad part is I will miss writing to you everyday, and the urge will still be with me. But life is like that: sometimes we need to change our course, our minds change, our philosophies change and our will changes.

There are no rivers, or mountains or seas that could have separated us over the last 9 years, because everyday I wrote I knew where to find you, your heart was always in the same place.

Soon I will have a new challenge, my daughter’s agency has asked me to once again take the title of President of the Board of Directors, and a $70 million plus agency will need my full attention. The people it serves deserve the full attention of all who serve them, the staff and the volunteers and so it is I not cheat them, they are most important to me, and so my heart must change.

I am lucky to have had a cadre of readers who did follow everyday, and for that I truly love you, but my heart has changed and now it is time to say Arrivederci cari lettori, or Auf Wiedersehen liebe Leser, or just plain Goodbye Dear Readers.

But there is one caveat to my departure, I will leave the blogue open and on occasion write to it, but never again with the same consistency of a daily dose. Writing seems to be in my blood and that can’t be denied entirely, and this is the best way to continue that.

So thank you for reading, maybe I’ll see you soon.

DON’T BLINK

Enjoy yourself: it’s later than you think.

It seems that after every Memorial Day, the rest of the summer just flies by! We clean the bar-b-q and need to take it out again for the 4^th of July. We get excited about Opening Day in baseball, when all of a sudden 1/3 of the season is already over. I gauge my summers by when I open the pool, and when I close it. This makes for a short summer since I open it in late June and close it in late August, while cleaning the Bar-b-q for the Memorial Day weekend. The year jumping ahead once more, and it doesn’t pause.

I remember when we moved into my present home, how strange things seemed to be to me, then all of a sudden I’ve renovated and have gotten so comfortable that I didn’t notice that I’m living there over 30 years!

But then, I was the same guy who used to wish he was older, that tomorrow would come sooner, and was always in a rush to do things, now all I want to do is slow down, pull in the reins so to speak. What the Hell is the hurry.

Sometimes I go to a grocery story and have only one item, I get behind a person with many and they kindly offer me the opportunity to move up, but I decline, I thank them but tell them I’m retired, I’m in no hurry anymore, let me smell the freshly ground coffee instead.

This summer I reach a milestone birthday, yes I’ll be 30 once again, and I don’t believe it is possible. Why I remember my 6^th birthday like it was yesterday, looking at the baseball calendar my Dad hung up on the pantry door , seeing that Brooklyn was playing Philadelphia that day.

And so this year will fly by, the Autumn and Winter will set in and I will wish for it to stay a while, the coolness and the dry air, all a relief from the humidity of the past few months, until that is when February rolls around and I wonder where the Hell is Spring, and ‘Oh NO! Not more snow!” AND SO IT WILL GO.

Why don’t blind people go skydiving?

Because it scares the bejesus out of the dogs!

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You should, it makes time stand still!

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I REMEMBER IT WELL!

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Actually a college photo, but close

Before there was a McDonalds, Burger King or Checkers, there was a Ricky’s, the original hamburger takeout.

In my senior year in high school, since we operated on a split session due to a horrific fire that destroyed the old Bellport High School, at noon Benny the ‘Buffer’ Gallinaro, Ernie ‘Butch’ Mancuso and myself would hop into Benny’s car and drive over to Patchogue and eat lunch at Ricky’s Hamburger place. Situated on Sunrise Highway not too far from Seton Hall High School, we feasted for very little even for those days 51 years ago. There was the ‘Buffer’ and there was ‘Butch’ and there was me, “I’m hungry”.

A cheeseburger costs 20¢ and a hamburger 15¢, with fries and a soda or milkshake it came to under $2.00! That was a great deal!

From there we would go over to Seton Hall and try to find Benny’s cousin, a young lady whose name escapes me now, but who was cute as a button and looking to fix me up with her friend, who I never met but went to Seton Hall along with her.

Benny came from Brooklyn and was hanging with the wrong crowd. He was a good kid, and very generous, but had the mentality of a street fighter. His dad decided to take him away from the influence of the streets of Brooklyn and try his luck on the lawns of Bellport, East Patchogue and Hagerman, or wherever he might land. Fortunately for Benny he had an aunt who owned a factory in Bellport in a strip mall across from the Bellport Train Station where they manufactured clothing for children, and so Benny played out his senior year in Bellport.

What happened to Ricky's

But Ricky’s was the go to place for kids in those days, you drive up to the building that had no parking lot but you parked up against the building in the sandy grass, walked up to a window, ordered and usually took the food to your car to eat. This was when I was still 120 pounds soaking wet, and hadn’t discovered culinary delights of Manhattan Island working in the advertising world.

But Ricky’s one day disappeared, going the way of so many businesses when the chain stores and eateries came along, replacing the small businesses with a wider array of choices and who operated from Breakfast to late supper time.

But I miss not only those days, but also the little mom and pop stores and eateries, that sense of personalization with the establishment was replaced by the cold impersonal relationship of convenience and commercialism that reigns today.

Too bad!

If there are hopeless fools, then there should also be fools, which give hope.

http://www.ahrcsuffolk.org/

LOOKING FOR GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR YOUR CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN?

http://www.ebeanstalk.com/?store=42

http://www.mountaintoptoys.com/

Address: 1231 Taft Hwy, Signal Mountain, TN 37377

Phone:(423) 886-6943

Hours: Open today · 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

DO YOU WATCH THE BIG BANG THEORY?

You should, you'll eat better!

http://forgotten-ny.com/

Forgotten NY is the first recipient of the

Outstanding NYC Website award by

The Guides Association of NYC!

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THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Of all the things in the world that I love, I love music. If you think about it, it can help every phase of one’s life and maybe even shape it. Because it can grip one emotionally, it will motivate, excite, bring you to the heights of Heaven and bring you back down to earth, it is a great equalizer.

Every one of us has a favorite musical piece, something that makes us listen, something that sets a tempo in our lives, and how beautiful is that? Driving alone for long periods of time, music sits with me all the way to and back again: it is a friend.

Music has taken me back to my childhood: I can hear my parents, see my grandmother, remember a teacher or recall a time in my life.

There are many nights when the TV is on, but I’m not. I sit and watch and my mind will drift away, then I just get up and go to my desktop computer and select YouTube and find the master Andre Rieu. http://www.andrerieu.com/

Play the national anthem for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lta32yr-oWs and I am moved, the stars and stripes do that to me, music makes it so.  Verde’s Grand March or the Beatles I want to hold you hand to Dion Celine and Billy Joel, and I am happy. Some of the best music I’ve enjoyed came from Roy Orbison and Ludwig Van Beethoven. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E

My beautiful little granddaughter, when she was not yet 1-year old, was moving to the sound of music, keeping time with the beat!

If you go to temple or church, you know how music can move you spiritually, how it can connect you to God and God’s community, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8aeUE89cT8

how it can release pent up emotions at a funeral, or bring joyful tears at a wedding or graduation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvgl_2JRIUs

If only the world could spend it’s time writing and listening to music, there would be less conflict and more brotherhood and sisterhood, and be a better place.

Bruce Springsteen is selling his house in Beverly Hills for around $70 million. And for that much money, the house actually comes WITH Bruce Springsteen.

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LOOKING FOR GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR YOUR CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN?

http://www.ebeanstalk.com/?store=42

http://www.mountaintoptoys.com/

Address: 1231 Taft Hwy, Signal Mountain, TN 37377

Phone:(423) 886-6943

Hours: Open today · 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

  

DO YOU WATCH THE BIG BANG THEORY?

You should, you'll whistle a happy tune!

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Forgotten NY is the first recipient of the

Outstanding NYC Website award by

The Guides Association of NYC!

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WE’VE COME A LONG WAY BABY!

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Over the years as a father of a child with developmental disabilities, it seems a new age of enlightenment is occurring.

One of the things involved when you have a child who has DD (developmental disabilities) is when they reach the age of 18, if they are not competent enough, you, as a parent needs to apply for guardianship. This was once an expensive long proposition, which needed among other things a certificate from a doctor and psychologist or two doctors stating your child has need for a guardian.  Hiring a lawyer for the application was strongly recommended and that was expensive.

Now, with the new laws, the standard is not an affidavit of sorts from medical and mental authorities, but rather where the person with DD is lacking, and this would define the guardianship in those areas.

The whole concept is based on the idea that law, that being Article 17a that defines the parameters of guardianship, did not represent people with DD lawfully.

Today, with the initiatives from the US Senate and Congress, people with DD are being considered in another light, are their lawful rights as citizens being considered? Today it is all people centered, and through the world of Medicate, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Federal government will call the shots, and I think this time for the better.

Upon reaching 65, old Tom decided to retire. His wife suggested he go and do something to occupy his time, like join a club or get a hobby
Old Tom obliged and went out for a couple of hours. When he got home his wife asked about his day and he replied, "Oh, I joined a parachute club."
"What? Are you nuts? You're 65 years old and you're going to start jumping out of airplanes?"
"Yeah, look I even got a membership card."
"Old man, you need glasses! This is a membership in a Prostitute Club, not a Parachute Club!"
"Oh, great! Now what am I going to do? I signed up for 5 jumps a week!"
 

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LOOKING FOR GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR YOUR CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN?

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Phone:(423) 886-6943

Hours: Open today · 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

DO YOU WATCH THE BIG BANG THEORY?

You should!

http://forgotten-ny.com/

Forgotten NY is the first recipient of the

Outstanding NYC Website award by

The Guides Association of NYC!

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WHEN THE FAT LADY SINGS!

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Goodbye Dan Draper, Walter White, and Robert Crawley, I will miss you, can TURN be far behind? What will I do about it all? Maybe I better call Saul?

And so a great group of seasons with wonderful shows that filled you in on history both past and contemporary, drama, beautiful art direction and great casting runs its course, never to return again.

It seems to be almost sacrilegious that these shows are gone, that the characters held our attention so long and now have disappeared from our hearts and yes, even our souls.

People say TV is a vast wasteland, and maybe there is a lot lacking, but if you look hard enough, you discover from others that there IS an alternative on the cable channels, that great programming is available, and that we just need to try it.

I remember the old days, when there wasn’t much great TV, maybe UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS and very little else as there was in the past five or six years. You don’t have to be sophisticated to watch TV, and you do kind of surrender your brains to some degree, but watching quality TV fills the void with interesting things you would not experience otherwise!

Maybe there is a trend now to bring such programming to the fore and having people stimulate their brains and sensibilities to the art of drama. I hope so.

A man comes home to his wife after golfing.

The wife asks,

"Honey how come you never play with Bob anymore."

The man replies,

" Would you want to play with a man who cheats all the time, who lost his ball then pulls one out of his pocket saying he found it, a man who really got a 7 but marks down a 5, a man who takes 3 foot gimme's."

The wife says, "No i wouldn't."

The man says, "Neither would Bob."

http://www.ahrcsuffolk.org/

LOOKING FOR GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR YOUR CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN?

http://www.ebeanstalk.com/?store=42

http://www.mountaintoptoys.com/

Address: 1231 Taft Hwy, Signal Mountain, TN 37377

Phone:(423) 886-6943

Hours: Open today · 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

DO YOU WATCH THE BIG BANG THEORY?

You should, its great TV!

http://forgotten-ny.com/

Forgotten NY is the first recipient of the

Outstanding NYC Website award by

The Guides Association of NYC!

pamelarae47@yahoo.com

·        

HOW COLD WAS IT?

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It was as cold as the Mets bats, the wind whipping in from right center field as the sun was setting in the west. It was a rare night out with my two sons, a ballgame at Citi Field and dinner in one of the restaurants, with fancy bar service and gourmet foods, with great ambiance.

#2 Son Mike and #1 Son Anthony

Having had nothing but sisters growing up, having sons seems special. Spending time with them as children was special too, but there is nothing like it when they are both adults, suddenly you are left listening. The conversations are about current things and quite involved, and so I listen.

And so that night at Citi Field, in the end of May, we froze off our baseballs, the wind smacking your body and seeping through your clothes. Each inning passing slowly, and to make matters worst, by the end of 6 innings, the Mets were behind by a 9-0 score! How much more miserable can it be?

Watching people sitting in front of me, their bodies shook, shivering in the wind, hardly able to move their heads, and yet they stayed to watch this horrific team live up to the description. Drinking cold beer and frozen French fires, they struggled to pass the fries into their mouths!

Fortunately for us, we ate in the Delta restaurant under the stands, steak and baked macaroni, beer, and not one shiver among us until the check came.

"Doctor, I can't seem to stop my hands from shaking all the time!"

Doctor: "Do you have a drinking problem?"

"I don't think so - I usually spill half of it."

http://www.ahrcsuffolk.org/

LOOKING FOR GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR YOUR CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN?

http://www.ebeanstalk.com/?store=42

http://www.mountaintoptoys.com/

Address: 1231 Taft Hwy, Signal Mountain, TN 37377

Phone:(423) 886-6943

Hours: Open today · 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

DO YOU WATCH THE BIG BANG THEORY?

You should, you'll be hitting it big!

http://forgotten-ny.com/

Forgotten NY is the first recipient of the

Outstanding NYC Website award by

The Guides Association of NYC!

pamelarae@yahoo.com