Nastia on vacation and saying good bye to Uncle Tonny.

Maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s an age, her’s or mine, I don’t know. Nastia seems to not be able to stand still. She is either working or looking to do something when she is not. It’s almost like she is afraid she’ll miss something if she doesn’t keep moving. Sean took a week off. They went camping up past the Roscoe Diner, I think in Mongap? It was 100 degrees during the day here and no lower than 75-80 at night. Up there, I’m sure it was cooler, but you’re upstate and it's cooler. I texted her, asking how she slept the first night. It took a couple of days for her to reply, “It was fine, why?” I didn’t hear much about their camping trip, and there were no pictures. They then went to the shore and there were also no pictures. I assume they had a good time. As June turns to July I looked forward to our annual fishing trip to Moriches Bay on Long Island. For the past two years I’ve cancelled the trip because of the weather. This year we were going come hell or high water. Elena’s new job gives her off Tuesdays and Sean has had Tuesdays of forever, so instead of Thursdays, we were going on a Tuesday. I figured it would be slow, and because of the weather I didn’t reserve a boat until that Monday night. Actually I forgot about it until everyone had gone to bed. I went on their website and to my horror, they had no boats for rent. I thought a Tuesday before the 4th of July must be a big rental day. I was flogging myself for not renting a boat earlier when I realized they are closed on Tuesday. IT’S THEIR SEASON TO MAKE MONEY!! WHY THE HELL ARE THEY CLOSED!! The guy who ran it before them, Gary, never closed in season. I was heartbroken when I told the girls and Sean. Nastia immediately said, “Okay, we’ll go to the beach, want to come?” I couldn’t go and leave Teri, who was watching KJ, that day, and Elena, skipped to sleep in. My biggest fear happened on Tuesday and hopefully will inspire me to keep working for a while. I experienced babysitting JK. It got to the point around Noon or so after I’d had a fight with Teri and KJ and I exchanged throwing toys at each other that I felt it was time to go to ‘Home Depot’ to get something, anything. I came back around 5-6 o’clock. I got a heart cut, walked up five flight of stairs to donate blood to find out they closed the location. Next I went to see my mom. I did something else and figured about 5-6 pm was a safe time to return.

We went to Pearl River to see the fireworks. There was a Four Seasons tribute band that I had to be reminded we were seeing for free. The fireworks started around 9:20. The band was nearing the end of their second set when they played that awful song by Lee Greenwood. In these overly divisive political days one side has sort of adopted that song. There was a story going around that the US government was paying him when they used it when they swear in new citizens, but that was not true as far as I can tell. The song has all of the words to make a MAGA man cry, but it is truly a very poor song. The band wanted to end with ‘God Bless America’, but they were told they’d run out of time.

The night had started to get cold and the quicker it ended, the happier I was. My mom and Bruce went with us. Nancy and KJ were there too. KJ being a handful, but with four people to watch him and no toys to launch, it went off without a hit. The nation is 249, I remember when it turned 200, it seems like just yesterday.

On June 16th, my mom turned 91. We took her out to Sangria's for dinner. She had a good time. I'm not really sure she enjoyed the food. She took most of it home. A few days late we got word that my Uncle Tonny, aged 94 had died. They had a wake for him in Bedford Massachusetts where he spent the better part of 40 years. He’d only recently moved to the panhandle of Florida to be near his kids, grandkids, and I think great grandkids. I met several people I didn’t know when Karl and I went up there to represent our side of the family. My mom said she didn’t want to go, because she didn’t want to see him in a coffin.I can’t blame her. He was buried on Thursday, which would have been his 95th birthday. At the wake they told the story of how his family lied about his age so he could enlist. According to the Air Force he was 16 when he enlisted,not 15, like he was.

One of my favorite stories about him is when he was stationed in New Mexico during all of the UFO hoopla. There was this building that if you got too close to it, crossed a certain line, you’d get shot. Was there a UFO in that building? I guess we’ll never know

That F&*kin pool does it again.

I did everything right last year when I closed the pool. I bought a new cover, pool balloons, everything needed to have a happy Spring/Summer when I opened the pool next year. Sometime around December, the water level starts to drop. I think maybe it’s my imagination, and maybe it will freeze before it goes any lower, neither happens. The weather stays warm and wet. The cover grommets holding the cover from falling into the pool come loose and eventually the cover falls into the pool, dirty water, leaves and all. I know it’s going to be a mess in the

Spring, but I’ll get a head start on it and fix the pool liner, and get a new filter, it’s gotten worn out. Late April, early May I get to work on the pool. I clean the dirty water out of the pool, leaves, whatever else has fallen into the pool that doesn’t belong there. I dream of days past where I’d have both daughters working with me or at least hanging around with me waiting for the pool to be ready to get into. These days, like last year, it is barely used. I had great hopes for this year. I leave several inches of water in the pool so the liner doesn’t shrink. Holes in the pool in the past have been around where the ladder is. I excommunicate the ladder when I find a hole from last year has opened up again and it’s the problem. I give Teri carte blanche to find another ladder. I patch the hole. While doing that the left side of the liner comes loose and with Elena’s help we smooth out the bumps in the floor of the pool near there.

When I patch the hole, it is up against the wall. As it begins to fill, it moves several inches toward the center of the pool. I hope for the best. As the level of the water increases over a week it seems to be fine. No water is leaking out. So on Saturday or Sunday, near the end of May, I go all out and fill the pool to the top. Sunday night it looks wonderful. It’s clean, it’s blue and it’s too cold to swim in. Tuesday coming home from work, I see it has gone down, and there is no question about it.

So it has sat for the last two weeks. Nastia and I got in and walked the pool looking for possible leaks and found nothing obvious. I called a couple of pool companies, one doesn’t do above ground, the other wants $195.00 to patch and there are no guarantees. They said they’d send me a contract, then make an appointment to come patch the pool. We’ll see where this goes.

Memorial Day parade, Boston and going out to dinner with her sister and others.

The Memorial day parade was, as always , forgotten until I heard the music. That is exactly the way it happened. I’m up about 9:30, doing some yard work, because as always I’m behind and Teri thinks the yard looks horrendous. To tell you the truth, I can’t do as much as I’d like to do any more and if I physically can, a lot of times I just don’t want to. Anyway I’m doing something outside and I hear band music and police sirens. I realize it is not just a regular Saturday, it’s Memorial Day Weekend, but not the three day one, just the two day one where there is a parade. I go inside, making sure my feet are clean, knowing Teri is not anywhere near ready to go see the parade. I ask her, and she says,no. I wake up Nastia, and she says, yes. She quickly changes and we get down to the

parade just as it is coming down the street. It’s the usual old cars, old fire fighting equipment and people marching. We see a couple of people we know from bowling marching in the parade, they both wave. We even see Ann, our next door neighbor. She is busy trying to stay in step and doesn’t see us. People next to us comment about how funny it would be if a train came. I remind Nastia that happened a few years ago. She doesn’t remember. I guess she’ll be surprised at how much she did in her life if she ever reads thai blog. She might even be surprised she came from Russia. The parade is quick, and fun.

Now on the real Memorial day weekend, where most everyone has off on Monday, Sean and Nastia have planned to go to Boston. My immediate question is why on a holiday weekend? Sean, through his landlord at the shop, has gotten a deal on a room at a nice hotel. They leave early Saturday afternoon and avoid traffic, arriving around six, I think. They have dinner, and the next day do all of the things tourists do. Nastia sends pictures to Teri, I guess KJ is tired of drawing his impression of places he’s never been. They arrive back home, safe and sound, Sunday night around six or so. Saying they had fun. Nastia buys me a T-shirt and Teri gets a container of Clam Chowder. She eats it the next day, saying it is really good. Nastia, Sean and Elena go out to dinner, but I don’t remember much about it.

That song from 1957 by the Silhouettes- Get a Job or in her case GOT A JOB

It’s surprising how quickly Elena got a job. No, wait, I have to be honest, Teri got Elena a job. Teri got Elena, or at least made Elena aware of the job available at Caliper Tires, and the two jobs I just mentioned. She got Nastia both of her jobs and She got me two out of the three last jobs I have worked. The two job offers are from Lea Toyota and the second at the Jeep dealership in Nanuet. At the Jeep place, she would have been doing the same stuff she was doing at Caliper Tire, brakes, tires, oil changes, that type of stuff. The job at Lea seemed to call to her, my words, not her’s. She said she preferred to work at lea, but her couldn’t say why. The job she would do is very bottom rung, clean cars, put tags in the car and on the keys, set up cars for technicians to bring them into the shop easily. You know, back them into the parking spot, something Teri and I both do and have tried to encourage both girls to do. Well Elena could have learned an important work skill if she had continued to work at backing up into her parking spot.

Elena asked Teri how to tell the jeep place she was not going to take the job. This time she learned a valuable life lesson, how to turn down a job without cutting off a possible job position. Teri even wrote out what she should say. Tomorrow, Saturday, Elena will finish her first week. It’s not an exciting job, she says, but it’s cool or words to that effect. She stopped by Caliper Tire and talked to Sean sr telling him she misses the place, which was sweet of her. As long as the two who do like her are there, Elena is best working somewhere else. It’s funny, I asked Elen what days she works, when she first got the job, she didn’t know, I could but I didn’t ask what she would be making, but I’m sure she won’t know until her first check and even then she might not check it out. She really doesn’t care.

Everybody hurts, sometime*

* R.E.M 1982- I'm impressed with myself. I've used a song from the 1980's. Usually I'm doing songs from the 60's and 70's. Everybody hurts sometime, especially when someone tells you they don’t want you to work at their company any more. It’s easier when you're younger, even though the pain of rejection is worse. I was fired at 16 from my first job, at a typewriter repair store (think about it and you’ll figure out what the business did. I guess it’s like book binding, once it was very important.) because I didn’t know how to work. Nastia was fired from the movie theatres at the mall for cursing at an employee that was bothering her. She also lost her job at Helen Hayes because she picked a child up by the arm and that is against the rules, could have dislocated their arm.

Now Elena got her first job at Stop and Shop. She did an amazing job and was promoted to assistant to a manager. She began to hate the job, took some classes, at BOCES, in automotive repair and got a job at a local tire shop. Most everybody there loved her. The two who were not nice to her gave her grief, so she mouthed off to them. And yes after several years of this, the boss who didn’t like her fired her.

I remember coming home from getting fired at sixteen and going to sleep, I was so upset. I don’t remember what Nastia did. Elena is acting a little quiet, and nicer to the dogs. When we talk about the two people who are responsible for her not having a job, she is less nice, and I can’t blame her. I've been fired three times in my life. The first one hurt, the second one was a shock that came out of left field. The third and hopefully last one I should have known was coming. I was just drifting, looking for accounts in my territory, a territory I wasn’t sure what the boundaries were and a boss too busy with what he wanted to do than to manage his sales staff. After the last firing, I drifted and didn’t try to get a job in the industry I knew because it was dying and I knew it. I don’t want Elena to drift. She is young and does have some time. Her bills are minimal and she does have some money saved. They have both been good at saving lately. I asked Sean one day or night once recently, was he happy. When Nastia mentioned it to me a few days later she made it sound weird, it wasn’t I was trying to point out that most people don’t realize when they are happy, until it has passed and they compare it to where they are now. I, being older, occasionally stop to ask myself if I am happy, and I have realized I’m pretty happy now. Teri and I have financially gotten back on top of things.We’re making plans to fix up the house and maybe retire in it or whatever the future brings. Sean said he is happy, Nastia is almost always happy, I hope, haven’t asked. Elena is always hard to read, she is so much like me when I was her age. She keeps to herself, seems mad a lot of the time. She doesn’t have too many friends. Is not outgoing. Maybe I’m channeling me and she is nothing like me, but I see that person who when she smiles at you can melt your heart. I don’t know how I managed to get here from where I was, and I didn’t have nine years in Russian on my back. She is strong and I hope she knows how much she is loved. And we know how big of a heart she hides. She’ll come out the other side better off, I believe. When KJ goes looking for her he will yell, "Yell-na. The girl who doesn't like kids, likes him and he loves her. Everybody hurts, sometime lyrics When your day is long And the night, the night is yours alone When you're sure you've had enough Of this life, well hang on Don't let yourself go 'Cause everybody cries Everybody hurts sometimes Sometimes everything is wrong Now it's time to sing along When your day is night alone (hold on, hold on) If you feel like letting go (hold on) If you think you've had too much Of this life, well hang on 'Cause everybody hurts Take comfort in your friends Everybody hurts Don't throw your hand, oh no Don't throw your hand If you feel like you're alone No, no, no, you are not alone If you're on your own in this life The days and nights are long When you think you've had too much Of this life to hang on Well, everybody hurts sometimes Everybody cries Everybody hurts, sometimes And everybody hurts sometimes So hold on, hold on Hold on, hold on, hold on Hold on, hold on, hold on Everybody hurts

The Great Bear Lodge trip in March

Nastia, Sean, Elena and Arriana went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun PA. for the weekend.God to think your rich and spend money like that again, I’d love to do it.

The four of them left Friday, about 5:30, after everyone got out of work. Teri texted them about 10 that night and, yes they had arrived safely. This is the last we will hear from them until they get back home, unless we reach out to them. I guess I don’t have to worry about them being overly attached to us and not want to leave home. They will just not be able to afford to leave. A room for two at the Great Wolf is about $200.00. There are cheaper options for rooms and houses near Great Wolf for less, but that would take some of the fun out of it I think. When they get home, we’ll ask how it was and get a lot of, “oh, it was great.”

Since Friday, Teri and I have experienced an empty house. It’s weird. We lived together without the girls for fourteen years and the girls came into our lives and it changed everything. Now I don’t know how to live without them. When they go upstairs after dinner it’s like we live alone again because we don’t see them again until morning, but there is a safety net, they are upstairs. It’s like when I was sick the other night with a stomach virus and Teri slept downstairs. I told her I don’t like sleeping in an empty bed. But like with all change, I fell asleep to the radio, something I used to do when I was single, Teri and I had bacon for breakfast on Saturday, went out to breakfast at a diner in Central Nyack on Sunday, then we did a little shopping for stuff we needed around the house. It was different, but familiar. We’ve done things like this before with the girls at home, but this is a glimpse of the future. We haven’t spent this much time together since we were dating. Except for her grocery shopping on Saturday morning we spent the whole time together. And yes when the girls got home about six Sunday night they both said they had a good time. Nastia sent pictures to Teri, I guess she doesn’t like KJ imagining what the places looked like and how things were done. Sean was the only one to tell a story. He said he tried to run to get under a huge bucket of water that splashes down on you. In his haste, he wiped out and came home with a nice souvenir of a bruise just above his hip, around toward his back. I would have chosen something simpler, like a nice beer cozy.

My Birhday and exploding ovens

When we purchased the house about twenty years ago, we gutted the kitchen to the studs and even pulled up the floor. Water had rotted sections of the oak floor and there was a hump in the middle of the floor where the room had originally ended. With the help of a friend, a guy named Fred, we tore it apart and put it back together again. We had a company come in and build kitchen cabinets. We purchased some nice, if a little low end appliances. One of those was the stove. The brand was called a DCS. It was a silver thirty six inch wide four burner, with a griddle in the middle.It was nice when it was new, It started breaking maybe after ten years. The light socks in the oven came loose and the bulbs broke when you tried to change them. The broiler broke twice, each time a new and expensive part was required. After the third time we gave up. Over the last five-six years we used a lighter to light the burners, as the automatic lighter would click away as you cooked. Several years ago it had reached its life's end, but we kept using it, not quite ready to replace it. One evening I was at my mom's and Teri called me about dinner. I tell her I’ll make it and she offers to heat the oven up. She calls me a few minutes later and says the oven blew up. The words for a moment don’t register. Oven blew up, that doesn’t happen. She goes into what happened. She said, “I turned on the stove and I was at the sink, I turned around and a bigbang,, the door to the oven flies open and a huge flame shots out. Everyone’s alright.” I guess dinner is going to be late tonight. We talk it over and decide the stove top is safe. I say, knowing she doesn’t really care, that the igniter in the oven didn’t light on time and the gas built up causing the explosion. We both agree, it’s time for a new stove. One night we head to PC Richard’s in Nanuet. We go there because last time we made a large purchase, they gave us free financing for two years.

When we originally purchased the DCS stove there was a lot of back and forth about what we should buy. Six burners vs four with a griddle, Double stove vs a single, Wolf vs Thermador, vs Viking, or something less expensive. It ended with a four burner, griddle in the middle DCS stove. A quick search of the internet and DCS came up for outdoor kitchens, and that it was sold around the time we purchased our stove. They were not in PC Richards. I wanted something nice that we’d have for the next twenty years and not worry about it breaking. Teri was on the same page. The girls didn’t care, they were doing stuff twenty somethings do and their only concern was what’s for dinner and would they have to eat something they didn’t like or have to warm up something they’d rather have. We remember it as the best time of our lives.

I believe Teri and I had agreed on a Wolf six burner stove before we agreed to meet at PC Richards. I found the griddle in the middle was a place for crumbs to collect and in the winter mice get into the house and love to crap on the griddle, so I quit using it years ago. Teri arrived at PC Richards first and showed me the stove. We dealt with someone, sorry I forgot his name, who she’d known since elementary school at St Ann’s.

On the way to check out I see their mattress department, and out of curiosity I ask about them. Teri immediately says no, we are not getting a mattress. I agree, we just spent a fortune on a Wolf stove. We walk over lay down on a memory foam mattress that reminds me of the foam mattress topper we just took off our bed. Next is a high end Stearns and Foster, it’s nice, then a second tier Stearns and Foster. I comment that you can feel the difference. We get up and sit down to finish the purchase of the stove. Before we go much further, she looks over at me and says, “Do you really want it?” I know she is talking about the mattress. THe mattress was purchased around the same time as the DCS stove, about twenty years ago and it too is long over due to be replaced. I am willing to walk out of the store with just the stove, but if she wants the mattress, I will not pass it up. Long story short, we purchase a stove and a mattress. The mattress is delivered on a Friday, and left in the front living room. The two guys say they can not get it up the stairs.They don’t get a tip. Over the weekend three guys come back and after watching them move the mattress up the narrow stairs with the turn at the top, I feel so bad, my cheap tip becomes $25.00 each for the three of them.. The new mattress is higher than the old one to the point that Teri’s feet don’t touch the ground. The new stove The stove arrives when I’m at work, the way I like it. Teri said they bought the stove in the front door, turned left into the front living room, through the family room, a right into the dinning room and finally a left into the kitchen. KJ drew a picture of them delivering the stove since I wasn't there.

The old stove leaves the opposite way. I love this stove so much that I am willing to cook dinner every night. Some of the meals have been really great and I credit that to the amazing Wolf stove.

For my birthday, we stay home because I’ve been disappointed in The Outback lately, last birthday and maybe Father’s day, so Teri buys steaks, I cook them on the grill outside and I make homemade french fries, it’s really great. Nastia and Sean buy me a tres leches cake from Restaurant Depot.

New Years Eve into New Years day.

New Years eve and day has become a nothing event at our house, sorry girls. When I was younger I went to parties, as I got older I went with Teri and towards the end, the girls. Covid ended the parties at Uncle Eric’s and sorry about that girls. The last few years since Covid, New Year's Eve has consisted of staying home, watching TV, falling asleep and waking up in time to wish Teri a Happy New Year, yes boring. I have no idea what the girls were doing each New Year’s Eve.

KJ did a picture expressing his joy for the up coming year. It is an impressionist work again. Each may interpret this work of art as they wish, but I see a pink New Years Eve mask on top of a black New Years Eve mask thrown away after all of the celebrating has ceased.. It is a very deep and insightful work. It tugs at the longing for connection with another soul and the joy of a life lived together. It is a work many years beyond expectation. Wow, can you smell all that crap I just layed out, I should own an art studio. I could sell the scribblings of a year and a half old. My apologies to KJ, who might be older and stronger and have a sharp temper when he reads this. If I’m still alive when you read this, I’m just having fun with no thought about how my wise ass jokes might stunt your artistic growth. Oops, another joke just slipped out. Yeah, I know to be a joke, it’s got to be funny first.

This New Years Eve, Nastia asked if we could play cards. I have this lovely set of chips in a silver aluminum case, it looks just so cool. I have played cards with the girls and Sean for no money, but this time I wanted to teach them a little about gambling. How the house always wins. We played Black Jack. Black Jack for all of you novices is the game of twenty-one, with a few twists. First if you have a King and an ace, you win one and a half times your bet. You bet a dollar, black jack makes your winnings two dollars and fifty cents, plus your bet back, nice. If the dealer gets it, everyone loses immediately except if you also have black jack and I think that is a push where you get your bet back. You can split your cards, if you get two of the same card, or you can double down. You double your bet, and get one card.

We started playing around nine, I think. We kept going for a while and the house was killing them. I slipped Elena about fifteen dollars to get her to stop drinking. The house was doing so good, I felt bad and really shuffled the cards extra well. It changed everyone’s luck and they started to win and have more fun. I collected fifty dollars for the chips and intended to keep it at least overnight, but with the shuffle of the cards, the house, me began to lose and lose big time, but to only one person, Nastia. At one point she alone had over fifty dollars. The bank could not pay her and the other two. When we finally quit playing, I nonchalantly gave back their money, saying I couldn’t keep it.

A little while later it rang midnight and somehow I didn’t get to bed until almost two. Everyone else twelve-thirty, maybe one at the latest. Both my daughters drank that night and I guess Russians have a special immunity to hang=overs. They were drinking a chocolate liquor, stuff that would turn the stomach of most Americans after a few making them refund their drink at the porcelain god or on some poor sidewalk out front of Annie’s in Nyack. It was a fun night and I hope the new year will be a good one for our family. New Years day. New Years day was quiet. Nastia went off with Sean. Teri,Nancy, Elena and I went to a movie, Mufasa: The Lion King. I fell asleep. Happy New Year!