The Flash, and the new bowling ball. long ride to Chester PA.

Nastia convinced Sean to buy a new bowling ball, and almost as soon as he did, hers started to chip around the finger holes. As she always does, she looks to her little finger on her right hand and magically a bowling ball is purchased.

The ball is ordered before Christmas, and we are off from bowling for two weeks. She isn’t able to pick it up before we go back to bowling, so her little finger asks the people at the desk if they are able to open the door and get the ball for us. As luck would have it, the ball was paid for, and they have the keys. She bowls well that night with her new ball helping to overcome the poor games I bowl, and Sean not being there. The following week, Sean is not there again, and I hurt my back. She absolutely shines by single handedly overcoming the handicaps, and securing another five points. It is January, and we are in the race for a trophy.

There is this thing women do when they want to take off their bra, or a shirt that is under another shirt, that all men find amazing, and oh so interesting. We all stop what we are doing and just watch in amazement. A woman can take her arms out of her shirt, move them all around under the shirt and out of one of the arms pops a bra, or an unwanted shirt. No fuss, no muss, no flashing the crowd. The same can’t be said for women, or at least my daughter doing the reverse. At the beginning of bowling I watched my daughter take her arms out of her shirt, and a few moments later a shirt popped out one of her sleeves. She said she was too warm. I’ve given up telling her she should go to the ladies room to do that. She always would say, “I’m not flashing anyone”, and she hasn’t. At the end of bowling she wanted to reverse the removal of the shirt, and put the undershirt back on. The outer shirt is a Beatles shirt that doesn’t fit me anymore. She takes the former undershirt, puts it under the Beatles shirt, pulls her arms out of their sleeves, and I can see this is not going to end well. So, yes, like any modern person I pick up my phone, and start taking a video, instead of warning her. After she has flashed her bra to a good number of the bowlers near her, and she has come to that realization, she bids a hasty retreat, dropping the undershirt, putting her arms back in their sleeves, and quickly pulling down her shirt. She commented that the guy on the lane near us, who is about her age was staring, and must have gotten a good view. Maybe now she’ll go to the ladies room. Elena calls from work, and announces she will be home late. She says she has to drop off a car in Chester, and it will be about three hours before she will be home. Teri, and I both think, and say, “Chester,NY is not three hours away.” I bet you thought the same thing. Teri texts her for clarification, It turns out she is driving a car out to Chester PA. Now her job occasionally does this. Elena started as a courier, and they had her driving all over ZGod’s creation. At first we didn’t realize this was happening. At dinner she’d announce work had her drive down to Carlstadt NJ to a warehouse to pick up parts. We would be impressed, and glad we didn’t know about it before she went. This trip to Chester PA, that lovely little town south of Philadelphia PA. right on the Delaware River takes her, lets just say she comes waltzing back into the house sometime around 10PM,anounces she is going into work late tomorrow, so don’t wake her up. We get the usual details from her. I’ll write them down right here…. Something about someone driving either with her to pick up a car, or she followed someone to drop off a car. Well I guess it really doesn’t matter, she got home safe.

It's the same old song once again

This weekend has seemed like a reunion tour for a great old band. The original band was a two person group, and it thought it was going to be that way forever. Then something magical happened, and it changed. It became the most unlikely foursome. They put together some amazing memories over the following fifteen years. The original twosome knew the band would one day break up. They knew it would be a sad day, but also a day they would feel very proud to have ushered the two other members out into their own adventure. The first to leave was Nastia. Though she only moved down the road, it’s still a long way away when you know you’ll only see her when she comes over to wash laundry, or accepts a dinner invitation. The younger one, Elena, the one you thought would never leave, experienced the thrill of being out on her own when she slept over at her sister’s place. Now she talks about what she needs to do to move out, and how to get to that point. When she finally leaves it will be as sad as when her sister left.

It’s only been a couple of weeks Nastia has been gone. To me the house is emptier than it’s been in a long time. When we first adopted them the questions were how are we going to find the time to fit them into our lives. The question after fifteen years is what are we going to be doing with all of the empty time, and space. I’m not looking forward to it. When Karl left in 1979. when I was a kid, it never occurred to me the feeling in the house had changed. I just remember I got my own bedroom for the first time. When Ruth left, I registered a slight change in the vibe of the house, but it wasn’t huge. Then Eric left. My Dad died, and I left a few months later. Suddenly my mom had a completely empty house. Again I don’t know how she did it, and it barely occurred to me what a seismic change it was.

This weekend Sean spent his time with his father. Nastia came over for dinner on Friday. The four of us sat around the table talking, and joking like no time had passed since the last time we did it. Maybe it would have been the same if Sean were here, but to me at least it was special. It was the band back together for one last time. Maybe the last time, you never know. During the talk at dinner it got very loud. I mentioned maybe it was time to play the quiet game. No one must have heard me, because the conversation kept on going. On this night playing the quiet game would have been a crime.

Tonight the four of us went with Nancy to the movies. We saw Avatar- Fire, and Ice. I know Elena enjoyed it. She sat forward in her seat, like she does when she is really into a movie. When a bad guy died, she gave a pulled fist gesture. You know what I’m talking about. You make a fist, hold it at about a 45 degree angle about shoulder high, like pulling a chain, you yank it down to about belt level, more or less. Well future people that’s what cool people would do in 2026 anyway. Yeah, it is silly, just as all the ‘cool’ things you do now will look silly in a very few years. And yes, I remember kids saying groovy, and yes, I wore bell bottom pants. I won’t even get into what they were, and I’m not going to explain elephant pants either. On the way home from the movies tonight I was going to offer to make pizzafreet tomorrow morning. I’ve talked about it before, you may remember it is fried pizza dough, but I felt I was pushing the reunion tour a bit much. I’ll save it for another day when a second reunion tour magically happens.

A branch fell off the tree!

Friday, December 19th, near the end of the day, Teri calls to tell me a big branch fell off the tree in the backyard, and the dogs can go out the back door. I figured it was another of those tree branches I’d have to put under my arm and put my back into to pull it away from the house until I had the time to cut it up. What was the big deal? A week earlier we’d had a tree guy in to cut down several trees and to trim the tree that the branch fell off.

It’s December and I got home after dark. My first hint of what awaited me was looking into the black of the backyard, I saw a tree, where there wasn’t one. I don’t think I had to push through the side gate near the garage, but beyond that I encountered a forest blocking me from going much further. I pulled out the chainsaw

that hadn't been started since some pine trees fell down on the other side of my fence a few years ago. I’d even forgotten how to start it. I wasn’t confident it’d start. Through some miracle it started. I cut my way toward the back steps. I paused long enough to stop and talk to Teri about what was needed in the backyard. She said she wasn’t home when it happened, and Cassie is suffering from PTSD from her car accident and is scared. Both dogs literally got the crap scared out of them when the tree came down.

The branch covered the yard from the pool to the deck at the back door. The new tree I saw from the road was a branch off the main branch: it stood over the mud room, almost to the second floor window. I rough cut the wood with the idea of clearing the branches and getting most of the yard back as

soon as possible. I called my tree guy to let him know what had happened, and asked him to call me back to take down the part of the branch hanging over the mud room, and near the back of the house. A few years ago I’d have taken the branch apart myself, but my wife insists I need to realize I’m older, and I brake easier. If the tree guy hadn’t returned my call on Saturday, I’d have cut the tree branch up. I ran out of chain oil, and couldn't find the container, so I stopped. The tree guy showed up Saturday, which is good, because the chain saw didn’t want to start and I was reduced to an electric demo saw and smaller branches. The tree guy said sometimes after a cut like he did last week, the wind is less blocked and exposes weak spots in other trees. I didn’t care one way or the other. I was glad it didn’t kill anyone, and the hit to the house was mostly minor.

Well, she's moved out.

Sean and Nastia have been looking for an apartment since the late summer when they went to I think their first apartment, the German cockroach palace in Nyack. They saw three, four places in Pearl River, the apartment complex on Main Street being the best. They looked at a couple of places in Nyack, talked about going to Orange County because they’d seen everything in Rockland. They were turned down for the apartment complex in Pearl River, and another place in Stony Point off the corner of Main and Rt 9W A couple of weeks ago they were told there is a place available above Rick’s Club American down the street. They went on their own, and I don’t know if that is the reason they decided this was the place for them. I was happy for them, but in the back of my mind I was dreading moving out day.

Moving out day was Sunday, December 21st. It was still very windy from Friday when a huge tree branch came down from the neighbor's tree, and just missed our house. Sean bought a friend and his sister to help move. Being inexperienced, they filled the rental truck with the dressers and when they brought down the mattress, there was no place to put it without restacking the dressers. It didn’t take too much time to complete the move. They spent the rest of the day setting up the apartment. Before the move, Teri and I tried to get them to buy a Murphy bead. For all of you not in the know, a Murphy bed is a bed on springs that when not in use you can pick it up from the end and it goes against the wall and looks like a cabinet. The other dumb, yes dumb thing they did was they decided not to take the bed frame, so the box spring is on the floor where who knows what will be crawling around at night. I’m not saying the restaurant has rats, mice,and German Cockroaches, but remember the cockroach palace in Nyack. Their first night in the apartment was Sunday. Our house was a little quiet, and a little empty for me. I think both Teri, and I shed a quiet tear, because nothing will be the same after this. On Monday, Elena went over after dinner to help put together a table to put Sean, and Nastia’s 65” flat screen TV on. Sean won it from Goodyear Tires for selling tires. Who says there is no God. As I’ve always said, he’s got a wicked sense of humor. In that apartment the screen will be so close they’ll have to move their heads left to right to watch the TV, while Teri, and I have this itty bitty 55” screen to watch in our huge Living Room. I told Teri, I’d switch out the set for ours, they’d never notice, and maybe thank us for the lack of neck strains. I hope this works out for them and they live happily ever after.

Cassie part 2

Adendium- (Hey using that latin post from years ago again!!) She came home on Tuesday afternoon. THe sky threatened snow while it rained lightly. I wasn't sure they had a leash for Cassie, so I went to a local pet supply place and paid $17.00 for a pretty leash.

The Nurse went over instructions about Cassie’s medicines, three in total. One for pain, one to keep her calm, and a third to help her liver repair itself. The Doctor, a nice person went over what had been done to Cassie and how she should spend the next week. Her biggest health concern, that kept her in overnight was air leaking into her chest cavity from her lungs that could stop her from breathing. She needs to stay calm at home, and not run around. Difficult with Misha, the bully. My fear bringing her home alone is that she would pull her collar, run into traffic, and do another Lake road, but this time her luck would have run out. To my surprise, she jumps right into the car, crisis averted. On the ride home I see her out of the corner of my right eye looking out of the side window, then I look back again, maybe a moment later, and she is gone. Then I look back again, she is on the seat looking out the rear window. It’s like she is a ghost in my car. It’s raining, and gloomy, dark even for an early December afternoon. She moves so quietly I feel her superpower has been revealed to me. I pull into the driveway, open the door guarding against her darting out of the car to freedom again. I realize I feel like she really doesn’t need us until now. She calmly steps down out of the car. The drugs she is on must be really good. We enter the gate and take a walk around the yard. Even in her drugged up state she checks out all of the repairs I’ve done to the gate. She stops at the part of the where her latest escape happened. I believe I hear her call this tunnel Harry (Another Great Escape reference). We walk into the house where we are greeted by an excited Misha, who has moped around for the last two days. She is all excited and she will eventually take a nip out of Cassie. As the night proceeds we have to put Misha on a lush to let Cassie find a place to lay down and heal. This will go on for a week.

Cassie and ‘The Great Escape’

The title is light hearted, but this entry is less so. I still couldn’t resist though. We got Cassie about two years ago in late February. She is a great jumper, and Teri and I always joked that one day in her excitement while barking at something on the other side of the fence, she’d jump over it. We never took her for a tunneler. Now in ‘The Great Escape’ there are at least two characters who are tunnelers, but I’m going to ignore both Charles Bronson, and a Scottish actor played by Angus Lennie, called Ives, and I’m going to go with Steve MsQueen. If you’ve seen the movie, and it is well worth watching you see Steve McQueen, and yes he is the original Steve McQueen, not that guy who won an oscar or something for directing, and is fast forgotten. In ‘The Great Escape’ Steve McQueen, the original has been discovered by the Germans and they are in pursuit. Steve is super cool on his stolen motor cycle jumping the barbed wire barrier. He jumps the first barrier, it’s amazing, but the Germans are closing in and he might not make it. He has to turn around, they are on both sides of him, until he spins out and crashes into the barbed wire. This is another reason I don't want Elena to get a motorcycle. She doesn’t need to crash into barbed wire. When Steve McQueen, the original, crashes into the barbed wire, the Germans capture him, and return him to Stalag Luft 3. Fun fact ‘The Great Escape’ really happened, but the motorcycle chase didn’t. What does this have to do what Cassie you ask? Well I have watched her sitting on the back porch looking out into the yard. I thought it was to see if any squirrels or birds, whatever, have decided to invade her territory. What I believe now is she is looking at the fence, looking for holes, and weakness, like Steve McQueen, the original did when he first arrived at the camp. She tunneled out from under the gate, sort of like Steve McQueen, the original did when he trys to escape earlier in the movie. Cassie manages to get out and do a do a Steve McQueen, the original, minus the motorcycle, and she run like the wind, having a ball. While we, the sudo Germans chased her in vain. At least until she decided that she’d had enough, and came back home to Stalag Luft 3. She did this several times. I’ve been involved in at least three of these chases.

The last chase was today, or maybe the most recent, I don’t know. I’m at work, just leaving a meeting when I see Teri has called three times. I call her back, Cassie has gotten out again. This is after I’ve replaced the entire gate on the North side of the house. I drive home, meeting Teri with KJ looking for Cassie. KJ in his car seat, not yet able to be seen from the window calling out Cassie’s name. I go home, open the gate hoping Cassie will decide to come home. Her usual route has been centered in and around South Harrison, and a little east on Rockland ave, near the rail road tracks. This time she is on South Conger Ave, further west. She runs real fast when she sees someone who she knows calling her name. For her, it’s a game. She heads several times toward busy Lake Road, only to come back. She discovers the open field of the old Conger’s Elementary School. On one of these runs she decides to run toward Lake Road, my nightmare. Some poor lady in a BMW is heading east on Lake hitting her and launching her around thirty feet into the other lane. I’m not hopeful at this point. SHe lands in the other land and slides under an oncoming car. The driver driving slowly manages to stop. He backs up as I give him hand directions. Cassie is yelping, and I don’t know if I can pick her up. Traffic is backing up. I slide her out from under the car feeling her belly to see if it is safe to pick her up. I pick her up thinking maybe it’s only her leg, maybe it’s broken. I wave the drive on and step to the side of the road. Cassie clutched in my arms. Teri is on Grant Ave, a one way street, so she has to come around to get to me. As I stand there waiting for Teri, the woman in the BMW comes over. Tears are streaming down her face, she is apologizing, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” I tell her it is alright,and not her fault. She says she knows this but she is sorry. I immediately take a dislike to her. I need to forgive her, but she doesn’t need it. Teri pulls up and we start to race to the vet in Valley Cottage. Teri insists we call them. A young girl answers the phone. When we tell her what has happened, she tells us to go to an emergency hospital, and almost hangs up on us. We head toward Nanuet, and you might remember how I have talked about God, and his wicked sense of humor with me. We pull up behind an ancient woman in a moderately new car, maybe it was expensive, I don’t remember. What I do remember is she is going maybe thirty when she is going down hill. I know Teri will not pass her. Cassie, feeling a little better, has pulled from my arms and is laying on the floor of the car’s backseat, underneath KJ’s feet. I’m sitting in the back seat too. I look down at the seat and I see blood. For the life of me I can’t remember seeing any on Cassie. My fingers are bloody, but I don’t remember where the blood could have come from on Cassie. When I pulled her from under the second car, I guess she clawed me. I have two cuts on my pinkie, and ring finger, and one was dripping on the seat. I never felt them happening. At the vet they do $1,874.00 worth of tests. They discover she has an issue with her lungs, and air is filling up her chest which could kill her, if nothing is done. She is staying overnight which adds another $3,000.00 to the bill. I got a call, and they had to withdraw some air from her chest, so in case they need to put in a chest tube, they request a prepayment which ups the $3,000.00 to $4,900.00. We will wait for a call when we can pick her up. It might be tomorrow, it might not. Nastia, and Sean have gone over to see her. I don’t want to. I feel it would be too sad, and it would bring back memories of Cody. She was fine one day, but not eating. We bring her to the vet, and they say her kidneys are shot, and we have to put her down. But she was just fine yesterday. She was happy, friendly, herself. And here I am dredging up memories of her making me sadder. At least Cassie will be fine, they say.

Halloween Parade, Ring worm, and still hunting for that apartment

Halloween Parade, Ring worm, and still hunting for that apartment

Teri, Nancy, and I went to the Nyack Halloween parade. It was mostly the usual things. All three of us bought folding chairs with us. Everytime I think about the folding chairs, I smile how everyone looked at me as if I’d grown a third eye when I first bought one to the parade. I was so uncomfortable about it, I offered the chair to an older woman who looked like she could use it. For the last several years chairs have gone from a luxury to a necessity/ luxury. I could stand for the entire parade, but I don’t want to, and I’d pay for it later. It was cold, and the jacket I bought with me turned out to not be an unnecessary excess. Nastia, and Sean went somewhere. Either to a casino upstate or to a friend of Sean’s, who is also upstate. So they didn’t go. Elena, she might have just said, “I don’t want to go.” She worked, it was a Saturday, at 6, and she’d just gotten home at maybe the time we were leaving. I think the highlight of her evening was having Ramin delivered to the house from a noodle shop in Nanuet. Some time in August or maybe September Nastia had a spot on her arm that looked like a bug bite. She scratched it and it scabbed over. No moe thought was put into it until one Saturday afternoon her, and I are having lunch at Panera, and I see this circle on her arm where the scab was. I the distant reaches of my mind, I remember reading the book ‘Old Yeller’, and in it Travis got a case of ring worm on his stomach, I think. It’s been more than forty years since I might have read it. I remark to Nastia, in that off hand way I do, “What’s going on with your arm?” Before I know what I have said, I say, “It looks like ring worm.” She gets all freaked out, and wants to go to Immediate Medical care. I was raised like Travis in ‘Old Yeller’. Spit on it, rub some dirt on it, and go back to playing. I’ve tried to evolve since then, but if it don’t hurt, leave it alone. Well she was all freaked out about it, most likely because I called it ring worm. So after lunch we head over to Immediate Medical care. I am such a loving, and caring person, I leave her there to go get gas. When I return she is just finishing up the form on her phone. Most of the people before us have been seen, so our wait is not long. We are escorted to a room. I ask Nastia if she wants me to come along. She gives a most definite yes, and I follow. The medical tech comes in, asks questions to Nastia. I try to stay out of the conversation to give her freedom to answer, and to give her a chance to act like an adult, and handle something on her own that will come up again.

The Doctor arrives, and she asks some more questions. She says it looks like ring worm, and takes some blood to be sure. Who knew Travis all these years later. The Doctor asks if she has had skin to skin contact with anyone since the bit mark. Ring worm is highly contagious. Nastia stumbles a little in her answer, so I can’t resist stepping in to say “Yes, Nastia, you’ve had skin to skin with your boyfriend, you live with him. Oh boy what an enlightened parent I am (say that with sarcasm, because I needed to show how enlightened I am) The Doctor says she will put in a prescription for the spot as soon as the blood work comes back. Now how does a 21st century person get ring worm? Beats me, but with all of these anti-vaxing people willing to risk their children's health on disproven voodoo science, I guess ring worm is the least of their worries.

Tasha's wedding and the car show

Tasha’s wedding and the car show

The two last things that happened in that very busy August were Tasha getting married, and Caliper Tire’s car show. Tasha and her fiance decided to have two weddings. The fist, a traditional wedding to honor the traditions of her family, and the second to have an American style wedding, well soft of. I was asked to take a Thursday off in August way back in the Spring. Me being me decided not to worry about it then because it is in the future, and I do not live in the future. Yes, I did remember to get the day off in plenty of time, and I’d also agreed to rent a room down in Jersey to stay over after the second wedding, because it was going to be late when it is over. The first wedding, on a Thursday, started early in the day. I’m writing this after the fact, and I’m not totally sure, but it was some time around 9AM or so we showed up. We milled around with all of these brightly dressed people for a while until breakfast is served. I don’t know what I ate, but I’m told it is vegetarian. We find seats in the middle off to the left. Originally we were seated on the aisle, but Teri didn’t feel comfortable there. When the ceremony startsed, a group of men dressed in brightly colored clothes men walk down the center aisle toward the podium in the front of the room. I could almost picture the groom arriving from another village to celebrate the coming wedding.

The bride would arrive in the same manner. There were goings on between the two in the front of the room I couldn’t hear. I believe there was a game they played, and maybe a dance, I really don’t remember. The bride to be left and changed. When she came back, she was greet by matching rows of sparking fireworks like fountains on either side of the aisle. They were married, and again, I think there was a dance, they did. We were then invited to a feast of many different dishes, some I think I might have recognized. Teri, Nancy, and I sampled a little of everything. By early afternoon we were heading home. That Saturday we headed back to the same country club to their version of ‘An American Wedding’ . We were seated in a small outdoor court yard. The weather was perfect for the ceremony. This time the groom, and his groom’s men brightly colored clothing was replaced with black suits. The bride walked down the aisle in a beautiful white wedding dress. A woman performed the ceremony, and again they were man, and wife.

We went into a hall for the cocktail hour with what seemed an unlimited number of food stations. Definitely more than one person could visit without getting full, and not eating dinner. The three of us wandered around separately, coming back to report what interesting stations we’d found. Trying to not fill up there was difficult. I could have been happy if this was all the food they offered. After an hour we went into the main dining hall, and sat down. The bride, and groom were introduced, some speeches were made, and at that point I expected to get up and share the brides, and grooms fist dance together as man, and wife, but this is a Tamal version of an American wedding. Soooo, the wedding party comes out. First the grooms, then the bride, or maybe the reverse, I don’t know, but dancing there was a lot. They danced, and danced these choreographed dances they’d obviously spent a lot of time on. The music was too loud, and it’s not because I’m getting old I say that. Everyone said that. The bridal party put on a great show, then dessert came out. After that I was tired, and the party was coming to an end. We took the shuttle back to the motel and it was the end of a nice night. The next morning Teri says, “Hey lets go out to breakfast. If only the Red Barn was close to here.” She checks, and it is twenty minutes away. We have a very good breakfast, than head home. The caliber Tire car show

Caliber Tire decided to have a car show on Labor Day weekend. I thought maybe I should have been asked if I wanted to bring the Mustang over to the show. So I was very pleased when Sean and Nastia asked if they could take the car over to the show. It was another wonderful late August, early September day. Not too hot, sunny, just really nice to be out. I went with Nastia to the show to see what was there and to take a picture of the Mustang in it’s first show. No prizes were awarded, the Mustang wouldn’t have won, but some gift bags, and discount coupons were handed out. I stayed a short while, and left. It’d be interesting to see how many coupons have been redeemed since the show.