I think about twenty years ago. Teri and I were in the Nyack House. The big talk had just been answered when the clock struck midnight on January 1st, 2000 was the world's computers going to stop working. I was told by a friend it could have happened, but didn't because of a lot of hard work.
Over in Russia the second child of (I will fill in the black later) was to be born on August 10th. Elena was born into a world not of her making. Her birth mother liked to drink and had another child, Anastasia who at the time was fifteen months old. Their mom was not emotionally or physically able to take care of two children. Anastasia would be taken from her mother at some point to help their mother to try and cope with raising her youngest. Their mother went to live with her mother and for a while it was successful, but with any alcoholic who is not dedicated to their recovery, one miss step must have happened and she disappeared. Eventually Elena was reunited with her sister in an orphanage. We got to know them over a short period one summer in long ago time of 2009. Someone once said to Teri that the quiet one (imagine Elena ever being quiet) would be a love and be the one to break your heart. Break your heart by her large giving heart and her kindness. Of course you have to get past her defenses, but the trip has always been worth it for who ever has succeeded.
It's been a long and strange trip for both girls I'm sure. The strength to come to a country where you don't
I guess when you have never had special and are luck enough to find it you never want to let it go and Teri and I have been that lucky.
During COVID even as dining in door has become permissible alot of places have disappeared. Elena loves steak, so we went looking for a good steak house, oh and her birthday this year is on a Monday, traditional day for restaurants to close. So Teri and I go searching around. We discover that the Outback in the mall has closed for good leaving us without an Outback locally. It's steaks have been poor lately. We search high and low looking for a good restaurant. All locations we look at seem to have a 4.2 stars rating. So I start to feel the ratings mean little to nothing. We search into Jersey, out west toward Suffern and finally decide that the best bet with the most reasonable prices would be a place called Flames in Stony Point. We make a reservation for six. My mom will later bow out because of COVID fears and at seven PM on a Monday we walk past the outdoor barriers set up to increase dining space and we enter this new to us restaurant. The tables are COVID spaced, leaving about six feet or so between each table. Our table is set and waiting for us. The waitress is friendly and she gets us our drinks. Each of us at the table put on and take off our masks as we feel necessary. After a while they just stay off. we order drinks and start to relax. Our meals arrive and we dig in. Most everyone enjoys their food. I ordered a rib eye and Elena ordered a filet mignon. Both steaks don't see the end of dinner. After dinner we head to Dairy Queen in Northvale for ice cream. On the way there Nastia says her stomach is bothering her and she let out a slightly audible fart. It didn't matter if you heard it or not because in a moment everyone was opening windows (it was the end of a hot and humid day temps reaching 90). Needless to say Nastia needed to use the bathroom and Dairy Queen said even though it was an emergency they couldn't let us use there's. Then I tried to pay with gift cards and say said there card reader didn't work (hasn't worked in a year) I don't think I'll be coming back there very soon. The ice cream was good and Nastia did get to use the bathroom in Shoprite at the other end of the shopping center. So if you'll pardon the bad joke everything did come out ok, well at least until we got home, but I guess you read that one already. A last thought on what happens later. Times does heal all wounds if you let it and I think it will.
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