28 Years, Nastia's first casino and Elena wants to fix the Mustang

I can't believe it's been twenty-eight years since Teri and I married in The Tappan Reformed Church in Tappan, New York. It was an unusually warm April 1st, and yes I chose it on purpose so I would remember it. Teri asked me a year or so earlier when I wanted to marry her. I keep choosing odd days, like the second Tuesday of next week, February 29th, which wouldn’t happen for three years, I think. Finally I said April 1st. She replied, “If it’s a Saturday, We’re getting married on that day!”Well it was, so we did. This past April 1st was again a Saturday and the weather was almost as good as 28 years ago. We received a little rain late in the day, and it was almost as warm as it was in 1995. It was still cold in 95, running around getting pictures taken without jackets. We again went to ‘Michael’s on Main’ in New City. It was expensive, but we both had Rib Eye Steaks.

We were unsure about going out for our anniversary after I’d spent so much money on her birthday. I gave her lottery tickets as a gift and she won $100.00. See, sometimes you do win. And we used that money plus fifty more to go out to dinner. It was a nice evening.

Nastia and Sean talked about going to a casino in Monticello for her birthday last December. Her mother and I thought it was a bit quick to be going away for the night together. There were no illusions about stopping anything, it just seemed too quick. It’s like Sean sleeping in a separate bed when he stays over. There is no illusion that anything is stopped when they are alone. It just doesn’t seem proper to let him sleep in the same bed with her or even the same room.

So with all of that said, they went to Monticello and stayed at Resorts Casino near the racetrack. They left after Sean got out of work and they were up there about an hour and a half later. It's a nice looking casino. Nastia sent pictures and Teri joked about there being only one bed.

When I was a salesman and that was my territory, I don’t think the Resorts casino was built yet, so I have never been inside it. I’ve been to enough off the beaten track Casinos and even though the pictures Nastia took made it look nice, it’s not Vegas or even Atlantic City. She took pictures of the room and said they won $70.00, but spent some of it and left up only $30.00. They had fun and Nastia said she didn’t try to gamble, she just watched. Teri and I ruined the trip a little for her when she told us she gave her license to Sean to hold onto. We both told her that was not very adult of her to do. She fought us and we pushed back. She couldn’t see what was wrong with her giving her license to Sean and we couldn’t make her understand it was not very adult of her. She got angry and went upstairs. Later we invited her down to watch some TV with us and she did come down. Back in 2017 or maybe 2018, most likely 2017 I was driving my Mustang convertible home from work. It was a warm sunny day and I had the top down. I only drove it when the weather was good because the top had a hole in it. About half way home the car shifted to a lower gear and a light came on on the dash. I parked it.in the garage. I had the intention of fixing it, but money was tight and money remained tight, then I got the Grand Am because Teri swore the Mustang was no good in the snow because I once slid into a pole during a snowstorm. The poor car has gone through ups and downs. I ordered it during the summer of 1999. I picked it up near the end of October. We drove around the next week in the cool fall weather with the top down.

I think it was within ten days, Teri and I were driving down Rt 59 in Nanuet and we’d just gone under the Rt 304 bridge when I hit something in the road and got a flat tire. I had a new car temporary roadside service plan, that was how new the car was so I called and a neighbor, who runs a tow service, Chris came out to change the tire. I was a little embarrassed I called and it was someone who’d helped me out big time towing my truck when it was needed. The car went through other unfortunate times. The hole in the roof originally was in the folds of the roof near the bottom of the window. I’d get water in the car and not know where it was coming from. There were times the car sat for months, if not years covered in a tarp, or like it has recently in the garage for the last four years. Everytime it sat it was because I lacked the money to fix it. The roof has needed to be repaired for many years and that is because of money. Eric said four year ago he’d help me fix the transmission issue, but I needed a new roof first, so it sat until I couldn’t start it because of a new problem. Both of my daughters have eyed the car. I taught Nastia how to drive in it. It was sidelined when Elena was learning, so she has never driven it. It has around 67,000 miles on it. My car is suddenly 23 years old. When the hell did that happen? Parts will be difficult to come by like they are for the Grand Am which is also 23 years old, but has over 127,000 miles on it. Elena works on cars for a living. She doesn’t have the knowledge to fix the Mustang yet. We are starting very simply to fix the car. Elena took an Interstate battery I had and was able to get a new one from work because Sean, Nastia’s boyfriend, has connections with Interstate. When the battery goes in, next buy a module that is bad to replace it in the fuse box. If it starts, I don’t know where to go from there? I’ll figure it out. If I don’t one day the car will be gone and someone will be trying to fix it at her job.