What's Going On*

It's Sunday morning. Nastia has gotten her COVID-19 test results back and she is negative, so she went back to work yesterday. Nasti was at work yesterday along with Elena. Teri went grocery shopping and I went to get gas and collect some sandstone from the side of the road on Rt 59 near Crossfield Road, for my sandstone wall, so much for sheltering in place. It was the first nice day in a while and only one of a handful of warm days this year. It is weird, it doesn't seem like Spring, but Mother Nature hasn't stopped. All the flowers are in bloom, trees are getting their leaves, but it doesn't really seem real. It's like a movie I'm watching because I'm not allowed to participate in it.
  This morning Nastia and Elena got into a fight over a mask. Nastia wanted to borrow one of Elena's

and she didn't want to let her, dystopian? They need to invent a word that is like dystopian, but it should mean more like what is going on today. You know we've got a government that is sitting around and doesn't want to take the political risk of actually being a war time president and coordinating everything with the states and the companies producing the needed goods. Wait one minute, I have to get off my soap box. Sometimes I step up onto it and I don't realize I have until I've expressed a political opinion about that asshole, oops, did it again.
Teri went shopping yesterday and bought home two bags of groceries and two boxes of canned dog food. She spent $135.00. To you future people that may seen like the cost of a meal at McDonalds, but it seems she continues to bring home less and less food, but the price is higher. Is it COVID-19 related or just general inflation? They are dumping food at farms and pouring milk down the drain because they were set up to service restaurants and schools that are now closed. Slaughter houses are closing because the virus is spreading through them like wildfire. Trump, the wartime president has used the defense act to save his happy meal from McDonalds while states bid against each other for needed medical protection gear, oops, I did it again,(Sorry Britney Spears for swiping one of your album titles and not being a fan) I need tp get off that soap box again.
Now for something completely different(borrowed that from Monty Python, oh by the way it's not a guy, it's a group of guys, future people) a new item I'm calling how freaking old am I getten, yes getten. I've had aches and pains for the last several years and I've accepted that I'm getten older. Yesterday I mowed the other half of the lawn I didn't mow last week, I took some bags of construction debris bags from Elena's room (yea, I'll talk about it soon) that have sat out front of the house for a while over to Nyack. Our garbage guys are awful. They used to pick up anything, now there are a lot of only so much of this a little of that, oh and none of your house debris. I also got the water off the pool cover. I woke up this morning after a poor night's sleep hurting in places I've never hurt. These hurts were different, all joint related. My left elbow, both knees hurt, never happened before, both sides of my hips, never before. I guess I've sat around too much this winter or maybe I'm just getten old.

* Marvin Gaye - What's Going On - YouTube

www.youtube.com › watch

Lyrics

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, eh eh

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, oh oh oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on
Yeah, what's going on
Ah, what's going on

In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on brother
Right on babe

Mother, mother, everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply 'cause our hair is long
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Oh oh oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
C'mon talk to me
So you can see
What's going on
Yeah, what's going on
Tell me what's going on
I'll tell you what's going on, ooh ooh ooh ooh
Right on baby
Right on baby

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Alfred W Cleveland / Marvin P Gaye / Renaldo Benson

What's Going On lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Nastia arts and crafting it for school

Nastia had wanted to be a teacher of kindergarten children. I don't know what happened, I'll have to ask her. before she changed her mind she was advised to get into this class called child development or something like that. I most likely are wrong, but the point is the other night Nastia had to do some arts and crafts that as a young kid, some I remember doing. The first one was make a snowflake. I didn't remember how it was done, so in this amazing day and age I told Nastia to go on the internet. o, yes I then went on the internet and found a video on how to make a snowflake. You get a piece of paper, cut it into a square, fold it into a triangle twice and then fold it bringing both corners to the middle to make it look like a badge of the Federation from Star Trek. Cut off those the ends. Now at this point in the video they start to do some fancy cuts and Nastia says she can't do them. I go "Nastia look just cut it like this " and a proceed to put different shapes into the edges making sure not to cut too much out of the spine. I start to open it up. I stop and hand it to Nastia and when she opens it up I get a wow, A simple piece of paper became something more.
She then goes to work on making maracas using towel paper rolls and different stones and buttons to

make noise. I am disappointed in her effort. I ask her if she is done with the snow flakes and suggest she glue it onto the tube, I get a no and she then lightly colors in part of the tubes.
   She also has to make a rubbing and has trouble doing it. I take some time rubbing a pencil on a piece of paper placed on top of a metal butterfly. Nastia is amazed at how beautiful parts of  it are. She then does her own, but doesn't take the time needed to make the detail come out in it.
All of her lack of effort on something so simple so reminds me of how I was and it make me sad. Here she was learning to do crafts that should have been fun and easy. But she was so caught up in just getting it done that she didn't enjoy doing any of it. I think I had more fun then her. I guess maybe a little age and distance will cure her like it did some for me.
      Last night I come up stairs and look into the room that used to be the office, before it was Elena's bedroom and then was storage for working on herr bedroom (yes, I am still working on it, sorta. more on that later) I see a red light flooding out of her room and any fan of the rock group 'The Police' know what I'm about to say...."ROXANNE! You don't have to put on the red light. ROXANNE!"                                       

I look into the room and modern kids are having fun together. I miss kids coming to the door and asking if someone is home and can they come out and play. There I go again going all Mayberry on you. What you future people don't know what I'm talking about? Well I don't really want to ruin the fun of you looking it up. Say Hey to Opie  Andy and Aunt Bee when you get there.























/

Dating during the Covid-19 virus

I have looked back and it has been about five weeks since we have been on lock down/ stay at home. Everyone has gotten into a routine and it has started to seem like this is normal and it will never change.But as we all know forever is a long time and nothing stays the same forever. Every night I leave work in Elmsford at 6:30 and get on the Thruway I am able to do eighty on the road. When I realize I am going so fast I ease off the gas and let the car coast until I get down closer to the speed limit. It is a weird time. I still don't long for the traffic jam trips home that turn my now fifteen minute commute at 6:30 into anywhere from a half hour to ninety minutes on a traffic filled Friday in the Spring or the Fall. Those could remain a relic of the pre Covid-19 time.
     Now to dating during the COVID-19. Well it just doesn't happen, but try to tell Nastia that. Back a few days ago I woke Nastia up to find when she worked and had online school. She said she had classes at ten and twelve. I asked her how she was going to manage that when she had work from noon to eight. She didn't know. The next day I am transfering money to Nastia's account when I notice some charges from Garnerville. I march upstairs and wake Nastia up. Asking her in an agitated voice what was she doing in Garnerville? She very calmly says, "I was in ShopRite in Garnerville looking for soup for mommy and I had lunch at the pizza parlor. Nastia can lie so smoothly sometimes that even when I have the facts I have to stop and question myself. So I leave half believing she did nothing wrong. That is until I am driving home that night and I begin to think about things and again become convinced that she lied and by the time I get home I am really pissed off. Luckily the house is empty. Strangely too, because we are supposed to be sheltering in place. It turns out Nastia and Elena are at work and Teri had to go into work and just left. She calls and I tell her how angry I am and that she will have to talk to Nastia when both are home. Teri gets home before Nastia and when Nastia is settled in Teri begins to talk to her about what happened. I promise myself to say nothing and if I insist on it I should leave. Nastia quickly confesses she'd gone to Garnerville to see Taj. I complement Teri on her restraint. She doesn't yell at Nastia's confession. She does say in a pleading slightly demanding voice that she can't go see him. She doesn't know where he's been and who he's been exposed to and he doesn't know what she's been exposed to. One could be giving the other Covid-19. I do say something and Teri asks me to stop. I realize it is a good idea and stop. The talk is short and feels inconclusive, but Nastia has stayed home since then because she went to work the next day and told her boss she didn't feel good, she had a headache. Her boss sent her home until she comes back with a doctors note. For the last few days she has had her period, a headache and a belly ache. She bought some Sunny Delight last week at Costco. Somewhere in all of that is the truth above what is wrong with her.The Sunny Delight might be giving her headaches, her period might be giving her the belly aches or maybe just not drinking any water and I don't think any of it is caused by COVID-19.
Last night I tried to have a little celebration for just the four of us. I have been working a lot of overtime because of COVID-19, and I got a raise which together almost doubled my normal take home pay. The check, still less then Teri's, is finally in the same neighborhood. So I thought it might be nice to have some Bailey's BBQ. Their restaurant is on Erie Street in Blauvelt. They are also the ones who bought and ruined Nanuet Restaurant.
Under COVID-19 there is pick up only, which does ruin the food a little. What happened last night made it a waste of fifty dollars. We, Teri and I debated back and forth what to order. We settled on a variety platter for two and a kids chicken fingers and fries for Nastia. Teri thought about an onion soup, but at eight dollars decided not to. She tries to order from her ipad and has difficulty. So she asks me to order but I always have problems doing online ordering. I wanted to order directly from the Bailey's website and kept getting doordash or menu, trip advisor, yelp or whatever. I have had experiences with yelp, all bad (they listed The Crystal Spoon as closed because we wouldn't advertise with them) (Doordash delivered cold food and is or was very expensive) I get so frustrated that I bring my laptop to Teri and she figures it out in just a moment. Now it is late, about 7 PM. Teri had wanted to order around 5. and I said let's wait and anyone who's been married knows where this is going. We order the food and the web site says an email will arrive telling us when to pick up our food. There was also a place where we could tell them when we wanted to pick up the food. The first available time is 8:15, an hour and change later. I wait watching my email for the Baileys email while I continue to work entering new client for the Crystal Spoon. At 8:15 I finally call Baileys asking if I missed the email. The guys running the service say our food is ready. Nastia and I head out to Bailey's twenty minutes away and on the trip I tell Nastia the food is going to be ice cold when we get there and it is.
We arrive at Bailey and see a half open door with a note on it we can't read. I get out and read it. It says all catering orders and take out are next door, across the street. I cross the street and in my hurry I drive off the end of the parking into the grass. There is no drive around from there. I finally get to in front of Baileys take out and a kid without a mask asks for our name. He grabs the bag with ungloved hands,. I stretch out my arm past Nastia to keep him as far away as possible. He hands me a bag of luke warm food that had not been kept warm while it waited to be picked up. Twenty minutes later, at almost nine Nastia and I arrive at home with cold BBQ. Of course I start a fight with Teri. I don't remember what started it but when I see Teri throw a plate, a light toss of only several inches I see another issue that she always get on my case for. So I complain to her about throwing plates like she does to me. Oh, and what started the fight, I yelled at the dogs to shut up and she complained. So I say why is it ok for you to yell at the dogs and not me. So it dovetails very well with her throwing, really tossing a plate on the table and not placing it. All you ladies take note, this is what happens when you piss guys off for doing something minor like dropping a plate on the table from a couple of inches away. IT WILL COME BACK AND BIT YOU! You do it to us so why can't we occasionally give it back to you.
The food was lousy and cold. If it was hot it might have been it's usual excellent. I did have the oven on to warm the food before I left, but it was late. I did warm the corn souffle in the microwave and ruined it. It became a tasteless mussy mess.
If I can find the web site again, I'll leave a review.









/

What the future might look like

What the future might look like, I don't know. Will more people work from home? Only the future people reading this will know.
    Right now I feel like I'm living a Bizarro World* version of Father Knows Best**. Before I head to

The Bridge at 6 PM on a past Friday

work in the morning, I go visit my mother. I don't come within ten feet of her and yes I know that sounds very WASP of me, but it really isn't normal. I go to work and after punching in I go to my desk, grab an antibacterial wipe and wipe down everything in the office I might have to touch during the day. I then go to the bathroom and wash my hands with extra soap for what I think is twenty seconds. In between the finger, over the backs of the hands, up to the wrists. Then I wash them off, grab a paper towel, dry my hands and before I toss it in the garbage I use it to open the door. Here is where I get fancy. In one swift motion I push the lever handle down and pull the door open and push it the rest of the way open with my foot as I do a behind the back with the paper towel hitting the garbage with just net. Now I am ready to attack the papers that have piled up on my desk over the last twelve hours. On a recent morning the pile of papers only got deeper and the phone calls kept coming so that by the end of the day I only had just cleared my desk of the days work. forget all the stuff that was on it before I got there. This past Monday, after working the whole weekend putting in clients and orders I walked in and declared to my boss Ted, "I'm all caught up" Ah, what hubris***. I sat down to my disinfected desk to the sound of the fax machine. It would continue for the next three days. At the end of each day I'd laugh and say "I'll catch up" By the end of the week I had almost

I'm fashionably ready to work

sixty new customers. Management was talking about shutting off new customers. Over the week the tension in my neck and shoulders had caused me to have headaches and started my left eye to hurt. Sometime around mid afternoon on Wednesday I decided that I would worry about only what is at the top of my pile. The rest didn't exist. For some reason I was able to do that. That was also the day I was told along with the only other guy who didn't wear a mask we had to now wear a mask along with a hair net anytime we went into the kitchen or came near a crowd. The governor had declared all people needed to cover their faces if they were to be anywhere in a crowd. For a governor I hated two months ago, he has really been on top of this COVID-19 virus.
     So now it is Sunday, after that week where I got about sixty new customers in. I worked last week eleven hour to catch up. Then on Saturday I worked eight and a quarter hours and today I have thirty-two customers to finish up. And yes I'm delaying doing it by writing this. I'm tired of working, but I want to come in and tell my boss Monday, it is done.
      Teri works from home and I wonder if she will miss the commute she has now. She stays up a little later at night, sleeps in a little later in the morning, puts on sweats and heads to the dining room table or up to the attic to work. The girls at home sleep in each morning and Nastia has online classes that she is finding very difficult to do. She now has to depend on herself and can't go running to a teacher to get help. She occasionally goes to work during the day or in the evening.
     Elena, is working almost full time at ShopRite and maybe for the short term or who knows maybe longer she will continue there. With BOCES closed and most likely not to reopen until the fall this is her future.
      Everybody's life is sort of in a holding pattern. All our worlds revolve around this house mostly. Will the future look something like this? People working from home more. Radio and TV new anchors host their programs from home and I'm sure they are getting acquainted with family members and what it is like to have time around the house. Future people what is it like out there now?



*Bizarro World: The imperfect duplicate of Superman, the chalk faced hero lives on the cube-shaped world of Bizarro where everything is the opposite of life on Earth. Beauty is hated, ugliness is revered, and it is a crime to make anything perfect.


** Father Knows Best. From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English ˌFather ˌKnows ˈBest a US television programme made in the 1950s, whose characters were considered to be a perfect happy family with typical American values.





*** Hubris | Definition of Hubris by Merriam-Webster

To the Greeks, hubris referred to extreme pride, especially pride and ambition so great that they offend the gods and lead to one's downfall. Hubris was a character flaw often seen in the heroes of classical Greek tragedy, including Oedipus and Achilles

Easter during the COVID-19

Holidays during the COVID-19 are muted.
With everyone sheltering in place not a word was said when both girls had to work on Easter Sunday. It has been a few years since we colored eggs and this year Easter just wasn't Easter.
Teri did her usual very nice job cooking the meal. We had ham, pineapple casserole, mixed vegetables, and a non-traditional dish pierogies. We'd just had mac and cheese which goes real well with ham and no one was in the mood for potatoes, so we went with pierogies, boiled, not fried. Fried are excellent, try them one day.
     We ate dinner around six. Nancy was our only guest. I didn't ask my mom because the girls are
always exposed to alot of people who might have the virus. I haven't been within ten feet of my mom in about a month. But for WASPs like me isn't that just standard? yes, that's a joke, a WASP joke.
      The family dinner was the first one we'd had in a while. The girls were wound up a little and I inspired them in their lunacy.
      The conversation at the table was not very Easterish. It started with an innocent question for Nancy, asking Elena what happened to her nose piercing. If I haven't told it I will now. Elena was thunking Nastia. Thunking is when you take your first finger and put it inside the first joint of the thumb and get close to someone and push the first finger off and hit someone usually in the head. Elena was doing this and had
been warned to stop by Nastia, well she didn't and Nastia struck back hitting Elena in the nose causing it to bleed. So Elena takes the nose ring out.
    So We start talking about piercings. I was on the side of
Elena where I could hear all the mumblings Teri couldn't. Elena as always can be very funny and I've known she also can have a dirty mouth. In this house it isn't anything unusual. So as the conversation goes on I am hearing all the little asides from Elena about different piercings. Nastia hears her mention nipple piercing and of course she says out loud she is not going to get one, they are painful and she talks about Nich, an ex boyfriend of Amanda's who had a nipple pierced and how he was a boy and so on. That was how our Easter conversations went. It was inappropriate and everyone was suffering for cabin fever. And it was fun and nice to have everyone together having fun and laughing in the middle of this awful time. Teri tried to rein it in once and I told her to let them go. Everyone needed it.

Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it, my hair*

*From the musical....Hair, go figure

Lambs to the slaughter?

For just about ever Nastia has wanted to color her hair, or wear a wig. She even bought a wig once, strange child. So the other day she comes home with a bottle of hair color. She and Teri start arguing. No I guess it would be better described as Teri yelling she can't color her hair and Nastia changing
her story from coloring her hair to just tips. I think at one point after Nastia said for the thousandth time, "I'm twenty-one and you can't stop me" and Teri yelling, "Not in my house." Teri just gave up.
Teri's thought is both girls have such beautiful hair and it should be left alone. I also noticed Nastia has very thin hair and it is not very thick on top of her head. She's going to have to watch out that she doesn't abuse her hair or she may end up needing that wig.
     During the COVID-19 lock down, after I come home from working in Elmsford and yes my job has been declared important or whatever that word is that they use, I like to drink. I'm tired and stressed. So when Nastia asks me if I want to help her color her hair, I said yes. Not a big mistake for me.
    Before we start, Elena comes home from ShopRite and Nastia asks her if she would like to color

And now we wait

her hair too. I go down stairs to the basement and remove anything that might be in the way or could get stained. Teri and I go over how to mix each separate chemical. What it boils down to is you mix all the small packets that don't say shampoo or conditioner into the big bottle, then you shake it to mix. For some odd reason they said to snip the top off the big bottle before mixing. Of course the first thing I do is spill a small dot of the dye on the sink. I stop take a wet paper towel and proceed to spread it all over as I try to clean it up.
     Nastia goes first. She tells me several times to watch out that I don't get it in her eyes. I work slowly squirting the dye mixture here and there working it into her long hair. I'm being very careful to not get it in her eyes or make her hair wet and

So much for social distancing

it run down her face or onto something that'll stain. I forget the reason Teri finally joins us. She takes over when she sees how I'm doing Elena's hair. I'd squirt some on top and rub it in. She'd tell me, "No, you have to comb it in using the nozzle as the the comb. I try it several time and Teri is still not satisfied how I am doing it. She tells me the hair has to be wet. I look at Nastia's and it is definitely not wet. I watch Teri comb the nozzle through Elena's hair I see her scalp wet with dye.
      After the timer goes off Nastia is instructed to shower the dye out and I leave. About forty minutes later after she blow drys her hair I get a look at my first hair job, oh, boy.
Both of the girls need touch ups, Nastia more then Elena, so the next night the three of them trek down to the basement bathroom, which I again emptied and they re color their hair. I stay away

It was fixed the next day

because I strangely feel this is somewhere I don't belong. I had fun last time, but this time it's the mother-daughters experience it should have been all along.
     After she's done Elena runs upstairs in just a towel because she is so excited and happy about her hair. She quickly shows me her hair, than races off to get dressed. Nastia too show me her hair. It is all one color now and both look very pretty with the color. I've been wondering have Teri with her naturally colored hair would know so much about hair coloring, I'll have to ask her one day.

















/

So what's normal?

I miss normal. I don't really know what normal is, but I know I miss it. Everyone's lives right now are off and muted. It's close to Easter and I wish they would just cancel it. Governor Cuomo says Covid-19 will peak in about a week around here, but that doesn't mean normal will magically reappear the next day. This could easily drag on until the fall. Hot spots appearing here or there with the accompanying lockdowns or shelter in place as it's popularly called now.
     The girls seem oblivious to everything going on, or maybe they are hiding it well. I know they are lax about washing their hands when they come home and when asked if they are using masks or gloves, we are told they (Elena) are washing their hands often. Nasta comments a little about all the changes that have gone on at the grocery store, social distancing and all. Another one of those popular phrases. I hope by fall I will have forgotten ever saying it. I went to the ShopRite grocery store in New City yesterday for the first time since I went to Costco and they have blue tape all over the floor with arrows showing which way to travel down isles so traffic goes only one way. There are very few registers open and each has a large piece of plexiglass 30" square between the cashier and the customer. It's all very dystopian* and a bit scary. I've saved that phrase for just this point in my piece. The world and specifically what we are going through reminds me of many science fiction films I've seen over the years. I keep waiting for the dead to start walking among us or Terry Gilliam, the director of the film Brazil** to yell 'cut'. I went to Home Depot today. I park in the parking lot and it is full of cars like it's a normal Saturday in the spring. I get out intending to buy a rake. I notice a family of four standing off to the right of me about twenty safe yards away. It's a nice family outing to the  local Home Depot, family outing, Home Depot, weird, but cute. That is until you notice all of them are wearing surgical masks. I shake my head wondering what color will be fashionable next year. Curse the thought. I head into Home Depot. I've noticed when I'm out I don't make any eye contact and keep my face away from others. I also keep as far away from other people as possible and I hold most in contempt. On that last thought, I'm trying to figure out why now more than normal. I walk to the first set of doors and a couple of dip-shits are fussing with something, a cart, I guess, I'm not looking there way, but they are blocking the door. So there is a little back up there and of course I barrel onward. A scruffy individual coming out seems to want to come my way, but I give no ground and he changes course going to his left. I pass the dip-shits and get through the first set of doors. I approach the inside set only to be asked to go into another set of doors on the other corner of the building because this is exit only. I spin around without complaint or comment. Only my actions declare my acquiesce (to comply without protest, I looked it up to be sure how to spell it). I go in the correct door, the store seems dark and too many people have masks on for me to be comfortable. I view a Costco length line to the registers and decide I don't need a rake that badly and I head for the exit. As I pass back into the overcast of the day I feel as if I've again stepped off the stage of a movie. I shake my head as a voice behind me echos, "have a nice day" A memory of watching Total Recall, the good one, if dated film with Arnold in it. Just like in that dystopian film people are acting like it's all normal. Masks and gloves have become the new fashion statement, health care workers be damned. But hey I wore gloves to the grocery store the day before. So I shouldn't talk.
     Now our darling daughters get to sleep in most morning. Nasia has an online class from RCC. I occasionally see her working on projects for it. Last night she put in a few good hours on it. She worked on it first with her mother. She had asked me to help, but I was dealing with stuff I bought home for work. It seems Top Chef Meals/ The Crystal Spoon has gotten about one hundred new customers from insurance companies because all the adult day care centers are closed and I needed to get them set up as soon as possible. So Nastia and Teri who have fights over just about everything these days. It's just your typical mother- daughter stuff. They did mostly manage to work quietly together. Then Nastia went to work on some other questions. Occasionally she'd let a couple of curses fly. After the tirade I let fly about someone who is bothering us about a bill we paid and the money going somewhere else and the bank is researching it, I didn't say much.
     I got in Elena's car to move it earlier in the day. She had it smelling of perfume. Now the only reason she might do that is..... Well I sat in the car inhaling deeply to see if I was correct. A slight smell of pot/weed/grass filled the air. You had to think about it to really know it was there, but it was.
      Before she went to work she offered to drop me off at the gas station to get my car. After a few miles, she asks me if I like the smell of her car. I wasn't going to say anything, but you know, it happens. So I tell her it smells nice , but it poorly covers up the smell of pot/weed/grass. I then as is my wont (one's customary behavior in a particular situation. I like this word) I launch into what I have declared as my dead horse speech. I told her I will continue to beat this dead horse. I know I can't stop you from smoking pot/weed/grass. I want you to be safe and careful. I need to remind you that it is still not legal and if a cop wanted to hassle you about it he could (with her attitude, no he'd never, yes that is sarcasm) I don't want her to hide it from me and I don't remember if I told her not to smoke in the house. I don't know if it all registered because she asked if she could make pot brownies again. I said yes and I won't be having any most likely. Still not sure I recovered from that last batch.



* dystopian. "Utopian" describes a society that's conceived to be perfect. Dystopian is the exact opposite — it describes an imaginary society that is as dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible. ... famous dystopian authors include Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ray Bradbury. And a famous dystopian in his time Joe Muller.

** Brazil (1985 film) - Wikipedia

)

Brazil is a 1985 dystopian science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard.

The film centres on Sam Lowry, a man trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. Brazil's satire of bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four^[11][12][13] and has been called Kafkaesque^[14] and absurdist.^[13]

Box office‎: ‎$9.9 million (North America)

Budget‎: ‎$15 million

Music by‎: ‎Michael Kamen

Directed by‎: ‎Terry Gilliam

‎Cast · ‎Production · ‎Release · ‎Reception

It was Teri's birthday on Thursday.

It was Teri's birthday on Thursday. Teri hates it how I plan. Sometimes it is a disaster, other times like Thursday it works out really nice.
At the beginning of the week I stop in ShopRite to get a few items for her birthday cake. It is a recipe she gave me a year ago I didn't make. So I thought it would be a belated, but nice surprise cake. I get the ingredients and a purchase a bottle of rum. I go over to ShopRite to buy  cards. One for her birthday, the second for our anniversary. I buy one other thing and the bill is almost twenty dollars. I look at the receipt and the cards were eight and nine dollars each, And Hallmark lais off my mother a dozen years ago charging that kind of money for a piece of paper. So of course when it is time for presents, I forget about the card in my door of my car. 
My mom has offered to make the cake. Lately I've been burning or ruining everything I cook, so I took her up on it. Everything is falling into place nicely.
Sometime last week or earlier this week Teri says she is in the mood for Paella. With the COVID-19 virus restaurants are only doing take out. So I get this marvelous idea to buy paella from the restaurant call Sangria's that she loves. I stop into the restaurant the day before and ask them about Paella. They say it will feed about two people and each dish is $25,00 plus tax. I order two, but the next morning Teri's training kicks in and I order a third one. It is better to have too much then not enough. I was afraid people would stop eating if it looked like there wasn't enough. It didn't happen. We didn't even

open the third.
During the day I get texts of offers of help from the girls. Elena is chosen to pick up her Aunt from work, so she will be here on time. Nastia offers to come with me to pick up the food. I pull up to the house and Nastia gets in. We get to my mom's to get the cake first. Nastia is told to stay a good ten feet away from her grammy and no hugging. We get the cake and head for Sangria's. Nancy was told to be at the house at 6:15. Nastia and I go into the restaurant, it is empty. Several tables where people should be seated have bags of food on them. I tell them we are here to pick up our food. A few minutes after they bring the food out to us.It is about 6:25. I text Elena so she can meet us outside to help with the food. The paella is fresh off the heat and the bottoms of the bag of food are so hot it burns our hand as we place it in the trunk. I think if I don't hurry Nastia will drop the food because it is so hot. She is a trooper and deals with the heat putting the food in the trunk.  NY State has relaxed alcohol purchasing for restaurants so I was also able to buy a quart of sangria. I almost bought two quarts. Elena and Nancy are outside and pitch in to bring the food inside. The

Elena's gift to her Mom

aroma of paella fills the dining room. Teri doesn't know what is for dinner she smells the aroma and tells us how good it smells. It is going to be a good meal. Two trays are put on the table and the third is put in the oven on a low temperature to keep warm. It becomes quickly apparent that we will not need the third one. Everyone fills there dishes before the food gets cold. There is chicken, shrimp, mussels, clams and a mound of rice. Nastia digs into the mussels with Teri and Nancy. I take several spoonfuls of rice with chicken and shrimp. It becomes quickly apparent that Elena is not enjoying the food. I warm up a leftover steak for her. It is very thick (those COSTCO steaks) that the middle is cold. She doesn't care and eats it. The sangria doesn't go as quickly as I thought it would. Nancy has a glass, Nastia a taste and maybe Elena did too. I stayed with beer and Teri only had two glasses. I guess stories of her eating chips off the table after drinking Sangria on an empty stomach several years ago put a damper on her drinking. With all this COVID-19 going around what else is there to do. We bring out the cake and I forget to turn on the camera and there is only a ten second video of it. Then presents are opened and thoughts of Dairy Queen ice cream are never bought up. The night ends early when Elena brings Nancy home. Clear up is quick with most dishes going in the dishwasher. Food tins going into the recycle bins. It was a nice night and Teri thanked me several times that night. It was fun.





















          




















/

COVID-19 week maybe two of....? oh and it's a Friday.

As the title says it is Friday. and it is early in the COVID-19 virus whatever, pandemic,COVID flu cycle. Call it what you want just don't Trump it and call it the Chinese virus, you remember that thing he ignored for months.
Give me one moment while I step down off my soap box. At  moments like these I realize how high it can get.
Again as I started it is Friday March 27th. I went to work Teri worked from home and the girls slept in until they got up and went to work. Teri is working from the attic and I will try to make it a nicer place to work from this weekend. Nastia worked from about 3 until 8. Elena worked from sometime in the afternoon until 8, but she didn't get home until about 9. When asked, she came up with this cock and bull story about her thinking she was working until nine, but she then says she left work at 8 and driving home a friend. That is code for Dakota. After getting home late and answering enough of Teri's questions she heads upstairs ignoring the last and maybe the most telling question. What it was I forget it was so important. It must of been so important because I went upstairs to ask Elena to come down and answer it. That was when I smelled the pot/weed. It was slight, but I was pissed. I ask her again to come down stairs. I'd been drinking raspberry vodka and lemonade and when I do I get a little mean and my short temper gets shorter. I manage to say nothing until my temper was better controlled. Elena double talks, slides around and out right ignores questions that want to probe into why she was an hour late and caused me to write this column instead of the one about Teri's birthday yesterday.
Several hours later I can only guess what went on earlier. She has been told during COVID-19 to not drive people home. She must feel sorry for Dakota and can't say no to her when she asks for a ride (when will one of them get a friend who drives?!! AND has a car!!) Dakota lit up a joint, you know a bone, a....oh Jesus I've run out of them already. I used to know a thousand names for what people called it when you smoke grass/pot/weed. That name is getting too long. I don't think she smoked and Teri handled it that way. I tried to be a peaceful voice when my inner voice wasn't yelling liar, what really happened! I'm glad no one could hear that voice tonight except me. I don't think she lied. And I write that with a light unsure touch of the keyboard. I'd really like to believe her. She did come forward with the pot/weed/grass for the brownies, but we've been on her case since then and maybe she is closing the book so we don't know what is happening. She's good at that. If she doesn't want you to know usually you won't. I'm sure I'll be writing about this can of worms again. It ain't going away. 

Joe's great adventure

Today Saturday March 21, 2020
       Usually I don't go to Costco and I never go to Costco on Saturday. Today I needed to get gas and Teri thought it would be a good idea if I went into Costco to get a few things we needed. I like to get Costco gas early before the lines form. I got to Costco about quarter after 9, a little late. The gas pumps still had little to no line. Then a dark spot running across the store caught my eye. There was a

Near the end of the line.

line to get into Costco. I thought, never, never will I get on that line and become part of the masses and remember you can't spell masses without asses. While I'm pumping my $1.89 a gallon gas which had in January been $2.69 (Oil war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and also to drive the shale oil people in Texas out of business) I start to think that if I didn't stand on that line sometime a couple of weeks down the road when we run out of something on my list I will regret it. So I cruze past the front of the store. I get an idea of how bad it really is. There is a guy on top of some pallets talking through a loudspeaker and I turn down my radio, but miss it. I park somewhere between the end of the line and the front of the store and get on the line. The end of the line is near the loading docks almost halfway around the building, but with social distancing the line moves quickly and I am inside the store in about half an hour. During that time I get to look at (down?) on what humanity is/ has become. I see people wearing face masks and I think that it is real stupid. Supposedly they don't stop you from getting the virus and if they do, isn't it more important for health professionals to have them with the shortages of them? Once inside I power walk, I'm sorry I've become one of them to the back of the store to get paper

Just before you get in

towels. There is no toilet paper according to the sign outside but that is ok, I didn't need it. Funny if they'd had it in stock, I'd of bought it. I guess I must now look down on myself because I have confirmed I am not better then those people who waited on the same line I just finished waiting on. I begin to slow down and to look for items that are on my list. Being a typical man I purchase a few items not on the list (above right to celebrate our house mortgage closing) and now I have become even worse, I am now typical, even worse I am a typical man. How low I've sunk since I waited on that line. I get on 'the line'. If you know Costco there is no line there are the lines sort of in the space between the registers and the row of good running across the front of the store. 'The Line' ends somewhere in the back of the store near the meat section and before you can get on it, it starts to snake back toward the front of the store. I get on it and like everything today it is long, but it moves. When I am next in line the person apologises for the wait. I honestly tell her it went smoothly today or words to that effect. The disaster it could of been and wasn't is the big take away. Costco in Rockland did it really good. I out and done in 45 minutes. Total trip an hour and fifteen minutes. Half hour online, outside, half an hour to shop and about fifteen minutes to check out and get to my car. Not bad at all.

A blast from the past?!

It's Friday and I don't know if I wrote it down, but a few days ago as Nastia came home from hanging out at the empty mall (maybe the safest place to be now?) Teri and I told her and Elena, who'd come home earlier and we told her then, that there was to be no more hanging out with friends until the Covid-19 is over. They could go to work and come home. I really don't want them going to work and being around all of those people who may or may not have the virus. Covid-19 for all you future people who are reading this now and don't know about Covid-19, it just like a winter cold, except it is ten times more dangerous. Some people will get it and the symptoms will be mild, other will get it and get real sick, maybe die. What makes this so scary is there is no shot for it and if life went on like normal the healthcare system would be overwhelmed and more people would die. Look it up along with the Spanish Flu of 1918-19.
It's been three days about since Teri started working from home and RCC has closed. There is talk, loose talk that things might not get back to normal for a long while. From what I've heard it should peak in the first week of May about five, six weeks from now. The weather is not really good to be outside. It is the first day of Spring and the winter was mild. The last few weeks temperatures have been in the forties and fifties, but even if the girls could go outside, where would they go? The parks are supposed to be closed, though people still walk around  Conger's Lake. So they stay inside. Nastia got an extra shift earlier in the week and Elena still goes to ShopRite five times a week and works about thirty hours.
Elena's therapist's office was closed for a cleaning last week and this week he wanted to do a remote session, but Elena refused to do one. I hope she doesn't try to drop therapy again. There are still a lot of demons running around in her head that she has left out of therapy.
Nastia told me one day recently that she needed a boyfriend, it surprised me. I thought that any day now she'd say that Taj and her were officially dating. She then went on to say that failing to find a boyfriend, maybe she could just find someone to hook up with. I remember being that age and understand.
Now the part of the story I wasn't sure I'd put in. It is a little bit illegal and I think a lot of people might disapprove. But since I only have two people who read this on a regular basis (Hi, Elene, Hi Ruth) how many people can I disappoint.
Drugs are a fact and along with a bunch of other things that exist out there we both accept the fact that our girls can and will get a hold of these thing even if we don't want them to. So when the girls decided they wanted to make pot brownies we said get the pot and we'll make them here. One night Elena brings a small bag of it home. A real small bag. It had two, maybe three small greasy looking buds in it. I asked Elena to bring it over and I took a good long inhale of it. I remembered the smell. A couple of nights later Nastia wanted to make the brownies. I asked her if she had any brownie mix? She looked around the house and then called her sister who was still at work to buy some brownie mix. Around nine or so we get together to make pot brownies, or as this generation calls it weed brownies. I take the heads out of the small bags and begin to shred them, taking out any twigs and search for any seeds. I want to plant them. I found three hard lumps that I doubt were seeds, but I put them aside any way. The shredded pot/weed I mix the whole amount into it figuring this way no one will smoke the remains, plus who wants weak pot/weed brownies. Nasti adds the eggs, oil and something else. Elena mixes, I pour it into a 13x 9 which appears to be too big. The brownies cook and when they come out they don't look or smell any different. I like brownies, so I take a large piece. It's around 10 or so. I don't feel it until I'm in the shower about 11:30. I start getting light headed and my feet seem to be a long distance away. I ignore it, get dressed and go to bed. About 1:03 or so I wake up. The world is spinning, my mind is racing and I need to sit up on the edge of the bed. I've never felt this way and it is not a pleasant feeling. I feel paranoia creeping into my head and I push that away. As my mind races it feel I've been sitting on the edge of the bed for twenty minutes. It has been two. I begin to wonder if the pot/weed was laced with something else because I don't remember pot/weed being like this. I head down to the basement bathroom to try and throw up and not wake Teri up. If I were to wake her up she'd get all nervous and we'd end up in Nyack's Emergency Room, with all the Doctors laughing at the old man who tried pot/weed again and couldn't handle it. The trip to the basement is long and dangerous feeling I hold on with both hands going down the two flights of stairs and when I get to the bathroom I try twice to throw up, but it has all been digested and I'll just have to ride it out. I sit down on the bed and look at the clock. It is now twenty to two. I  decide I'll just have to lay down and hope for sleep. Surprisingly it happens quickly. I wake up around six and still feel like my feet are a long distance away. I can get around and after a little debate I decide that if I can drive safely to West Nyack, I'll go to work. At work I am quiet and trying to concentrate on work. I am sleepy and I can't concentrate. I leave work a little after five. I don't think I was a 100% over the pot/weed until sometime last night and even not I wonder sometimes. It was a long strange trip Jim Morrison.
Elena being cool said it was like when she smoked some (what?????!!!!!!!) and she said that when Nastia said she didn't feel it, it was because she slept through it.
I think I'm done with eatables.












/

It's getting weird out there!

It's Saturday, March 14th 2020. It's a dozen days to Teri's birthday and about seventeen days until our twenty-fifth anniversary. Nastia turned twenty-one on December 3rd 2019 and Elena will turn twenty on August 10, 2020. It is starting to feel like the end of the world is coming. The last thing that needs to happen to assure the end of the world is Teri to find a job she is happy working in.
   The new buzz words are social distancing and Covid-19. It used to be when someone said "Hey come over I've got a case of Corona, it meant beer, now it's pandemic.
    The Girls seem oblivious to it or maybe they are just putting up a good game face. Last night Nastia went out with her not official boyfriend Taj and another couple to 'hang out at the mall'.
     Taj is not officially her boyfriend because when she broke up with David she cried. Then a week or so later she is hanging out with Taj and a big deal was make about it. I think she was, lets just say absence didn't make the heart grow fonder between the two of them. So she must have in her heart ended it with David except for a quick cry when the end of the relationship became official. She had said she'd felt a distance growing between them over the last few weeks or so.
     So Nastia and her unofficial boyfriend hung out at the mall. I told her not to be late and she was dumb enough to say what time do you want me home. Or maybe I was dumb for saying that in the first place. Anyway she was told to be home at 10 PM. I really didn't want her to go out with all the corona cases. Rockland has a cluster up in Monsey (why does it alway seem to start there). I will eventually start telling them to stay home, but it's still a little too early for that.
     Elena was at work and she was in a very crowded store. Everyone is freaking out over the Covid-19 and buying up everything they can get there hands on it seems. Disinfectants, gloves, masks and for some reason toilet paper. My wife and I have been laughing about stores running out of toilet paper. That was until Teri said, "I hate to tell you this, but we need toilet paper." That's when as they say the S@(t hit the fan. With no paper where else would it go. So on Friday morning I headed toward B.J.'s. Teri had said Costco was out so B.J.'s seemed like the best bet. I get there just as they open. There is about two or so dozen people with determined looks on their faces push shopping carts. I with an equally determined look minus a shopping cart, I didn't want to waste the time slowly merge into a line to fit through the single door. I spy a bunch of shopping carts near the interior entrance and quickly grab one. I move swiftly toward the center of the store my long legs move me forward quickly. That is until a short plump lady pulls out in front of me. Oh how shopping imitates driving. I squeeze past her and head up the center of the store following the flow of other shoppers, my eyes peeled for any sign of toilet paper. A man comes out of a side isle and says to all near him, "it's down this isle." I vere sharply left and I find myself in automotive and I think I have been deliberately mislead. I come out the end of the isle and on my right up a short ways in the corner, up against the outer wall is a rapidly disappearing pallet of toilet paper. I move in for the kill, I maneuver in slowly trying to let someone who has picked up her paper tp leave, but she doesn't seem to want to leave. Maybe she feel safe among all that toilet paper. Then she must have remembered social distancing and gets the hell out of there. I slide on in and grab one. I see a second next to it that just seems like it needs me to take it, so I do. I glide back toward the front of the store walking like I usually do. I walk like I'm five minutes late for an important appointment. I feel weird because  I am not used to being part of those silly masses that I used to always laugh at. I guess the world is really coming to an end.
   
I pay for my prizes. I don't know if I over paid. The only thing I know is we have paper. And even if it is a brand Teri doesn't like there will be peace and people will be able to relax and well crap with the comfort that there is paper, even if it is the wrong brand,
Sunday morning: Last night we went to the movies at the Palisades Center. We saw "Second Chance" with Ben Affleck. We ate at the food court and the place was empty. Every time I reached out to open a door or touch a public space I had a moment of hesitation. I opened the door going into the mall trying to cover my hand while I opened it. I failed and touched the handle. While eating dinner I didn't use that hand until I washed it with soap and water. The mall was empty. It was very easy to practice 'social distancing'. The reason we went out even with the virus is the number of cases is still relatively small. 175 in Westchester where that lawyer  infected

 New Rochelle.And there were 19 in Rockland as of last count. It will most likely go up and if things go to worst case scenario, we could be asked to stay home. Right now Nastia's school is closing a few days early this week for Easter and I don't know if they are reopening on time. Teri is starting this week to work from home, so we'll wait and see.
       Wednesday March 17, 2020 It's St. Patty's Day and all the parades have been cancelled. All the bars are closed. Restaurants can only do take out and the movies after trying to reduce seating capacity to 50% have given up and are now closed. The Crystal Spoon home delivered meals service is booming. I thought my little piece of paradise, the insurance side of the business would slow because old sick people are the most at risk and care coordinators wouldn't want to infect people, but it seems to continue to growing along. Elena is still working ShopRite and Nastia told Stop and Shop she is available during the week. And while I'm at work I am washing my hands every two hours just to be safe. I hope we can all look back on this and be pleased we all made it through safely.















/

Tell me what's goin on*

* Marvin Gaye song line, a good song

It's Saturday morning and Teri and I are up early. She is setting up the Ring doorbell camera. She wanted to get it,. My feeling were, no one ever comes to the front door any more to visit, so why. It's not like it's the sixties and your mom is coming over to visit my mom and sip tea and eat cookies one of them baked. And kids never come over and knock on the door asking if such and such is home. If it wasn't for the mailman (women?) I'd never shovel the front steps after a snowstorm and no one would care. It's a cool new toy she wanted and if she wants it, she can have it. She is after all the one who brings the most bacon home, by far.
      The girls are upstairs sleeping still. Elena has to get up soon to bring her car to PC Richards to get a new stereo installed. I talked about that a little while ago. Nastia has work at Stop and Shop today. Her internship at RCC is two or three days a week and it seems this year she is not busy at all. It makes you wonder if she is taking enough classes. She will come up short in credits to graduate this year from RCC because of a change in her major.
Later today: Elena followed me to PC Richards. When we got there the installer said the wrong part had been ordered and there was nothing he could do. I told him I wanted management to reach out to me because I was not really happy with the way this has been handled. Elena and I ordered the stereo and the installation kit back in January, I talked about it. and here it is March and still no stereo. I pretty much think no one from PC Richard will call me. If that happens I'm going above them, which I should do anyway. It's been a total screw up.