The House on Haunted Hill- loss and redemption*

 * There's no redemption really, but when you go to a third or fourth sequel, you really need something to grab the audience's attention to get them in the seats. What this is really about is loss of treasure and the quest to find more, hey, that's not bad either.

The opening scene: the family is tired of  the constant banging (not the good kind) around the house. The three siding guys are nice and friendly, as friendly as you can be when maybe one speaks english. No matter, their job is good and details like clean up every day are excellent.

Scene two: a flash back to Joe working on the mud room back several years ago and he discovers a horseshoe nailed above the back door. He is concerned because it is nailed pointing down and all the luck is running out of it. He gently pulls it off the cedar shake it's nailed to and dust it off and nails it right side up. The house again has luck, You can feel the luck the horseshoe generates. 

Flash forward to the present, the house construction, it's a Saturday. The guys are ripping off sections of the cedar siding. They move to above the door and work gently around the cheap piece of crap broken Home Depot light, missing the horse shoe and it falls to the deck below in a pile of debris. It's then shoveled into a wheelbarrow which is dumped in the forward section of a thirty yard dumpster (that's a real big one). At end of day the dumpster is a third full. Our hero, Joe (yes, he is a flawed hero, but well suited to his role in this picture) comes home and know he should have removed the horseshoe along with all the other hanging items on the outside of the house, but didn't. 

Sunday morning same scene: Our hero and his faithful companion Nastia trek into the dumpster to look for the horseshoe. The dumpster is only a third full it will be time consuming, but ultimately successful. A gentle rain falls damping the dust of the last few days of construction. They enter the dumpster and start to shift through bits of wood and cardboard. Then disaster strikes our hero's faithful companion Nastia steps on a board with a nail sticking up, oh no, the humanity! Our hero performs field surgery (he pulls the board with the nail from her shoe before she can step down again and drive it into her foot. For all you mommies out there the nail was rusty but didn't puncture the skin ) No need to risk further peril without proof the horseshoe is there. Our heros exit the dumpster. He texts Empire Construction and is assured that the horseshoe is safe.

Scene three: the big twist(dahnnn, dahnnn, dahhhhh that's foreboding music) At six-thirty our hero receives a text telling him the treasure is missing and had never been in the possession of the Empire Construction people. (oh a back breaking twist!!) Devastated (really just a touch sad) our hero races home (when you can do 80 on the thruway during rush hour who wouldn't) to be confronted by a completely full dumpster. The Empire boys had been earning their dough that day!! A distraught (really just sad)  Joe texts Empire construction and tells them the bejeweled horseshoe (really if it was that valuable you might have considered taking it down in the first place.) must be found. Dead silence is their response. 

The scene shifts to Monday morning, it's late August the mornings are starting cool and The Empire Construction boys arrive a little before eight. The foreman and another climb the dumpster's side. Our hero witnesses this and has been convinced the historical artifact is gone and will never be found by his loving and loyal wife (played to perfection by Ms Theresa Ann Muller, boy has her name gone WASP. We'll have to change her stage name to reflect the intensity she brings to life and her role in this drama She will forever be known, at least in this drama as......Mona Lisa Vito and we'll get Marisa Tomei to play her in the movie version- My Cousin Vinny reference) Our hero treks out to the two prospective dumpster divers to tell them their mission has been scrubbed. The treasured horseshoes long stay on this house has ended. It's existence has been scrubbed clean from the house. No one except our faithful readers will know of it ever existed over the door of in this neighborhood, in this state. How long it

reigned over the doorway can only be guessed. The Mudroom was made with round nails, but full sized two by fours. The foundation was not poured as much as just slopped together. It was most likely put up originally as a temporary structure. I would ballpark the construction to maybe sometime in the late 40's early 50's. We cut down a pine tree on the northside of the porch when we moved in in 2004. I counted the rings and it dated to 1948, so that is the date I use for changes like the addition to the kitchen, the addition of the mudroom and the back bedroom upstairs. For a ballpark estimate I think that works.

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The House on Haunted Hill gets a make over part 2*

 * If the first ones a hit, you know a sequel is coming - Joe Muller 1997 Sun Video*

* yeah, I was there when he said it, really!

When this is over I'll have to play Our House by CSN* or maybe Our House by the Talking Heads**

Neither song really fits but my research staff and their budget is really slim these days. 

Well, it's 8:06 and the siding guys just arrived. They have been here since Tuesday and I expected they would strip at least a side of the house before they would start to put on the siding. They didn't, not that it's a bad thing, just unexpected. I got home Tuesday night after they had left for the day. I parked on the north side of the house where the open lot is I walk around the front toward the driveway expecting to see a stripped down side wall and what I saw bought me to tears. The change in the house was like night day. It was only a small section, but it showed me what was coming.  

The price keeps creeping up on us, but it is things I want that I don't mind. After taking down some of the siding they discovered the boards underneath had spaces between them and require the Tyvek I'd wanted anyway. He said he'd do it at cost. In the estimate it was $1500.00.

 I remembered when we redid the kitchen we put in a smaller window over the sink. I just remembered it last night when I saw the siding stripped over that section of the house. He'll let me know how much.

Nastia sleeps at night only in her underwear. So on the first morning I had to go into her room and wake her up and tell her a short spanish man was doing siding right outside her window. I gave her some clothes and told her not to walk around naked because I didn't want this job to take six weeks. They are moving right along so I guess she hasn't.

 In celebration of this event that has taken fifteen year let's all sing our house. Sing either one I don't care we'll coordinate it better when the house is finished.

*Our House

Crosby, Stills & Nash

I'll light the fire
You put the flowers in the vase that you bought today
Staring at the fire for hours and hours while I listen to you
Play your love songs all night long for me, only for me

Come to me now and rest your head for just five minutes, everything is good
Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated by the
Sunshine through them, fiery gems for you, only for you

Our house is a very, very, very fine house with two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy 'cause of you
And our la, la, la, la, la,…

** Our House by The Talking Heads

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother's tired she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister's sighing in her sleep
Brother's got a date to keep
He can't hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house it has a crowd
There's always something happening
And it's usually quite loud
Our mum she's so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down
And a mess is not allowed

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our...

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our...
Something tells you that you've got to get away from it

Father gets up late for work
Mother has to iron his shirt
Then she sends the kids to school
Sees them off with a small kiss
She's the one they're going to miss
In lots of ways

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our...

I remember way back then when everything was true and when
We would have such a very good time such a fine time
Such a happy time
And I remember how we'd play simply waste the day away
Then we'd say nothing would come between us two dreamers

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother's tired she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister's sighing in her sleep
Brother's got a date to keep
He can't hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street

Our house, in the middle of our street-a

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/t/talkingheadslyrics/ourhouselyrics.html

Elena's birthday, she is now twenty

 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

speak the language and to leave behind everything familiar has always amazed me. 

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. 

/   

Sometimes it just hurts so much

 Things can change sometimes at a moments notices and if the signs are there you should be able to read them. Tonight I missed them all. In my defense they were all subtle and they only irritated me a little, but it kept building up until the inevitable explosion. 

It was Elena's twentieth birthday today and I'll get into that in a little while or maybe in another post. My little irritations I guess started with the place we went for dinner. It's called Flames or something like that. It had 4.2 stars and I have begun to learn stars are useless. The steak I got was a 16oz Ribeye and it cost $29.95. It was poor, but I didn't want to ruin the night ( I was unknowingly saving that for later) by saying it was not a good steak. I didn't have beer in a effort to watch my calorie intake and to keep the bill down. The waitress was excellent and I think everyone else enjoyed their food. We left the restaurant and took a long trip to Northvale NJ to go to Dairy Queen. When we got there Nastia had to use the bathroom and they wouldn't let us. I said it was an emergency, they said there was nothing they could do. I then tried to use my Dairy Queen gift cards and the card reader was down, It has been down for over a year! (Last time I go there) We get into the car and I'm quiet. Usually when I'm quiet like I was it is a danger sign. Nothing hit me that I was angry inside. On the way home there is construction on the side of the Thruway. Teri frets the exit is closed. I tell her it is still about a half mile away. She says no it isn't it's right there. I feel the first flash of anger. I'm still not aware of what's inside. (By the way yes the exit wasn't a half mile away, but it wasn't right there either AND IT WAS OPEN, nope no anger here) At home I grab something from the car and go inside to let the dogs out. I distract Mesha while the other dogs come out. Everyone goes inside and Teri is going to bed. I bring Mesha back outside, While I'm not looking Elena comes out and grabs the dog's snout. She has been told not to do this. It's happened before and it's usually because she is angry at the dog. I understand that, but you can't intimidate an insecure dog, who is also a coward and a bully. I didn't loose my temper in typical Joe Muller fashion. When Elena goes by me I grab her in a bear hug and pick her up and squeeze her as hard as I can and tell her I love her, but sometimes she really pisses me off. I put her down and she goes inside. It takes a few minutes for me to realize that I need to apologize to her. I was wrong to do that. So I go upstairs and I see her putting back up the gate to stop Mesha from going into the room where the cats food is. I gently touch her and getting no response I go to pick her up to hugs her and tell her I'm sorry. (reading this I see another major mistake. I just squeezed her and I expect her to accept a hug from me?) I hear, feel, sense, something is telling me there are tears in her eyes. At that moment she comes up with such fury and anger. She tells me she fucken hates me, my apologies are fucking meaningless, I lose my temper and apologize all the time. I bring my arm back to cover my chest because I think she is going to hit me. If she did hit me I think it would have hurt less then what she said.She sees my arm go up and she continues on. What are you going to fucking hit me, go ahead, I'll punch your fuckin teeth out. By this time Teri has heard the commotion and she is asking what is going on? I turn around and walk away. Teri goes to talk to Elena, to comfort her and I head down stairs feeling alone. I'm sorry if you do or don't feel sorry for me. I lost my temper and tried to correct it. I was very hurt by what she said. I have also begun to realize that there are words that can't be unsaid. I seem to inspire people to say those words to me. I don't know if it is because I want them to and I encourage them to or is it because I inspire them to feel that way and they say it.

I ended up in the kitchen. Have you ever wanted to get out of there wherever you are and realize you have no place to go. That was were I was at this point. I stopped in the kitchen listening to Teri work her charm with Elena. I was glad deeply inside when I heard a laugh. Nastia comes down to see if I'm ok. I said I was even though I wasn't. After a few moments and me thinking I could use a little attention like Elena was getting from Teri, Elena and Teri come downstairs. Elena come directly to me and we hug. Her version of crying is like she has a runny nose and she has to keep sniffing it back hard. We stand there for a while. It might have been a minute, maybe more. I'd move my arms every so often to make sure I wasn't stopping her from breathing. I wanted to tell her I was sorry, but she'd already told me my apologies are meaningless. I know by picking her up and squeezing her real hard I made her feel helpless and you can't  do that to her and that was why she reacted the way she did, I think. I did tell her I was sorry and I remember telling her that when I lose my temper I try to fix it as soon as possible. They were all just apologizes, but I think in the end maybe she didn't dismiss them out of hand. Elena's apologies are very simple and straightforward. I have yet to hear her say the words, but I knew they were there tonight when she hugged me and cried in my arms. 

/

The Play and Nastia and Keishon oh boy*

 *Say it like you're in the Wizard of OZ and you're entering the dark forest, Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my

Somehow Nastia has gotten involved with a group of kids, yes they are kids because they are all younger then her. This has been a trend with her since she and David broke up. She gets involved with guys, Taj who are younger than her and I am going to guess not a challenge to her. Not because they are dumb, but because they are younger and of course boys mature slower than girls and yes I did occasionally pay attention in class. On top of that Nastia's maturity has always lagged behind her physical age. It comes from growing up in an orphanage. Nastia has succeed in using her extensive charm and her looks to avoid doing things that a normal person her age would have to do. She has me wrapped around her little finger I'm sure you all know. I know it and most of the time I don't care and that is the problem, I'm her enabler. I wish I wasn't and sometimes I break out long enough to tell her she has to do things, but most of the time I hear Teri telling me I am doing her no favor. 

Now this play thing I have only slightly talked about. It was one of those things in my life that was on the periphery of the periphery. So far away I couldn't see what was coming. Every so often Nastia would say she is going to hang out with Keishon and watch them rehearse the play. Now it's the middle of COVID and no one is putting on plays. So I'd tell her to be careful and wear a mask and I don't want you going and all that. I never thought that they would put on the play and I never thought I'd end up going. I was told, if I remember correctly the play was based on another play called Into the woods. I'm only vaguely familiar with the first. Nastia tells me she would like me to come to the play. It is going to be put on on three nights. I tell her I can't go to all three nights, but I will go to Friday nights. It's a long time away and it doesn't impact me now (bad habit I have of scheduling things in the future and not worrying about them until they smack me in the face) So I'm going to this play on Friday night during a lull in COVID  in the northeast(for all you future people COVID ravaged the northeast and the south stood all tall and got political saying they would never have this problem and the cure can't be worse than the disease and they didn't follow the rules the way the northeast did and now they are paying a very heavy and unnecessary toll)  

The weather forecast said it would rain on Friday. When I got up that morning it was raining. By afternoon it had cleared and I thought I guess I'm going to a play tonight. At four-thirty I'm getting ready to print out all of my weekend work when a bunch of faxes come in and I spend the next hour entering all of the data, well most of it. I got to be around ten after six and I knew I needed to get out of there. I get in my car and traffic is starting to resemble rush hour, but not quite as heavy as I remember it. It seems like a bad dream all that heavy traffic and the hour sometimes more it took me to drive home. Now it's twenty minutes at eighty miles an hour. I get home, grab a folding chair feed the dogs so Nastia (I'm wrapped around her little finger) doesn't get yelled at by her mother. I get in my car. GPS says that Dutch Gardens is on New Hempstead road and my mom said it is behind the courthouse. I go there and there are no sign for Dutch Gardens. It is also five minutes after curtain (there is no curtin, I'm using it as a whatcha call it, an expression) GPS wants me to go to north Main Street, so I go. I half expected to at this point I'd drive onto railroad tracks if GPS said to, it doesn't, but it takes me to the parking lot for Hospice. So I drive back to New Hempstead road and drive past the courthouse up to where another park is. It lightly starts to sprinkle. I turn around and go into the jail parking lot, I figure why not. NO park, no signs anywhere. I end up back at the courthouse town office building. I park near some stairs going toward where I figure the courthouse is. I'm so sure I'm in the wrong place I leave the chair and Nastia's blanket in the car. I walk up the steps and a little sign and I mean little points you in the general direction of Dutch Gardens. I start to get the feeling the town doesn't want to let anyone know about their little secret treasure. I get the chair and blanket and it is very dark walking the path. In the close distance (is there such a thing) I see a small gathering of people and some lights. I open my chair and sit

in the back. I text Nastia I'm here and she doesn't answer. The rain gets heavier and I write in my phone 'The rain is too heavy, I'm going.' I don't send the text yet. I get up and I stand watching the play. I decide to move under a tree. It's safe right, (yeah I know it's the worst place to be when there is lightning) I dry under the tree. An animated women in the back near me (during COVID that's about twenty feet or so away, she's jumping around making sure no one needs an umbrella and she laughs at all the jokes and she leads the clapping. I think she is the director and the only one older then Nastia) offers me an umbrella, I decline. I reopen my chair and sit down. The rain gets heavy and I can't really hear and I didn't see the start so I am a little lost. The actors and actress are for the most part good. At a shortened intermission Nastia comes over and gets the blanket I bought. We talk a bit. she is sitting up close but alone. I feel sorry for her. The play runs about a little under two hours and at the end Nastia comes over again and I ask if she is ready to go. I've had it and I haven't had dinner. She wants to say goodbye to Keishan, (she later admits she would like to date him, all nineteen, maybe twenty years of him) but she sees he is with his Albany College friends and so she doesn't I again feel sorry that she doesn't feel comfortable enough to just go over. ON the flip side I can leave. we go towards the car and Nastia keeps heading toward where north Main street would be. I tell her I didn't find that spot. I parked way over in the courthouse parking lot and yes somewhere on North Main street there is an entrance to Dutch Gardens Park. I get french fries and a soda from McDonalds for a light late dinner and we are home by 9:15. I warm shower and a relaxing evening watching a now returned cable TV (out for three days) caps off he evening.

/ 

 

Tropical storm Isaias and the pool

 What kind of name did they come up with for this last storm? I can't pronounce it. I'm used to storms and hurricanes with names like Andrew, Mary. I remember back when all storms were named after women. Then they started using men's names, it seemed so weird, now Isaias. It reminds me of Isis, which all of you future people hopefully have no idea what they are or were and that's a good thing*

Our pool has had a rough year. It started last year when the pool water wouldn't clear up. Then the pool wasn't covered until late in October and leaves got into the pool. I figured we (I) were going to empty

the water out of the pool anyway, what's a few leaves. This past spring I clean the leaves and water off the pool cover, then empty the pool of all the water, it goes surprisingly well and the pool looks amazing. One morning, not long after I wake up to the water in the pool down about six inches. It turns out a hose has a break in it. I repair it, then the motor on the pump jams, I think it has seized and I buy another motor. Of course the pool has to sit while the motor makes it way via UPS to our door and the water turns green. Teri and I dump chemicals on top of chemicals into the water to clear it up. This past week it starts to clear up and the water finally turns from green to a foggy light blue. Then Isaias hits. I'm at work and Teri calls to tell me a large branch has fallen into the pool. I joke to my co-workers that is going to be a six inch long branch. It turns out it is one of our neighbors, Ann's pine trees and it is a monster. It crashes through our fence, misses everything in the yard and settles for right up against the side of the pool. We call Allstate and they tell us we have a five-hundred dollar deductible so get an estimate and call them. Weeeeeell it's just after a storm and all good tree cutters are taking trees off of

houses and such. I'm told to call back in three weeks. Teri says to go out and get a chainsaw, that is until she discovers that you can't buy one for twenty dollars. Home Depot had one for about $120.00 and she thought that was too much. I guess it was a good idea I didn't go to the mower repair place that has all kinds of really great chainsaw for much bigger prices. I've gotten to the point in our relationship that if Teri is going to complain about a purchase, I'm either going to not purchase it or I'm going to not tell her and hide it from her for the rest of her or my life. So if you find a storage key on my key ring after I'm gone that is where I hide all of my toys and stuff I never told Teri about. My compromise is to buy long saw blades for my electric saw and cut up as much of the tree as I can. I start Thursday night and by dark and a little after the pine tree is well on it's way to being cut up. The pool is running and the water has pine needles and small branches in it that do clog the filter, but as of Saturday it is swimmable. The most annoying thing about the tree was it was loaded with small pinecones and I kept stepping on them. It got to the point I stopped cutting up the tree to sweep them off the deck. 

*ISIL- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; /ˈaɪsəl, ˈaɪsɪl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS; /ˈaɪsɪs/),^[86] officially known as the Islamic State (IS) and also known by its Arabic-language acronym Daesh (Arabic: داعش‎, romanized: Dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕɪʃ]),^[87][88] is a militant group and a former unrecognised proto-state^[89] that follows a fundamentalist, Salafi jihadist doctrine of Sunni Islam.^[90] ISIL gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive,^[91] followed by its capture of Mosul^[92] and the Sinjar massacre.^[93]

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The house on Haunted Hill gets a big make over

When the girls were going to elementary school some of the other kids used to make fun of our house. They said it looked like it was falling down. From the day we moved in we wanted to redo the outside. Originally we were going to do it in something called hardy plank, also called cement board because it does need painting and it also does not burn. The price on that when we looked into it a few years ago was going to be about $50,000.00. Of course that was an estimate from Empire State builders who started with a price on the current job at $49.000.00. So I guess if we had worked at it I could have gotten it down to maybe $38,000.00. We never went forward with the job for reasons I have forgotten. Maybe it was the next seven years of job loses and financial not quite disaster, but let's call it

misfortune. 

      Back in pre-COVID time of later 2019 early 2020 Teri and I remortgaged our house. We started some time in the fall and in typical Joe Muller fashion I took my time and we lucked into a dip in interest rates and we finished up the mortgage at the lawyers office with just the three of us some time in March 2020. The Lawyer telling us these pens were ours to use and no one touching anything that they didn't need to touch. It was all very weird and I wanted to celebrate after it was over and there was nothing open in Nyack. It might have been just after Cuomo imposed the complete shutdown of everything in the state. More weird was to come. Between the time we got the loan and last week I called people to give me estimates on replacing the roof and doing vinyl siding. In the beginning everyone was interested in doing the job, everyone was starving because the economy had been shut down. As things got better and the economy slowly opened up I got less response from people. It looked like I'd missed my window. I did contact Empire State builders. I'd forgotten they'd given me an estimate for Hardiplank years ago. Tom came in at $49,000.00, one of the highest estimates. He did also say he'd match any estimate. Long story short Affordable Roofing before they quit returning my calls gave me a price of $12,000.00 on the roof and $20,000.00 on the siding. (For all of you future people that's a whole

lot of money) Tom didn't exactly match the price, I'd lost the roof estimate from last year, but he came in close enough, $33,700.00. So we finalized everything, I gave him a deposit of $700.00 on Wednesday, on Friday they dropped roofing shingles and a monsterous dumpster. It has begun

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Silly Lilly Fishing Station 2020

This past Wednesday I took the girls fishing. I used to love fishing and I did it three times a week back in the 90's and early 2000's. I owned two boat during that time. The first one I bought after going fishing with Jim at Greenwood Lake. I moored it the first summer at  Greenwood Lake. After Fred gave me a taste of saltwater fishing, at Silly Lilly's, I began trailering the boat everywhere fishing as far south as the Jersey shore and as far north as Lake George. For most of the 90's I'd trailer my twenty foot Grady White out to Silly Lilly's in Center Moriches, The two hundred and four mile round trip always seemed well worth it. No matter what time we showed up we'd fish until just about dusk. Once we overnighted on the water there. One of the worst trips ever. On one of the early trips to Silly Lilly's before I started trailering my boat there. Fred and I rented a skiff and somewhere around buoy 26 we hit a hot drift

(Fluke are fish that hide in the sand and attack passing fish, so that is why you drift fish. Drift fishing is when you let the tide move you on the water.) In all the excitement Fred guns the engine, to do the drift again. I'm checking something in the boat when it feels like we hit a brick wall. I get thrown to the bow (the front, you landlubber!) of the boat, poles and whatever else get thrown around. One of my poles goes overboard and poles don't float. I find it drifting next to the boat. The hook caught on the boat's gunnel (the side of the boat, you landlubber).
     In the early 2000's the pollution in the western end of the Long Island Sound had been reduced.  The hypoxia (lack of air in the water) that drives the fish out of the area had been reduced and report of the quality of the fishing are encouraging. Should we go round trip 204 miles to Silly Lilly or maybe forty miles to the Long Island Sound in Mamaroneck. Easy answer and I'd not looked back since.
      Sometime in late June of this year, the girls complain that I haven't taken them fishing. I always wanted a

girlfriend who enjoyed fishing. Instead I got a wife,Teri who tolerated my fishing, the next best thing. I tell the girls I will take them fishing. A few days later I'm looking at the beauty of the sky and for some reason it reminds me of afternoons on the water at Silly Lilly's. During this time Jim and I swap texts about fishing and COVID-19. He's got the boat (I sold it to him several years ago when Teri and I were struggling financially. He fixed it up and has taken wonderful care of it) I tell him I've got an urge to go out to Silly Lilly's. He doesn't reply.
I set the trip to Silly Lilly's for Wednesday the 15th of July. I checked the tides and they look right (Always want to be fishing a moving tide). A few days later I recheck the tides and realize the tides are better for Wednesday the 22nd so I switch to the 22nd.
    Of course on Wednesday the 15th, the weather is gorgeously perfect. The Sky is a big beautiful blue with just the occasional puffy cloud passing over head. It feels like I made a mistake especially when the following Wednesday is calling for thunder showers.
     On the 22nd I get up at six and wake the girls up. To their credit they don't grumble. Their
COVID-19 bedtimes have usually been after one in the morning and they only get up to go to work at about ten AM for Nastia and noon for Elena. We pack my car. Nastia's having been in an accident a few days earlier.    

     Teri asks me what is wrong. I have been nervous about this trip since Friday. I have learned over the years mostly since I started working at The Crystal Spoon to compartmentalize things and focus on just the top of the pile. Sometimes it works, but today it was not working and I told her I was nervous about the trip. It'd been over twenty years since I was out there and I was nervous about having to run the boat and be responsible for two other lives on the water. I get sympathy and questions of why I'm nervous. I take the above picture and as you can see getting up at six really doesn't work for us.
     We get on the road after stopping at the gas station for ice and the girls get some snacks. Nastia get chocolate covered pretzels.
     I glance at the route on the GPS. It says to go over the Tappan Zee bridge, so I head for it. I don't know where I'm going until I get to the turn I need to make. My memories of past trips guide me and as we turn onto I 95 from the Cross Westchester I get a blast from the past. Not a twenty odd year old blast, more like a pre COVID-19 blast. We hit one of the first traffic jams I've been in since COVID-19 struck New York. It's mild by past standards, we slow, but don't stop and it ends without much ado. Traffic is heavy the whole trip to Long Island. We take the Throgs Neck bridge which is under re-construction. It was under re-construction while I was crossing it twenty years ago. We take the Cross Island to the Long Island Expressway. I remember it seemed like we were on the L.I.E. for ever back then. I don't remember the exit number so I pick up my GPS for the first time since Congers and get off at the exit for Center Moriches. A short drive through downtown Moriches, a turn at the School, I remember and suddenly we're there. We park,walk around a little and then go in to rent the skiff.
     The fishing station has changed since the last time I was here. The parking lot that once was
spacious has been reduced to about half of it's size. The former parking lot has a food truck and sail boats on it. The cleaning tables near the docks are gone, moved to the docks where we will find our boat in a little while. The staff is friendly and helpful. There is no sign of Gary, and I ask the guy behind the counter if he still works there. He says Gary occasionally comes into work. I think I would too if I lived in the area. Seems like a fun job. Talking with the customers, selling them bait and telling them where the fishing is hot. The guy behind the counter says fishing is best in the morning around buoys 23-26 and in the afternoon around an island near buoys 17 and 18.

    We load the Skiff with our possessions and I step down into the boat. My legs are starting not to bend like they used to and it feels like the whole boat will tip and send me flipping back toward the dock. I don't like getting old. 

     I'm given a quick course on how to start, run and stop the engine. I'm told to stay on the outside of 

some tall poles on my left. I remember those poles, it's very shallow there. I always freaked out some going out and coming in to Silly Lilly's for years until I got myself to understand I was hitting sand, not rocks and if I used my head there was a way in and out of Silly Lilly's where I wouldn't run a ground. I just needed to look for big boats docked and to head toward the Coast Guard Station going out and coming in.

   We start slow and as I feel more comfortable we speed up some. Buoy 23 come into view near the Coast Guard Station. We head to the port (left, landlubber) for buoy 26. We stop, I give out the bait, frozen spearing and force Nastia to bait her own hook(hook them through the eyes), which she does all day long. It's not long before someone, I think Nastia hooks a fish. It's small, but it's some action. Most of the day it will be good action with only one fish near keeper size, a fifteen inch Fluke Nastia also caught. After our first drift I start the engine and head back toward the start of the drift, but I'm heading in the wrong direction. I thought we were drifting to the west, so I head east. After a while I don't see the

Coast Guard station and I begin to think I've made a mistake. We fish some, but the water is shallow and full of sea weed. I see a buoy off in the distance and I also see some dark skies. I head for the buoy, it's buoy 30, east of where I wanted to be. The storm clouds are west of were we are. I head west, it gets humid, the sky gets lower and I'm thinking it might start raining. We reach buoy 26 and start fishing again. I'm keeping an eye on the sky. To the western and southern horizon I think I see the sky turning blue, I hope it is not wishful thinking. After a while the sky does turn blue and the wonderful weather we'd hoped for returns. We fish here there and the action is good, but we keep picking up shorts. We stay near the Coast Guard Station because the fishing is good and it is comforting. We venture down to buoys 17 and 18. I try to head near the island and start kicking up some sand. So we return to the channel and fish around buoys 17 and 18. After a while I look at Elena's back. We put on suntan lotion. Elena did Nastia's back, but when I asked her if she wanted me to do her back, she said she'd done it. Now about four hours later her back is red and I think I see in the red white hand prints. I move closer to her with the sun screen and sure enough she did do her back, in three places, where the white hand prints are. I slather sun screen on her back to stop any further burning and we continue to fish until about three-thirty when it's time to bring the boat back. I start the engine a cruise back to the dock at Silly Lillys, remembering to stay outside of the sticks. It's been a great day and the 102 mile trip doesn't seem that long. Especially for the girls who sleep part of the way home.

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Getting a slight look into the mysteries in the book of Elena

     I have said it several times and I'll say it again, my daughter, Elena is a tightly closed book and only on rare occasions do you get a slight glimpse inside, even for something suspected and not really a big deal in this day and age, it can be surprising. It's like when Elena lets the curtain drop a little, let's the book open

up, it's leather spine creaking as it opens just enough to give you a glimpse.
     A little background ground first. A few days ago Elena complained that she was not allowed to stay out as late as her sister. I didn't want to mention the fact her sister is fifteen months older than her. I listened and I don't think I said anything one way or the other. So on Thursday she asks her mom if she can stay out to ten-thirty. Teri calls me and I say, "yes, ok". Teri is feeling the same way so Elena is allowed to stay out until ten-thirty. She is also very good at coming home when she says she will. She has been hanging out with Matt, a boy she used to date when she was younger, you know that kind of

dating. They hung out together and maybe there was kissing and hand holding in a movie. When she comes in she comes over to where Teri and I are sitting watching TV. She starts talking about her night. Somehow her friend Jasmine comes up. Elena talks about how she was always there for Jasmine and how they did things. That little statement or words to that effect made me feel special. I always thought something was going on with the two of them, but her saying that made me feel special. I think she still doesn't know which way she wants to go. Either way I hope she finds joy and comfort in the company of another person. And joy in expressing that love to another person. 

 

I guess this one is crash, boom , bang*

* Again Steve Miller R O C K in the U S A


I've been against letting the girls go out in the evening, but there is only so much staying home that they can take and I understand. So Teri and I have been letting the girls go out to socialize at night
      Saturday Nastia gets called into work early and she had told me she was going out to hang out with a friend named Elijah. I haven't met him yet and she insists he is just a friend, he is also younger then her, just like Taj. Sometime before she goes out she asks me if she can stay out until  10:30. I know she is twenty-one and is too old for a curfew, but as long as I can get away with it I will. And also she is still living under Teri's and my roof. I am trying to be reasonable and understanding so I say yes, 10:30. I also tell her to please come back alive. She laughs and assures me she will.
Around quarter to ten at night, I am getting ready to take a shower when my phone rings. It's Nastia and she says something happened and she doesn't know how, but she hit a car. I tell her I'll be there. She gives me the address of 2 Parker Drive in Garnerville. It sounded familiar and when I looked it up on my phone (of course, I'm in a hurry and Google maps doesn't come up, some Lyft Uber crap App does and wants me to download their App.) I finally get a map where Parker is and it looks even more familiar. I have time to think as I am driving up 9W and I'm sure that is where Taj lives.
So I know where I'm going. I get behind someone who is out sightseeing of course, so at my first chance on Rt 210, I pass them. I get up to the top of the hill near the ShopRite and a little ways down the road I make the right onto Parker. At first I see nothing. Then I see a group of people, so I pull behind a car and park I notice Nastia and her car. It doesn't look too bad in the dark. She rushes over to meet me and I notice no mask. I tell her nice social distancing as I go back to get my mask (opps) The back end of the car is a mess. The window is gone and the lift gate has seen better days. There is

a big dent in the middle and the bumper has a large divot in it. I go over to the other car to see how bad it is. The bumper is pushed down on the outside corner and the quarter panel is cracked near the bumper. I'm guessing about three thousand dollars in damage. I apologize to the wife of the car's owner, saying usually Nastia is a better driver then this. Probably that was not a good idea to do , but Nastia hit a parked car. The Police Officer was very nice and explained how to get hold of the report and when it would be ready. I thanked him for his time I told Nastia home after the Officer said the car was drivable and all the lights still worked. I do a K turn (now they call it a broken U turn, idiots couldn't leave well enough alone) and I notice in my lights a guy standing on the other side of the road. He moves out of my lights as I do my turn. I swear it is Taj. Not that it really matters. He was a nice enough kid, he just had some screwed up priorities. A personal trainer and a brokerage account, but no car or job. Brokerage account, yes, personal trainer, no.

      We get home and tell Teri about the car. Later after Teri
has gone to bed Nastia and I have a wide ranging talk about lots of things, but the one most important thing was she gave me more details about the accident. She had said the brakes didn't work as she rolled down the hill ,but on the way home they were fine. She thinks she put the car in gear, but didn't start it.  So that when it rolled backwards down that steep hill the brakes didn't work easily. It does make sense. You can take a car out of park was long as you put your foot on the brake.
     We're talking now of either fixing the car or her getting a new one. I like the idea of her driving a SUV. She is higher up in the air and I think she can see better. Plus they offer a little more protection.
Oh and it turns out that Taj lives right next door to Elijah, the 'friend' she was visiting on Parker. Taj wasn't home Nastia thinks.



























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Do you really want to piss me off??

I found this photo from a few years ago and I couldn't help myself, I need to share it. She was such a happy child. She is now too, just a whole bunch secretive, a closed book. If the time is taken and you put in the work to let her feel comfortable and open up to you it will be well worth the effort.


Now Nastia, is what you see is what you get. She said she made a decision to be happy when she was in Russia and she has somehow become that person.

Ease on down the road*

* Yes, it's from the Wiz, a remake of the Wizard of OZ with an all black cast.

It's Sunday, July 12, 2020 and my daughters are joining the rest of the 19 to 49 year olds who seem to think we have conquered COVID-19 in the northeast or maybe they're just tired of wearing masks and staying cooped up at home. I can commiserate. When I was their age I'd want to spend as much time with my girlfriend and my friends as I could, but it's not over and I keep telling them this.
     Nastia has a 'friend' who is involved with this group of people who get together every so often and rehearse a play. They meet in the back of a building in New City that has a hair salon in the front. She swears that they all practice social distancing and wear masks. There are so many things  wrong with this that I should stop her from going. I hope I don't  regret it. Why are they rehearsing a play when Broadway is closed and  they don't expect to reopen until 2021. They can't perform a play anywhere. Ok, so let's say they are doing it for the fun of it. Wearing masks while doing it? practicing projecting their voices, throwing minute drops of spit into the air? AND in an enclosed space? if one got it they all get it. God watch out for my daughter please.
       Now Elena came home late from work yesterday. When asked why, she said she felt bad for her friend, Dakota. It's been pouring cats and dogs on and off for the last few days and they were both leaving at the same time and like all of my daughter's friends, Dakota doesn't have a car. So Elena offered to take her home, saying that they both wore their masks during the trip, I hope so. I thank her for telling the truth. She knows how we don't like either of them being a taxis for their friends and with the COVID-19 even more so. Earlier in the year Elena was driving Dakota home most nights, even waiting an hour sometime until she finished to drive her home. I hope this doesn't lead to that returning.
      My big fear in all of this is they will catch the disease from someone, by just hanging around someone that has done something stupid, like go to Florida (sorry Ruth, you have a dumb governor) for a quick trip to soak up some sun or whatever all those other idiots that have done that did. No one knows they are infected, it takes 10 days to show up, but you can spread it during that time if you remember. Then spread it to one of our girls, who spreads it to me and I visit my 86 year old mom every week day (I hear the clock ticking) and I kill her. I'd never forgive myself.
     And now for something completely different It's.....(music starts to play Monty Python's Flying Circus) yeah I've used it before but I just couldn't end on such a dark note. Speaking of Dark, it's a series on Netflix dubbed from German and it is good. There are three seasons and it is so confusing, but good that you'll need to watch each season twice to understand what is going on and when you finally do you'll get the reward of this truly weird show.
     I'll give you a quick run down of the show. It is set in this small town in Germany (still feels weird leaving out east or west) that has a nuclear reactor. There are caves near the reactor and the town has a history of kids disappearing. Last time it happened was thirty-three years ago, in 1985 and it has started to happen again. In episode one a man hangs himself. One of the kids enters the caves and somehow when he comes out he has gone back in time to 1985. I'm going to give a little away here, it'll help in your understanding of future episodes. The kid, Mikhil who disappears from the present is the man who hangs himself in the present also. That is how this show works. You'll see people in the present and also in the past as kids(and also in the future?!!). It will get so confusing that you will have to watch the season twice to completely understand who is who at what time and how they relate to other characters. It is all well worth it in the end, which I haven't gotten to yet at this point. I'm rewatching the last three episodes of season two before braving the final season. Take the time and you will enjoy it.
I guess that is a bit less dark, just a bit. 





















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As things change, they remain the same*

* I think I've used that title before.
Another July 4th has passed, only this one has been weird, granted it's COVID-19 weird. What I mean by that is there were no parades, no carnivals, and no fireworks. Macy's spread their fireworks around and over three, four days. They didn't tell anyone where they'd  be so no crowds would gather. So now we have covert COVID fireworks.
Elena bought fireworks. They are the fountain type that are allowed by the state of New York. I'm  glad the state changed their mind. For years you couldn't have fireworks, yet everyone did. After watching Elena shoot off her box of fireworks I wanted to go to Pennsylvania and get some roman candles. They are like the fountain style fireworks. The fountains shoot sprays of different colored sparks from their tops, while roman candles shoot balls from long sticks. Maybe the girls and myself will go to Pennsylvania one day. I just don't want Elena to know what other fireworks are out there. She is cautious lighting the fuse to the point I have to chuckle. She'll put the lighter near the fuse and quickly move it away before it is lit. I taught her to rub the thick fuses on a rough surface to make them easier to light. She let me light a couple, but for the most part I just watched. On the forth as she set off the fireworks, in the background someone, maybe a fire department was having covert COVID-19 fireworks. There were at least three places that were shooting them off. They were very impressive, better than last years Conger's FD fireworks.
                 New York City seems to be devolving back to the bad old days of the 70's and the 80's. Several headline stories about young kids killed by gun fire.Gun deaths are up over 60% to levels from the 1990's.The death of George Floyd has prompted calls to defund the police. I guess they weren't alive in the 70's when you'd drive the Cross Bronx Expressway and see road after road of empty burned out buildings. I thought they'd never be able to solve that problem. Then somehow they did. Are we heading back in that direction?
     Teri and I worked hard leading up to the fourth to get the pool in a swimmable shape. It had started to go green a week earlier and I kept putting clarifier in it and had vacuumed it twice thinking I was getting the problem under control. Teri said I needed to use something for the algae. So I followed her directions (You do that after being married for twenty-five years or you don't get to that point)  I put the chemical in for algae and I also shocked the pool with a large dose of chlorine. The next day I vacuumed the pool and it looked great. Everyone swam in it over the weekend. Come Monday the sixth I look out at the pool and the level of the water had dropped at least six inches. I couldn't do anything about it then, I had work. When I got home I was told Nastia went in to try and find the leak. She checked out the patch, it was fine. She walked around, nothing. So when I get home I get into shorts and slide into the water. It is perfect. not too hot, not too cold, just right for Goldilocks. I walk around, check out the patch, feel for a suction of water leaking from the pool, nothing. I walk around feeling for areas where the sand under the liner has caused a divot, nothing. I notice the height of the water has not changed from the morning. We lost six+ inches over night and since then nothing, it was odd. I walk around and feel the liner at the water line. Everything is fine. I then notice the connection for the filter. The return is just above the water line. I start to think maybe something is wrong with the filter, but no that would be too easy. I pull up the axcess plate and look. I see nothing obvious. I do see or maybe I am hoping to see a place where water might have flowed from a tube. I grab the hose and stick it in the intake and begin to fill the filter. I watch the hose and it starts to dribble water from part of the return hose. I pick it up. The hose is so broken it is being held together by a thread of plastic. Not wanting to wait until I purchase a new hose, I move the filter as close as I can get it to the pool. The broken hose is two shorter hoses connected together. I remove the broken one and use the remaining hose to reconnect the pool. Success, now to refill and brace for another Untied Water water bill with summer rates. Well at least we get some of that back in Teri's pension check.



















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