My delayed Birthday Dinner, a week late.

I adore spending time with the girls. It's a rare thing these days and I understand that. I don't like it, but I understand it. There is just something that feels really great just being around them. So when it snowed last weekend and we didn't go to Monroe Outback I was disappointed. The storm predicted was

depending where you were anywhere from a few inches to two feet, coming up the coast. The stormt blew a little off the coast and we received about three inches. Long Island received about two feet. The worst part was the winds blowing the snow around, knocking down trees. Dinner was rescheaduled for this past weekend for about 5 PM. Nastia wanted to know what time we were going to be done so she could go see her boyfriend. I told her about 8. Her reply was, "that late?" We were on the road a little late. Teri and Nancy finished shopping a little late. THe reservation scheduled for five was pushed to 5:30. Leaving slowly, we pushed it to 6:00. Traffic on the Thruway is light and we sail stright up the Thruway. Now you might be asking why Monroe? There are plenty of steak houses in Rockland. Yes there are, but have you tried Monroe's Outback? It's steaks are the way steaks from Outback in Rockland used to be, buttery soft. You know like when you leave the butter on the counter soft. We tried an unknown steak place for Elena's birthday a few years ago, COVID year 1, I believe and it was poor. It is cold in January and this was a little bit extra of a January early evening, in other words it was colder then normal. The walk is mercifully short. We pass the outdoor dining area that was full last time we were here, the brown tables and chairs stacked and waiting for warmer weather.Inside it is warm and inviting and we are ushered to our table. After Nastia trying to sit on the outside. You can't because I'm left handed and I will elbow you all night, plus get in first please. It's my birthday dinner, so when the girls are chastized for eating to much bread, I tell Teri to let it go. It takes a little effort until she does. A long time ago Elena would eat bread and the appetizers and not be hungry when dinner came. I'd get angry and it solved nothing. So I can't say I don't care, but I don't say anything anymore. Beer,the one disappointment of the night. The taps are broken and I try a can of Foster's Lagar, I figure why not. We

order two appetizers, a Blooming Onion and cheese something or others. Salads come a little too quickly and the steaks follow shortly after. Again I used to complain, but Teri never liked me to. Even when I'd ask them to hold the steaks in a warm place for a few minutes, Teri would feel we shouldn't do it. I finish my salad and start on the reason I came here, my steak. It's done well and the Foster

Lagar beer id good. Everyone enjoys their food and near the end of dinner I go off to the bathroom. When I return there is a guy hanging out at our table. I think I know him ,but you know how it is when your not sure if you know someone how you act a little warily and standoffish.He has a bushy beard and dark hair. He is talking to Nastia. He mentions it was his mother's birthday last week. I tell him it was mine also. I slide into the bench seat so Nastia can sit next to him. He starts talking about his writing, I think it's a scifi comic or something like that. He goes into great detail about what it is about. I really hope he goes forward with it. He has obviously put a great amount of time and thought into it. I start to get bored and the meal is paid for so I say well, I guess it's time to get going. We all get up, so I guess I wasn't the only one. He walks out to the car with Nastia. He's parked right next to our car. We all get into the car and Teri leaves. I might have been the first one to say it, but it to me is painfully obvious. This kid, I think his name is Andrew, is in love with Nastia. She's been told this before and when she hangs out with him to be careful and considerate of his feeling. Nastia questions this, but to Teri and I he has a big time crush on her. And she has no interest in him.She says they are just friends. (being a guy, that always hurt when I heard that) Haven't we all been there before, done that before. I hope he finds someone who feel toward him the way he wants. Out of the parking lot we take a wrong turn and after a little while find ourselves back where we started, but heading in the right direction. We get home about 8:15 a little later then I told Nastia. She decides to not go out after dinner. /

Nastia trying to grow up

As we all remember back when we were teenagers or even worse twenty somethings, we thought we knew it all and the older generation was at the very least out of it. What 'it' was no one ever knew. Nastia under these circumstances trying to grow up and be responsable.Some days like the day she made dinner and cleaned up afterwards, it was a great relief not to have to come home and make dinner. I was able to sit down and relax. Then there are times like yesterday. I'm at work when I get a call for Nastia. She is walking into the house and she says something like this, "I want to ask you somethings..." she stops for a moment and continues, "oh, I didn't know mom was home, let me get past her." This conversation, at this point makes me feel special, she wants to talk to me. She goes upstairs into her room and continues, "I saw thia add on facebook for a baby sitter and I wat to call him." I think I haven't heard her correctly and ask her what she said, and she repeats it, "I saw this ad on facebook a guy needs a baby sitter for tonight and I want to do it." I ask her, "Do you know this guy?" Her response is, "no.", "Nastia" I go, ""you can't dp this, you don't know this guy, you don't know if you can trust him or even if he has kids or how old they are or even where this job is." I go on to debat this back and forth with her. She tells me I'm don't trust anybody and I tell her in todays world, I'm sorry, you can't there are too many bad people out there. I think I tell her to call Jeffrey Dommer and ask him about trust. I think her reply was he is dead or something like that and I say, "because he killed all of those girls that trusted him." She gets me so worked up that I am yelling at my phone to her while at work. I'm yelling, "You are five foot tall, one hundred pounds and I refuse to identify youre body in the morgue!" I realize later that the bosse's son is in his office. He doesn't saY anything to me, he never does, but it was not a good thing. Nastia and I continue talking. I talk in a more subdued voice and we keep going around in circles I know I've won, or at least it's over when she says can she ask her mother. I know Teri will not be as nice as I have been. Twenty minutes later I text Teri, asking "Having fun with Nastia?" She replys,"Why, I'm in a meeting, What's happened?" My reply, "She wants to babysit for someone who advertised off Facebook for a babysitter tonight"

She replys, and I could, no I did predict it, "No" " I told her to call Jeffrey Dommerto babysit for him." That was at 11:44 AM, Ten minutes later I get this from Teri, "I a as m fucking livid with this girl" My reply, compassionate, if unhelpful, "Me tooo!!!" Teri talks about it looking like it's in New Square, she is still really angry, "unfucking believable", " I told her to check with Brandon if he approves" I try to be a little more helpful with, "It's typical Nastia, Trust first, ask questions later." To my surprise Teri writes, "And of course Elena siding with her." "That's a surprise I thought she had common sense." I text back. The final entry from Teri, "She's thinking money." She quit her job at Stop and Shop a few weeks back and I told her she shouild have told them she was willing to work a day or two over the weekends. Nastia said, the weekends were for home work. I can still smell the bullshit from when she said that all those weeks ago. She is a lazy person and wanted the weekends off. Now she is paying for it. I'd like to find an uplifting way to end this post and the only thing I can think of is that at twenty-three when she is told she can't do something, I thank God that she did listen and didn't go off to babysit. Everytime an event like this happens I remember a scene for a TV show that went off the air several years ago called Life in Pieces. The scene happening has a group of kids pretending they have been kidnapped and they call their father. He hears what is happening and calls out to his wife, "Honey, you know that thing you said would probably never happen, I think it has." And thast is how I feel about all those bad things that happen to other people, they'll probably never happen to us. Two last thouights, one to other people we are those other people and why court disaster when it is not necessary. I'm sorry thast is as uplifting as I can get.

The Girls go to school and other fun stuff you do as careless twenty somethings

Nastia stopped going to college around a year, maybe two ago when classes at RCC classes went on line. She kept saying that she needed to be in the class room to learn. I can understand. I took a course on line to learn Microsoft Office years ago and I sat on a couch leaning over my computer on a coffee table. In a few minutes I'd be falling asleep. I had a year to finish the course, never was able to. So the end of January arrives and Nastia has jumped through all of the requisite hoops and put in all of her paperwork. It doesn't feel like it but according to the State of New York and SUNY,the State University of New York we made too much money. So Nastia will not get grants like she did the last time from ACCESS-VR. So some more hoops are jumped through and a loan is taken out for college. I am impressed, she did it all by herself. A week or so into school, Nastia announces her classes for the first two weeks are on line. She is not happy. On the morning of her first class on line, I'm sitting at the table in the dining room. Teri calls and says to get Nastia up early so she can get set up before class and be ready for it's start. I open the door to her room. Amanda has recently departed the room, but the affects or is it effects of her

presents in the room is still ominpresent (defination: widely or constanantly encountered common or widespread, "the omnipresent threat of natural disasters..)I had to put the defination right next to the word because the example is so descriptive of the affects (effects?) of Amanda. If Amanda was a hurricane, they'd retire the name because of how big the mess is. I don't think former boyfriends and her broke up, I think a pile of her clothes fell on them and they are buried underneath. I slide my feet between the beds in the half light of Nastia's room and tickle the edge of Nastia's nose. She rubs her nose and continues to sleep. I rub it again. This time she rubs it a little more violently. A third time and her eyes open as a groan escapes her lips. I tell her she needs to get up and set up the computer for her online class. She tells methere is three hours until class. I sy she can go back to bed after the computer is set up. She reluctantly throws off her covers, the 16 degree weather outside has slowed the warming of the house. Heavy steps for a hundred pound girl hit the stairs, that creak menacingly as she decends them, she is not happy to be up so early. Out comes her computer. I offer her my computer and or a larger screen.She says "no" The larger screen won't connect to her computer anyway. With little or no problem she connects to the zoom class set up and is ready for class. I'm happy and

relieved. Teri will be too when I text her. I tell Nastia she can go back to bed now. Elena has started her automotive class again. Her work at ShopRite has adjusted her hours to more towards mornings. And then they throw her some 1 in the afternoon to 9 at night. She really is enjoying her classes. For my birthday I was given new head lights for my car. She wants to bring my car to class and put them in. I'm all for it, it's still 16 degrees outside and my hands just don't work like they used to even in the best of times.(sucks turning 64, I'm sure it will get better as I get older, or at least I won't remember.) My Birthday 1/29/22 I was born at the end of January in 1958. I've never really liked my birthday, but that's a story for another time. My birthday is on a Saturday this year. We really haven't had too much winter yet this year. It's been cold, but very little snow. So when the weather forcaster calls for a major snow storm on my birthday, it's a go figure moment. Merriam-Webster defines 'go figure' as something surprising or hard to understand. Of course, I'm using it sarcastically. Things just seem to happen around my birthday, but that's a story for another time. A day before my birthday, Teri,Nasita and I order chinese food. That night Teri begins to feel sick to her

stomach. She spends the next three day at home feeling very poorly. People get sick around my birthday, but that's a story for an other time. On Saturday morning Teri had planned to make fried pizza dough. Yeah, it sounds real bad when you call it that, it's real good though and when you change it's name to pizzafret, it becomes exotic and historic, really an old

world thing. Spread some butter on a warm one add a little cinnamon and sugar and your set. Jelly is good too. Needless to say with the storm coming in on the 29th and Teri feeling sick, our planned birthday trip to the Outback in Monroe, which by the way has the very best steaks I've tasted in a long time is not going to happen. It's a trip, but well worth it. Teri says she'll make me up a lasagna, which I thought was really a good idea., but on Saturday, she really doesn't feel that good, so the girls and I make tacos together, which for me is the best treat I could have gotten on my birthday. It is a very rare day when I get to cook with the both of them and they stay for the entire time. There was no call me if you need me. Sunday Teri wants to make up for Saturday. No not that way, but it would have been nice. So she make the lasagna. I didn't know until we sat down for dinner that neither of the girls like lasagna. So I over ate by eating a six inch by one and a half inch piece of lasagna. The girls had lasagna noodles and meatballs. It was a really nice weekend. Oh and the snow storm is blown south of us. We got a lot of wind, but only about three inches. Long Island got two feet. /

New Years Eve, day and about a week or so into January and a COVID break through

I've forgotten most of the intimate details for the first week of January, but I'll make some stuff up that will be interesting then what happened during this latest CoVID Omacron surge.Teri and I declined an invitation to Eric and Lynn's for a small New Years Eve gathering (that's true). The latest incantation of Covid, Omacron has put most everyone back on their heals as far as comfort going out and about (that's also true). Of course the girls still go on as if life is all the same(yes, stil very true).

Nastia worked New Years day, so she was around New Years eve, but up in her room most likely taking to her boyfriend (yes, true). Elena, on the other hand saw the New Year in at her boyfriend's Matt's house. It was not a large gathering, maybe his mother was there(most likely true). Teri and I watched movies, slept some up until 11, then put on the news(sadly true). Nastia comes down sometime during the evening and at midnight I kissed Teri and she kissed me and Nastia, it's 2022. This year I did say 22 will be better then 21. I stopped saying it in 2019 when I thought 2018 wasn't better then 2017. Well I learned my leason about how bad things can get. But I must be positive. And I am positive, I know things will get worse, I'm positive about that, no, that is just a joke. I'm hoping that the worst is behind us as far as COVID is concerned. We have been very lucky and no one has gotten sderiously sick from it. Let's kind on hoping our luck continues. I always thought on New Years day we had a dinner of ham. I kept talking about having ham for dinner, but no one wanted to have anything special. Teri said and was right that we buy a large ham and the majority of it will be wasted. She did find a small ham in Costco we had it I believe the following weekend and it was excellent. Elena's New Year's eve was spent over Matt's and like usual she didn't offer up much about what she did there. She was told to be home by 1 in the morning and she was. It was a very boring COVID New Year's eve. Everyone I know as far as I know has had all of their shots and gotten their booster. I was reflecting the other day how fortunate we have all been. There was a time early in this pandemic when everytime you turned around someone was saying they had lost someone to COVID. My family and friends seemed to have been spared. In my immediate family Nastia and Elena working in grocery stores, looking back it is a mircle that neither of them contracted COVID. Late last week on maybe a Thursday Elena said she felt like she had a cold. Teri said to go get tested. I'd have told her to take cold medicine. She gets tested and there is a couple of days waiting peroid. She goes to work on Saturday and Sunday, She also goes to see Matt. Her result came back yesterday, Monday, she has COVID. So now she has to isolate for the next five days, it used to be ten. For her this is the ultimate vacation, do nothing, sleep as late as she wants and get served her meals at her door and even eat in her room. I'm sure she is wondering why she didn't get COVID before this. I wouldn't be this light hearted about it if she didn't have all of her shots and she most likely has Omicron which is highly contagious, but in most people who have their shots it's not at all that bad. I don't think she is even taking any medicine. /

December 26th

I'd promised to get Elena into her new room by Christmas. We seemed on schedule until I ran into a number of road blocks. The first and the worst were the fumes from the stain for the floor.

Earlier in the month Elena and I sanded, maybe even over sanded the floor to a smooth, clean, new wood looking surface.I choose a morning of an unusually warm December day to stain the floor. About 8 in the morning, just before I left to go visit my mom, and then go to work, I stained the floor. I opened the windows and put a fan in one.Starting from the furthest corner so I wouldn't'paint myself into a corner' I stained the floor. I'd cleaned out the spaces between the boards and realized that now, I'd have to stain thoses places. I was told by a very well informed lady in the Nanuet Home Depot what stain, varnish and brushes to use. She recommended using a lambs wool brush. It soaks up the paint and doesn't let it go until you touch it to the floor. I was able to soak the areas between the boards. Covering the floor with stain, I've come to really love the lambs wool pads. It took just a few moments to cover the floor. The final two foot by two foot area near the door and the heat vent ended up not getting covered. I'd run out of stain. Home Depot only had pint cans and Elena said to buy two. I didn't want extra unopened cans around after finishing the floor, so I only bought a pint. It said it'd cover the floor and then some, it didn't. So I left the area and closed the door. On the way home, I went to Home Depot and bought a second can of stain. That night, I closed the windows and immediately the fumes invaded the house. They started by overwhelming the kitchen, then the dinning room. The next morning when I put the second coat on the weather was still unusually warm. I opened all the windows and put two fans in the windows. That night I left the windows open and the fans on. The following evening the fumes were still too much and temperatures were going back to normal. The next morning, I stained the area I'd skipped and I restained other parts of the floor. I opened the window and left two fans going. The floor didn't look right so the next day I go and buy a third can and stained it for a third and final time the fans still going and the windows still open. After a few days, the floor seemed dry. I closed the windows and the fumes were still bad, At that point a decision was made to put off polyurethaning the floor until spring. THe day after Christmas, a Sunday Eric says he is available to get Lynn's mother, Tina's bedroom set out of her apartment and move it to Elena's room. I head over and we work together to get it out of the ground floor apartment in Nanuet.

Now the words, ground floor are important here. Eric has had a rough life. Car accidents, broken bones at work, all kinds of things that just seem to happened. So he doesn't get around like he used to. And me, even though I still act like I'm a kid, getting up out of chairs is an adventure, walking up stairs with my bad knee can seem like a crap shot. Of forget me trying to get up from my knees. In other words, the both of us have long passed our days of moving furniture, but we are going to move the bed set anyway. We put the box spring, and mattress in his trailer.A night stand and some odds and ends in his pick up truck. A very nice black truck. We try very hard not to scratch the furniture or the truck. A dresser mirror is placed gently on the mattress and strapped down. A short trip from Nanuet to Congers and a we're ready to start bringing it up the stone and cement front stairs, through the front door and then up the narrow stairs to the second floor.Flipping the mattress and box spring seperately over the railing and into her old room, the future former office. I walk backwards, because Eric can't. He takes the weight of the objects causing me to try and take some of that off him. He has a strain in his stomach, the doctor is going to look at in the near future. After it is done and Eric leaves he calls me to make sure I'm okay. I was, but I was concerned about him. Two old men should not do this crap. Like Danny Glover said in Lethal Weapon- "I'm getting to old for this shit."

Earlier in the day I'd unrolled a rug in Elena's room. I'd gotten for free at a come and take stuff from this house for free or we'll throw it out. I'd found a dead mouse in it, that I kicked aside and told no one about. I unroll it and except for some missing fringe, it is nice. Too small, but nice. I set up the bed, night stand, Elena later adds a mirror and she moves in a day late to an unfinished room. Now all I have to do is finish the room. /

Christmas 2021

These last few years I've whined about how the girls have replaced their believe in Santa Claus with a believe in sleeping late on Christmas mornings.

This Christmas they were true to form. Amanda got up at 6:15 to catch her 6:30 ride to Good Sam Hospital for work. Teri picked Nancy up sometime in the late morning. The girls were up before noon and when Amanda texted asking for ride it was suggested she ask her father who was joining us for dinner sometime around four. She was able to catch a ride from a friend.

Around two in the afternoon, when Amanda was back from work we opened presents. Mesha needed to be in the middle of everything and was in the way until she was let up on the couch in the front living room, between Teri and I. It was difficult to ge to the tree in the corner because of the excess of presents. Teri was concerned tht we were being cheap only giving the girls four presents each. Elena received a new Apple watch, her last one, the face falling off a few weeks earlier. Nastia received a new Apple watch for her birthday. After all presents were opened, a quick clean up and we all took our treasures to put them away.

When I was a kid, I'd store my new gifts under the tree until the tree was taken down two weeks later. It always seemed that was where they belonged. In the present there is just not enough room to do something like that even if Teri would allow the clutter. Dinner was prime rib and it was served around five, so it was Muller four PM light, or in other words we were eating early, Muller time runs about two hours later than real time. there were eight of us in this late COVID omicron environment surrounding our dinner table. Teri and I debated weither to add a second leaf in the table. Teri pointed out it'd make the room too small and space at the table would be fine, happy wife, happy life.

I carved the prime rib into thin medium slices. It cut like butter and tasted as sweet. Potatoes and asparagus accompanied the meat. I was again allowed to cook the asparagus. This time I cooked them closer to the time we were serving and I avoided having dried out and stringy asparagus. If it wasn't for the perfection of the meat, the asparagus would have been the best thing on the table. A little writer's hyperbole(exaggerations not meant to be taken seriously) there, but they were good.The eight of us gathered around the table were Teri, myself, Nastia, Elena, Nancy, Amanda, Donald and Matt. It was a nice gathering and the evening wound down rather quickly after dessert and Teri and I ended falling asleep in front of the TV. /

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas morning and Christmas Eve is already a blur. I had the day off. I could have gone into work, but they were closing two hours after I got there.

Nastia and Elena worked Christmas Eve. Nastia started when the store opened at six AM. Teri and I woke up to the click, click of Bandi's nails on the wood floor at 5:15. He is really old and I believe well along his trip to senility. On top of that he is mostly blind. He ronds out the trifecta by alsopeeing anywhere in the house that is absolutely convient. Captain Senile was well in charge of the bus this morning and trying to get Bandi down the stairs when all he wanted to do was make left turns down the hallway towards Nastia's room. And yes he did take the opportunity to randomly drop bombs in the brown paint of the dimly lit hallway. Misha for some reason didn't want to go down stairs either. Maybe she was concerned about Bandi. They have always had an odd relationship. I give up on Bandi, Teri's advise and amid mounting disorder as if the beginning of a poor comedy movie opening, I head downstairs. Finally Misha follows, but she is not following me outside. She heads into the living room back toward the stairs through the front living room. I chase her back through the family room, around the table. Finally I corner her and grab her not too gently by the collar and explain to her I'm not really in the mood for this, well you know.She's outside, Athena soon follows and finally Bandi. He goes outside and paces the deck. When Teri brings out the dog treats, he suddenly knows what that is and he's back. The dusting of snow outside and Nastia's refusal to wear contacts when it is dark outside prompts me to drive her to work. I promise to pick her up at 1:30. It's now 6 AM. I tell her I love her as I drop her off at work. It's Christmas Eve a light covering of snow and few tracks have been made in it. To me this has always been what I picture as Christmas. It'll all be gone by noon they say, but right now I'm glad to be up. I stop going up the hill near my house. I left in the other direction and no one has made tracks in the snow. For some reason I am reminded of the poem by Robert Frost 'Stopping by the woods on a Snowy Evening". Back when I was in therapy, I started memorizing the words, It caused my therapist some concern.I didn't know it was about suicide. Whose woods these are I do not know....

I just looked up the poem and I don't remember it as well as I thought. I've stopped for a precious few moments to look at the wonder of the world and then it's time to put tire tracks in the snow. Inside the house, Teri is up still getting herself some coffee. I'm really not ready to face the day, so I head back to bed. I get up around 9:30 with the idea to get a bagel. It devolves in an Egg McMuffin. Nastia asked me for a tea several hours ago, so I combine the two. I make her a tea and and head to Stop and Shop and McDonalds. I ask her if she wants anything, she asks for pancakes. I then head to Tractor Supply for bird seed for my mother. It's Christmas Eve and I've given Nastia breakfast. I text Elena, asking her if she'd like Taco Bell for Lunch. She replys, yes.

At home, I wrap presents. Sometime around 11:15 my alarm goes off and I head toward Pearl River for Elena's Taco Bell. She texts me telling me she is taking her lunch exactly at 12:00. I arrive at Taco Bell a little early, get her her favorite 2 Chalupas and a taco. And of course a Baja Blast Mountain Dew. Shop Rite is packed. I park in one of the most distant spots over near Shop Rite liquors. I avoid people going out the in door and snug my mask around my face. Yes we are back to masks, COVID has mutated and the mutation is called Omicron. Before this there was Delta and before that there were British and American versions. This one spreads very easly, but symptoms, if you have your shots are mild to almost nothing. They say you get super protection at that point. I head past all the slow moving people and I thank God I was able to do all my shopping on line this year. I feel there are too many people in Rockland and I long for the 1970's at times like this. Back at the Seafood counter, it takes me a moment to find my daughter, the fish monger. She is cleaning up and emptying a box that once held seafood. She piles boxes on boxes and comes out from behind the counter and I watch waiting for the boxes to fall off and they do. She picks them up and disposes them. In a flash it's lunch time and Taco Bell for her. I wander around the store for a few moments and leave. At home, I'm back to wrapping. Nastia needs to be picked up at 1:30 and wants to do lunch. I ask her if she wants to go to Costco. I want to pick up a few things. Costco on Christmas Eve is not the mad house I thought it would be. It isn't even Saturday busy. People getting gas are out to the street, but the store isn't too bad. We're in and spend $130.00. I don't even remeber on what. I got Teri some nuts for Christmas. Nastia got some chips. She wanted to buy a case of crap legs. It was maybe a fifteen by six by six box. I laughed when I read the price $389.00. Back at home, Nastia and I decide to watch the second season of 'THe Witcher'. I was given the day off (Friday) and was going to do nothing all day. It's around four and for the first time I'm doing nothing, well until Teri gets home. Dinner on Christmas Eve back in the 80's, you know pre-COVID used to be a family thing. I'd make Manicotti and homemade meatballs. I loved doing it. Sometime in the 90's it faded away. Elena is heading out to have dinner with Matt. He is also coming over for Christmas morning. Dinner is just Nastia, Teri and I and I don't remember what it was, it was that special, but tomorrow will be Prime Rib which has become a recent tradition, which I've come to love. The night fades to black with Nasita, Teri and I watching TV. Nothing special, but it's nice. / Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sounds the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. /

Putting up the Christmas tree

I like a real tree and I think everyone else in the house does too. It's just such a bother compared to the artificial tree we purchased years ago. The biggest problem with that tree is taking the branches out of the box strightening them out to make them look nice. A few years ago we bought a new fake tree that screamed sell out. It reminds me of that scene in 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' were Linus and Charles Brown are looking for a tree and go to this commerical lot. Linus taps on a fake tree and comments about it bring the true meaning of Christmas home or some such. The tree comes out of the box in three sections, it's got lights and on top of that it even has music. What more could a good christian household ask for, convenience! Well, it's not really Jesus' birthday anyway, it's a pagen holiday that Emperor Constantine decided would be a good day to celebrate Christmas. So with all this Charlie Brown commericialism it'd been years since we'd had a real tree. We tired last year, but spending $100.00 on a tree that would be up for three weeks just didn't cut it.

I have a picture of the girls standing infront of the car with the last live Christmas tree we purchased, some time around 2013. They show as much enthusiam as the kids in Christmas Vacation do at the start of the movie, when Clark is taking the family to cut down the family Christmas tree.

The four of us go out to dinner at the Hard Wok. Precovid we'd be there several times a week, it was a good value, not so much any more. It's still good, but it seems expensive now and it is more a treat then a we're to tired to cook, let's go to Hard Wok. After Hard Wok we head to St. Margaret's school to get a tree. Rumor has it they have cheap trees. Teri asks me where is St. Margaret's. Now my dad and Teri's dad Tony delivered to St Margaret's for the longest time, but I never did. So I fake it a little and I tell her yeah, I know where it is, hoping the school I remember on Washington

Avenue in Pearl River is it. We head up Washington once in Pearl River and drive past the school, nothing, it is dark. We turn around and head to Middletown road where Teri says there is a guy selling trees. There is always a guy selling trees on Middletown road in Pearl River in December. I think it is the place we bought the last real tree from. We pull in and the guy says six footer's are $70.00 and five footer's are $60.00 We look at the trees and Elena picks out a nice one that everyone agrees is nice. We look for a little while longer and decide to go with the first tree. I say to the guy, "so this is $60.00",figuring it is a five footer. THe guy says yeah, I can let it go for that. It was a short six footer, I real wasn't trying to negotiate. He's a real nice guy, he cuts the stump so it is fresh, he wraps it and ties it on to our roof and off we go. I have it wrong, Hard Wok was after getting the tree. I remember someone commenting that the tree was still on our car after we'd eaten. At home it's put next to the garage waiting for the weekend to be put up. The tree stand that hadn't been used for around ten years is amazingly handy, like it has been waited for this day, knowing that it would one day again be used. So many warm summer days in the attic I'd been tempted to toss it out because I just couldn't see us using it again, I'm glad I didn't.

Teri wants the tree up and Christmas to be simple. Somewhere down the road, in the past, Teri and I used to do Christmas up. But life seems to be a little tough these days. It's been like this for several years. It's not like we are having trouble paying bills, we're not. It's just that with us both working, then trying to make dinner and not eating until 8 PM seems to take everything out of us. So there doesn't seem to be time to enjoy Christmas. We put the tree up on Sunday when both girls are home. I put it in it's stand, strighten it and tighten the screw. I then notice how short the tree is. But that is ok, this isn't the 1960's when I was a kid and remember decorating the tree on a Sunday night while Bonanza played in the backround. Or the time when I lived in Stony POint on my own and decorated my tree with the newly purchased Hallmark ornaments, now over thirty years old, that I was just so much in love with. Teri asks what I want to put on the tree and yes I say I want to put the Hallmark ornaments up. They are bought down. I put some bigger lights on the tree that remind me of Christmas' past. Shaped bulbs and the one most seared in my mind the bubble light. I remember them from way back to that Sunday night with Bonanza on sitting in the chair and just being amazed at how beautiful the tree looks. The tinsel hanging off the branches, lights flickering on and off and the bubble lights bubbling. I sat there and soaked up the season like only a child could. It's not like that any more and I wonder if my kids ever felt like that over the past ten, eleven years. If not I'm sorry, there is nothing like that feeling.

I throw on the next set of lights the ones that we'll connect the Hallmark ornaments to. Everyone is unplugging bulbs and plugging Hallmark ornaments in. The ones that have lights, sound or motion come back to life every time a new ornament is plugged in. Then one time someone plugs one in and nothing happens, the lights stay dark. After a little while I notice and begin to check the lights. This of course is the light string that if one is out half or even all will not light. I go bulb by bulb, ornament by ornament, nothing. I remember some light strings have fuses. I check the fuses, two little glass fuses in the plug, so small that I have to ask Matt who is decorating his first Christmas tree if the fuse is good or not. I then realize he may not have ever seen a fuse like this. So I tell him to look for a small filiment and he says there is none. Dead string of lights. We finish the tree, it looks pretty poor when we are done. Very few ornaments, almost no lights, forget tinsel with dogs just plain old not so good. The next day I go looking for lights, Home Depot is out. My mom gives me a string that doesn't work, but the fuses are the same.After dropping the fuse and losing it twice I manage to get both in and the lights still don't work, bad fuses. It's nine days until Christmas, there's still time!! But then again there is still Elena's room that needs so much and I have nine days to get her into it...oh boy, Merry Christmas A few days later armed with another three strings of lights, given to me by my mother, I redecorate the tree. I check each string before I put it on the tree. They work perfectly, a Christmas miracle. I attach the Hallmark ornaments that have some how become thirty years old recently and I dig out ornaments that my mother bought in the 60's plastic cheap things that were alway put on the lower branches so if the dogs hit them and broke them, it was no big deal. They have joined the treasured keepsakes with long memories attached to them. After I'm done, I step back and it finally looks like Christmas has arrived. I hear Tiny Tim say "God bless us everyone" I look toward the TV..... /

And yes, Elena's room is still...

Yes, Elena's room is still an on going thing. For the first time I promise Elena I will get her into the room by Christmas. The walls are up, and mostly spacked. I go in to her room armed with sanding sponges and go to work. Several hours later I have a wet arm and very little progress to show. So I go out and purchased some more sanding sponges and some sand paper for the eletric sander. I gave wet sanding a second change and then switch to the eletric sander. About an hour or so later I come out covered in white dust, but the room is mostly sanded. There are some places I should have gone over and replastered, but I leave them alone. I am feelng a momentium and I didn't want to break it.

Last week we go to dinner for Nastia's birthday. On the way home we stop at Home Depot. I'm thinking Elena can grab some paint samples and we can talk about the color of her walls. Elena again complains about not being able to paint all of her walls in the color of her choice. Teri gives in and agrees to lets them all be painted her picked color. She picks out a red. I start to paint and after a full days effort the first coat is on. Now I'm at that age were things I used to do have started to catch up with me. I keep all my tension in my neck and shoulders, So when I use them too much or sleep wrong or do anything that requires me to use my neck muscles too much I wake up with headaches. Well, the next day is no exception. I stay in the living room chair all day long and didn't do the second coat. Which caused a problem because the next week Elena and I started to sand down the floor to stain it back to it's traditional black. An FYI, In old houses the reason only around the edges is

stained is because the price of stain was so expensive they'd stain the edges of the floor then put down a rug. Or maybe they just thought stain under the rug was a waste of money. And the old colors available were black, brown and red. I might have learned that from an old wife (expression: It might be an old wives tale I just told you) We rent a belt sander from Home Depot and get a quick lesson on staining floors. Armed and dangerous we leave the

store. After a quick stop for lunch at Taco Bell we head home. Together we set up the sander. I used it first and noticed it pulls me forward. I went a little to fast and left some of the old black stain on the floor. I figure we take our time, go back over it and not put any divits in the floor. The first time Elena uses it, it pulled her and she immediately gave it back to me. I tell her to continue to try it, she does. Elena ends up doing almost all of the floor. I am very willing to let her sand the floor because it

takes shoulder and arm muscles to work it and I feeling a headache coming on after using it for a while. When we stopped there is a slight border around the edges of the room and near the closet we couldn't get with the big machine. The next day I spent several hours sanding down those sections, then vacuuming and finally using the air compressor to get all the dust and dirt off the floor and from the spaces between the boards.

Finally it is time to stain the floor. It is late around five at night. I am tired, but I've worked all day to get to this point, so I open the can and pour some stain into the roller tray, dipping the white cotton pad into the black stain they'd directed me to use. I rub it into the wood at the furthest corner of the floor. It soaks in quickly and looks like it won't lighten up. The can is suppose to be enough to cover the floor and then some I guess I miscalculate because I come up short by about a three by four foot space. I open windows and put a fan in the window to blow as much of the VCO's(volatile organic compounds, or just fumes) out the window as possible. The next day I buy a second can on my way home from work and the following morning I open all the windows in the room, put two fans in the windows and restain the floor. This time coming up short in a different spot. I leave the windows open and the fans blowing until I get home that night. I also buy a third pint can. I buy pint cans because this is the only size they carry at Home Depot.

I open the door to the room and check the floor. it is still sticky, but I have to walk on it to close the windows. I leave dusty foot prints on the floor. A third coat will take care of them, I guess. It's ten days until Christmas and I have to put a polyurethane coat on the floor, maybe several. I wanted to use varnish, but I purchased polyurethane. The women who advised me said it was better. I just finished reading that polyurethane which is not tradational is better holding up to traffic on the floor. As long as it is not in direct sun light (which might be a problem) it is better than varnish. I'm on a roll with the room, but I still might not get her in it before Christmas. Som much to do with only ten days left. Finish the floor, second coat on the walls, painting the trim and putting it up. I'll do my best. It's been long enough. /

Nastia's Birthday

Nastia's twenty-third birthday was on a Friday. She wanted to go to Mt. Fugi in Orange County, but Teri and I didn't want to make the trip, so she decided to go to Cho Cho San in Nanuet at the old Triangle Steak Pub location. I called the morning of the 6th and was told 6pm to 8 pm was sold out for hibachi grill. Disappointed I told Nastia and she replied that it was fine to go to Little Buddha in the Palisades Mall. I called and they had tables available. Our party was going to be a group of six. Teri, myself, the girls, Nancy and mt mother who'd never been to a hibachi grill before. Neither had I until a few years ago for Elena's birthday. And

Elena first experenced it going to a birthday party with a boy she was sort of seeing way back then. The reservation was for seven and I left work in plenty of time. Teri worked from home home and we ere going to pick my mother up on the way there.

I'd never been to Little Buddha. I'm usually not the 'let's try out this new restaurant' guy in the group, that's Teri. Nastia had been there a few times she'd said. We arrived a few minutes late and were seated at a hibachi grill. It was nice to be seated with just our group. Later in the evening a couple came in and were seated by themselves. I guess Little Buddha isn't as popular as the other places. Everyone had hibachi, some had chucken, Nastia had shrimp while Elena and I had prime rib. It came with noodles, rice and a vegatable, it was good. I had some beer and the chef squirted some saki into my mouth. After about an hour and change it was all ove. Noone wanted to go to Dairy Queen. We all went home and Teri and I fell asleep infront of the TV. /

Thanksgiving 2021

Thanksgiving this year was a small affair, only five people. I was hoping for a larger group. We were thinking about asking Matt and his mom over, but Elena was very against it. She said Matt's mother was algeric to everything. So it was just going to be the five of us.Nastia likes sleeping over her friend's JJ's house on Wednesdays and she was going to do the day before Thanksgiving. It seemed wrong that she would not be here Thursday morning so when Teri objected I joined in too and she slept home after protesting that she would be home early on Thanksgiving.

Like always Teri cooks most everything on Thanksgiving. This year she said I could do the asparagus. I warmed the water, put two chicken bullion cubes in and cut off the hard ends of the stalkes. I didn't let the water boil and every so often I'd stab one of the thicker stalkes and if it stuck to the fork it wasn't done yet. I got

the asparagus just to the right point and I took one out to try, it was perfect. I then realized that dinner is no where near ready. There were several dishes still needing to be warmed. I put the asparagus in a dish and covered them with foil. Other items were stuck in the microwave and the turkey was removed

from the pan. Teri says she needs to make gravy. Nastia says she'll make the gravy. Asked by Teri if she know how she says I'll help her. I haven't make gravy in years. So I show her and Elena how to seperate the fat from the juices. I melt some butter in a pan and mix in some flour to make a rue. I brown it a little and when it fomes up I remove it from the heat.I put the turkey juice in a pot and begin to mix in the rue. I look up to show the girls and I notice I am alone. They lost interest. Later I am told I should have let them do it. So several times during the night I'd sayy to the girls, "And that's how you make gravy" I thought it was funny, they didn't. Conversation at the table is spirited. Nastia starts talking about being a stripper and making it sound like she is confusing it with prostitution. Elena and her razor wit starts in making fun of her assets holding up an

imaginary magnifing glass to look at her boobs. When Elena uses it to look at her butt, Nastia gets insulted and says she got one! Dinner ends too quickly. Elena has nto go to Matts to have Thanksgiving with him and his mom. She will also be there on Sunday, the first day of Hanukkah. Dessert is served to just Nancy, Teri and I. Everyone else is either /

Boring sometimes is good

I hadn't written anything in close to three weeks. How often can you write that Elena invited Matt over for dinner. Or Nastia went out for dinner after bowling and spent around $100.00 most likely paying for everyone at the table.Bad, Nastia, Bad! Then last Friday, I'm at work and Elena calls telling me her car is making a strange sound.Like what I ask. Well I'm up at Sam's (I'm figuring she's at Sam's club, she's at Good Sam) having lunch with Matt and....It turns out she ran the battery down. I tell her she has to get jumper cables and see if she can get Matt to bring his car over.She says she has all of that. I tell her to pop the hood on both cars and to put red to power on each battery and ground to ground. She says something is blocking the battey. I'm thinking there is a cover on the power side of the

battery. I tell her to pop it off. Matt's car has a cover over the battery and she can't figure out how to remove it.I'm thinking this whole time I want to leave work and take care of this. It's not a life threating situation, but I feel helpless and want to be there to make it better. It was best I didn't. This was a non life threating situation where she can learn and grow from. Matt comes out and shows her how. She jumps the car and I tell her not to shut it off until she gets home and I will look at it. A car battery shouldn't go dead so quick. She gets home and it fine. I still should listen to it on a cold morning to see if it is weak. THen Saturday morning around 9:30 I'm sitting on the edge of the bed. My phone rings and it's Nastia. She says her car is pulling to the side and the tire looks funny. I ask her is it flat? She says a little unsurely that she thinks it is. I ask her where she is. She says she is where you turn to go to the Library. That is a reference to a time that seems so long ago when the girls used to go with Jessica, Elena's friend, not Nastia's friend Jessica to the Library after school. It has to be six, eight years ago now. I find her on Lady Gudiva Way, on the hill. I drive the car to a flat spot on a nearby road. I have to go back home twice. The first time to get some wood to drive the car on and then to get a wrench to loosen up the lug nuts because Nastia's car has none. The previous owners were pigs and I should have known it. After teh two trips I have the tire on some wood, a jack under the car and th etire lugs off. Now I'm hoping that the donut spare I got Nastia and her boyfriend's family said she paid too much for it. Right now it is invaluable. I drop the jack and the tire has air in it. It also traps the jack under the car and I have to jack it back up and Nastia puts the wood back under the tire.I let her drive off the wood. I also gave her instructions on taking off and putting on a tire incase I'm not her one day. I gather up all the tools. It was nice to spend some time with her even if I was changing a flat tire. I don't get to spend much time with her and I miss it. Later a day or two later Nastia says her boyfriend's father says the rim is the problem and he has ordered her one. I think he is wrong, but she has already said yes to it and maybe I'm wrong. I just don't like the fact that her boyfriend and his family are helping her out and I'm not the only one any more. I guess I'm jealous. Such is life. /

Halloween 2021- COVID 19 hangover?

Halloween this year has been like everything else post or at least semi post COVID 19. People have gone all out to do it or only a few have ventured out to do it. Since Halloween is all about kids and they are not yet vaccinated, turn out was very light. I stayed home the whole day working on the hallway (no not Elena's room yet) to finish a job that like all jobs started out very innocently. I saw a water stain in the ceiling from a flood the girls caused years ago and Teri said I should cur a hole in the ceiling and check for mold and repair the ceiling. Well..... No treck or treaters came by before 3 in the afternoon. I was sure Teri didn't buy enough candy when she said she bought a bag of lollyppops, so sight unseen I went out and purchased three bags of candy bars. Needless to say we have alot of candy left over.

Nastia was excited to go to her first Halloween party. She dressed up for it and except for the ears I couldn't tell she had a custome on. (yes, I'm making a joke Nastia.) When I texted her later she said it was more like a bunch of people just hyear. She thought it didn't go well last year. I thought it was lots of fun for her and her friends. And I told her so and she should do it again and I would help her. She said Branden is going to get a cabin for her birthday, like she did for his, (really original) I guess they had fun that weekend. Well it will still be football season, so Branden will have football to watch.(yes, I'm being mean, but what is there to do at Bear Mountain the first week of December? You right but how often can you do it?)

Elena went trick or treating with Matt after they got back from the street fair in Connecitcut. Which is where Elena picked up Carl the coyote and she hung him up on her wall. Teri and I don't approve of Elena buying the pelt of an animal. It's not the type of thing you'd want to see. Coyotes are a vital part of the environment.

They went trick or treating in New City around Matt's house. You'd figure they'd at least go to Nyack to soak up some of the energy of all the people on Broadway. Whenever I went there it always felt like what Halloween used to be or at least should be. I hope it never changes.

Elena starts class at BOCES, Another Wednesday update. sorry no pictures yet

On Monday Elena started class at BOCES. I believe it is an introductory automotive class. The first two classes they were introduced to the car lift and removing tires. Elena bragged a little when she said she knew how to remove a tire because when she hit a rock in the road and her tire went flat, she loosened the lug nuts before I got there with the floor jack.A left over relic from a former life as a milkman.She talked about how the class was taught how to put a car on a lift and how to make sure it doesn't fall off and kill you. That I think is important. The class runs from 5PM to 9PM. The only problem is work has her working from 7AM to 3PM. She leaves and gets home around 3:30. She then has to leave about 4:30. Not enough time to do much. Her day lasts 14 hours.And all of this is Monday through Thursday. She is trying to get two days off from work when she is not going to school so she has two complete days to recharge. The class lasts until January. And yes she is the only girl in the class. I've also warned her that if they guys start picking on her to not strike back.Talk to the teacher, if they do nothing, talk to your mom or I and we'll do something. With her luck if she got ito it with some guy, she'd push him and the teacher would see her not him and she'd get into trouble. Today is Wednesday October 27,2021. Amanda got up a little after six and her boyfriend picked her up around six-thirty. Teri and I got up a little later and let the dogs out. I then went back to bed. On this Wednesday at 8:32 the winds of a noreaster blowing in the background occationally making the radio had to hear. THe house is quiet. Both girls are sleeping in this morning. I guess Elena hasn't work today. Nastia on the other hand has Wednesday's off always. I'm surprised she is not up and over at Branden's house.She also usually sleeps over at her friend JJ's house on Wednesdays. She has to be up to go to work tomorrow at 6AM, so she will be sleeping home tonight. Rumor has it she will hang out with Brenden after bowling and most likely during the day today, even if he is sleeping. Ain't love grand.

Nothing to really talk about

Not alot is going on right now with the girls. I guess their taking a moment to take a deep breath, then watch out, oh boy!

Nastia has been getting up at 5:30 this week to go to work at 6. She complains, but I think it also must give her time to spend with Brenden. Which is what she is doing this Wednesday morning, I was sitting on the bed about 7:40 when she comes in with her back pack on and kisses me good bye. Wednesdays she sleeps at her friend's JJ house. Now I know what your thinking. What guarantee is there that she is doing that? Well at this point in her life she is going to do what she is going to do. And if it doesn't cause her harm, I'm not going to say much. She is after all almost twenty-three. Now when her kids read that line remember it is a different time. Don't impose your times morals and hang ups on another generation. Remember that people who want to remove the statue of Thomas Jefferson from the City Hall in NYC.

Elena is trying to go back to school. Her class, an automotive class keeps getting put off. It is now set to start now on October 25th.It runs from 5 pm to 9 pm. Her work is going to work with her, they like her and want to keep her. I feel that she is going to work/school herself into exhaustion with this class. I don't know if she will be putting in the same number of hours at work, but adding 4 hours a day to her day doesn't leave much time to decompress and relax. She's going to be going seven days a week.

Wednesday, October 6th, 2021

It's three days before John Lennon's 81st birthday. On December 8th, he'll be gone longer then he was alive, 41 years. If you don't know who he is future people, shame on you.

Elena planned to have salmon for dinner. She wanted to do it on Tuesday, but dinner had been planned and so it was moved to Wednesday. I was willing to cook dinner, but I was bowling with Nastia and there were several people who were more interested in talking than bowling. It got to the point that one guy, let's call him Adam, since that is his name was up on both lanes. I am sitting in the seats near the lanes and hs is behind me talking and talking. I got so pissed that I yell out Adam, you're up. His reply, "I'm talkng." He does stop and bowl. Talking seems to stop after that. We ended up being the last in our league to finish. Nastia with a 159 and JJ with a 127 saved us in the first game. In the second we hold on for dear life, winning because Nasta get two strikes in the tenth.Causing Paul, their final bowler to need three strikes to win. He gets one on his first throw and spares his second. We win by ten pins, bring us back to 500. Nastia's 159 came after a couple weeks of bad games. This is the girl who started bowling years ago with an average of 68. Her average is now over 120. Elena could being doing as well, if not better had she been able to contain her temper and just bowl. Dinner of salmon and baked potatoes was set for Wednesday after bowling. Nastia went with Brandon and maybe JJ to dinner at Dave and Buster's in the Palisades Center. She loves Talipia, I think she really doesn't like salmon, I think.

I walk in to the house, Elena and Teri are cooking. Matt is standing by, if he is needed. He is alway the first one to offer to help. The salmon goes in and I am then asked to check it to make sure it is cooked. about twenty minutes later I use a fork to see if the fish flakes apart and it does, so out it comes. It goes back in after I cut it and find some portions are still raw. After another ten or so minutes it comes out and is fully cooked. We sit down to a garlicy, buttery fish and baked potatoes. It's good!

Later that night, after clean up, which was easy, I didn't cook. I find Elena making sandwiches for Matt and

her for Thursday. She has the day off and He has some school, but I guess they plan to get together later and do

something. I'll let you know. I bring up the sandwiches because she drew a face on one. And last night she kissed him in front of me for the first time maybe. He brings out the best in her I think. I hope she does in him too. I'm looking forward to that dinosaur wedding.

Thursday Elena has off and her and Matt take in a nice afternoon going hiking. They go hike Ramapo Mountains. Elena sends a bunch of pictures of her hike. She always has to take a picture of Matt walking away. I wonder why?