Halloween et al, no we know better et sic porro *

*It's latin baby! et sic porro-and other things! Halloween is now the second biggest holiday, sort of on the calendar. As a kid,I remember you’d come home after school and at least in my house put on your homemade costume, find your friend or friends and go trick or treating, with no parents.Only little kids went with parents and it was rare. It'll be dark and maybe you'll come home because you’re tired. The streets would be full of kids going out and trick or treating. The worst thing you had to remember was not to eat the apples, because there might be razor blades in them. How’d, what kid would ever eat an apple over a candy bar? And what about ‘Gate Night’? This year I didn’t even think about it until it was Halloween. One year I went out with all of the older kids, I was maybe ten, they were all like fourteen. I don’t remember much about the night except we all laid down flat in the road or on someone's grass because the person house some of us might have just hit came out. I didn’t see the person anymore so I got up and said it’s okay, he’s gone inside. One of the bigger kids shuss’d me and told me to get down. The next morning when I was older I drive to work or to school or wherever and see toilet paper strung from trees car windows soaped up, you know real harmless stuff unless it happened to you and your family was a continual target of it.The point is I forgot Gate Night, and next to no one came out for Halloween again this year. My mom and Eric’s house had good crowds at least until 6 PM when I left. Conger’s, I handed out candy to two real little kids. Nastia and Elena have quit going out for Halloween. Sometimes I miss the nights we’d take them down to Nyack and they’d go door to door with the hundreds of other kids, like Halloween used to be when I was a kid. A guess at 24 and 25, almost 26 they have an excuse not to go. Last year Sean and Nastia went to Sleepy Hollow, you know the site written about in the book by Washington Irving call the ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. I need to read that book. They were back early. I thought about going to the ‘Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze” in Croton on Hudson. In past years it seemed like such a luxury, but this year it’d less so until I checked the prices. On Saturday after Halloween it is $52.00 to $68.00. I think I blocked out how much it is on Halloween because I couldn’t rationalize spending that kind of money to walk around for 45 minutes looking at carved pumpkins. I’m sure it’s amazing. I asked KJ, Amanda’s son, to draw a picture of it tonight because no one went.

Nastia, Sean, Elena and Jessica, the one without the son went to fright night at six flags in jackson. I didn’t capitalize any of it because the very poor man's Disney doesn’t deserve it. The last time I was there scarred me for life, and not in a fright night way. Everything was, sooo, sooo, I don’t know. Well, yes I really do know it was awful. It was busy, all the food even though some of it had different names, like Johnny Rocket’s was awful assembly line food well over priced. I don’t remember the grounds as well kept. And all of the new really frightening rides were extra and still are, I imagine. With Disney when they rake you over the coals price wise at least you feel they made a great effort to make you think you're getting your money's worth, and it’s fun. No one gave me any pictures of Fright fest or of Disney World, so I again asked KJ, you know, one year old KJ, Amanda’s son, to give me a rendering of what their night was like. He said it wouldn’t frighten him to do it because he went to the Nyack Halloween Parade.

I was very much against it, I thought he’d be cranky, tired and fuss about because he couldn’t wander around. We parked over on Ash Street, I think, just off North Broadway. We walked and set up our chairs at the corner of Broadway and Main Street. I remember the first year I bought a chair to sit in to watch the parade. Everyone laughed at me, no more. I ended up standing and giving the chair to an old women who needed it more than I did. All of us bring a chair. We got there around 5 PM and the parade didn’t get going until almost 6. It was longer than usual and better than usual. We had a couple behind us…how do it put this without insulting all of the people who moved from Manhattan into the new condos in Nyack causing me not to be able directly or indirectly to build on Tony and Junes property on Catherine Street. The guy who bought it is, I imagine still trying to get it rezoned to knock down the house and build something besides one maybe two, if your lucky two family houses, which I calculated wouldn’t pay if one of them went rightfully to Nancy to live in rent free being she is/ was a part owner of the property.

The people were "oh, look at this, oh waw, that's great. Theywere first timers it sounded like. I asked KJ to draw a picture of the Nyack Halloween Parade, but he was tired so I put a picture of him at the parade because I take pictures and give them to me. Plus the one below, the bonus picture because it is a really great costume.

Drinkin, Drinkin, whats you drinkin?

It was Sean’s birthday yesterday, Friday and also happened to be the day Amanda’s boyfriend broke up with her. Everyone went to work and when Nastia got home, she started to make tacos, one of Sean’s favorite meals. She asked her sister to pick up Uncle Ben’s rice in packets because the three of them like to add rice to their flour shell and make them more like burritos. Sometime after dinner Amanda calls up and asks if the girls could go out with her for drinks. Amanda came by in a taxi. Sean said it was okay for her to go out drinking with Amanda. They walked down the street to wait for the taxi. Amanda picks up a pint of Smirnoff’s Vodka. They each take several shots from the bottle. Elena and vodka, or at least Smirnoff’s vodka didn’t agree with each other and she refunded a large portion of it into the street.

Now Elena has work the next day, so I guess it was a good idea she returned the vodka to the wild. For those who don’t get sudility, she threw up in the street. Down in Nyack, they head to Olive’s Bar. Back in another lifetime the original Olive took me to court because she said I did something or other to her when I lost my temper when she didn’t pay her bill or something like that. The Police and court got involved and the one thing I do remember is I didn’t touch her. I just got mad and stormed out. Long story short I promised to stay away from her and I also agreed I wouldn’t try to collect the money she owed me. A big guy like me against a woman in 1980’s Nyack. I knew when to leave well enough alone. I hope she got the life she deserved. Take that any way you want. So they exit the taxis at Olive’s. There is very loud music in the bar. Amanda is buying shots of vodka, calling the girls pussies if they don’t drink the vodka. They talk, Amanda tells them her trials and tribulations about her now ex-boyfriend and what type of guy she likes.

Around 1AM, I’m sitting in the family room watching ‘The Lord of the Rings, The Power of the Rings’ season 2, episode 7. I want them home, but I won’t call them. I told them no matter what time it is they can call me and I will come get them. Sean told them the same. I go to bed after I fall asleep, about 1:15. The dogs hear them come in about 1:30 or so. Nastia goes straight to her room, Elena says ‘hi’ as she passes by. Everything quiets down. A few moments later Teri and I hear a groaning growling, Ahh, ahhhh. It’s a low down, not quite a moan. It is very low in the register, like a singer warming up his deep bass or maybe trying to clear his throat. I sit up to listen, it’s stopped. Teri asks me if there is something wrong with the dog. I lean down and tell her they are fine. It starts again. It’s not in our room, it’s next door. It’s Nastia. She has decided to refund some of her fun this night, but she has neglected to worship at the altar of the porcelain god, you might know it better as the toilet. Teri, the high priestess does not approve. She starts to sermonize about not having anyone show this lack of class and disrespect. I smile having been there and done that and tell her Nastia might be learning a lesson tonight. If not, maybe next time she will learn it. If one is going to drink, and to paraphrase Dirty Harry Callahan from Magnum Force, a film he did in the 70’s, “A man (or in this respect a woman) has got to know his (her) limitations.” Hopefully, she will learn her limit soon. Elena, after spraying the pavement with cheap vodka earlier in the evening, came home fine, woke up at 7:30 and went to work.

It turns out Nastia also decided not to take all of her alcohol home, deposited it in the street out front of Olive’s, A special gift to Olive, forty years late, thanks Nastia. So when she got home at 1:30 she was dry heaving, and yes, been there, done that. So all I could do as I listened to her and told Teri to leave it alone was to smile, glad some wisdom has come with age. Though if you ask Teri about Vegas and ruining the last day there she might have another opinion.

How about a Doors title, Summer's almost gone, Summer's almost gone...*

I’ve been busy these last few months, or at least it seems so. I haven’t had the time to really write in the blog. I used to take some time during the first few hours of my work day and write. Lately I’ve been busier and it also seems like I’m taking greater advantage of my boss, so I don’t anymore. The company has started a new product line and I get to sell forklifts to people who then retail them to businesses. It can be fun. I’ve talked to people who have retired over the last few months asking them what they do to keep busy. I’ve watched my mom closer now than before and notice she does less, but she still does. She’s 90, so I guess whatever she’s doing I should copy. Most other people I talk to say things like everyday is Friday or if you want Saturday. They don’t have to even keep track of the days. Some people mentor younger people. I get all icky feeling when I say younger people. I don’t feel that old. I feel like a tired fifteen year old. I know I’ll probably retire, maybe sooner than I think, I just don’t know what I’ll do with all of that time.

Nastia is a girl who is acting like she is a girl with very little time left or someone who wants to experience it all as soon as possible. She’s kept her and her boyfriend Sean busy this summer. They were to the shore several times, she got hurt by a wave at Robert Moses State park on Long Island on the exact same day as she did last year when she rode a bike into , I think a tree and hurt herself. Both times she is out of work for two weeks. It’s becoming a tradition with her. She went to Maine with Sean to visit his friend. They’ve gone to see just about every movie they could possibly see this summer and have eaten out at least once every week, most of the time twice. Now they are camping up just a little east of Roscoe New York at a campground just off of Route 17. They are very unprepared and Sean thought they might not go. He hadn’t checked his tent out and it was supposed to rain, so Nastia pushed through and Sean bought a new tent. They borrowed a battery operated lamp from Teri and I that has been dying to be used for over four years now. So off they went Friday night up the Thruway into Friday evening traffic in September with all the others who are trying to get one last weekend in upstate before the weather changes and it becomes too cold to do it. They set up camp, I’m assuming in the dark, but they had that battery operated lamp we lent them and one they or Sean purchased and oh, yes to get a little dig in, yes they are still saving to move out one day. I’ll have to change the lock the day before they do and put all their stuff on the front lawn before they do that. Well at least they are cooking for themselves, well or at least finding places to eat. They possibly have the privacy that Sean say they don’t get in our big old house with its thick old walls that an atomic blast in the next room wouldn’t be heard. I’m really not implying anything really I’m not. Wait, I can’t type while I snicker and laugh at the same time. We do really leave them alone. And yes every night they are tired and go to bed just after dinner. Those tired, tired children. They’ll be home tomorrow Sunday some time. While they are away I am replacing, hopefully finishing replacing the light/fan switch in their room. It was running slowly. Hopefully it is the switch, not the fan. Now Elena is still single. She still works part time at Caliper Tire and according to her mother still needs benefits. At the age of twenty-four who thinks about having benefits. She works Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, mostly. On her off days she sleeps in until her mother thinks it’s time for her to get up. Her and I are still working on the 1986 Corvette and yes I’ll admit it we are in over our heads. I didn’t think a 1986 car would be so complex. A list of the problems on this car would make a grown man cry as he parted out the car on Ebay. I could most likely make a profit on it if I did, but it’s a convertible. The first year a Corvette convertible had been made in years and there were only a little over 7,000 made and the way people drive and are parting out cars there can’t be too many left. We’ll both keep at it until, who knows when. I hope one day one of the hints I’ve dropped to people will take root and they will come over and solve one, just one problem to set Elena and I on the right track.

Teri over the last year and change became one of the growing group of people forced into retirement. I’ve talked about how she’d get interviews over the phone or by Zoom and never that final would you like to come work for us phone call. She went as far north as Poughkeepsie to interview in person. She went to Long Island. Finally after a year she gave up. During the Summer, she finally decided to retire. We’d figured out how to live without her salary and her retirement money would now be just a bonus. A funny thing happened on her way to a nice relaxing retirement, she broke out in a rash. I don’t remember where it started but it would be on her hands, and feet, her back. She got a steroid shot and it mostly went away until it didn’t go all the way go away. Now coming up on October it is mostly gone away. She still itches, it comes and goes. We are hoping the severity of it was only because of the emotional issues she faced this Spring with coming to the realization no one wants to hire a 60+ year old. Even one that would make your company hum. I feel lucky when I think about what she’s gone through. I’m at a job making what I made twenty years ago, ooops, twenty-four years ago and I feel it could be worse. *I know, I've used it at least three times. Summer’s Almost Gone Song by The Doors Summer's almost gone Summer's almost gone Almost gone Yeah, it's almost gone Where will we be When the summer's gone? Morning found us calmly unaware Noon burn gold into our hair At night, we swim the laughin' sea When summer's gone Where will we be? Where will we be? Where will we be? Morning found us calmly unaware Noon burn gold into our hair At night, we swim the laughin' sea When summer's gone Where will we be? Summer's almost gone Summer's almost gone We had some good times But they're gone The winter's comin' on Summer's almost gone

The Great car restoration oops , the beach, another oops! and Maine

The great car restoration has had its ups and downs. A down day was when we had to bring it home because of the landlord at Caliper tire. An up day was finally finishing the brake on the front tire or having the short shaft and the knuckle in place and the rear right tire almost finished. One of the big lower points is when I knocked the Corvette off the jack stands, the car sliding towards the house coming up just short of hitting the new siding. It would have been the lowest of low points if I’d hit the siding. Another low point I was working on the fuel gauge, everything was going really well. Elena broke two of the screws holding the pump in place. No problem, I thought, I can drill them out. I purchased a brand new fuel pump, the old one was so rusted, it fell into two parts when I took it out. I managed to get all the rust out and I went to drill out the broken screw and I ruined the other holes by drilling the holes through to the interior of the tank. It can be fixed, but oops. The holes with the broken screw I managed to widen them. After talking with my brother, Eric, I purchased a new tank, fuel lines and straps. He said with brand new there will be no problem cropping up like the interior of ta 40 year old tank coming apart and fowling everything, Elena seems to only work on the car when I’m there, so this past Sunday we put all of the wheels back on the car and decided to get the engine going, which if we knew the car was going to end up at home we would have started with. During the last two weeks every time I turn around Nastia is going away. She went with Sean, Jessica and Elena to the Jersey shore one day, then she went to the beach with JJ and Nancy and maybe someone who drove better than Nancy or Nastia. After that she went to Robert Moses State park on Long Island where she got hit by a hurricane inspired wave and fractured her scapula in her shoulder. That was on August 21st, I believe. If that date sounds familiar, she broke or fractured her foot a year ago at a party in Orange County. And if memory serves back in 2009 when we went to Russia to pick up the girls Nastia had a cast on her arm. That was around September 10th when we arrived, she could have broken it on August 21st. So maybe she should wrap herself in bubble wrap and stay home on that day. After braking her arm at Robert Moses State park, and spending most of the night there, she and Sean came home and promptly headed for the great state of Maine. About an hour into the trip the car overheats. Sean says it has never done that and his father said he checked the radiator and he must have not secured the cap causing it to overheat. When Sean told me this, he paused. I think waiting for me to tell him to come home. I’d said they should come home earlier and that they should make a fresh start the next day, but I didn’t. I told him if he says the car has never overheated and he feels safe it can make it, it’s their decision. They made it there and tonight they make it back long enough to maybe use the bathroom and say hello before they left again to sleep over JJ’s house and go to the beach tomorrow.

Yankee Stadium,and the latest family taco dinner

Every year since sometime in the 1990’s I go to Yankee Stadium with my friend Mike. I think one of the early times we went with his brother Steve and it was the only game I ever went to that was rained out. I bought a hat that day and I think I still have it.

When Covid hit our yearly trips to Yankee Stadium stopped. It’s been about five years since we’ve gone. On the last few trips it seems Rob has had to deal with some issues his daughter has had. Most years he figures it out. This wasn’t most years. His daughter is in California working to be an actress. He and his wife flew out there to help her out. I don’t know the problem, but having two daughters I’d be on the flight to California, if they’d called and had a hangnail. So I really can’t blame Rob, it was just disappointing. It's been five years and it hit the three of us Friday night at Nanuet Restaurant, we’re not getting any younger and how many more years are we going to be able to do this?

All of the previous leads up to now, we have an extra ticket. Louie asks his sons, I ask Karl, Eric is a Met fan. After all of that I think, I’ll have to ask Nastia. I love her, but I thought she’d be a problem. She’d want food and not eat it, then about the fifth inning she’d get bored and want to leave, you know. I ask her and she agrees. She and Sean are going to the beach Saturday night, it’s a day game, so we’ll be back in time for them to leave.

I wanted to take the Mustang, but the three of us are old and fat and even Nastia would have problems fitting in the back seat. We choose confort, Nastia’s car over a stylish Mustang Convertible.Doesn’t matter, Mike and I will use it on Sunday when we go to Somerset NJ to see the Yankees double A farm team with what we hope will be a future Yankee star Spencer Jones. Nastia and I go pick up Mike at his hotel, we swing over to Louie’s just 90 mother’s house, pick him up and take a comfortable ride down to the Bronx. The whole summer has been scorching. We have the air running and everything is good. We park on the first floor of the Jacob Ruppert parking garage, a first and walk into from the garage to the park, across the street and onto one of several long lines. Nastia is uncomfortable in the crowds and wants to hold my hand. Her mother doesn’t like crowds too, I guess she inherited it from her. Yeah, I know, adopted and all, it must have been through osmosis or something.

We enter the Stadium and it is a give away day, a metal coffee cup. Mike will use it the next morning in a drip coffee maker. It will get hot and he will throw it away. Nastia is amazed they are giving something away for free. I don’t tell her the price of the tickets. She continues to hold my hand until we hit the bathrooms. She heads toward the ladies, I tell her where I’ll be waiting. She takes a while and I thinkI can sneak into the men’s. When I’m done, I get a little nervous, I've missed her coming out of the ladies and she will panic, I did miss her , but she doesn’t panic. We get online for some food. I bought two Nathan’s hot dogs, helmut fries and two sodas for only $55.00. At the Palisades Center it would cost around $20.00 minus the hat the fries come in.

It’s time for me to finally buy the Yankee hat I’ve been waiting for. Nastia comes with me. As we search for a Yankee store, she asks if I can buy her a Jersey. Forgetting we’re in Yankee Stadium, I say yes. She finds out Sean's favorite Yankee is number 99 Aaron Judge. I won’t say they hide the prices of things in the Yankee store, but they definitely don’t advertise them either. I pick up a hat,and we wander over to the jerseys in the women’s section. She tries on a small, it fits her great and I’m thinking, okay, two items, but I really want a hat that has pin stripes on it. Nastia, as she does, asks someone for help. I don’t like doing it mostly because when I’m done looking the person helping is still trying to help. She asks a passing girl who asks her boss, who radios down to the warehouse, I guess looking for the hat. I want to go, but we wait. Twice I want to go, but they are still looking. Finally it’s time to leave. I thank the people who tried to help me, we get on line and at the cashier, they couldn't scan the jersey. They ask me if I want a bag for my purchase. Two items, a bag will make it easier, I say, yes. The jersey won't scan. Finally they read the number off the tag and the price of the jersey is $218.00. I stammer for a second or two before saying, I’m sorry I can’t afford that. They take the jersey off, I ask what the dollar charge is. It’s for the bag, I let it go. At home later that night I try on the hat and for some reason there is a gap between my skull and the top of the hat. I look in the mirror and I look like a special needs person. Guess who wasted $50.00 on a hat.

Back near our seat, we hang out in the concession area until it is closer to the game. It is sunny and hot . Our seats are in the sun and will stay that way until the game is almost over. I sit next to Mike on my left, and Nastia on my right. I try to take a picture of all four of us, like I do every year. This year, Louie seems to hide in each picture and my arm is too short. Nastia, as Nastia does, takes the camera and asks the people next to us to take our picture. I never do that because I alway imagine the person running away with my phone as I stand there with a dumb smile on my face. The person takes the picture and doesn’t steal my phone.I guess the cracked screen protector is a deterrent. I’ve always worried Nastia would get bored at a game. This day she doesn’t, even though the Yankees get trounced 8-1. We wait for a while before we leave. No beer can hockey at our age in the parking garage any more. It’s a nice day. I enjoyed having Nastia there. I hope my friend’s did too. I don’t need a Yoko Ono situation here. Family dinner has alway been a special time for me with my family. I treasure it like the rare precious stone it is. I grew up with a father who did what he knew best, and that was to provide for his family, but not be at home for dinner. It is something he quietly did for the majority of his life. I only recently understood he abandoned us unnecessarily to provide for his family. I know it wasn’t malicious, it was what he learned and did as a child in an alcoholic family to survive. I sometimes find myself secreting from my family doing the same thing. Family dinners when I was young were regular, most every night, but were missing my dad. So when we gather around the table for dinner and a taco dinner, and on top of that provided by Nastia and Sean, well mostly by Sean, it’s a home run all around. I went out to buy some beer, the second beer in six weeks. Nastia came with me and we talked like we used to always talk before she got so involved with Sean. I know these visits will be fewer and farther between as time passes, so I treasure them and try to not sweat the details. We talk about things she wants to or just joke about nothing. Again I don’t sweat the details and I don’t get upset about whatever she says. Back home we sit down to tacos. Nastia and Elena talk over Teri and I talking about something. I talk louder and louder trying to out talk the girls. I ask Teri if it reminds her of growing up. She looks at Sean and asks him if it does. Both agree we were not loud enough. Usually conversations like this get a little raunchy. This one did not. I did throw some cheese at Nastia to stop her from talking, it worked. I stood up to get some cheese and used a back hand flip to land a small gob of nice yellow cheese on her glasses. She didn’t find it funny, but everyone laughed. Dinner clean up went quickly and everyone went their seperate way. Nastia, Sean and Elena went upstairs to play Zombies on Xbox, I think. Teri sat at the table while I wrote this every so often yelling in pain over her disease that has her hands and feet all dried out and the skin cracking, not fun at all.

Fishing in Moriches, the great car restoration update and the last fireworks for the fourth.

Life’s been busy these last few weeks. We were scheduled to take a fishing trip to Moriches on the 12 of July. In the past I’ve alway scheduled these trips for a Thursday. I used to have Thursdays off when I had my milk business. I’d go out to Moriches with my boat on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays during July. Of course, I didn’t have a girlfriend or wife at the time.

The tides were perfect for Friday, the weather looked iffy as early as the week before. I hoped it would clear up by Friday. On Wednesday, it said there was a 50% chance of rain. Slacking off late in the day. Twenty years ago, without a second thought I’d have gone, stayed out late and enjoyed the peaceful waters. Without a boat of my own, we’d have to have the 16 foot skiff back in by 4PM. Plus, I hate to admit it, but I’m getting stuck in my ways and if I haven’t done something in a while, I’m reluctant to do it. It’s been two years since we’ve gone fishing in Moriches.

I wake up at about six in the morning and check the weather. It’s still the same, 50% slacking off in the late afternoon. I let Nastia, Elena and Sean know about the canceled trip. Elena and Sean go to work of all things. I sit around the house trying to avoid a testy wife who is babysitting a rambunctious one year old KJ.

It was not the promised start of a rare three day weekend for me. Oh, yes, the day cleared up and was beautiful in Congers and in Moriches according to the weather service. The great car restoration is making slow progress. Elena seems to want me to be more involved in the car than providing money for parts. The Sunday after the failed Moriches trip I spent helping her put together the rear right knuckle and brake drum where the car was hit eight years ago. I noticed the rear strut, it might be called, I’m not sure was bent. When Elena noticed it I knew it was bent. So as soon as I know what it is called, I purchase the

replacement. She and I shared trying to figure out how to put the knuckle back on, even going as far as removing the tire from the opposite side to compare. So the right rear is 90% done.

THe last fourth of July fireworks were down the street held on the 14th of July, a Sunday. Teri and Elena didn’t want to come see them, so it was just Nastia, Sean and I. We sat near the VFW building, east of the FD and across the street from near the park entrance path. Bugs seemed to be out in force that night even with the citronella bug repellent I bought with me. It’s the circles that go in the clay burner. There seemed to be enough of a breeze that wherever I put it it blew under and away from us. One firework was shot off and we thought it would start. After it went off, the New City FD, not Congers, for some reason sprayed water on a couple lake facing rear roofs of buildings to prevent any possibility of a fire starting on them. They also sprayed people sitting on the opposite side of the building with water. I’m sure they didn’t do it on purpose. The fireworks started about 9:30 and were okay, the grand finale was not grand. They were done before 10. It was just nice to have them back. They hadn’t had them since before Covid.

I forgot my mom's 90th Birthday!!

It was my mom’s 90th birthday, the other day. It’s not often someone reaches 90 and I forgot to write about it. It was a small affair, just like last years party, except Eric and Lynn did everything. The scheduled it for Saturday the 22 of June about a week after my mom’s birthday. THey didn’t tell her and neither did they tell anyone else, so When I saw her on Friday the 21st and she asked me what I was doing on Saturday, I said I’m going over Eric’s. She asks why. Not being overly sharp, I just smile and leave as quickly as possible knowing she is not so quick these days and it would take her a few moments to get off the couch. I have to admit, it would take me just as long, if I’d been sitting.

On the day of the party the weather forecast said to expect late showers. Sean and Elena were working at Caliper tire until 4PM and they’d get there about 4:30. The party started about 2:00 Eric cooking up burgers and Ballpark Hot Dogs. I usually eat Nathans, but these were very tasty and it made me consider buying a bag. Everyone ate and sat around because it was too hot to do much else.Billy played water guns with Matt and Luke. My mom remembering how I used to play water guns with Cory and Ryan years ago encouraged me to get involved. I warned my mom anything that happened after this point was her fault. As luck would have it (for Nastia because all I wanted to do was squirt ice cold water on her) all the guns were taken.

Sean and Elena arrived and bought the rain with them. Soft of like God and Jesus arriving at a party. It started to rain lightly for about a minute or two then the heavens opened and everyone did a mental checklist of the supplies in their ark. It rained for a good half hour to forty minutes. About then God and Jesus decided to leave and took the rain with them.

Nastia had wanted to go swimming over at Harriet’s pool almost since she’d gotten there. She pushed me to go over because she didn’t remember how to get there. She and Wlwna went swimming over at Harriet’s in 2008, their first time and again when Leonhard and Annya were here. Leonhard and Annya were a second pair of Russian kids we were going to adopt a few years after the girl. They decided to stay in Russia. I wish they’d decided to stay because Leonhard is probably dead on some battlefield in Ukraine now.

We went over and I had to push Nastia into the water, it’s some kind of tradition or something. Sean, and Elena jumped in shortly afterwards and I took my time getting in. Maybe I was tempting Nastia to take revenge on me and try to push me. The water was like bath water after all of those 90+ degree days. I mostly lounged on the stairs at the opposite end of the pool while Sean leaned against the opposite side and the girls acted like they were eight and ten ago going into this exact same pool almost exactly 16 years ago when they came over. It was like a replay of their greatest hit from that time. Elena was the entertainment and Nastia the audience both being overly un-self conscious of what they were doing and just having a good time. Nastia notices me lounging over on the stairs and asks me if everything is alright. Now you can’t tell her what you just saw, it would ruin it all. Maybe I’m over-stating how they acted, but it was at least reminiscent of that time, all those years ago. There was a chicken fight with Nastia and Sean against Elena and I. They won both contests. At times like this I realize I’m not the man I was sixteen years ago when I could walk up the stairs in the house with both in my arms and put them to bed. In the game of chicken, my legs failed me when I tried to straighten up as Nastia got a hold of her sister and pulled her toward her. Sixteen years ago I would have straightened up and then moved back in and gone back on attack. This time I face planted into the water. For those of you future people who don’t know what chicken fights are, it’s an ancient game from back in the 1950’s or 60’s where people, usually teenagers, pair off and the girlfriend of just a female gets up on the boyfriend or male's shoulders. They square off and the girls usually get to go a little batshit pulling the other one off the shoulders of the other, it's empowering. The person on the bottom usually is just the legs moving around, you know just the horse in a joust. For the boyfriend it’s a time to do things together. For a 66 year old who doesn’t feel that old, it’s a blast, no wait, it’s a face first in the water of reality. When we got out of the water, most people had left the party. Those who remained sat around for a while talking and we were hom, I think before 6PM. It was nice to get together like that. Since COVID, I don’t get to see many people. Karl, Madeline, Kristen, Matt and their two kids. It was nice.

The Girls went to the beach and oh yes fireworks on the 27th of June.

The Girls went to the beach on Tuesday June 25th. Elena still working Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday was free Tuesday. Sean normally has off Tuesday and Nastia is on her two week hiatus before she goes back to work.

A couple of weeks earlier or maybe it was a long time ago, I’m not sure. I wanted Nastia to take some pictures of where she went. She crabbed about it, so I told her she doesn’t have to any more. She said she would, but she didn’t like doing it. So since then there have been no pictures of their trips to the beach and even less information about what they did and if

they had fun. I’ve even stopped asking Elena for pictures. I could recycle past pictures I guess, would anyone notice? I also use the pictures as a reminder of what happened. Like I’ve titled this piece, soon to be changed with the very original,

‘The girls go to the Beach’. Now I’ll change it to the equally original, ‘The Girls go to the beach, then we freeze at the fireworks’. A bit wordy, but to the point. And the only reason I remembered the fireworks is because I looked at the pictures I took that night on my phone. I know the girls obeyed rule number 1 and came back home alive. I know they ate something somewhere because they weren't hungry when they got home. Teri requested they not stay too late and they also did that. Beyond that..oh, wait they said the water was very cold. I tried to tell them just because it’s over 90 degrees, it doesn’t mean the water is going to be that warm. And that is all I know about their trip to the beach. I’ve added some pictures to make it seem like they took some pictures for me.

Now onto the freezing 27th of June fireworks. It was a very hot week up until Thursday the 27th. A storm blew through, I think the 26th, I don’t know, I didn’t take pictures. So it was a comfortable Thursday and I thought it was going to be a comfortable night.

In the back of my mind I remember that fishing trip I took with a friend, Jim, nephew Cory and myself one May evening, back about 18 years ago. It was another of those warm days when we decided to go fishing, I think it was for Blue Fish. We got down there in our short sleeve shirts with no jacket. We stepped out of the car and the cool wind hit us in the face. We knew it would only be worse on the water so we bought three sweatshirts. I gave Cory one that was three sizes too big on him. During our trip he quit trying to catch fish and went around the boat asking people if he could help them with their catch and he would hold the fish against the sweatshirt.. Needless to say I never wore that sweatshirt after that night. I have a picture in my head of him holding a fish. I hope I have it somewhere and I haven’t imagined it. It is a great picture of a great time.

We arrived at Felix Festa and parked across the street at BOCES. We’ve parked there every time we’ve gone to these fireworks and we’ve always gone to the left around the building. This time we follow people ahead of us to the right. I’m thinking, my first mistake, the people ahead of us know more than us, my second mistake. And of course I make this mistake walking to the fireworks with my freshly 90 year old mother walking beside me, my third mistake. I don’t know if you know the school, but we walk three quarters around the school to get to the fireworks. I’ve got three fold up chairs, my mom, Teri and Nancy following me. To everyone’s credit, no one complained about the trip and for some reason no one blamed me. I should have known better. Sean and Nastia take a separate car and park near us, but go the correct way. We meet up with Kimmy and some of her friends, who were also with Amanda and her son, KJ. Amanda and KJ would have to leave before the fireworks because KJ got overly tired. They had all managed to find Sean and Nastia. Elena stayed home, couldn't bother going, wanted to play more xbox. I bought two sweaters, one I gave my mom, a loose blue one that I felt was more comfortable, but didn’t zip up. I kept the green one that would have been tight I felt on her, but it zipped up. I didn’t think we’d need them and felt stupid for bringing them. Music started after eight, and it was pretty good.The warm slight breeze turned cool, then cold as the temperature dropped. It might have not gotten below 68, but with the 90+ degree days the previous it felt cold. My mom said her teeth were chattering at one point. Nastia gave her sweater to Nancy who forgot to bring one. Fireworks started about 9:20 and in the beginning they were boring, a pop here, a pop there. The grand finale was almost worth the wait. If it wasn’t so cold I would have called it a real fun night. At this point I couldn’t wait for it to end. Once off the field after it ended, it was warmer. And yes we went the right way to the car.

Revolations from the book of Elena and what was that latin phrase again...oh yes, et sic porro*

* I guess I didn't learn anything from my birthday post. et sic porro-and other things.

We were having a family dinner, you know that fabled state of existence all you future people hear your parents and grandparents talk about, you know the Camelot of their childhood. (Don’t tell me you don’t get the reference? We can go with the John F. Kennedy administration or the play or even the movie with Richard Harris, you know Dumbledor from Harry Potter’s early films.) Sitting around eating and talking. (At this table if you’re on your phone Teri will let you know to put it away.) This is the table where revelations are revealed or harebrained schemes are reviled. It is a place of love sometimes lacking in

respect. It is also the place Elena announced to all assembled that when she and Matt were in Atlantic City he was going to take her to Sunset Beach and propose to her. Back in a world several lifetimes away, someone getting engaged at 22 or 23 was normal. Children grow up at a slower pace these days. I’ve told both girls not to be in such a hurry to grow up. Life with few responsibilities is like the old song, ‘Toyland’ . There is a line in the song Once you pass it borders you can never return. Since I left it and several people will argue that point, you can only go back for short visits and those visits will just remind you this is not the place you want to remain and it’s not what it once was. A movie with Kevin Spacey, American Beauty where he is fired and decides to live life as he did when he was a teenager sounds like a dream, but I at least couldn’t do it. Elena in her typical cryptic manner didn’t elaborate on what happened that night. She said something about having a choice to go to Sunset Beach or this restaurant, I think. They ended up at the restaurant. Now the thought that they went to Atlantic City last year and they broke up in the spring and we are only hearing about it now. She didn’t even tell anyone they’d broken up for weeks.

It’s been really hot this last week, like in the 90’s. My blueberries are ripening two to three weeks early and after working outside for a little while tonight I came inside to help Teri make meatballs for dinner. She didn’t want to make them and we were debating what to do when Sean and Nastia walked in. I’m in the kitchen debating what to do and Nastia walks into the kitchen and asks what's for dinner? Without skipping a beat I tell her she is cooking and whatever she wants. She takes the bull by the horns, and goes downstairs. She came back with Pierogies and vegetables. Teri hears me tell Nastia she can make something with the chop meat Teri just bought. Teri says not to open the meat yet, she’ll make the meatballs. Nastia and her work together adding spices, while I watch from the door. I hear Teri say something and laugh. I think that is my cue to leave. While I’m writing this I hear Nasti say they don’t need to make test meatballs because they’re probably fine. A major mistake by Nastia, Teri allows to pass. Nastia makes the meatballs small like I do, this Teri can not let pass and tells Nastia so. You makea the meataballs big, nota like your fathers! I know, not funny.

Matching tattoos

Now matching Tattoos. I grew up listening to different celebrities professing their most undying love to one another and to prove it, got matching tattoos. A couple come to mind: Roseanne Barr and her ex, Angelina Jolie and her ex Billy Bob Thorton, Sly Stallone and one of his ex’s. Stallone’s tattoo was actually a picture of his wife on his chest. He changed it to the face of his dog from Rocky 1. None of them lasted. Nastia talked about her and Sean getting matching tattoos. Maybe by not being famous they’ll break the curse. Or maybe Sean, as he said, is not a tattoo guy so no worry. In place of that my wife and both of my daughters are all getting matching tattoos. They way Nastia and Teri are together, if they were getting married, they wouldn’t have to bother getting matching tattoos, they wouldn’t make it to the altar. I'm told they fight only because they love each other. Yeah, I'm sure they love each other a whole bunch. They just should have to fight to show it.

Last week Elena and Teri got their matching tattoos. Elena also got a dragon for no good reason other then she wanted one and her mother didn't object.This week Nastia is going to join them. If you’ve seen the video of Nastia getting her first, you’d be asking is it really that painful to get a tattoo. Well I couldn’t tell you, I’m not a tattoo type of guy, like Sean. Teri and Nastia went yesterday and the appointment is for today, not yesterday. Which made it possible for Elena to join in. They’ve been gone several hours and I haven’t heard any cop cars or ambulances rumble by going to a tattoo emergency. Nastia wanted me to join the circus, but I don’t approve of tattoos, so I couldn’t or is it I’m relieved not to be at that circus.

Great Car Restoration Pt 4

The Great car restoration Pt4 I’m beginning to feel that nobody in Clarkstown remembers how this town lived before the most recent wave of my s… doesn’t stink immigrants arrived in the county.

Back in the 60’s most everybody on Klein Ave was a blue collar worker. It’s a shame that now fifty, sixty years ago all of those jobs are gone or don’t pay enough to support a family. On Klein Ave there was a TV repairman who parked his truck in his driveway, a guy who commuted into the city to conduct city tours. A guy who bought his oil truck home from his job, two plus milk trucks parked around 17 and 19 Klein . A Mr. Chips truck, a guy who sold ice cream, his truck was parked in the back of his lot and we used to play in it when that didn’t work out for him. What I'm getting to after all of the above is Elena and I had to move the Corvette again. I tried to work it out through Sean Sr talking to Jeff, but the day I was going to talk to Sr, he went home not feeling well. At that point I gave up and Elena and I made plans to move the car. I talked with my brother Eric, my mom and at one point I was going to move it to Klein Ave. but there have been complaints about unregistered vehicles and blah, blah, blah… Nobody remembers where they came from or what it was like to do stuff like this. I understand you can’t have a yard full of junk cars. Even back then I hated that, but one car discreetly worked on in a driveway. It finally happened on a Thursday. I was at work and Elena texts me telling me the car is now in the driveway. The only problem is the doors to the garage were opened. Everyone figured the car would go into the garage. Problem with that is the garage is a bit too small to work on a car in. So with the garage doors open you can’t get in the fence through the gate, you have to go through the garage. Teri doesn’t like it that way.

Friday she comes home with groceries and doesn’t even pull into the driveway. We talk and all she wants is the garage doors closed. Fine easy, she says get Sean and Elena and the three of you can move it and close the doors. Can anyone guess what happened the next morning? Well I'll tell you. I rarely plan anything, so that morning after Nastia and Teri had gone to their tattoo appointment I decided to put air in the car tires so it would be easy to push and close the garage doors. Each tire had almost zero air in each. I filled them to about 32lbs and after I finished I leaned against the rear bumper of the car. You know how these things happen. I’m leaning there and I begin to wonder if I push against the car will it move. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect it to move and move so easily. It even started to move so easily I went around the front of the car to make sure it wouldn’t miss the wood wheel stop and roll all the way down the driveway into the guard rail across the street. When Teri noticed what I’d done, I knew not to expect a, “Oh, thank you, my charming strong husband” and I didn’t get that I got a, “What the hell are you doing moving that car by yourself, you old man!” So now Elena is going to experience what my two brothers, myself and the vast majority of kids in the past did and that is she is going to work on a car in a gravel driveway without a lift and it’s summer! She’ll be fine and as soon as it is running we’ll bring it back to Caliper and she can do all of the fine points it needs.

The Great Car Restoration hits a speed bump.

The Great car restoration started with such lofty goals and expectations. Take a broken down 1986 Corvette Convertible (only 7315 were ever made and with all the assholes on the road there are a lot less now) and restor it to something resembling what it was a long time ago. I’m a rag top guy. I’ve alway been one. That started back in 1979 when I bought a Jeep CJ5 and put a rag top on it.

I knew the Corvette was going to be a tough haul, I just didn’t plan on all of the non-auto distractions. One of the owners at Elena’s job was unhappy to have it there. I thought we worked that out and everything was going to be good. Elena got the tire locks off, I found a set of four rims and tires. THe rims are in excellent shape, and the tires are old. Progress has been slow, but I was hopeful…until today.

Elena texts me saying one of the guys at the shop says the car has to leave in a week. I thought it was the same issue as before and I was going to the shop to find out what we did and to see if I could fix it. Teri gets a clarification of the text. It was the landlord who said it had to go. I go to My brother Eric’s house and talk with him. I was going to ask him if he had space, but when I told him what happened he went into a story talking about all the problems people are having around town with the unregistered cars and putting in cement pads and even cutting down trees. It’s not the West Nyack I grew up in. When I was a kid, on Klein Ave. between West Street and West Nyack Rd there was a gas truck, a couple of milk trucks, cars people worked on and even an ice cream truck. They're all gone and so are the type of blue collar people who owned those houses. It’s a different type of person and I don’t recognise that type of person.

I’m sure the landlord at Caliper has the same issues with how his property look as my brother and mother would have if I tried to park my car there. So that leaves two options.The first is to try and convince Sean Sr. to talk to the landlord and if I put plates four wheels and a car cover on it could it stay. Slim chance at best. The second one is to put it in our garage. The problem with that is the garage is small and Elena will be away from people with the knowledge to assist her. I know very little about cars built after sometime around 1979. Give me a Triumph TR6 and I can do just about anything with that car, almost. I open up the hood of the Corvette, even though it is a 1986 and I might be able to identify a handful of items.

On a different subject, yes I still have another daughter. Her name is either Nastia or Anna. It all depends on when you met her. I met her in 2008, so she is Nastia to Teri and I. Sean, her boyfriend who met her in 2000 something or other, he calls her Anna. She is still alive and well. I haven’t talked about her lately because she is doing the same old thing every day more or less. She goes to work. She comes home. She either goes out to eat with Sean or stays home and eats. After dinner, or if she does the dishes, after the dishes, she goes upstairs, not to be seen again until morning,or if it is the weekend, until the next afternoon. She's been basically boring recently. She did get a letter in the mail saying she owes $15,000.00 in student loans.She keeps saying, "what loans, I thought they were grants." It’s a shame she didn’t finish her degree. I remember all the checks she kept receiving. She’d get more money than she needed. For a while she had $5,000.00 extra in her savings. I called Access VR about the money and I don’t remember what they said. I didn’t know they were a loan either. So of course the $5,000.00 is gone and she has to pay money back each month that she might have. Fun times definitely!! Nastia told me earlier today (Saturday) that she and Sean were trying to move out and this will set them back. She says he feels they don’t get any privacy. I understand, but I also don’t. Teri and I don’t go up there after they have gone up until we go to bed around three hours later, but we're always there, so even if Teri and I go out for the evening. They are not really alone. One day they will move out to Orange County because they can not afford Rockland. If Teri and I were buying today, neither could we. It’s another sad reality of the day. My question is who are all of these people who can afford houses priced at half a million or more. Zillow, a house pricing app has us at something like $576,000.00. And rents start mostly around $1,500.00 The two of them went to a house warming party in Orange County for one of Sean's friends. They are staying over and there is plans to head to the beach for the day. Ah, I remember the days I was trying to save money to move out and I went to the beach.Yeah, I didn't make it out either, at least at that time. I don’t want to think about it. I’ll go to my quiet place and drive my black 1986 Corvette convertible with the standard shift ( again go ask your grandmother what it is, I most likely tried to teach her to drive one) up an empty Thruway with all cops on a lunch break, shift, Ahhhh, feel the breeze!! Shift to third!! I don’t even know if it is a four speed.

The Great Car Restoration, Teri's retirement and sometimes I say to much

After the set back with when the Corvette can get worked on and the negative talk bothering Elena, we set to work on the car. What I mean by that is Elena works on the car and I supply money as often as I can. I do want to work on it, but I don’t want to cause more issues with people who have a negative attitude toward the car, so I stay away.

We’ve been dealing with the tire locks for the last couple of weeks. How to get the locks off without damage to the rims.The lock nuts are recessed into the rim making it difficult to get anything except the proper key on them. Brand new tires for the car retail over $500.00 per tire, if you go with the 255 50RV16 the car has on it. I wanted to pay about that for all four tires. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. The budget I made up in my head isn’t nearly enough to put this car back together

and there is no way it will be profitable. And your right, but remember it is the first Corvette in I think they said 14 years, at the time to be a convertible, and oh yeah, it’s a Corvette convertible with a stick shift.For all of you future people who think old cars are smelly and what the hell is a stick, ya got to drive one to understand. Electric cars might have better pick up and you can sneak up on people in an electric, but in its time, which is how you judge something, it was an awesome car and if restored properly it will be again. Who knows, it might even appreciate in value to the point it can be sold, long after I’m dead for a profit. Elena got the spare tire off the car and her and Sean Sr. went over the particulars of the damage to that end of the car. The tie rod is bent, something to do with a knuckle and I don’t remember what else. I’ll remember when I get the parts bill. It’s not going very quickly, but that is okay, because I don’t know how I’ll pay for it. I’ll figure it out.We are still short a tire, so I have searched Facebook Market Place and I have searched for rims. I found a guy selling two and I get him to drop his price and we try to meet up. He said 279 South Little Tor Rd at 6PM. I got there early and he went to the Shell station across the street and we never met up.

On Friday night I locate a guy selling four beautiful rims for $300.00. The only problem is he is in Sandy Hook CT about an hour and fifteen minutes away. I email him make an offer he accepts. I borrow Elena's car about 12:30 and head out. I meet Anthony at the Blue Colony Diner a place just up from where Marcus Dairy used to be. I haven't been up ther since I quit. We talk some about what I'm doing with the tires and he tells me about a GM 2 year school for $8,000.00 a year. Car companies are short workers and if they become world class rated GM will play them $1,000.00 a month to stay that way. His son is making 6 figues he said. I thought of Elena.I arrive back at Caliper Tires. It is 3:30 and they are still busy. I leave Elena her car and switch back to mine and leave. Teri decided to retire the other day. Not because she didn’t want to work, but because no one wants to hire a 65 year old. She's put in her dues and it is enough. She was hired by United Water after leaving the Phone Company, yes, the phone company, ATT, the original, not the remake that was purchased by Pacific Bell and both companies renamed ATT. She was an operator, yes in the real old movies from like the thirties and forties (1930’s and 1940’s) when the receiver is or was picked up a voice said number, please. That was her. She joined United Water, which was then known as Spring Valley Water. It went through several name changes during her time there. Sometime in the 2010’s after we’d adopted the girls and before it was renamed Veolia Water a public service commission person told management they needed to cut expenses and she is pushed into retirement. She had a pension and they gave her a very generous severance, that we lived off of for the year it took her to get another job. She worked for a light bulb company for a while, until they decided to relocate back to Canada. She got another job at Jamatech or something like that where she managed half a dozen or so people. After a time, the company decides to relocate to Georgia. I was willing to make the move with her, but she was not willing to leave everything. To add insult to injury, they hire a guy and pay him $10,000.00 more a year. He didn’t last a year. She collects unemployment in March of last year. Between that time and now she has been on quite a few interviews, some as far away as Poughkeepsie, yes Poughkeepsie, way up near where the Dutch County Fair is. All of them looked promising, but the call never came. The reason again is no one wants to hire an older person. All of this drive and knowledge we have is not valued. Up until recently there has been a shortage of workers. And since Covid a lot of people want to work from home. Teri was willing to work and to go to the office every day. She put in days at her last company that if she was paid by the hour, they could afford her. Every night she left, her work was completed. So despite her willingness to continue to work, she has retired. Now what to do with the rest of your life? That’s my big fear when I retire in about 1400 days (April 1st 2028, who wants to retire in January anyway.). What to do when you don’t have to get up and go to work? In the past,if the people I write about read my blog, they’d say I reveal too much, and in retrospect, I have to agree. I’ve gone into corners of people's lives and written about what is hidden in the dark. Up until recently it didn’t matter, I had three rabid readers. Lately it seems my readership has exploded to as high as 11 people, checking out each blog entry. The average has come down, but is still a very high seven. So with this vast readership I need to become vague or to dance around certain subjects, only hinting at some things I used to write about openly. Back in the past I felt I was writing for myself and I wrote to entertain myself. The girls have become more than just interesting kids from another country who do interesting things. So with that in mind someone stopped doing something that I considered a bad idea. I yelled at two people asking them if they were fucking morons and they are only 98% affective. I heard Teri tell me to calm down, It took me some time to, but I did.. Elena, Miss Closed book herself told someone that is why you don’t say anything. I thought the beginning of this conversation hurt the worst, I was wrong, Elena thinking not telling anyone was the best way to go ended up concerning and hurting me the most. After the way I yelled, I couldn’t blame her though. I did apologize to one of them. I was told I can’t be yelling at them.

KJ's first birthday and Mother's Day 2024

Mother’s Day and KJ’s 1st birthday.

One of my pet peeves is first birthday parties. The honoree will not remember it. Yes I guess it isn’t for him or her to begin with and is more for the parents. A reason to celebrate what they have created before thechild can grow big enough, like a certain daughter I know and tell their mother to shut the fuck up or was it fuck off. Maybe it was both. When I get angry and stop myself from putting her through a wall and damaging my relationship with her and her mother, I don’t remember the insult as much as just feel it and it wasn’t even directed at me. KJ’s party was scheduled for 1-4 on Sunday afternoon in a park along the Hudson in Haverstraw. I’d never been there and thought it was a beautiful park. Teri wanted to get there early to help set up. We arrived a little later than she wanted to, but it was still early. KJ’.s father was there along with Amanda and the birthday boy. KJ’s father was preparint to cook the food and it was on charcoal. It’s been years since I had food cooked on charcoal. I don’t know if it tastes better or even different. There is just something about the smell of charcoal burning that makes a BBQ better. I sat around with the rest of my family. Kenny started cooking around 1:30 and he kept cooking. I counted about a dozen people around 2 in the afternoon. Only Kenny from his family was present. I wondered if they were coming.

Like only Nastia can do, Teri asks where is Nastia? Sean says she is playing baseball with those kids. I look where someone is pointing and Nastia is pitching to a kid while a few kids are in the field, only Nastia can do that. Some time after 3 Kenny’s family came. Earlier, I’d asked Teri if jeans and a collared shirt was enough because Kenny’s family would be coming from Church. She just looked at me, as if I’d just said something stupid. As I thought about it, I guess it was a little racist, but it was not intended as anything bad. I just have watched too many films where black folk go to church on Sunday. The food Kenny cooked was not excessive. By the end of the event, it was all gone. It was a gorgeous day and Kenny’s family was polite to us. Now mother’s day, even though it was not planned in advance, was nice and I hope Teri liked it. I asked her several weeks before what she wanted to do for mother’s day. I offered to plan a brunch and cook everything, she didn’t like that. I asked if she wanted to go to ‘The Pancake Place’ in Nanuet, she didn’t want to do that. I did ask several times and every time it was I don’t know. Finally she said,”Ok, let's just go to ‘The Pancake Place’ in Nanuet. I tell everyone we are going early and everyone needs to get up so we can beat most of the crowd. Of course Nastia and Sean had planned a no-tell motel get away for the day before, but they promised they would get there on time. On Mother’s Day, everyone, even Elena, got up without much growling. We picked up Nancy and made it to the Pancake place about 9:15. Nastia andSean got there so early, they had time to text and ask where we are. We waited only a few minutes and were seated. It was a good meal and a good time.

The Great Car restoration project

The great Car restoration project

I’ve always wanted to restore cars. There is something inside of me that wants to take something that is worn down and seen better days. Take it apart and bring it back to its former glory, or at least make it usable. I rebuilt my TR6 back in the late 70’s not knowing what I was doing, but that has never stopped me before. At one point I had the engine hanging from a tree in my parents backyard. I replaced a bad engine with one from another TR6 that was a mess. In the 90’s a friend said I needed to buy a 1957 TR3. I thought he was going to help me restore it. It sat for years until it was just a worthless hunk of rusted junk. The same thing eventually happened to my TR6 when I had an issue with the clutch. It also sat for years and was sold to a TR6 collector as almost junk.

After destroying several Tr’s I promised myself I’d never touch a classic car again. Recently that all changed. Back in 2000 I purchased a brand new Ford Mustang Convertible. It was a great car. Over the following 24 years it sat sometimes because it needed work and I didn’t have the money or because my wife thought it was a bad idea to drive in the snow. When the top started to leak, it sat on rainy days. In the summer of 2018, just before COVID I was driving it home when the overdrive shut down and I limped home parking it in the garage. It was one of those times I didn’t have money. My brother, Eric back then said it was a sensor thing in the transmission. He’d fix it, but I needed to get the soft top fixed so it could stay outside. Jump to 2024, Covid is a memory, I’ve another job and my daughter Elena (some call her El, a nickname I love for some reason) has become interested in auto mechanics and she comes to me one bright sunny early spring day and says, “I’m going to fix the Mustang”. I politely smile and continue on with my day. She comes to me again and says, “Dad, I’m going to fix the Mustang.” Something inside me says I need to have faith in my daughter and show confidence in her abilities, so I took a deep breath and said yes she could.

THe car goes to Caliper Tire in New City, where she works. She removes the gas tank, and replaces the fuel pump back there. When and why did they ever put the fuel pump there? Real dumb place. I thought she was crazy to even think it was there. It’s alway been on the engine, like you know! She gets the engine running and she tells me I have to get the car registered so she can road test it and find out what is wrong with the transmission. Hemmings Insurance for classic cars is willing to insure the Mustang, but not my Grand Am for some reason. They are both the same age. Elena determines the transmission is shot. I don’t believe her. Your Uncle Eric said it was sensors back six years ago. I talk to Eric and he says he doesn’t remember it and he doesn’t have a device for the transmission computer. I brought it to a transmission shop and $6,000.00 later the Mustang is back. Of course the soft top still has holes in it and I only drive it on sunny days and what has it done since the car runs? Come on now let's say it all together, It’s rained.

So after all of that fun I ask Elena if she’d like to do a project car? She’s all gung ho for one, so I look at TR6’s, Jeeps and Corvettes. Elena doesn’t like Jeeps, so the idea of doing a 1980’s CJ7 like my brother is doing is off the table. TR6’s, I know inside and out, but The Roadster Factory in Pennsylvania burned down recently and I can’t find a suitable car to rebuild. My wife, Teri, sends me an ad from The MarketPlace on Facebook for a 1978 Corvette for about $1,900.00 saying this is a good one or maybe I imagined she said that. She did send me the picture, I’m sure of that. It’s important for the ‘discussion’* that will come later. I like the car and I like another 78 Corvette in New Jersey. I look at the one

in Jersey. The owner has lost the keys and the car is locked up. One of the doors is slightly ajar and I’m worried there is rot in what is called the ‘bird cage’. The birdcage is the metal frame of the car that keeps the doors and windshield square on the car. That goes bad and it’s a major repair I can’t do. The other 78 has no title and the paint on the fiberglass is gone, the fiberglass seems to be loose and in need of something I can’t do. I play with the idea of purchasing both for a moment, then I remember Teri is my wife and I don’t want another ‘discussion’* right before she leaves me. I pass on both cars. I find a 1986 Corvette in Boonton, New Jersey. It’s a faded black convertible with a stick shift. It was in an accident about eight years ago and the present owner has gotten a little too old to continue doing car restoration. Elena and I take a mid week trip to go see it. I tell Don we’ll be there about 6:30. When we arrive at the location, it looks different from the picture on Google Maps. I recheck the address and in my haste to leave I choose the wrong town and we are about thirty minutes away still. I called Don and we rescheduled for a Sunday afternoon. This time Elena navigates and we get there. We drive up a shady street toward the house. It’s April, still early in the Spring. The house is set off the street and to the right, down a hill is a large garage. I find out later Don can store up to eight of his cars in it. Don meets us outside. The Corvette is nothing to talk about. You need imagination to envision what it could look like once some care is given to it. The car has sat for eight years and

Don has health issues, so he is getting rid of projects. Elena asks a few questions to Don as I climb all over the car. Underneath to look at the frame, the driver's door doesn’t open, so over to the passenger’s door. It opens easily and closes firmly. That side of the ‘bird cage’ seems fine. I trust the other side is okay. I notice a belt sitting on the engine, but I don’t put two and two together until after we get the car to Caliper Tire. The air pump, which I thought was the alternator, looks like it is broken. We don’t make an offer on the car. I told Teri we take our time with this. We’d seen three Corvettes. The black 86 in Boonton, the first 78 in Jersey and the other 78 Corvette with no paint on it in Orangeburg. I waited a week looking for other cars. I watch videos on repairs and become a little more informed about Corvettes. During the week I notice Don has lowered the price to $1775.00. Around the end of the week after Teri and I have our ‘discussion’ about the car and how I’m going to pay for it (sell more stocks) and afford parts (I have no idea) I make an offer of $1500.00 and agreed on $1600.00.Everything comes together quickly and the car is flat bedded to Caliper Tires on a late Saturday afternoon, Sean jr and sr are still there. Senior seemed to get a kick looking it over. When Nastia see it she says, "Dad, you paid how much for this piece of shit??" Her reaction to the car is the high light of owning the car so far. I have to leave, Teri and I have plans for the night.

On Monday, I heard from Elena one of the owners has a problem with the car being at the shop. I was a little surprised about it. I thought everyone who needed to know about it had agreed to it. Someone tells her the frame is bent and the engine looks seized and it’ll cost $40,000.00 to repair. I.ve listened to people all my life say things like that and it’s always taken the fun out of doing projects. When I hear her say these things I have to fight that feeling I’ve make a $2,000.00 mistake. I tell her I’ve listened to people all my life say stuff like that. Sometimes they’re right, most times they’re not. I ask her, is this something she still wants to do? Will she have fun doing it? She answers yes to both questions and we talk a little more and she is reassured. Sometimes it’s easier to have two people, one older to put those doubts and fears to rest.

The car has been at Caliper Tire a week today. She was told it is a distraction so she can’t work on it during shop hours. That is understandable, but a disappointment. She can work on it afterwork on Wednesday and all day Sunday. She tried to move the car back into the shop on Wednesday, but it wouldn’t move. Our first project is tires and brakes because of that. A super surprise, the first of many, I’m sure happened when Sean priced tires for the car. They are 225/50r16 tires and are obsolete. A good name brand will cost $514.00 a tire. I thought I could get four for that price. We’re looking around.