5,000. Wow

We are about to hit a milestone here at the good Doctor, 5,000 hits since we started the counter ( some time after the actual blog). I would have to go back and check when we hit 4,000, but that would involve research on my part.

I see that we are only about 3,500 behind the blog that was the inspiration for this one, so keep checking here for more interesting tidbits on life.

The only thing I don't get is 5,000 hits, maybe one comment per post. Speak up, folks!

My Mother

On the sixth anniversary of my mother's death, I contemplate her life and my relationship to it. Unfortunately, while she was alive, I couldn't really appreciate her situation or her history. Mine was always a rocky relationship with her. Although she would go into paroxysms of laughter at one thing or another, I always thought of her as not having a sense of humor, certainly not one akin to mine. Irony and satire did nothing for her and she actually resented it when presented with them.

Beset by 7 rambunctious children that she had a hard time controlling, she retreated into a humorless insistence on order (very much like myself). We considered her old-fashioned and unwilling to bend with the times.

Of course, in retrospect, we have all become our parents and journeyed the continuum of growth they traveled before us. The generation gap wasn't invented or discovered in the 60's. It's as old as creation.

Until she died, it was difficult to see her as a person, growing from childhood into young adulthood, maturing into comfortable peaceful middle age and finally descending to the end of life with all its anxieties and fears.

After she died, I went through boxes of photographs which depicted her in many of the stages of her life and only then did I realize there was a real person there. An orphan child afraid of dogs and hating the goat she had to milk, living just along the poverty line with her mother and adored brother and retarded sister. Then later with the man she married, happy in the new security of marriage, but once again plunged into anxieties caused this time by persecution and a world war and then the tragedy of her brother's murder and the untimely death of her mother.

I see pictures of her, at a time when she was younger than all my children are now, finally in the new world though not worry free, happily holding a little baby (me) on a Hudson river boat outing or enjoying a summer afternoon sitting on the grass with myself and my older brother, a picture of youth and expectation. Things got well for her after she arrived here. My father did well and we lacked for nothing material. A summer home, vacations in Florida and out west, and then later a home in Israel. I don't think she was ever completely comfortable socially, always in my father's shadow, except for the time she spent in Israel.

I am still surprised when, on the occasion of the anniversary of her death, people approach me and tell me stories of how they were impressed by my mother, how she helped them and was kind to them and did things for them.

It has taken me almost seventy years to finally appreciate her.

More on Mayor Moron

Once again, recently I was attempting to travel down the West Side Highway. There were delays getting off the George Washington Bridge. This is a merge where two two lane roads converge into a three lane road, with the middle lanes merging.

So i see on the little zebra stripes that separate the merge a car stopped with a motorcycle cop writing the guy a ticket. The stripes are not really big enough for the car, and this is what is causing the delay.

Traffic is still heavy into the lower 100's. Sure enough, at least this time on the cut out off the road, I see another motorcycle cop writing up two cars.

Traffic gets a little better, then snarls up again coming into 79th Street. once again, ANOTHER motorcycle cop. But this idiot has someone pulled over half blocking and entrance lane from 79th Street and the actual highway.

So it turns out that there is a cell phone ticket blitz going on. However, I can't believe that it is the policy of the NYPD, and of course, by extension, our moronic Mayor, to have the cops stop people in the middle of highways, and cause massive rush hour traffic jams just to raise a few dollars. The Mayor should ensure that this doesn't happen, and prevent people from getting to work on time. Once they are late, they have to call in, don't they? Then they get pulled over also. A vicious cycle of entrapment, if you ask me.

The truth is, this one is more on the typical display of arrogance of the cops, who just don't give a hoot about anything other than their narrow minded view.

I think it was put best by Bug. "Cops are the bullies from High School"

Whats Shaking?

An interesting thing happened today. I work in a twelve story commercial building in Brooklyn. In the area where I am, it is by far the tallest building. I was sitting at my desk, holding my head in my hands as I read something, when I felt myself getting woozy. It was really more of a slight side to side motion, so I thought it must be because of the way I was sitting. However, upon changing position, the swaying continued.

I thought maybe I was dancing, but I looked down and my feet weren't moving.

Now this is an old, concrete building that really shouldn't be doing the rumba on its own. I didn't hear whooshing wind or a plane, so it couldn't be that. Really pretty nerve wracking, as I am pretty high up. I immediately longed for my old office, ground floor, one story.

Everyone here, after dithering about, decided to check and see if anyone else reported tremors of some kind. Turns out this big earthquake in Canada is being felt down the Eastern seaboard (or at least in Brooklyn.)

Typical damn Canadians. And I can't even blame Bloomberg for this one.

Gotcha, Speed Demon 2 ( maybe)

OK, Now this is getting ridiculous. If anyone is actually still reading this blog, or has done so this past week, you would know that I finally tracked down the Speed Demon. Or so I thought.

The excuse for the 94 speed was that he had closed the windows and was driving downhill and didn't hear the wind noise to indicate how fast he was going. Whatever. Still too fast in my opinion.

However, yesterday I got a tip to look at the max speed on the GPS again. So like an idiot, I did. Wanna guess the number? 100!! This is getting ridiculous.

I will protect the innocent here, but I will tell you it wasn't me, Lovely or Stretch. The excuse for this one was the need to pass a truck so as not to get stuck behind it on a one lane road. My answer to this was if you had to hit 100 to pass, then the truck was going plenty fast on its own.

I have decided, no more. The young drivers are herewith punished.

They can no longer use the GPS. I just don't want to know.

Mayor Moron, Get Your House in Order

I'm not sure is this is under the direct purview of the esteemed Mayor of New York, but it certainly should be if it isn't.

I was driving down the West Side Highway at 9:25 AM on my way to an appointment in the city at 10:00 AM. Traffic was very slow southbound past 125th Street, where it usually opens up. So I figured there was an accident, or that idiot performance artist with the fruit on his head was out again.

No, this was even better, there was a construction truck in the left lane, and they were MOWING THE GRASS in the median! During RUSH HOUR. Does the mayor and his various departments absolutely not give a darn about the drivers, workers and residents of the City?? I wonder.

The fruit guy should be arrested every time he is out as well, since he also snarls up the traffic, but at least he doesn't work for the city. Why can't they schedule the mowing for, say 11 AM to 3 PM, when it would cause the lease damage to traffic and people's ability to get to work and make money to pay the taxes which pay for the mowing?

I reiterate my previous position, eventually we will be down to one resident, hizzoner hisself.

Gotcha, Speed Demon!

Previously, I posted about the interesting feature on my GPS that allows me to see the top speed attained while the unit is in use. Since then, I have left the unit plugged in while sitting inside the console box. I did this out of sheer laziness, since it was easier to do that than to unplug it and take it inside. I did not do it to spy on the various other drivers of my vehicle to see who thinks he or she is speed racer.

Well, this weekend I went down to Lakewood with Bug. Although we know the way, travelling on a summer Friday down the Garden State Parkway always has its adventures, so I like to have the ability to detour if necessary. As we hit a particularly slow stretch of the highway, we punched up the GPS. I was driving, so Bug was working the machine. I asked him, out of curiosity, what the top speed was now reading. It had been 87 on this particular unit ( not 110, that was the OTHER unit I have). He tells me it is now reading 94!!!!!

OK, now I KNOW that I haven't been on a plane, and I also know that I haven't gone that fast. That leads me to the usual suspects. Well, Bug immediately denied going that fast any time recently, which makes sense, since he has not done any major highway driving lately. Lovely has not used the unit or my car, for that matter, in quite some time. Stretch recently took the unit to return to school. However, he was driving some ancient station wagon that needed to be returned to Pennsylvania. Therefore we were under the impression that he probably couldn't coax that kind of speed out of a car like that, especially one he claimed shook at around 60.

Well, we were wrong. Upon admission, it appears the old wagons certainly hit that kind of speed.

Let's see how fast he can go on a bicycle now.

Do I look fat with this?

I recently attended a celebration for a relative. At the coffee station there were some danishes and pastries set out. As I got my coffee, I picked up a small rugelach that both intrigued and called out to me.

First, some background. I had lost about forty pounds, but have since put about half of that back. ( I know, I know, some people want a refund!) So I am in the middle of where I was at both my heaviest and lightest.

As I pick up this pastry, I met a relative. He looked at my hand, then my midsection, and asked me if I was putting the weight back on.

So now I was wondering, if I had had a carrot in my hand, would he have asked me if I was losing weight again?

I think that the whole thing is really perception. I mean, I was wearing a jacket and tie, its not like I have this big gut just sticking out in its own time zone here. People tend to look at the circumstances to make a decision. It does make sense that if I am not at my thinnest, and I am eating cookies and cakes, that I am probably not in diet mode, even if I should be. But I could be at an optimum weight ( remember, round IS a shape, after all), just maintaining, or cheating a little bit ( it was a little rugelach, not a big donut or cookie).

As to the ultimate question whether it was worth it?

YUP

I'M BAAACK!!!!!

i don't know why, or for how long, but for some reason, my computer is not blocked today! I noticed first that certain links were working, then, when i was researching someone, I was able to access sites that have previously been blocked.

So of course, the first thing i could think of doing when i realized that i could once gain get to the good doctor without going through gatekeepers and machinations ( not unlike managed health care), was to share the good news with you all, dear readers.

Now this leads to a new pressure to keep the wonderful bits flowing here. ("OK, wiseguy, your excuse is moot, we expect blogs, and we want to be entertained!") So I can always claim ( in advance) that this unblocking must be some kind of fluke. Therefore, if you don't see a post for say, a week, assume I am blocked once again.

Or just have nothing to say.