Cuando en Nueva York, presione uno para el español y dos para el inglés.

.....We are finally back in Florida after a week in New York which wasn't the best of times according to my recollection.  We are not used to the cold weather; most of the time it was in the high 40's or low 50's.  I once played golf in the 50's, and I thought it was balmy and the coming of springtime, but this time it seemed as though we were somewhere in the North Pole--with no escape nor penquins.  Except for the times that we stopped at the Celebrity Diner, I was being starved.  Saturday night at the reception for the Bat Mitzvah girl, Ally, the food was doled out buffet style.  Except for the potato pancakes, the food was hallucious--at least according to my palate, although most of the guests formed long lines to get at it.  But finally the time came for us to get home.  And that's another story.

.....We had a 3pm flight on Jet Blue, but it was about 12:30 when we returned the car, a Nissan Sentra.  Don't buy it.  Going through security verged on semi-insanity.  Because I have a pacemaker, I had to be patted down.  Well,  the patterer  searched every part of my body stealing at least 15 minutes from my reading time.  I didn't  know the problem; if everyone had to be patted for this length of time the lines would have reached out to the tarmac. I even saw them patting down an old lady in a wheelchair.  Besides, I was wearing a U.S Navy cap with a couple of important medal replica pins, and a pair of wings attached to it. And, I don't suppose I could have been mistaken for a member of the Muslim navy.  And, besides, I did not carry a hoofah pipe.  Hey, use some judgment, guys.  We finally made it home, but not before stopping by Nathan's in Boynton Beach for some good American hot dogs.  


.....One thing I did learn on this trip is that I cannot trip any longer.  It is too taxing; not only for me, but for RH+ as well, what with the packing and unpacking and the lugging of luggage and getting transportation to pick up a rental car and driving through unbelievable traffic for those hours on a Monday, and then returning the car and getting transported back to JFK and waiting two hours before boarding, and add to this, sleeping in a strange bed, and all the other taxing events of the week--and traveling for us is now forbidden.  And another problem is that I can no longer walk very far, or safely with simply a cane--which means, perhaps, that I may have to swallow deeply and opt for a walker (heaven forbid).  But then there's Omar who wrote, "The moving finger writes, and then moves on; nor all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it."   (There's a lesson to be learned there.)


.....However, there is still tomorrow, and I'm thinking I'll have something to say about Mark Twain's memoirs compared to mine.  It's spectacular. Stay tuned.

The Big Affair in New York in the Cold!

.....Just received an email from cuz Ruth all the way from England lamenting that there is "a gap" in her life.  It poured guilt into my day because the gap occurred because she hadn't seen any posting on this blog for awhile and she was concerned that something was wrong across the Atlantic.  But that is not the case.  The fact is that I am writing this on the hotel's guest computer in New York.  We came here last Tuesday to attend a Bat Mitzvah of Rho's granddaughter, Allyson.  On Thursday I was forced to don a tuxedo in order to take family pictures at the temple.  I could not button the top button on my shirt, so I had to make my tie ride up as far as possible.  We were there a couple of hours taking pictures.  I hope I didn't spoil any of them, because I have never been taught how to smile.  Once in a while I laugh at a joke but that is a rare event. 

.....To back up one day, on Wednesday we went to the Roosevelt Field mall.  That location is the noted as the one where Lindbergh took off for his flight across the Atlantic, and there is a plaque there to commemorate that event.  I was not really able to wander around the mall with my cane, so Rho had to locate someone who was able to get a wheelchair for me, and after a while she succeeded as she usually does when she tries something.  The primary reason for going there was to have something to do, and so we did do something--we had lunch at the food court.  I had a hot dog which wasn't so hot, and she had something Asian.  Then she decided she had to have her nails done, and so we shortly found a salon where I waited while she was nailing it.  Since she had something she wanted, I decided it was my turn, so we stopped at a kiosk and bought a bag of dark chocolate non-paraiels (Since I don't know how to spell it, I just stuck a bunch of vowels in it--I'll check it later. There is no dictionary in New York).

.....I really don't remember what we did on Friday except having a very late lunch and I waited at the beauty parlor for RH+ to have her hair done.  But I do remember what we did yesterday; in the morning we went to services at the temple to hear Allyson do her Bat MItzvah thing.  She didn't do a bad job reading her "haftorah"--a section of the Bible.

In the evening we attended the reception and, truthfully, I never ever heard music so loud as it went all night long--with the same beat--it never stopped and all the kids were on the dance floor jumping up and down thinking, I believe, that they believed they were dancing.  In order to escape the mind bending decibels, I removed myself the quite of the lobby until Rhoda came and dragged me back inside to perform the candle lighting ceremony.  The food was pretty good, except that it wasn't a "sit down" meal; it was a buffet and the lines at each station were quite long before you could grab a plate.  It was about 12:30a.m. when we got back to our room at the hotel.  I flopped onto the bed and watched a football game--and eventually I went to sleep.  This evening we are heading to Renee's to finish off the buffet leftovers.  Tomorrow we are going home, and hopefully this blog is free of errors and boredom.  But at least it will close the gap that Ruth was complaining about.

Comment on the Comments

.....Regarding PB's comment on the previous blog posting:  Phil is certainly right about Russ Feingold former Dem. Senator from Wisconsin. He was defeated by Ron Johnson, a Republican Tea Partier.  And one wonders about the brain levels of the people of Wisconsin who voted for this guy.  It's mind boggling.  Just see if you would vote for this man...well maybe some of you would...until perhaps you knew a little about Sen. Feingold.  What is happening here is a recurrence of the Cromwellian Interregnum in England when the monarchy was abolished and Oliver Cromwell & Puritans ruled the country after Charles I was executed by them.  Of course, the Tea Party Puritans would not execute Obama.  Or would they? And how about this Puritan:

Ron Johnson has called scientists who attribute global warming to man-made causes "crazy" and has said the theory is "lunacy". He has said the source of the climate change is "sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time". (So just exactly who is crazy?)

Johnson believes marriage should be between one man and one woman and he supports the present military policy of "don't ask, don't tell". (Nice and conservative. Status quo...Don''t touch.

He opposes research funding for embryonic stem cells. Johnson has stated he disagrees with it morally and also eliminating funding would help balance the federal budget. (So what if we don't find cures for deadly diseases? We're moral)

Johnson appeared in Madison, Wisconsin at the Tea Party rally for Tax Day, April 15, 2010.He attracted the attention of the Tea Party movement when he gave two emotional speeches at Tea Party rallies. According to The New York Times, he said he "did kind of spring out of the Tea Party" and is glad to be associated with it.

Johnson has been called "a political blank slate", because not only does he have no legislative voting record, he has also never previously run for political office.

As of November 1, 2010, he had contributed $8,238,465 (64%) to his own campaign. (Ah! Our new governor beat him silly. He spent $32,000,000)