One of my guilty pleasures is watching Breaking Bad. Prompted by my daughter and son, I started watching it for the first time about 5 months ago and I'm in the middle of the final season. I have never seen a show so well written, shot and acted. It's brilliant the way little details are woven into the story line and brought back to have meaning. …
Despite any prosperity I may have earned and enjoy, I have never evolved from my "On Sale" mentality. Said another way, I am a sucker for a "Sale" (I use quotes because the term is elusive and difficult to define, as discussed later). If and when I enter a store I am gravitationally pulled to the "Sale" or, better still,"Clearance" racks. And when …
There’s a detached garage at Flo’s mother’s house in Queens -- the house that Flo grew up in, my father-in-law lived in until his death five years ago, and her mother still lives in. The garage is used for storage and in all of the years that I took things in and out of that garage, the garage door was never locked -- until two weeks ago when I …
Last night I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning. It wasn't smart and it wasn't intentional. Sure some might say that I should be responsible for my own actions, but that level of responsibility can only go so far. I was all prepared to get a decent night's sleep, when my wife sabotaged me. Some might say it was accidental, but she should know …
Please tell me that I am not alone. Ann B. Davis played the character of Alice on one of my all-time childhood TV shows, the Brady Bunch. (Don’t get me started – I’ll be talking about I Love Lucy next). Sadly, she passed away this weekend and that had me strolling down memory lane. I am actually a little fanatic about the show. I still sometime …
Saturday was my husband’s annual cousin’s club. Every year in June, all of the relatives from my mother-in-law’s side of the family get together at our house. The cousins begin arriving at about 12:30 and each brings their own picnic lunch and beverages. We provide the location, pool, hopefully sunshine, and the bathrooms (a definite necessity). …
There are nappers and non-nappers. For me, napping is one of the great pleasures and typically it is part of my weekend, each day. From what I have read, a nap is good for your health. Most mammals nap throught the day. We are the only ones with two periods during our twenty four hours, one being awake and the other for sleep. I prefer to be …
The New York Rangers are headed to the Stanley Cup Finals. I know some of you don't really care and won't read the rest of this blog but I wanted to acknowledge the incredible run they are having. If you watch one moment...watch this ridiculous and incredible save by NYR goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Because this save, in realtime, is a mere fraction …
Over my life I have had a number of very good friends. Sadly, they are friends no more. Looking back, there was no moment of confrontational conclusion or such. They seem to have just faded from the scene. In fact, they still live in the area and at times we endure uncomfortable encounters with them. Joanne and I talk about it and them quite often …
Red light cameras are showing up everywhere. The cameras that are at intersections which are coordinated with the traffic lights to photograph the license plates that go through red lights or commit other violations (like rolling through a right turn on red). Recent reports are that, after a few years since being introduced, revenues from the r …
Following the Memorial Day Parade on Monday, our Little League re-scheduled its Opening Day ceremonies since they had been rained out the first week of the season. I always push my teams to have a strong turnout as Memorial Day has always been something that was important to me (one might say, duh, it's important to everyone, but the truth is that …
Anna and Emily Lawrence, twin sisters and juniors at JFK High School in Bellmore, recently made an important observation. Too many people, and in particular, new drivers are distracted by their cell phones and other devices. This is serious –people get hurt and some die. Some statistics show that eleven teens die every day because of texting and …
Given the meaningful blog Fred wrote on Friday as to the history behind Memorial Day, I’m wondering how most of us spend Memorial Day. For my family, it’s always been about inviting some close friends and family over to, hopefully, enjoy the good weather and our pool. We always order too much food (so I don’t have to cook during the following week …
As my sixtieth birthday creeps closer, my mind drifts to thoughts of catastrophic illness and death. It is not the first time. I once had a crush on Janice Zloto. She had a crush on my best friend. I wanted to die. But I was only in sixth grade. Five years ago I thought I was having a heart attack and spent the night in a hospital, but it tu …
Over the past couple of weeks I have done a totally unscientific study of how the recent long winter has affected businesses. There's the obvious ones that were/are dramatically affected; Nursery...sales are down compared to last yearPest control company...owner says it's like we're a month behind.Awning company...two months delayed in sales/s …
