Wasting Time

Posted on 12/11/2023 by Grumpa Joe

Have you ever lost yourself in a daydream while scrolling the computer while looking at the homes of celebrities? I have. This morning, I just wasted one and a half hours scrolling. I am amazed at what people with money spend on homes. I thought I was extravagant, but my entire real estate property fits into and costs less than a typical celebrity closet. What do they do with a twenty thousand square foot house with ten bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, a swimming pool, and a tennis court?

Wealth only breeds opulence and ridiculous waste. Although, I would like to live on the land where some of these mega-mansions are situated. Usually, they are high on a hillside or an ocean waterfront. I like those properties with the lot size listed in acres. Those would allow me to develop winding paths through wooded areas and open spaces. Of course, each of those acres would cost me a million dollars, which I don’t even come close to owning.

I have scrolled through many English properties, but I have seen glimpses of many that are of estate size with castles and formal gardens that turn me on. There is something to be said for the British aristocracy; they knew how to live. Of course, they are criticized for having inherited wealth. At least I can brag about being born dirt poor and leading a comfortable life and will leave Earth also dirt poor.

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The thing that set me off scrolling this morning was a task to make reservations at Macy’s Walnut Room for lunch. Every year for over a hundred years, the property in Chicago at State and Randolph Streets, formerly Marshall Fields and now Macy’s, has held a function known as Breakfast Under the Tree. The building is unique because it has an eight-story interior atrium around which they built the Walnut Room restaurant. Each Christmas Season, they erect a seven-story tall Christmas tree in the center of the atrium and place tables around it. Guests come to eat breakfast with Santa. Many families of several generations come to celebrate with their youngest progeny. After breakfast, the kids sit on Santa’s lap to give him lists of their wants and the address to their house. When Santa is overloaded, he sends a Fairy Princess around the room who sprinkles fairy dust on children’s heads to grant them their wishes.

I thought I would be wise and reserve a table this year. In past years, we went down early and waited in line, sometimes for two hours, to get a table. Waiting in line outside on State Street when the wind is blowing and it is ten degrees does not put me in a joyous holiday mood. That wasn’t going to be me, not this year. As it turns out, I won’t be waiting for a table because even though Christmas is six weeks away, the restaurant is fully booked for the entire holiday season. And, my friends, that is how I sidetracked myself into looking at celebrity houses. I would have had more fun playing solitaire.

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Believe

Posted on 10/11/2023 by Grumpa Joe

If you were to ask me what I think about the war in the Middle East, I would more than proudly proclaim that I hope the Israelis do as well in this war as they did in the past when Egypt invaded them. They call it the Six-Day War. That is how long the Egyptians lasted. I don’t like or believe in the genocide of a race, but I do think eliminating a murderous, hate-filled cult from existence is appropriate to save the world. The cult in Palestine is called Hamas. If we in America want to see peace in the world, we must do all we can to eradicate this mentally diseased order of people.

I received this article from a friend, and it deserves a reading. It is truthful and insightful. I remember when General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited a Nazi death camp, he informed the photographers to take pictures. He said

“Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” 

― Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower predicted the future correctly. Today, we have the Muslim community believing that the Holocaust never happened and countries in Europe recommending that all mention of the Holocaust be removed from being taught in their schools for fear of offending the Muslims. My take on the matter is that Muslims should be eradicated from the face of the Earth. If that is considered hate speech, so be it. I am a hateful person when it comes to a religious belief system bullying the world toward their doctrine.

With what is happening in the Middle East now I feel this should be passed along …

 Who really died at Auschwitz?What really died at Auschwitz? Here’s an interesting viewpoint. The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper. It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe, and possibly to the rest of the world. I walked down the streets in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth: Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a group of people who represented culture, thought, creativity, talent.We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who made great contributions to the world, and thus changed the world.The contribution of today’s Jewish people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. Look at any donors’ board at any symphony, art museum, theatre, art gallery, science center, etc. You will see many, many, Jewish surnames.These are the people who were burned. Of the 6,000,000 who died, how many would have grown up to be gifted musicians, doctors, artists, philanthropists?And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the diseases of racism and bigotry, Europe opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition. We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs. What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it “offends” the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it.It is now approximately seventy years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This email is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, twenty million Russians, ten million Christians, and nineteen-hundred Catholic priests who were murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated. Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming The Holocaust to be “a myth,” it is imperative to make sure the world “never forgets.”This email is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center “NEVER HAPPENED” because it offends some Muslim in the United States? If our Judeo-Christian heritage is offensive to Muslims, they should pack up and move to Iran, Iraq or some other Muslim country.Please do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along. We must wake up America, England, Australia and Europe before it’s too late.
“If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”                                                      —Plato  
Holocaust-denial graffiti was spray-painted on one of Seattle’s largest synagogues, Temple De Hirsch Sinai.Rabbi Daniel Weiner

Filed under: Aging, Conservative, Education, family, muslims | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

I See Collusion

Posted on 08/11/2023 by Grumpa Joe

There is definitely a trend I see happening in my life. A few weeks ago, I went to my doctor for a regular yearly checkup. Everything is okay, except your thyroid is a little off. We’ll wait a few months and recheck it before I decide what to do next. “Have you made an appointment with your Ophthalmologist for an eye exam?” The answer was “no.” I chose not to push my luck and made the appointment. It has been five years since my last dilated eye exam took place.

This morning, I went to see the Ophthalmologist. “Your eyes are good, except I see a buildup of protien behind the lens transplant in your right eye. This can cause blurred vision, but we can laser it out. “Can you do this in the office?”

‘Yes, but not here or by me. It has to be done by the doctor who does cataract removal at our other office. I’ll set up your next appointment there.”

“The free eye screening I had done by the Lions reported that I have the beginnings of macular degeneration.”

“Hold on; you sound like my wife, asking questions before I’ve had a chance to do the exam.”

By this time, my pupils were as big as the eyeball, and things were blurry. He instructed me to put my chin on the gadget he used to peer into my inner eye. The gadget shined two flood lights directly onto my retina. All I saw after that was a green cloud of light between me and him. “Yes,” he said, “there are signs of macular degeneration present, and since I’m not an expert on retinal issues, I recommend you see a specialist to take a closer look at your retina.” I couldn’t argue with him because there is one thing I have learned by working with the folks who attend OASIS meetings: out of twenty attendees with vision loss, only eight will be there for the same eye-related condition. The human eye is a complex collection system transmitting data through the optic nerve to the brain, where you see it as a picture.

Now, I have two new appointments with doctors I never needed before, and my plan to head south for the winter is becoming complicated. In my mind’s eye, I see a table full of dominoes all standing on end, and I have just tipped the first one over. I see the dominoes falling one against the other and never stopping until when? Until the end, of course, is this all legitimate healthcare or an organized effort to extract as much money from the system under the guise of healthcare? And what is the end, the last domino, the end of me, the end of money, what?

All I know is that I have been taking Lovely to a retina specialist for the past year, almost every two weeks, so she can get a shot in the eye to stop her macular degeneration from getting worse. When she comes home, she is incapacitated for twenty-four hours as she recuperates. This is not a cure. It is a preventative measure to help save what is left of her eyesight.

As my favorite actor William Bendix, often said on his radio program called The Life Of Reilly, “What a revoltin’ development this is.”

Filed under: Aging, Biography, health care, Sarcasm | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

The Battle For ORCAM

Posted on 07/11/2023 by Grumpa Joe

I’m attending a Frankfort Lions Club Board of Directors meeting this evening. I resigned from the Board a few years ago after fifteen years. It was time to let the young people direct the club. I have switched my efforts to the BOD of OASIS, which serves those with vision problems. The issue on the table is that OASIS inherited a device called ORCAM from someone who passed. It is well over ten years old, and now we are trying to determine what to do with it. A quick call to the ORCAM distributor gave us some information that was in error. We were told that the old device needed to be upgraded. Like most computers, it requires some serious upgrading to handle today’s software. The cost was quoted at $1600.00. A brand-new one costs $4500. It was my job to sell this upgrade to the Lions Club. They, of course, are much smarter than I am and challenged the cost. The list of questions fired at me, the messenger, were too many and too complicated for me to answer. I went home with my tail between my legs, head down, and a bleak look.

I am not a total dummy, so I sought help getting answers and recruited two more Lions to assist. Happily, this evening, we will present a happier picture. The story has changed from $1600 for an upgrade of a 2011 unit, which will make it function only slightly better, to $1600 for a new unit with all the bells and whistles of 2023.

I believe the Distributor’s Representative tried to discourage us from seeking the upgrade, and has changed his original story from upgrade to buy a new unit, and since he screwed up so badly he is willing to give it to us at cost. If we (I) fail tonight, we will merely dig our heels in deeper and devise a new plan to secure an ORCAM for a deserving person.

For those of you who don’t know what an ORCAM is, I’ll explain to the best of my ability.

ORCAM is a company in Israel that invented a device that attaches to a pair of eyeglasses. The body of the ORCAM holds a tiny camera, a computer, and a speaker. The wearer can hold up a document, and the camera sees it for him. It then reads the printed words and transmits the sound to the wearer’s ear via a speaker built into the rear of the body. Between the eye and the ear a computer recognizes the words and converts them to sounds. The unit can also recognize faces to tell the wearer who he is talking to. That feature requires that pictures of people be entered into the ORCAM memory.

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I Love the Smell of Freshly Cut Wood

Posted on 07/11/2023 by Grumpa Joe

Today, I treated myself and got lost in my workshop to test a new toy. As a treat to myself, I bought one of those genius spot heaters that are supposed to save the world. My workshop gets very cold, and I have to add a couple of layers of clothing when I work there. Why not add a space heater? Anyway, the heater works fine, but only winter will tell. Currently, the temperature outside is in the sixties, and the basement is still warm. Now that I know the thing does function, the real test will come when it is zero degrees outside.

When I finished my Libre project, I closed the shop and went away to do other things, like writing a story that will become a book. Libre is the title of my last Intarsia work depicting a Bald Eagle in descending flight. Libre and I were fast friends from January until August, when I finished the work and hung it under the spotlight. Since then, I’ve learned that three and a half months is sufficient time to get over a love affair with wood. This month (November), I secretly began a new project, but today is the first time I cut wood again. I have decided to use Zebra wood, naturally light-colored wood with brown striations running through it. It is costly, and I learned it is scarce. It is expensive because it is scarce, or it is scarce because it is costly. It doesn’t matter; I only know that I shelled out over a hundred dollars on wood and must go shopping for more.

ZEBRA WOOD

This is the first Intarsia project I am making that is relatively flat, allowing me to use thinner wood than usual. The thickness will enable me to cut faster. The half-inch Zebra cuts like a hot knife through butter. The problem with cutting fast is that I struggle to stay on the line. The more wiggles there are in a piece, the harder it is to match the wiggles of an adjoining part. So, the benefit of using thin wood is lost because I must cut slowly to get the precision I need to make the art piece look good. I can’t complain because this is why I do what I do. It is a hobby, so it is supposed to take time. After all, what else do I have to do, write a book?

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