Whatever you want to write about, but just do it! That is the message that is being received by my senses at this time. It has been a while since I had a chance to actually sit down and write for the blog, As a matter of fact, I am not sure this will get finished today. Tried earlier, but several phone calls and some other interruptions stopped me from even starting. It is almost like going in circles and never getting off. Frustrating, yes… fruitful or efficient, definitely not!
Not even sure about the topic. Perhaps it is time to write about those two army years and the social upheaval we lived through during those years from 1967 to 1974 or so. Perhaps, as a historian has put it: “the closest this country has come to a second revolution since the 1770’s”. Those were extremely moving, heartening, frustrating, social changing, structure shaping years and we were in the midst of it all. After I was discharged from the army, I worked in NYC (primarily Manhattan); I remember walking down St. John’s Place and in just one block, by the time one came to the Fillmore East Theater corner, it was easy to be high, just breathing the local air. Definitely not the 50’s anymore. The first “daily televised in-your-living-room-war” changed our world forever. All innocence went out the door and horror seeped into the living rooms across America, as people would sit down after dinner to watch the daily news, being primarily full with views of one bombing or another, often accompanied by shots of children and women running from the fire. What wasn’t put on the screen was the fact that the VC very often used (as do Al-Khaeda terrorists today) these very women and children to kill US soldiers. This was a war that took away our traditional sense of “chivalry” and horror at having to aim and often fire a weapon at someone who could be your sister, daughter or son. At the end of the analyst’s story and recount of the day’s activities “on the front lines”, came the all too well known head counts for the day. Perhaps there was a hardening of our collective conscience or thinking processes; what should have truly been a horror show, turned into a nightly ratings race.
Or, we can talk about the Super Bowl… especially after I called it in the last blog. I had the feeling that the group from NO would prevail; as good as the Colts may be (and they are indeed) the Who Dat crowd simply had more heart and guts. They showed this in the play calling and in the fact that after initially falling behind, their reaction was much better than the reaction of the Colts after they fell behind New Orleans is a great city indeed and I hope this win will bring an aura of positive possibilities which will help put Katrina into the distant past, as a nasty memory and a guidebook as to how not to act under catastrophic circumstances. On the other hand, (as Tevia would say in his arguments with himself…) from these ashes a much better city should come to be, and we will all be the better for it.
There is a remodeling project going on in this house. The owner decided he was going to stay here until he goes out feet first, so he is tackling all those changes he had been meaning to get done over the last 3 years… all at once!
A stone façade was put on several sides of the house, the front door is being pushed out to make a larger foyer and all the carpeting on the main floor is being replaced with marble tiles, cut into defined shapes and such. It will look very pretty once the work is finished but, in the meantime…. OY VEY!! We occupy the rear apartment and in order to go out, we must go through the war zone: marble cutting saws and tables, cables, dirt, pieces of tiles, wood planks… you name it. The cables are really special: different colors, widths, coming from different sources and, especially, all over the place. I still insist that the color of the existing bricks on different parts of the house (a quite-not-red-orangy-color bricks) really does not look good with the stones, which are closer to medium and darker grays that to reddish… anyway, his house, not mine. If he and his wife like it… what can I say? NOTHING!! you shout back to the screen? Well, YOU’RE RIGHT!!!
I told you I would not be able to finish this yesterday… Sure enough, some documents came through and had to be reviewed, edited and sent back, a translation included for one of them. Now I am advised some more are coming in so, rather than risking another unfinished day (a very likely outcome) I will plaster this on the web and do my best to come back tomorrow.
Be Well!!
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