"To everything there is a season..." (Ecclesiastes)+

Had to get up early today in order to get to a baby naming service at Congregation Shaarei Kodesh in Boca. The baby's name is Eliana Rebecca Cohen, and the parents are Michelle and Yaniv. Since the baby already had a name, I guess the religious service was used to confirm it--or let God know there was another girl in the world who perhaps like many other Jewish girls has inherited a shopping gene, or a cell phone gene, or a tattoo gene, or a ring in the belly button gene. We'll find out shortly.



This synagogue was located in a strip mall in a storefront where I always thought it should be called a "shul". This congregation calls itself "conservative", but the shabat service went on and on forever and ever. I kept thinking of the Eveready battery rabbit with the drum. I would hate to attend an orthodox service if this one was conservative. It was stand up. Sit down. Stand up. Sit down. The torah reading happened to be "Ecclesiastes," a most beautiful sermon which I consider "literature". I consider the Bible to be great literature, written my men...and not the word of God. Sue me. None of this service was in English...Hebrew all the way. Some of the congregants looked like they knew what they were doing, but I sincerely doubt that those who were reading from the book understood what they were chanting. When I was bar mitzvahed years ago, I was able to read Hebrew, but I didn't have a clue of the meaning.

When the service finally ended there was a "kiddish" sponsored by Michelle and Yaniv in honor of their daughter. Tables of lox, whitefish, bagels, tomatoes, cucumbers, fruit, and other ethnic food I didn't recognize. The chocolate cake was excellent.

Well, here's an addenda I have refrained from printing until now. A prominent Communist named Rudolph complained that it was raining. When contradicted by his wife, he sternly replied, "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear."

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The bad news: When there are two people over 70 living in a condo in Florida, one of the necessary requirements is to have one of them as a bookkeeper or CPA. Failing that, then you will need Rhoda. The reason is...and you can expect this for yourself--mind my words...both of you have more doctors and medications than you ever had in your life before, and you had better be prepared to sort out the Medicare bills, the bills that come in from doctors on your plan, and the bills that come in from doctors who are not on your plan. For example, we just got a bill from my neurologist for $41 from a visit in 2006. Quite often bills come in from doctors who have already been paid by Medicare, or your health plan, and if you don't keep very careful records, you wind up paying bills that you do not have to pay. Reason being: The billing staff in doctors' offices are often swamped and incompetent. Now when I first moved down here in 1982, I only had a dentist back north. Now I have an internist, a neurologist, a pulmonologist, a chiropractor, an orthopedist, a cardiologist, a dermatologist, a periodontist, an endodontist, a psychologist, and a psychiatrist...(now you know why I need one.)

The good news is that my publisher, LULU.com has assigned my MEMOIRS an ISBN number, and they have placed a bar code on the back cover of the book. I had to edit the book's file to include a copyright page and then upload it to the LULU site with that revision. The result of this is that the book will be selling in a couple of weeks at online bookstores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders. In addition there is now a "retail" price on the book which includes royalties for me and a profit for them. All that has to happen now is for people to buy the book. Of course, if you let me know, I can get it for you wholesale!

I'm sorry...I don't know any "ugly" :-(

"In her eye there hath appeared a fire..."(Much Ado About Nothing)

I'm a little late with this blog, but that's the way it seems nowadays. I never have time during the day to write. I just noticed that I have posted about 55 blogs since I started back in August. I am enjoying this very much: it gives me a chance to review the day and express my thoughts and feelings about many things. Of course, I don't know what's going to happen with all the past blogs, but if someone new wants to start out from the beginning, it should read like a book...a diary, I guess.

Well, today, Rhoda went to the doctor for her "pre-op". Her eye surgery will happen on Oct. 4. We'll all hope that it turns out more successful than her last cataract removal. She only has minimal vision in her left eye and can only read large print books. We simply refuse to imagine her not being able to read. So, keep your fingers crossed. I suppose that last makes this a mixed metaphor; perhaps keeping your eyes crossed will fix it. But never mind.

After she left the doctor's office I met her for breakfast; that is for her lunch and my breakfast; it was 11:30am. I usually sleep till 10 or 11, but the cleaning ladies got here before 11 so I got out of the house and met her at the bagel place.

For the past three years I've been playing golf with a group from the Tuscany Bay community on Mondays during "the season". Last year we played at the executive course at Kings Point, but a few of the people complained it was too short a course. Consequently, Zoe Sindel, the President of that golf club...who spends the summer up north, commandeered me to find a place to play. I tried three courses and they all charged $45 for greens fees. No way, Jose! I finally made a deal at Marina Lakes for under $30 if we start at 11:30 which is fine for me. But the big "But" is that I don't know if I can play anymore because of the walking involved. If I walk a little ways, most of the time I develop severe pain in my hip and buttocks area and I must stop until the pain subsides. So, come January 7, Monday, 11:30, we'll see what happens.

"What is here? Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold!" (Timon of Athens)

Good afternoon. Rhoda went to a luncheon today honoring the outgoing President of the City of Hope and hopefully, the incoming President, RH+. She's the person, after all, who has made all the arrangements for this luncheon and now 41 women are attending at La Luna in Boca. One of my first duties as First Gentleman of COH was to go to the bank today to deposit $3200 in donations. It was really scary carrying all that cash and checks around, and I thought I might take my starter's pistol for protection...formerly used to start H.S. track races. I changed my mind about taking it because all it can do is make a loud noise and people will start to run...maybe the mugger also.

After the bank, I went to Walmart to buy some envelopes to mail copies of ADDENDA II (my poetry book) to those idigents who could not afford to buy it for eleven bucks. The book is 6x9 and the manila envelopes must have been 6 & 8/9ths so that the book did not fit. If it says 6x9 on the envelope, you would think that something that's 6x9 should fit without squishing it. But no. I think the envelope was made in China. The book was made here. Maybe I can rent an envelope stretcher from Billy Berger who has everything. So that going to Walmart wouldn't be a total bust, I bought a package of double stuffed chocolate Oreos and some address labels. The Oreos will be much more nutritious. However, the address labels have no calories and no doubt, are healthier for you.

Getting away from Walmart and back to the bank, I asked the teller if she had any gold dollars to give me and fortunately she had six of them. The gold dollars being minted starting with our first President (not City of Hope, but USA...as if you didn't know). Then the plan is to continue with the second President and I was happy to find that among the six coins was one of President Adams! That's a really hard one to come up with. I am in love with gold coins, especially the dollar variety. I have lots of Eisenhauer dollars and Sacawagea dollars...but they are not gold. Of course the "gold" coin is not real gold...it's just golden colored (as if you didn't know).

Well, Rho just got home and the luncheon was a huge success. No complaints from 41 women? Maybe there's a God after all.

TSK! TSK!

Today's news is that I received an interesting comment on my blog "To Believe or not to Believe".

I think millions of years ago the aliens dropped off some bacteria here and we evolved to the point of driving a 165 lb person in a vehicle weighing about 2500 lbs and runs on dead dinosuar fuel. Now they are so scared of us, they only skim the surface here and are waiting for us to annihilate ourselves so they can start again with a different bacteria. A very patient group, those aliens. (Anonymous)

Now, I don't know if that is true or not, but I do know this: I don't know anyone who weighs 165 lbs. And the only bacteria that I know of is active in my neighborhood. It causes female breasts to sag, and men's guts to blow up. It appears only to attack people who are on medicare and who insist on taking their shoes off when getting on a doctor's scale. Now, we have to be very careful about whom we allow on our elevator because the elevator has a limit as to how many bacteria infected medicare patients with sagging breasts and swollen bellies can get on safely. But anyway, I thank "Anonymous" for the explanation about how we arrived on this planet. Now that we are here, we must watch what we eat and try not to get any older than we already are.

Yesterday, my honey was inducted as President of the HLs Chapter of the "City of Hope." The strange thing is that she has not received one hard copy or soft copy card of congratulations. Not a single "Mazeltov"...except from friends. (My son taught me about hard and soft copies...I'm not that astute.) However, she did get a beautiful bunch of flowers from long-time friend, Sally Forman. And her sister Geri did come to the ceremony.

Some of my stupidity manifested itself in the past couple of days, as Ruth Grimsley and I exchanged emails. Ruth lives in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK, and is a ninth or tenth cousin to my kids. She has received emails about my poetry book and my Memoirs and would like to buy the Memoirs. We both couldn't think of how to pay for this book, so I told her to stuff British pounds equivalent to the $11 price into an envelope, and I would exchange the notes in my bank...if possible. No one thought that she could use her credit card to buy it until Joel mentioned it! I checked with the publisher and indeed she can buy the book that way. I just forgot that the aliens overseas had credit cards. My bad.

HAIL to the CHIEF!

Just got back from Rhoda's installation as President of the City of Hope chapter at HLI. I suppose now I'm going to have to learn how to cook as well as greet Heads of State. For those who don't know, City of Hope is a fund raising organization for the magnificent hospital and research labs in California where cures and treatments are being sought for cancer, diabetes, aids, and other diseases which invade our bodies. There were about 150 women there this morning who came during a driving rain storm. Bagels, cream cheese, and coffee were on the tables and everyone indulged in breakfast and chats for about an hour before the ceremonies began. A speaker was scheduled, but I left there before he came. I'm very proud of my wife for the wonderful work she is doing and for getting the title before Hillary.

Today's the First Day of Autumn, Thank God!-

Well, here it is, the day after Yom Kippur and I have as yet to be struck by lightning. I didn't go to Temple yesterday, but Rhoda did and I imagine she did pray for me. As I said, I stayed home to guard our belongings against flood or wild dogs. I did, however, fast (except for some grapes and one Mallomar which do not count as real food). I did get a Comment from God however, which you can check on yesterday's blog. It went like this: No Blog today? I hope that you fasted today.Signed...God. Well, that really spooked me, so I sent Mike "Can I have another portion?" Herbstman, my friend the ham; I mean the HAM radio operator an email asking if he could send God a Morse Code message. It went like this: "Dearest God: It's true I didn't write a blog yesterday, and I didn't go to Shul, but I did fast, so give me a break and cut me some slack". Signed: Baron

So much for the religious and spiritual portion of this blog. Last night we went downstairs to the Billy & Bev Bergers and found our other neighbors Lou and Annette Strumlauf there also. It was a "break fast" which we were kindly invited to. I got there about 5:45 and about 6:15 we all sat down to dine. Of course, Rho wasn't there because she went back for evening services until the shofar rung out ... or blared out (I don't think shofars "ring"). However, she did show up at 6:40 and gobbled up at least one of each thing around the table. That included, baked salmon, nova lox, white fish and chopped herring salad, home made kugel, bagels and bialies, sour cream, cream cheese and after dinner apple pie, tea and coffee. I'm still not hungry.

Today, I drove Rhoda to Babies R' Us in Boca and it was truly an experience. The store was about the size of three football fields. The baby in question is my cousin Gary's new granddaughter born here in Boca to her mother, Michelle, who's an opera singer. Anyway this store was extremely intimidating inasmuch there were zillions of mothers and kids and babies a day or so old toddling up and down all the isles. Many of the babies probably didn't like what was being bought for them for their screams could be heard over the internet. You wouldn't want any one of them sitting behind you in a two hour airplane flight; primarily because crying babies and barking dogs never shut up unless you shove a pacifier or a bone into their mouth. Rho went there to pick up a gift which she said was on Michelle's "Registry". Only when we finally were able to track the item down the cost was $12 more than advertised on the internet. So, we settled for a couple of other things which I won't mention because the baby might be privy to this blog.

So, enough about yesterday and today. Tomorrow is the BIG day; Rho will be inducted as President of the Huntington Lakes Chapter of City of Hope. She was elected President without even a Primary being held; that's an indication of her popularity. I suppose during her tenure and administration I will be functioning as the First Gentleman greeting dignitaries, ambassadors from other chapters, media people, and members with walkers. I imagine one of my duties will be to write the State of the City speech next autumn. Well, today is the first of autumn and tomorrow we kick it off in style.

P.S. If you click on "MY LULU STORE" you will see a beautiful new avatar used as my "theme". It contains a myriad of WWII images as well as a "ribbon" representation of the DFC.