I like to work up a good spell of righteous indignation from time to time...

 Doesn't everyone?  Come on, admit it!

My ire of the day is an old perennial for me: credit bureaus.

Anticipating a long spell of dental expenses, I attempted to refinance my mortgage today.  the mortgage company, which I have dealt with for years, quoted the three credit bureaus to me as gospel.  First, the shnook I was speaking to told me I have two car loans.  I don't.  We took it from there.  First he assured me that I had purchased my current home in 2017.  I actually purchased it in 2019.  Since they are the mortgage holders, they ought to know.  But they don't. They also know that I have had mortgages with them for several years, starting in New Jersey, continuing to Delaware and now in Maryland.  I have never missed a mortgage payment, nor even been late once. 

Meanwhile, I have been battling the Nissan Corporation for giving me a false credit report.  I was sending my car payments to the wrong address.  They didn't mind cashing the checks, but I was to blame for sending them to the wrong address.  I complained to the government agency which supervises them, or pretends to supervise them.  The result of this waste of postage and effort was that Nissan stated they had not done anything to destroy my credit rating,  hadn't heard of me, didn't know what I was talking about, yada yada.

The government agency took no action on my complaint.  Ever.  Not even a weaselly letter acknowledging receipt of my correspondence.  I might as well have been Hunter Biden for all the notice they took of me. 

Who monitors these agencies?  Who do they report to?  Nobody, it appears.  They are able to destroy someone's reputation at will.  And do.

Inflation is catching up with me. And I don't like it.

 My IRA is especially hard hit.  The graph of its trajectory  causes great consternation--down is not where I want it to be.

Biden finds it exciting that the price of gas is going up.  I do not share his jubilation.  He reminds me of a kid playing with matches.  2024, please come soon!

Let's go to the polls and teach them a lesson--a lesson I am sure they are unable to benefit from.

Who is the most annoying new face in Washington.  I vote for Jennifer Granholm, the smuggest woman on the planet after Jane Fonda.  I am so glad that our suffering is causing her amusement.  Good that someone is enjoying this.

Try Harold Adams

 I was shocked when I looked up Harold Adams on Amazon and they only had one book of his. "No badge, no gun."  Adams was a good chronicler of the Depression in the Midwest. More important, he was a damn good writer whose books entertained me.  Has he been forgotten?  If so, it is a pity.

Other mystery writers who have been undeservedly neglected:  John Maddox Roberts, who is entertaining about Ancient Rome, Elizabeth Daly, whose works take place in the thirties and forties in New York City.  There are others and I plan to write about them and give them their due at another time.

Try these three and let me know if you enjoy them.  I would also like suggestions from my readers about books I would enjoy.

National art show

I wanted to have a show of my paintings.  Then I realized they are all over the country.  The paintings I gave away  or sold are not where I can reach them.  They are in California, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Maryland and Delaware.    I have had paintings in various juried shows, and even won prizes on some of them.

When I visited my grandson I saw a painting of two red peppers and realized I had painted it.  I am very fond of red peppers and like the way they look.

I am still at it but my house is full of paintings.  I like to paint with Watercolor pens now.  They are easier on the furniture.

I hate politics

I managed to get through the entire Vietnam War without knowing anything about it, including where Vietnam was.  I allowed the government to make the decisions about what to do about this, or anything else, thinking they had studied the situation and had it well in hand.  After all, the government was full of Harvard graduates and Fulbright scholars, and I was a graduate of a State school, moreover, one without a football  team.  In short, I trusted them to know what they were doing.  Those happy days are gone, apparently forever.

Now I have to keep an eye on the bastards and in order to do so, I have to keep up with the news.  I have to know the difference between the Tutsi  and the Houtu, so I can set them straight when they are doing it wrong.  And I especially had to keep an eye on our government, something that gives me sleepless nights because they seem to be doing it wrong all the time.

  And there is Hunter Biden--don't get me started on him.  And Joe Biden, whose peregrinations reminds me of my Uncle Abe, after he got  Alzheimers. Of course, Abe's conversations made more sense than Biden's, for he was smart and Biden isn't.  But both had a tendency to wander off if not watched.

So now I follow the news, and it gives me high blood pressure.  I long for the good old days when I kept up with English literature and the politicians ran the country without my input.  Actually they still run the country without my input but I am forced to keep an eye on them.  They turn out to be ganovim-(Yiddish for thieves).  So they go on merrily running the country into the ground, and worrying about such vital issues who is using which bathrooms and who is using which pronouns for whom.

Meanwhile, my ltttle nest egg loses 40,000 dollars over a weekend.  As all you Harvard grads know, this is Putin's fault. 

I never thought of doing this, but...

now I have termites, plus a car that only works intermittently.   So I think I'll try gofundme.  That or pitch a tent.

I need matzoh

 I put a request on Instacart for a box of matzoh.  They recommended dried prunes instead.  Not many Jews around here, I guess.

I used to order beet borscht, but it comes in a glass bottle, which I am likely to drop.  A quart of beet borscht would be enough to paint a battleship.  Cleaning beet borscht up from your floor is an endless task.The little shreds of beets have great staying power.

My long involvement with Amazon is getting abusive

I ordered one bookshelf from Amazon, which arrived.  Then, three more came.  It was like the Sorcerer's Apprentice.  I sort of dread opening the door in case the company thinks I need more shelves.

I can't even use the three currently residing on my front porch.  There is no more room in my apartment unless I turn the place over to shelving and move into my car.  The problem is that I can't lift the damn things, so I want Amazon to come and get them.  I am straining every sinew to get them to come and take them, but the company is getting hard to get in touch with.  They used to answer the phone but those days long since passed, and like the bustle and the buggy whip, are only remembered by the oldest customers.  

My porch, being small, is almost full of the blasted things, with no room left for the grocery delivery I must order soon.  I NEED food, and don't need more shelving.  Help!

 

 

Is Ukraine the flavor of the month?

 I totally disapprove of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  But is Ukraine so wonderful?  I hear their government is corrupt and it's not such an amazing place.  Do we want to throw the full weight of the United States unreservedly behind this country, the name of which seems to shift from Ukraine to the Ukraine? Their main characteristic seems to be their determination to fight off the Russian invasion.  I  admire them for their courage in standing up to the bully Putin but I can't understand the enthusiasm of every political faction in the US, most of whom loathe each other.  Everyone is up to their eyeballs in Ukrainian flags and sunflowers.

When Israel was attacked by forces larger than they, I don't recall everyone cheering them on.  I think Israel is  much more worthy of admiration than Ukraine.  But that's just me.

I never particularly liked Trump

I thought he had an offputting personality; he was a loudmouth lout, to my thinking. He lacked gravitas.  Dignitas too. I planned to vote for Hillary in 2016,  without much enthusiasm.  But after the Bengazi incident, I just couldn't.  Her callous disregard for the lives of the men who were killed at Bengazi, including our ambassador, was a bridge too far.

So I was very pleased and surprised when the Trump agenda unfolded.  Everything was going swimmingly, particularly in relation to Israel.  It did not hurt that we were energy independent. Also, the border wall was becoming a reality.  So far, so good.

Still Trump was rather bumptious--and those tweets--so unpresidential and undignified.  On the other hand, I approved the way the country was going. After the initial shock wore off.  But Trump the man was objected to vigorously by all the right (right-thinking, meaning leftist) people.  

 

The people that went to Harvard unanimously hated him.  He was guilty of something unspeakable that everyone knew about, so much so that there was no point in revealing what it was, you just knew if you were a right-thinking person.

I must have stayed home on the day this frightful thing happened, but I didn't know what it was.  I missed the memo

One President in my lifetime had been venerated by all.  My family members were in tears at his death.  And who was this paragon?  FDR, who later turned out not to be too fond of Jews. Some of his best friends were Jews, but the Jews of Europe were not allowed to emigrate to this country, and were sent back where they had come from, to certain death.

He was a man of enormous charm, so his attitude toward Jews was never spoken of by anyone and went down the memory hole to remain forever.

 

Catching Covid from a ballpoint pen

If I come down with Covid I'll know who to blame.  It's those damned ballpoint pens.  They must be highly contagious because every doctor's office in Frederick has two kinds of pens:  new pens and dirty pens.

 

I confess:  I've been stealing those dirty pens.  They are just sitting there like they spread contagion, when I have been informed that pens cannot transmit disease.  So now I always have a functional pen in my purse.

 

Just avoid toilet seats and you will be fine.

the scales have fallen from my eyes

 Joe Biden's presidency has disillusioned me.  I used to think presidents were very special people gifted with extraordinary wisdom and knowledge who put the welfare of the American people ahead of all other considerations, and who deserved the utmost respect.  I no longer think that.  Not only don't I believe that about Biden, but I no longer trust anything the government says or does.   I consider  all government agencies corrupt and useless including the CDC.  And don't forget the FBI , who love to raid taxpayer's homes in the middle of the night and have private discussion on politics during working hours. 

We are all pretending  that Biden is a normal man, carrying out his presidential duties for good or ill,  like Roosevelt or Bush.  We  know that this cannot be the case.  We all know that masks are as useful as tits on a boar. But we all go along with the deception.  In today's paper there is a portrait of a man, a politician, wearing a black mask.  He might be any one.  He might be public enemy Number One or a famous criminal.  Who can tell?

I don't believe the statistics about Covid put out by the government.  If Andrew Cuomo could fudge statistics, why should we give credence to any one's statistics?  I certainly don't. 

This is creepy

I'm just throwing this out there;

Big ad in Walmart Optical Department,  selling  Elton John eyeglasses,

Elton John is blind.  He does not need glasses, does he?  Is it just me, or do other people find this a little offputting?

 

My best friends are dead

 I have been reading comments on various blogs about how the authors are free of prejudice, loving and living among friends of other races and political views, so I decided to review my friendships to see where I stand in the racial and political sweepstakes.  I have to conclude that I am a miserable failure in this context.

In reviewing the current state of my friendships, I discovered that I don't really have any active friends any more.  Most of my friends can be found buried in cemeteries or in urns.  I have sadly outlived most of my dearest friends.  They are either dead or have moved to Arizona.

I miss all the people who filled my life with love and meaning, starting with my parents, my aunts and uncles, and my cousins , a group who are dwindling rapidly.  Then college friends.  I used to have a long Christmas card list, but it's getting shorter as these people join the great majority.  

What's the answer?  I don't know.  I find consolation in my grandchildren and nieces and nephews.  I cherish my blog friends too.  So please respond with comments.  I miss you, and you don't have the excuse of being dead, so no excuses.

I have been out of circulation

 Sometimes I wonder why I keep this thing up.  I have decided that my posts have lately not been amusing.  If I were one of my faithful followers I would probably abandon ship.

All I do is go to doctors and buy appliances to replace the ones that were in the house but decided to break down right after the closing. 

The latest was a hot water heater.  Last time I replaced one of these it cost me $300.  This one was $4000.   I was inclined to put it off but washing my hands in tepid water soon got old.

I only hope nothing goes wrong soon.

I also had foot surgery and have been sequestered for two weeks.  I thought I could use the time to address Christmas cards, but I haven't.  I also ran out of postage stamps.

I am really not in a good frame of mind, but I would still like to wish my loyal fans Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Let's go Brandon.  It's too late to wish you Happy Chanukah, but I had good intentions and hope you got lots of latkes.  And jelly donuts, if you like them.

Best wishes to all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Biden is an unusual guy

He's the only Irish-American crooked politician who is totally devoid of charm.

who wants a useless Kindle?

I've got a drawer full of them if anyone has a use for them.  Kindles have a lifespan like butterflies.

Getting in touch with NJ pension department

When I moved from New Jersey to Delaware, I called up the New Jersey Department of Pensions and was connected to a Person.  This Person was responsive to my needs and made the requisite changes in my pension distribution.  Time spent:  10 minutes.

 

Now I am living in Maryland and attempted to contact the same department online.  The Person isn't there any more--she probably retired.  So I was directed to a link.  The link requires you to log on, but you have to log on to two places:  One is to My New Jersey and the other is not. Needless to say, I was not successful in logging on to either site.  

I want to change my  withholding from Delaware to Maryland.  This is impossibly difficult.  I wanted to change my driver's license but due to Covid I could not go to the Motor Vehicle department.  Now I guess you can, but you have to make an appointment, again on a website.  So that is in abeyance.

I don't want to log on to anything.  I don't want another app for anything.  I just want to straighten out my affairs.  Maybe it would be easier to for get the whole Maryland thing and move back to Delaware

 

Deleting my comments

 Blogger is now giving me three choices on what to do with comments.  I can either dismiss them as spam, delete them, or put them in a garbage can.  There is no choice to publish them.

 

So for those who do me the courtesy of commenting;  I receive your comments and appreciate them.  Please continue to add to the conversation.  Maybe Blogger will once again permit me to post them.

Politicians

 I just finished reading an article comparing Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton, with a side order of Joe Biden.  The article went into a lot of detail about their personal styles, philosophy of government, and the public's perception.

I'd like to simplify the essential differences between these persons as it affects the government of our nation.  There are two kinds of political office holders:  male   and female crooked liars.  The other stuff is just inessential window dressing.