Another year will be ending in another few hours, and while at least a million people gather in Time Square in NYC to watch the Crystal Ball drop signaling the beginning of another New Year, I want to just take a moment and wish to one and all the Happiest of New Years  and may we all be together again at this time next year.

Have a great year everyone!

It was December 22nd, just three days away from the big C day. I had a little birdie ( my Mom ) mention the night before that my wife hoped I had gotten her a gift. Naturally,my wife having been very ill over the past two months, and having not worked very steady, I really wasn’t concerned about gifts….but I had bought some gifts and than said to myself, what the heck, let me stop off and get another gift or two for the wife and the little ” birdie “. About a half hour later I get out of the department store I was shopping in and walked toward my vehicle. As I am getting to the car, with the light fading fast from the December sky, I notice that the car is leaning toward the drivers side a bit. And as I get closer, I start to get madder, because what do I see….oh Santa please no….that’s right a flat tire….and the rain begins to fall!

So around two and a half hours later, I have the donut on the car and I’m driving home. After having to call my mom from the Firestone across the street,to come pick me up, and than ask my neighbor to take me back to the parking lot where the car was, so I could change the tire, in the rain, rather slowly due to the lack of proper tools and a pretty useless jack that comes with the vehicle I had chosen to drive around for the past three years.

Nothing like a little rain and a flat tire to piss all over what little Christmas spirit I might have had till that point.

Next year, I’m gonna send a list to Santa early. I’ve never heard any stories of a reindeer getting a flat!

I can’t believe that I have written this many posts relating to Christmas, but this post was necessary…

Of all the holidays that we celebrate, you would think that Christmas just could not be touched by Hollywood and their perverse filmmakers…

well think again!

Black Christmas, a remake of some garbage hack and slash from 1974 is being thrust upon us in what is supposed to be the season of giving on Christmas day!

I won’t give this film any more press and or waste alot of space or thought to it, other than to just say that I feel that Hollywood needs to take a serious look at what they are producing and thrusting upon us, the movie going public, and to know when to police itself!

Save this film for halloween, along with the other ten to twelve hack and slash horror films to be released at that time of year where it belongs!

I doubt that Santa will be paying you folks associated with this little number a visit this year!

To Spirits And Souls Gone From Us

It’s been a year and a half since my dad’s passing and it is still too new for me, and is especially hard and heartfelt for all of us at this time of year.

As we have all adjusted to his passing, we have grown as a family. We have faced the despair of his loss together as a family and grown stronger for it.

But, as I sit in the family room, sipping some fresh brewed Yuban coffee with some International Delight ” Chocolate Mint Truffle ” ( it just caught my eye the other day in Stop & Shop and I just had to try it out! ) I look back at the last few Christmas’s with him.

I remember his delight and happiness at the gifts, I was able to surprise him with, and his hugging me ( my dad wasn’t a hugger, at least not very often anyway ) and I find warmth and comfort thru those images.

And I think back to my last visit with my uncle Ralph. It was a New Years Eve family get together several years ago now.

We had all gone to the city to share this New Years together, and it was very special. My uncle Ralph was also a strong person who was fighting Cancer.

I remember looking at him that night, thinking how great it was to be with him and the rest of my family, but also thinking of how thin and frail he looked. The cancer had taken it’s toll on him, and it would eventually do the same with my dad.

In another year of murder and sacrifice in Iraq, of the loss of life thru senseless fighting, my thoughts wander to the two most important souls who are with us no longer.

Two spirits, who fought in two different wars, and would face the same enemy separately, yet have the same strength of will, determination and courage, while facing another deadly enemy.

To my Father, Louis Scozzari and my uncle Ralph Garfinkle

Their spirits and souls, always with us in our hearts and minds.

I wish you both the Merriest of Christmas’s in Heaven

Love to you both !

Lew

I am looking at starting a blog about politics. You may be thinking why am I even going to do this…..well because politics are interesting to me. I listen to alot of talk radio, on an ongoing basis. I listen to conservative talk radio to be honest….but please don’t label me a conservative or a right winger. I tend to be more of the middle road. I can look at both sides of the same issue and have varying opinions about the said issue…. with this thought in mind, I felt that it was high time I entered the political blogging arena and put in my .50 cents worth….yes virginia, I have alot more than .2 cents to speak of when it comes to politics….so to take a lyric from a show that I grew up on…….que sa ra, sa ra, what ever will be will be…the future’s not ours to see…que sa ra, sa ra…thank you Doris Day.

more to follow soon…….

It is officially Christmas Eve. December the 24th.

I really do enjoy the holidays, even if my last few posts do not reflect this little fact. I have really had a hard time with the holidays in general thou since my dad’s passing a little more than a year ago.

But, as I look back on another year almost past us again, I am able to appreciate the things that I am able to share with friends and family.

So, while I attend to the little things that need to be attended to today, like calling old friends and some family and enjoying dinner with my family, and wrapping the gifts that I bought and just haven’t wanted to wrap till now, I want to sincerely wish to one and all a very Merry Christmas, and just maybe a much quieter and peaceful New Year.

Let me explain the above title in Blucollar monetary terms…

I had $20.00 dollars(in other words I started this endeavour with $20.00 ), and I bought five (5) Christmas Cards for five( there’s that darn number again )people.

These people included;

My wife

My daughter

My mother

My two best friends

And when this purchase was completed, I had less than four (4)dollars left.

Due to financial circumstances, this is probably the last of the Christmas spending I will be able to do this year. Mind you, I haven’t been able to do alot of spending either.

I have learned a few things thou this holiday season….

a)It takes two salaries to make ends meet.

b)Don’t get sick. And if you do acquire a humbug, have the decency to keep it to yourself.

c) Don’t let anyone tell you that the first two do not matter as long as you have your friends and family at this time of year.

That’s pure bull, a nice sentiment, but sentiments ( nice or otherwise )do not pay the utility bill, or any other bills for that matter.

So where does the Partridge in a Pear Tree fit in?

Right at the end of this little diatrabe.

“The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.“

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

The above is purloined with love and a tip of the hat to….

Clement Clarke Moore

I made a quick post about Christmas bonus’s the other day, little realizing that I would hear something on the news again about Wall-Street, Goldman Sachs, and the OBSCENE amount of money they are paying their chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein.

This report was announced on the news today and is also talked about on TOPIX.NET

Now maybe it’s just me, and my righteous indignation at the idea that an executive could actually get this amount of money for doing anything but…. oh wait I didn’t mention the amount of cash this exec is actually getting…..

wait for it…..

$53.4 MILLION DOLLARS!!

Hello? Is this thing on?

I went nuts when I heard what the average Goldman Sachs employee would get as a bonus…

$622,000 dollars! As a Christmas Bonus!!

Okay, why are you so mad Lew! Don’t these folks deserve this cash? Don’t they work hard? Aren’t they good at what they do?

Who gives a crap!

Listen, let one of these stock bookers, or investment counselors get their hands and their lungs dirty! And let em have to work up a sweat! Let them lift up a 50kg ( about 25lbs ) container of liquid off the ground. At least lifting this container as high off the ground as you are tall ( in my case that would be 6 feet! ) and pour about 7 kgsof this liquid into a pot! And don’t over-pour!

If I were a Conservative like Rush Limbaugh ( who has to be the biggest, most Pompous, windbag ) I have ever had the misfortune of listening to on talk radio , I would probably applaud the windfall that these people are getting, and than pat myself on the back and say that this is what makes America great!

While I tend to burn the candle at both ends when it comes to politics and can see both side of most issues, the only issue here that is important and relavent to me is the fact that this is just one of the ways that we are a lopsided society, a society of Haves and Have Nots. And while I definitely fall into the Have Nots category, I wouldn’t mind if some how, some way, some of this windfall being showered upon these kings of wall street would be able to trickle down onto some of the little people.

You remember the little people. Your factory worker, your waitress, your postman, a volunteer firefighter. The people who live paycheck to paycheck. Who struggle to meet the mortgage on time. Who have no pension. Who have little to look forward to in retirement.

I say, that people who make this type of money in Christmas Bonus’s, should have to put 30% of that money into a government lottery pool, where so many names are picked every year, and a percentage of that pool is put into these people’s retirement accounts. And if they don’t have a retirement account, well after this little lottery donation, they would!

How come president bush and his conservative friends don’t run with this idea!

Maybe, it’s too obscene an idea for a pompous, conservative, windbag to ponder.

But certainly not for the rest of us.

Have you gone grocery shopping lately? If you have, I weep with you.

If you haven’t, take some KY along to ease the pain! I wanted some ” Cold Cereal “, you know something like Life Cereal, Honey Chex, not one of the ” Sugar Cereals ” on which you and I were raised on. It’s not that I couldn’t find one of these in the local grocery store, it’s that I didn’t like the price tag that went along with them!

A 16 oz ( that’s one pound in case you were trying to convert ) box of cereal is actually costing a PENNY less than four dollars! What is wrong here people!

I got pissed and did what I did the week before…..

Bought Quaker Oatmeal at $3.99 for a pack of 10!

I left the store ( Shop-Rite, which doesn’t always have the answer! )with 10 bags of groceries, 1 economy sized pkg of paper towels, 1 family sized water ( probably 30 bottles in this pkg) a 12 pkg of Alpo dog food, and yes I do have a dog!

My wife had one (1) coupon that we used, and the total damage was $117.00 and some change, and no Cold Cereal!

On second thought, give me back the KY, go get your own!

If you saw the NBC Nightly News last night , the one subject that really caught my eye ( and raised my dander level a little higher ) was the report about workers on Wall Street and the types of Christmas Bonuses, they were likely to be getting this holiday season.

If you work for Goldman Sachs, well a very merry Christmas you shall have.

These investment brokers on average will get a bonus to the tune of $650,000 dollars!

Here I am, a blucollar worker who, over the last couple of years has had to ( and please notice the word ” HAD ” here ) to help set up a new chemical dispensing system, has had to contribute more to my medical coverage at work, who has had to see his pension be frozen, and than I had to hear this last night! Mind you, in my company, they have a new ” work for pennies ” incentive plan, where if you bust your hump real hard, do all the ” MANDATORY OVERTIME ” we tell you to do, and just kiss our asses the right way maybe you’ll get 3% of your total salary in March of next year ( if the company continues to do well thru December of course ) and than, of course, we will just add that bonus to your check and make you pay more taxes on it too!

Hello! I will never make $650,000 in my life time, much less see it as a Christmas bonus this year! Now I understand the concept of the ” Haves and the Have Nots “, but nothing like having it rubbed right in your face, on your big screen tv to really drive that telephone pole right up your Holland tunnel!

So if you work at Goldman Sachs , ” Have another Mercedes on me! “