A Happy and Healthy New Year to All

I wish a happy, healthy and prosperous new year to all readers of my journal

Bruce, Karen and Lee

I Guess I am Chicken to Drive in the Snow

A few months ago I bought tickets to the New York Islanders hockey team for today since it was during the holiday break and a rare day game. When you buy tickets for anything over the winter, you never know what the weather will be. A nuisance snow storm began this morning. It was only about an inch or two, nearly not as bad as the snow in the photo above. The worst time to drive is during the storm since visibility is very poor and the roads have not yet been salted. All morning I was grappling over whether we should drive out to the Nassau Coliseum which is 20 miles away. The trip takes about 30 minutes in normal driving conditions. At about 12 noon the snow stopped and the sky brightened. We left the apartment at 12:30 and saw that it was snowing a bit harder and sticking to the ground. We went back upstairs and thoguht that we would make our final decision at 1 PM. It continued to snow so we decided not to go. The only consequence was that I lost the money that I spent on the tickets. I think I will phone the Islanders ticket office and ask if we can exchange these tickets for a future date. I doubt it they will do that, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Since I have taken public transportation to work for many years now, I just don't have much experience driving in the snow, so I was a little apprehensive, since it was not essential that we go. We watched part of the game on TV which the Islanders won 4-2.

Starting to get ready for the paint job

Believe me our apartment does not look like the photograph above. Anyway, even though the paint job is two weeks away we had to clear through some of the clutter that has accumulated over the years. We also started to look for boxes to store things during the painting. It is almost as bad as moving. I found some books that Lee had since pre-school, so I donated them to the local public library. This is the reverse of my work situation where retired engineers bring their old books to the NJIT. We generally donate them to students since there are usually more recent editions available. I am sure that the Queens Library will either add them to their children's collection or sell them.

Not looking forward to painting the apartment in January

We called a painter today to make arrangements to paint our aparmtent in January. We took care of the bathroom and the kitchen last year, but the rest of the apartment needs to be painted since we hadn't done it in many years. The worst part of a paint job is putting stuff away in boxes and moving the furniture away from the walls. It is almost as bad as moving. I have found stuff that I didn't remember having. Over the past few weeks we have dicarded some junk that we never use any more. They will not be painting until January 15, so we have a few more weeks to discard some unneeded stuff. Over the years we have collected numerous records, video tapes, audio cassettes, and CDs. I will not throw those out. Believe me I am not looking forward to this, but it really has to be done.

Who is the Biggest Elvis Presley Fan in the Family?

Lee must have been about 4 years old when we took him to the Westchester County Fair at Yonkers Raceway. he feel in love with a figurine of Elvis Presley. When he was 7 years old he sent a letter to Bob Shannon of WCBS-FM asking for Crying in the Chapel and dedicated it to his Mom and Dad. Elvis Presley music was featured at his Bar Mitzvah in 2001. When we visited Graceland in 2003 I noticed that most of the visitors were not yet born when the King died in 1977. Lee's grandmother gave him Channukah money which Lee spent to buy an Elvis Presely DVD. I think it is safe to say that he is the biggest Elvis fan in the family.

Thoughts of the Day

We took the subway the Madison Square Garden to see the St. Johns University Red Storm basketball team play the University of Miami Hurricaines. Miami won 70-56. (Box Score). It was very disappointing that only 5,000 people came to see a college basketball game at the world's famous arena. We only paid $15 for a half decent seat while a Knick ticket would be three times as much to sit in the stratosphere. I guess there is not much of an interest in college basketball in New York City these days. St. Johns has not had a nationally ranked team since Lou Carnesecca retired in the early 1990s.

Since Seton Hall basketball is being heard on WABC tonight at 7 PM, Saturday Night Oldies was only on until 6:45 PM. I don't think SNO fan #1 will apply to become a distinguished professor at Seton Hall. (Frank, please let me know what time Google picked up this posting, thanks) The show started off very well with Mark playing Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women #12 and #35. I was disappointed that he only played a very short clip of the interview he did with the late Eartha Kitt. I am sure that if this were a full show he would have played the entire interview. Anyone who missed the show can hear the recording of it thanks to Medium Wave Dx. Check the Yahoo Board for the details.

I like to congratulate Pete Fornatale on the 26th anniversary of his Mixed Bag show which was heard on WNEW-FM, WXRK is now on WFUV from 4 PM - 8 PM on Saturday Nights. He is playing cuts from 26 artists that have been heard on the show over the years.

Spotlight on Al Kooper

Tonight Lee selected Al Kooper's Rare and Well Done a 2 CD compilaton of his recordings. Al goes back to the 1950s when as a 14 year old he played with the Royal Teens who charted with the novelty hit Short Shorts. In 1965 he played the organ on Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. In 1966 Al fronted a group called the Blues Project which was also known as the Jewish Beatles. He left them to form Blood, Sweat and Tears. He was kicked out the group and replaced by David Clayton Thomas. He later played with Steven Stills and the late Mike Bloomfield on two Super Session albums. Kooper played on hundreds of records, including The Rolling Stones, BB King, Cream and the Who. He discovered the group Lynyrd Skinner and produced their first three albums. I have his biography called Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards, Memoirs of a Rock 'n roll Survivor.