the rix mix

Landlord came last Thursday with Louie, his all-purpose assistant, to check on my new electric switch box & assure me the wall will be plastered, which I could care less about. The visit gave me a chance remind that the drain pipe in the wall behind the kitchen sink has to be rootered, I have someone else's sink wastewater backing up into my sink. This has happened before. Also I need a new deadbolt lock. That did bother the landlord. He knows the kinds of people he sometimes rents to here. I complimented Louie in front of his boss for shoveling snow at 8 pm.

 Friday the wall around the breaker box was spackled, my deadbolt lock repaired, & the pipe unclogged. Lesson: Take it to the top. I got hit with a large, unexpected  rent increase due to a cutback in subsidies for rental assistance. Percentage of monthly income has always been capped at around 30%. This increase takes 38% of my income. Of course, the landlord gets the full amount. He had a small rent increase. The problem with rental assistance is the recipients tend to treat their apartments based of what they pay rather than what the landlord receives. Yes, I've been guilty of this. But some in this building, I'm certain, pay nearly nothing for their apartment. Well, the rent pinches me now, & I'm expecting better, faster attention to problems.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, home furnishings

On Friday a major snowstorm was forecast for Sunday Night into Monday, 6+ inches followed by more deep freeze. But the storm was downgraded starting Saturday, we got less than an inch here, the heavy snow in South Jersey. Temps are still below average for early March. Some years we have crocuses & robins by now.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, weather

Another load of snow dumped here yesterday, six or seven inches wet. More wet snow tonight that will likely include freezing rain & may or may not go all the way to rain. Another snow projected for Sunday.  Sunday is when Gina & Glen return from their ten day Florida vacation.  If they can. My arrangement for feeding Gina's cats on a daily basis does not include shoveling her sidewalks.

Labels: cats, Elizabeth NJ, weather

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, New Jersey, postcard

In this very same election, on the very same ballot, we passed here in Jersey, by a huge margin, a constitutional amendment raising the minimum wage & linking it to hikes in the cost of living. You don't get much more "liberal" than that. Democrats retained control of the state senate & assembly. Christie had no "coattails," We also forced Christie, through public pressure, to drop his legal fight against marriage equality.  Two weeks ago we elected a new Democratic senator, who won by 11 points while spending hardly any of the huge campaign chest he's saving for next year. That election ended the political career of the state's only prominent "tea party" type politician. We liberals are doing just fine here, thank you. We want Christie to run for president. The state is much quieter when he's not around.

Locally, a young woman I supported for Board of Ed came in 4th for three available positions. Her insurgent slate, well-financed by the County Democratic Committee, endorsed by the mayor,  grabbed two of those seats. She lost because she was positioned 8th on the ballot, & all the  slick flyers, robocalls & door-to-doors couldn't overcome that.  An incumbent had the #1 spot, he came in second. The #2 position candidate came in first, & the #6 position came in third. There were several candidates listed not actively running - I don't know why they bothered to run. The BoE election is  "nonpartisan" but pits the County Democratic machine - nothing to brag about as a "democratic" organization except they tend to be very liberal - against a BoE machine autocratically run by a single boss with right wing tendencies.  The young woman took the defeat quite hard. But before BoE elections were moved to the general election in November, the BoE fortress was almost impregnable.  But with  the superior campaign resources of the Regular Democrats to counter the slick official mailings of the BoE  paid for out of the school budget, three BoE members have been picked off in two years. This at least will bring some transparency to the Board.  If the BoE were genuine progressive reformers & didn't constantly manipulate stats to make the schools look better than they are or run the system like parochial schools, I would support them.

Labels: education, Elizabeth NJ, New Jersey politics

I posted this on the afternoon of 10/29/12

Early reports & photos from Cape May County are alarming. Coastal communities are already underwater, & the main storm surge & most dangerous high tide aren't due until evening. Coastal flooding in north Jersey has occurred at levels associated with the height of noreasterns. Sandy projected to come ashore south of Atlantic City. My live cam links have been going down one after another, the remaining working sites apparently so busy I can't get on to them with my slow internet service. More wind than rain here in Elizabeth. The heavy rain is only about 20 miles south now. Jersey has had many bad storms over the past fifty years, but none with the devastating tidal surges of the March '62 storm. The tide comes in, stays in, & structures that could withstand a fast-moving storm are battered into rubble,

Whatever I was expecting - & I was expecting a very bad storm - it was worse than I imagined. I was briefly outside walking around that evening. Then the brunt of it hit. I thought my windows would blow in. The power went out. It was long scary night. There wasn't much serious damage in my neighborhood, thank heavens. The day after the storm, while thousands picked through the rubble of ruined homes & businesses, my neighbors were raking wet leaves.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, in the news, jersey shore, weather

Gave a buck & fist tap to the big guy on the front stoop, pronounced him my bodyguard. He's more likely to put it toward some 7-11 chicken wings than a beer. He also lives across the hall & one night knocked on the door because I'd left my keys outside in the lock.
***
 Pre-pubescent daughter in B&H store commercial tells her wuss dad she has 700 FB friends, demands new computer, & calls him "so 20th Century."

The proper parental response is to say, "Technologically-speaking, I'm sending you back to the 19th Century."
***
My a/c is trying. But I don't have a machine I expect to cope all that well with day after day of high 90s & not dropping below a humid 80 at night & never a gusty thunderstorm.
***
Teed off on my Methodist pastor brother on FB today for posting a "Put back prayer in the schools. Share this if you agree" graphic.  I commented, "Sure, but them all pray; Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans. Let the atheists read something, too."   But even that isn't what I mean. Anyone can pray anytime, anywhere. There was always something wrong about compulsory Bible reading & the recitation of the Lord's Prayer to open a public school day.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, potpourri, religion, weather

Utterly wasted trip yesterday in Jersey steam heat to main library. Included encounter with one of the patronizing dimwits some libraries hire to staff checkout counters, a job requiring one-third the training & none of the energy needed to work a McDonald's drive-thru window.  My library card had expired end of June. No expiration date on card. No prior notification. You renew it & keep the same card. I show current photo drivers license. But they wanted a second proof of address. I don't happen to carry around a utility bill with me, although I have plenty of other identity proofs in my wallet. Because I had no valid card, I could not sign on to a library computer & print out or even point to an online bill or my bank page. The library requires money in library account to make print outs, & I have  money credited to the  account.  I left in a really lousy mood, vowing to myself to take  some kind of revenge if opportunity offered. Walked up to a store that advertised cheap sneakers, didn't like the sneakers, Waited for a bus & came home. I took my Senior  bus discount card out (Eligible as SSD recipient or age 60, I keep it in my wallet but tuck it into a shirt pocket when I plan on using it) & saw it had my address printed on it. DAMN! If had been in my wallet I would have seen it. 

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, shopping

Lesniak holds off political newcomer in Democratic state Senate primary in Union County  

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak — New Jersey’s second longest-serving lawmaker — has emerged victorious in one of the most closely watched primaries in the state. Lesniak tonight defaeted Donna Obe in Union County’s 20th District, securing the Democratic nomination in another re-election bid, the Associates Press projects. Although it was one of the tougher races faced by Lesniak, who is accustomed to skating to re-election, it was not close. Lesniak beat Obe by a nearly 2-1 margin. Having won the primary in this heavily Democratic district, Lesniak is all but assured re-election in November. This is the second time in two years Lesniak survived a primary challenge. In 2011, he fended off Jerome Dunn, who was backed by the Elizabeth Board of Education, a rival political machine.

I was a bit concerned about this election. The Regular Democrats were nearly upset in the low-turnout primary a few years ago. But they won this one easily. Unremarked upon was the third slate of candidates with the label similar to the insurgent slate backed by the autocratic, rightist Elizabeth Board of Education. This is an old trick to draw votes away from opponents. I'll have to ask a more politically-savvy local friend what that was all about.

The primary forced Lesniak to spend heavily. It's money he won't need in November, as this is a safe Democratic District. The primary challenge also made him do a lot of personal appearances; he was everywhere at events large & small, I hope he keeps that up so no one can again accuse him of not being familiar with his own district. Yeah he has a big house down the shore & a loft in NYC. But he's also a successful, well-connected lawyer in his sixties. Of course he's wealthy. He's also more liberal than he used to be, more outspoken.

The Regular Democratic Organization could use some reform. The entrenched party chairwoman with her cushy work-at-home county job was pressured into resigning by a Star-Ledger expose. They put a 25 year-old Latino man on the Freeholder ballot, which means he leap-frogged the usual route of slogging in the apparatus for a decade.  The Elizabeth Board of Ed is a far more autocratic political machine,  with a boss & his minions, under investigation for a nnmber of misuses of funds. They are also tied to a large fundamentalist church in Elizabeth.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, New Jersey politics

Applied for, received & sent back a mail ballot. It was a big deal for me. I enjoyed the ritual of voting in person, the right was taken very seriously in my family. It is not a "privilege" as Linden poll workers learned one evening when they misplaced my registration page & I went nuts & said I'd have a Star-Ledger reporter & lawyer there before the place closed. The primary is the key election in Elizabeth & I can't stand the organization masquerading as "reform" Democrats. The County Democrats here do need some reform, but not from candidates backed by the right wing Elizabeth Board of Ed. I didn't feel like going to the Magie Ave. School on a hot June day.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, New Jersey politics

I bought some milk & cup of coffee at 7-11. As I was walking away outside, I heard a guy shouting, "Sir, sir." I looked around & he was following me across the street. I figured he was the kind of really aggressive, possibly  sociopathic panhandler one occasionally encounters around here or in any city. You just walk faster, pull out your cellphone & try to get under a streetlight. Turned out to be the young store clerk chasing me with my coffee, which I had forgotten.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ

The afternoon was proceeding ahead of schedule until the cab failed to show at the doctor's office. Dispatcher screwup. By the time I got a cab the schools had let out with the hundreds of buses, the hospital shift was changing, early shift county DPW workers were headed home, rush hour, & the wait for prescription at CVS had gone from mid afternoon 15 minutes to the late afternoon hour, forcing me to occupy time by going to the library near closing time mainly to use the men's, room, then wander around Dollar General trying not to spend money, then back to CVS, then walk home as sprinkles fell from the lovely cummulus clouds that had been billowing up all afternoon. By then my feet were hurting - I"m waiting for new sneakers. But as I passed the Greek Church the bells began ringing. I think they just celebrated Easter.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, mental health

Waiting for a cab in front of my shrink's office building,
looking across the street at the entrance to the psychiatric emergency room
as an ice cream truck parked on the corner plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" over & over.
Thinking of Nicanor Parra, the great Chilean anti-poet:
"Either God is everywhere
or He's absolutely nowhere"

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, mental health, poem

A Buddhist saying (if I'm correctly remembering it):  Winter does not become spring. There is winter, & then there is spring. 

The calendar says spring. It's the equinox. Some years in Jersey, not many,  spring is here by this date. This year it is not. One day one goes outside & it is spring. Not almost spring, not a sign of spring or a little bit of spring that is gone tomorrow. Spring.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, weather

Fair afternoon  mid-forties. Walked to Family Dollar for supply of various size ziploc bags. Also where I get cans of Margaret Holmes seasoned green limas,  not stocked at the supermarket with the other brands of generally over-priced "southern" style beans. Family Dollar, & its mirror competitor chain Dollar General are not "dollar" stores. They're "variety" stores, actually heirs to the last generation of  so-called Five & Ten stores, what downtown Woolworth's, Kresge & McCrory's were evolving into. But those chains made horrible corporate decisions. I was particularly sorry to see the last Woolworth's go; there was a classic in downtown Linden NJ up to the end, complete with the lunch counter section & the downstairs with the awful  smelly pet dept. selling hamsters & fish. But even for me it became more of a museum, except that it provided me with a supply of cheap black canvas sneakers that now sell for ridiculous  prices although they are  no longer "hip" fashion. I used to stop by the last McCrory's in downtown Rahway & Keyport NJ just to admire  the   layouts, with the second floor offices overlooking the main retail floors. It' was like being transported back to the 1920's & 30's.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, shopping

Rainy all day. Crosstown to see shrink. I enjoy one-to-ones with his young MSW assistant,  but when other patient/clients are there  it turns into Group-Lite, I say very little to people I don't know, the level comes down to, "Bob likes to write. What do the rest of you do to stay active?" & "Bob is getting rid of lots things. Do any of you have problems with clutter?'   I was in several groups at the clinic I did not like for how they were conducted.  But when I was in a day program called "partial hospital,"  six weeks, M-F, 9 am -3 pm, I  went through the program with the same group of about 12 people (all younger, many had been to college  or were college age, generally an intelligent bunch with a variety of issues). The entire day was  groups focused on different topics, well-run, & locked  up tight.  Some very serious personal stuff was discussed.  Some people wept.  We  got to know each other.   Group confidentiality was the #1 Rule.

Filled out a brief questionnaire on clinic services. Generally high grades except the last; Would you recommend the clinic?  Gave it three on a scale of five. It's a public clinic. If your insurance can put you elsewhere, go elsewhere.

I took cab to CVS, walked home from there in light rain, Puttered around a bit. took an Ambien & went to sleep for four hours. Conked right out with radio on.  Didn't sleep well last night.   I earned it.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, mental health

A couple of years ago my friend up the street was inveigled into adopting two kittens from a neighbor, soft-hearted cat lover that she is.  At the time, I knew these kittens, brother & sister,  had been prematurely weaned.  One grew up into a runt female that wanders around her house, upstairs & down,  day & night meowing for mama's teat, & goes into heat every six or eight weeks when the crying gets so awful I can't even sit & watch TV. The other, a male, grew into a huge tom. He's "fixed" but the hormones are still active. A clean cat, he would be an amicable pet with a home to himself.  But his size has turned him into a bully. He chases & terrifies the other three cats, sometimes tries to mount the runt, who is about 1/4th his size. Unlike a good  pet dog, where the dog acknowledges alpha humans &, treated well, becomes a loyal, protective friend & family member, a dominant cat will only accept human dominance for about half-an-hour. So if I yell at this big tom & clap my hands loudly, it will stop whatever it is doing to another cat & run off.  But a little while later all is forgotten & back it comes for more stalking & chasing.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ

On Thursday, the impending snowstorm was very worrisome, for good reason. A low was developing south into a wet, windy coastal  noreastern, & a frigid plains snowstorm was heading in from the west. That's how we get our largest snowfalls here in Jersey, when those two combine over the mountains & seaboard in our region.   Next thing the media jerks (not the National Weather Service) gave the storm a name, Nemo, & were dusting off "Snowageddon" graphics from past storms. Gina & I couldn't find a parking space at ShopRite, Thursday evening, had to go to the supermarket we don't like.

About noon on Friday I looked at the radars & concluded, in my intuitive way of looking at these things, that it would be a substantial snowstorm but hardly one of "historic" proportions.  Maybe that would occur 100 miles east over lower New England, wqhich would get the full brunt of the coastal storm,  but not here. The storm from the west was drying up & the noreastern was speeding up.    Still, newsradio was all ramped up. Yes, people should have stayed home from work Friday or gone home early.  Common sense given our roads & mass transit. Radar was strongly implying the snow would begin later & taper off sooner, which means the roads would be cleared by late Saturday afternoon afternoon & life would return to more or less normal on Sunday.  Media managed to make an interesting weather event boring.

Outside now: Light, steady snow.  Wind not a factor. 10 inches on ground at most. Pretty.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, New Jersey, weather

I'm walking back from the 7-11 & I come to the traffic light up the corner. It's green for me to cross, but there are cars stopped at the cross street & my rule is that if I don't know how long the light has been green, I don't cross. In this city you don't want to be halfway across any street when the light changes. You wait until you get a fresh green. So I stop & wait. & wait. & wait. & wait. The light doesn't change. I'm next to the switching box & I don't hear the familiar "click" of the mechanism cycling through. Between the time I went to 7-11 & returned, ten minutes at most, the light has frozen. Now I have a real problem. The stopped drivers, some of whom may not even be legally licensed to operate a motor vehicle, are no doubt realizing it also, & they will choose to ignore the red light. But they will do so suddenly, without warning, because it's illegal to run a red light frozen or not. Get in an accident, it's your fault until you sue the city, county or state agency maintaining the light & convince a court otherwise.  If you had a bogus driver's license or none at all, you have bigger problems.   At last, one car goes. Then another, from the other side. Then another. So I walk about 20 yards up the side street for some safe distance, carefully cross, then walk back to my street. This is "city" living, & my neighborhood is not densely urban. But there's no guide book. I write this for your future safety.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ

Crosstown to shrink today. I knew up when my cellphone acted up calling for a taxi that it would be day with delays & I should be patient. When the driver took a route I wished she hadn't,  we ran into a detour.  Doctor was 1/2 hour late. Driver on way back was doing her end of shift paperwork & sat at green lights until cars behind us honked. CVS filled only one of my meds, I had to sort that out then wait for the second.

I think I'll have the clinic receptionist do the taxi calls for me from now on. She's on a first name basis with the dispatcher,  ends the call with, "Take care bubbula."  My friend Edie calls me bubbula.

I could get insurance to cover cab to clinic (wish I knew that when I was traveling to Newark), but it involves a lot of paperwork, the taxi is six bucks plus dollar tip  each way every other month, & sometimes I only go one way & then walk & bus home.  I think I can handle the expense.

I have to get to the library.  I have books way overdue.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, mental health