A simpler time

 “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

The Buddha

It's not like me to spend a whole lot of time gazing into the rear view mirror.

Yesterday is in the past and for the most part, that's where it should remain.

The wonders of technology and the conveniences we have today can not be compared to life as I remember it growing up.

The world has changed so rapidly.

With that said, I do find myself wondering what we gave up along the way and at what cost?

Specifically this morning, I was thinking about going to the doctor today as compared to when I was a kid.

Our family had a family doctor.

We all went to the same family doctor (although by the time my brother came around he had a pediatrician).

His office was in the lower level of his house, a very nice split level which afforded him a separate entrance to see patients.

He had a waiting room, an office and an examination room.

There was no receptionist, billing clerk or nurse, just the doctor.

His exam room had an x-ray machine, which he operated himself. We didn't have to go to a radiology facility for a sprained ankle.

When we were really sick, the doctor would make what was called a house visit, carrying with him his little black doctor's bag.

Do doctors even have little black bags anymore?

After our visit, on the way out, my father would take out his check book, write a check and the billing process was now complete.

Money was always tight in the Spiegel house and I am sure there were times when the office visit might have been discounted but he always got paid.

And I think he was paid well. My doctor, along with the other doctors in the community all had the nicer homes, drove the nicer cars and their kids wore the nicer clothes.

All of their kids went to summer camp and not just day camp.

Doctors made a good living even back then.

I dare say, better than most.

It was just a whole lot simpler.

I know, medicine has made huge strides in 60 years.

But a cold is still a cold, the flu is still the flu, stitches are still just stiches, an ankle sprain is still, an ankle sprain and an x-ray is still just an x-ray.

Doctors had license plates that said MD on them. I always believed this was so that they could park anywhere they needed to, not just as a sign of vanity.

Today things are quite different.

Things are not quite as simple.

And not just with doctors , so don't think I am picking on them. I'm not.

Try calling a plumber nowadays!

Times were simpler.

Does that mean better?

Maybe.

The World's Greatest Salespeople

“A tree that is unbending, is easily broken.”

Lao Tzu 

In the decades that I have been in the business world, I have met a lot of really great sales people.

Some of them I must add are close relatives and dear friends.

They can sell anything to anyone.

However, none of them compare to veterinarians.

In my humble opinion, vets and the people who work for them, have to be the absolutely greatest sales force I have ever encountered.

On a daily basis, we have customers who come into our store, looking for one of 2 specific brands of dog food sold almost exclusively in vet's offices.

When we tell them we don't carry these brands, they all do a quick about face and leave.

If we have the opportunity to engage them in conversation, they smile politely and then head for the door.

Their devotion to these 2 brands is cult like.

From a nutritional standpoint, both of these brands are akin to feeding your dogs McDonalds every day.

Read the ingredients and you are hard pressed to find anything redeeming about them.

To boot, the vets have sold people on the idea that these are "prescription" diets, specially formulated for dogs with "conditions" like theirs.

Hogwash!

You wouldn't eat a Big Mac ,large fries and chocolate shake everyday , 3 meals a day.

That's what these people are feeding their dogs.

Would these folks ever take the time to do a little research?

Hell no! The vet prescribed this. End of the discussion.

If we followed our own doctor's medical advise as diligently, we would be the healthiest country in the world! (then again....?)

Vets have done an awesome job for these 2 brands who by the way, helped supplement their education, an education that barely spent any time on nutrition.

So today I take my hat off to the veterinary community, the greatest hucksters since P.T. Barnum!

Shavua Tov!

Texting

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."

Winston Churchill 

I'm old enough to remember when there was no such thing as texting.

I am also old enough to remember how offended and turned off I once was to this mode of communication.

Thankfully I am wise enough to have come to realize that like any form of communication it can be a useful tool particularly when used properly.

However, as it is with other forms of communicating, I believe there is an etiquette to texting.

Unanswered texts are for lack of a better word just plain rude!

I'm not talking about the marketing texts that we all get.

They can readily be ignored.

Person to person texts deserve a response.

It's not like a phone call.

You don't have to exchange pleasantries.

A simple "okay" "yes" "no" or "maybe " is often enough.

There are also a plethora of emojis for the more sophisticated texters.

There literally is no excuse for not responding to a text.

Your phone is by your side almost constantly.

A text response takes all of 10 seconds in most cases.

Not responding to texts is tantamount to saying "you don't matter to me".

I'm not saying responses have to be immediate, although there is very little reason why they can't be.

But at some point in our busy days we can all find a minute or two to check and make sure we get back to anyone who reached out to us.

I've been guilty of missing a text now and then.

The thing about texts is that they just sit there and you can always look back and check to see if in fact you did respond.

It's not that difficult.

Unless of course that's exactly what you are trying to be.

Shabbat Shalom!

The truth is.....

 “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

Mark Twain

Every day I have the good fortune of receiving a message from the Universe.

Okay , so maybe it's not really from some mystical place in the nether world, however, I often find that these messages help to remind me of my place in the grand scheme of things.

Today was one of those days.

The truth is:

there's never been: 

• A drought that didn't end,
• A storm that didn't clear,
• Lightning that didn't retreat,
• An earthquake that didn't still,
• A flood that didn't recede, or,
• A virus that wasn't eventually, completely, and utterly overwhelmed by the healthy.

I actually had this conversation with myself yesterday.

A dear friend posted something on Facebook about stress.

I shared with her the advise that my mentor Darren Hardy has shared with me on numerous occasions about stress....GET OVER YOURSELF!"

Being stressed out is such a waste of time and energy.

I can say that for most of my life, particularly my adult life, money has been my biggest stress point.

Yet here I am still here alive and well after decades of living with those monetary pressures.

How much energy, how much time how much of my well being was wasted stressing over money, or for that matter anything else.

In the end, it all passes, one way or another.

Eventually it's all in the past.

I am much better today than I ever have been in the past with this.

Not anywhere near perfect, barely on the cusp of being good at it.

I am however, aware of it which in itself has been a great awakening.

I am not one given to quoting scripture however, here's one worth keeping in mind::

"And This Too Shall Pass"

 2 Corinthians 4: 17-18

Have a great day!

Now that was a storm!

 

This is what the building that stood on what is now our current shop looked like after Hurricane Floyd in 1999.This is also why I get so damn annoyed when the today's media gets so hysterical over every single storm that comes our way. This was a storm!

Today, the media reacts to every event as if it was a repeat of this kind of devastation. They do it with everything , not just the weather. and that is why they are referred to as fake. Every skirmish is not the D-Day landing. Every storm is not Hurricane Floyd and every virus is not the Black Plague.

If they had a modicum of perspective when they reported the news maybe we could believe what it is they are reporting on. They just don't. Like braindead sheep , the majority of the public buys into their nonsense. Our leaders and government officials know this all too well and they use it to advance nonsensical agendas that keep them in power and us at each other's throats, those that buy into this crap and those that realize just how fake this fake news is.

I am already hearing warnings about Hurricane Ida, the next supposed storm which has not even begun to develop yet.

Man the life boats!

We all need a little perspective folks.

We can't be afraid of everything, mainly because everything just isn't that scary!

Let's save the panic and hand wringing for a real disaster.

Water Water everywhere

                          “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.”

Alexander Graham Bell                 

                                               "Water water everywhere nor any drop to drink"

-The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

This line seems to be the story of my life lately.

Last week we were dealing with clogged drains backing up not allowing water to leave the building.

That was repaired on Saturday.

This week, with the storm that dumped quite a bit of rain on the area, we now have a number of roof leaks.

First we couldn't get the water out of the building, now we can't keep the water from coming into the building!

Kind of ironic!

When we took this new space, we knew of the history of flooding in the area.

As a long time resident of Bergen County, I am all to familiar with this spot affectionately nicknamed Lake Lodi due to the way it floods during heavy rains.

This last storm was no exception.

This morning on the way into work, we were greeted by orange road cones and the flashing lights of emergency vehicles.

The road leading to our shop was closed.

The best we could do was park a block away at the funeral home and walk.

I'm not sure when they closed the road.

We got here at around 8:30.

It's now well past noon and it's still closed.

Susan has been sitting at the bagel store a few blocks up for almost an hour with our dogs (they told her that the road would be opened in 20 minutes and hour ago!).

Such is life in a flood zone.

The good news is that when we parked and walked to the shop this morning, Channel 12 news was in the parking lot. As the owner of the shop, they were eager to interview Becca.

You know the old saying, any publicity is good publicity!

Another day here in paradise!

If you live or work in the area, you are accustomed to this.

It's just part of life.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

All you need is to add water!

Never let a good crisis go to waste

 "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Rahm Emanuel

I couldn't help but to think of this now infamous quote today.

It seems everything nowadays is a crisis, and if it isn't somehow it gets turned into one.

Today's current "crisis" is no different.

The media started revving us up a few days ago.

A tropical storm, or what we used to call rain, Henri, was bearing down on the East Coast.

Immediately, social media was ablaze with messages from concerned friends from across the country with heart emojis and prayers for our safety.

Okay people, calm down....it's going to rain here!

As the weather serviced tracked the oncoming storm (read RAIN), the warnings became more dire as did the underlying message to run for the hills.

Supermarkets of course had the usual onslaught of idiots loading up on toilet paper and life rafts.

By mid afternoon Saturday, NY States criminal governor and NYC's buffoon of a mayor, had both declared a state of emergency further increasing the anxiety level and preying on the fears of millions of people.

Sure enough, late Saturday evening the rain started.

At about 4 in the morning, cell phones started blaring emergency alerts about tornado warnings, every 15 minutes.

I suppose we should all have headed for the root cellar and chained ourselves to the well pipes, unfortunately most of us don't have root cellars anymore and very few of us have wells.

As predicted, it has continued to rain (read drizzle) all day here.

But was there really a need for the manufactured crisis. For God's sake, it's rain.

There was no peril involved.

This however, is how everything is reported and acted upon lately.

Over reacting allows those in power, those who govern, and those in the media, to continue to exploit an already vulnerable population who has become all to accustomed to being told what to do and when to do it instead of thinking for ourselves and living responsible lives.

It doesn't take a genius to see that it's raining outside and you should probably choose to not eat outdoors.

Nope. instead all restaurants were ordered to shut down outside dining.

Ridiculous!

Over reaching!

Overbearing!

Remember the 2 week shut down to flatten the curve?

How well did that work out?

When did we just surrender?

I see it all over, on billboards, social media, television and on the radio.

Fear mongering to control us.

Pretty damn scary this new way of living.

So much for rugged individualism.

The Marlboro man has been replaced by the Marlboro sissy!

Now that's scary to me