life

My filthy car

We had painters here for a couple of months and they finally finished up this past Friday. They were all nice guys, overly polite and fantastic workers, but enough was enough, we need our building back. I wrote about it here, how it was like having a film crew on top of us all the time.

I would get them coffee and doughnuts and stuff a few times a week, so would other neighbors here at the condo. To thank me, they washed my car on the last day they were here. And it needed it.

I had to laugh because this is not the first time this has happened. Over the years, people have washed my car because it’s always dirty.

I used to go often to a car wash I liked, but it closed and I just never seem to bring it anywhere else to get washed. This guy Jerry comes by the building once in awhile and washes the cars and that’s great. And the best part about bringing the car to the dealership, is that they wash the car before they return it after servicing it.

One time I was sort of rushing them to complete the job and my service writer asked, “Do you want the car washed? That’s what’s holding it up?” And of course I wanted it washed. “Yes!” I shouted. “I’ll wait!”

When I first moved to where I live now many years ago, a neighbor who lived here washed his car all the time. I think he found it relaxing. The day I moved in he was washing his car and he was always do it. He parked right next to me, so I would always notice him washing the car.

One day, he asked me, “Did you notice how clean your car is?” I responded, “Yes, what about it?”

He responded, “I’ve been washing your car. It was so filthy I couldn’t stand it.” He used those exact words.

I was shocked. He asked, “Didn’t you notice?” I said, “Yes, but I thought it was the rain. Whenever I drove in the rain, I thought the rain was ‘washing it.’ “

I don’t think he liked that because he never washed my car again.

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Skip intro

I was watching something on Netflix and when “Skip Intro” came on, I thought of this.

I don’t watch many streaming services, but luckily I got this idea from one, you know, when you skip the intro to the tv show and get right into it.

I pay for many streaming services, I just don’t watch them. I need to do that thing where you delete them and just pay for them when you want to see something.

There are things I want to see, but I find myself watching tv the old fashioned way – on cable. Yes, I guess cable tv is the old fashioned way.

I remember many years ago, maybe in the 1970s, when I had seen something on tv; I don’t remember what the show was, but at the end I said to my mother, I wish I could just snap my fingers and be in California so I could see the show again when it came on in their time zone.

I didn’t think of taping it with a VCR because there were no VCRs yet. Hard to imagine a time when you had to see the show when it was on and possibly see a summer re-run, or you missed it for good, or wait until years later when they were all on streaming services.

Today, I still watch tv when the shows are on, you know, Thursdays at 9 on CBS on Tuesday at 8 on Bravo or whatever. I do DVR things and watch that, but I don’t really dabble in streaming services. I just overpay for them every month, along with the cable service, which I have to cancel soon.

I know I can do it online at their websites, but I want to speak to a person because I may be able to get a good deal to stay.

I just have to make the call, which I am dreading. You know, you try to make a fast phone call and it ends up being a frustrating hour or so.

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There’s always one

Today’s cartoon makes me laugh because it is so true. If you live in a cold climate, you’ve seen this – some guy running or just traipsing around in shorts and a tee, while the rest of civilization is bundled up.

I saw this the other day in New York City, it was quite cold this week and a guy was walking in shorts, with a bunch of people who were bundled up. Usually it’s a guy running through the streets – jogging or whatever -at least the guy here has a hoodie on.

***The Montauk Lighthouse all lit up for the season.***

Last weekend a bunch of us went to see the Montauk Lighthouse Christmas lighting. They make a big show of it every year.

The weather was brutal that night. We were literally on a hill, which goes up to the lighthouse on the very tip of Long Island. The wind was whipping and we were up there for hours. But it was worth it. And no one was in shorts, I’m happy to say.

We usually do the Southampton parade and Christmas tree lighting, but we did Montauk in stead.

One funny things at the end of the lighting, a bunch of people do “The Roll.” I’m not sure how it started but people take a sip of wine and then literally roll down the hill from the lighthouse. It’s a lot of fun (to watch). It’s a tradition that goes with the lighthouse lighting.

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Filming our reality show

We’ve have painters here, painting our condo building for over a month now. They’ll probably be here for another month. They’re doing a wonderful job, but it’s almost like living on a reality show.

What I mean is, they are everywhere, but we sort of ignore them. I mean we say, “Hello,” and “Goodbye” and we buy them coffee and snacks and things, but during the day, they are all around us and we just go on about our business with them sort of in our faces.

One day they are out on my balcony and another day up on a lift outside my bedroom window. And I just go about my business as does the rest of the residents in our small building.

Everyone knows everyone and we all know the painters, but still, they are not one of us – they are the camera men and the sound men and the lighting men, “shooting the show.”

It’s an odd thing. Odd feeling. As I sit here typing this, one guy is outside the window sort of looking in. He’s not really looking in, but I feel as if he is – filming me for the reality show.

Every time you turn around, there they are – with their imaginary camera in your face, staring at you. At least it feels like that. No privacy when they are literally hanging right outside your window.

The painters know our schedules and all our little quirks. I’m sure they know I would rather park in my regular parking space than out on the street, as many neighbors are doing. They covered my car with a drop cloth the other day so I didn’t have to move it. They didn’t ask, they just knew.

They know when I leave for lunch, I usually come back with coffee for them – they like Cuban coffee, I get them a double colada, a doble, and I usually buy them doughnuts and other stuff.

I like them all. They are all friendly and polite and nice guys. And they are doing a wonderful job, they clean up after themselves and are always on time, but I can’t wait for the day they yell, “CUT!” and filming of the reality show is over.

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The sky is blue; the tree is green

Looks like everyone is moving to Bluesky – it’s a better version of X/Twitter.

I already had an account, I don’t know when I opened it, but sometime when it was new awhile ago, I think I got an invite and I opened the account then. It sat dormant but now I am interacting and have three accounts.

Here are the three accounts:

Tomversation, where I post mostly my blog and cartoons:
https://bsky.app/profile/Tomversation.bsky.social

Tom Falco, where I post personal things and interact with others:
https://bsky.app/profile/TomFalco.bsky.social

10 With Tom , where I post things related to my 10 With Tom blog:
https://bsky.app/profile/10WithTom.bsky.social

It all feels so new, like when Twitter was new so many years ago. I’ll go onto people’s profiles to see what they are all about and they have maybe two or three posts. That’s it! So new and fresh.

I am still on X/Twitter, but I’m trying to build up my Bluesky readership, so if you are there, let’s follow each other! And the same names/handles are on Threads, if you are so inclined.

On another note, I put up the Christmas tree yesterday. I know, I know, too early.

I’m going out of town until December, so I wanted to get it up so I don’t have to deal with it when I return home. I only lit it to take this picture, I’m not lighting it until mid-December. That’s when I’ll bring it alive.

I’ll be in NY for Thanksgiving – leaving early, coming home late, you know, stretching it out.

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I got this custom printed pen at TheDiscountPrinter.com

O Christmas tree

I’ll be putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend.

I know, I know. Too early.

The thing is I am going to NY for a couple of weeks and when I get home, it will be the first week of December, so I like to just have it up so I don’t feel rushed and have to deal with it then.

I don’t light it up until December. Right now I’ll just have it up and decorated. Ready to go.

One year, I had the tree up in October! It wasn’t decorated.

What happened was, my friend Michael was visiting from NY and the spare room he was sleeping in, is used as storage for the tree, which of course, is artificial, so to make room, I dragged the tree out and stood it up in the living room. That’s it. It was not decorated or lit or anything like that. It just stood there. Naked.

I always had a real tree. I would throw it in the back of my convertible and lug it home.

One year I saw a nice tree in a big box store and thought I would get it and use it for a year or two and then go back to real trees, but it’s been so many years now and I still use the artificial tree. It’s so easy – just pull it out and it’s up. No lugging real trees in and out. To dump the real trees, I would throw them off the balcony, making sure no one was below. Then I would just drag it to the street.

When we were cleaning my parents’ house out this year, I was hoping to find the old Christmas ornaments from years past – from when we were kids and before; vintage stuff. But there was nothing old – just new ornaments. I’m guessing the old ones were ruined years ago in a hurricane, and I never paid attention to what was on the tree all these years, which obviously was new things which took their place.

When we were kids, I mean very little, we would put the tree up (real tree) a couple of weeks before Christmas. Now it seems people have trees up right after Halloween. I see some of the lots in the neighborhood at churches and clubs, already have their tents up with trees – probably to be sold out before Thanksgiving.

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Phone games

Whenever I want to talk to one of my friends on the phone, I text him. Because he doesn’t usually text back, he calls.

I don’t call him because he is on the phone a lot due to his job, so he can’t always talk when I call. So simply by texting, I get him to call back, when he can, which oddly enough, is right away.

As for me, I don’t pick up the phone most of the time – especially with business.

Years ago, my accountant, well, my father, asked me why business was down so much in the last quarter, and I told him probably because I took the business phone number off the website. And he said, in a half joking way, “Well, you better put it back on.” And I did, but for the past few years I haven’t.

When people call, which is few and far between since today most people email or text, the messages asks the to email us, and they do.

I know it’s maybe a Millennial thing, where they cringe at the sound of a phone ringing. But I do the same. There’s something new with cell phones now where even if you don’t have the person’s or company’s phone number in your phone, it will tell you who it is, many time by the person’s name, not just the company. So that’s a big help.

I can remember when Caller ID came out. That was a big thing. It was a small electronic thing you attached to the phone (which was still on a wire back then). And then you could avoid most calls. Although we didn’t text or email back then, so we picked up anyway, no matter who called. We had to.

At one point I had a hot dog cooker type phone, I don’t know how else to describe it. It took me forever to find this image online – I didn’t know how to describe it. But here it is – it’s called the Western Electric Telstar Phone. You had to roll back the cover every time you wanted to use it, but that was part of the charm/coolness. I had it for years.

Now we have smart~~ass~~ phones. Wonder what’s next. Probably telepathy.

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I prefer Standard Time rather than Daylight Saving Time

Did you turn the clock back to standard time? I know many of you don’t like that, it seems as if the majority of the country prefers Daylight Saving Time (DST). I don’t. I like standard time. DST sounds like a disease.

I get up early, so I don’t like the pitch black mornings, I like it light out. I don’t mind it getting dark at 5:30 or 6:00 pm. When I’m in New York it gets dark earlier, sometimes it seems like 4:30 or 5:00 pm.

DST started in the U.S. with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources. It was implemented again during World War II all year round. In 1966 it was set as it is now, basically half the year.

There is always an outcry about stopping the time change and keeping it at DST. There is legislation in Congress to keep DST But scientists say that Standard Time is healthier for the body.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine advises permanent Standard Time. They say it is more in line with a person’s natural bio-rhymes and produces less negative health outcomes. They say Standard Time is important because it aligns the earth with the sun.

These days I’m in for the night at dinner time, not too long ago I was out all night, but even going out all night entailed going out after dark, so I never really cared about this stuff about having those extra hours of daylight for whatever people need it for.

Here are 10 reasons it is better to have Standard Time rather than DST. I posted it in today’s 10 With Tom column.

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Outside the box

If you swipe back and forth on this recent cartoon, you can see the difference. No, it’s not the cat or the box, it’s the text at the top.

I wanted to publish it with the script type which says, “Thinking outside the box,” but at the last minute I changed it to the usual block letters because I wasn’t sure if everyone would be able to read it.

As you know, script/cursive was not taught in schools for about 14 years. I’m not sure why. I know things are mostly typed, spoken and digital these days, but don’t people need to sign their names? And no one writes a note to the milkman anymore. Oh, wait, I guess no one knows what a milkman is either.

The good news is that cursive is making a comeback in public schools.

I really like the look of the script text in the cartoon, but in the interest of all my readers – young and foreign, who maybe read English as a second language, I went with the block letters.

Oh, and a funny fact – this cartoon ran on National Cats Day. A reader mentioned it. I didn’t know – it just happened. Right place at the right time.

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Tutti a Tavola a Mangiare!

Last week I was in Eataly at Madison Square and who do I almost bump into – Lidia Bastianich, the restaurant owner and tv chef. She was walking toward me and I was walking toward her and the place is always so crowded, we sort of touched.

I looked her right in the face and almost said, “Tutti a Tavola a Mangiare!” but she looked down and obviously didn’t want to be recognized, so I just walked by. She was with a couple of friends and they were taking and shopping.

I did want to ask her about my 10 With Tom column. I tried reaching out to her and I know a couple of her PR people opened the email asking her to participate, but I didn’t receive a response.

I watched her make zeppole on tv the other day – with some sort of cream filling, which I’ve never seen with a zeppole before. They looked like this image, with the cream and cherries on top.

I’m use to this type, which usually comes three or more served warm or hot in a paper bag.

I was at an Italian street fair, a Feist, in Brooklyn last week, I had some there (without the whipped cream).

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