Throwback Thursday

Recently, my significant other sent me a picture from the 90's. We were at her sister's home celebrating New Year's eve.

The woman in the picture is my former sister-in-law; she passed away seven years ago. She was a wonderful compassionate woman and a loving mother.

Excuse the picture low resolution, my significant other texted the image after she took a picture of the original pic with her cell phone.

As you can see, at that time I was still a drinker and was holding my favorite drink, Grand Marnier on the rocks. For the record, I quit drinking alcohol on my 40th birthday. This year marks 25 years sober and I couldn't be happier.

Vintage Motorcycle Event

The 27th Annual Gathering of the Nortons was held this past Sunday at Washington Crossing Park, after a two-year hiatus thanks to the pandemic.

This vintage motorcycle event pretty much marks the start of the motorcycle season here in Philadelphia. Most types of bikes are welcome but they are mostly Norton's and British bikes. The value and demand for vintage motorcycles is at an all time high.

I read somewhere that this motorcycle event started after a group of friends began to meet after breakfast at the Washington Crossing Park, more than 20 years ago. This event has become the biggest Norton's vintage motorcycle gathering of the East Coast.

The 76 year young gentleman was very proud talking about his orange Harley Davidson XR-1200. In ten years when I get to be his current age, I hope I have the same energy he has.

The blue Kawasaki shown in the picture looks just like my first street bike, a 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 triple, "the widow maker". In my opinion, this year's event was a complete success. Enjoy the pictures!

Don't Give It To A Russian

 Have you ever heard of Lysistrata? Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy performed in classical Athens in 411 BC.

According to Wikipedia, "Lysistrata was about the women of Greece banding together to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a way of forcing men to negotiate peace during the Peloponnesian War".

[ A sex strike, sometimes called a sex boycott, is a form of resistance often used to meet political, social or economic goals. Women around the world are using sex strikes to create social change. Throughout history, women have abstained from sex as a form of non violent protest. ]

Here are random cases of [ Crossed Legs Sex Strikes ] found on the internet:

• The women of Liberia helped end a 14-year civil war that killed over 250,000 by staging a sex strike in 2002.
• In September 2006, wives and girlfriends of gang members from the Colombian city of Pereira launched [ La Huelga de las Piernas Cruzadas or Cross-Legged Sex Strike ], a 10-day movement intended to curb gang violence.
• On April 29, 2009, ten Kenyan women's associations invited women to abstain from sex in order to end disputes between the president and prime minister.
• In 2011, women in the Colombian town of Barbacoas, announced that they would refuse to have sex with their husbands and partners, to protest the terrible condition of the local road.

As we now know, in 2014, cooperation between the leaders of the White House, European Union and NATO failed to stop the annexation of Crimea. 

A new [ Crossed Legs Sex Strike ] movement was on the rise in Ukraine, where women were trying to end Moscow’s aggression urging Ukrainian women to abstain from sex with Russian men. To raise funds, the movement was selling a T-shirt with the message [ Don't Give It to a Russian ], alongside a pair of hands making the shape of a vagina.

Who Has Ever Heard Of Such A Thing? 

It's Wednesday! Happy Hump Day!

Quads Ice Racing

One of those rare motorcycle events I had never seen in person, probably because I hate cold/freezing weather, was motorcycle racing on ice. 

Nine years ago I saw a poster advertising motorcycle ice racing in Trenton, New Jersey. The headliner of the event was 5-Time Ice Racing World Champion, (The First Lady of Ice Racing) Mandy "Wild Child" Brodil Cervantes. Since I don't follow ice racing, had no idea who she was. The ad piqued my interest, so I ordered tickets online.

Trenton, NJ, is only a forty five minutes commute by train from Philadelphia. I took half day off from work, and arrived early to attend the paddock pit pass meet and greet to meet the racers and see the bikes up close. I was pleasantly surprised to find only a few motorcycles, the majority of the racing vehicles were Quads. Quads are all terrain vehicles, four-wheel ATV's modified for racing. Since this type of racing is on ice, the tires are equipped with metal studs to help with traction. You can see the Quads with metal studded tires in some of the pictures.

In 2013 I wasn't interested in photography yet, these images were taken with my trusty Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W530 point-and-shoot. That day I learned that at the Convention Center they don't allow DSLR's and long lenses into the premises. So I am glad that I was only carrying my point-and-shoot camera.

The event was amazing, it exceeded all my expectations. Enjoy the pictures!

You Can't Please Everyone

This past weekend I was listening to a podcast interview given to Amara La Negra on NPR that went off the rails in the comment section pretty quick.

Diana Danelys De Los Santos known professionally as Amara La Negra, is an American singer, actress, dancer, author, and television host, according to wikipedia. During the interview she was responding to critics trash talking about her right to name her children whatever name her partner and she had chosen.

Those same critics, then turned their attacks to the way she expressed herself; they began to make fun of her Spanish pronunciation. Even though her mother is from the Dominican Republic, obviously people don't realize she was born in Miami, Florida, therefore her primary language is English.

She has been criticized by the Latino community for being too black to be Latina. In the same breath, the black community criticizes her for being too Latina to be black. In other words, she has experienced racism from the black American community, and also from the Latino community.

Shopaholics Anonymous

It wasn't in my budget to spend money in a new laptop, but after one of my laptops went kaput Friday, I pulled the plug. 

Just placed an order for the new to me Dell laptop. Estimated arrival is between Friday, April 22 and Wednesday, April 27. If my other old trusty Dell doesn't crash before I get the new laptop, I should be fine!

Born-Again Christian

A female Nebraska Republican Senator claims to be "in shock" that Trump is endorsing gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster after he is accused of groping young women.

Charles Herbster, a born-again Christian, "one of the biggest donors in the Nebraska Republican Party"  is accused of groping eight women, including the 22 year old Republican Senator. 

According to The Examiner, "all 13 female state senators in the Nebraska legislature, including five Republicans, issued a statement Thursday condemning the “highly credible, corroborated allegations.”

The question I would like to ask these women is, "why would they be shocked?" It’s what Trump did all the time.

Here is the new GOP campaign slogan: Grab'em by the pu**y!

Lessons Learned The Hard Way

Logic tells me that by now I should've learned my lesson, and not repeat the same mistake all over again. 

Let me explain. In the last four years, twice I had to replace my laptop keyboard for the same issue, carelessly spilling my drink on it. Last time I promised myself that this was the last time.

Oops! ... I did it again yesterday morning after I returned from doing my laundry. This time I am going to follow the love of my life's advice, and order an ultra thin keyboard cover to protect it from spills and food crumbs.

UPDATE: Late last night I learned that my laptop went kaput. So instead of shopping for a keyboard cover, I'll be shopping for a new laptop.

Republicans Fixation On Homophobia

A couple of days ago, there was an opinion piece in the New York Times discussing Republicans fixation on Homophobia. The article says that with words like "grooming" and "predations", Republicans are trafficking in hateful slurs. 

Some of us grew up when stereotypes about gay people were largely negative. How many of us have heard that gay men are child molesters? Lately, "grooming" has become a catchword in anti-gay politics. Someone recently pointed out that those words prey on every parent's worst fear, that all gay people see children as prey. 

Back in 1997, as the education coordinator in our county, I was asked to give an HIV/AIDS presentation to an elementary school in rural Pennsylvania. Unbeknownst to me, prior to the educational workshop the school administration contacted my employer asking if I was gay. They also requested to screen the HIV/AIDS health brochures and video I was going to present to the students. To make a long story short, they basically gutted more than half of our agency HIV/AIDS educational material before the day of the workshop. 

This is 2022. In my opinion, negative assumptions about gays are at an all time high. 

Never Take Life For Granted

It is kind of scary to realize that the subway shooting in Brooklyn today happened in the same train N & R line my family and I just rode a couple of weeks ago.

Always tell your loved ones that you love them, because things can change in the blink of an eye. Never take life for granted, tomorrow is not promised.

COVID Cases Up In Philadelphia, City Officials Will Reinstate Mask Mandate

Every time I read that the government is lifting COVID mandates, I cringe. For the past two years it has been proven time and time again that when the mandates are removed, the COVID numbers go up. 

How does anyone expects this virus to go away, when as soon as the numbers begin to normalize these people cave to pressure and start easing up sanctions?

On Monday, Philadelphia health officials will announce whether the city will reinstate its mask mandate inside of public places. The health commissioner lifted the indoor mask mandate just over a month ago, and right now, COVID-19 cases are back on the rise. 

At this pace, in my opinion, COVID may never go away. 

Invisible People

In all the years taking the subway in New York, this is the first time I got to see the cleaning crew in action.

The MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) contracted workers to help disinfect the NYC subway during the pandemic. 

It is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Public transportation cleaning work is usually scheduled to be done overnight. I was surprised to see a grandma cleaning the subway around midday during my visit to Coney Island last Monday. 

As I watched her to scrub away grime,  with so many young people jobless, I couldn't help thinking of why is grandma doing this work in our nation's largest transit system?

Its Ok To Say Gay. Why Does The Republican Party Oppose Gay Rights?

In a national survey, 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide last year. Many LGBTQ young people experience family rejection. School may be the only place where they feel safe to be themselves. 

So what happens when they can't go to their teachers because talking about their identities is "inappropriate" for the classroom? Or they have to worry about teachers outing them to their parents?

Conservatives were wrong on civil rights and women’s rights. Now it’s LGBTQ kids.

Copy and paste from WeAreTeachersdotcom.

And The Moral of the Story Is ....

I hate to admit, but I am in the group of people who always denigrated cell phones as a tool to take photos. Until yesterday.

Visiting NYC was not a photo excursion, but more of a way to celebrate my birthday in one of my favorite cities in the world. The top picture was taken using my cell phone at the top observatory of the Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock). 

As has always been the case when I visit this location, most of my Nikon DSLR pictures were unusable. On my way to the exit elevator, I took four or five pictures handheld using my cell phone. The images were captured through glass windows. Glass can be one of the hardest things to take photos through.

Out of those images, I blended three pictures and created a panorama image of NYC. These cell phone images look 110% better than those taken by my digital Nikon DSLR. 

The moral of the story is, don't knock it until you've tried it. Let me humbly say that I I have learned a valuable lesson.

A Day Of Celebration

Another year has come and gone! What a difference a year makes. At this time last year I was still working at the plantation; I mean at the health center.

I turned 66 years old today, April 4th. By the time you read this, I will be on my way to pamper myself in New York City. Be advised, I am unplugging from social media until Wednesday evening.

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

These pictures are two of my favorite childhood images!