Helping The Elderly

Thought this was an incredibly beautiful photo.

Someone playing ball with an elderly lady in a wheelchair! 

Too often, I think we forget or neglect the older, disabled, and disadvantaged population.

These were once the people who cared for us! 

As we grow older, life can get so much harder in terms of health, disability, finances, and even loneliness.

It is so important to show compassion, kindness, and care for the people who need us, and not to forget anyone along the journey of life!  ;-)

Helping The Elderly

Peace To All Mankind!

Today is Tisha B'Av.

It's a solemn day on the Jewish calendar when we commemorate so many terrible events that happened in our history.

We have to remember the lows, but also pray for G-d to bring us ever back to the highs.

Peace, health, prosperity, and happiness.

It all comes from the One Above! 

May G-d have mercy on us and bestow only blessings for good times to come. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Peace To All Mankind!

Good One for Rosh Hashanah

It's Tisha B'Av tonight.

But this is a good one for Rosh Hashanah in 2 months. 

Got to contain the spray from the blowing of the shofar. 

It's a coronavirus time of year.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Facebook)

Good One for Rosh Hashanah

It's Good To Know What You're Eating

Who knew what all these parts of the cow were called when we're in the butcher shop or supermarket?

Rump
Chuck
Shank
Prime Rib
Short Rib
Rib Eye
Tenderloin
Sirloin

I guess we don't waste much in a dog eat dog world!

The poor cow is tasty to eat, but what did she do to any of us? ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

It's Good To Know What You're Eating

Wow, Not Bad For A Toy

A toy is a toy and this one really is, but a Porsche is not a toy! 

Design is an art, whether for cars, homes, fashion, and more. 

Those that get design right make things not only functional, but incredibly beautiful. 

And when function and design come together in perfect harmony that is no toy! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Wow, Not Bad For A Toy

Planning Ha Ha

Man Plans and G-d Laughs!

So in retrospect, in 2015, not a single person got the answer right to 'where do you se yourself 5 years from now?'

Where you gonna be in 2020?

Stuck at home for almost the entire year!

But you are a fortune teller and are so smart you should've rolled your dice in the ever exploding  bubble of a stock market.

Oh, that's right, you did!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Planning Ha Ha

Even Dogs Wear Masks

Even Sophie the dog wears a mask against Coronavirus.

- If giver doesn't wear mask and receiver does - 70% chance of transmission

- If giver wears mask and receiver doesn't - 5% chance of transmission

- If giver wears mask and receiver wears mask - 1.5% chance of transmission

That's doggie good statistics to avoid the Coronavirus plague.

People can learn just like dogs.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Even Dogs Wear Masks

My Blue Thumb

Oops! I goofed watering the plants this week. 

I got a new spray bottle from Home Depot and I put the Fantastic cleaner it in. 

Thinking about the new bottle, I accidentally picked it up to water the plants. 

I sprayed the cactus and immediately realized what I had done!

Oh sh*t! I just poisoned my cactus. So quickly, I poured water in to try to dilute it. 

I thought to myself how the plant would react and I imagined how a person would react if they drank Fantastic. 

Sure enough within a couple of days the cactus was reeling. 

But I think a person could probably recover if it wasn't too much, so I'm hoping the cactus will too. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

My Blue Thumb

Wow, Good Enough To Eat

Wow, the chocolate and poppy pastry rolls look pretty awesome. 

Salivating to take a serious bite. 

But don't advise for that before taking a drug test.

I heard the poppy seeds may give a false positive.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Wow, Good Enough To Eat

Bucket List

So this week, I managed to check off 1 item from my bucket list. 

I replaced an almost 16-year old 4Runner with a new car that I had been eyeing for some time. 

I never thought I would actually get the new car, but I am so very grateful to Hashem!

My father used to say:

It's just something to get you from here to there!

And he was right, but it was still nice to replace the old clunker.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Bucket List

Short Man Tall Man, What Do You Say

This was a comical picture.

Almost like from Dr. Seuss.

Short man and tall man.

Actually a whole step taller.

Guy on the left, little stubby legs.

One on the right, long long legs.

When you're on a ladder, I guess it doesn't matter.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Short Man Tall Man, What Do You Say

PTSD Gets Around

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "PTSD Gets Around."

The Jewish people are a nation recovering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), where memories of trauma flood our national psyche and can trigger emotional (and even physical) symptoms. Whether fear of the next “evil decree” against the Jews, to another pogrom of crazed rapists and killers rampaging through a Jewish town, or even of genocide itself, the Jewish people have known plenty of deep-seated persecution and have to deal with the accompanying fear and anxiety of being the quintessential “strangers in a strange land,” almost everywhere in the world and over a very long period of history.

PTSD is very real not only for our suffering veterans, and for individual people that have been sexually abused or experienced physical violence, but it can also be a national psychiatric disorder based on collective trauma that affects our mood, anxiety levels, and behavioral reactions to events. Suffering from exile, persecution, and helplessness from thousands of years does not go away in a generation or even a century. It is a long road for our national recovery where we can learn to once again live healthy and productive lives absent from the fear and anxiety of another bad Tisha B’Av.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

PTSD Gets Around

Homemade Self-Defense

With efforts by the radical alt-left progressives to defund and dismantle police...

This is what the future for protection of innocents in this country looks like?

If you take away legitimate police and their efforts to protect citizens then this will force people to buy, build, and use even more weapons in their own self-defense.

Anarchy, chaos, lawlessness, and the wild west will be sure to take over as the new normal. 

We don't need more out of control gunslingers, gangs, and vigilantism battling for our streets. 

Reform the police, protect the innocent people, and put the bad guys away. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Homemade Self-Defense

Missing Florida Vacations

So many months into Covid now, and probably so many more to go unfortunately.

Just missing getting out and down to Florida for a little vacation.

The palm trees.  The sun.  The beach.  A little fun. 

This isn't forever, right?

Hopefully, let's pray, Covid will be over and we can live again in freedom and without fear of contagion every moment of every day, day, day.  ;-)

(Credit Photo of artwork: Andy Blumenthal)

Missing Florida Vacations

Don't Lose Your Head

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Don't Lose Your Head."

Woman are notorious in the Bible for taking men’s heads—and I mean taking them!

The great news is that women are awesome fighters, the bad news is that your head is a very valuable thing to lose.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Don't Lose Your Head

Looking at you, Looking at me

Interesting bird sitting on a pole under the shade of the tree.

What are you doing? 

I'm looking at you, looking at me, looking at you!  

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Looking at you, Looking at me

Awesome Elbit!

Love this Israeli defense company, Elbit Systems! 

They are Israel's largest defense company with brilliant defense, homeland security, and national security solutions. 

Proven on the battlefield on land, sea, air, and space. 

From the advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighter helmet mounted display to the Iron Fist active protection system to drones, lasers, C4ISR, cyber, electronic warfare, electro-optics, countermeasures, combat vehicle systems, and artillery, mortar, munitions and more. 

Elbit offer high-tech solutions that uniquely combine brain with brawn!  

Defending the Holy Land and other countries around the globe. 

In the fight of good over evil, I'm proud that Elbit is one of the good guys! ;-)

Awesome Elbit!

IMHO Warning: Stock Market MAJOR Correction Imminent

I went to the mall today.

This is a few weeks into reopening phase 2!

I expected people would have pent up demand and be swarming the stores even while keeping their social distance.

They weren't at the mall! 

The stores were nearly void of people.

The shelves were virtually empty of goods.

Whatever merchandise there was seemed to marked "sale, sale, sale" even on the already deeply-discounted clearance items.

It was completely frightening--like the economy is dead or on severe life support!

Most stores had 3 or more associates standing around or sitting twiddling their thumbs.

This while the stock market keeps ticking up and the NASDAQ is reaching new highs almost daily.

Coronavirus is surging again across much of the U.S. and there is almost 140,000 dead in the U.S. after just 5 months even though much of the population was in self-quarantine.

The economy looks to me in sh*t shape, despite the U.S. pumping $3 trillion dollars more of debt to artificially prop up the economy and the fed lending out money at super low rates.

It makes NO sense for the market to be hitting all time highs as if everything is all roses when the economy is still a true mess!

The New Yorker magazine wrote back in May of a post coronavirus "decade of depression" with an L shaped recovery, yet we keep seeing a V-shaped one and no one seems to be able to offer any plausible explanation for it.

Two-months ago, even before the recent stock run-up to higher levels, Business Insider reported that "the Stock Market is trading at its highest valuation in 18-years."

Last month, Forbes reported that "the stock market appears to be reaching unsustainable highs."

Yesterday again, Bloomberg reported that the "economic recovery is faltering."

Almost daily, I read that companies are laying off their workers (in Travel, Transportation, Entertainment, Retail, Energy, etc.) or declaring bankruptcy (e.g. Hertz, JC Penny, Neiman Marcus, Chesapeake Energy, and more).

This while we are still, in the best case scenario, maybe half a year away from the possibility of a tested, approved vaccine. And then it will still need to be mass produced and mass distributed to hundreds of millions of people in this country and billions globally.

In the meantime, we certainly could be up for a second wave of Coronavirus on top of the flu in the fall/winter. And then the Coronavirus may mutate and become more virulent requiring annual vaccines like the flu shot--more hit or miss.

All this while U.S.-China trade war is imperiling our economy further, and arch-enemies Iran and North Korea remain national security threats.

To me this all points to that we are nowhere near out of the woods and perhaps that there is a wildfire raging and no one seems to be paying any attention!

The stock market euphoria is a common trap and is the definition of "irrational exuberance" but comes after investors have been robotically indoctrinated to buy the dips!

IMHO, buyer beware, beware, beware. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

IMHO Warning: Stock Market MAJOR Correction Imminent

Super Cufflinks

If you've got to wear cufflinks then they might as well be Superman Cufflinks!

These will definitely make you feel special. 

Maybe like a quasi Superhero. 

Some may think you're a little arrogant and all that. 

But maybe you just are hoping to be super at whatever you do. 

It's good to have an imagination and aspiration, and maybe a little sense of humor and fun. 

As long as you don't let it go to your head or to your pompous a**. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumetnhal)

Super Cufflinks

Yesterday a Dog, Today a Cat!

Shabbat Shalom from Ms. Cat. 

It only takes a day to change from a dog to cat. 

Downs and ups of life. 

Shabbat is the up, thank G-d!  ;-)

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

Yesterday a Dog, Today a Cat!

Man's Best Friend

What a cute little dog. 

Little fur ball. 

Ready to play. 

Love for the family. 

A companion and friend. 

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Man's Best Friend

Controversy, Yet Agreement

In these great times of strife and controversy in this country...

One thing that we can probably all agree on:

Make Falafel Not War

Words to live by.

And to eat by.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Controversy, Yet Agreement

The Purge

Thought this was an interesting sign someone had in their office. 

PURGE the things that no longer bring PURPOSE!

Yikes! I wonder who or what got purged from this person's life recently. 

Yet, perhaps it is a good lesson against hoarding and just accumulating junk (things and certain people) along the way of life. 

When things have a deeply negative impact on your life (or they're just dead weight), perhaps it is time to consider letting go.

I'm not talking about relationships of commitment (e.g. family), which have a stronger and timeless bond in my mind, but of those that earn their right into your life by virtue of being ongoing positive, productive forces. 

There is no blessing in gluttony or hoarding--stay trim and fit, travel light and with what is truly meaningful and necessary. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Purge

We Are Family!

I like this definition of family:

Family means NOBODY gets left behind. 

We take care of each other.

No matter what.

My father used to say:

Blood is thicker than water. 

It's not just from the battlefield that we make sure to bring everyone home.

Home is where the heart is.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

We Are Family!

Targeting Israel: A Distraction From Real Threats

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Targeting Israel: A Distraction From Real Threats."

While the world unfortunately focuses again on Israel (a state the size of New Jersey), they continue to unfortunately be asleep at the wheel when Russia invaded Crimea and annexed it from a sovereign country of Ukraine in 2014, and again now in 2020 as China is taking critical steps that restrict freedom and human rights in Hong Kong.

The question is why we are constantly being diverted to blame and attack Israel and to not look at the real threats to world peace? Yet again, it’s another modern-day blood libel! While the superpowers play Risk with the world order, we should not be fooled by others trying to tell Israel what to do. Nothing should stop Israel from annexing the 30% of the West Bank under the Middle East Peace Plan that is vital to their lasting peace and security. Today is July 4th and the U.S. and Israel stand united in their commitment to that future.

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

Targeting Israel: A Distraction From Real Threats

@Calvert Cliff State Park

(Credit Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

@Calvert Cliff State Park

Forgot To Bring Blood

So I go for some blood work today.

Lady pokes my arm, and nothing comes out. 

She moves the point of the needle around and around-- still no blood. 

She says: "Hey, it's your fault!"

I say: 

You're right, no one told me that I was supposed to bring blood with me today. 

She looks up and says, "Okay let's try the other arm!"

Then she spanks the arm...and I blurt out laughing, "hey do that again!"

Then poke, poke, and the blood easily fills a half dozen tubes.

She's said, "You see that worked!"

I said:

I only brought blood in my right arm today!

If I could read her mind: "Ok, get the F*** out of the office."

But she was nice and actually says, "You can get your results in about 3 days."  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Forgot To Bring Blood

When All The World Is Going Crazy

When all the world is going c-r-a-z-y...

The best thing you can do is stay CALM. 

- Calm is where good energy enters and bad doesn't.

- Calm is where rational thinking gets done. 

- Calm is where positive action happens.

- Calm is where our inner faith is sustained. 

- Calm is where we can inspire and lead ourselves and others to do good. 

Calm is where we all yearn to be. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

When All The World Is Going Crazy