WELL IT FINALLY HAPPENED TODAY,,,,FIRST DAY OF MY PERMANENT VACATION,,,IT'S BEEN A GREAT 32 YEAR RUN . WE'LL FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

Ken's Diner!

Way to go Ken & Dan!

Pesach Family Pictures

trip to Israel?????

I am seriously thinking about going to Israel after Shavuos. Fares are higher and harder to get than I thought.  I jsut spoke with a travel agent who is got me a decent fare with stop overs.  Going I have time to tour Rome and returning I have just enough time to wave hello good bye to Paris. I just have to ask my co worker to delay his vacation by a day.  i have to find a place or places to stay. I do have plenty of people to visit but not really stay with for an extended time. Any suggestions welome

computer saga new chapter

I went back to Best Buy yesterday to pick up my new laptop. It is an Asus. The geek downloaded microsoft office and the anti virus and google chrome.  Guess what - it didn't take that long. google chrome was downloaded in a bout 5 minutes.  He showed me a couple of things too.  I took it home and opened it up. It was a black screen. The toshiba would automatically open to a sign in screen.  I found a silver button and pushed it and it started. I guess this machine has to be opened or the other laptop never completely shut down.   I do like the Asus better. I like the key board as it is raised and easier to type on.  So far so good .

Our new swimming pool

Great Rav Henkin Story

Very Cool Hashgacha Pratis Story

Where do I start? A week or 2 ago Fran sent me an email with a link to an article entitled, “Rav Henkin, America’s Forgotten Poseik”. Here is the link http://5tjt.com/rav-henkin-americas-forgotten-poseik/.

I don’t believe we have any letters from him, especially with any Halachik rulings.

Now fast forward to this past Sunday. As you may know we had 4 funerals in one week & so on Sunday night we had 2 Shiva houses, so I, as the second stringer, went to the home of the Shiva for Lenny Weiner. Lenny lived right across the street from the Kilstein’s & in fact single handedly built the handicap ramp for them. His late wife “Footsie” passed away 2 years ago & was a participant where Ima works.

Now Footsie’s grandfather was Rev. Turetsky, who was a mohel, shochet, shamash at the Anshei. He died in 1959. As I walked in to the house several people told me that a relative had brought over a bunch of letters that were written to Rev. Turetsky that were in Yiddish, Hebrew even Russian. They asked if I could translate them. I told them I couldn’t help with the Russian but I’d love to see the letters after we daven.

Being at somewhat of a loss what to say between mincha & maariv, I told a story that I saw in the sefer, “Veha’arev Na” (chelek 2, parshas vayechi) which was a tremendous hashgacha pratis story about how a nursing home informed the wrong next of kin  that his Mother had passed away. It’s too long to write here. Bkitzur, the lady who passed away was buried k'das UK'din only because of the terrible mixup when her son who had become a priest intended to have her cremated.

Anyway, I talked about how everything happens for a reason (there was a mixup with the niftar's medical care in the hospital) & how "G-d moves the chess pieces".

Everyone liked the story & we moved on. Right after maariv, they brought out the folder with the letters.

The first letter right on top of the pile was a letter from Rav Henkin!

I didn't get every word of it but apparently the shaila had to do with the family leaving the graveside before the complete covering of the grave.

Bottom line was Rav Henkin was against it, (he quoted the Chasam Sofer that "Chadash is asur min hatorah". He said that he didn’t like these “ceremonies” but concluded that he shouldn't make a machlokes over it. I hope to get a copy of the letter soon.

Everyone was freaked out that my step- grandfather wrote a letter to their great grandfather, that I just happened to be there that night, that I just happened to have just told the story I did, that they just happen to be looking for his letters now, & that Fran just happened to have made me aware of that.

Here is the letter...

Here is a link to see it better    Link to Rav Henkin Letter pdf

I'm really thinking of buying a shed for the backyard.

New Computer Saga continues

I spent another couple of hours at Best Buy again on sunday. I went to a different store this time. I wanted them to check my desktop computer and add  the anti virus. Well that dinosaur couldn't be updated since their equipment and  y anti virus software isn't compatible.  At least this Best Buy in LIC has an outdoor lot and shopping carts so I was able to shlep the computer easily.  I had them look at my new laptop because Google Chrome which Asher loaded stopped working.  After a bout an hour of trying to downloading it. It couldn't download. I spoke with a manager and he is switching my laptop to another. we chose an Asus which has a faster processor for only $20 more than the price I paid and this new one is also more expensive.  It will arrive in store at the end of the week. I guess Sunday I go back there.
 I went to that store because it is close to a Corningware outlet store and I want to replace a lid I broke.  By the time I got out of Best Buy on Sunday Corning was closed.

Itzkowitz Grocery Store

Remember the story daddy used to tell about the grocery store on Lee avenue which was around the corner from his. How Mr. Itzkowitz took Domino sugar and repackaged it into brown paper bags and stamped them with his name  & Kosher for Passover then doubed the price.  There is a small closed store with a faded Itzkowitz  Grocery store sign on it.  I was on the work van today and passed it.