I actually did a search on Google for blog topics. That’s what it’s come to. I have nothing to say.
Time to wrap this blog in bubble-wrap and old newspaper and shove it into a box. Seal it up tight with packing tape. Put it in a corner of the garage.
Well. Not really. This blog isn’t going anywhere. But it’s sitting in a rocking chair with an afghan over its lap. At least that’s how it seems some days.
So since you’re here, let me just bring you up to date.
- All four of my kids have a cold, but they have spaced it out, so one is at the lingering-cough stage, one is at the sneezing stage, one has an earache and one is dizzy and worn out. My husband and I are–so far–avoiding this one.
- I am obsessed with reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction last year. It’s a giant book. (And best of all, I bought it at a thrift store for $3.99.) I am thinking of sneaking it into the bathroom when I got upstairs in a few minutes–even though it’s 12:30 AM. Why do I have to do stuff like work and cook and clean and sleep when there is a good book to read? As my 12-year old would say, “That’s not fair!” (I swear, I hear her say that phrase more than any other.)
- I finally hung a couple of oval mirrors in the bathroom. The giant mirror fell almost two months ago. Since then, we’ve been getting ready by stooping to look into small mirrors propped by the sinks. Very unsatisfactory, but for some reason I am slow to solve these petty problems. I plan to create an entire “mirror wall” in that bathroom. Check back in a year and we’ll see how much progress I’ve made. One must not rush into these things.
- We survived the heat wave. This morning, while driving my son to his college class, I noted that the temperature was 66 degrees. It was downright chilly. I loved it. (The warmth returned all too soon–it was 80 in the house by the afternoon. Boo.)
- I went with a friend to hear Benny Hester and Kelly Willard in concert last week. It was the first time I’d ever seen either one in concert and it was simultaneously disappointing and super fun–it was disappointing because Kelly Willard did not sing ANY of the songs she’s written and recorded over the years. (I don’t understand this.) But it was super fun because Benny Hester and his band were excellent. I felt like I had gone back in time to the eighties when his music was on Christian radio. (Is it still? I don’t know. I barely ever listen to Christian radio.) Anyway, time warp for sure, sitting in that “Christian coffee house,” listening to that music.
- Tomorrow a friend of ours will arrive for a two-night stay at our house. He’s just stopping here on his way overseas. His pit-stop means I will spend my morning Swiffering up dog hair and gathering dishes and cups from every room and returning items to their rightful homes (for instance, that white board needs to be relocated to my daughter’s room. And so on and so forth.)
And finally, you should know that the fruit fly population has dwindled to almost nothing. An occasional fruit fly hovers in my line of sight every once in awhile. I’ve put the brand new bananas I bought into a Zip-loc bag to prevent this whole situation from flaring up again. I randomly clap flies out of their flight paths from time to time.
Just for kicks, here are the topics HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator came up with for me using the nouns “fruit flies,” “novels” and “houseguests.”
1) The history of fruit flies
2) 10 Quick Tips About novels
3) The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on houseguests
4) 7 Things About fruit flies Your Boss Wants to Know
5) 14 Common Misconceptions About novels
The week promises to be busy, as usual. My older sons have an appointment in the morning at the DMV to get driving permits. The other kids have school, of course. My husband will drive one to school and I have carpool duty picking up our daughter and four other kids. One of the older kids has a college class in the afternoon, then works later in the afternoon.
And I suppose everyone will want to eat dinner. Again. Every night it’s the same thing: “Mom, what’s for dinner?” SO MONOTONOUS.
Listen, I’d like to know, too. But I’ve been preoccupied by fruit flies. Obsessed, even.
For about a week, I’ve been killing hundreds and hundreds of fruit flies in my effective concoction of red wine vinegar mixed with a drop of dishwashing liquid. I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. We had no more fruit sitting on the counters. I’d taken out the trash, washed out the bottom of the compactor.
Yet after all that, one morning, a cloud of tiny flies greeted me in the kitchen.
I went a little berserk that day, slamming my palms onto the cabinets, smashing unsuspecting flies. I actually got a bruise. I scared my dog by suddenly clapping my hands for no apparent reason.
At last, I realized that something ugly lingered inside the trash compactor, so my son helped me figure out how to get the crusher-thing to come down. Sure enough, there was . . . well, ick. I cleaned it out and the fruit flies have lessened, though they haven’t quite disappeared completely.
Some people are out changing their worlds. I’m merely trying to keep fruit flies from copulating in my kitchen.
This originally appeared on my blog on September 11, 2006. I’m reposting it again as I remember Thomas Kuveikis who died in the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001.
I will never forget.
You may want to read the comments here and here. Here are two comments made by people who knew Thomas.
Kathy Kuveikis Kurtz September 9, 2011 at 8:05 am
James Schaus September 11, 2011 at 7:36 am
I remember Tom “Las Vegas” Kuveikis as the coolest guy in our class, and a very good friend. Tom had a magnetic personality, and of course had the starring role in our high school movie project “Born to Be Wild…Starring Wheatley’s Wildest Cats”. He was also in our Sha La La music group, and was the only one of us who actually looked good in gold lame. I guess you can take the boy outta Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn outta the boy. He returned to Brooklyn to do what he loved, helping others, and he left this world what he always was, a hero. We are forever grateful for his courage, kindness, and heroism.
* * *
I am participating in the 2,996 Project, for which 2,996 bloggers volunteered to write a memorial for one person who perished in the attacks on 9/11.
Today, on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States, I remember Thomas Kuveikis. He was forty-eight when he died, younger than I am now.
Thomas Kuveikis was known to his family and friends as Tommy. He grew up in Brooklyn, attending Blessed Sacrament Elementary School. He graduated from Wheatley High School in 1971 after his family moved to East Williston.
Tommy studied architecture at both SUNY Farmingdale and the Pratt Institute, though he never completed a degree. He dabbled in carpentry, a skill learned from his father. He joined the New York Fire Department (FDNY) in August of 1977 when he was twenty-four years old.
Within a year, Tommy made a name for himself as an aggressive, brave and tough firefighter. His younger brother, Tim, once said, “If I could be half the fireman he was, I’ll have a really good career.” (Newsday.com) He loved the action of firefighting in Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood. (His father was a legendary firefighter who died in November 2001.)
But Tommy wasn’t just a tough guy. He came up with an idea to help a poor family at Christmas. Starting in 1987, members of his squad visited a priest at St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church and asked for the name of the poorest family in the parish. Then they would contact the family, set up a Christmas tree and provide presents.
Tommy was married twice and was about to be engaged to Jennifer Auerhahn, who described him as “sweet, funny, kind gentle and unselfish.” His brother Jimmy wrote about him on September11victims.com website saying,
“It was really tough to lose Tommy as he became such a kind, considerate guy over time. He was not always this way, especially in his twenties, but ‘life’s difficulties’ made him become a great human being. He was a vegetarian, he gave money and time to Putnam County Land Trust to preserve ’special’ land . . . he loved animals, kids and good people. Tommy was already a tremendous fireman, working in a poor area of Brooklyn, where he could experience many more fires than the average fireman, just like his father did.”
Kathy Gelman said her brother, Tommy, was “honorable, honest, humorous, humble, humane, and hero.”
In his spare time, Tommy worked as a carpenter. In fact, he built a steam room in Squad 252’s firehouse. He had a reputation for not charging enough for his carpentry work. One day a year, he would donate a day of carpentry to the Putnam County Land Trust.
Tommy had one daughter, Kristen. He had five siblings, sisters Christine, Karen and Kathleen and brothers, James and Timothy.
Tommy had been a firefighter for twenty-four years and a member of Squad 252 (“In Squad We Trust” was their motto) for five years when his squad answered the fifth alarm at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, at 9:00 a.m. He was forty-eight years old that day. CNN footage shows his squad pulling up to the east side of the Trade Center around 9:28 a.m. The six members of the squad entered the north tower, rescued a man from an elevator.
Two of the firefighters’ bodies were found in the C stairwell 18 days later. The other four men of Squad 252, including Tommy, were never found.
Today, I remember Thomas Kuveikis. Thomas Kuveikis is one of the 343 FDNY firefighters who died on September 11, 2001. He is a hero. We will never forget.
We will never, ever, ever forget.
Actual Unretouched Photo 
I did a search today for my cousin Tom as the 10th anniversary approaches. I came across your post and wanted to say thank you for saying all the kind things about Tom. He really was a great person, a wonderful dad, but most importantly a hero. Like people have stated over time, “It is so easy to run away, but to run towards the tragedy” requires a true gift of heroism. My cousin was and is my hero always.