Perfect Limo Service, Inc.

10/16/2026

So, this letter goes out on Fridays, and recently a lot of stories I write about involve stuff that happened during the previous week or weeks.

I read a lot of articles in my emails pertaining to the current news, and sometimes I will miss something. Like this story about a brawl that broke out midair on an EasyJet flight from the Canary Islands (TFS) to Liverpool, England. It involved 10 passengers; apparently it was families, duking it out. The flight returned to TFS to have them escorted off the plane. I'm sure they were brought to a different type of resort.

The funny thing about this story, there was an additional story at the end of the article that mentioned, about six weeks earlier, a flight from TFS, this time to Gatwick, London, had to be turned around because 12 passengers decided it was a good idea to have a melee in the sky. Back to TFS we go.

I guess the partygoers to the Canary Islands just want to keep the fun going! Let's turn this baby around and go back for a little more Ronmiel de Canarias (honey rum).

I mentioned this story to my daughter-in-law, and she laughed and said, "I guess you didn't hear about the guy that got duct-taped to his seat".

Wow, I missed some good stuff while I was away. I Googled duct-taped passenger, and this is incredible. A guy from Arizona, flying from Dallas to Newark on September 3, about the same time I was landing in Rome, without duct tape wrapped around my head, decided to go on a violent, racist, and homophobic rant after having drunk two screwdriver cocktails.

Now, if it's possible to think he was embarrassed about his arrest, wait until he sees himself as a YouTube star. These pictures of him are hysterical. This was a first-class passenger. Maybe the airlines should just stick to the free bag of pretzels like the people in the back and eliminate those free screwdrivers.

Then, just when you think people would learn to control themselves on airplanes, Selma Blair, not looking to upset any readers, but she was Legally Blonde, oops, in Legally Blonde, decided to attack a flight attendant on a Delta flight from Los Angeles to JFK on October 11th. Yep, didn't go too well. The good news is, they didn't turn the plane around. Come to think of it, the duct tape guy's plane wasn't turned around either.

Doris asked me what I'm writing about this week, and I told her about these stories. She questioned why it is more stuff about airlines? Hey, it's not the airlines; it's the people.

I guess I'm just one of those people who live a boring life and aren't willing to break federal laws.

When I go to the airport for a flight, it doesn't matter where I'm going, because I'm the same no matter where I'm flying to. I'm courteous as could be at TSA, no matter what they subject me to, and when I'm on that plane, I try to make sure I do not say or do anything stupid that can be misconstrued as violating some law, because I do not want to be facing any Federal Prosecution charges.

To me, it's that simple.

Thinking about it more, airplanes arriving on time are a very important ingredient to maintaining schedules in the limousine business. So, sit back, put your headphones on, watch a season of Ted Lasso, eat the pretzels, and just enjoy the flight. We are waiting for you.

This past week, SpaceX Falcon 9 took off from Cape Canaveral, boosting an unpiloted Dragon cargo ship with supplies and food on its way to the International Space Station.

Did you know, because I didn't, or just forgot, that the Space Station has been up there since November of 2000? It is continuously manned by roughly seven to eleven astronauts and cosmonauts at any given time. Hopefully there are no screwdrivers in that payload.

Look, when I talk about getting away, it is usually to some sunny beach island in the Caribbean. Maybe one day we will be headed just a little bit further. We will definitely need the duct tape on that flight.

Be safe.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

 I was watching Chicago Fire the other day. Actually, I've been watching more than the other day, because I'm doing the binge thing. I saw a scene where the fire trucks were flying down the street on their way to a fire. They were in front of a small sports car which was tailgating them, weaving ...

10/09/2026

October 9th, 1996, 12 year old Jeffrey Maier, sitting in the front row of the right field fence at Yankee Stadium, reached over the fence and interfered with a home run by Derek Jeter, tying the game with a 4 to 4 score against the Baltimore Orioles during the American League Championship Series.

The play went to review, and the umpire declared it to be a home run. The Yankees went on to win the game and eventually won the World Series. The young celebrity went on to play baseball himself at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he set a career record of 189 hits.

Good thing he didn't go to the University of Maryland? At the time, after the incident, he became a villain in Baltimore. Yeah, a 12 year old villain!

Fast forward to October 7th, 2026, Yankee Stadium, this time, the left field fence was the scene. Anthony Volpe hits a home run with a runner on base to tie the score 4 to 4, sound familiar? In the American League Division Championship game, which was interfered with by a fan. This time, the ruling by the ump was that the interference caused the home run, and it should only be a double, taking a run off the board, leaving the score at 4 to 3. The Yankees lost the game and the series and are now home packing their bags for a long, cold winter.

The fan was ejected from the game. No Jeffrey Maier fame for him! But isn't it something how similar the plays were 30 years apart, so close to the same day?

Another poll was out this week which revealed 100 of the best and worst cities to drive in the US. I think the fact that they listed Scottsdale, AZ, and Boise, ID as one and two is pretty silly because, how many people live there compared to the worst cities. Philly, DC, LA, and NYC.

Driving in these areas is not just driving, it's demanding driving. Tailgating, speeding, and reckless drivers are sprinkled in amongst the rest of us.

Sometimes, even me, who is such a nice guy, has to toot my horn, to remind the person in front of me, at a traffic light, that it is time to go. Hope you're done with the text?

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore".

One more thing. Back in August, there was a report on the news about a tractor-trailer that was oversized and got stuck going into the Lincoln Tunnel. Yes, this reminded me of something.

Many years ago, I went onto the Pulaski Skyway, which goes from Jersey City to Newark. Car traffic only because there are very low bridge trusses. I came across a very large tractor-trailer, and the driver was standing outside his truck, wondering how he was going to solve this dilemma he got himself into.

I stopped to help, assuring him that there was an exit up ahead before the first low-hanging truss! So, off I went with him, following me. "Oh crap", was I wrong. The low truss was before the exit. Now, I have no idea how angry the guy was, or what happened, because I didn't hang out to find out how pi**ed off this guy was!

Sorry! Be safe.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

 I was watching Chicago Fire the other day. Actually, I've been watching more than the other day, because I'm doing the binge thing. I saw a scene where the fire trucks were flying down the street on their way to a fire. They were in front of a small sports car which was tailgating them, weaving ...

10/02/2026

Some scary s**t happening on airlines recently, but this latest incident on Wednesday onboard a Flydubai flight is really frightening. To think, when we are on a plane, we have no control over who is flying it. Thank God, the Captain was strong enough, after an ax attack by the co-pilot, to get help by opening the cockpit door. Then the bravery of some of the passengers to actually do something about it.

What happened? Did he not like the way he was chewing his gum?

After our trip to Portugal, the travel company that booked our trip, Enchanting Travel asked us for some feedback on the accommodations and mostly on the tour guides. I explained to them that almost everyone we had was great. Very personable and good storytelling about the history and landmarks they were explaining.

But there was one guy and his driver (who also wasn't very friendly either) that we had for a whole day. As knowledgeable as he was about everything we saw, it was like listening to my high school history teacher blurting out facts. Even better, he reminded me of Sgt. Joe Friday, from Dragnet, with his signature line, "just the facts, ma'am," and his charming personality. Actually, he even looked like Sgt. Joe. Posture and all.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when two people are put together, you would like to think we can all play in the sandbox nicely. Hey, we didn't personally choose that tour guide, but we listened to what he had to say. We never complained about the way he was chewing his gum.

We had to deal with stuff at Perfect Limo. Nothing compared to what happened on that flight, but it has to do with people. We may get a call that passenger X really didn't like chauffeur A, so we couldn't schedule them together. Yes, sometimes dispatching got difficult with "I don't like him" in the mix.

Chauffeurs would try to tell us they didn't like a particular customer! Okay, good for you. Go do the job and be nice.

On the lighter side, when we were driving in our rental car, with my International Driver's License, of course, which I got for $45, we traveled on this expressway A2. It goes from the Algarve area in the southern part of Portugal to Lisbon. About every five miles, there were signs alerting drivers that, coming up soon, there is an emergency roadside phone! I guess it is easier to use than dialing the emergency SOS on my cell phone. Who knows?

Which made me think. We don't have them anymore in NJ. But there was a day.

Garden State Parkway, southbound, somewhere between the Route 80 West exit and the Route 3 East ramp, there was a phone. It used to be a couple phone booths, but then it got modern, and they replaced the booths with a single eggshell-type structure. Lonely little phone hanging out by itself on GSP in Clifton.

This was important to us, because this was in the pager, beep, beep beep, era. If we needed to get a message to a chauffeur and you knew they were heading south towards EWR, we would page him or her, in hopes that they didn't already pass the golden spot.

While I'm talking about driving, there is something that I need to complain about. But maybe it's something that I got all wrong. You know that little light that is on your mirrors? Well, most newer vehicles, at least.

I thought the reason it blinks was to let you know I am alongside you. But I'm starting to think I got it all wrong. I have to take a look at the car's manual, because it appears to me that people believe it's a sign that it's okay to change lanes!

Be safe..

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog -

 I was watching Chicago Fire the other day. Actually, I've been watching more than the other day, because I'm doing the binge thing. I saw a scene where the fire trucks were flying down the street on their way to a fire. They were in front of a small sports car which was tailgating them, weaving ...

09/25/2026

So, the other day I was in my kitchen, and I plugged in the toaster, looking to heat up my bagel. Not too much, just a little color. P**f! Crap, what was that. The clock on the microwave went off at the same time. Must have blown a circuit.

Now, think about that situation for a second, because Monday, in the Philadelphia area it just so happened that the primary circuit that controls the lines that carry radar and communications data for Philadelphia and Newark Airports failed. But hey, not a problem, just go to the backup system. You know, just flip the switch to get the toaster working again.

Oops! And this is a big oops, my friends. Somebody from NJ Transit, just happened to, somewhere around the New Brunswick area, made a little boo, boo and cut the main fiber optic line. But as always, in the finger pointing game, Amtrak took the blame until it was discovered it was actually NJ Transit workers.

"Know what's below. Call before you dig". Somebody forgot to call 811.

Monday was a mess. Delays and cancellations at all the tri-state area airports, including Philly. And on top of it the President was heading to town. Who do you think got priority? Bob and his family traveling from EWR to Orlando to say hello to Mickey, or the President heading to the UN in NYC? Right! Mickey has enough company.

I feel for all those people on Monday who were traveling because to be delayed or canceled is the worst. Doris and I have been there. Eight hours waiting on and off the plane only to get canceled at 2 AM. Also, as a business owner in the limousine business, it wreaks absolute chaos on our scheduling.

We all like to travel, to get away for business or pleasure, but you need to pack your patience first. Like bring things with you to the airport to keep yourself entertained.

Yesterday morning I saw something that absolutely amazed me. But first let me tell you this. I'm not sure how long it takes you to do the Rubik's Cube, but me, I don't think I've ever solved it. I don't have the patience. But, sometime this week, a 6-year-old from China, did the cube in, 4.27 seconds. Seconds, not hours, not minutes! You've got to kidding me. I'm embarrassed.

Think about this. If I said something like "wait a second", she would already be done! Maybe, I should take the Rubik's Cube with me next time I go to the airport.

Something else I saw this week. Also, from China and it is not President Xi Jinping. Although he did come here this week. It was a report on Fox 5 with Rosanna Scotto about 20 humanoid dancing robots in NYC.

Now, of course, when I originally saw this, I didn't get the full report, but figured I could just Google it later. As always, I got everything about them, but what I wanted, so I really can't tell you what they were actually doing. But, as it turns out, 8 of these robots were here in America back in June on Dancing with the Stars?

I agree, who cares.

Be safe. The storm is coming. Listening to these reports reminds me of Hurricane Sandy. We had a house in Toms River on a lagoon, and that Sunday, we were doing stupid little things to prepare the house for a little storm passing through. Yeah, that masking tape on the bottom of the door did a lot of good? Almost five feet of water in the house. Honey, did you see where the tape went?

Be safe. Really.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

09/18/2026

I've been quiet the past few weeks, because we were traveling. We had a great time visiting Rome, Ravello, for a wedding, and then to Portugal, just because. Hey, we were on the other side of the pond so why not. With the price of air fares!

I love that phrase. "The pond".

The wedding was fabulous. It was for the daughter of our dear friends from Montvale who relocated to Florida a few years back.

Now, I know chauffeurs, taxi drivers, Uber, Lyft Amazon drivers, heck everyday people on the roadways today all rely on navigation tools to get them to where they need to go. But,does anyone ever take a quick look at the end of a route to see if they will be arriving at the address they entered. You know, take a little peek!

Something hit me while we were painstakingly sitting in the back of a Lisbon taxi and the driver, who had no clue of the hotel we gave him, requested we look up the actual address, because his GPS does not take hotel names. This was no help, because he still got lost. With the meter running! I knew where were going, I just had a hard time communicating it to him, or maybe he didn't care what I was saying

As we were wandering, my mind was wandering about 'back in the day' as the old timers like to phrase it. Before TNC's (Transportation Network Company) like Uber and Lyft amongst others, there was the Big Yellow Taxi, (also a song) which these boxy vehicles beautifully littered the streets of the city. They were driven by people who actually knew where they were and where they were headed, without GPS app's.

In the day, before you could become a taxi driver there was the NYC Taxi Guide and driver testing of ones knowledge of the city. This guide book was great. I owned one because it listed hotels, restaurants and even had on/off ramps of the FDR Drive among other roadways as an example. This was the taxi drivers' bible.

Now it is up to us, the passenger to import correct information into some ones app to make sure we will be getting to where we want to be. As tourist! Hopefully you got it right?

Portugal was great. Unfortunately though, I'm not a seafood eater. Funny thing though, in Portugal, when we were in a restuarant, I'd say that to a waiter and they would respond with, no problem, we have fish! Yes, it is different on their menu. Apparently, what we call shell fish is seafood and the stuff that swims around trying to avoid hooks, is fish.

Doris loves her 'fish' and the issue we had, is all of their sea bass, which she was dying to have, was for two, and I had no interest in being part of that two, so she had to settle on smaller fishes.

One more thing. We went to see the Miracle of Fatima, which I'm sure you all must of heard about. I had no idea what we would be seeing and how warming to the heart it would be to see Doris light a candle.

Light a candle is an understatement. They sell you these large candles, maybe a foot long or larger if you want, and then you go and place them in front of an incinerator with billowing smoke. Wasn't exactly the atmosphere we were expecting, but we were there. It is pretty cool to think that we stood on the same ground of the "Miracle". And we able to receive communion because there was a Mass going on while we were there.

Seafood. Eww!! Today, is National Cheeseburger Day. That's what I'm talkin' bout.

Be safe.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

08/28/2026

"Working nine to five, ain't no way to make a living". Yep, Dolly!

Actually, she worked more than a 9 to 5 job. After Googling this woman, it turns out that, after raising and donating an estimated $600 million for numerous charities in her lifetime, at the time of her passing she was estimated to have a net worth between $450 to $650 million dollars. Hey, you think AI could have ballparked it a little bit better, but who's squabbling over a few hundred million?

RIP Dolly Parton. You were a great human being.

Also, did you know, although she did have real hair, she also had between 350 and 365 wigs? Apparently, it was a lot easier to put a wig on than to blow out that hair after a shower every morning.

Talking about a shower, I'm sure people on Air Asia flight 1516 this past week needed to shower after spending time, about 40 minutes next to a woman who pooped in her seat, with the bathroom 15 feet away. Now, I Googled this to try and find out some details, and lo and behold, this is not the first time something like this has happened on airplanes.

People, what's up? Taking your shoes off with no socks and your stinky feet on my armrest is one thing, but this!

Hey, we've had our share of cleanups at Perfect Limo, but usually from the stuff that comes out of your mouth after drinking too much alcohol. Never this crap! After all, wasn't that a major reason you hired a limousine, so you can go out on the town and let your hair down and hit the floor like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever!

Since we're talking crazy people, what about the fanatics at stadiums? The other day there was a Las Vegas Raider fan who was getting a little out of control, yelling at everyone in sight, when eventually the stadium police came, yanked him out of his seat, and hauled him off to who knows where. What happened to just having a few b**rs, giving the rival fans a little grief, all in fun, and just enjoying the game?

A few years back, Doris and I were at a Giants game at MetLife Stadium. A few rows in front of us was a middle-aged blonde woman with her kids. We had no idea what transpired; I guess only the people in the general area knew what happened, but this woman got up and went off crazy, yelling at the guy in front of her. Security came down and hauled her butt away. There was another person who was with the children so they weren't left without any parental guidance. But we had no idea what set her off. Unfortunately, it got her yanked out of the stadium.

Me, I have my one b**r, sausage and pepper sandwich, sit in my seat, cheer when we score, don't laugh, we do, goofy high fives to the other fans around me, then sit back down and enjoy the game, until we score again. Pretty simple, wouldn't you think?

Be safe.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

08/24/2026

I was watching Chicago Fire the other day. Actually, I've been watching more than the other day, because I'm doing the binge thing. I saw a scene where the fire trucks were flying down the street on their way to a fire. They were in front of a small sports car which was tailgating them, weaving in and out of traffic with the trucks. The Captain, said 'look at this guy riding the wave". Well, the wave broke and the young driver crashed badly getting seriously hurt.
I looked up the 'wave' phrase, but couldn't find an answer on that other than riding waves at the Big Sur. What I did find was a phrase of riding "The Wake". I guess it's similar. I mention this because of something I witnessed myself a few months back on River Road in West New York.
In my review mirror I could see an ambulance making it's way from a distance toward me and the other vehicles on River Road. We were about a half mile away from the hospital, which is where I imagine the ambulance was heading. In his 'wake' was a small black sports car following him around every vehicle. The ambulance kept hitting his horn, I would imagine to get the guy off his ass. It wasn't working.
As we were almost in front of the emergency room entrance, the ambulance did a funky move, pulling into the right lane then stopping the truck in the two lanes blocking not only the speeding sports car, but the rest of us.. The ambo driver got out, screaming for the the tailgater to stop. Nope, he drove over the sidewalk and took off at a tremendous speed.
Now, I have a camera in my vehicle, but it is only front facing, so the only action I had on film was the blocking of the road and the sidewalk thing. I got you covered big guy. Plate and everything. But, then a little later I thought about it. The ambulance driver was apparently transporting someone to the emergency room and here he is taking time out to try and pick a fight with some idiot. I personally didn't see this going in his favor. This is why they make delete buttons.
Wheeze, sneeze and gagging. What happened to me.
What is wrong with me? I know! It was strains of hair left behind from Tumblehair, which was rolling around NYC on August 12th. Could you imagine seeing a 10 foot tall giant hairball buzzing by Joe's Shanghai as I'm walking out with my dumplings. Doris would of had a fit because she can't stand to see little baby one inch dust balls under the bed. 10 foot, hairball! Where's the Dyson?
Tumblehair, is made of synthetic hair and it is a promotion for a company called K18Hair to promote a product to stop shedding hair. What happened to a good old billboard? That would be some accident report to fill out if you got 'tangled up' with the hairball!
Go Fighting Bees. Bayonne's Little League team won their first game in Williamsport, PA disguised as New Jersey, winning in dramatic fashion with a walk off home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Good to have a local team back in the spotlight.
Tonight, they play a team from West Chester, PA. Go Bee's. Let's keep this thing going. Last time a NJ team won it all was, Toms River East in 1998.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

08/21/2026

I was watching Chicago Fire the other day. Actually, I've been watching more than the other day, because I'm doing the binge thing. I saw a scene where the fire trucks were flying down the street on their way to a fire. They were in front of a small sports car which was tailgating them, weaving in and out of traffic with the trucks. The Captain, said 'look at this guy riding the wave". Well, the wave broke and the young driver crashed badly getting seriously hurt.

I looked up the 'wave' phrase, but couldn't find an answer on that other than riding waves at the Big Sur. What I did find was a phrase of riding "The Wake". I guess it's similar. I mention this because of something I witnessed myself a few months back on River Road in West New York.

In my review mirror I could see an ambulance making it's way from a distance toward me and the other vehicles on River Road. We were about a half mile away from the hospital, which is where I imagine the ambulance was heading. In his 'wake' was a small black sports car following him around every vehicle. The ambulance kept hitting his horn, I would imagine to get the guy off his ass. It wasn't working.

As we were almost in front of the emergency room entrance, the ambulance did a funky move, pulling into the right lane then stopping the truck in the two lanes blocking not only the speeding sports car, but the rest of us.. The ambo driver got out, screaming for the the tailgater to stop. Nope, he drove over the sidewalk and took off at a tremendous speed.

Now, I have a camera in my vehicle, but it is only front facing, so the only action I had on film was the blocking of the road and the sidewalk thing. I got you covered big guy. Plate and everything. But, then a little later I thought about it. The ambulance driver was apparently transporting someone to the emergency room and here he is taking time out to try and pick a fight with some idiot. I personally didn't see this going in his favor. This is why they make delete buttons.

Wheeze, sneeze and gagging. What happened to me.

What is wrong with me? I know! It was strains of hair left behind from Tumblehair, which was rolling around NYC on August 12th. Could you imagine seeing a 10 foot tall giant hairball buzzing by Joe's Shanghai as I'm walking out with my dumplings. Doris would of had a fit because she can't stand to see little baby one inch dust balls under the bed. 10 foot, hairball! Where's the Dyson?

Tumblehair, is made of synthetic hair and it is a promotion for a company called K18Hair to promote a product to stop shedding hair. What happened to a good old billboard? That would be some accident report to fill out if you got 'tangled up' with the hairball!

Go Fighting Bees. Bayonne's Little League team won their first game in Williamsport, PA disguised as New Jersey, winning in dramatic fashion with a walk off home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Good to have a local team back in the spotlight.

Tonight, they play a team from West Chester, PA. Go Bee's. Let's keep this thing going. Last time a NJ team won it all was, Toms River East in 1998.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

08/14/2026

This morning, once again, I was watching Rosanna Scotto on Fox 5. There was a story about whether or not it is acceptable for men to wear shorts in the workplace. I missed the very beginning of the story, so I tried the back button on my remote to get to the start of the story. Yep, my technology finger wasn't working too well, and I wound up messing up the whole thing.

So, I Googled this story and got a number of responses. Turns out opinions vary, and even the Japanese are encouraging men in shorts, and they call it "The Cool Biz Shift".

But, if I remember correctly, watching the Sopranos, in the season four premiere, Carmine Lupertazzi tells Tony, "a don doesn't wear shorts". For those of you who know nothing about the mafia, don is the boss. Actually, the only way Carmine found out about this was because the little weasel, Johnny Sack, was invited to Tony's house for a barbeque and reported this short dilemma back to Carmine.

Since I was the boss at Perfect Limo, my wife, Doris always reminded me about my attire at work. One summer afternoon, I had to meet a chauffeur at Falcon Jet, which at the time had an office in Paramus. I forget the reason, but anyway, that was the one day I had shorts and flip flops on.

I was early and sitting in the lobby because it was hot outside. The President of Falcon comes walking through the lobby, catching me by surprise. I know he eyeballed me up and down in my t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops and asked, "John, you here for me?" Embarrassed, I hesitated for a second, and thank goodness the chauffeur pulled up to the front door.

Yep, busted, because I definitely wasn't dressing for success that afternoon!

Also, on the news was NASA rolling out a 20 billion dollar 'Moon Base Program', hoping to have a crew-ready outpost by the lunar south pole, which should be operational by 2032. Will they be allowed to bring their flip-flops? Did you watch the movie The Martian with Matt Damon? Yep, when I saw the NASA story, this was the first thing I thought about. And if you didn't watch it, you have to see it.

Now, I don't have a cat, but if you rely on technology to feed your furry little friend, specifically the automatic feeder manufactured by Petlibro, you may have come home to a hungry little buddy. Turns out there was a global server outage affecting these water and food dispensers yesterday. This could be a problem if your office was at the lunar south pole!

Be safe.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog

08/07/2026

Being in the limousine business, I feel like we have always done our best to treat all customers to the highest quality service we could possibly provide. With that being said, I got a little complaint about NJ Transit as a passenger.

But this occurred roughly in the mid 1960's. The passenger was a 10-year-old little boy. Me! We presently live close to the area I grew up in, and I go past this bus stop whenever I go for gas.

This was in the days when it was okay for a 10-year-old (not sure of my exact age at the time) to travel by themselves from North Bergen to Jersey City on the #44 bus. You see, it came right by the corner of where we lived and arrived in JC at the corner of Paterson Plank Road and Palisade Ave, where Grandma Menge would be waiting for her favorite grandson. Hey, that's my opinion, and it was me making the trek, and besides, it's my story.

Now, this was in the days way before anything like GPS tracking and cameras and all the great tracking tools we have today at our disposal. So, when the 44 bus picked me up in the mid-morning at my corner, I waved goodbye to my Mom. I was the only passenger on the bus, and I had my choice of seating. Nothing like the 158, Fort Lee to NYC!

As we were making our way through North Bergen then into Guttenberg, the bus driver decided it was a good time to make a stop for breakfast. Being that his only passenger was a kid, I guess it was all right to make this unscheduled stop. Look, I have no clue how long he took; this happened some 60 years ago, and yes, it still is something I think about, obviously. The bottom line was, as I was looking out the window, he wasn't getting a bagel to go; he was sitting at the counter in the diner probably munching down some scrambled eggs and bacon.

Well, I eventually made it to JC to my Grandma, where we would have our traditional hot dog from the food truck parked on Palisades by the park. Always one of my favorite days until the bus driver didn't really give a crap about a customer service complaint coming from a 10-year-old!

If only there was GPS at the time, maybe I would have been to JC in time to run around in the playground before my dog.

When technology became so advanced, and we got away from the pager, we were blessed with a system called DriveCam. This was a camera that was attached to the windshield, which was a constant feed of what was happening outside and inside the vehicle. If an occurrence happened, it would trigger the camera and save 10 seconds before and 10 seconds after, whatever. The beauty of this was, you cannot make that first 10 seconds disappear. It was already locked in.

Imagine a chauffeur, like Kent, who was driving down the road and boom, he hits a pothole so hard, it sets off the camera, and the little green light turns to red. Let's just say Kent was having a cigarette, which is against company policy, when he hit that big bump. So, he thinks blowing smoke out of the side of his mouth out the window would be a sure way to cover up breaking policy. It was always comical seeing the chauffeur's reaction.

We had a chauffeur, Nick, real name; he was one of our favorite people, and if for any reason he set the camera off, his first reaction was to look at the camera and say something like, "frig you", only a little more vulgar. It did make me chuckle when I would review the film, and he is probably the only person who could get away with that. That was Nick! Miss you, big guy.

One more thing. You know how annoying those lantern flies can be, and you are always chasing after them to stomp on them. Or, what about that possum that you kept seeing running around the yard, that has suddenly disappeared? Then, you discover a 8 foot 40 pound Burmese python snake, stuck under your deck because it was so fat after having that possum for lunch, he couldn't get out.

Yes, this happened on Wednesday in Freehold NJ. The better question would be, where did the python come from?

Be safe.

John A Sutich
Just Another Story Blog