~ Chapter 54 - ~ Paul Newman's "Somebody Up There Likes Me" ~

~ "Somebody up there likes me" ~ Why you ask, well there are at least 12 good reasons and possibly more too ~

~ Let us start off with the scene in, " It's a Wonderful Life" at the very beginning where George Bailey went Sleigh riding and at the very end of his trip he goes into the ice cold pond (see middle photo above} to save his brother Harry and that effected his hearing ~ Well that is exactly as it happened to me in Carl Schultz Park when I was about 6 years old ~ Although it did not effect my hearing I had to walk all the way home with my friends all wet and freezing cold ~ That walk I can vaguely recall took like forever to accomplish but when I reached my home at 401 East 88th Street in Yorkville my folks bundled me all up with Hugs and kisses lol ~

* 1940 or there about ~ 5 years old ~ When living at 401 east 88 St my friends and I were all playing on our 88 St neighborhood block on the sidewalk when some one threw the ball that we were playing with out into the street and without even looking I turned from my right side very quickly and with my left leg ran into an on coming car ~ The cars bumper caught me in the left leg below the knee, and I still have the scar to prove it, than twirled me around from the force of the car and his outside mirror hit me in the head which than also broke ~ My immediate re-action was to quickly get up thinking that I had done something wrong and listen to the driver of the car scowl at me ~ I told him I was fine and left the scene in order to get away from the crowd and headed to the Carl Schwartz Park ~ When I reached the park I took off my left shoe as my foot seemed to be wet and indeed it was all soaked in blood coming from the injury on my leg ~ I than ran home and after my Dad saw me he told me that I should not have left the scene of the accident as the car driver came back and was looking for me ~ Than my Dad took me to our apartment and cleaned the wound ~

* 1940 or there about ~ 5 years old ~ When living at 401 East 88 St playing on the side walk and running around the car parked there, not realizing that a very large dog being walked by a lady would jump up on me and bite me under my left arm ~ Taken to the hospital or doctor (?) and the doctor inserting a long thin wooden rod with cotton and medication into each bite mark to kill the dogs germs with medication ~

* 1943 or there about ~ 8 years old ~ When living at 1710 First Ave apartment in Yorkville, Manhattan NYC getting Pneumonia ~ See Chapter 11 for complete story by clicking on this link ~ http://www.americantorque.com/page/0/2374/

* 1948 or there about ~ 13 years old ~ When living at 31-48 31 St in Astoria, Queens NYC ~ My friends and I were several blocks away from the house I lived in with my folks, and a young girl about our age passed by us ~ One of my friends said something to her and her reply was, "You'd better watch yourself" so his re-action was to do just that and he started to look at his arm at close range ~ This got me to start laughing at his re-action while I was walking backwoods and did not see the little cement lip without a railing or fence above, and an 8 foot drop to the basement of a building ~ After falling and landing on my head over this lip I can very barely remember getting up and slowly walk wobbly up the stairs that were there ~ My friends grabbed me before I fell back off the stairs and the next thing I remember was being taken up some other stairs to a doctors house and the doctor telling my friends to take me home without even looking at my wound ~ my next memory was me being dragged with my arms over their shoulders, going in and out of consciousness with my feet stumbling behind me ~ I recall my constant yawning all the way to my parents home and the next thing being in bed ~ I recall my mom getting a doctor who came to the house, examining me and stating that a fraction over or more of falling on my head would have killed me ~

* 1949 or there about ~ 14 years old ~ When living at 31-48 31 St in Astoria, Queens NYC ~ My cousin Nick Racanelli and I would get on out bikes and ride up to La Guardia Airport that had opened on December 2, 1939 so that would make it 10 years after it opened ~ Since the airport was relatively new and as there was no threat of terrorisum in those days, the airport had no fences around them so Nick and I were able to ride our bikes onto the landing fields and watch the planes fly about 20 feet over our heads and land on the field ~ The exciting part of this nutty thing was that we could see the pilots in the plane and hear the tremendous loud sound of the engines ~ If any of those planes ever landed short it would have been the end of these 2 nutty cousins lol ~

* 1949 or there about ~ 14 years old ~ When living at 31-48 31 St in Astoria, Queens NYC ~ I can recall hanging out with my very good friend named Adam (Curly) Gornaris on a day of snow and we were both clowning around when he pushed me and I voluntarily fell down in this lot that we were clowning in ~ When looking at my right arm as I barely felt it hit the ground, I noticed a very large gap and opening in my wrist where one could see the large artery, fortunately uncut ~ We both ran to my parents home across the street and decided on a story ~ My mom took me to a doctor who than put in 6 stitches to close the gap in my wrist ~ Today those stitches are still showing very loud and clear ~

* 1950 or there about ~ 20 years old ~ When living at 31-48 31 St in Astoria, Queens NYC I can recall one of my dumbest movements that I made in my life was when I jumped from the top landing of the 1st floor down to the ground floor not realizing that there was a flat wall up front and hit the front of my head directly on that wall causing me to land on my back and hit the floor with the back of my head causing me to black out for about 1 minute ~

* 1952 or there about ~ 17 years old ~ When living at 31-48 St in Astoria, Queens NYC I was driving my dads '49 Chevy several years before I had customized it, when I would turn 19 years old and it was raining out ~ We must have come home from a wedding, I would imagine, but not sure and we just drove over the 59th Street Bridge reaching Queens Plaza, Long Island City with another car in front of me and the street light in front of him turned yellow ~ I thought for sure that he would go thru that yellow light so I speeded it up on a cobblestone street but he decided to stop so I hit the brake and we slid right into the back of him ~ Being that there were no safety belts in those days every one in the back seat and the passenger on my right side fell to the floor ~ The passengers had to be my parents and my siblings too ~ As I recall no-one was seriously hurt including those folks in the car in front of us ~

* 1954 or there about ~ Age 19 years old ~ Excerpt from Chapter 19 but for whole story click on this link ~ http://www.americantorque.com/page/0/2395/ ~

"I would go to work for another small body and fender shop where I only worked for several days ~ Apparently on my first day of work in that shop a car was spray painted with enamel paint [lacquer paint was usually used on cars as it dried faster and had a nicer looking finish] ~ Enamel paint does not dry as fast as lacquer paint and cars painted with enamel should be spray painted in a segregated area with operating fans that remove the paint fumes from the rest of the shop ~ Since the car had been painted with enamel in this shop with the rest of the cars present, the enamel over spray fumes would settle on all the cars in the shop and stick to all the car finishes ~ The orders given by the shop boss on my first day at work in this shop and to all the other employees was to cipher gasoline from any car in the shop and use it to remove the over spray on all the rest of the cars ~

When trying to cipher the gasoline out of an automobile near by and not knowing the correct procedure I swallowed some of this nasty stuff and that would lead to be the end of my career as a painter ~ Needless to say gasoline is extremely toxic (worst than cherry peppers) and its a wonder that I am still here on earth typing this biography segment" ~

* 1957 through 1963 ~ 22 years old ~ When living at 31-48 St in Astoria, Queens NYC I joined the National Guard after first going to the Navy Reserve at 18 years old and the paper work was lost by the Navy so I than went to Brooklyn's Cropsey Ave and joined Battery C with the National Guard ~ I took my Basic Training at Fort Dix in New Jersey for 2 months and than was shipped to Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas for Advance Training for 4 months with weekend training every month in other various camp sites like Fort Hancock, NJ, Camp Smith, NY, Fort Drum, NY and many other sites with 2 weeks training each year for the next 5 and a half years ~ During this period there were many skirmishes like Vietnam, Berlin, and Cuban Crises but my unit was never called to Active Duty like when for my brother-in-law Max who was in the same outfit and was called to the Korean War before I joined his same outfit ~

* 1962 at age 27 or there about while living at 39-20 Greenpoint Ave in Sunnyside, Queens I had a two week training with the National Guard at Camp Smith in Peekskill, NY and I and my National Guard buddies all lived in a nice two story Barracks Building that was located at the edge of a cliff ~ When the weekend arrived I received a weekend pass for two days to see my wife Elizabeth and I remember walking thru that apartment door to be greeted by her ~ I can recall that we had a very fierce thunder storm during that weekend ~ After the two day pass was over I returned to Peekskill Camp Smith to find that our Barracks had gone over the cliff and some of my buddies that did not have a pass stayed over ~ I can recall one of them telling me that during the storm they heard a creeping sound in the building and all got out when the building finally went over the cliff ~ I recall taking some photo's of the building below the cliff but after searching for them I was unable to find any ~ I have also googled the incident on the internet but with no luck ~

* 1960 or there about ~ 25 years old ~ When living at 31-48 St in Astoria, Queens NYC I recall that I had worked overtime on Dave Ryan's Unit and it was time to go home at about 9 pm so off to the NYC Subway I headed ~ When I reached the Subway and went down the stairs I noticed that there was no-one on the Subway Platform and it was very quiet in the badly lit under ground ~

Standing near the steel column in the middle of the passage way some one passed by me and being deep in thought I wondered if he or she had brushed by my back ~ When the person came back he now was again close to my back only this time he hit me with his elbow as he passed landing a blow to my back ~ Auh ohh, now I know that this guy is looking for trouble but he kept on walking until he reached the front of the station ~ Looking behind me I noticed that the booth that holds the MTA worker was empty and also closed ~

Soon the subway cars came into the station and looking for the weirdo I noticed that he was still up front ~ The doors of the train cars opened with very little passengers in them ~ I thought to myself that I hope he stays down up front and does not get off at my stop which was White Hall Street ~ Soon enough my stop came up and I disembarked the train car when I noticed that he got off too and is now standing up front near the Exit Subway stairs looking in my direction ~

I slowly start to walk in that direction heading towards the Exit ~ He just stood there looking straight at me when I heard the signal on the train telling the passengers that the doors will be closing so I immediately jumped on just as the doors were half shut, after all who the hell wants to tangle with this idiot as who knows what weapon he has hidden on his person ~ As the train passed by him his eyes followed me with his head turning looking at my face until I could not see him any more ~

I headed to Brooklyn for the next stop and off I got waiting for the next train to take me back to the White Hall Street Station ~ Hoping against hope, I thought to myself that he would not be there waiting, and I hesitantly got off the train car and did not see him ~ Going up the stairs I turned to make sure he was not behind me ~ I now headed for the Ferry Boat that would take me home ~

The next day when returning to work Joe Campagnola and I would discuss this whole incident ~ Unfortunately Joe is no longer living with us mortals but this other Chapter 2 will tell how we once enjoyed each others company with our families and friends ~ It will also give you a glimpse into his brother Sergio's life too and how he became the President of Paramount Pictures ~ http://www.americantorque.com/page/0/2413/

~ On Thursday March 30, 2017 at approximately 10:00 pm I stopped for a red light and suddenly out of nowhere some one hit us in the back of our car that I was driving to go home ~ Furious as I was I started cursing as this had happened to me when I first bought my car and was driving with my Grandson Eric and at that time I believe that the guy that hit me was on his cell phone ~ Could this be the same case again I thought to myself ~

I slowly, after looking to see if the traffic had cleared my car I started to pull over to the side of the road ~ I than went back to the accident and when I got there I inspected the scene of the accident and noticed that there were 3 cars and 1 truck involved in the accident and the third car behind me had an airbag open up and he was unconscious or worst from what I could see ~

I decided to go back to my car where my wife Elizabeth was waiting for me to get a pencil and paper so that I would be able to get the insurance information, plate number and other data that I would need when reporting this accident ~ I further moved my car into the parking lot for everyones safety and at that point I went back to the accident ~ When I got there the Police Officer that was taking notes of the accident asked me if he could help me and I explained that I was the first car in this accident ~ The officer told me to go back to my car and wait for him until he was finished and at that time he would come to me where I was parked ~

When I got back to my car and after thinking further about this accident I explained to my wife that actually we got hit in the back, we did not hit anyone else and from examining the car it appeared to be all right, so in reality it would be OK to leave as we were not going to be doing any lawyers contacting so off we went ~ This decision would also help the Police Officer with not needing any additional paper work and he would be able to leave the accident ~

~ On the way home it was my wife Elizabeth that thought and rightfully so, that perhaps since the light turned red every car in that smack-up excluding the truck had their brakes on so that the force of the crash was kept behind us and that is why our car was not damaged ~

Nick ~ April 6, 2017

~ 1964 to current date of 2016 ~ While living in Staten Island ~ Kidney Stones, Glaucoma, Cataracts, Heart Stent and Colon Cancer too, but all taken care of by Doctor Specialists either with Surgery and Medications too ~

I can recall that when I first went into the emergency care room my younger daughter came in crying when she saw me laying in the bed ~ I immediately said to her that she should not worry as one of the nurses had a picture of an Angel on her blouse and that was protecting me like, "An Angel on my Shoulder" ~

Thank the good Lord for my recovery each and every time ~ What next ? And what ever comes I will handle that too ~

Currently I am again on medication for an enlarged prostate that has gone into my bladder and Dr Peter Albert (photo included) has indicated not to worry about it as the symptoms that are happening is normal for an older man like myself ~

On June 2, 2017 I had another appointment with Dr Albert and he indicated that my PSA test has shown that it is still climbing higher and that puts me in the gray area now ~ He suggested that I make an appointment with Doctor Vazzana my cardiologist to see if I can stop taking blood thinners that he prescribed to me years ago so that I can have a biopsy done ~ I now have an appointment with Dr Vazzana in August and than go see Dr Albert again in December after another blood test is completed ~ I googled on the internet concerning PSA readings and it indicated that for men over 70 years old the PSA reading can be 6.5 which is ok and my last reading was 5.5 ~

It was in July, 2017 that I had an appointment to go see Dr. Vincent T. Thomas Primary Care Physician for another check up and up-date of my RX's ~ He asked me what was happening with with my latest history on current health condition and I told him of having to go for a biopsy of my Prostate as requested by Dr. Peter Albert ~ Dr. Savino said that biopsy's can be quiet painful and he suggested going for a MRI at NYU Langone in Manhattan because they do the best MRI work that can find tumor's in cases like mine ~ On Tuesday August 1, 2017 my wife Elizabeth and I went to NYU in Brooklyn for an MRI that has been done with the results being ready for the next day on August 2nd ~

I called Dr. Savino today on August 2nd to find out if the results of my MRI were received by his office and he said that they were not received ~ But he said that they usually send them on the next day when the news is bad and they want you to know right away so the longer it takes the better it is ~ Got my fingers crossed for good news and longevity lol ~

Dr Savino just called about 15 minutes ago and he indicated based on the MRI from NYU it is a low possibility that the polyp is module or a low possible cancer - It is a category 2 Good ( and not a category 4 not good) ~ Dr Savino will sent the results to Dr Albert for further consideration ~ August 7, 2017 6:10 pm ~

About 10 days ago I woke up and noticed that my right leg had swollen tremendously but there was no pain ~ I noticed tho that in one area it had grown like a large lump or bump so I pressed down on it and it went away ~ I did nothing but decided to keep an eye on it to see how it progressed ~ On the following Thursday my right foot on the inside just below my ankle turned all black and blue and on the urging of my wife and my daughter Donna to go see a doctor I went to 'Urgent Care' on Greaves and Amboy ~ A female doctor called Nicole was in attendance and after checking all my vital signs that were good she decided to have an ex-ray done which also turned out good too ~ She than prescribed medication that she called into the local pharmacy and also had me go to Verrazzano on Mason Ave that is an Xray Clinic around the corner from Staten Island Hospital North for a sonogram with the results called in to her ~ This too turned out good and I started to take the antibiotic medication for 7 days starting on the same Thursday ~ It is some times necessary for me, when I sit for a while, to use a cane just until the pain goes away ~ August 20, 2017 ~

Several days later I had an appointment to see Doctors Raja and Savino who prescribed medication for this right leg which included steroids in pill form too ~ As of August 27th the pain still continues in my leg ~

It was time to head to the Emergency Room at Staten Island Universary Hospital North to have them take a look-see at my throbbing leg as the pain kept getting worse ~ Doctor Lake was was there to look at my leg but first he asked me for the usual history behind my very swollen red leg ~ After explaining to him all the details written above on Monday morning of August 28th he ordered two sonograms , one that he would do himself and another that would be done in another room by a specialist ~ After Doctor Lake did his sonogram on me he detected a lot of fluid where the leg hurt the most, and he also had blood work done so as to check this end out too ~ When he returned again he indicated and confirmed that the fluid was the culprit and it needed to be drained ~ He introduced me to another young surgeon like himself who would help him to remove the fluid ~ Boy what a relief once the fluid was drained ~ I now believe that I will soon be returning to good health once again ~

~ On today of August 29th I made an appointment to see Dr. Savino who was surprised that I went to the Emergency Room at Staten Island University Hospital, but according to Dr. Lakey I was supposed to go to see this doctor so that he could look at the surgery on my leg and change the bandages too ~ Since he does not do this bandage change and had no supply's to do it, he is going to get me a home nursing company to send me a nurse to change the bandages on my leg ~ To be continued ~ lol

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~ Message sent to me by ~ Owner-Operator at Michael M. Ries Contracting Lives in Bayville, New York

May 10, 2017 7:51AM

Hey bud, would you join in trying to raise awareness for prostate cancer? (only men). Can you please put a ??? (For some crazy reason this website will not allow the actual words to be inserted in this space as shown on the original message but instead I have inserted question marks ~ I have also answered Mike too but ???)