2020 will be a year that we will all forever remember. The way we live has changed and the holidays are just another time we’re impacted.

There have been a couple of things that have been consistent though. The first is the love I have for my family and the joy we have in spending quality time together.

The second is receiving gifts via the mail. For example, realtor Curtis Counts sent us yet another apple pie to enjoy over Thanksgiving. We didn’t have the kids for Thanksgiving this year, but my significant other’s mom flew in for a week.

Update: The apple pie did not survive, as it got moldy before we could finish the whole thing.

Another thing that didn’t change was getting a Tate’s Bake Shop gift from John Hartnagel & Anthony Rutigliano from Prudential. Unlike last year, this year’s present is more long lasting since it’s a cookie jar with 2 sets of chocolate chip cookies.

Chips Ahoy, Oreo and homemade cookies have also entered this Tate’s jar since receiving it. There was also another treat that came to my house over Thanksgiving weekend from my job, a panettone sent via From Roy that was really delicious.

Normally, I see my family for Christmas. But it’ll be different with half of them being in Florida and not traveling to this area and I’m not flying down there.

But we do get the kids for Christmas, so we’ll enjoy seeing them open up gifts and having a nice meal together on Christmas Eve. I have a pre-made roll of sugar cookies that we’re going to leave out for Santa along with carrots for the reindeer.

I’m hoping that FaceTime can help me see some relatives I normally wouldn’t be able to this year, specifically my mom since I know she’s missing everybody. But I’m so glad she has my uncle right across the way from her in Florida.

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The last time I made a major vehicle purchase with my Nissan Sentra, I got into a fender bender a few months into owning it. And why would that be any different for my Dodge Grand Caravan?

However, this accident was 100% not my fault. That’s because I was stopped at a stop sign near my house ready to make a left turn and then I felt a thud & cringed knowing that I just got struck by another vehicle, a Nissan Rogue to be specific.

The lady who hit me immediately apologized and I was calm as I could be because I knew I wasn’t at fault as I called the police & assessed the damage. We took up a bit of room on the road and some older lady even yelled at me & I sternly told her what was up, getting an apology right after.

It took about 10 minutes for the police to come and take our statements. Another 20 minutes later, I was on my way and had to call my insurance and they recommended Delta Collision as the closest auto body shop they work with that doesn’t involve me going over a bridge to NY.

The Process at Delta Collision

Delta Collision is a bit of a ways away from me in Matawan NJ, but it makes handling the claim a lot easier. As does the fact that the driver also had my insurance.

I met with George when I ventured to Delta Collision and he inspected the car showing what damage came with the accident & more nicks prior to for insurance purposes. He told me it would take about a week to fix.

They were done a day earlier than expected and my minivan looks like new again. They even left me some extra paint that will surely come in handy down the road.

The repairs made by Delta Collision were comprised of:

• Repairing & buffing the left side panel
• Replacing the liftgate, multiple badges, left LED taillamp, flex additive & rear bumper including the impact absorber
• Removing & installing the rear spoiler, rear applique D-pillars, step pad
• Disinfecting the vehicle under COVID-19 protocol
• Scanning the vehicle before & after

The grand total of all of the repairs wound up being $3,904.37 and I didn’t have to pay a dime of it.

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The coronavirus (COVID-19) is probably the scariest thing our country has experienced since 9/11 and the world has experienced since the Spanish flu (influenza) pandemic of 1918. In fact, it killed young siblings of my great grandmother.

COVID-19 has already killed more than 220,000 Americans as of October 21st, almost a third of the number who passed away due to the influenza pandemic 100 years ago. But let me get onto the topic of my blog post today since I was recently in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

It made me nervous since it would have been within a timeframe of when I could have caught it from him. I wasn’t feeling any symptoms, but I know people can be asymptomatic and still be positive.

So I decided to go get my COVID-19 test at CityMD Urgent Care in Clark NJ since I got bloodwork done quickly by them previously and had a good experience there. Well, I arrived on a Sunday at 9:30 in the morning to wait outside.

I guess they wanted to limit their capacity, which makes sense for a medical office. So the wait time at CityMD was not very long, which was nice, and then I got my vitals taken.

A couple of minutes later, Dr. Patel came in and gave my the dreaded COVID-19 test. I got the long swab up my nose and it was quite a chore. It lasted like 10 seconds and I had to keep my mouth closed the whole time, even though I had such an urge to open it due to the discomfort.

CityMD Urgent Care got back to me 4 days later with a negative test result. At least I know what to expect when getting a COVID-19 test in the future.

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Gyms have been shut down in New Jersey since the middle of March due to the coronavirus. But Governor Murphy finally opened them up on September 1st with the following precautions: wipe down the equipment, wear a mask & stay 6 feet apart.

I was ready to flip a lid since we could have done that months ago. I mean, supermarkets and the Targets/WalMarts are jam packed with people not social distancing. A gym is easier to do that with, though I’ve been enjoying my at-home workouts with the Peloton app.

But I digress on the logic since I want to talk about the workout experience at Retro Fitness now that we’re 6 months into COVID. It’s honestly not all that much different except for a few changes:

• Masks are required (obviously)
• The lockers, water fountains and showers are closed
• Select machines are closed to maintain social distancing
• You have to get your temperature taken & submit a COVID questionnaire each time you come in

The gym was also less crowded than it was pre-coronavirus, which is nice since I’m not that big into having a lot of people potentially take up machines. And that’s especially true who want to “work in” on the one you’re using, which won’t exist anymore thanks to social distancing.

Since I’ve dropped 20-25 pounds working out at home, I’ll definitely be assessing my time at the gym to see if I prefer using the gym again or continuing with my at-home workouts. Only time will tell.

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I’m in a mixed race relationship and my children are not white like I am. Therefore, the Black Lives Matter movement became so important to us that we needed to protest.

So far, we’ve protested 3 times with the first being in front of the town hall of the city next to us. This is where we met Dr. Akil Kokayi Khalfani who gave us his business card.

And with his allegiance to the House of Odudwa in Nigeria, it’s the first Nigerian business card I’ve ever gotten. I feel like this would have been a more significant life event for me if it wasn’t for why I got it.

We stood with our signs with a few other people protesting for racial equality… a bit more important in the grand scheme of life than me adding another notch to my business card collection. As a result, we got a lot of honks for support… but it was a bit weird that some other religious group of 4-5 black men was there preaching something irrelevant & sometimes contrarian to our message.

It felt really good to stand up for what was right and we did it a couple of more times. My significant other went by herself the next weekend to march in our hometown since I had to watch the kids. She had 1 person flip her off, with her responding with a middle finger right back. Proud of her for standing up for herself.

The third was soon after in our hometown marching down to City Hall. I attended this one as well and it was a pretty long march where a few people spoke including a retired police officer. It was a very educational listen to local politics of NJ & my home township.

The final protest we attended so far is for a specific person named Maurice Gordon who was unarmed & not under arrest, but shot 6 times on the Garden State Parkway by New Jersey State Police Sgt. Randall Wetzel after Gordon got out of the squad car since he sat in there for 30 minutes. We protested by the on & off ramps of the Garden State Parkway and like Protest #1, we got lots of honks of support.

The Black Lives Matter movement has woken me up to how much racism there is in this country. There are too many people to name who have been killed by the police when they shouldn’t have been. And the same goes for people prejudiced against by police officers and civilians alike.

We can’t prevent people from being racists, but I do like how social media and cell phone cam footage is exposing one person at a time. And with actual consequences to their reputations & even their employment.

I’ve met a lot of different people and heard a variety of stories that show that this issue impacts more humans than you’d think, even those who are not black. Hispanics, Asians & Caucasians have all marched together over this important issue.

I hope the black lives matter movement continues even when COVID-19 subsides and life goes back to normal.

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In a recent blog post about fixing NHTSA Airbag Recall 20V-008, I spoke about my 2003 Infiniti I35 being on its last legs. And it kept giving me problems starting, so it was time to turn it in and get a different vehicle, which is a good time given how much the coronavirus has effected the automotive market.

I chose to go the route of a minivan due to my  And because of the great shopping experience I had at the Enterprise location in Iselin NJ a few years back, I decided to go with them again. The only issue was that I didn’t see any minivans at this location.

However, I did find a 2018 Dodge Grand Caravan GT that caught my eye at the Enterprise location in Elmwood Park NJ that’s about a 40ish minute drive from my home. I called up and met with a sales consultant named Peter Abishai.

Peter Abishai is a sales consultant in the car sales division, which seems redundant to me but that must be the Enterprise way. But I digress. We took the Dodge Grand Caravan for a test drive and felt so comfortable in it, we stopped at the store on the way for a snack.

Because of social distancing, we had to sit outside and do all of the paperwork. Luckily, we had a shaded area to sit in. Unfortunately, it was a hot day and the process took the usually couple of hours it would at a car dealership and like the other Enterprise car buying experience we had.

We only came inside to run our debit card for the down payment, which I used my tax refund on. I’m very happy with my vehicle, but some of the follow-up in regards to my license plate and the fact that Peter Abishai texted me instead of another customer, claiming he was one number off.

The odds of someone who has the next phone number in line with me would shop at the same dealership is very low. Also given the fact that my area code is nowhere near the Elmwood Park NJ location’s typical area code. So I think he lied to try & save face, but forgot I actually bought a car from him.

Update on June 30, 2020: Because of the coronavirus, I have yet to receive my license plates or registration. The DMV is highly backed up and if I want to travel out of the NY/NJ/CT/PA area, I have to call Enterprise and get some paperwork since the police won’t recognize my temporary plates.

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I blogged a little while back that Quality Auto Centers fixed the ongoing issues with my 2003 Infiniti I35. Getting the car up and running was partially inspired by receiving an interesting letter in the mail from Infiniti.

It spoke about NHTSA Recall 20V-008, which essentially says that the front passenger airbag inflator can actually rupture in a crash. This means that shrapnel can actually hit the driver (me) or passengers to cause serious injury or even death. Whoa.

That’s when I called Ray Catena Infiniti of Edison to make an appointment to get the airbag inflator fixed per the recall. I previously blogged about my bad service experience there since they were trying to rip me off, but the notice said the service would be free.

The Ray Catena Infiniti staff also received a business card redesign for some reason and they don’t photograph too well on a small size, as you can see from the one above. That’s because of the checkered styling that the font is emulating with the Infiniti logo.

So no money was paid to Ray Catena to help me out. I was told by the NHTSA Recall 20V-008 notice I got in the mail that the service could take up to 2 hours, which was pretty on the nose between the time of checking in until I left.

Ray Catena, like other Infiniti dealerships in the area, is going under a showroom renovation and I think it looking a lot classier than a normal car dealer with a fancier bathroom and low-to-the-ground leather chairs.

However, the coronavirus meant that the in-dealership refreshments were limited to granola bars and beverages. I got myself a cup of Teaja tea that I had to bag myself, which turned into a colossal mess since I overstuffed it. The flavor I got a herbal tea called Nana’s Blueberry and it tasted good, though I drank it while too hot and burned the roof of my mouth as a result.

After my service was done, I got a goody bag filled with a mini bag of Snyder’s pretzels (which I like since they’re non-GMO), Nature Valley oats ‘n honey granola bars and a company-labeled pack of to-go tissues. That probably cost them all of a couple of bucks and it’s part of a more luxury customer service experience.

It was a good experience at the Ray Catena Infiniti of Edison service center, but I know my 2003 Infiniti I35 is on its last legs. Sometimes, it doesn’t start the first time around and it doesn’t perform as well as it should. Let’s see how long it lasts.

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Part of my life revolves around being in the best possible shape since I’ve been up and down with that. I’ve struggled with my weight all of my life and going to the gym has been a crutch in my life.

And now gyms are closed due to the coronavirus, so my workouts are now all at home. I was recommended to use the Peloton app for some at-home workouts and luckily they are offering a 3-month free trial of the app.

I thought to myself “isn’t Peloton that high-end bike company? Hell, I remember going to the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus NJ a few years back and looking around the store to see video of the cycling classes they offer.

What I was not aware of is that the Peloton app also has a bunch of other at-home workouts that fit into the following categories:

• Strength including workouts with weights and body-strength for the core
• Yoga that I’ve used another program (DDP Yoga) for, so it’s interesting to try new forms of what you already know
• Cardio including HIIT (high-intensity interval training) that I’ve been doing, walking and running (guided by audio, which I have yet to try)
• Mediation that I have been using to help myself calm down to sleep better
• Stretching
• Bootcamp
• Cycling, which Peloton is known for

They have individual workouts and some programs that last 2-4 weeks. I’ve done the 4-week Total Strength, 4-week Crush Your Core and 2-week The Power of Sleep (mediation) programs that have all helped me get into even better shape physically & mentally during the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s only been about a month of me using this app and I’ll continue using the free trial. I will have to see about costs and how this pandemic plays out to determine if I’ll be signing up for Peloton as a paying member, but I’ll definitely use what I’ve learned from the workouts in my future.

That includes doing more intensive stretching before & after my workouts, as well as doing some boxing-inspired training for my HIIT cardio. Not to mention using meditation to turn off my thoughts of the day in hopes that it helps reduce my anxiety.

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Since the coronavirus has become more prominent, there are fewer people driving on the road. So of course, that makes it the perfect time to get my car repaired.

Auto service centers are deemed essential businesses, so they are still open. But my 2003 Infiniti I35 has been sitting on the street since like November because my car had some issues that I couldn’t afford to fix & me working remotely means that I don’t need a car.

But my income tax return came in and I knew I wanted to use that money to fix my car (and pay off my credit card). I took my car back to the Quality Auto Centers in Colonia NJ (my mechanic of choice) to get the work done.

I was originally quoted something in the ballpark of $1,400 to get the work I needed done, but a few months and a pandemic (and not getting an optional service done) reduced the price to $1,000. And that included a new battery along with getting an engine tune-up with some new coils, an oil change & a used tire.

As always, the team at Quality Auto got the job done relatively fast, though I had to keep calling them to push for an update on my vehicle’s status. I did wait until a little while after the time they’d let me know I would receive a call back.

There was a knocking/hesitation in the engine, but the tune-up fixed it even better than the mechanic expected it to. I’ll wait another day to tighten up the framework that holds up my exhaust since it’s only partial loose/broken.

I was shopping for a used car (which I will dedicate a future blog post to) before this because I felt like I wanted something different than my Infiniti. And I still feel that way since I feel totally scrunched up when sitting behind the wheel.

Then again, I have been driving my significant other’s 2015 Chevy Equinox for the last 6 months. But it’s nice to drive the vehicle that I bought again.

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I went to Havana, Cuba with my significant other and it was a wonderful trip. It was definitely a very different culture than one I’m used to.

I was given a list of things to expect in their culture and I saw most of it. I had to carry around all of the money we brought over in cash since American credit cards don’t work in Cuba due to our governments’ rivalry.

That same rivalry means that we couldn’t spend any money anywhere the government owns, which we had to investigate. There’s so much to talk about when it comes to Havana, which celebrated its 500th anniversary this year.

Havana, Cuba: The People

The location is a good portion of what makes a vacation so unique, but the people can have quite an impact. Many of the people that we met were nice and it was easy to communicate since my significant other is fluent in Spanish.

We stayed with a Cuban family at their Airbnb (aka a nice room with a private bathroom in their apartment) and they were quite nice. Damian is quite helpful with everything we needed and his family were great as well.

One lowlight of the trip was dealing with our ViaHero local guide Elvy Matos, whose job it was to make reservations for us and be our man on the ground. He wound up screwing up 3 reservations including our New Year’s Eve one at a nightclub, thus ruining the occasion for us. Steer clear of Elvy Matos.

There were a few other people who tried to get one up on you, including a taxi driver who tried to give me a phony 20 and it took me stealing it out of his hand to get it back. I was also approached on 2 occasions by a prostitute in broad daylight, which shocked the hell out of me that it was so blatant.

Havana, Cuba: The Food

My significant other is a great cook who is of Cuban descent, so I was anticipating the food choices. Along with a load of alcohol that did not disappoint.

Let’s start with the booze. I was the mojito man down in Havana since that was my drink of choice most of the time, though I did get daiquiris and pina coladas on occasion with the latter including cinnamon that gave this cocktails a unique flavor I enjoyed. Best pina coladas ever, especially since they would tell us to drink as they poured more rum into our glasses on occasion.

But the food for the most part was surprisingly bland in terms of flavor since I assume that the Cuban people don’t have as much access or any at all to the spices/herbs Americans do. It doesn’t mean I didn’t like the food, quite the opposite actually since everything tasted authentic to what it was supposed to be due to the lack of non-natural ingredients available.

There were several private restaurants where we ate at that were enjoyable including Mekede, the one business card that I got from somewhere I partook in. We also enjoyed the breakfast we would order from the Airbnb, the highlight being the produce with such succulent guava, watermelon, banana & pineapple.

Everything tasted so organic & genuine, though it took a long time to find favorites like ham croquettes & black beans! Not to mention pernil not being the pork shoulder my lady makes, but just meaning that it’s pork cooked in an oven.

Havana, Cuba: Eclectic Culture

One thing I didn’t expect was the Cuban culture being so eclectic. We took in some artwork and one place called The Cuban Art Gallery was a combination of an art gallery with musicians performing, short films being shown & clothing designers setting up shop.

And another showed how race & economic status played a role in the art. There was also a lot more Che Guevara in the culture than I expected, which makes sense considering how inspirational he was to Cuba.

We also took a walking tour of Old Havana and learned a lot about the history of the culture including seeing places where slaves were traded. We also saw El Morro including a beautiful lighthouse & a cannon that fires every night at 9 pm as part of a military tradition.

We were also right by Malecon, which is miles of sea with a ledge to sit on where lots of people hung out until late. It also happened to be the only place where we could get WiFi, which was a headache to try to connect.

Other Stories About Havana

That’s a fine segue into some other assorted tales from Havana. I had a bad first & last impression of the city since trying to exchange money at the airport was torture since it took an hour & a half to go through 10 people because the workers were so slow. I waited 30 minutes before giving up exchanging money on our way back.

Something I did expect were all of the classic cars on the road and we rode in some in the form of taxi cabs. And we did take one ride in a vintage pink convertible around the city for a bit.

We also took taxis to the beach, going to Havana’s Mar Azul for 2 days and a couple of hours away to Varadero at the top right tip of Cuba 1 day. They were both beautiful beaches that were not too deep and with warm clear water.

Business cards were pretty hard to come by in Havana, with the sum total number of cards being 11 (4 of which were different designs from the same place where we were SUPPOSED to attend a rooftop jazz party overlooking the sunset at Malecon but Elvy Matos messed up that reservation, too).

Business Card Count: 41,095