Belmonte Stakes

History of Belmont

In 1902, a syndicate headed by August Belmont II and former Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney sought land on Long Island to build the most elaborate track in America, one modeled after the great race courses of Europe. They found what they were looking for on the border of Queens County and Nassau County. Originally known as Foster’s Meadow, the 650 acres of land included a turreted Tudor-Gothic mansion owned by William de Forest Manice, which was to serve as the track’s Turf and Field Club until 1956.

The grand opening of Belmont Park on May 4, 1905, prompted the first of countless traffic jams in Long Island history as more than 40,000 fans, in all manner of conveyance, tried to arrive by the first race post time of 3 p.m. Not all of them made it in time to see August Belmont II’s Blandy, at 7-1, hold off 100-1 shot Oliver Cromwell in the $1,500 Belmont Inaugural. Later, James R. Keen’s Sysonby, who would be ranked No. 30 on the Blood-Horse Magazine’s top 100 horses of the 20th century, made his 3-year-old debut against the super filly Beldame, another of Belmont’s charges. In the stretch, Sysonby got unexpected competition from 20-1 Race King, and the two hit the wire in a dead heat.

I am posting this history because the date of May 4 really made an impression on me when I first read it.  

June 7 is an important day for me historically and so it is interesting that the important Belmont Stakes race will occur on this day.

I attended Kent State University in 1958 and 1959.  I finally learned the history of Belmont this past month.  It really struck me since I had always associated the race with Affirmed to my sorority pin.  My pledge class was initiated into the active chapter of Chi Omega on May 4, 1958.  The founding of the chapter at Kent State University was on June 7, 1947.  It was the first national chapter to be created at Kent State University and is the 100th chapter.  Our national flower is the white carnation which is the flowers that are used to adorn the winner of the Belmont Stakes.  What  a strange coincidence that I learn all this now after all these years.

We always call the pin x and a horseshoe since the Omega symbol looks like a horseshoe.  Have I ever been unaware of all these links to the Belmont but I just bet that there are others who are as aware of it as I am now.    I will add more to this as time passes and I get a better sense of some other interesting links that I will keep on hold until certain things unfold.

While the 

“They’re

 

Keeping up with myself.

Selfie today when I learned that I must keep my lens clean.  I am actually always changing my profile photo at Facebook usually after a new hairstyle just to keep an ongoing look of where I am now on that page. It is so that you will know exactly how I appear at this given week or month whichever it may be.

I at one time used those photo booths which are in the malls and I kept those photos to remind myself of my aging process.  It is interesting to see what time does to us if we keep track of ourselves, and often pictures speak a lot better than a thousand words for sure.

Today I had a fuzzy lens and wondered what the heck was wrong...finally I decided to check the lens and lo and behold, I got a clear picture again.  Who knew?

I have been having trouble sleeping again, and due to financial stress, am working to win the state lottery Pick again.  I got it all caught up and am willing to try to win in the next three draws if I can make out a ticket.  My method requires a lot of work so that just having it brought up to date is an accomplishment.  I am wanting to go to Europe this summer or fall so have to win the lottery to manage to do it.  My hospitalization hurt me a lot in terms of out of pocket expense as I did not have medical insurance...so I must attempt to win this game.

I bought new lens for old frames and bypassed cataract surgery for this year. The expense and the idea of going under anesthesia again made me wait it out.  I had just gotten the anesthesia bill which is incidentally incorrect so that really made me think twice about the cataract surgery. I could not afford all this at one time...especially emotionally as well as financially. It seemed like a lot of unnecessary medical time for something that is not really necessary yet.  My new lens are transitional which means that they adjust to the sun to become sunglasses outdoors.  I like them and my vision is good with the new prescription. Only one lens needed a change.

When I win the lottery game which I believe I can do, I will try to keep it as quiet as possible.  I have such a need to tell everyone everything it seems that I do not know for sure that I will be able to keep it quiet but I think it best to just not let the world know of it.  But for sure, when I do, I will book a flight to Europe...

#

Be a good storyteller

An author and writer are not always storytellers.  To sell a great book, one must become a good storyteller.  And every good story must have heart.  Without that, it is seldom worth much.  Animal stories are often the best stories as I can remember falling in love with stories about dogs and horses when a child, and I never get over those kind of stories from Black Beauty to Lassie Come Home.  The story of love knowing no boundaries is always a lasting story or memory at  best.

Novel on Alexander

I have gone through many different approaches to this novel about Alexander the Great.  Originally, I was following the journey that Alexander had taken in a linear way, but as I began to read many more novels that drew my attention, I began to realize that in order for me to sell this book successfully, I must take a different approach.

I had considered using the trial of Philotas to do flashbacks showing how he had behaved in a variety of situations, and emphasizing how others around him had reacted to his resentment towards Alexander acknowledging his own godliness in life.  However,  when I began to write the first scenes I could feel that all this was coming from within my solar plexus in a way that I found to be so very personal that I immediately sat on it.

I become very protective about information in that time period it turns out. I do not always want everyone in the world to know some things  that I learn when I seem to relive that time period.

But another idea came to me about how to tell this story so that I can use Alexander in his own words throughout the novel.  That I am keeping a secret for the time being as I am not sure that I want any of it to be aired until I actually begin writing it.

So again, it is all on hold for awhile.   I have learned many hard lessons since I first began this study of Alexander, and one of the most important ones came to me because of the interest in Philotas.  Once I learned the who of that I realized that reincarnation is a topic that is best probably left to only the few who are truly respectful and ready for it.  I know that it would not be wise for many to ever learn that they had lived yesterday.  Today is what counts, and forgetting the past to live only the present is a true blessing.

However, I am not going to deny the value of learning who you may have been in a past lifetime.  I say may because it is always open to analysis and acceptance.  I accept all that I learned when in trance as I recall it and I have analyzed it to the best of my ability to understand it.  It is as much a part of me now as it was when I first discovered it. It is recalled that easily.

It is difficult to comprehend how one can be inside a person, and find oneself leaving that image but looking at it as one leaves it.   I can still see that first time I learned that I had been in the person of Alexander just before the battle of Issus. I can still see his garment that he wore so well, the look of his hair, the ruddiness of his cheeks...and to realize that I had been inside that image talking to all the men that I had seen on that hillside. All that is perfectly clear to me.  What an amazing story it is.

So, yes, I am very protective of those memories and those events.

Aging

It seems that all I can do is complain about how either slow I am, how tired I am, or how behind in getting things done and it is all due to one thing only - old age.  I tell you that old age is a worse problem than I had thought it would ever be.  People never know how to communicate with one another about these things well.

My problem is that I can only do so many things in a day and that I forget so many times things that I want to do that I never get them done.  Today, I worked hard, getting the lottery brought up to date as I intend to win it this month.  So I worked on all the methods that I use to figure it out to bring it up to date. I had let it go for a long time but I had at least kept track of the numbers.   My method is rather tedious and thorough so it takes a while to get it all worked out.  At least, I have brought it up to date so that I have it under control, and may be able to finally win this game.

Fortunately, this lottery is very consistent, and I hope that I can finally play enough tickets to win it.  Lord knows I have waited long enough.  If patience is a virtue, may it finally pay off.

Insomnia

I am having trouble getting to sleep again.  For some reason I have had periodic problems of getting to sleep at nights, usually happening every other night.  It gets tiresome as I end up with only six hours of sleep so that I end up taking daytime naps.  And as I feel it is useless to waste time awake by just tossing and turning I thought it might help to delete the previous post in which I was just trying to state my case about medical problems without going into exact details which would only worsen the problem for me.  By talking around things it seems like burying in or covering it up so as not to relive its pain and hurt.

But it also helps me to relieve my anger about by calmly discussing it.  First of all, I had needed an eye exam for so long I could hardly believe it myself...but the receptionist that I called was so stupid in my opinion that I would not ever want to use that facility. I still feel that way about her but I did finally go there and because the doctor was in I was able to get an exam and as a consequence of the exam, I was able to order new lenses.  I still do not think very much of the woman who works there. In fact, I did not really have anything to do with her at all, but I did get my eyewear problem solved.

I have the prescription as I always ask for them in case I decide to buy a pair of glasses somewhere else other than at that establishment.  It turned out that the place where I had obtained my first pair has closed down so that I could only use one of the other existing services who are still operating.  I do not know if they will last very long at those places either but I may end up having cataract surgery in a year or so as I postponed it for a year due to my need to find the right doctor for that as well.

Problems

Recently, I had had to undergo hand surgery for a cat bite.  Today, I received the bill from the anesthesiologist.  Because I do not have insurance  I have to pay from my retirement fund. And I unfortunately learned that I had had complications that required emergency treatment. I was never told anything about it. I do not know what happened and so tomorrow I have to go to medical records department to find out.  One real reason is that I had planned to have cataract surgery.  That is expensive as all get out too but it also requires anesthesiology.  So seeing that I had had complications which required emergency treatment (I think the doctor is padding her account to be honest) I had to change the appointment for the exam to get the cataract surgery.  I will have to wait a while for that now anyway with the cost factor being so important as well.  But it has really ruined my day and nights.  I am going to have to go to my former optometrist now to see about getting new lens for my glasses and to have another eye examination there also...since it is free at this time...what a mess. I am up all night just thinking about it so decided to write it out to recall it and to help me know what to do about it.  That means talking it out and letting go of some of the hot steam inside me which is needing to escape.

I am furious and have been furious all day.   It is not one bit funny to learn this much later that there had been problems at the time of the minor surgery. I am really pissed to be perfectly blunt.