Been away a while, maybe back now

Actually, not sure yet if I'm actually "back."  We'll see.  I've been too busy lately trying to decide where my life needs to go next, and tearing up stuff so I can get moving in some direction other than inertia.  You know, that old thing about if your life is not making you happy, change it.  The changes are in process.

I have begun a new third "job," working with a guy in Red Bank, doing probably slightly easier work than I've been doing in NYC.  I need three "jobs" mainly because it costs so damned much to live around here, and the NYC gig has shrunk down to three days a week most weeks, but the boss there is even happier if I don't come in than if I do, so....he's perpetually broke, so he'd rather not spend money on personnel costs, even if that means the work doesn't get done.  With this kind of reasoning, the atmosphere is not terribly conducive to me wanting to be there anyhow. 

So if I can actually work the Red Bank gig up to more hours per week, let's see....20 minutes one way by car and free parking, vs. 2 hours one way by train, pay for parking, and the trains are NEVER on time....yeah.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the house is on the market, and at the moment there are two different builders who might like to buy it, knock it down and build some kind of McMansion here.  Goody for them, more power to them if they can do it.  I don't want to be here anymore.  The "new" beach is already more than half washed away, the river is higher then I've ever seen it, on a regular basis, and we are having serial nor'easters that are damaging the new roof and other parts of the anatomy of the house.  Like for example, one storm had winds so strong they broke a bolt holding the deck railing to the house, and the railing was banging back and forth.  I think the only thing holding it up at one point was the wooden bench that is bungeed to the railing (so IT doesn't blow away).  I can do without this kind of drama every week or two. 

The plan is to sell this dump and move myself over the river and up the hill - out of the flood hazard zone, out of needing flood insurance, away from the probability of being under water much of the time.  Fingers crossed.  Soon would be good.

Cutting back on the traveling for a while.  I had a really less than enjoyable time in London a couple of months back, and that experience soured me on a lot of things, like large cities and hotels.  Sure, the food was pretty ok, and the music was fabulous, but the child who screamed for five and a half hours straight on the flight was definitely not ok, and the hotel that was so noisy I couldn't sleep didn't make it any better.  And I really don't enjoy swarms of people anywhere.  I don't need to spend a lot of time and money to go to places that are swarming with people.  I can just go to work in NYC and get the same thing on a more local level.

Haven't been to the Met at all this season.  Talk about toxic atmospheres.  I have to at least set foot in the building, tho, sometime in March, so I can hand off tickets to something in Hamburg that I decided I'm not going to when I decided to cut back on traveling....I'm tired of having a complicated life.

My hope for the new year is that I can sell the house, buy a new one, and make things a bit simpler.  Maybe meet some new people, I am looking at places that are not too conducive to me being a total hermit (tho I found a couple of cozy hermit-style abodes that might work nicely for me).  Tempting to hide entirely, but not really a good idea, I'm reclusive enough as it is.

So that's it in a nutshell.  And if anyone is looking to email me at comcast.net, forget it, Comcast in their generosity and wisdom shut off that email and won't let me have it anymore.  Long story, which I am not interested in rehashing ever again.  The result, tho, will be that I won't have Comcast at all in the new place, I'll use any other company.  If you need my new email address, call me.   Anyone who needs to be in touch with me has my phone number, and that won't change.

The results are in

I did a little experiment last week.  I sent two packages of documents, to two clients who live relatively near each other (within 5 miles), and about 500 miles from here.  Both are first class type packages, documents, not in boxes, in envelopes.  Both are residential deliveries.

One I sent on Friday morning via UPS Next Day, not asking for Saturday delivery.  It was delivered Monday, late afternoon.

The second I sent via the USPS, regular first class mail, on Saturday afternoon.  It was delivered Monday morning.

UPS charged more than $30 for their delivery.  USPS cost less than $5.  And if I had requested Saturday delivery from UPS, they would have tacked on another $15 or so for the privilege.  Even asking for morning delivery costs more.

Think I'm using the post office for everything from now on.

raining like there's no tomorrow

Seems to me that monsoon season used to be in October and November here.  Not March into April.  Hmmm.  I just hope these count as April Showers, and will bring May Flowers.  Because we all know what Mayflowers bring, right?

Actually, on one of the abbreviated walks we managed this morning, I noticed that there are finally buds on my Montauk daisies.  To say I'm thrilled is a gross understatement.  Buds are the only sure sign that spring and summer might actually be coming to our little micro-climate.

The first walk, we went around the block.  Using the term loosely, as always.  It was nice, not raining at the moment, and tho the river looked awfully high, it wasn't over the top of the bulkhead or anything so annoying.  Bruce was in the yard, and barked his ass off at us, while trying in vain to knock down the fence, since he can't possibly drive his bulk over it.  He's an Italian Mastiff who is somewhat less than socialized.  He was nice, and cute and cuddly, when he was a puppy.  Now that's he's full grown (at probably 200 lbs), he's a nasty tempered loud mouthed brute.  Must be a republican.

Second walk, we went across the street.  Still not raining at that time, and it seemed to be nice out till you got out in the wind.  More of that wind which is hitting you in the face no matter which direction you are trying to go.  Enough so that Pablo was walking crouched down, he reminded me of my first cat, when we tried to walk him on a leash.  Slink, slink, slink, and lean against anything solid while you do it.  Needless to say, we didn't get very far, and turned around to head back home after a very short while.

Early afternoon, Grandma took Pablo up the hill to the park, and they reportedly had a nice time, tho there weren't many dogs out. 

Sometime later it started raining.  Around 5.00, we had thunderstorms.  Which are supposed to happen in the spring, so that was ok.  Pablo hid under the blankets for the duration.  It poured like there's no tomorrow.

I'm glad of two things.  One, I wasn't caught out in the downpour.  And two, thanks to Sandy, my roof no longer leaks.  So a rain storm of any strength is no longer quite the threat and disaster it once was.  Counting my blessings.

raining

Sure, we can use the moisture.  And it's a heck of a lot better than if it were snow.  At least rain doesn't need to be shoveled.

But it makes for a gloomy, boring day.  Especially when I had plans for outdoor stuff with Pablo, who doesn't DO rain.  So.

Got a lot done yesterday.  Had a list for today.  Got the easy stuff done, stalled out before starting the harder stuff.  Maybe later.

Weird dream this morning - I always have the weird ones in the morning, just before I wake up, unless something wakes me prematurely, in which case I have a whole day feeling like I didn't sleep.

But this one was weird, and complete.  It was a variation on my Dutchmann dream.  You know, the Flying Dutchman, where the girl falls in love with the legend, then jumps off a cliff when he leaves without her.  This was an urban Dutchman, his ship looked more like an antique cruise liner, and was moored in what one would think should be a street, except it was water.  So picture Venice, but with tall buildings.  And whatever went on leading up to the Dutchman leaving, most of which is a blur now, the end result is that when he took off, and I went to where his ship was docked to take a picture, the ship was gone, and I didn't jump into the water trying to follow him.  I went back to what I had been doing, shrugging and telling someone, oh well, I missed the shot.

I take that as a good sign.  Of what, I'm not sure.  Maybe it really is my psyche cleaning out garbage I no longer need.  Dr. Freud, where are you when I need a consult???

I've missed a couple of good shots lately.  From not having a camera with me when I needed it.  Oh well.

I do notice that I feel better when I can get out with my camera and do some shooting.  And occasionally I miss lugging the SLR with all the lenses and stuff.  But not usually.  I really like my Cannon Elf-whatever model it is.  It's blue, so the color makes me happy, and the pictures can be excellent.  And even not shooting "raw" I can get stuff good enough to blow up huge and hang on the wall or wherever.  Meanwhile, my shoulder doesn't hurt from lugging too much.  I hate carrying things.  And my European friends don't tell me I look too much like a tourist.

On the other hand, I am not comfortable taking pictures with the new phone.  Yes, it has a good camera in it.  But the slippery functionality is not to my liking.  Maybe I'll get used to it.  Meanwhile I'll continue to carry the Elf.  16 MP and it's smaller than the phone.  Doesn't do phone calls, but then, neither do I, very much.

talking about roads this time

My train buddy and I were talking about the Garden State Parkway the other morning.  I seem to remember a time when it wasn't all there, thinking that way because we used to use Route 1/9 to get to the shore from north Jersey when I was a kid.  I even knew exactly how many telephone poles we passed on the way, and would tell my father when he had to turn to hit Church Road.  

He (train buddy, not father) insisted the Parkway was always there.  Of course, as I've mentioned somewhere else in the blog, he's about five years younger than me, so his mileage may vary.

Wikipedia is a good place to find all sorts of arcane information. Here's what they say about the construction of the GSP:

Route S101 was a northern extension of Route 101 planned from Hackensack through Paramus to the New York state line near Montvale. The section from Hackensack to Paramus was never built; the section from Paramus to the state line would become part of the Garden State Parkway.

The Parkway was originally designated as the Route 4 Parkway when it was started in 1947 in Union County, but, due to lack of funds, only 11 miles (18 km) were completed by 1950. The solution was for the state to establish the New Jersey Highway Authority in 1952 to oversee construction and operation as a self-liquidating toll road.^[5] Much of the original section, between exits 129 and 140, was long administered by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and has always been untolled. The segment can be distinguished by the stone facing on the overpasses.

The Parkway was constructed between 1946 and 1957 to connect suburban northern New Jersey with resort areas along the Atlantic coast and to alleviate traffic on traditional north–south routes running through each town center, such as US 1, US 9, and Route 35. Unofficially, it has two sections: the "metropolitan section" north of the Raritan River and the "shore section" between the Raritan River and Cape May. Only 18 miles (29 km) had been constructed by 1950, but taking a cue from the successful New York State Thruway, on April 14, 1952, the New Jersey Legislature created the New Jersey Highway Authority, empowered to construct, operate, and maintain a self-sufficient toll parkway from Paramus to Cape May.

The landscape architect and engineer in charge of the newly named "Garden State Parkway" was Gilmore David Clarke, of the architectural firm of Parsons, Brinkerhof, Hall and MacDonald,^[5] who had worked with Robert Moses on the parkway systems around New York City. Clarke's design prototypes for the Parkway combined the example of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a model of efficiency with parallels in the German Autobahn routes of the 1930s, with the Merritt Parkway model that stressed a planted "green belt" for beauty. Both design models featured wide planted medians to prevent head-on collisions and mask the glare of on-coming headlights. The Garden State Parkway was designed to have a natural feel. Many trees were planted, and the only signs were those for exits—there were no distracting billboards. Most of the signs were constructed from wood, or a dark-brown metal, instead of the chrome bars used on most other highways. The guardrails were also made from wood and dark metal. Most early overpasses were stone, but then changed to concrete, with green rails and retro etchings, popular around the 1950s and 1960s. These are now in decay and being replaced by sleek, new bridges. The Parkway was designed to curve gently throughout its length so that drivers would remain alert and not fall asleep at the wheel.

Most of the metropolitan section is like any other expressway built in the 1950s through heavily populated areas. The shore section parallels U.S. Route 9 and runs through unspoiled wilderness in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. In Cape May County, the Parkway has three traffic lights (at exits 8, 10, and 11 respectively), but these will be eliminated in the future, with construction of an overpass at exit 10 in Cape May Court House and Stone Harbor scheduled to begin in September 2012.

The Parkway had an old alignment before the Great Egg Harbor Bridge was completed. It was detoured onto U.S. Route 9 and over the Beesley's Point Bridge. This old alignment still exists today and is slowly being consumed by nature.

The Garden State Parkway was off-limits to motorcycles until Malcolm Forbes pushed successfully for legislation to allow them.^[6]

On July 9, 2003, Governor of New Jersey Jim McGreevey's plan to merge the operating organizations of the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike into one agency was completed.^[7]

Literature from the time of the Parkway's construction indicates that the Parkway would become toll-free once bonds used for its construction were paid off. However, additional construction projects, plus the expectation that the Parkway will pay for its own maintenance and policing (and the massive E-ZPass project) make it unlikely it will become toll-free in the foreseeable future.

The Parkway was also planned to be the southern terminus for NJ 55 at milemarker 19. This was cancelled after the conclusion that the highway ran through too many wetland areas. The idea is still being revisited after frequent traffic jams on NJ 47.

Later construction

• In the first half of the 1980s, exit 171 was added in Woodcliff Lake, serving the mushrooming office complexes replacing farmland along nearby Chestnut Ridge Road.^[8]
• On May 1, 1993, a travel center was opened at the Montvale Service Area, replacing one that burned to the ground in 1991.^[9]
• In 2003, the Lakewood section received a brand-new southbound exit and northbound entrance, exit 89. In order to expand the Parkway for the interchange, the Cedar Bridge Road bridge had to be torn down and rebuilt. The whole project was completed in November 2003 and cost about $16.23 million.^[10]
• In Waretown, a $16.4 million project was completed for new bridges at exit 69. The construction was completed in March 2007. Along with the new interchange came two new toll plazas. The Parkway was widened at the location it goes under County Route 532.^[11]
• The same company who did the exits 69 and 89 construction had also done work on exit 100, 20 years before the exit 69 construction. That project included demolishing all then-current bridges and building new ones along the newly rerouted Route 66 and Route 33. This project, in Tinton Falls, cost $21.67 million to complete.^[12]
• Installation of Variable Message Signs along the Parkway began 1992 with the installation of approximately 25 Daktronics signs. Some VM signs were installed on new sign structures while others were added to existing GO signs. Initially, the signs were provided with telephone service. A controller with a modem was installed in a cabinet near the signs. Messages on the signs were changed manually using software on personal computers in the GSP headquarters building in Woodbridge.

So, not conclusive.  Not enough detail of what portions were built and put in service when.  But I don't think the entire "metropolitan section" existed when I was a kid, tho it was likely under construction.  I don't remember very much detail about riding in our 1949 Ford, other than a few occasions when we'd bring bushels of chicken manure back north for my Grandmother's tomato garden (there was a chicken farm down the road from our summer place, we'd get eggs fresh from the nest, and all the manure you'd care to spend time with).  Obvious why those trips were memorable.  But I do remember spending untold hours in the 1957 Ford on the Route 9 bridge over the Raritan River, shore traffic backed up forever, and the Parkway bridge not yet in service.  Maybe it was under construction, still.  But we were on the Route 9 bridge, and generally used Rte 1/9 for the whole trip, catching it at the end of the Pulaski Skyway and riding it down to that left turn on Church Road, which was in the middle of nowhere then, and is probably in Toms River now. 

Another website, http://www.nycroads.com/roads/garden-state/, says about the construction timetable:

PARKWAY CONSTRUCTION: Under State Highway Commissioner Spencer Miller, Jr., construction of the original NJ 4 Parkway began in 1946 in Clark Township, Union County. Progress was slow: by 1950, only 18 miles of the toll-free parkway had been completed as follows: Cape May County, milepost 8 to milepost 12 Ocean County, milepost 80 to milepost 83 Middlesex and Union counties, milepost 129 to milepost 140 With new financing backing from the New Jersey Highway Authority, ground was broken for construction of the Garden State Parkway on July 2, 1952. During 1954, one section after another was opened to traffic in time for the summer tourist season.  By August of that year, some 80 miles of parkway were opened, providing uninterrupted travel between Irvington and Manahawkin, including the Raritan River Bridge. By late October, the parkway had been completed all the way south to Cape May. Maybe part of the problem used to be that getting from Kearny, where we lived, to the Parkway was not as simple as getting to the Pulaski Skyway.  I think it was on Orange Ave, this was long before I-280 was there, and you'd have to go over the Stickel Bridge into Newark, then go a ways to find the Parkway entrance, almost in Irvington, crossing some trolly line on the way.  Once the riots hit in the late 1960s, you just plain didn't go that way.  Then they built the I-280 connector.  Which is another story in and of itself. So maybe if you are five years or so younger than me, the Parkway has always been there.  What a concept.

"I like the look"

This one surprised me, more than a bit.  One of the clients who came thru our office today said she likes my "look."  I never knew I had a "look." 

What was I wearing?  A blue henley shirt that's too big, because I like loose things and I don't have to stick the tails in (I hate sticking the tails in, there are deep psychological reasons for that, I'm sure), it's more like a tunic except it's really just too big.  Sure, it's silk/cotton, so it's soft and feels good, and the open collar is comfortably cool in our overheated NYC old building.  And a flowered silk scarf around my neck because even tho it is 60-something out today, this morning it was too chilly to not wear a scarf, after living in one all winter.  Besides, I liked the flowers, they felt springy.  And black cord jeans which are old and have legs a bunch wider than most of my newer pants, because I have a thick wrap on my knee after getting knocked down some stairs in Penn Sta last week.  And my "formal" black sneakers.  Whose laces coincidentally seem to match the blue shirt.  Or accidentally, more like.

And THIS is a "look"???

Hmmm.  Maybe I'll start a trend, or something.

Really, tho, I tend to be non-conscious of my clothes because I wear stuff that is washable, comfortable, and not horribly expensive.  And did I mention loose? 

So having someone comment on them made me really very conscious of them, which makes me very uncomfortable. 

Weirdness abounds.

Newest member of the family

My Mom came in yesterday and said "We have a new member of the family!"  As far as I knew, nobody was pregnant, so I was clueless. 

Turns out my sister in California got a puppy!  Her name is Yuki, and she is a Sheep-doodle.  Really cute!  Poor Pablo is really out-sized by his relatives.  But he does like his girls on the large side, so he might like her, if he ever gets to actually meet her.  We'll see.

Naturally, the way my Mom sees it, this is all my fault.  I started the family on cats, long, long ago, and everybody pretty much has or has had cats since then.  In fact, Yuki has two cat-siblings.  So then once I started dogs, everybody is doomed to follow.  Granted, it's taken quite a while, I got my first dog in 2000.  But I expect, or rather, Mom expects, there will be more dogs to come.  We'll see.

At least she likes dogs now.  She used to be afraid of them.  Pablo cured her of that.  They're out taking a walk right now - four walks with me weren't enough for him today.

Welcome to the family, Yuki!

more dunes are happening

Finally, there is equipment out on the beach, and the dunes are being continued north of here, where they stopped last fall because someone thought she saw birds nesting in the sea wall - in September.  Don't know what planet this person was from, but birds don't nest in NJ in September....

Anyhow, there is a start at building a dune row to continue north from the previous end, looks like they're going to the end of town.  And I hear the cuts to get thru the dunes to the water are only being made where there are stairs used by the public, so people who have their own stairs will have to walk a ways to get to the cuts.  So.

They left one of the machines by my entrance, I was considering borrowing it to play in the sand, but no keys....

 

 

Did I mention it was gorgeous out today?  57 degrees F, sun and a light breeze.  I have windows open in the house....spring is coming.  I heard mourning doves this morning, and the piping plovers are back.  Also saw a cardinal at the side of the road when I was driving to the bank this morning.  And of course the red winged blackbirds are here.  And a whole flock of swans over in Little Silver.

Tonite is "spring ahead" nite, too....I hate losing an hour at this time of year, but it is progress towards spring, too.   Maybe winter is over.  But I'm not putting my hat and gloves away quite yet.

pre-storm beach time

My kids came up for the weekend, which was very nice.  We spent a lot of time on the beach with the dogs.  Saturday was windy but sunny and not too cold; today was warmer and not so windy, but not so much sun. 

A couple of discoveries.  Someone official cut passageways thru the new dunes, so you no longer have to climb over or go around to get to the other side.  They also leveled off the sand with the bottom step, so there's no longer a drop of unknowable depth to get off the last step.  This is excellent, and makes it much easier for us non-climbing types to get where we want to go.

I imagine they will add fencing at some point in time, to try to keep idiots from walking on the dunes, and give the grass a chance to grow.  It's nice that this time they put the cut-throughs directly in front of the stairs.  Last time they built dunes, there was an offset of 25 feet or so, and people would walk on the dunes (breaking down the fences) because they didn't get it.  It's that Jersey mentality, the world is going to end if I don't get where I want to go in the next five seconds or less.  Idiots.

There was also an engineering truck out on the beach taking measurements of whatever.  There's been quite a lot of erosion of the new sand, so I suspect that's what they're measuring.  Usually we gain sand in the winter, and it's not normal to see this much erosion this time of year.

 

Of course, the cliffs make it more fun for Dave and Kaylee, who had a blast climbing up and jumping off.  They are the climbing types I was referring to above.  I suspect it is a recessive gene that Dave got from somewhere.

We found a new beachhenge, I think this one is beachhenge 3.

Naturally, both dogs needed to check it out and leave their messages for their brethren.

At one point, racing along, Kaylee knocked Pablo head over heels.  We didn't get a picture, we were all laughing too hard at Pablo playing turtle, having a tough time trying to get back on his feet and off his back.  He rolled in the sand enough that I needed to wash his coat to get the sand out of the velcro.

I think his dignity was a bit wounded.  And you can see the sand stuck in the velcro.

He's totally pooped out from all the activity.

That's Dave holding him. 

Everybody got home ok before the weather got too awful.  It's kind of throwing ice pellets here at the moment.  We'll see what it looks like in the morning, and make an executive decision then as to whether or not I can get to work tomorrow.  I wouldn't mind a snow day, I'm tried, too.