back to from whence I came, in a manner of speaking

It's been years, no, centuries, since I've visited Pace University's NYC campus, but I had an opportunity to be there on Sunday for a concert by someone I know.  The concert was great.  The being back was weird.

The neighborhood has changed.  Of course.  In the space of 36 years, nothing much stays the same, I guess.  The Pace building itself has an addition on the top, which to my eye seems odd, and the open rooftop I used to see from my dorm window is now a building, or what could theoretically exist as a building on its own, except it is sitting on the roof of a building.  Weird enough.

And those parking spaces along the Pace building where we all used to take turns in the free spaces created by the fire hydrant being involuntarily removed by a friend of mine are no longer parking spaces, there is no parking on the entire block.  And Nassau Street has been turned into a pedestrian mall.  Good idea, I think. It's way too narrow for cars.

Then there's the space across the street that used to be a ground level parking lot for Beekman Hospital.  I remember keeping an informal count of the predominant color of the cars parked in the lot from day to day - it always amused me that, in a place one would expect might be occupied by the same personnel's vehicles every day, the predominant car color would change daily.

Well, no more parking lot.  Of course.  Manhattan real estate is way too valuable to be used as a street level parking lot.  So they built something on it.  Actually, they built a number of things on it, all contained in one slightly twisted building designed by Frank Gehry.  Apparently, and I recall reading an article about this not so long ago, the lower floors house a school, while the tower is apartments, and rather pricey ones, at that.  The school portion of the building is kind of square and red brick-ish.  The tower is a twisted, dizziness-inducing silver thing, that looks like it is moving even if you aren't.  I recommend standing still and holding onto something stationary if you want to take a close look.  Here's a glimpse:

It's more than a bit disconcerting to have this tower growing out of this base, and both looking like they are from alternate universes, not part of the same building.  But ok.  Whatever.  What fascinates me (and I've been up the ramparts of Gehry's Disney Concert Hall in LA, so I tend to be fascinated by this type of thing) is how the tower seems to move and twist in the wind as you're watching it. 

I think I'll try to go see an apartment up there.  No, I can't afford it, but I can't not take a look, if I can wrangle my way inside.  Besides, the views have got to be spectacular.

By the way, here's a link to the website of the building, go take a look:  http://www.newyorkbygehry.com/

my kind of hummer

We're not talking those oversized suv type things here.  This is a real hummer, the kind nature makes:

And yes, it is a real photo, of a real bird, which I took last week in the real Mission San Juan de Capistrano, with my old as the hills Canon point and shoot.  For anyone who might not know, that is a bird of paradise he is eating from, which is a really awesome kind of flower that I don't think can survive our weather here on the east coast.  I wish it could, though, and if our climate change continues to make NJ feel more and more like California, I might just try planting some in my yard and see what happens.

We do have hummers here, in the right season, which is certainly not February.  Usually people put out fancy hummer feeders, which one fills with sugar water, colored red, since bright colors seem to attract the little guys.

I'm also attracted to bright colors, so I understand how they feel about that.   

rainbows 'r us

One morning this week I arrived at the train station to find people actually smiling.  Never having seen such a phenomenon, I asked around as to the cause, and found this hanging overhead:

Granted, they are not the best photos I've ever taken, and the color seems a bit less intense than the real thing, but then, it's a phone, not a camera, and I was trying to catch it before it faded, and the train was about to pull in and block my view entirely....well.  The long and the short of it is, this was all one rainbow, a full horizon to horizon arch in much more glorious color than you can see in the photos.  I think this is the only place I've ever seen a full arch, really - you see a lot of partial rainbows, like this one from a November day in LA that went from Pasadena on up, but stopped somewhere in the sky:

Sometimes we get full arches over the ocean, and once there was a circular rainbow, also over the ocean, for which I of course did not have a camera handy.  Pretty amazing, someone bigger than any of us is playing with paintbrushes up there. 

it's that siren again

...and Pablo is standing on the back of the couch barking his head off.  Seems like ever since the hurricane, anytime the big siren across the street goes off for any reason, he takes it personally and barks up a storm.  This, from a dog who my mother swears never barks. 

As for the siren, I have no idea why it does what it does.  Tonite it just did the standard siren sound, several times up and down the scale, then a few minutes later the fire department (or at least part of it) went by with their own sirens on.  So maybe this one was a call to the volunteers to get downtown and go on a call. 

Then on other occasions, it does something that vaguely resembles those chimes that grandfather clocks do, only very much electronic and fake sounding.  And very loud.

And sometimes it blows in different patterns, with no discernible reason.  I personally think it might be nice if someone official one day would explain what the various sounds indicate.  When I lived in Ohio, everyone knew what the various types of sounds meant, and most of them had to do with tornadoes.  Here, where I don't think there has ever been a tornado, they blow the siren for different reasons, but I don't know anyone who knows what they are trying to tell us.  So if they sounded a tsunami alarm, for example, I doubt anyone in town would have any idea they were about to momentarily be wiped off the face of the planet.

Maybe it's better not to know?  Considering it is highly unlikely that one could do anything about it anyhow....geography is not exactly our friend here.  We're on a peninsula of sand about a quarter mile wide at its widest point, with the ocean on one side and an estuary on the other.  So if that tsunami did come for us, we'd be gone before you could spell check it.  Gives new meaning to living on the edge.

Weather and social media

Are those two things actually related?  They seem to bear some similarities, I think.  Around here, the weather is something that is almost constantly on one's mind.  The last few days have been very cold and extremely windy.  Brings up the question of how to get the dog out of the house to do his business, and whether I actually can bear to take him out to do it.  I suspect if there is not a human on the other end of the leash, poor Pablo would blow away in the gale.  And he looks as though he is freezing to death, even in his warm coat.

On other people's minds, but not on mine, social media seems to be the object of a lot of attention.  I am getting barraged by requests to "friend" people I've never even heard of - and this is on a Facebook thing that I don't do anything with, I only made a login so I could look at something a real friend of mine put up there.  Then there are the people (some of whom I actually do know personally) who want to attach to me with Linkedin.  I frankly have no clue what one does with either of these things.  Aside from not having the time to find out, I have little to no interest in learning. 

Bottom line - if you want to be my friend, pick up the phone and call me once in a while.  I usually answer the phone, and unless I choose to unplug the whole apparatus, my calls follow me on my mobile, so I am almost always available.  Except when I'm in the opera house, then I shut the thing off entirely.  If for some reason I don't answer, leave a message.  That's what voice mail is for.  And yes, I do know how to listen to my voice mails.  I'm not that old fashioned.

One week in...

...and it looks like 2012 is going to be more of the same.  Hot and cold mixed at very short intervals - it was down to 10F and up to 63F this week.  Tried to rain with little effect.  Mostly cloudy, but mostly sunny, not at the same time.  WINDY....one night I was convinced the entire north side of my house was going to loose its siding, and I would be dragging it back from the middle of Ocean Ave in the morning.  It didn't get quite that bad, but I spent a good day fretting over it, and trying to find one of my many handy-persons who might be able to stop by and reattach what was trying to leave.  In the process I broke three nails and skinned two knuckles, my fretting being accompanied by numerous attempts to put in the fix myself, (all of which blew away) even to the extent of trying in vain to drive a nail thru the vinyl to make it stay.  It stays about as good as the dog does, which is to say, not very well.

It gets exciting around here, but rarely the type of exciting one might actually wish for. 

When my handy-person finally got here, there was much cursing and a bit of banging, and I think he actually glued the siding together so the wind couldn't get under the overlap and tear it asunder again.  Considering the wind was still going at about 50 mph when he was doing this, plus the temp was in the low teens, I can't say I blame him for cursing just a bit.

So it looks as if we might be in for a new siding job, come spring.  Well, after tax season, anyway, which I suppose puts us nearer to summer.  I wonder if it might be possible to have the house covered in Lego bricks?  It would certainly be colorful, which appeals to me, and the interlocking brick effect would seem to be sturdier than the traditional siding.  With super glue to hold it together, it might just last forever. 

The problem is deciding on a pattern.  Should it be random, or ought I have someone design a series of murals for it?  Would I need a special permit for the murals?  Does the town (or the neighbors) have rights of approval for an artistic treatment?

Sigh.  Too many questions, far too many possibilities.  If this goes the way of most issues which have too many potential answers, it too will not get done in my lifetime.  I am good at deciding between a and b.  Once you throw in c thru z as options, I can't make my mind up, and generally wind up doing nothing.  It's safer that way.  Less exciting, yes, and definitely safer.

The longest train ride ever

I got on the train in 2011, got off it in 2012....

Ok, so I'm cheating a bit.  It was only the usual not quite 2 hours on NJT in the middle of the night, it just happened to be New Year's Eve when I left NYC, ahead of the drunken raucous Times Square crowd, and consequently early morning Jan 1, 2012 when I landed at the station where my car was faithfully awaiting my return.

The crowd in Penn Station looked like a regular late night crowd, with the addition of a few dozen (or more) personnel in army garb and external flak vests, toting large automatic rifles and such.  I got on the 11.07 train, neatly missing the revelers who were no doubt still occupying Times Square waiting for the ball (or is it still a rather large apple???) to drop. 

I take pride in the fact that this is the first NYE I have ever spent in NYC, even including my time in college in the city.  I am also proud of the fact that I have never done Times Square for The Event (it's such a tourist thing).  Attribute that to the fact that I don't do well in crowds, both noise-wise and claustrophobia-wise. 

Interesting that even the NYPD was decked out in full riot gear, sans helmets.  I suppose they had the helmets tucked away in a safe yet easily accessible place, in case.  In case of what, I don't care to speculate.

I spoke to one of the Army dudes, and he thought it was getting weird already.  I advised him that this was just a normal looking late night at Penn Station, just wait a while.  I have to admit, tho, that while I don't care for the feeling of being an occupied territory, it is kind of nice to have those people (guys and dolls) carrying heavy artillery keeping an eye out for who knows what.  It's a bit of overkill for the run of the mill drunks.  But if it deters some lowlife from trying to lift my wallet, fine by me.

So, as a result of my off-peak train ride, I was somewhere just south of Perth Amboy when the clock struck midnight.  Contrary to popular belief, I did not turn into a pumpkin on the stroke of 12.  Neither did my car, for that matter.

As far as I know, noone puked on the train, which is better than the usual late night ride.  And only one man of whom I was aware slept through his stop (plus two after it), with a conductor standing over him yelling at him to wake up and get off the train.  The crew was mostly the same guys who take the 12.05 down during the week.  Nice people, tough if they need to be.  Gotta say that about NJT, the people are good.  It's the service that usually stinks.

So.  Pablo is down the block with his third family, having an sleepover.  I get to sleep alone.  My feet will be colder than usual, but I won't have him shaking and scritching every time I turn over.  I count my blessings, small as they may be.

Good night, and happy new year!

All good things eventually come to an end

Well okay, I'm not sure if I should classify this as a good thing or not.  But yesterday I withdrew from a discussion forum in which I have been a member since it began 20-something years ago.  When it started, we were still doing email on something called Pine....which I bet 99% of people reading this will have no clue what that might be.  This was the internet and email pre-gooey interface.  However you spell that.  I'm having a bad spell day today.

Lately the group has been beset by what my son (who is 20-something) calls trolls. They have spoiled the enjoyment of the discussion for a lot of the group members, and yesterday they just got so insanely vituperative against someone I consider a friend, I pulled the plug.

I decided some time ago that I don't need that kind of negativity in my life, and I've taken steps to eliminate a lot of the more negative people and things I had been dealing with.  This group, though, I have given many, many "second chances," and I am kind of sorry to see it come to this end.  BUT....I see no valid reason they went off on my friend like they did, and they have done this same thing repeatedly over the last couple of seasons.  It's no use trying to say anything, that only opens me to attack, as well.  I don't need that kind of nastiness in my life. Especially since there is no reason for it.

I'm trying to figure out my reaction to shutting these people out of my life.  I not only signed off the list, I also deleted all the 9,000-something old posts that had accumulated in my email inbox over the past several years.  It's done, finito, fini.  Das ende. 

It's not withdrawal I am feeling.  I think it's disappointment.  Disappointment that a group of people who came together because they all purportedly love the same thing could turn so ugly.  My faith in the inherent goodness of people is a little shaken, I guess.  I'm not liking that feeling.

OTOH, I will get over this, and I will survive.  And life will get more positive, because I just deleted a large black cloud from my sky.

Picture of the day

Yes, we're sorta back to that.  It's a grey, gloomy day, even the dog didn't want to go far, so we walked around the block, and visited the river.  It's one of those days when the sky is about the same color as the water, and they kind of merge together if not for the bridge, which I've gotten used to, but still don't especially like.  I much prefer the old bridge, it had character.  The new one is just new.  That's about all I can say for it.

So here's the picture, just shrunk a tad to get rid of the trash/recycle can:

I didn't really check to see if my horizon is straight.  Looks pretty straight to me, but then, I took it with the phone, and those tend to come out pretty straight.  Probably because my nose doesn't get in the way....I've got a pretty big one, as noses go.

I think I prefer the river in the winter, same way I prefer the beach in the winter.  No people, just nature.   It looks better to me that way.

Here's the old bridge, shortly before they tore it down to build the new one:

This was taken from about the same place, but with a real camera, and the zoom lens.  Doesn't hurt that the sky was beautiful that day, just about twilight.

Funny thing about being here.  It's the same view all the time (which is not a particularly bad thing), but it looks totally different on any given day.  Progress happens, in the form of a new bridge, or changes to the houses, or whatever, but the river is always pretty much the same, except that it wears a different color every day, and sometimes several different colors in the same day.  If I changed that often, I'd have to spend my life doing laundry.  Nature is much more efficient that way.

It's the economy, stupid

Or is that the stupid economy?  Or is it simply that our expectations have been so inflated that we expect miracles in a time when miracles no longer happen?

Case in point:  look closely at the photo, which I scanned from an ad I received last week from a certain store where I shop once in a while.

It's the Christmas special on the latest Barbie-mobile.  A VW Beetle.  In pink, of course.

When I was a kid, back in what now seems to have been the golden age, Barbie drove a Corvette.  Back then, real people could afford to drive a Corvette, they weren't any more costly than the average family sedan.  Now, you have to be one of those 1%-ers to even consider a Vette, nevermind feed one.  I looked it up.  The 2012 Vettes appear to start at an MSRP just a hair's breadth short of $50k, and run up to the Centennial Edition ZR1 at a whopping $127,970.  Plus tax and title.  And then there's the insurance.

No wonder Barbie is getting a Beetle.

A few weeks ago, I was standing in a will-call line at the Washington National Opera, waiting to pick up my free dress rehearsal passes.  The woman behind me in line was bemoaning the fact that she'd had to trade in her Vette, and settled for a mere Infinity, in her view a major slide down the social ladder.  From the way she was dressed, I would've sworn she was one of those 1%-ers.  Maybe even they are feeling the pinch, just a bit.

But the tragedy of Barbie driving a Beetle is being difficult for me to get over.  My youthful dreams have been shattered.  Barbie is part of the disappearing middle class!  What's left for little girls to aspire to?