What You Do Not Know Because You Are Not Me!

I took my camera phone for a run. (update with photo of me)

2012-01-26T14:50:00.000-05:00

Since I am exempt form the NYRR 9+1 program, I felt no need to run the Manhattan Half. But I still wanted to have some fun. So decided to run to Central Park. Click here for my route. It was nice to run over the subway grates on Broadway. The occasional burst of warm air was welcome. However the pedestrian that replaced the grid lock of Times Square was extremely hazardous. First, painted asphalt covered by a few inches of wet snow is VERY SLIPPERY. Even if I was not running it would have been slick. But it was also infested with tourists who had never seen snow before. They were walking around like friggen idiots. (and so unprepared for a day of 25 degrees and snow. A hat, people ya gotta get a hat, and scarfs don't really do much of you don't actually loop them around your neck. An Uggs in snow???? Come on they become sponges when they get wet.)

The race started at 8am and I left Brooklyn at 8. It was about 8.5 miles to the 12 mile mark of the course. With all the traffic lights I got there in about the same amount of time it would have taken me to run 12 miles.

Anyway....a few inches of snow made it better...

8AM at Grand Army Plaza.

Crossing the Gowanus Canal at Carroll St

The Manhattan Bridge is just visible...

I can't add words to this

Behind the Elephant that is on balanced on it's trunk in the snow is a statue of George Washington on a horse in Union Square.

About the 12 mile mark of the Manhattan Half. No unhappy runners there. It was nice to join the herd for a mile.

Baggage check. I never got cold along the way. The subway ride home was brutal. Having some dry shoes & socks would have been a game changer

A Coincidence? Maybe?

2012-01-23T22:28:00.000-05:00

I like to see the worst of the neighborhood before I run into Prospect Park. I appreciate the serenity of the park more that way. I like to cross the Gowanus Canal and run past the Super Fund Sites, the concrete factories and scrap metal yards before running into Prospect Park. This is my route.

A year ago this month, (or maybe 2 years ago) was was on my regular weekday run and ran past the site where a warehouse collapsed a few years ago and noticed a bunch of kids with notebooks gazing through the fence. I stopped and asked them what they were doing. They said they were trying to decide what should be on this land in 2030. They were looking at a plot of land that was wedged between an elevated subway on 2 sides and a canal on the other 2 sides. Their academic exercise is being mirrored in the real world.

This morning I chaperoned my son's class on that trip.

Two weeks ago I took my daughter's class. It was colder that day, but not as wet.

Shit New Yorkers Say

2012-01-19T08:21:00.002-05:00

"Look they are filming Law and Order"

"eh"

But "real" New Yorkers would be complaining about parking

I finally joined the Park Slope Food Coop: Shopping.

2012-01-16T21:51:00.000-05:00

It has been about a year since I joined the Park Slope Food Coop.

Read about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The first day I shopped back in February of 2011, I just walked around and decided to buy just one thing, one new thing.

I got on the wrong line and bought a bottle Sriracha Chili Sauce. It is the stuff that makes sandwiches spicy in Vietnamese Sandwich shops.

Yea, wrong line. I did not pay attention at orientations so I did not know that if I had one item and was paying cash I could go directly to the cashier. Now I know.

When I paid for it something strange happened. The clerk talked to me. He talked to me about my food. At Keyfood they get fired for that.

He told me that he has never know anyone to finish a bottle of Sriracha Sauce. I did. I knew I would.

After a year at the Coop I have learned one thing: Never, never go when you hare in a hurry. Two reasons. First, if is often super crowded. Not just long lines but isle blocking crowds. The lines to check out actually bock the shopping isles. I don't know how come the Fire Dept has not made an issue of this. But that is not my job.

Second, even if all the people in the world are not shopping at the same time you will know one of them. I usually meet

Someone I did a shift with..
A neighbor.
Someone I ran with.
Someone who ran a race I managed.
A parent of one of my kids friends.
One of my kids teachers.
Someone who knows me and I don't know who they are or how I met them.
Someone who reads my blog and wants to meet me. (I have fans?!!??)
Someone who wants to know what I am going to do with that thing I am buying.
Someone who is buying something interesting that I want to know something about.

So quick trips to the Coop are not so quick and easy. If I am in a real hurry I can still go to Key Food.

The food there is also better than at most other places. There are not so many choices, but how many different brands of peanut butter do you need? The people who choose what goes on the shelf to sell do that based on what people want to buy, not want the distributor wants them to sell. All the meat the Coop sells is free range macro gluten free whatever. I am not going to use this forum to tell people what to eat, but I can say that a chicken that was happy till it was murdered tastes better than one that was abused till it's head was chopped off. That said, I was warned that the Bo Bo brand chickens still have their feet. Feet, I could deal with, but I bought one home and when I opened the package it had a head. I jumped back so hard I banged into the stove. It almost went directly into the trash but it was dinner. I maned up and cut the head off and put it in the over. Then I call my mother.

Anita Lee of Bo Bo Poultry
Photo from NYCity Culture Blog

A couple of weeks later I met the meat guy at the COOP, I asked him if they were all gonna have heads. He was like, " Oh shit, dude, you got the one with the head. I saw that one and put it aside but like someone just put it on the shelf with the other headless chickens." Lucky me. He then told me it took a lot of negotiating to get the people at Bo Bo to even cut off the heads. It is a good thing I did not get a chicken with a head from Purdue at Pathmark. Then I would of had to sue them or something and then I would be rich.

I am buying parts for a while.

The food is not just better, it is cheaper. I should know, I am a cheap bastard. Not everything is cheaper, I could go back to Key Food and buy cheaper meat, but I joined The Coop to get better food. Better food is usually more expensive that crappier food. But I am buying better food, cheaper than I can almost anywhere else.

Like I said earlier, everything at The Coop is marked up 21% above cost and ~~they~~ we have no sales. That is good if I want to buy Newman's Own Alphabet cookies, they are always $1 (33%) less than key food.

I also got a great deal on a small appliance. I like to drink seltzer, I hate to carry it home. The Sodastream starter kit is $64 at The Coop. I had to pay tax, but that was still $16 less than any place I could find it on line.

But the best deal that I have found at the Coop has been for a sponge. Back at Key Food you have this. A gazillion different sponges. I learned a long time ago that the Ocello sponge probably came off the same assembly line as the Key Food sponge. I never had any high exceptions. I don't have a dishwasher, so I got a few weeks out of a sponge.

At the Coop we sell one brand of kitchen sponge. It is the Natural Value Cellulose Sponges 4 pack. It cost less than the Key Food sponge and last longer. Much longer. It is also made of some recycled material.

You would think that since I joined the Coop my grocery bill would have gone down. Not so much. Ya see when I joined the Coop I decided to be honest. I went through a huge hassle because I decided not to lie. I could have told them that I was a single parent (my wife is not going to walk in the door, ever.) and I would only have to do one shift. I also decided to stop shoplifting. I wasn't doing it to save money anyway. I was doing it for the rush.

It would be just to easy at the Coop.

Just kidding

No really.

Just kidding

No really.

Ironic

2012-01-15T16:05:00.000-05:00

I recently received an email from my kids school They are running low on supplies

We are in need of some supplies in our classroom. If you would like to donate a gift card to Office Max, Staples or Target, we will use it to purchase the items we need. As always, we will accept reams of letter sized paper and tissues throughout the year if you'd rather give that. Thanks so much to all of you who've been so generous thus far. Your donations go so far in helping our students achieve!

I happened to have a credit at Staples so I ordered 2 cases of copy paper and had it delivered directly to the school. That was easy. ( I am now physically ill because I just typed that last sentence.)

In another email I was asked to donate any type of art supplies I could. The email went on to say that it really did not matter what condition the supplies were in, they would make the best use of what ever they could be given.... Something was better than nothing. On the list of things the school needed was construction paper.

I just find in ironic that Success Academy has enough funds to hire a Public Relations company and use one-sided construction paper to promote their non profit charter school.

Maybe, my kid's public school can send kids out to collect all the litter that Success Academy created and use the backs in their art classes.

I was taged

2012-01-14T19:54:00.000-05:00

Amy in the moment asked?

1. Are you a cat person or a dog person? Why?

Neither. In the cage a pet out of the cage vermin. Small pets are really just vermin in a cage, but I can put up with that for my kids. Don't we live in houses to keep the animals out.

2. Would you sky dive?

Only if the person below me would not mind being puked on. So, no.

3. Your favorite band?

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers.

4. What was your favorite day?

May 4, 2000, the day my kids were born

5. When you were a kid, what did you always "want to be when you grew up"?

A good speller

6. Do you like your job?

Love it.

7. If you had a million dollars, what would you give it up for?

Just once, for a moment I, would want all the laundry put away

8. Do you believe in love at first sight?

yes

9. If you had to pack your bags tonight and leave tomorrow for a month long trip to one place where would you go?

Tokyo. Never been there, but I bet it is different than NYC but I could still relate.

10. What do you do when you are angry?

Run or eat. Or run and not eat. But I do that when I am not angry too.

11. If you could only eat one food for dinner for the rest of your life what would it be?

Corn pudding; A can of corn, a can of creamed corn, a package of Jiffy Muffin Corn Bread Mix, a pint of sour cream, an egg and a stick of butter. Mix it up and back it for an hour.

My son wrote this last year, in 5th Grade. He just asked me to put it on the internet.

2012-01-13T19:36:00.000-05:00

Burning

“Serge, hey, Serge” called out a running soldier.

“Yes” I replied as we stared surrounding Sherman.

“I heard that we’re burning the South,” the soldier told me as I began to recognize the town we were in. “Starting with this town,” he continued.

“All right men,” cried Sherman.

What was it about this place? I thought, looking around.

“I say this because I think it will end the Civil War faster” Sherman continued. “Burn this town to the ground!!!”

There was a scream of excitement which reminded me of the rebel yell. I shuttered.

“Sergeant Joe!” Sherman called out.

“Sir” I said, saluting.

“Do me a favor and burn that house for me,” Sherman asked me pointing at a house.

I nodded, picking up a torch.

For a minute I was running through fire and screams. War, that’s all it is. When I was in throwing distance, I threw it as hard as I could.

But when it was in mid air, I realized, isn’t that my cousins’ house? But it was too late, the torch hit the porch support which caught on fire.

“NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Then I made a mad dash to the door and kicked it in and looked in the house. I saw James, my 8 year old cousin, sipping tea as if nothing happened.

“WE NEED TO GO NOW” I said. James was stumbling for words. Come on, come on James, we need to move. I thought.

“B--But why…..what the Joe what ar….”

He was interrupted by a piece of ceiling that fell demolishing his kitchen, then silence.

“O.K. let’s go!!!!” James said.

“That’s probably the best idea I’ve heard in a long time” I yelled as we ran to the door.

For a second I thought we were going to make it until a huge burst of fire went right in front of us.

“AAAAAAA!!!!!’’ James and I screamed in unison.

“I know this isn’t relevant, but where is your mom?” I asked.

“She made it out I--I think” James said

“O.K. we need to run……” I said when I got interrupted by James.

“There is no way I’m running though that, I’ll die!!!!” James said.

“James no matter what, we might die, so do you want to be crushed, or have a burial?” I said. There was another silence. I could tell that James was thinking.

“O.K. lets go” said James. “On the count of three we ran. One, two, two and a half, two and three quarters…..”

“James, man up” I yelled

“O.K., O.K.” James said” THREE!!!!!!”

We ran at the same time. I don’t know about James but I felt worse considering that I’ve been in a war for half of a year, but I still screamed with my cousin. When we got outside I noticed Jessie, James mom.

“O, hello Jessie ho-“I said as she smacked me in the face.

“How dare you come here you Billy yank!?” Jessie screamed at me.

“You’re welcome for saving your son aunt Jessie.” I replied.

“O, Joe I didn’t realize that was you” Jessie said.

“That’s O.K. Jessie.” I said handing James some money “Now here is some cash for you guys.”

“$150, o- my- god,” said James, but when he looked up I was gone.

When I was waking away, I looked at the clock tower before it caught fire. It took 25 minutes. “How did that take 25 minutes?” I muttered under my breath.

“How dare you give a rebel $150?” screamed a soldier, smacking me in the face. ”You just made them rich.”

“Soldier wait-“I was saying until he cut me off.

“$150, I have to report you” he said.

“That was my cousin.” I said.

“Wait, what?” he said.

“Why do you think I would give them $150?” I said walking away.

From that moment on I thought that James would hate me forever and that people would never know how terrible the march of Sherman really was.

THE END

I am just a guy who walks around with a little camera

2012-01-11T19:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I caught a nice sunrise after I dropped of the kids at their school bus. A little bit of a Stonehenge moment too.

This morning I hung out to see what the sun was doing to the buildings on my block. I took a lot of pictures waiting for the amber traffic light.

Changes on 4th Ave... YEA

2012-01-11T17:08:00.002-05:00

Not really on the street but the Subway Station by that name. It is where the F/G and the R cross. Currently to get to the F/G train one has to cross 4th Ave. if you are coming from Park Slope.

But look what I found behind a plywood panel.

The nice construction workers said is it only temporary because the other side is going to be overhauled. I don't think it will be so temporary. There is no reason not to leave it there after the other side reopens. Brooklynpix posted a nice photo of the construction under the El.

I a year or so this is going to be a much nicer and safer place. Check out this blog to see the present and future of the station.

Oh god, where are my balls?

2012-01-01T15:49:00.000-05:00

It was one of the warmest New Year's Days in a while but it was still in the high 40s and breezy at the beach.

It is kinda a bizarre tradition for people to go for a dip on January 1.

Traffic was backed up as we approached the beach. None of my passengers believed that anyone else was going for a dip. But they were. The center chunk of the beach was as crowded as any summer day.

I did everything but donate $

Rules

Participants must raise a minimum of $100 in pledges.
No Pushing! All participants must enter the water of their own volition. Please do not enter the water until asked to do so.
Participants will plunge their willing bodies into the water. The entire body must be submerged.
No dry suits or wetsuits. Participants may smear their body with a liberal coating of bear fat. Note: This may negatively impact your social standing.
No "endurance" contests will be permitted. Participants must jump in and get out. Yelling is optional.
Prizes will be awarded to the top fundraisers and costume contest winners.

Return to Coney Island Polar Dip Page

This is not the way I would choose a school for my kids

2011-12-31T20:00:00.000-05:00

These were hanging on many of the doorknobs on Union Street near 4th ave. They also caused a lot of litter.

This really makes Success Academy look like a place to buy cheep shoes.

Samoa did not exist today, or today did not exist in Somoa

2011-12-30T22:39:00.001-05:00

Really there was now Friday, December 30th 2011 in Samoa. They skipped (or will skip) right to Saturday. As I type it is 11pm in NYC. I have no idea if it is yesterday or tomorrow in Samoa. I don't really need to know.

But I visited a Samoan Village. Well, it was at the American Museum of Natural History.

There might have been more people at the museum today than in Samoa. According to Wikipedia, the population of Samoa is 179,000. Also, according to Wikipedia there are 4 Million visitors to the AMNH a year. That is an average of over 11,000 a day.

Today, the day before New Year's Eve was not an average day. I bet there were over 180,000 people there. Easy, maybe a Billion.

But some of them could have been anywhere

and we caught a nice sunset from the B Train on the Manhattan Bridge. The photo might have looked better if we were on a train going the other way.

In The Footsteps of Champions.

2011-12-27T06:38:00.000-05:00

That is a pretty big title, but I mean it. As I have pointed out before my kids are on a track team and they compete at the track in the Washington Heights Armory. That facility is also home to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

It is a crowded place so the Hall of Fame is actually a hallway. But if one stops they can see the names of some great athletes. I am sure all of these men and women actually competed on the same track my kids were running on.

There is also a glass case with actual artifacts. Most were athletic in nature, like the shoes that were driven to an Olympic Gold Medal.

There were also pieces of real history, like the sweater vest worn at the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin

There was also a gallery of records that were set on the track.

Before any of those boys were born, I ran track for Sheepshead Bay HS.

Jose Marc Sears, Richmond Ahadzi, Jose Farley
and Naquan Alexander run laps around
the competition. > (Pace for News)

Our uniforms never looked that cool. Then again, from 1977 to 1981 I don't remember ever winning a meet, let alone setting any national records.

Ya Can Have Cold Pizza for Breakfast, But Not For Lunch on Christmas Day.

2011-12-25T13:29:00.001-05:00

You should never get pizza from a place that is open on Christmas. In fact you should never eat pizza from a place that was ever open on Christmas. Or Easter for that matter.

I am sure you can get pizza in 7-11 too, but why. Really Why??

I know people who think Domino's Pizza is good. I know them but don't trust them.

Don't get me started on people who eat pizza with fork. (Please, click on that link. It is one of the greatest John Stewart rants in history.)

Outsourcing X-Mas (return)

2011-12-24T00:14:00.000-05:00

We want back again, It all seamed the same to me. This effort was wasted on me but I the kids had a good time, I guess that is what Christmas is all about. Here is a better blog than mine.

Below from 2010...............

Just got back from Dyker Heights, the world of totally over the top Christmas Decorations. Click over to the Gothamist for better photos that I could take.

I would think that the act of decorating is more fun that actually being decorated. NotSoMuch. In my short visit I noticed that there are at least 3 companies that will do it for you.

It looked like all three of these homes were empty on Christmas Eve. They paid someone to decorate their home and then left. I don't get it.

Let's see how this works out.

2011-12-19T14:24:00.001-05:00

The City has been expanding the sidewalks along some wide streets so that it is easier to cross. This is called a bulbout.

On 4th Ave and 9th Street they are even moving the streetlights over to where the street used to be.

Some people think any narrowing of the roadway is an affront to their civil rights. But if one was driving over this part of the road, they were cutting the turn to tight.

Let's see if these tracks become fossils?

I get to take my bike to work

2011-12-18T21:56:00.000-05:00

I don't bike to work. I use my bike to work. I design and measure (foot) race courses. I also lead the runners. I get to be in parks when they are at their best.

Earlier this week I got to spend some time in Riverside Park.

Very early this morning I took the subway from Park Slope to Bay Ridge. It gave me the rare opportunity to be alone on a subway train.

Meanwhile on 8th Ave

2011-12-18T05:43:00.004-05:00

Not all litter is created equal.

A New Dunkin Donuts Just opened on 7th Ave

2011-12-15T18:27:00.003-05:00

I knew that before I saw the balloons.

I have a feeling this is the beginning of a lot more litter in my neighborhood.

Originally Published in the Newsletter of the Prospect Park Track Club

2011-12-12T16:26:00.000-05:00

WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ME

We Needed a Bigger Truck

I help out with a lot of races. One of the behind the scenes challenges is getting the stuff there. Ya know… Logistics.

A small race is not always easier. They don’t always come with car permits, so we have to carry gallons of water and timing mats from the street to the nice part of the park where we want to start and finish our race. Gigantic races like the Rock & Roll 10K came with Teamsters, so my job was easy.

Like this but all dinged up.

For races like the Turkey Trot we rent a U-Haul. In the past we got a cargo van. But even with the Bishop Ford people using their school buses the van was packed. So this year I was going to get a 14’ truck. This was going to make it much easier to gather up 20 cases of apples, 20 folding tables, about 50 signs, 2 big clocks 1 giant ladder and 3 big ladders, a few thousand cups and 6 giant apple pies. I figured at 14’ truck would be fine. I’m gonna pick up Anne (Mrs President) and head over to Costco. But then Anne mentions that we are going to take Pat Meany (The First Lady) too. “But it only has two seats” “No problem,” Anne says, “I can sit in the back.” No and No, not with all that stuff. I get a 17’ truck, it has 3 seats. I only costs a few cents more per mile and we were only gonna drive about 25 miles in 2 days.

Usually U-Hauls look like the ones in the photo. They are a year or two old with less than 20, 000 miles and they run like new. Not the truck they gave me. I was covered in scratches and had almost a quarter of a million miles. I was kinda glad, they would not notice the new dings I would put on it. But the fact that the Check Engine Light was on should have tipped me off to a problem. The U-Haul dude told me not to worry about it. I shoulda worried.

After I picked up the First Lady and Mrs President we head over to Rothman’s to get 20 cases of apples we realized the truck is a clucker. It doesn’t like to change gears and it was not only the check engine light. that was on. All the gauges were in the red. Whatever, all we gotta do is get to to Costco, Bishop Ford, and then Prospect Park. No-so-good. Just after I say “Wow we were actually going 30 MHP on Prospect Park South West, the engine stops. The fact that it just started raining made it appear that smoke was coming out of from under the hood.

The the three of us abandon the vehicle in the left lane of PPSW just before Park Circle. We called U-Haul and Tom Meany. Before the service truck even got there the track teams from Bishop Ford began transferring the stuff from the truck into their school vans. (Yes, in the middle of the street… in the rain.) Then the U-Haul dude shows up “Ya got gas?!!?!?” “Yea, I got gas” He just turns the key and it starts. He says it is fine, finish your move. “But why did it stop?” “Don’t worry about it” he replies. I am worried.

So we chug over to the Audubon Center at The Boathouse and unload the rest of the stuff. We decided than to return the truck immediately instead of after the Turkey Trot. Pat Meany (Bless her sole!) said “I will ride back with you, just in case you have any problems” At the time I did not give that much thought, If all went well she would have given up her ride home with her husband walk back to 8^th Ave from 4^th Ave. But all did not go well. The truck stalled every time I took my foot off the gas. When we finally made it up Flatbush Ave, it totally died in front of the library. Again we called U-Haul and Tom. This time it took 2 hours for a tow truck to come and thanks to Pat I did not have to sit there alone… in the rain… with a dead cell phone. When Tom came to rescue us he was impressed with the quantity of steam his wife and I got on the truck windows.

Eventually a different tow truck guy shows up. “Ya got gas?” Not funny. I tell him to take the thing away and I think I am done with U-Haul for a while. Not so much. Every 24 house for the next 4 days they call me, “When are you going to bring the truck back?” I tell them the same thing, “You have it and when are you going to REFUND ALL my money you charged me to rent that POS?” They have no clue.

On the Wednesday after Thanksgiving they finally figure out that they had their truck and they sent me a statement. They are changing me for the 15 miles I put on the truck (maybe counting the miles the truck was on the hook) and insisting that they can not refund the insurance for 2 days. They actually expect me to pay for the insurance on a truck that I did not even have on the second day. (BTW, insurance and U-Haul costs more than the daily rental rate)

So I walked over to the U-Haul place and introduced my self. The clerk looks me up on her computer and says “Are you finished with the truck yet?” Ack. I have to deal with a wall a bureaucracy to get my money back.

I decided to say calm. In reality it was not even my money, PPTC was going to reimburse me. But that made me even madder. This was a charity; they really should have given us the truck for free. So I walked into the U-Haul and asked for the manager. She was there but busy. After waiting on line I got to the clerk and said “No I do not need to rent anything, I just want to make sure I have all my facts straight before I get in touch with your corporate offices in Arizona. When I was less than half way through my tail of woe the manager came over and instructed the clerk to issue me a complete refund.

But I did not believe it till I saw it.

There is always someone smoking there

2011-12-04T07:14:00.001-05:00

This is the entrance way to the "Federal Office Building" at the corner of Vesey and Church. These women are actually blocking the entrance to the building while smoking.

It also was not that cold, I was only wearing a sweatshirt. But smoking makes you feel colder. "Blood flow to the extremities is decreased (cold hands and feet).One puff lowers the temperature in the fingertips 1ºF to 3ºF in 3 minutes."

I always tell my kids that if you want to be happy get together with happy people and do what they are doing. Do these women look happy?

Go ahead a play with the Google Street View below. You might notice that this building is directly next door to the World Trade Center Cite. I only bring that up because all known (and unknown) types of law enforcement officers are there all the time. So I guess these women are pretty confident that this is an OK place to smoke. Besides a lot of Federal offices it is home to the New York State Dept of Health .

I wonder who those two women work for.

View Larger Map

The Corbin Building

2011-12-02T14:48:00.001-05:00

The Corbin Building is on the Corner of Broadway and John St in Manhattan. Here is it's entire story from Wikepedia

"The historic Corbin Building is located at 192 Broadway in Manhattan. It was designed by architect Francis H. Kimball and built in 1888 and named for Austin Corbin, a president of the Long Island Rail Road. It was reported to be the tallest building in New York City at the time of its completion.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 2003."

The Wikipedia picture to the right is not current. It probably a year old (from 2010). It is interesting that it's fire escape used to lead to the building next door. But since that building is being replaced with the Fulton St Transit Center

The Google maps view belew is a little more current. It shows the the Crobin Building cover in scaffolding.

View Larger Map

But the current view is more interesting.

The covered the scaffolding with an image of what the building (should / did / will ) look like behind it.

pretty cool!

The Government will have to occupy Zuccotti Park for a long time.

2011-12-01T16:10:00.001-05:00

Yea, a few weeks a city (Mayor Bloomberg's Army) evict all the Occupy Wall Street people from Zuccotti Park. I went down there to see what was going on and I can say that now the Park is occupied by the city.

The park is surrounded by a fence and in order to enter it you have to demonstrate that you are not going to occupy it. It also seamed to be hosed down every 20 minutes so sitting on a bench is not really such a nice thing to do.

It really is not a very park like place anymore.

You never could roller blade or bike ride in this park But now you can't sit on the ground or take a nap.

But you can eat breakfast there I stopped by my favorite vendor and had a no-pork BLT. They wont use pig, but they did put American cheese on my turkey-bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Hay it ain't my rules, but putting cheese on a BLT is an abomination.

But the eviction of the OWS people form Zuccotti Park and it's subsequent sterilization left it kinda less than occupied. There were more cops than occupiers. The handful of occupiers that were left were not the type that were going to gain the attention and respect of the media or even left-wing radicals like my self. I am sorry, screaming "Jackson Brown is coming" into the air is not going to make we want to support your cause. But this sign that was not there would have

"I don't have a problem with you bring rich, it is just that I don't think you should be allowed to buy my government."

I predict that the fence that was placed around the park will remain there in one form or another for ever. This park will forever be occupied by the state, to prevent the people from moving back in. Maybe in future years that fence will be hacked up by the Rebels and turned into ammunition like the more famous fence only a few blocks away.

When I grew up there was a japaneese maple in my yard

2011-11-27T17:11:00.001-05:00

I can't identity any other trees by name, but I know a Japanese Maple. Or maybe I have been wrong for 40 years.

President St, between 8th and Prospect Park

I wont say who, but a movie star lives in that house.

Back to being a Dad

2011-11-26T18:17:00.001-05:00

I had a busy Fall. I trained for an ran the NYC Marathon, organized the Brooklyn Marathon and spent a lot of time making the Prospect Park Track Club Turkey Trot happen.

But that is all done and I got to spend some quality time with my kids. They are getting to the age that they have their own friends and want to do some more gender specific stuff.

So on Friday I took my son and 2 of his friends to Grand Prix New York. I have been waiting since the summer to go there because I had already bought a Groupon. (please click that to join, I will get a $10 credit). I got 2 kids rides, lunch and a required membership fee for $20. It would have cost about $55.

$55 would have been fine if I were the 1%, but for $20 I was ready to make the 48 mile drive to Mt Kisco. Yes, it was totally worth the drive. The place was spotless and the staff was attentive and polite. The food was even good. We are definitely gonna go back, but not for 2 years. The boys all had "track envy". They want to go on the 13 and older course.

BROOKLYN'S "DEATH-O-METER"
INSTALLED IN GRAND ARMY PLAZA IN 1927.

One thing I could not figure out. I don't know why so many adults were paying to ride go carts. Don't they all have real cars? Maybe they don't have to drive around Grand Army Plaza, but I thought the kids could have kept their helmets for the drive home on the Saw Mill River Parkway.

Today I got to take my daughter and her friend to the Brooklyn Bead Box. The people there were really nice. Everyone just sat and chatted. It was kinda like meeting your friends for a run, except everyone was sitting. (I actually met one of my running teammates there).

We will be back.

I think we know where my daughter will have her 12th birthday party.