Updates on the last days before my cruise.

 

Lately, I've been preparing for my upcoming cruise, and trying to get as many things in order before flying to California.  I had been thinking of buying a camera for this trip and realized that it wouldn't make sense because I usually get good enough pictures on my cell phone and realized that that the DSLR camera I already own is gathering dust on one of my shelves. (In my defense, the camera doesn't take SD memory cards, lenses aren't made for this camera line any more, and the rig is bulky as hell.)

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Yesterday, I decided to look at cameras on Amazon and found that most of the inexpensive rigs would take more than 2 days to be delivered to my house.  (I wasn't going to pay extra for 1 day delivery.) This was unacceptable, and was one of the main reasons I started to think differently about buying a new camera.  For the most part, this was an unneeded expense, like my drive to the family homestead I took.

Why am I mentioning my drive to the family homestead?

My brother and I own a house that we've been renting out for years. This year, our tenant left, and the place has been vacant since January.  There were upgrades we needed to make to the house, such as replacing the water heater, replacing leaking gas pipes and replacing the washer/dryer in the basement, that had to be done before we could rent the place out again.  While we were doing this, another "might as well" came into play - we repaired and painted the basement walls, then redid the electric wiring and lighting to make it appear as an almost finished basement.  Yet, my brother forgot one thing: Did he make sure that the fire extinguisher was back in the kitchen before the final inspection.  So, I took 4 hours out of my life to find out that the extinguisher was in place when I could have spent it doing something more enjoyable.

There was no way I could do anything else that day.  I had to open up a co-op board meeting specially held to interview 2 applicants to purchase apartments.  This kept me from doing what I would have liked to have done - having one last evening by myself before 2+ weeks of being in the constant presence of others.

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Today, I had only one thing on my docket: seeing an acquaintance I met on the first post Covid shutdown cruise I took in late 2021.  J, as I'll call her here is a retiree who can afford to take several cruises each year, including at least 1 from a bucket list category.  We have been in very loose communications over the past 3 years, and we had another opportunity to meet again - She's going on a cruise that sails out of New York tomorrow, and I'll be leaving for California the next day.  But there is one problem.  She's staying at an airport hotel.  (Why she's not staying in Manhattan I'll never know.) So, this makes my journey to see her more complex, as I have to take Metro North to Grand Central, take the Long Island Railroad to Jamaica, and then the JFK Airtrain to the TWA Hotel where we planned to meet.

My friend was supposed to arrive in NYC at 9 am, but got bumped to a later flight.  That worked out for her, as she didn't have to wait as long at the hotel to check into her room.  I started down to the airport when she was checking in, and was lucky to catch an express train with a few minutes to spare.  (It helped that some people were leaving early, and I found a parking spot within 50 feet of the parking meter kiosk.

With parking voucher in hand (I won't call it a ticket lest a reader get confused), I hopped onto the train (train ticket in hand), and made it to Grand Central at 3:45 pm.  I had a little time to kill, and went to the LIRR concourse at 4:15 pm, catching the next train to Jamaica.  It was easy to kill a few minutes in Jamaica (nothing much to see here, as the train station puts function over form), and then I caught the Airtrain to the airport.  (The Port Authority still uses the obsolete Metrocard to pay for Airtrain rides, and will eventually shift to a "tap and go" system sometime in the next 12 months.  But I digress....)  Given that I was in the airport at 5 pm, I decided to go to the JetBlue terminal, then walk over to the TWA Hotel.  Well, my friend made it to the Airtrain station earlier than I expected, and I trekked back to the Airtrain station to meet her. 

We met around 5:30, and proceeded to the TWA hotel for dinner.  This hotel was originally the TWA terminal at the airport and was decommissioned when American Airlines took over TWA.  It didn't make sense to preserve this terminal for flights, as it couldn't handle today's jets.  More importantly, this building is a landmark piece of architecture designed by Eero Saarinen.  So, it made sense to turn the place into an expensive airport hotel and make the place a living history museum.

I didn't get the chance to explore the whole place - it was time for dinner, and I was hungry.  We talked about cruising for the most part, and indirectly talked politics in a neutral way.  (She pays no interest in politics, but understands why I'd have trouble with the current regime in DC.  She loved the place, and was very glad that I suggested we eat there.  Service at the restaurant was fast in the delivery of our food.  Our water glasses were kept full.  And they weren't in a rush to chase us out for more paying customers.  So it was I who noted that it was 9:30 pm, and that I had to be on my way.

Hopefully, I'll see my friend soon on another cruise, or when she's in New York for some other reason.

PS: My friend is going on the same cruise as another friend from my Yonkers game night group.  Hopefully, they will bump into each other and have a great time.

  

This past weekend was too short

 

Laffing Sal.  RQS and I will likely be visiting her when we next visit San Francisco.  Although she is a simple, decades old animatron, she is the best symbol of San Francisco's Musee Mechanique at Pier 45. For me, seeing her in person says I am really in "Fog City" and am ready for a great adventure.

Why do I mention his mechanical wonder?

RQS and I are counting down the days until our next two cruises (the first to Canada and the second to Alaska.) This limits the time I can help my brother with work that has to be done on the family homestead before we can rent it out.  This past weekend, I cut a weekend with RQS short, so I could help my brother with the house.

I knew I would have one problem.  Not doing any dirty work around the apartment, I don't have any clothes I can sacrifice for painting the basement.  And I'm glad my brother gave me an out, saying that I can keep him company while he finishes applying "mud" to the drywall, so that he can paint it during the week.  Hopefully, we can get the work finished before mid June, so that we may have someone renting the place by August.

After my brother was done with the work on the house, we drove to a buffet and enjoyed a good meal.  I rarely go to buffets, as I eat too much.  But here, the food was worth it - including the Asian Snails.  This visit, I skipped the sushi in favor of hot food.  Yet, I knew I'd pay for the indulgence later on.  

All too soon, the day ended, and it was time to go home.  Tomorrow, I'll go to my first meetup in a while.

An overly short weekend (and a short post)

 

Yes, I know that this is not 2016.  But I wanted to illustrate that this past weekend was way too short for me.  Only being able to be with RQS on Friday night and Saturday wasn't good enough for me.  At least, I was able to get back to her for dinner on Sunday before going home for the night.

But first....

I had agreed to help my brother with power washing the foundation walls again at the family homestead, as the concrete he used for patching the interior wall was faulty and didn't hold up.  So I told RQS that we'd have a short weekend.  Strangely enough, we didn't do much of anything other than rest.  That was good enough for me, as I'd be working much of the afternoon on Sunday.

Sunday eventually came, and I had to give up a good parking spot in RQS's neighborhood to meet my brother.  After an aborted visit to Mickey D's due to their order kiosks not working for me, we went to the local Burger King - where the touch pads worked.  (Note to me: Do not let one's anger out at the crappy Mickey D's order kiosk - they force their franchisees to buy shitty hardware which annoys both the customer and the franchisee.  Note to reader: If you want to know if a McD's soft serve is working at a particular site, use the mcbroken.com site.)

Once done with our burgers, it was off to the family homestead for 3 hours of work.  This time, the power washing and new concrete seem to do the job.  My brother will apply a skim coat during the week, and will hopefully apply paint after he comes back from a quick trip to the back woods of Appalachia.

Quitting time came, and my brother was off to his wife, and I was off to RQS.  Although I could find a parking spot or two, I could not find one that would let me sleep late in the morning.  So I found a space nearby the house, and went upstairs for dinner.  All too soon, I had to leave, and I had an easy drive home until I hit the draw bridge on the Hutchinson River Parkway.  I lost 30 minutes in that jam.  And yet, even with a shopping trip at Walmart and the Supermarket, I was home shortly after 10 pm.  

Unfortunately, I'll have to go back to Long Island in the morning for the plumber, and then finally go home.  At least, I can see the day where I can again go out as Marian....

A trip I was glad not to make (a short post)

 

As I've previously written, I own a rental property with my brother, and he is managing repairs to it before it is rented out again.  This past weekend, my brother would have liked for me to help him with work on repairing the foundation walls - patching the holes with new concrete and possibly applying a new coat of paint as a sealer.  Well, I wasn't available because of RQS's birthday, and he had to make other plans.

My brother is well connected with the fire department, and can usually get a few friends to help him for couple of C-Notes each per day.  This weekend, his friends weren't available, and he had to reach out to my step-nephew, B, for help.  To me, B is as useful as the Pope's balls - they both have the potential of doing something useful, but because of individual choices, they have vestigial existences.  So, my brother figured that he'd try to get some use out of B, and avoid losing a week by using B as a laborer.

The plan for the day was for my brother and B to do some work in the basement.  Once the walls had been power washed again, my brother sent B out in the yard to do some minor landscaping while he patched walls with concrete.  Four hours later, work was done and our account was $100 lighter.  Sadly, the concrete my brother used was found to be bad, and we will need to repeat this work next weekend.

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Getting together with my brother to work on the family homestead

 

This is NOT my family homestead.  It is a house that a friend once lived in, and one that was rented out for a while before being sold.  And this will eventually be the fate of my family homestead when the time comes to sell it.  Right now, we're preparing it for our next tenant (whoever that may be).

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My brother expected me to be leaving RQS's house around 11.  I was already in his neighborhood by that time.  This would be important later on, as we'd be working all day on the house.

But first....

I met my brother around 11:15, and we were off to get breakfast.  After downing bagel sandwiches, we were off to Home Depot to get paint and other supplies we would need.  $400 later, we were out of the store and on our way back to the homestead to work in the basement.

Today's work would be messy.  My brother would be power washing the basement/foundation walls, and I'd be vacuuming up the mess with a wet/dry shop vac. For the next 6 hours, we worked non-stop on our tasks.  He'd spray the wall, chipping away at areas which would need patching and resealing, and I'd suck up all the liquid, getting up to empty the shop vac every few minutes.  Both of us were tired by the time 7 pm hit.  I had ruined my trousers beyond repair, but had a change of clothes available for the trip home.  So, I changed into clean clothes, and we went to the diner to chat and eat after a long day together.

My brother had been very thankful that I was there today, as he would never have been able to  have done this work by himself.  I was glad to be there, as it was the rare time I could make a contribution to work needed on the property.  And then, we started to chat about his life, his wife's problems, and his grown-up children.  This was an important chance for him to vent and to see that I'll be there for him as brothers should be.  (He doesn't know I'm TG yet.)

Soon, the day came to and an end, and I drove home after a long day out.....

Unused Tableware and Coincidences

Years ago, my late wife bought 28 table settings with the idea (expressed to me) that she could entertain her extended family at one sitting.  Unless someone has either a large family, or a large circle of acquaintances she entertains lately, as well as a dining area large enough to entertain them, I can't see this being a reasonable purchase. 

These place settings were purchased before I met my wife, and were never used while we were married.  About a year after she died, my girlfriend and I packed these table settings into two large Rubbermaid containers, and transported them to my brother's place for storage.  My intentions were to give these place settings to my niece when she got married.  But this was not to happen, as she got married in London and is living a minimalist lifestyle unlike that of her parents and grandparents.  These place settings ended up sitting in my brother's basement for over 25 years, and didn't need to be dealt with until now.

Recently, my brother decided to deal with long deferred maintenance on his money pit of a house.  One of the things he needed to take care of was fixing the foundation of his house and doing a fresh pour of cement in the basement of his house.  This meant that everything in the basement had to be cleared out. As a result, I decided to keep 6 place settings, and give the rest to charity.

So, I drove to my brother's place and sorted through these table settings, separating them into a set of 6 for me, and a set of 22 for the charity.  Once done with that, my brother and I went to a German Restaurant in Franklin Square.  I was looking for something tasty to eat, and I noticed the lack of Sauerbraten on the menu.  (This was the last dish my wife cooked for me before she was too weak to cook anything.)   Coincidentally, It was about this time of the year when she became too ill to go to work, and the severity of her illness couldn't be denied any longer.  My memories of my late wife were getting triggered right and left. Yet, it wasn't strong feelings of sadness I felt.  Instead, it was a feeling of letting go of the past.  Part of my wife was moving on to a (hopefully) better place.

Would my late wife approve of what I did?  Who knows?  But I'm hearing no complaints from the great beyond....