I'll have what she's having.

 

This weekend, RQS and I went to see an exhibit at the New York Historical Society: "I'll have what she's having" : The Jewish Deli.  The exhibit tries to capture the history of the Jewish Deli in New York, and how it has contributed to our American culture.  If you're in the area before April, '23, I suggest that you try to visit and tell me what you think.  Would you have what she's having? 😀

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I had a lunch appointment with a former coworker from the imaging firm I worked at last year.  This meant that I wasn't going to be able to make it to RQS's place until after sundown.  At lunch, this friend told me that she was laid off from the imaging place, but that it was just as well.  It gave her greater flexibility to take care of family needs (such as driving her younger son home from school) as well as being able to work on one of her side hustles.   I caught her up on what was happening in my life, and we agreed to try and get together more often.

Once done with my friend, I went home to take care of a couple of things and change into Mario mode for the rest of the weekend.  By the time I was done at home, it was almost 5 pm, and it took me about 90 minutes to get to RQS's neighborhood.  I never mind that, but it was the search for a parking spot that got to me.  It must have taken over 20 minutes for me to find a spot.  And even then, I had to check that I was at least 15 feet from the fire hydrant.  The last thing I wanted was a ticket for parking too close, so I measured the distance to ensure that the car was parked in compliance with the law - unlike the car parked in front of the hydrant.  (The only reason I took the above picture was to be able to demonstrate in court with empirical evidence that I was legally parked.  And I consider myself lucky that I didn't need to do so.)  This was the space my car was in until I left Sunday evening.

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Saturday came, and the two of us didn't get moving until 2 pm.  It took us a little over an hour to get to the New York Historical Society building, but it was worth the effort.  The exhibition we wanted to see was both entertaining and educational.  The one flaw was that too many people were there when we visited - we couldn't take in any of the exhibits in the way they deserved without blocking others from doing so.  (So, if you visit, try to do so on a weekday.)  After we were done there, we went to the second floor to view some other exhibits before getting on our way.

After leaving the museum, we stopped off at a dumpling shop on Columbus avenue - Dumplings.  We were underwhelmed by the place in both variety and quality of selections.  It's one of those rare places where I'd pass it by if I were again in the neighborhood - the food was way too spicy (heat), and the beverages not worth the effort to drink (save maybe, a beer).  When we made it back to RQS's neighborhood, we stopped by a local bodega to get something sweet to balance the bad taste in our mouths, and found something that was light, sweet and cold....

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Sunday was a day that neither of us wanted to do much, and we did it well.  The only thing we needed to do was take the measurement for a new bed slat I need to get for her, and that went well.  However, when we looked for her drill, we found that her late husband's tool box had an undesirable insect infestation. (You can easily guess which type of insect I'm talking about.)  We suspect that someone "Bug Bombed" their apartment, and they found a new home in her apartment.  Thank god for Raid insect spray and some bug killing gel that she will be applying during the week.  In regard to the tool box, everything is going to be cleaned out, disinfected, and sprayed.  She will need those tools in the future, and neither of us want to deal with an insect infestation again.

All too soon, it was time to go....

Is this a legal parking spot?

 

 

I'm sure that one of the (former?) readers of this blog could answer this question: If the fire hydrant is as non-functional as this, should I get ticketed for parking here?

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One of the things I've learned about New York City public street parking is that after a snow storm, people will do as little as possible to shovel out an on-street parking spot, as it will only benefit the next person to use that spot. As a result of the snow, there were fewer available spots than normal in FH's neighborhood than usual, and many of those that were left were inaccessible unless one drove a vehicle with 4 wheel drive.   Since last night seems to have been "Garbage Night" in FH's neighborhood, the refuse from the multi story buildings on both sides of the street were piled up, waiting for the sanitation department to remove at its convenience. This should make it more difficult than usual to find a parking spot. Yet, upon first arrival, I was able to get a spot within 5 minutes of arriving at her building.

Since I arrived on time, I met the doorman at FH's building as he was going on shift, and he let me in without problem.  FH was pleasantly surprised that I found a spot quickly, and even more pleasantly surprised that I could resolve a printer issue she was having before going back to the car and going out to eat.

There is a risk in going out to eat these days, but I figured that since FH didn't want to eat at home with her daughter around, that we should do something elsewhere.  Both of us knew the risks posed by doing this during the pandemic, but we decided to go out anyway.  So I drove out to Freeport, where we didn't find much of anything open.  We tried to eat at a restaurant we ate at months ago, but it was too crowded for her taste.  Then, we drove around for a little bit, and chanced another restaurant in the same area.  I won't go into all the specifics. But this choice was a bit of a mistake, as we had to change rooms because a small party started in the room where we were originally seated.

When we arrived in FH's neighborhood, there was nary a spot to be found, save the "spot" in the picture at the top of this entry.  Would you say that there is a functional fire hydrant that my car is blocking?  More importantly, would you say that I should have gotten a ticket for parking here at night, given what you could and couldn't see on the sides of the street?  I certainly don't know what a NYC court might say, but I was lucky not to be ticketed last night.  Let's hope that no one gets ticketed until this hydrant is returned to working order.