"Obamacare" is working fine for me.

There has been a change of employment in my household. Definitely a step up.  But it came with a change in health insurance for our family.

I did not give that much thought till we got a letter from the old health insurance company.  They sent a letter to each member of our household listing their preexisting conditions.  They said our new insurance company would need this information.  Two days later we got a letter from our new company asking us to list our preexisting conditions.

This is good, considering my Kidney Stone is likely to come back.

Ya know, rates might go up but I can live with that. Passing the next stone might not be an afternoon in the ER.  What if I have to get admitted to the hospital?  It would be very uncool if I had to pay that bill because my condition was preexisting

Aftermath of a car fire on Prospect Park Southwest

This morning I got in my car just before ASS Parking started, got it inspected (the day before the last day of the month, thank you very much) and put it back in that same spot just as parking became legal.   I had a very good car day.

The owners of these cars had bad days.

I was told a car exploded next to the silver(?) SUV.

The scary thing is that the brand new SUV in front of it melted.

melted

yes, melted.

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

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?

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.  I suggested to them that they make a water park, with a pool and giant slides.  Maybe jet-skis on the canal.  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.

The kids were taking things more seriously,  They were thinking a supermarket, or a hospital.

In a few weeks they will be presenting their blue prints.  I will update then.

Shit New Yorkers Say

"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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.