J.P.

Afternoon View: E 61st (JMG Imitation)




E 61st.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I have arrived safely in The Big Apple. We are at the Loew’s Regency on Park Avenue at 63rd. I’ve taken a picture out the window Joe. My. God. style to make me feel right at home here in Manhattan. I believe it’s E 63rd but I’ve been around so many blocks while en route I think my bearings are a little off. I know for certain that I’m not in Jersey.

We’ve been here for about 10 minutes. Earl has ripped the ventilation grate off the heater and smashed the mini-bar. I’ve asked him to close the barn door and to get a grip. Otherwise, all is well in our weekend home.

We’re going out exploring.

Update: It’s actually E 61st looking toward Madison Avenue.

Crossing Paths in Newburgh, N.Y.

Earl and I are spending the night outside of Newburgh, N.Y. He has business meetings in the morning and then from here we’ll make the hour or so trek to our hotel in Manhattan. Tomorrow night we have tickets to “The Apple Tree” starring Kristin Chenoweth.

My sister has been trying to get home from Moscow since early Wednesday morning. She landed at JFK yesterday, where her plane sat on the runway for four hours because they had no place to put her plane. She was not amused. For the next thirty hours, each and every flight upstate was canceled. She had no way to get out of JFK. There were no hotel rooms available. She ended up sleeping for ten minutes on the floor next to an arcade machine until a woman next to her screamed because a mouse had run across the floor. So she wandered terminal four awaiting a flight today.

They were all canceled as well.

She finally rented a car and armed with no sleep for the previous 36 hours and a brother who is as accurate as Rand McNally, I talked her from JFK to the New York State Thruway. I later suggested she stop for the night and finish the trip tomorrow morning. So she’s staying in the same hotel as us tonight. Her luggage is somewhere between JFK and Anchorage, so she grabbed some night clothes at the store and hung out with us for a bit. We’re all having breakfast in the morning before we continue our trips in opposite directions.

This is certainly a nice way to kick off our weekend.

Let’s go somewhere else.

After yesterday’s snow day, today has been a relatively normal day. The National Weather Service says that about 31 inches of snow fell over the past 48 hours. It seems like I’ve moved twice as much out of the driveway. I resisted the urge to fight back to the snowplow driver by pelting him with his own rocks and sand when he drove by and nearly buried me in a snowdrift. Those guys work hard and I appreciate what they do, but he still made me mad.

Earl has a meeting out of town tomorrow so I’ve decided to tag along. We’re going to the lovely city of Newburgh tonight and then we’re going to spend the weekend in Manhattan.

We figured it was a great way to spend the post-Valentine’s Day weekend. I’m hoping it’ll be warmer down there.

Teamwork.




Snowblowing.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I celebrated a good share of our Valentine’s Day by cleaning out the driveway together. We took turns snowblowing and then he made lunch while I did the shoveling.

I guess every couple has their own way of celebrating romance.

Part One: 13-inches.




Part One.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl measured last night’s snowfall when we started snowblowing at 11:00 a.m. This is 13-inches in the middle of the driveway. It usually takes about 30 minutes for me to clean out the driveway with the snowblower and little shoveling I usually do. Today it took over three hours. The snow kept falling the entire time, I’m going to have to make another run in the morning if Earl hopes to get to work.

Snuggle Day.

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College is closed today. For the first time in a decade, Earl has closed his plant due to weather and has canceled his traveling plans, so he’s home all day too.

And it’s Valentine’s Day.

The snowblowing can wait until tonight. After all, if you’re going to move one foot of snow, you might as well move two.

Everybody snuggle!

You Write Goodly.

I received my first grade of the semester in my English Composition class. I’m delighted to say that I got an “A”. My paper was about my weight loss from cycling.

I was a little concerned about my paper because I tend to write in a conversational style. I attribute this to my blog, as well as my training as an ad copy writer back in my radio broadcasting days. Nevertheless, the instructor found the paper delightful and all is well with the world. I had to submit my latest paper for the class today, which was a “process essay”. I wrote an article on how to grow a mustache. I figured I was a pretty good at it and familiar with the subject so I might as well write about it. I even invited the ladies to join in on the fun, but I doubt any of them will.

We are now under a “heavy storm warning” with three feet of snow being targeted for our little area. While I love going to school very much, I can’t help but be as giddy as a school kid at the thought of a snow day tomorrow. If classes are canceled tomorrow, the adult in me will kick in and use the opportunity to get ahead on my studies.

Especially since we’re fresh out of bon bons.

Another Blast.

The National Weather Service is promising us another blast of winter this week. This should prove to be interesting.

NYZ009-015>018-036-037-131130- /O.CON.KBGM.HS.W.0001.070213T2000Z-070215T0000Z/ NORTHERN ONEIDA-YATES-SENECA-SOUTHERN CAYUGA-ONONDAGA-MADISON- SOUTHERN ONEIDA- 1017 PM EST MON FEB 12 2007 ...HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY... A HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM TUESDAY TO 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN LATE TUESDAY AFTERNOON...AND BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES LATE TUESDAY NIGHT AND DURING THE DAY WEDNESDAY. THE SNOW WILL TAPER OFF TO SNOW SHOWERS EARLY EVENING WEDNESDAY. BY THE TIME THE SNOW ENDS WEDNESDAY NIGHT...10 TO 20 INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION IS POSSIBLE. SOME LOCATIONS COULD SEE LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS.

It’s a good thing I bought two gas cans full of fuel for the snowblower. It sounds like I’m going to need it.

Temptation.

I’ve been doing pretty well with my good health efforts since the beginning of the year. The change in pace from becoming a student has been beneficial in that I feel more active and more awake than I have in years. I don’t if it’s because I’m not sitting behind a desk all day anymore or if it’s because I’m actually thinking rather than going through the motions of a job, but I feel like I’m cooking with gas. The scale hasn’t flown across the bathroom in a couple of weeks as it’s spinning up the right numbers when requested.

However, I feel like I’ve put this streak of good health into jeopardy with the baking of double-chocolate brownies last night. There was a mix in the cupboard, I was in the mood to bake, so viola, instant decadance. I’m sitting here at the kitchen table eating some soup for lunch and all I can think about are brownies. I bet I could sit down and eat the entire pan of brownies and not leave one morsel behind. There’s something so comforting about brownies. I don’t know if it’s because they smell so good or invoke memories of grandma’s homemade brownies after school but my goodness they are screaming out my name.

I will be strong, I will be strong, I will be strong.

I’m going to slice off one little piece for dessert and then muster up all the will power I can to leave it at that. I’m sure the scale will thank me for it later.

Slow Progress.

Earl and I continued our work in the basement today. We are now getting his space ready so he can move his office down into the cellar. Then we won’t have to rely on instant messenger to communicate, as he’s currently upstairs in one of the spare bedrooms and I’m in the basement.

Such a technolife we lead.

No home improvement project is complete without a visit to Home Depot or Lowe’s so today we chose the former. When all is said and done I think I’ll be ready to wire the electric service for an entire house, as we were able to install two new receptacles, complete with surface wire molding and tie it into the house current in less than 30 minutes. They say opposites attract, and that must be true, because Earl and I have completely opposite ways of approaching a project, but after almost eleven years of doing this, we have a system that works for both of us.

One of the changes that came about was the relocation of my favorite clock from my school clock collection.

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This clock is from my elementary school. Back in 2000 the school district replaced all the clocks by popping out the face, glass and hands and bolting a new clock on top of the wood casing. This clock had been removed for a remodeling project and wasn’t reinstalled, so they offered it to me when they found out I was a collector of these clocks. From what I’ve been able to find out, the clocks in my elementary school were custom designed for that school (there’s no documentation anywhere and this particular style clock hasn’t been found anywhere else to my knowledge) so this could be the last clock left completely intact. It’s rather loud when it advances, so those that sleep in the spare bedroom will be glad that it’s been moved to a new location.

We are traveling to the Big Apple next weekend, so the home improvement project will have to be on hold until after the flooring for the locker room/office arrives.