myxer

  J.P Morgan had a spectacular private library, which raised questions for me, all of the inspriration I need for this weeks Sunday five. 1: Are there books you have multiple copies or editions of?  2: Have you ever stood in line to buy a first edition on the day it was released?  3: Do you buy books just to own them, or only to read them?  4: Have you read 90% or more of the books you own?  5: Do you have an active library card?  My Answers: 1: Are there books you have multiple copies or editions of? No longer, I did at one time, but we have downsized.  2: Have you ever stood in line to buy a first edition on the day it was released? Yes, Harry Potter books.  3: Do you buy books just to own them, or only to read them? Almost always to read.  4: Have you read 90% or more of the books you own? Yes. Probably more than 95%.  5: Do you have an active library card? No, I should do something about that. Please share your answers in the comment...

  I read this in an obituary recently:  In lieu of flowers or cards,  Jim would want you to write a card or letter to someone that is special to you. Dear Travel Penguin Blog Readers, I never met Jim, kinda wish I had.  He lived near where I was born and raised, I often check obits there, people around my age are often people I crossed paths with when I was growing up.  Those 20-30 years older are often the parents of people I grew up with. Sadly sometimes the younger ones are the children of my classmates.   You are special to me.  I know a handful of you. I wake up everyday looking forward to interacting in the comments. The statistics tell me there are many more that read, than I have never seen a comment from.  I write for everyone of you.  My sincere hope is that a photo I have posted, or a phrase I have crafted, makes your day a little better.    I hope through these photos and words I am able to express that life will be...

The City of Alexandria Virginia, redid the waterfront at the end of King Street (main street - high street.) This was a long involved process including moving the yacht club.  The new space has expanded public access and a larger park, including a public arts space that hosts rotating exhibits.  The current one is fabulous, I Love You, with lots of light and bright.  The previous exhibit was a bunch of knee hight posts, representative of the pilings for piers along the waterfront, it was not as fabulous.  I need to get down there at night, it lights up. 

I am working on a post that will appear in a couple of weeks of things that piss me off.  This week added a couple of things to the list.  We succeeded at ordering appliances for the kitchen replacement.  With luck the cabinets should be ordered in the next week or so. Appliances are still in short supply, the total sorcery cooktop we wanted is delayed at least 6 months, and the cooktop is an essential to the job.  We found a slightly less magic model in stock, it will be delivered this week.  The appliance dude didn't seem very enthused about what I thought was a rather large order. When we went into pay, there was an invoice laying on the counter, the first item was a refrigerator, I had to look twice, I didn't believe my eyes, the first item was a $10,000 refrigerator, makes my order look insignificant. Still I have bought new cars for less.   The world here has turned green, the last of the trees are starting to leaf out (the one outside my  b...

My oldest brother had a low draft lottery number, so he enlisted in the Navy the year he finished high school.  After basic training, he was assigned to the Aircraft Carrier Enterprise (now decommissioned and the last I knew it was being dismantled.) Someplace in southeast Asia he bought a Canon Ftb, a nice 35MM SLR. There was also a tripod, the gray zippered case above their arms is the case for the tripod. Looking at this it was taken with the camera on the tripod, and either a cable release or the self timer,  I suspect the self timer as Dale is almost blurred from having tripped the timer and rushed back to be in the picture.  This would have been taken in one of the crew living areas on the ship.  I think Dale only took a couple of rolls of film on the camera, this roll of slides ended up with dad's meaning it was probably in the camera when Dale came home on leave, and somehow Dad ended up keeping the camera.  Dad gave it to me a few years b...

Artisans, craftspersons, farmers, chefs, I love watching them work.  Historic sites sometimes have live demonstrations of how things were done, metalsmiths,  spinners, weavers, broom making, furniture, historic farming making are all fascinating to watch.  They are also often a financial loss for the venue, the cost of the demonstrations far exceeds the value of what is produced.  The glass blower working in a demonstration shop, produces less at the same cost as a glassblower working in the back room without the distraction of an audience.  So we see fewer of them.  When we lived in Kentucky nearby Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, had a thriving demonstration program, until a new director mandated that they had to pay their way or go.  The last time I was there one craftsman was working.  Sad that.   Non-profit does not mean free to operate, or exempt from the economic realities of the world.  That is why there are admission fees, ...

May there be light at the end of this tunnel. 

1: Where are you reading / responding to this?  2: How far are you from a phone?  3: Is it daylight or dark?  4: What can you hear?  5: If there is anything to drink within reach, what is it?  My Answers, 1: Where are you reading / responding to this?  At the desk in my bedroom  2: How far are you from a phone? Both the house phone and my cell on are on the desk.  3: Is it daylight or dark? daylight, later afternoon.  4: What can you hear? A freight train about 1.5 miles away. 5: If there is anything to drink within reach, what is it? A glass of water  Please share your answers in the comments 

  There are thousands of restaurants in New York City. From one-dollar pizza to the some of the worlds most expensive delicacies, if it can be sourced and legally sold, someone in New York has it on the menu.  When we came down from the walk in the clouds, it was time for lunch.  The Shops at Hudson Yards has a dozen options. All most all of them looked interesting.  So how did I pick one, the sheep on the sign.  Anyplace that has a sheep as its logo has potential to be great.  And it was.  Imaginative British inspired, made with the finest ingredients.  We were seated at the peak of the lunch rush. The actor filling in a waiter, was sweet and friendly.  He did warn us that the kitchen was a little backed up, to which I ordered a drink and told him our next commitment was a nap then dinner at 6.  He assured us we would be back to the hotel in time for a nice nap.  Lunch was leisurely, but not slow by normal standards....

Did you miss me?  I almost 8 hours late posting today, sorry!  The Bryant Park Grill in New York has become our "we have to go back there" stop in New York. It is tucked into the back side of the New York Public Library, on the edge of Bryant Park.  The setting is garden elegant, the food is amazing, with service to match.  The domestic cheese tray is amazing.    

I have made the first purchase for the kitchen replacement, a new faucet, and the next day the kitchen sink.  Both should be here by the time this posts.  The faucet is black and square, there was a TV commercial of a couple walking into an architect, placing a faucet on the desk and saying "design us a house around this."  Yes, that kind of a statement piece.  Appliances remain the major loose end.   I am in a crazy busy cycle at the work, three major trainings in two days, and another next week.  My first board meeting since becoming director is Friday, I get to shake things up. And it is budgeting season. And we are officially returning to the office.  Glad I am taking a week off in May.   I am back in a reading frenzy, I bought a stack of books in NYC, and I am almost done with those.  More on the Kindle to read.  It was nice to get into ink and paper bookstores a couple of times.  There is a nice small bookstore ...

This photo of my mother's parents was probably taken before I was born, definitely before his health forced them to retire.  He looks very robust in this photo. He was born into a large family on a farm. He preferred to farm with horses or mules, resisted using a tractor (and a tractor accident started the cascade of health problems that led to his retirement.) When I was sorting photos after my parents died, I came across a baby photo of him, and discovered that his middle name was Rollo.  I have no idea where that came from.  The best I can determine his family was primarily German in ancestry. As was my grandmother's. She had an unusual first name, Mina. (Yes like the bird.)  Any unusual names in your family history? 

  Almost every photo triggers and memory, or a story.  When I travel I take lots of photos, I come home and sort them, and some stand out.  But many are just there.  I find as I go back through them weeks, months or years later the memories and the stories are triggered.  This photo was pulled at absolutely at random from a list of over 60,000.  It was taken shortly after the first snow of 2022. It was a heavy wet snow, that brought down a lot of branches and trees.  This one was taken near home, as the eagle flies only a mile away near the river.  This is the entrance to the Dike Marsh trail,  I have walked there hundreds of times in the past couple of years.  My estimate would be that 33% maybe more of the trees along the trail lost major limbs in that storm, a couple of dozen trees were toppled. I walked the trail that day.  This image triggers that memory, and all of the stories related to my time on that trail.  We should ...

Something very upbeat this week, we need this. 

I saw an interview with a New York based Psychologist who estimates that 90% of us will experience post-covid trauma for up to 9 years.   1: Do you feel a need to remember or a desire to forget?  2: What artifact of this era will be you memory trigger?  3: What will be the longest lasting change from the experience?  4: What can we do to help future generations learn from our experience?  5: What are you most looking forward to returning to as it was before?  My Answers:  1: Do you feel a need to remember or a desire to forget? At my age, this is a part of my life experience that I will never forget.  2: What artifact of this era will be you memory trigger? Face coverings.  3: What will be the longest lasting change from the experience? Working from home, I think this flexibility will be retained (I hope so.)   4: What can we do to help future generations learn from our experience? I am starting to take photos, of what it was l...

Over the last few trips to New York we watched the skyscrapers at Hudson Yard be built.  Hudson Yard was a rail yard, one of the last underdeveloped large areas in Manhattan.  We noticed the cantilevered protrusion, near the top of one of the towers, it is called the edge.  It is on the 100th floor, 1,100 feet above ground level, and open to the public.  (Also available for private parties.) I kind of like this kind of high up observation level, so we booked tickets for the elevator ride.  We tried to get lunch reservations on the 101st floor, they were closed for a private function.  Lunch comes with a free elevator ride, well at those prices not exactly free (about $100 per person for lunch.) The morning of our reservations it was cloudy.  Low clouds, as in about 700 ceiling and we were going up 1,100 feet.  And why not?  We could have tried to rebook, but the weather forecast was not promising (it cleared out the following d...

Real men make quiche. Recently I was bored, looked in the fridge, I had a couple of dozen eggs, cream, a lightly smoked very lean bacon, forbidden cheddar, mushrooms, we always have butter in the freezer, the perfect cold day to make quiche.  The pastry was a variation on Mary Berry's grated frozen butter, flour, salt, a little cold water and an egg.  Americans don't usually put an egg in pastry, it works.  Pastry is really alchemy.  You mix together simple ingredients and make something devine.   The filling was 7 eggs, a chunk of grated forbidden cheddar, onions, mushrooms and bacon lightly fried, a dash of heavy cream.   I bli nd baked the pastry for about 20 minutes at about 400 degrees F, then added the filling and baked at about 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, turned the oven down to 300 F for another 25 minutes.  It was good, very good.    

Last Wednesday, not yesterday, a week ago yesterday, we met up with Mitchell from Moving with Mitchell for a quick chat and lunch. We met up in his original home town, Brooklyn, New York.  Those who read his blog will know he was in town to see his brother Charles (Chuck.)  We were honored to have a little slice of his time, while Chuck was out bowling.  We took the subway over from Manhattan, we used the trains quite a bit on this trip, a great way to get around.  The subway goes through a tunnel under the east river.  Possibly one my great grandfather worked on 110 years ago, when my grandmother was a child and they moved to Brooklyn (from London.) I have been to London, I had never been to Brooklyn.  The weather was a tad inclement.  Temperature in the 40's (F) and raining. When we turned the corner by Brooklyn Borough Hall, WINDY, very windy. The plan to stroll down the waterfront was scuttled, then we discovered that the best taqueria i...

  Sometime in the early 1960's my grandparents started snowbirding, going south from Michigan (as Spo describes it the land of perpetual snow and ice ) to Florida in the winters.  My grandfather worked for Ford for over 30 years, then left in the late 1950's to move to the farm and keep bees. Bees in Michigan are a seasonal farming operation.  There was no reason for them to stay in the snow in the winter (my parents started doing the same thing when I was in the 8th grade.).  They bought a newly built one-bedroom house in a fishing village called Istachatta on the Withlacoochee River (Google it, it is a real place.) When I say a one-bedroom, the first year they were there they added on, adding a bathroom and eliminating the out-house that had been build with the house. (Before zoning and building codes.) It was an escape, a second home. They spent winters there together for about 15 years. It was there one winter that my grandmother came to the realization that my g...

A few years ago I was asked to speak at a conference at Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.  I went in a day early, so I had time to ride the cog-railway to the top of the mountain, went out of my way to book a coal fired steam train.  It was spectacular.  When we got to the top the mountain was in a heavy fog.  I loved it.  I read recently that there is a proposal to build guest accommodations, a hotel of some type in the national park at the top.  I might need to go back.    

Okay, I need a laugh, I have no idea how I stumbled across this.  

Parking in the Washington DC area can be a challenge, there are more cars than parking spaces, so when you find one, dive for it.  Parking garages can be expensive, and can be tight.  My advice, DO NOT DRIVE IN Washington DC. I took this photo, because I had done such a perfect job of parallel parking, first try.  1: Are you good at parallel parking?  2: In a parking lot, do you pull in forward, or back in?  3: Does you car have a back-up camera?  4: Does your nearest grocery store, have an underground parking garage?  5: What was the parking part of your driving test like?  My Answers: 1: Are you good at parallel parking? Most of the time no, then I get it right from time to time.  2: In a parking lot, do you pull in forward, or back in? Pull in forward.  3: Does you car have a back-up camera? The VW no, Sweet Bear's car, yes.  4: Does you nearest grocery store, have an underground parking garage? Yes.  5: What was the pa...

My father would have told you that "home is where I hang my hat, and I don't wear a hat anymore".  Where am I from is a complicated answer.  I was born in Michigan, north of Detroit out in middle of nowhere.  I lived in Phoenix for a short time as a child.  Then back to Michigan.  I went to half of high school in Michigan, and half of it in Florida, changing schools 10 times in the last five years of my public school education.  I lived in central Florida for almost two decades after high school.  Moved to Lexington Kentucky, went to graduate school in Louisville, living in Kentucky 13 years. I have been in the Washington DC area nearly 14 years. See, that is complicated, and I left some of the details out.  For most people it is a simple question.  I have met people who lived and died within 100 mile radius.  My life has stretched across thousands of miles.    I like to think that all of those moves when I was in school, prepa...

Back in March of 2019 we came to New York, I had a meeting to attend.  The weather was ugly, not quite snow, not really rain, just cold and wet, then it snowed.  I succeeded at finding the worst restaurants in town, the first couple of nights, then we turned the corner and found Juniors, New York cheesecake and deli classics.  Last summer when we came, I found one hit after another, starting with a Kosher French restaurant, and lunch on the 110th floor.  This trip it has been one hit after another.  Back to Juniors for about the third time. then tried Ben's Kosher, and Thursday the Queensyard Grill at Hudson Yard.  These were the starters, a wedge salad and chicken-liver mouse   mousse.   It ain't cheap, but there is a lot of great food in this town.  

Sometimes I write about what I have done, sometimes I write about what I am going to do, often about what ever flits into my head when I sit down to write.   If all goes to plan, we are in the city with the tall skyline this week.  Yesterday we should have been in Brooklyn, my grandmother lived there as a child about 110 years ago, and I have never been there.  I will write about lunch with Mitchel next week.  Thursday we have tickets to visit the Edge, an open observation deck near the top of a very-very tall new building.  I am sure there will be photos and a story or two there.  We will do a lot of walking, a little shopping, probably a museum or two.  I had about three work connections who wanted to meet to talk shop, and I declined all of them.  I didn't want to morph a short vacation, into an extended work session.  I really need to plan a working trip to NYC.   We may have made some progress on the plans for the kitchen ...

  My father would have taken this, my grandfather working the bees, barehanded.  A pair of leather gloves would last him two or three seasons, my father would go through two or three pairs a season.   My grandfather grew up dirt poor, too many kids, too little of everything. He discovered bees nesting in a dead tree, someone showed him how to harvest the honey, a year or two later someone showed him how to move the bees into a modern beehive, and his lifelong passion for the gentle craft of beekeeping started.  He was gentle, slow and caring with the bees.  Yes, he would get stung, and he would tell you that was almost always because he was careless or moved to quickly.  And yes it hurts to get stung.  After a few stings for most people the reaction changes, you don't swell the same way, but believe me it still hurts. (My grandmother was allergic to bee stings, and had a couple of life threatening experiences.)  At one time, my fath...

Nice view 

  We flew to and from Athens on different itineraires.  I was flying on frequent flyer miles, Sweet Bear on a purchased ticket.  We only had one flight that were on the same flight, Athens to New York.  Going over I had much better connections, and arrived in Athens several hours ahead of Sweet Bear.  Coming back, I should have had better connections, but when my connecting flight in New York went to push back from the gate, the pilot forgot to release the brakes and things broke.  I missed another connection, ended up in a Taxi for the last 90 miles of the trip at the airlines expense.  Greece was warm, inviting, fun, and fascinating.  I would go back any time.  

A favorite of Dr Spo, Ralfy does a weekly product review on YouTube.  He has written two books, the first a fun if somewhat rambling biography, yes he was an undertaker for decades, and the second a novel, a mystery set in a whisky distillery. This one is a little long for my Monday posts, but kinda fun. 

Uncle Dick had a house on a lake, because he had a boat, he had a boat because his mother's neighbor won it on a television game show, she didn't know what to do with it, so he bought it.  Hence boats were a part of my childhood.  That and this photo of the marina guy, inspire this week's Sunday five. 1: Have you ever owned a boat?  2: Do you feel comfortable on boats?  3: Do you prefer sail, row, or powerboat? 4: Do you feel comfortable swimming?  5: Would you let him untie your boat?  My answers:  1: Have you ever owned a boat? No, thought about it.  2: Do you feel comfortable on boats? Yes, as long as the boat seems sound.  3: Do you prefer sail, row, or powerboat? Powerboat.  4: Do you feel comfortable swimming? Reasonably, yes.  5: Would you let him untie your boat? Tie it up, untie it, whatever needs doing.   Please share your answers in the comments. 

My father hated convertibles.  His dislike was always very rational, convertibles are noisy, they leak, they have less backseat and or trunk space, they cost more, they have more moving parts so more maintenance issues. He could go on, those are the highlights.  I remember the first time I drove one, an MGB. How do I describe who owned it.  A couple I had sold a house to.  The wife took me out to lunch, had me drive her car, she was trying to seduce me.  If Shirley is still alive she is 85 - ah yes the older woman - and I was young and fit.  Their marriage didn't last long, he couldn't keep up with her.   Back to the MGB, we put the top down and drove down the beach in Daytona, I was in love (with the car at least.)  Over the years I talked about owning a convertible.  Common sense, or the need for something practical always seemed to get in the way - with my father's laundry list of why it was a bad idea ringing in my head.  Three ...