songbird's crazy world

So Becca moved into her apartment.  The move was less that stress-free, and involved a dispute with the new landlord as well as a near-disaster with a furniture delivery, but everything got resolved; she's in the apartment and basically unpacked, and about  start enjoying life in NYC. I have to get used to seeing Jen in a different set of school colors.  When she worked in the school that she had attended as a student, she wore the same colors she'd worn years ago.  Now she works in a neighboring school district (the district where Drew was a student), and on Fridays the staff wear shirts in the school colors.  It's a little disconcerting My father is being released from the hospital, and we're all looking forward to having him home again.  There have been some permanent changes in his medical condition, though, which means changing the routine at home.  It is what it is. There is a truism that every woman turns into her mother eventually.  ...

So, the Blood Moon was hyped in the media.  And then I heard the disappointing weather forecast.  It would be cloudy, maybe too cloudy to see the moon. And then, when the moon rose...it  was big and bright and beautiful.  And I hoped the weather would hold. And it did!  I don't have a fancy camera, but I was able to capture two images with my phone.  the first is at the beginning of the eclipse, the second at totality.  You can see just a hint of the red color.

I spent Yom Kippur the same way as Rosh Hashanah. Services at the synagogue followed by time in my father's hospital room. The doctors say he is improving and will be able to come home in a few days. But my father has a myriad of medical conditions requiring a complicated treatment plan, and his current circumstances have made things even more complicated than they were before. The Rabbi in my synagogue always talks about life and death in his Yom Kippur sermon. This year he included a discussion of biomedical ethics, what is the difference between helping someone to live and keeping them from letting go? We're not at that point with my father, despite the scare the palliative care team gave my sister. But it was interesting to hear his perspective. Food for thought.

I'm back in "explore" mode, choosing new and interesting places for a walk. Drew suggested I check out the Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve in Merrick. Located off busy Merrick Road, the park is hidden behind the town sanitation department complex. You have to drive through the sanitation department property to access the park. Once inside, however, you feel as if you're miles away from suburban Nassau County. The park is named after a well-liked local politician who served in the New York State Senate, and who was a champion of environmental issues. Bring water -- there's no refreshment stand. And consider wearing a hat, there's not much shade. There are three trails suitable for hiking about the park. There's a place to launch kayaks onto the Meadow Brook, and there's a large fishing pier extending into Merrick Bay. The park uses goats as weed trimmers and Guinea fowl to control ticks. I decided to climb the hill, and followed the sign...

Pope Francis is in town, wreaking havoc with the NYC traffic,  As a non-Catholic, I have avoided the city, though my poor baby Becca had to deal with the chaos as she moved into her new apartment. The papal visit reminds me of one of my father's war stories, My father turned 18 in February 1945.  He served in the army during the tail end of WW II, He was stationed in Italy.Blonde hair, blue eyes, the very picture of an American GI. A GI who was also a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn, but you'd never know it unless you heard his very Jewish surname. My father and a group of his friends had the opportunity to spend some time in Rome.  They decided to see the Sistine Chapel.    While they were in the chapel, a priest approached them and asked if they'd like to meet the Pope.  Of course they wanted to!   The Pope knew my father wasn't Catholic because my father didn't kiss his ring.  The Pope chatted with them briefly and gave each of them a ros...

So yes, I love baseball. Early last spring, one of the social groups at my synagogue decided to sponsor a trip to Citi Field.  They chose Sunday afternoon, September 20, when the Mets were scheduled to play the NY Yankees.  We have fans of both teams in our congregation, and the organizers hoped that at least one of the teams would still be in playoff contention this late in the season.  I ordered tickets. Fast forward to September.  The Mets are leading their division.  The Yankees are trailing the Blue Jays, but are definitely in contention for the wild card spot.   And the Sunday afternoon game became a Sunday night game, the ESPN Game of the Week. The evening began well.  We parked in our favorite lot on Roosevelt Avenue, across the street from the ballpark.  There's no safe place to cross before the game, so we had to climb up the stairs to the 7 train, then climb down again to get into the ballpark. We arrived before the gate...

Last Friday was National Cheeseburger Day. I would never have known it but for the burger posts that kept popping up in my Facebook feed, so by the end of the day I had such a craving .... And so we headed over to Burger City. This place is a throwback, a salute to hamburger stands of the 50's and 60's. A kiosk in the middle of a shopping center parking lot. No seating area, just a few outside tables to lean on if you don't want to eat in your car. Very simple menu -- hamburger, cheeseburger, hot dog, fries and onion rings, shakes. Not a lot of options, no real choice of toppings. But they advertise that the food is always fresh, never frozen. My double cheeseburger -- two patties, cheese, ketchup, chopped onion, pickles. Juicy but not sloppy, a tasty burger. Thick cut fries cooked in peanut oil were salty but not overwhelmingly so. Drew had a hot dog -- I think they use Hebrew National -- with sauerkraut (I saw the cans of Sabrett sauerkraut in the coo...

So it was Thursday afternoon, rush hour, and I was in lower Manhattan, at the corner of Fulton Street and Broadway. That's a very busy corner, even in the best of times.  Right now there's a construction project on that corner, and some of the lanes on Broadway are closed.  One of the construction workers helps direct traffic so that pedestrians can get across Broadway. As I came up Fulton towards Broadway I could see a small crowd gathered across the street, on the corner in front of St. Paul's.  A woman was lying on the sidewalk, right at the curb.  A man was moving construction cones to that corner, to keep the traffic away from the curb where she was lying.  Several people were on their cell phones.  Just as I was wondering if someone called 911, a police officer walked up from behind me to cross the street. The police officer helped the woman to sit up, and I heard someone say "She has a bump on her head from when she fell." And then I noticed ...

No way was I going to ignore this NaBloPoMo prompt. Harry Potter has been a part of my life since, well, forever... Or rather, since that day when Jen was 11, and she read the first Harry Potter novel.  There came a time when  I used to have to buy three copies of each new book  -- one for Jen, one for Becca and one for myself -- because none of us could wait to read it.  Long before there was a Harry Potter area of Universal/Islands of Adventure  (some of the best rides in Orlando!), I used to buy Harry Potter merchandise from the Warner Brothers Studio Store.  I still have a t shirt from that era, as well as the shirt I bought in Florida when we visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Becca actually took a college philosophy class where the novels were used to illustrate all sorts of philosophical topics.  She even let me read her essay on love.  Her professor quite cleverly created four study groups by "Sorting" the students i...

So we're dealing with my father's latest health issues.  I'm getting to know my way around that hospital far too well.  Sigh. And then there's my mother.   A couple of weeks ago she took a bad fall.  There's a single step up from the driveway to the front porch, and there's no porch railing to grab, and she lost her balance.  She's recovering nicely.  But she gave me a huge scare Tuesday in the parking lot of the pharmacy.  Tripped and fell over her own two feet.  I was holding her arm at the time, but couldn't catch her.  I think they heard my screams a mile away.  Fortunately another woman was in the parking lot at the time; she helped me get my mother off the ground and into the car.  So my sisters and I are dealing with octogenarian parents.  Most of the burden falls to them, by their choice.  I do what I can, but ... My sisters don't think I do enough.   Sigh. In the meantime, life goes on. It w...

You know that I am a geek. More "Star Trek" than "Star Wars", but I like them both. I grok Heinlein, knew the Three Laws of Robotics before Will Smith taught them to the masses. If you say "42", I understand. My most recent "must see TV" was "Dark Matter", every Friday night on SyFy. Drew is a Whovian, has been a fan of The a Doctor for years, since back in the "classic" days of the 1960!s. I watch occasionally, with Drew.  I understand words like "tardis", "dalek" and "regenerate", but I'm not a devotee. Still, when Fandango announced a special presentation, two episodes in 3D, it sounded like fun. I'll be watching more often now, I think. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Like history? Like old trains? Then you might like Live Steamers. An old friend of ours is a member of the Long Island Live Steamers Club. These folks are really into the history of railroads. They build replicas of old trains. Not "models" -- these aren't toy trains, running on tracks around your living room. These replicas are large enough to ride on. The Long Island club is based in Southaven Park. They've built two tracks through the woods, where club members can ride their trains. Many club members travel, they take their trains to "meets" sponsored by other clubs. But what's really cool is how the club raises money for its activities. Public run days. Twice a month they give rides to the public. They don't charge a fee to ride, but you are encouraged to make a small donation. It's a fun way to kill an hour or two, especially if you have young children. Here's more info http://www.longislandlivesteamers.org/about.php - Pos...

L'Shanah Tovah. Happy New Year. The words sound strangely dissonant in the corridors of the hospital. We exchange New Year's greetings with the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the respiratory therapist. It feels like everyone managing my father's case is Jewish, headed home to a holiday dinner. A family story I have heard, it happened before I was born, pops into my head. My paternal grandmother died "Erev Pesach", the night before Passover; they went home from the hospital and made a Seder. L'Shanah Tovah. May you be inscribed in the Book of Life. It has a very different meaning in the surgical suite, in the ICU. Our "holiday" dinner: takeout Chinese food. There was no time, and no desire, to cook the brisket, the matzoh balls, the chicken soup. We will have our celebration when my father comes home. In the morning I walk to synagogue, my thoughts all jumbled. My father never wanted to be like this, old and sick and weak. He's 88 ...

On Rosh Hashanah it is written.  On Yom Kippur it is sealed. Unlike the secular New Year, with its parties and  parades and celebrations, the Jewish New Year is a time of introspection.  Tradition holds that the Almighty decides our fate on Rosh Hashanah, we pray that our names be written in the Book of Life.  Our fate is sealed on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. So I find myself doing some serious self-examination.  What were my successes as a human being this year?  What were my failures?  How can I be a better person in the coming year? My buzzwords for the coming year will be "patience" and "kindness". I find that as I am growing older, I no longer have the patience for others I used to have.  I have to remind myself to be patient.  Especially with my parents.  As they grow older, it becomes more and more trying to deal with them.  I  sometimes have to remind myself to take a deep breath and not allow my frustrati...

Remember, when we went to the Renaissance Faire last month, I mentioned we got free tickets for a return visit? Guess where we will be today? Here's a hint.

Once again we arrive at that solemn date, September 11. Fourteen years ago an ordinary Tuesday turned into a nightmare, a day of horrors, a day that showed our strength to unite in the face of adversity. 9/11 happened to all of us, in NYC and California and everything in between.  But someone standing on the corner of Vesey Street and Church Street experienced 9/11 in a very different way than someone watching the events on TV.  And I will be forever grateful that I had an "on the outside looking in" experience, safe in my Long Island office that day, watching the streets that were oh-so-familiar turn into a war zone. 14 years later, lower Manhattan has risen like a phoenix from the ashes.  It is a thriving community, a pleasant place for the people who live there, work there, visit.  We visited the  museum last year.   It was the first time that I visited a museum that focused on events I lived through, events I could remember in aching detail....

So last night the meteorologist on TV warned that bad storms were coming and would affect the morning commute.  Little did he realize... Becca is NOT enjoying her commute.  And lately it's gotten worse -- no place to park at our train station.  Last night she asked if I'd drive her to the station in the morning, and I said OK.   Good thing, too -- service on our branch of the railroad was suspended this morning (train hit an SUV that shouldn't have been on the tracks, damaged the third rail), and I wound up driving to a station on another branch. One of the traffic lights in our neighborhood was out, of course, but a police officer was kind enough to sit in his patrol car and watch the traffic in that intersection.  (Truth is, the traffic wasn't very heavy, he didn't need to get out and direct it...) Of course this put me right in the middle of construction-related traffic as I made my way to my office. But I really had to feel for Drew.  Fend...

So it's September...the Mets are in first place in their division, and playing the Nationals, the second place team, this week. The Yankees are in second place, merely a game and a half behind the Blue Jays, and strong contenders for the Wild Card spot if they don't overcome Toronto. The words "October baseball" seem to be on everyone's lips.  Dare I even contemplate a repeat of the Subway Series of 2000?  That was so exciting. We've got tickets for the Mets-Yankees came at Citi Field September 20.  Should be an interesting came. Haven't been to Citi Field yet this season, I'm really looking forward to it. And then there's Atlantic League baseball, and my Long Island Ducks.  Their season ends September 20, and the Ducks are in contention for a playoff berth.  Drew would like to buy tickets for a playoff game, it would be fun to go. We've done it before.   The Ducks were the league champs in 2012 and again in 2013.  We were in Bethpa...

It was a very full weekend, with my mother's birthday on Friday, and Drew's barbecue on Sunday. And then yesterday, Labor Day, was my sisters' birthday.  Which coincided with the arrival of the drama llama.  Three sisters, two daughters, occasional drama is inevitable. It was "duck and cover" time. Yes, I stayed out of it. Best thing I could have done.

Spread some hummus on a Ritz cracker. Top with a slice of cucumber. Top with crumbled feta cheese. Top with a piece of roasted red pepper. Enjoy. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Never mind what I said about "Bring it on, Fall".  I'm not ready. Yesterday I saw...I can't believe it...I saw....I saw.... Fall Foliage!!! Around here we don't usually see color until October.   It's too soon. Must be due to the very dry weather all summer.

Last night we saw what will probably be our last Ducks game of the season. The team is a strong contender for the playoffs, and we may buy tickets if they are, but ... The goal was to see the Ducks play each team in the Atlantic League, seven teams in all. We met that goal a couple of weeks ago, but that was the night Drew won two tickets for the September 3 game against the Bridgeport Bluefish. So, off we went. The series against the Bluefish was important, the Bluefish are also in the race for the playoffs. The Bluefish took game one, the Ducks won a laugher game two, and we were present for the rubber game of the match. Free tickets = great seats, right behind home plate. The Bluefish took an early lead, it was 2-0 at the end of the second. The Ducks tied it up in the 6th. And then came the bottom of the 9th, the bases were loaded and a walk-off ... excuse me, a "waddle-off" single won the game. Not a bad way to spend an evening. Mets-Yankees at Citi...

So Drew got his class schedule. He'll be teaching several sections of Global History (self-contained special ed) as well as Earth Science (inclusion). Not exactly the program he would have chosen for himself, but considering he's now in the final countdown to his retirement, he's not complaining too loudly. Jen is loving the new job.  At her old job, in our school district,  she was a "paraprofessional" assigned to work one-on-one with a single special needs student.  She was initially assigned to her student when he was in 5th grade, at the elementary school, and  moved up to the middle school with him.  Her new title is "teaching assistant".  She's in the district's middle school, working with one teacher, in a self-contained special ed environment. Yesterday Becca got caught in another hellish LIRR commute.  I can sympathize, I've had a few bad commutes over the years.  But she's moving into her apartment at the end of the month,...

So even though I said I want to hold onto summer ... I drove past Schmitt's Farm tonight and couldn't help but think of the apples coming in a couple of weeks, and the pumpkins that will soon follow. And "Witchy Woman" came on the radio, and I started to think about haunted houses and Halloween. And when I got home, there were the catalogues ... Sweaters and flannel shirts and jackets in rich autumn colors. Clogs and loafers and booties. Comfy p.j.'s and slippers. Ok, Fall, I'm ready ... - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

September's NaBloPoMo theme is "lessons". And the writing prompts are all about going back school. Interesting theme, considering. I loved being a student, but I never had any aspirations of becoming a teacher. However, I am surrounded by educators. My father is a retired school administrator. He started out as an English teacher, became an assistant principal. (He eventful got his principal's license but was never appointed to a position.) My mother's career path...She taught Social Studies. Quit teaching to be a stay at home mom. Tried to go back to teaching when we were all a bit older, but couldn't find a suitable position and eventually made a career change. Drew is about to start his final year as a Special Ed teacher, he'll be retiring in June. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, where my life won't be tied to the school calendar. And Jen just got a new job as a teaching assistant in a neighboring school distric...