songbird's crazy world

I work in a 40-story building in lower Manhattan.  Given our location and the history of this neighborhood, I'm sure it comes as no surprise that we have fire drills.  It's a simple process.  We meet in the lobby for about 15 minutes and discuss safety -- what happens if there's a fire in the building, where to find the fire exits, and where we're supposed ot meet up in the eventwe hav e to evacuate the building.  We also discuss sheltering in place in the event conditins outside warrant it, and what to do in the event there's an active shooter on site.  When I was working for another company in Jersey City, we actually walked down the fire stairs (I was n the 30th floor, so that was "fun") and walked to the designated meet-up area.   I'm on a much lower floor in this building, but still... Nevertheless... Years ago, before the two World Trade Center attacks, I was working for a small law firm located on the 27th floor of a building in lower Ma...

You know I love anyhting that flies. At lunchtime Wednesday I decided to take a walk along the East River, and found myself at the Wall Street Heliport.   I had a chance to see a few helicopters. So cool. Ands then on Thursday, there was some excitement in our office.  We can see the heliport from our windows, and we frequently hear the helicopters taking off and landing.  For the most part we ignore it, but huge military helicopters are hard to ignore.  "Someone" was taking a helicopter to the airport, leaving NYC and heading back to Washington, D.C.  My photos and video picked up the glare from our windows, but nevertheless... This one was flying towards the Verrazano Bridge. There are definitely perks to this job. #skywatchfriday

So I'm loving being in the city again, but the commute is killing me.  I'm getting up at  "zero dark thirty" these days and racing for that 7:11 train.  I'm soooooo tired..... The Tuesday night commute home was awful.  I didn't realize Long Island had "monsoon season".  Really.  I opened up my umbrella as soon as I got off the train, but by the time I walked from the platform to my car, I was drenched.  And the streets were flooded.  To make matters worse, I had to run an errand at my company's Long Island office before I headed home.  In fact, my sneakers were still soaking wet Wednesday morning.  So much fun... But lunch time has been fun, all the different places to buy food, all the interesting places to walk. And interesting photos for the blog, of course. I re-joined Planet Fitness.  You'll recall I dropped my Planet Fitness membership when I joined the JCC, then dropped my JCC membership when I realized I could ...

So when Drew heard that Andre Rieu was coming back to the Nassau Coliseum, he had to buy tickets for the show.  Rieu is a violinist and composer, best known for his performances of Strauss waltzes.  But an evening with Rieu and his orchestra will also include opera, Broadway show tunes, and even pop music. For this performance, the orchestra made its entrance through the aisles to the stage to the tune of "76 Trombones" from The Music Man .  The evening included music from Phantom of the Opera , several operas, a Chinese folk song, a 1950's-era rock number, and, of course, several waltzes. We had floor seats, 9th row, so we had an incredible view of the stage.    Here's Rieu playing his violin. Doesn't the orchestra look incredible? The soloists performing the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah . We were treated to a performance by bagpipers, as one of the ladies from the orchestra played a solo on the bagpipes. It...

Road trip to the Bronx! As you know, Drew and I are Mets fans, we think of CitiField as "home".  But we are also New Yorkers, and for two baseball fans to have never set foot in Yankee Stadium... Well, I never did see the original Yankee Stadium (except from the outside), the one that was torn down in 2009.  So when an opportunity came to see the Yankees play in the new Yankee Stadium, I had to take it:  a Yankees-Blue Jays game on a Sunday afternoon. A word, first about the crosstown rivalry.  Mets fans are supposed to hate the Yankees and Yankees fans are supposed to hate the Mets.  I don't believe in the rivalry, I like the Yankees. I will root for the Yankess -- unless they're playing the Mets, of course.  Drew, on the other hand, told me he was panning to root for the Blue Jays. Welcome to Yankee Stadium: Our first glimpse of the field. We got to the stadium very early, because we wanted to visit Monument Park....

So on Friday when I got to the office, I noticed that I had ripped my pants, one of the side seams was completely torn open.  I'm sure it happened on the train, probably caught my pants on the armrest as I was getting up from my seat.  Monday's commute was a real "joy".  My railroad train was about 10 minutes late, and when I finally arrived at Penn Station...well, the entrance to the subway is under construction, so it was uncomfortably crowed.  And a "sick passenger" in Brooklyn meant massive delays heading downtown. When I got to the platform it was so crowded I could barely move.   The first train to arrive was so crowded that I couldn't get on.  But then a miracle happened, I actually got a seat on the next train. I see her every morning in the Wall Street station, handing out free copies of AM New York.  Last week she announced to the world that she is 48 years old.  I would have assumed she was in her 60's...she must have had ...

Or rather, nearly squashed. Drew and I went to the Yankee game yesterday (full report coming soon).  We decided to take my car, thinking my compact Prius-C would be a lot easier to park than that monstrosity he drives (he's got a 7 passenger minivan). Well, the good news is my Prius got 56 miles to the gallon, which meant I used less than a full gallon of gas to drive to the Bronx and back again.  The bad news is, we almost got killed on the Bruckner Expressway. Picture it.  A three lane expressway.  The right lane is marked "exit only".  The left and middle lanes are for through traffic.  My little blue Prius was in the center lane, with a bus in the left lane (yes, I know, he shouldn't have been in the left lane, but...),  and a tractor trailer in the right lane.  Just as I said to Drew "I'm a bit uncomfortable between such large vehicles", the truck driver realized that he needed to move over to the middle lane if he wanted ...

That's Roebling's creation in the foreground, with the Manhattan Bridge right behind it.    If you look under the span of the Manhattan Bridge, you can just make out a portion of the Williamsburg Bridge in the distance. #skywatchfriday

I walked over to the South Street Seaport yesterday.  It’s just a few blocks from my office.  It was a disappointment. The Seaport is located on the East River, in the shadow of the  Brooklyn Bridge.  19th century buildings lovingly restored and converted to shops and restaurants, cobblestone streets, a museum devoted to wooden, pre-industrial-revolution vessels.   And Pier 17.   Before Superstorm Sandy,  Pier 17 was a typical  mall, with restaurants and shops, including chain stores like the GAP ....I spent quite a bit of my time and money at Pier 17.  The mall was completely destroyed by Sandy in 2012. I had heard that Pier 17 finally reopened this summer.  So yesterday I walked over there to check it out. I was not impressed. The new building is an ugly, cavernous box. It just felt so ... empty.  I couldn’t stay more than a few minutes.  Maybe it will be better when more tenants move in ... This i...

It was a a warm September day.  It was an ordinary Tuesday. And then it wasn’t. I was very lucky that day, 17 years ago.  I’d spent most of my career working in lower Manhattan, but in 2001 I was employed by a law firm on Long Island, so I wasn’t in the city when the planes hit, didn’t see the devastation up close until days later.  I didn’t come home covered in dust and debris.  I didn’t lose a family member or a close friend.   It’s hard to believe that most of the students sitting in high school classrooms weren’t even born on 9/11.  To them it’s just history.   To me ... Drew and I visited the 9/11 Museum  in 2014.  It was an emotional experience, the first time I’d gone to a museum that memorialized a time in history that I’d lived through.    What made me cry the most were the ordinary things — a fare card for the PATH train, a newspaper, a street sign.  Things I had used every day.  The peop...

The Jewish holidays are early this year. This time of year the Jewish calendar is filled with holidays  — the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (the new year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), followed by the minor holidays of  Sukkot (a harvest festival) and Simchat Torah (a celebration of the Torah, the five Books of Moses). The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, so our holidays do not line up perfectly with the secular calendar. Today is the first day of Rosh HaShanah.   Last year the first day of Rosh Hashanah was September 21, next year we will observe the holiday on September 30. So you see what I mean about the holidays being early this year. Rosh Hashanah is a festive occasion, but not in the way the secular new year is celebrated.  Family dinners are the norm, with traditional Jewish fare such as matzo ball soup, gefilte fish and brisket. Challah (a traditional egg bread) is round, to symbolize the circle of life.  Apples and hone...

We have a tremendous view from our breakroom.  It's hard to take good pictures because of the reflective nature of our windows, but I gave it a try.    Traffic on the East River, the Brooklyn Waterfront, the South Street Seaport, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.... great views.

There are two trains I can take to work, a 7:11 to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and a 7:16 to Penn Station in Manhattan.  The subway ride from Brooklyn to Wall Street is easier than the ride downtown from Penn, so I prefer the earlier train. So every day last week, the Brooklyn train was consistently 5 minutes late arriving at my station — except for the day that I was running late.   Wound up on the 7:16 that morning. I prefer to go home from Penn, though.  There are more express trains, a faster ride.  But the crowds in Penn!  That rabbit warren  of a station services 650,000 passengers a day. And they all seem to be in that station at rush hour. They should rename the NYC Subway the “sardine can transport”.  I am relearning the skill of standing on a moving train while holding on to a metal pole.  Though I have reached the age where occasionally a man will offer me a seat. And no matter how crowded a subway car gets, no one will sit or stand any...

Another NYC landmark, Federal Hall , at the corner of Wall Street and Broad Street, was the meeting placx for the First U.S. Congress in 1789.  George Washington greets vistiors and passers-by.

Trinity Church  is historic.  It sits on Broadway facing Wall Street, a neo-Gothic landmark among the skyscrapers.  Hard to believe that at one time it was the tallest building in the United States. You see the church looming in the distance as you walk up Wall Street. As you reach Broadway, you see the entrance to the church. Look up at the spire! #skywatchfriday

Yesterday Drew and I were talking about clothes we used to have back in the 70’s, things we’d never be caught dead wearing today. Drew described a shirt he had — black, decorated with large red roses.   It was a knockoff of a shirt Burt Reynolds wore in Smokey and the Bandit. This is the shirt: Today I learned that Burt Reynolds died.  Another icon gone.

So yesterday was my first day as an intrepid commuter.   Up before dawn, drove to the railroad station, groaned when I heard the announcement that the train was running late.  Eventually the train came, squeezed myself into a seat ... Transferred to the subway.  No seat, had to grab onto a pole to keep my balance. Got off at Wall Street, walked to the office.  It’s an interesting neighborhood, lots of changes since the last time I worked here.  I’m anxious to explore it again. Spent the day getting set up in the new office — ID card, computer log on, voice mail.  No substantive work yet.  But that’s coming, of course. My workstation has a window!  And a view of the building next door. Our break room has a view of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, the Brooklyn waterfront, and south to the harbor.    Much nicer view than my workstation. At lunch a coworker and I walked over to Zuccotti Park to check out the food carts. We wound up...

So I mentioned, awhile back, that there would be some changes at work. Same employer, different client.  And this client wants me to work out of their offices in lower Manhattan. So it’s back to working in NYC.  And commuting on the Long Island Railroad.  And traveling on the city subways. I love working in the city.  The commute, not so much.   I worked for this client before, so the job is familiar.  But there have been some personnel changes in that office, the individuals I worked with have moved on. It’s a new month, a new job, a new adventure.

It’s been a week of mourning, and a week of celebrating the life of an American hero.  There will be a service in the National Cathedral this morning, and burial tomorrow at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. I find myself in tears.  I have enormous respect for a man whose life was dedicated to serving his country, to serving the American people.  He was an honorable man, a war hero, a politician who recognized that his job was to serve all of his constituents, and not just the ones who agreed with him. He recognized the need for civility in politics, the need for reconciliation between opposing sides to any conflict. That he chose to be eulogized by George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the two men who defeated him in his presidential bids, speaks volumes. Rest In Peace, John, you are an example to all of us.