Hands Free

Every now and then I get a random genius idea, pause what I was previously doing, then devote two hours to create something. Today, after thinking about how I could make good use of a duplicate cell phone holster...

My love affair with the hot glue gun continued as I glued a shock absorbing spring to the back of the case. I then sculpted with hot glue a receptor for the spring to marry the head post of the bike. Then steel tie wire squeezed it tight.

Now I can explore without dangerously holding and maneuvering the phone in one hand.

Spared by Sandy

Astoria/LIC was spared by Sandy (relatively). However, we still took some punches. Here the top floor of a facade was pulled down by a gust from behind the parapet above. Sucks for the car below, but it's an SUV so I don't feel so bad. 29th St and 41st Ave (just north of Queensboro Plaza):

A couple big trees came down, pulling wires down with them. Some cars were fortunate, others not so much.

One of the things that makes the LIC Bar garden so amazing are the weeping willow trees on 46th Ave. THANK GOD two of the three survived! Sad to see one go though...

I always look for silver linings, and I found this one:

Strange Sleepers 6

What is Love? Love is falling asleep on the subway with this 1993 hit blasting loudly from the smartphone in your shirt pocket. The song just before was Bryan Adams' Every Thing I Do...wow...

Strange Sleepers 5

Wake me up, when September ends...

...and also a guest starring capture from our friend Mr. Lees. We call him the "Houdini" (the Sleeper that is, not Mr. Lees):

Click to view full Sleeper log

Two Way Fullfillment

After over 2 years, my wish came true. It was March of 2010 when I made the observation (and blog post) about the obvious need for a two way bike lane on the 72nd Street thru-street in Central Park (AKA Terrace Dr). Being a one way street, it sort of made sense for a one way bike lane in its inception, but being a heavily utilized crosstown route through the park in both directions, there had developed a constant danger of salmon traffic. Finally, as of July 2012, the lane has finally taken on the appropriate form, allowing safe passage for bikes in either direction, while allowing the one lane of west bound cars.

This is what it looked like before:

March 2010 Post

Next step, get rid of the cars.

Wonder Window

After a couple months, the window shelf arrangement has turned into an 80's haircut. Basically, the morning glory, growing from the original planter below, has taken over and despite my frequent and regular correcting, has persevered in its pursuit to strangle out everything else. Finally I gave up and just let it do it's thing (I can still pick my basil leaves, mint and rosemary even though they are hidden in a jungle of madness).

The hot exhaust from the air conditioner is preventing anything from growing from the right side of the bottom planter.

Here's what it looked like a couple months ago...

Wendy

Do you know what that big blue star is in LIC that you can see from the 7 train? It's Wendy. Thanks to Davis and Warshow and MoMA PS1, you can visit this large air purifier, climb inside it and cool off for a bit.

Entitled

After moving from uptown Manhattan, I do miss the park, but what I don't miss are the entitled, obnoxious adults and children who frequently occupy the otherwise beautiful place. Today, The Honey Badgers arrived at Great Lawn field #3 for our weekly softball doubleheader. To our dismay, there was a sea of suited up 11 year olds on the field, playing what seemed to be the final innings of a "championship game" (don't ask me why both teams were wearing the same jersey). Aside from the fact the game was encroaching into our playing time, there was evidence of further nuisance, as sitting on the bench was a box a small trophies. Sure enough, when the game ended (5 minutes after our tight window of playing time began), the coaches and parents corralled the horde of banshees onto field. ONTO THE FIELD!?! The game was over and we were clearly waiting to play, why wouldn't they conduct their stupid ceremony on the side, out of our way. After the coaches were done handing out little trophies to all of the players, they finally started to disperse, just in time for an anxious mother to scream, "get back here for photos!!!" Are you kidding me?!? Another 8 minutes and finally they were done and out of our way. Well, THEY were but their trash wasn't. Those entitled pigs scampered away, leaving all of their water bottles, napkins, and of course two huge empty boxes that used to be filled with stupid trophies. Now for perspective, every softball team that plays on these fields takes away their own trash. It's etiquette, it's standard, it's common sense. But these entitled Uptown parents just thought somebody was going to come clean up behind them. I wonder how their kids will turn out?*

Two empty trophy boxes, audaciously left behind by some entitled Uptown parents.

*I do know a couple people who were raised Uptown and turned out normal. So it's not everybody who's out of touch with reality, just 97% of them.

Astoria Gardening

When I moved to Astoria from the Upper East Side, the biggest concern I had was how well I would be able to transplant my micro-gardening capabilities. Having a dedicated fire escape on the top floor of my previous apartment, I took for granted my small yet convenient space. Knowing that my new fire escape space was on a lower level in much higher visibility, I came to the realization that the practicality of having a garden out there was much riskier. After all, it was technically illegal (although if a couple planters actually kept somebody from maneuvering across a fire escape during an emergency, I would have to say that it was indeed their time to go).

So while sitting in the new landlord's office to sign my new lease, I casually asked him if I could put plants in the common outdoor space behind the apartments. "No" he responded. "Cats will dig up the dirt and clog the drains." At that point I realized I had just signed a lease of a building owned by a man who had no desire to entertain any activity that, despite what benefit it could bring, had the smallest ounce of potential to bring any minor theoretical aspect of risk, whatsoever. In other words, he sucked.

From there I figured I would ask if there were any community gardens in the area. "No," he answered abruptly. At that point I understood that he was also unsympathetic to urban gardening, meaning that he not only sucked as a person, but he was an evil human being (that is correct, unsympathetic to urban gardening = evil human being). Not wanting to be in the same room as such a terrible person, I ended the conversation and left his office. Having some time to kill, instead of taking the train home, I decided to walk down 31st Street to take in the new neighborhood. I soon walked by an old woman who appeared to be digging up some dirt behind some bushes in a small patch of exposed earth surrounded by an otherwise impermeanble hardscape. I figured maybe she would know if there were any gardens around, since she seemed to be the type. But when I approached the old woman and politely asked, "Excuse me mam..." she jumped up, startled. I continued, "I just moved to the neighborhood, and was wondering if you knew of any community gardens around." She continued to look at me, confused, and responded hesitantly in a thick accent, "I don know, I jus bury my dead bird." Fair enough. I went on my way, feeling very welcomed to Queens.

I eventually did find that community garden, but it is a rogue garden on private abandoned land, so I cannot describe it in fear of endangering its existence. But I never gave up the idea of gardening at home, no matter how restricted my space was. The less space I had the bigger the challenge. For a variety of reasons, I had to confine all of my window accessories to a single kitchen window, which included a small air conditioner. However, a hanging planter and one inside/outside self draining shelf later, this was the end result:

Booya! No I have fresh basil, rosemary, mint, and some other random decoratives within easy reach of my kitchen. Take that, loser landlord!

Sorry, Katie

Sorry, Katie.

Sorry for poking at you about our first NCAA matchup. Sorry for calling an upset, for a matchup in the first round of March Madness where your Duke was a 2 seed, playing 15 seed Lehigh. Sorry for sending you constant text messages before the game saying we were going to win. Sorry for for telling you to "bring it." Sorry for asking if you were nervous. Sorry for telling you that you've been indoctrinated. Sorry for blaming it on the dye in Coach K's hair. Sorry for asking if you really bleed blue. Sorry for beating you. Sorry Sis.

Here is Me Being Sorry:

Also, sorry for losing the next round to Xavier after blowing a 15 point lead.