New York August NYC Meet-Up 2021

Yesterday after work I used up a tube of white acrylic caulking that I found in the Peekskill Metro North train station parking lot almost a year ago. The color was perfect and just what I needed to get the basic gap fill.

I'm at work now, things are slow, and I have time to walk to Home Depo on 59th Street. I passed the now closed Bed Bath and Beyond on First Avenue, and I see that it is being renovated. The smut is that this former BBB will be the new home of the Home Depo on 59th Street.

The present Home Depo location is in the basement of a high rise skyscrapper, and Mike Bloomberg is the landlord. According to a worker at HD "Mike Bloomberg is a bad landlord" and not so responsive in making repairs and doing maintenance, this is why they are moving.

I'll get more of this caulking to do a nice fillet. This DAP product is rated for 25 years.

Kinda lucky that I had a new caulking gun that I bought to fill a masonary crack.

So again Fed Ex will deliver the cedar pergola from Canada. I wasted some vacation days for false deliveries, but I got other work done, so the time was not wasted.

I find it remarkable how "Divine Intervention" seems to be part of my life. Too many remarkable things just seem to happen to me. In a ways how my early retirement panned out seems to be part of some master plan laid out for me.

I hope it does not seem "nar-C" but even as a small kid I have always felt a sense of destiny and that there is some great purpose that lays ahead that has some great meaning.

I believe being a Lazy-Slacker is part of that master plan, otherwise how did all this great stuff happen to me that is beyond luck?

Calvin-August
 
MrFujicaman said:
Why wouldn't Bloomberg be a bad landlord? From what I hear he sucked as a mayor!
Click to expand...

MFM,

Mike Bloomberg is the shortest billionaire I ever met. I have a shot where I'm dressed like a surfer shaking his hand on the porch of Gracie Mansion.

IMHO Mike was both good and bad for the city. For 12 years under his tenure (three terms) mucho redevelopment and gentrification went on.

Stop and frisk violated Civil Rights, but crime was down. One thing I have to give him credit for is that the NYC economy did well under those 12 years.

During the Great Recession he cut the budget, this meant cutting $30M for sponsoring the arts, but since he is a billionaire he took $30M of his own money and donated it to the arts to cover the shortfall. Also his salary was $1.00.

Mayor DeBlazio IMHO is a worse Mayor. Crime is now kinda rampent and the NYPD demoralized. Homelessness is worse. Shootings are worse also.

I would take back Mike over Bozo the Mayor anyday.

Cal
 
Hea Cal,
They have a guy from Qatar or someplace they are trying to recruit. Also, apparently, the original agreement requires a 3-year turnover period so you may be in business for a while if you want.
 
Do you really think Bloomberg does repairs or directs any of that????
Whatever company hired to run the property probably sucks, not the landlord. I know, I work in that building. 😛
 
Saganich said:
Hea Cal,
They have a guy from Qatar or someplace they are trying to recruit. Also, apparently, the original agreement requires a 3-year turnover period so you may be in business for a while if you want.
Click to expand...

Chris,

Thanks for the smut.

"Maggie" says the bare/lowest hourly rate for a consultant for a start-up is $300.00.

I don't know if I could work for less. I'm trying to avoid big tax bills and increases in Medicare premiums.

"Moo," said the Pig.

Cal
 
fiddle said:
Do you really think Bloomberg does repairs or directs any of that????
Whatever company hired to run the property probably sucks, not the landlord. I know, I work in that building. 😛
Click to expand...

Fidel,

I like Mike Bloomberg. Overall I think he was great for NYC despite stop and frisk.

You are likely correct. At Mike's level a management company is likely to blame.

As a trained journalist I attributed the quote from a Home Depo worker. BTW I was just minding my own business inquiring about soaking tubs (Hydro Systems) that are shaped like slippers when somehow the conversation about Bloomberg owning the building and being a bad landlord somehow came up.

Yesterday I nearly witnessed a biker hitting a pedestrian on First Ave. It would not have been the biker's fault, the walker stepped into the bike lane without looking, and the biker almost crashed trying to avoid the collision.

Cal
 
So I have a 10x10 cedar pergola kit in my driveway that will protect my albino gal "Maggie" (Irish, English and Dutch) from the sun. We intend on growing grapes on it.

Maggie has blue eyes and these are prone to develop Kat-er-acks. New technology replaces the lenses and lasers are used. So surgery is needed to be scheduled.

Some new law for care giving and doctor's appointments I'm looking into exploiting so save my vacation time.

So in between the house and garage is my 11x14 patio made of pavers, and surrounding the patio on three sides are garden beds where we will create a "kitchen garden" where we will grow food.

The back backyard has frequent visits from animals, and placement in the front backyard is more protected.

I am known for creating "monsters" so I think changing the two car garage somewhat into a carriage house is along these lines. The square footage of the house varies from 1200 to 1400-1500.

The 26x26 footprint on the survey is what I go by (676 square feet time two floors=1352 square feet). Add the 5x7 kitchen bathroom over the crawl space (35 square feet) and you get pretty close to 1400 square feet.

The Baby-Victorian is a tiny house, but if I use the carriage house as my studio/workspace with the 12x20 attic I'll have 660 square feet.

The garage, although laid out differently would be like adding a third story the the Baby-Victorian. Surely the conversion of the garage to a carriage house is creating a monster. LOL.

Since I sealed up the leaky porch basement the full basement retains the heat from the oil burner that supplies our hot water (tankless instant on). I empty a dehumidifier twice a day, but the temperature stays pegged at 79 degrees.

I should see lower fuel bills this winter. Last winter the entire basement was cold and in the 50's.

Moral of the story is buying a small house allows me to do crazy things where "crazy is good."

Calvin August
 
Ive been trying to do this w my kid for over a year, unfortunately he has no interest in sitting in the dark for an extended period of time. lol
 
fiddle said:
Ive been trying to do this w my kid for over a year, unfortunately he has no interest in sitting in the dark for an extended period of time. lol
Click to expand...

Just find your field of view of the lens, block it off on the floor with something you can feel in the dark with your toes, then use a flash to illuminate while walking around in and out of the frame to get you lighting right.

Phil Forrest
 
jsrockit said:
You need to build a huge camera obscura somewhere on your property and then take photos of "Maggie" within it.
Click to expand...

John,

In art school I did convert a room into a camera obscura. At that time I also was fascinated by pinhole cameras. I held a presentation where I held my class inside my camera obscura.

No images were made though.

Cal
 
In NYC I see the U.N. will be meeting over the next week due to all the cops and security measures out in force.

Fall approaches and leaves are already changing color and falling. Today was jacket weather with the temperature in the 50's.

I learned the Bed Bath and Beyond in Mohegan Lake is now closed. This is the second BBB that closed that I would frequent. I might have to pay and become a member, but I'm not down with online ordering and the shipping that is not so green.

The amount of cardboard from "Maggie's" incoming is already a lot to deal with, especially since in Peekskill paper and cardboard is only collected once a month.

I finally got to use the Milwaukee edger attachment that works with the head of my Milwaukee string trimmer. My lawn has not been edged in decades, where the grass somehow has been growing over concrete on the front backyard and back-backyard sidewalks.

A lot of the Knotweed has been mulched and I moved it up the hill/embankment as ground cover along with moving rocks into piles higher up where they can do more good for erosion control.

Seems like I have a boring life, but I have big plans, and then I will have a safe place to get back into art, music and perhaps writing.

Maggie has a book proposal being looked at a list of 20 editors that was sent out by her literary agent. Already two editors want to talk.

A separate headline is that with Covid and the pandemic there is a book shortage due to a slowdown in production and also the raw material (wood pulp).

At the hospital I work at a necessary commodity is dry ice and evidently this is also in short supply. One of the newsletters I subscribe to mentions a cat food shortage, he owns six cats and has no kids.

I'm beginning to get the mindset that the new world we live in is of shortages, but will there be a panic and empty shelves eventually. Then there is inflation, so I might have to start stockpiling such things as my skin cream as not to be inconvenienced or out of luck.

Then I started to think about photography and what cameras or lenses that I still want to buy. Interesting to note that I have GAS for a F2 with a DE-2 prism just because it is small and I already own a black Nikon 45/2.8 AIS pancake lens.

This is also in competition with getting another Nikon F3P. I gave away my F3 HP that had the Prada leather installed to Mike the "Skinny Hipster" who at the time was undergoing a nasty divorce.

For me the F3P ruined me with its more simple and basic features that make it a rather distinct camera. I grew to hate the door locking mechanism and the three shots required when unloading and loading film.

So then I have to consider a F2 Titan, but the prices seem inflated where it seems people are buying Titans as investments, meanwhile regular F2's with DE-2's the prices seem to be down.

As far as bargains and value a regular F2 scores highly, and the F2 Titan gas a major "gouge-factor." From Nippon Camera Clinic I learned from Daniel, who no longer works there, that the later F2's have updated features like a better shutter brake, so it is worth paying a premium for a F2 with a late 70's serial number or even a serial number that begins 80XXXX that was made in 1980.

"Devil Christian" is responsible for the GAS that got started with his tiny Pentax SLR's that are mighty cute, and now I want a small SLR. My F3P I kinda like having with the MD-4 motordrive, and I don't like converting it, so the solution is just get another F3P.

Also know that I have some rare aftermarket F3 handgrip and a second databack that prints the date in between frames, as well as a Beattie Intenscreen with a supersized split prism.

I guess deep down I always wanted a second F3P anyways, but a F2 is still a great camera.

I also need to get a Nikon 50 in LTM to use on my Nicca that has a rear door like a M3.

Cal
 
In today's episode of "how to operate Metro North like a railroad in a third world country" we had to change trains at Croton Harmon because the D-ZELL/electric locomotive was running low on fuel.

How dumb is that?

Also on Monday the had a surprise unannounced schedule change where they made the cronically late trains earlier just to create more anxiety and confusion. I'm sure some passengers found out the hard way by missing their train.

So in the balance though for me the earlier train means that the almost always late trains kinda now come on time, and I'm able to "clock-in" at 7:30 and with the 7-8 minute rule I "clock-out" at 3:23 for my full 7 1/2 hour work day. I avoid the crowds and the rushing by leaving early and leaving early.

On my walk in it was dark, and the Harvest Moon made a really great shot framed in a round opening in between some trees. Too bad I did not have a film camera loaded with Acros and a tripod. The shots would be worth missing the train. Oh-well.

This shot was ideal for Acros and Diafine and I would have wonderful mids due to Diafine's profound compensating effect (contrast compression).

Last night I looked at my cameras. My Ti M6 prototype is jammed and needs service; the M3-DS that I bought back from Brian is also jammed with a detached shutter that happened by trying to gain back the slow speeds.

I have a 90 Super Angulon (28mm FOV in 4x5) that needs to be cleaned and timed. My Fuji 100mm for my "Texas Leica" does not set the shutter.

So next year I think I will do a big drop at Nippon Camera Clinic and get all my gear up and running.

One Leica lens I want is the APO 100/2.8 Macro in "R" mount. I already have a "Boxed" Elpro that I bought at B&H that was miss-priced. This lens would get used on my SL2-MOT, SL (digital) and SL2 (digital). I have the adapters already to use "R" lenses on my SL's.

Cal
 
Today "Maggie" has two interviews with book editors that received her book proposal from her big-time agent.

The proposal was sent to twenty editors just last week.

This pivot for Maggie would be great. After 6 years of blogging the demands of constant making of content and posting gets exhausting. Busy-busy and over bearing it gets to be a burden of sorts because it is fur-Net-ick, never ending, and constant.

Maggie is going further than I did with her writing, she got past the gate-keepers by being solicited by a literary agent. Let's see how this pans out.

Cal
 
Looking forward to doing some building out using mucho thousands of dollars worth of ELFA shelving and brackets to build out the garage/carriage house/studio.

Remember that Devil Christian accused me of building a high rise in the one bedroom of the luxury apartment. To me it was "going vertacle" was the only option to have storage space for my printing supplies and "Maggie's" wardrobe.

It was like a submarine loaded with canned food before a 6 month tour. Passages were narrow and the alleys rather tall.

So in my basement is warehoused a rather good supply of ELFA from the Container Store.

I've been saving egg cartons to build out an anaconic chamber of sorts for my 300B single-ended triode (8 watts) that is also stored in my basement along with a CD collection. I'm also starting to collect vinyl LP's even though I don't own a turntable yet.

I'll be setting up my guitar amps and import my music gear. Ideally I will have a recording studio.

The Concept 2 rower is set up in the enclosed porch for now. I have some free weights also stored in the basement.

Then there is the "Jersey Barrier" (Epson 7800 24 inch wide printer) and all of my digital printing gear...

On my train rides I daydream about building out this studio that for now I will share with my Audi A4.

Don't forget the "Dungeon Lamp" that Maggie bought that I will recycle along with a total of three doctor's stools, a hospital hamper, and a modern chase to nap in as my daybed. Also have that library ladder that I found on 64th and First Avenue to use to get up into the second floor.

Next year should be construction, new gabled roof, solar panels, battery backup, mini-split, new insulated garage doors, and a 12x20 "attic."

My thinking is the second building lot (back-backyard) should remain as an open lawn with a back flower garden. The Front backyard will have a patio with pergola and a kitchen garden for growing fruit and vegetables.

Maggie asked, "What are we going to do when the house is done?" I just keep quiet because I know what I'll be doing. I intend on being busy doing my work.

Calvin-August
 
Yesterday "Maggie" had two interviews with editors about her book proposal; today she has another two interviews with editors; and on Thursday yet another so far.

One thing that is developing is our Baby-Victorian is looking mighty cute. Enough progress has been made where it looks less rundown and neglected, and there seems to be an element of sparkle happening that suggests a diamond in the rough.

Our neighbors and the neighborhood now sees the charm and novelty of the house that likely is the oldest on an avenue of 13 houses.

In the back-backyard I'm cultivating the view of a 40-50 acre valley of marsh grass that includes Dickey Brook and a small body of water I would call a pool and not a pond. In the distance is a hillside that is all forest. We are 30 feet above water level, and not in danger of any flooding. In the bigger picture we are 80 feet above sea level nested in a valley on the southern end of town. Realize that in the north end of Peekskill is Camp Smith a Army Reserve training camp, across the river is Bear Mountain State Park, and basically the entrance and gateway to the "Hudson Highlands" where the tradition of "The Hudson River School" of painting began.

The geography is stunning and not far away is Fort Montgomery, Garrison, Beacon and West Point all with military histories.

We are right at the edge of town in a neighborhood where the streets are a big maze of short blocks and dead ends, yet close to Route 9, and we can hear the Metro North trains on the Hudson Line.

I'm at a point where I might retire wearing my Patagonia knickers because the cool weather has settled in.

The repairs on the porch basement has elevated the temperature in the full basement, and I'm pretty sure that my oil bill and consumption will be a lot lower. The porch basement was like having a window open all winter and pretty much my basement was a stable/constant 55 degrees.

Now heat is retained, even though it is just for hot water, and the temperature stays well above 70. I suspect with the onset of cold weather that the basement will stay in the upper 60's.

Calvin-August
 
Got room down there to set up your deep tanks? I've been mixing 1:1 D23 (just metol and suplhite) with 4x5 TMX100. Processed four at a time in black Unicolor Uniroller.

4x5 100TMX Kelly Lighting Impaflex 60 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Test exposures look good, but thinking about some TMX400 which will give me f45 in my smallish portrait nook/set

Don't forget Harvey's 777. It is a super PITA to procure from Bluegrass in KY but I'm thinking worth it. They only make it every so often and they own the patent on it. We should pool our resources for a group purchase as it is an ordeal to deal with them
 
Nokton48 said:
Got room down there to set up your deep tanks? I've been mixing 1:1 D23 (just metol and suplhite) with 4x5 TMX100. Processed four at a time in black Unicolor Uniroller.

4x5 100TMX Kelly Lighting Impaflex 60 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Test exposures look good, but thinking about some TMX400 which will give me f45 in my smallish portrait nook/set

Don't forget Harvey's 777. It is a super PITA to procure from Bluegrass in KY but I'm thinking worth it. They only make it every so often and they own the patent on it. We should pool our resources for a group purchase as it is an ordeal to deal with them
Click to expand...

Devil Dan,

I certainly will be using my 3 1/2 gallon hard rubber Kodak tanks. Know that I secured a bunch of 2x3 holders and I have ten fully working 2x3 Graphmatics.

I'm also keen on getting some Harvey's 777.

I also have glassware, triple beam scale, graduated cylanders, ultrasonic tank and mucho ambition to do a lot of home brewing of developers.

I can see me doing lots of crazy and creative stuff involving chemistry. Understand that I come from a research background.

Also I'm mighty stubborn... LOL.

Cal
 
Being a Time Life Guy (like Fred DeVan) we should ask Bill Pierce about Harvey's 777.

BTW the stuff at Photographer's Formulary worked per TomA (looked luscious) but it is not the real deal. They are the only ones allowed to sell it as they hold that patent on it. If remember correctly they sell it in ten gallon plastic bags. The dev and they also sell the 777 Replenisher. 5 gallons on the replenisher. Plenty enough for deep tanks
 
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