NYC Journal

I’m a tired old man from moving logs to create another terrace and pitching dump carts of wood chips. The branches and limbs condensed a lot more than I though, yet the back slope has transformed, but not as much as I expected.

None of the tree crew spoke English, and it was handy to have my rusty Spanish. Anyways now we are friends. I guess I’ll be seeing them around doing the landscaping in the future on the new neighbor’s house.

I did get my wish and the privacy trees remain. The crew also dumped some logs down my slope and other clean fill they removed from the abandoned house with the broken stoop.

On the book front someone in the New York Times who is a big time best selling writer did a wonderful blurb and thinks that “Maggie’s” book will be a “classic.” I wonder if this will lead to a NYT book review? I would not be surprised if this happened.

The bathroom cabinet doors are looking mighty good. I still need to do some finishing touches, and I need to buy a wood chisel to flush trim some dowels. Also need to do a bit more staining, but at this point only a tint coat to even things out. I have to stain the wood knobs and mount them.

Separately the GT stem with a rise that has a two piece bar clamp finally got delivered. It is made of steel and is a bit porky. Saved me money though because it allows me to recycle a set of carbon fiber riser bars I had on hand.

Anyways another busy day.

BTW Benny’s Brown Bag, the sandwich shop, got on the local channel 12 news because of their cool pop-up burger sale. This is a new small business that only opened in Peekskill a few months ago.

I expect tomorrow to be another busy day. My life is a bit messy, but still simple.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
Cal, you and I are more alike than I thought-I've had several jobs where I had to figure out work arounds to deal with the crazies I was working with. At the second bill collecting job I had, my supervisor was a dried out drunk with a massive ego problem. "0" was such a drunk that he ran a collections agency he own straight into the gound. He would insult other collectors in front of us if they weren't in the office that day. He would go out to "pick up the mail" and be gone 2 hours. Mind you, the Post Office was only 5 minutes away ! He was also running a jewelry business on company time when he was in the office. I finally found a way to get back at him.....I found out he hated Swarsannager with a passion. So, every time he gave me crap, I gave him an Arnold quote to piss him off. One day when he was ragging on me, I just turned around and said " I like you "O", you're a funny guy-that's why I'll kill you last." After that , he left me alone for about 3 weeks. We had a ongoing battle over opening the windows-everybody but me and the boss smoked. So the office would stink on Monday morning. I'd open a window and he'd scream about it-"We have A/C!". The problem was the A/C systme had no fresh air setting, so if you ran it, all you got was cold smog! "O'" was out of the office on one of his 2 hour mail runs and the boss walked behind my desk and saw the open window. The first thing out of his mouth was" Where's "O"?" I looked the boss in the eye and said " I let him go". I got a strange look from him and he goes to his office. Next, I hear the receptionist's phone ring......he called her to see if I really had shoved "O" out the window
Click to expand...
Calzone said:
"Anyways someone is beginning their project and this tree pruning and removal even so far cost many thousands. I think I would do what MFM suggests though and remove trees that threaten the house,." (Calzon)


"The day you stop thinking,creating,building is the day you start to die inside" (Mr Fujicaman"






Cal
Click to expand...
 
I have many great friends here that kinda keep me out of trouble.

I have to admit sometimes I do go crazy. LOL.

I don’t think I go too fat though with my enemies. In the Christian world it is an eye for an eye, but I say take two eyes.

Anyways friends protect friends.

Cal
 
Age has a way of catching up on you. I realize my strength is fading as well as my stamina. I have to sleep and rest more.

I also realize that I have to take better care of not only myself but also “Maggie.”

Our friend Devil Christian deeply influenced me by telling me how Europeans value more highly quality of life over material consumption that is favored here in the U.S.

The result is I am a very different kind of consumer, and my values have deeply changed.

For a creative or an artist the most precious commodity is time, and being retired is mucho wonderful. I love my life and my humble modest lifestyle. Still I have ample luxury and many treasures because I spent my money wisely, I didn’t cheap-out, and I held onto my accumulations through thick and thin.

Work now has a different value. A good example is the upstairs bathroom cabinet. It looks like a million bucks, but really took a lot of time, and by no means is a profitable product because it was custom built. Really not cost feasible economically, but if I had to pay a pro cabinet maker this cabinet would be mighty costly.

Meanwhile I have some great wood working tools to continue building. This might lead to a side hustle. Like Phil said or his idea, the value id mighty high to me and the perceived value by others is no big deal.

The Chinese say, “Time is the best weapon,” but it is to me the most precious commodity. I wonder how many people are working still when they might consider retiring. I guess what I’m asking is when is enough enough?

Perhaps my retirement can be compared to just a long vacation where I decide to just decompress and really live, where I have the time to explore, grow, and do things that I put off or didn’t have time for. In less words it is a time of “self-nurturing.”

Anyways I wish I would of gotten fired a year earlier and retired at age 62. The trade off of a full year of retirement is worth the haircut. There is more to life than just work, except if your name is How-Weird.

Anyways retirement is a different lifestyle.

Cal
 
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A first frost has descended from the Hudson Valley into Peekskill. I would say the fall colors are about peak, and on many trees the leaves already have fallen.

The tree job on the abandoned house cleared the yards of trees, yet the perimeter trees remain nas well as the privacy trees on the slope down to the marsh. The dead end is now clear also to a guard rail.

Some wood chips remain in the deadend that I will move perhaps later today. My core is sore from yesterday’s work.

I can say that the new owner of the house dropped a lot of money in this tree maintenance. The house looks less sinister, and obviously this owner is not cheatping out and does not seem to be a “flipper.” Anyways when this house crosses the threshold of being mortgageable this tiny house will become a $500K house, even though it is tiny.

BTW my mortgage company has been calling and soliciting us because we have so much equity in our home now because of inflated pricing due to the housing shortage. We have a mortgage rate well under 3% so why would we muck that up? Of course banks make a lot of money on fees and hidden costs. I don’t want to play that game…

Anyways the deadend now adds another element to my delusional Pump-Track where I could expand and dog-leg the course.

I am kinda pleased and hopeful by the tree surgery. Realize the rundown house across the deadend was another reason why our Baby-Victorian went unloved. It was a risk, but it is kinda looking great. We played it well.

Our house is likely the oldest on the street. In fact “Maggie“ thinks it was a model home because of the many deluxe features. The bad is the development of Route 9 is nearby, and we get the fallout of road noise. The trade off is a really great convenient location otherwise in a remote part of the city that is close to Blue Mountain, not far from the downtown, yet really private and quiet except for the road noise In the distance.

Cal
 
Just got back from a dental cleaning on Lawn-Guy-Land. I can describe the place of my upbringing as “Extra-Medium” to use an Eddie-Jeff term to describe the mediocrity there. What a horrible suburb with mucho congestion. It is a place where you see the same house repeated on a street 3-4 or 5 times.

Anyways the only things I miss are salt water fishing and the beaches. In going over the Throgsneck Bridge the Madhattan skyline surely has evolved with all these “needle” like skinny buildings that are UBER tall.

The Producer Price Index and the markets defy my UPS report of layoffs and a slowdown. What gives?

A sunny day to enjoy, but cold. I think I will do some more yard work to make the best of it. I kinda love having the deadend all cleared out. It use to be totally feral and wild.

BTW Sunday is the NYC Marathon.

Cal
 
Using wood chips I kinda built a ramp that will allow easy access to a section of the slope that needs the greatest amount of fill. Over the years this area was bypassed, but this year it will get seriously addressed.

I looked at a section I call the “table” that is almost now level ground, and that section extends about 15 feet, then the slope extends another 15 feet. So if I ever build out the cliff pretty much a 30x40 foot plot plus any deadend I annex. It would be a pretty good pump track.

Anyways progress. Things are shaping up.

Cal
 
I guess with my UPS indicator and what is happening in the markets that something has to give. BTW I don’t have much confidence in the FED. Powell is not an economist, by training he is a lawyer.

Some headlines suggest that there are two different economies: one where people are living on debt and in trouble; and the other still spending heavily. From my UPS driver he thinks we are already in a recession, and I guess my community is the latter that has too much credit card debt and is in trouble.

Snarky Joe edified me that the commercial real estate in NYC is doing fine at tier one level, but at tier two and three is a different story.

Then there is this economic meeting with China. How crazy is that? History has shown that agreements are not followed and that pretty much we screw ourselves. Negotiating with the Chinese never has worked in our favor.

I don’t trust the news. Updates on the war in the Ukraine is lacking, and for me there seems to be diminishing reporting. Then there is all this fluff and click bait that is pure nonsense… The state of journalism and news reporting at this point I deem mucho lame. They still post old news as if it happened yesterday. One headline was the Kerch Bridge being on fire, but this was a story that was a month old and not another successful attack.

I don’t know what to think, but pretty much I expect a blindsided surprise.

There was this economic model that involved Chaos and the term “Islands of stability.” It physically was a study that involved grains of sand and how unstable structures can exist for prolonged periods of time. Islands of stability exist and build upon themselves, until a final point is reached there one collapse cascades into another.

I think/believe we are living in a period of Islands of stability, and a breaking point lays ahead.

Cal
 
Still some more wood chips to move, and there are some thick logs left to harvest as clean fill. The ramp I constructed of wood chips will allow me to roll the logs down the slope where they do the most good. There is a bit of a ravine that butts against my next door neighbor’s property.

I expect the thick layer of wood chips that is several feet thick to act like a sponge and hold moisture. I also think it will act as mulch and help in my battle against Knotweed with has gotten easier to maintain. The ramp also is a kinda wide walkway that allows me to use my dump cart and garden cart to wheel around payloads.

My neighbor in this area has a rather big brush pile.

The sheeting action of water threatens our properties with erosion. So far I have been able to keep up and stay ahead, but global warming and the downpours are only getting worse. I have all these “water-bars” to change the direction of water to slow it down. Instead of a waterfall I effectively make just rapids to minimize the force of water.

We can get a few inches of rain per hour, and nature has shown us it can be sustained. Some of my neighbors don’t enjoy good drainage, and they rely on sump pumps to deal with basement flooding. So far my basement remains dry.

I reported the first frost yesterday. Pretty much an unintended consequence has been a historic long growing season that got extended by a month. Spring also got extended… Winter was mild with only a light snow. I never installed the foul weather mats in the Audi. Because of the mild winter there was an abundance of bees. Even last week some of my plants like the Hostas out front had a fall bloom of flowers, and my Butterfly Bush was still flowering.

There was a study that suggested that Toronto Canada will have the humid tropical summers of NYC within a decade. The past year has shown/indicated that this scenario is kinda happening. Three of “Maggie’s” brothers bought their retirement homes in North Carolina, but I kept quiet. I think this is big a mistake. Global warming is a game changer.

At least so far New England and New York seem to have at least a somewhat stable water supply. You can’t live without water, and as time goes on this will become a more precious commodity.

Did you know that Canada is the biggest holder of fresh water in the world? Canada has what everyone will need.

Know that I hear the diesel trains on the Metro North Hudson Line, but the Baby-Victorian is situated 75-80 feet above sea level depending on the tide. The Hudson River has a tide, the water is considered brackish, and pretty much is a giant estuary that extents north to Troy, just below Albany the state capitol.

My hope s that the gigantic valley we live in will remain viable. I can’t think of a better location in the continental U.S. BTW I think/believe small New England farms will be important and make a big comeback. I think industrial big farming will be threatened.

The Pacific Northwest was once a cloud forest, but now there are droughts and forest fires. Get ready for some surprises and big change. A decade is not so long a time…

Don’t tell “Maggie,” but we have likely enough land to grow our own food if we had to. She likes the two lawns we have in the back-backyard, then pretty much there is also the table and the slope that could be developed. My than a 40x100 plot of land to cultivate.

Cal
 
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In market news Maersk is cutting 10K jobs because shipping revenue is down.

My earlier UPS report kinda gets reinforced that a slowdown is underway and probably likely a recession. Timing the market is hard to do, but I have found that shipping indicators are really great as leading indicators. Seldom wrong.

IMHO the markets are ahead of themselves. Be careful. I don’t really believe the headlines and market news I’m reading…

Separately, today a mid sized dumpster was dropped off in the driveway of the abandoned house. This avoids needing a permit.

I already know the landscaping crew might be coming by Saturday. Remember I’m a smut queen, and I was told by one of my friends that are part of that crew.

I suspect some junk will be removed that has been dumped and left behind on the slope. One of the items is an old trailer and a cap for a pickup truck.

Today I have the opportunity to harvest those logs. Kinda timely. I speculate that either roof work will begin, or some limited amount of demo; or more likely the decrepit cedar fence that is half falling down will be removed. I think the fence removal makes more sense and the dumpster is appropriately sized.

The garage roof might not survive the winter. There are already places where the sheathing underneath the shingles has been breached. At this point not sure the hip roof trusses are not rotted and need to be replaced. At least the sheathing has to be entirely replaced.

Usually by now the trees have for the most part dropped their leaves, and just after Thanksgiving is when the City sends out the vacuum truck to remove all the leaves that homeowners rake into piles for this pickup. For me this presents a deadline and the weather can impact my actions and response.

My hope is for good weather and a later use of the vacuum truck, otherwise the timing will be bad for everyone.

Some of my neighbors use leaf blowers and pile their leaves along a fence really close to my house. This is the pile I harvest every year for mucho clean fill. I wonder if I might have the opportunity to harvest that front stoop for use as clean fill. Hmmm…

Pretty much this starts out as just mulch, but after a year the leaves turn into topsoil. Inadvertently I have a worm farm on my slope. The worms are like snakes.

Anyways I see lots of opportunity happening, but I have to be timely like I was with the tree wood chips. Time to put on some boots and get to work.

Cal
 
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The owner of the abandoned house came by with his father in-law. They threw out some storm windows and misc junk.

I did not get caught rescuing logs. I have two more trophies to claim, and now it is safe to do so.

When Joe was here I engaged with him and pretty much he revealed that he is not selling and he bought this property to keep. I brought up the conversation saying how I was impressed with the tree crew.

I’m having my second breakfast, oatmeal with two bananas.

I’ll move the remaining logs and break off. The back-backyard as a result in my pause when Joe came by kinda got revamped. I moved some logs I set up as a trials obstacle into a bigger more interesting pile. It is relocated into a better location and is not in the way when I mow the lawns.

I also mowed the lawn for probably the last time this year. Was pretty easy because not a lot of growth. I did pretty much a fall clean up. Later today I will see how I do with my log hopping. The pile is a stack of three kinda large logs. The height is kinda scary, but also impressive if I can clean it. I know at a reasonable speed I can clean the height, but the challenge is either doing it slow without any momentum or even harder from a track stand.

Back to work…

Cal
 
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A crazy thing just happened and I believe we have a modeling gig. “Maggie” was working on her publicity, when Vanessa our agent called. Pretty much a two hour conversation with London.

The brand was a solicitation that Maggie deleted because she is off the Instagram treadmill and figured she s done being a salesperson selling products.

The brand also somehow contacted our agent and I learned pretty much they loved Maggie’s attitude, lifestyle and writing on Sub-Stax. Then Vanessa our agent set the hook.

Anyways this product/brand is kinda aligned with us, and Vanessa realizes that our brand, meaning Maggie and I, are really about our lifestyle and values.

Somehow this ties in with our recent visit to our local homeless shelter, and it also seems that this brand also does a “Patagonia” and donates part of their profits that feed into their ideals. Our homeless shelter does not use canned goods or expired foods, they do farm to table because they believe food is medicine.

So again this seems like divine intervention.

They want to shoot in our home, which is a bit of a construction project, but I’m cool with that. It is a real life that involves family, biking, and is an ongoing restoration process.

The only thing I can say is that the brand involves wellness and health.

BTW I put air in the tires of the steel IBIS and tested my stack of logs. I’ll be honest and tell you it is a bit scary. My first attempt had the top log topple, but I changed out that log with another that locks in place.

I cleared it a couple of times, so now I can feel a bit cocky, but know I have a log ramping up to a larger fatter top log that is mucho scary that pretty much I stopped to get my helmet. That is when Maggie told me about the brand and the gig. Also the brand is going to have an event that coincides with Maggie’s book launch. This is huge. Pretty much the brand is helping with Maggie’s book promotion.

How cool is that?

So now to get my helmet and some courage to do something a bit scary.

BTW our agent now understands how to market us as lifestyle, fitness, and health models. Our agent is a very great agent. Very much worth the fee. Also likely this might be a bit of a steady gig.

I thought I was retired. LOL. Anyways call me a Ho, I can use the money.

Cal
 
It was wise to wear my helmet because my pile of logs is tall enough to catch my bottom bracket even with just a small 30 tooth chainring. Pretty much the easy part is doing a manual (wheelie) to get the front wheel over the pile to the other side of the pile, but then I would get jammed up and come to a stop with the middle of my bike hung up on the apex.

Not good, and then some graceful and then not so graceful “bailouts.”

Realize that my pile of logs are almost knee high and the base also is wide. Pretty much would be easier if it were just one thick log.

Oh-well… I need some practice, and also I need to make it less scary.

I looked in the dumpster, and it seems like the next project is new windows. I saw some packaging for a new double hung window, and also old storm windows were being thrown out. I suspect that the landscape crew will be back to demo the fence perhaps.

I’m kinda happy with the gig that is lining up. Kinda crazy too. Anyways here we go..,.

Pretty much we got the gig because of our lifestyle so our home, a work in progress, biking, and promoting wellness and good health. Pretty much we just have to be ourselves.

Cal
 
The two Santa Cruz Model “F” were built about a decade apart, and their serial numbers are only 248 away from each other. This equates to about 25 Model “F” are made a year on average, or less than 250 over a ten year period.

Perhaps not a big seller, nor as popular as say an OM of which I also own.

Anyways the guitar known as “Hog” because it is made of all figured mahogany, even the top, has this very focused thump that is thick and deep. Meanwhile the other Model “F” made of all old growth woods that was harvested in the 1930’s has this chime that rings and sings, even though it is still a new guitar that is still breaking in.

Anyways it is like having two girlfriends at the same time. Mucho crazy. I love them both. “Bliss,” I say. Anyways I think I love the Model F’s more than my old growth Brazilian OM. They have a more focused voice that speaks to me.

I am so glad that I bought them as retirement gifts. The more I play them the more they respond back. This is both an amazing process and also rewarding. I love them because of their differences. Know that the Hog was a ten year old guitar that went unloved and was unplayed, basically a brand new guitar I secured for no-money.

Meanwhile the custom ordered guitar made of all old growth woods held costly premiums and was mucho expensive. Now I’m priced out due to inflation and price increases.

I am amused because “Maggie” kinda gave our agent a hard time. Vanessa though got her way after talking Maggie off the ledge. I asked Maggie if she feels like she got “snookered” again. Pretty funny this business.

Cal
 
Today I unload an orphaned bike. Pretty much “Maggie” got it in her head that this beach cruiser would be a good bike for her.

”It got really good reviews online,” she said.

I knew better and tried to tell her that it did not have proper gearing for the hills where we live, and basically a beach cruiser is for flat locals. I also stressed that the bike would be “bloated” and excessively heavy.

“Gears are your friend,” I said knowing that 6-speeds were not enough. Even the lowest gear is too steep even for our street. Basically the bike is assembled and new. Women tend to not listen to men.

So I ended up buying her a gift I knew in advance would likely be given away or end up in a landfill.

So no Ha-Ha because of the total waste of money. PhD’s tend o be know it alls, and pretty much this is a good example of why men have shorter lifespans.

Today I am giving the bike away and it will reside eventually at a beach house on the Jersey Shore where it belongs.

Cal
 
Afternoon Cal,

Hasselblads For Events by Nokton48, on Flickr

I used to use these cameras at Events. Now I have rebuilt them, updated somewhat. On the left, 25th Anniversary signed Hasselblad 500C/M, now updated for today, with the CFV16 Hasselblad Digital Back. Introduced in 2007 and produces great results right out of the camera. Super Uber Easy to Use, Very Friendly. On the right is my 500EL/M loaded with 220 B&W Shanghai. Back in the day I would use FUJI EI 800 Color Neg. The EL/M has my new to me 120mm F5.6 S-Planar C T* with Masked Compendium Hood. Noisy but draws attention in a good way. Plan to shoot a few events with these. The camera on the left has the 80mm F2.8 C T* Zeiss Planar.
 
Phil,

The bike would still weigh about 45 pounds and be handicapped. Not really worth any further investment. I wrote it off as a complete loss due to PhD and “Woman-Factor.”

The bike has only 7-speeds and pretty much even with a cassette change gearing would be limited asnd the steps would be big jumps. Not ideal…

The Yo Betty has 27 gears, a 20 inch gear, and weighs 19 pounds. I could replace the pedals, install a Ti bottom bracket, replace the mucho heavy gel saddle, and could likely shed over a pound.

The “Cruiser” did not have nimble handling either…

Oh-well and I can move on…

The thing with “Maggie” is that she “cheaps-out,” wastes money, and is really wasteful, even though she presents a “green” platform.

Truth be told is that I have to sort out the paper and plastic for recycling because she just does a poor job.

Cal
 
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