Dwight St & Van Dyke St (edited)

That is what the sign reads above the bus stop on the corner. The other sign says B77 - Red Hook. The salmon colored, cracking plaster of Rocky Sullivan's Tap Room extends the length of the block and wraps around the corner opposite us. Brand new Corona posters interrupt the blank spaces between the windows. The bottles, with sliced limes shoved into their tops, appear to be seeking refuge under the shady umbrella-like fronds of a palm tree on a hot, sandy beach somewhere. The few lonely people walking slowly in the distance, accosted by the uninterrupted drizzle, seek their own shelter under worn-out, black, nylon umbrellas. The gray of the city melts into the gray of the sky to create a single, uniformly depressed scenery. Only the blue corner of IKEA poking out behind some distant buildings and the pink plaster of Rocky Sullivan's add any real color to the picture. A bus goes by on the street in front of us. I recognize the ad on the side of the bus but writing is a language I am not familiar with. Hmm... Russian maybe? My mind quickly wanders the streets of Eastern Europe - distant places that exist more in my imagination and the imagination of Cold War era Hollywood productions than as anything really 'real'. Nevertheless, my Eastern Europe is full of places where the buses are covered in the pretend letters and words of the bus that just went by. A block further up, going in the opposite direction, another bus goes by - this one in Spanish. Across the water just to the west of us, a statue named Liberty translates both buses into a language that makes sense here - only in New York, only in this America.
Ariel finally comes down from his apartment and we get on our way.

Weekend Photos - 1

Here are just five photos - all of people. I took over 150 photos this weekend. I want to post a lot of them but this is what I am going to start with because I need to be running to work in like 5 minutes.

Talia playing with her favorite person - another Talia!

This is a great photo of Nola. I was trying to get a shot of her hair clip and she just wouldn't look away from the camera. She is a cutey!

My good friend Jeremy in front of some random Nissan.

Two people having a great time - Talia eating ice cream and Ari playing with TWO I-Phones (because one just isn't good enough - see the smile on her face).

And finally, my brother Mo and his wife, Seung-hee. They married in January but this was the first time I met her. We met at dinner Friday night.

I promise that I will put up a lot more photos from this weekend later (flowers, buildings, more people, etc.), but this is a start.

Later,

me

Monday's Music

Today's Theme: Airplanes







I know that I put this last one up here before, but it really goes with the theme. I couldn't find the official video for the second one in a form that I could embed but the Lego's version is pretty close to the original.

Enjoy,
love,
me

Just a few

I have very little time for blogging this morning but I took a lot of photos yesterday and I want to share a few of them here.

Crossing one of the bridges. I like this photo. Not bad for a camera phone in a moving vehicle.

I got new shoes. They are leather.

Do you see the fence in the background?

This is that same fence.

Do you like the antenna in the middle of the photo?

This is a shot of the underside of a freeway - not what you would normally consider a very pretty place, but still a great photo.

Well, anyway. I have to get to work now.

Approaching one in the morning

It is approaching 1AM and I am still awake. I feel okay being awake but I need to sleep if I am going to function well in the morning. I just want to record a few things from the day.

1. Second hand smoke or second hand toke? You be the judge – which is worse? As for me, I don't like either one but I would say that I can take the second hand smoke with a lot more patience than the second hand toke. Today, I got to deal with both of them during a significant portion of my work day. You know the thing that I think I like the least about this job? –Getting home and smelling like an ashtray. I will leave this point at this to spare the offenders any retribution via my blog – the company owner is a reader and she might not like this point.
   
2. What, did you just have a lot of energy to burn? My sister asked me this question after my run. I ran from her home in Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge and back. She says that the most direct path is 4.2 miles but I know that I didn't take the most direct path. I got a little lost on my way to the bridge. I ran for 45 to 48 minutes. I would estimate that I went close to 5 miles just from how it felt. It was a good run. I ran to stay in shape, to not lose that stomach, and to get a workout in. There is a big difference between the sort of workout that I get at work here – one that wears me down – and the sort of workout that builds a better body. My New Year's Resolution involved a lot of running – I don't plan on letting this trip to New York frustrate the progress that I am making toward that goal. As far as energy is concerned – I didn't eat lunch until 5pm today; I had no extra energy.
   
3. How do you open that door? I went to the grocery store for my sister and her family and I had to take the bus home. I didn't know how to open the door to leave the bus. The doors are passenger operated so I totally missed my stop. I walked a lot with all those groceries.
   
4. Oh, and after all that I watched Burn After Reading. I didn't like it. The men are sexy, big name actors but the movie was sort of pointless.
   

I might write more about all this later. The bus sucks, the run was beautiful, and the work is a little bit painful. I better get to sleep or I will really be in pain tomorrow.

me

Fresh - for you

Fresh means a few different things. It can refer to something relatively new or it can refer to something that is sexually provocative. You be the judge here - which of these photos says "Fresh, for you"?

I didn't technically work yesterday but I did run a bunch of work related errands with my brother-in-law. I actually do a lot of what I would consider work off the clock. We only get paid for the time that the customer is paying - from when we show up until the move is done, not always including time to prep the truck, bring the truck home, etc. I guess that I don't ever expect to get paid for my commute at home but then again, I don't get an hourly wage at home either. Anyway, I took this photo yesterday in the evening in the City. Lots of cabs. Lots of brake lights. That is what driving in the City is like. I like the buildings, too.
The sun was setting. I turned the camera (phone) the other way to get the last light of the day as it shone on only the tops of the buildings.

The sun is just about gone, the lights are on, and we are back in Brooklyn. This is the view from our side of the bridge.

Do you recognize that building poking its top out behind the others? I was waiting with the truck this morning as Ariel - a guy I work with (perhaps the best guy I work with) - was in a building picking up an air conditioner with the customer.

Stopped at a red light. This was part of the view. Thank you, Greece.

After work and after parking the truck, I found this on the short walk back to Ari's apartment.

I took a quick shower after work - right before I took the previous photo. I thought that I would get a picture with the rose in my hand, as if I was offering it to someone I love. The rose wasn't really in focus. I really wasn't thinking about the fact that I had no shirt on.

When I reviewed the previous photo I noticed that I had no shirt on (I knew that I had no shirt on but I just wasn't thinking about that when I took the photo - but that is what I noticed when I looked again) and I noticed that the rose was not in focus so I decided to take another photo. This one shows more camera awareness and is Fresh for you. I think that the picture was in focus this time.

I came down from the shower and the short session with the mirror and Ari was sick and the girls wouldn't leave her alone. She had a lot of work to do and still had to make dinner. Alon was gone - still working. I decided to take the girls for a walk before it got too late and because Ari was making dinner, I offered to take them to buy doughnuts (or is it donuts?). You see, Ari tries to feed her children all organic, super healthy food. I figure that it is my duty to frustrate that goal as much as possible while I am here. I am their uncle, afterall.

The second we stepped out of the gate, Nola said, "Look how long my shadow is, Uncle." I thought it would make a fun photo. Left to right it goes me, Nola (5), and Talia (3 next month).

Less than a block up the sidewalk Talia walked very, very carefully around this grate and then pointed back into it and said, "We could fall in that."

:( We passed this little memory of a bird.

Well, we got to a neighborhood bakery - this place is great! It smelled SO nice! But they only had one donut left from this morning. Still, Nola was very excited. Nevertheless, this is not where we stopped.

Can you see it - the name on the box? Do you know where we stopped?

One way?

This is where the real "Fresh for you!" is.

Anyway, so there are the photos that I took. The girls are very happy to have donuts but they will have to wait until the morning to eat them. Today, I was the driver. It was the first real driving that I have done in New York City (I drove a couple of other times but it was really late at night each of those times). I think that I did okay. I expected it to be worse than it was. Even though everybody here makes it sound like the worst traffic in the world I think that the Las Vegas strip traffic is actually WAY, WAY worse - even at midnight. And I have a lot of experience driving there. The hard part of driving here is just learning the system of one way streets. Well, the parking here is hard for me. While driving today my mirror was hit by another van - but whatever, nothing was damaged. Still, it was really funny when I ended up next to that van at the next red light the guy in the passenger seat covered his face and the driver stopped way far back just to avoid being next to me. I wasn't even bothered. This sort of traffic doesn't really bother me. Just ask Becky - in Vegas she used to tell me that I drive like a cab driver (and I don't know if that is a compliment or an insult).

So, between the neighborhood bakery and the neighborhood laundromat, parts of this neighborhood smell like a combination of fresh baked bread and newly washed sheets all the time. Both of those are very happy smells.

Hmm.... What else? I don't know. I do a lot of walking here, but I don't mind that. That is sort of the way that I like it. As a missionary I often heard people comment that following Christ meant to walk a lot because Christ walked everywhere. We, as missionaries, were perceived to be following Christ not by how we lived but by how we got around. I think that idea comes from the Catholic tradition of performing pilgrimages but really I don't know. It is, nevertheless, something that I heard more than once and it is something that I have often reflected on since then. I think that walking outside offers a lot of opportunities to feel as though you are a part of humanity. More observation, more meditation, and more appreciation seem to take place during walking than during other forms of transportation. I am sure that Jesus probably got most of his inspiration on one of those long walks he used to make.

No time right now

Well, I had yesterday off so I caught up on blogging. I am off to work right now. If I get done early I may have something for today but if work goes late I don't know when I will get to this.
I hope you all have a great day!

Weekend Photos

Friday, after blogging my intention to go for a run and then work in the garden, I didn't really end up doing anything. I spent a lot of time on the phone with AT&T and with Bank of America and didn't really accomplish anything at all. I blogged. I looked at other blogs. I will explain the rest of it with the photos.

I showered, watered this plant, and took a photo of the flower it made. Then I went down to see if my sister needed any help in the garden - her ongoing project that hasn't really gone very far. She was busy with other things and the house was full of other people's kids and she had people coming over for an early dinner and hanging out and the post office was closing and the letter should have been sent and why wasn't the letter sent and the letter should have been sent and "Bro, take this to the post office. It needs to be post marked by today."
So I went to the post office - a couple mile walk.

I like the buildings here. This was on the way to the post office.
Nice color. Nice hair. Both could be on the beach in Costa Rica or some place like that - in fact, I think that I took pictures of similar vendors last year. This was just around the corner from the post office.
I liked the light and the quietness of the image. I thought that keeping the fence in the photo added something to it.
But I like this photo still more.
:)
Late afternoon sun. Looking up.
I was back from the post office here. I found my niece staring out her front gate in her front "yard" - is this getting her ready for prison?
Here is a peanut on the ground.
The ants go marching - all in a row.
This is in Ari's garden. I helped her prune the roses and in so doing was somewhat marginalized by her friend, Fredrick, as her manual laborer/gardener brother. None of these are plants that are actually being cultivated in the garden. All the little green leaves say "I love you!" There are so many little hearts in this photo. :)
Not exactly Morels, but still a good picture.
The night was coming on, Ari and her friends were busy working on dinner and discussing what private high school to send their three to five year old children to, and I was noticing the particular quality of blue of the evening sky.
"Take a photo of me, Bro."
It got dark. We all came inside. Fredrick ("Oh, I thought you were just a gardener" when he learned that I am a grad student and that I teach at a university), my sister, her friend Jen (teaches Yoga at a private school that costs $24K/year for kindergarten; she also coaches varsity track but I think that it should just be called track because there is no junior varsity track team at the school).
I thought that I would include a photo of me here. I hope that this photo speaks for itself.

This next set of photos is from Saturday. It was a foggy day. It rained all that night but not really that much at all during the day but it was foggy all day. This is a photo looking toward downtown Manhattan.

This is where we park the rented Penske truck at night. You can see what happens to the trucks that stay there all the time.

This was in front of a place we were working.
On the freeway, coming back to Brooklyn after a move. I liked the way that the skyscrapers disappeared into the clouds. I like the way that the upward pattern of the headstones seems to repeat itself in the buildings - sort of eery.

Finally, this is a photo that I took today. My sister is smiling, my niece is making a monkey face for the camera, the pink of the flowers ties into the pink of the stroller and the red of the sweater. But.... BUT, the real purpose of this God-awful photo is to show the winter jacket and the sweater. AAARGH! My sister told me that it would be warm here. She specifically told me to bring lots of shorts and T-shirts. I am freezing my ass off here!!

me