Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road?
Don’t fill up on bread
Robert Hershon
I say absent-mindedly
The servings here are huge
My son, whose hair may be
receding a bit, says
Did you really just
say that to me?
What he doesn’t know
is that when we’re walking
together, when we get
to the curb
I sometimes start to reach
for his hand
We were in DC last weekend for our big girl’s birthday. Coming back, we knew we’d hit traffic because the NYC marathon was Sunday. We would normally take the Verrazano bridge (Staten Island to Brooklyn) on the way home, but that’s where the marathon starts so there’s a ton of road closures. When we left, the estimated time was 4 hours 30 minutes, which isn’t terrible, just going a bit further up the Jersey Turnpike, Holland Tunnel to Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge home. As I’m driving, maybe 5 minutes before what would be our usual exit to the Verrazano, Google Maps does the “faster route available” thing. I wish I could have taken a screenshot:
Faster route available
41 minutes faster
Accept?
41 minutes? I couldn’t hit accept fast enough. Our timing was apparently perfect, they had just opened the Verrazano. All the roads before and after, that are usually slow with traffic, were basically empty. It was like driving at 4 am.
Dreams can come true…
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years. Today we will get together with friends and remember the folks we lost.
Last night I saw an old friend and she brought over some really old pictures of the friends we lost on 9/11. Some great old pictures, very sad.
As always, I link to this old posting. They are in our thoughts.
A nice outdoor dinner in Brooklyn. First a sunset in Brooklyn Bridge Park:
Followed by the 9/11 lights. Happy Labor Day weekend everyone…
I apparently missed posting my July Google Maps timeline, so for posterity sake, here is July and August.
July includes some college visits (empty campus visits, very odd) and vacation in Cape Cod:
August has even more range, but still drivable. Not sure when I’ll fly.
From Jerry Seinfeld, the perfect rebuttal:
He says he knows people who have left New York for Maine, Vermont, Tennessee, Indiana. I have been to all of these places many, many, many times over many decades. And with all due respect and affection, Are.. You.. Kidding.. Me?!
Energy, attitude and personality cannot be “remoted” through even the best fiber optic lines. That’s the whole reason many of us moved to New York in the first place.
You ever wonder why Silicon Valley even exists? I have always wondered, Why do these people all live and work in that location? They have all this insane technology; why don’t they all just spread out wherever they want to be and connect with their devices? Because it doesn’t work, that’s why.
Real, live, inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together in crazy places like New York City. Feeling sorry for yourself because you can’t go to the theater for a while is not the essential element of character that made New York the brilliant diamond of activity it will one day be again.
New York will be just fine…
We are definitely venturing out. In June I got well outside of New York City. We have family in Wappingers Falls that we actually visited. I even made it to Connecticut once. Big travel.
Let’s keep those Covid numbers down.
Steve Fischer's Random Blog 