Tag Archives: NYC

Eastward Ho!

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Dan and Britt have a new address. Last week, they signed a lease for their new apartment. This dispels my fears of landlord retribution. I guess that it really is cheaper to move than pay rent. Studying their move on a map, it looks like they are only moving a mile, but it is enough to push them out of Brooklyn and into Queens. Next month, we will be visiting them and look forward to seeing how a pair of cat-loving, cosmopolitan types live their lives—all nine of them.

Our first sojourn on this journey will be Philly. We have never really been there except to passthrough. We plan on seeing the Liberty Bell, before it is put away for good. Booking a room there I ended up going down a dark and scary rabbit hole. I was warned though, its Google synopsis said, “very secure.” Entering my data they strangely asked for my birthdate. I was initially taken aback, but in the end decided to continue anyway. Pressing on regardless, I entered the normal stuff, like home address, phone number and credit card info. Then they wanted a photo of my ID. Initially this was a problem, because I was doing this on the computer (sans camera) and not my phone, but they had thought of this and offered a mechanism to transfer this process to my phone. I photographed my driver’s license, both front and back. Then they wanted a photo of me, biometric data. I futzed with their app, failing the first few times, but eventually it was satisfied, and I was in. So much for the city of brotherly love.

In NYC, I booked at a normal hotel, on the same subway line as Dan and Britt’s new place. Then it will be on to Boston and the real purpose of this trip, Declan. Maren has a weeklong school field trip to Panama, and we will be supporting David in her absence. The return trip is still unscheduled. We will likely be sick, again, but in case we are not, there is the looming government shutdown. This would nix DC, so we are thinking the eastside of the Chesapeake instead. 

Moving Day

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Packing Up Your Cares and Woes

Dan and Britt are moving. They are surrendering their five-floor walkup in Brooklyn and are moving to Queens. The new place looks nice, is cheaper and is rent stabilized. Meaning the city helps to control rent increases (~3% per year). Their old place was not. It was newish, but not up to code and as it turns out never had an occupancy permit. Dan and Britt lived with the place’s problems, including insufficient heat, until the landlord decided to jack up the rent by a third, which is an illegal increase in NYC. They objected, stopped paying rent and hired a lawyer. Fast forward two years until earlier this month. At a hearing, their lawyer negotiated a settlement with the landlord. They would move out in a month, but did not owe back rent. Rent that they had been saving in case things did not go this way. The long and the short of this story is that they walk away with a tidy nest egg, for a better place to live. I do not think that they will miss those five flights. Harry, Dan’s grandfather, who grew up in the Bronx during the Depression has repeatedly said that it was cheaper to move than pay rent. 

SNL50

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Prometheus at 30 Rock

I was in college when Saturday Night Live debuted. I wasn’t watching TV in ’75, so I must have missed it. Eventually, I started to watch it and a while later, as I got older, I switched from watching it live, to catching it later on Sunday morning. Last night, they aired a special presentation of the show in primetime, and I managed to catch that live. The show has turned fifty this year and is celebrating its longevity with a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Last night’s special was much like the regular show, many of the sketches fell flat, but a few of them struck comedy gold. It has always been that way with this show, where a few laughs are enough to sustain the show and paper over its more numerous flops. Last year, the show’s prequel tried to recapture the craziness of its origin that has now morphed into a culture defining institution. It did a good enough job, but looking back, it is hard to believe what it has grown into today. Lorene Michaels the show’s creator is now eighty and last night’s show kept posing the question of his replacement. My bet is on Seth Meyers.

Hold the Wire

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Life Underground—Payphone Totem

We got Anne a new iPhone, a sixteen Pro. This replaced her old twelve Mini that had developed a problem with its camera after being dropped on the cabin’s hearth last summer. It was a belated Christmas present. The holdup being backing up the old phone, which as it turned out was no worry at all.

We went to the AT&T store to get the new phone. Our service rep there was excellent. He guided us through the myriads of decisions, found a service in our plan that we no longer needed that when deleted will almost cover the monthly cost of the new phone. He quickly installed the old phone’s data on the new one. Alleviating the need to back up the old one, which was our big holdup. Trading in Anne’s old phone also significantly lowered the cost. 

A few other curiosities of our phone plan were unearthed by this very through sales rep. It turns out that Dan now has the authority to add a new phone to our family plan, but Anne does not. Harry’s LG phone is still on our plan, even though I do not think that he ever uses it anymore. Certainly, its original purpose, providing him more reliable cell service at the cabin is obsolete. Its use is now as archaic as the manner that he used to answer the phone, when I would call for Anne, when she still lived at home. I would ask to speak with her, and he would say, “Hold the wire.” How does that even work on a cellphone?

Life and Trust

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Life and Trust

Today, we bade a fond farewell to Bob and Noreen and their lovely lakeside home. Alice and Chris had skyed the day before. Now, our hosts have a moment of peace, before the next crowd arrives. We headed south to Columbia, SC and tomorrow we head on to Charleston. Today is Father’s Day, for those of you who celebrate this holiday. Anne likes to celebrate Mother’s Day, since she labored to become one. A month later, I am always of the mind, “Hey, what about me?”

On this day, all across the country, sons call their fathers. Dan was first in our family, when he rang me up. Interestingly, he was standing by his Prius, waiting for the cops to arrive. Someone had hacked off his catalytic converter and he wanted to first make a police report, before he made his insurance claim. That was his bad news. His good news is that he is going to get laid off at the end of the month. No, really. For the last year he has been laboring on a secret project that soon he will be able to tell everyone about. Besides, he is looking forward to collecting some unemployment. The show is Life and Trust (official website).

Earlier this year, we met him on location for lunch at Conwell Coffee House. Located a block south of Wall Street, he struck quite the counterpoint to the neighborhood’s normal attire of Brooks Brothers suits, by wearing overalls, a wool sweater and cap. He had to dress warmly, because work got as cold as hell.

This week, the show opened in limited release. Dan and Britt saw the play twice. Dan has been so happy while working there. Today, even after discovering the car, he was still in an upbeat mood. It is almost a shame that his work there is ending, but his sense of accomplishment more than makes up for that.