It’s a little weird to open up Facebook or Twitter feeds and see Western New Yorkers complaining about the hurricane equivalent of a snow day in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. This region has proved its weather machismo many times over, so I, for one, am happy to be a little overprepared. It’s better than under.
(Photo courtesy my sister’s Facebook feed)
I remember all too well of the thanksgiving week storm that had my kids, their lovely mother and myself amazingly finding parking spaces to abandon our cars on Virginia Street to go it out at the nearby Fire Department and walk home four hours later, or the tree that fell down during the October storm of 2006 that from the next yard blocking exits. So, if the most taxing thing about this week is who to watch to see about Manhattan, I’m cool with it.
It is much more preferable to check in via Facebook with number 2 daughter in White Plains, and my sister in Manhattan than hear things like a phone call we got back in 2000 from a friend checking to see what building he needed to walk to find his kids. So, we in WNY don’t have to do much today (by in large) and I’m fine with that.
Think I’ll call number one son and challenge him to some xbox-ing
The Lloyd’s Taco Truck guys go to a stop in Amherst that they’ve been at before (by invitation) and suddenly get invited to leave in violation of a law that doesn’t apparently exist. This is a little bumfuzzling to this disinterested observer as don’t you have to have the law first, then the breakage of same? While $100 isn’t huge, it smells like some of the restauranteurs are looking for a little protection, since they don’t move. I mean, they (the brick and mortar folk) should concentrate on making good food. That is what folks go to the trucks for. Affordable good product is a good thing. Make that and people will come to your table.
While I’m on the subject, one of the episodes of No Reservations dealt with a veritable food court of trucks in, I think, Portland that gave a place of residence. An idea for large gatherings here. If the Truck-ers have to jump through hoops, the fixed spots should too. None of this crying because the trucks can work in a lot. It’s funny to me as nobody gets upset with the Ice Cream trucks and they play that same damn song over and over, practically ruining “The Sting” for me. That is something to be disgruntled about, not this other foolishness.
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I’m not taking credit for it, but I wrote about it back in June. The “It” is the possibility of turning a portion of Gallagher Beach into something swimable, giving Buffalo a city beach and the kind of thing that people might actually come to the city to use. https://mikespub.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/beachin-and-hopin/ is the blog entry and if one of the seven people who read it works with the powers that be, then good for both of us. It’s Buffalo, give people some water to fall into, when they stand up, they will want to eat something.
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The high school version of me is happy that the late middle age version is going to get a new Led Zeppelin album. We can all see of the reunion of a few years ago was really a thing,
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In wandering around midtown Manhattan last week, I happened across the NHL Store (no, it wasn’t closed), but it did offer proof that it is possible to buy a Buffalo Sabres windbreaker for $90. This is something I chose NOT to do, but I half expected the commish to show up and say they weren’t charging enough. The Sabres, by the way, should have been one game into their preseason schedule as I write this…….groan.
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When your presidential candidate does comment about windows on an airplane rolling down, shouldn’t you at least question the timing of the attempt at humor?
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Instead of tearing down the Skyway, can’t we just paint the pillars to match the Canalside chairs (my dad’s idea)? It’s cheaper, would look nice and fills the gap of what do you replace the skyway with?
It’s an epidemic, I tell you. All these buildings are throwing themselves in front of senior citizen drivers. Apparently it is a call for more drive through lanes. Just to be safe, I’m going to park behind the folks car when I go visit next.
As I write this, the Sabres are 2-0, the Bills 3-1 and it is 75 degrees on an October day in Buffalo. I can’t help but wonder if some other Rust Belt city lost a bet.
I’m beginning to think that people watching the people occupying Wall Street might have a complete grasp as to why the original occupiers (occupiees?) showed up in the first place.
Awful lot of folks acting like a relative passed away with the passing of Steve Jobs. While that is indeed sad, I don’t think of him in the Edison and Shakespeare types of metaphors that were getting bandied about so freely in the time after the announcement. While I enjoy Apple products and Pixar movies, I think while he definitely was a visionary, part of his genius is letting some truly gifted hands-on folk run amuck, all that results in the toys we call covet.
And speaking of capitalism faux paws (intentional), I can’t fathom the logic in some “entity” chasing the Whole Hog Food truck away from the Bidwell Farmers Market last saturday. If it was a market-eer, maybe they would be some of your Kale for their awesome breakfast sandwich if you weren’t sticking the cops on them. If it was another restaurant, then shame on you. Make good food and people will come to your place. There are plenty of stationary competitors too. Do good work and people will come. People are buying from these rolling merchants because the stuff is good quality. That might be a key, doncha know?
Back to the Wall street stuff for a moment, Peter King is quoted about not wanted to give the movement legitimacy. Well, Congressman, people are upset and making their voices known. Ain’t that a good thing? Isn’t that what a democracy is supposed to be about? People need heard. When the main republican leadership is and has been nothing more than to take down the President, the democrats mealymouth their way around so it isn’t clear what they stand for and the executive branch spends a lot of time just trying to be liked, and none of them are representin’, yo, people are going to get ticked.
On more mundane matters, I’m curious to see the new films on Paul McCartney and George Harrison, despite both having mixed reviews. Always liked the music of both guys and the possibility of learning a little more is intriguing, but not enough to sign up, even temporarily, for either pay channel they were getting shown on.
I’ve always been a more “trust the art, not the artist” guy, so I’ve never really had a handle on those who fling themselves on the cars or things like that, but seeing what might have gone into building a portion of my life’s soundtrack is a curious thing.
9/11 – Everybody has something to say about it as we’ve reached another milestone with that day
It’s on my mind too, thanks to the regurgitation of the tv coverage. One of those seminal moments that seems like 2 minutes ago and twenty years ago at the same time. MSNBC reran the two hours of the Today show from that day and it was hard to not watch and wonder.
At the time, both my sisters were Manhattan residents. As I watched things unfold, I tried to remember my New York geography, hoping (correctly) that their routines at them safely out of harms way. My Dad and his software skills were rented out to a firm whose offices were across the street from the Pentagon. So it was a full day.
Because it was so seminal, I think it is one of those things where there will always be a faction that is just raw. The hullabaloo over who is invited for this or that seems like needless squabbling and no I won’t use my facebook status for such propaganda.
My son was three and looking forward to Blues Clues but for once I was stuck on the Today Show as they brought whoever they could find in an attempt to describe it all.
I remember calling his mom at work and telling her to get to a tv set. At the time, the one tower of the trade center was on fire, but the time she saw it, the tower was falling.
Watching the rerun of the coverage, it is easy to second guess the bewilderment of the Today show crew as it was unfathomable. I’ve been a big fan of the show “Rescue Me” which has those events as a prevailing theme for its cast of characters. You seen that second plane and feel the jolt all over again. It looks like the scene from a movie, but tragically isn’t. The “Rescue Me” folks had an interesting scene two weeks ago that I think put some of the squabbling over who gets invited to what ceremony in the proper perspective. The Chief of the firehouse gave a rare unterrupted speech about how those who died aren’t celebrated on any wall, or any special ceremony. They are remembered by continuing to talk about them. And I think about all the events of the day in general.
It was an unfathomable horror, but it didn’t effect everybody precisely the same.
It is good to see activity at that location and how One World Trade Center is 80 stories into the sky. Five years ago, all the political squabbling going on created a much ado over the hole in the ground zero, but not much else, so that progress in encouraging.
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