Last Round

I still can't walk well, and unfortunately our friend Jane's lovely flat was way too far away from the train station, so between the walk there and back I was absolutely shot. Maybe one visit too many? On the other hand Andy had a car, and even though he took us to dinner scarcely three hours after our big carver's lunch, it was nice not to have to walk anywhere. Hope I sleep well tonight, tomorrow's going to be a long day!

40 Up

This evening we got together with Robin’s old college friends, and as ever it was delightful. In the morning Debs drove us around other neighborhoods in East Sussex we hadn’t seen from the bus on Thursday, so that was fun and really solidified my desire not to drive in England once we’ve moved here (the roads are way too narrow for my liking), then we had a good long rest, which my poor legs needed, prior to the evening feast with Andy and the two Janes. We’ll see Jane and Andy again separately on Monday but this was the big restaurant outing, and it was simply lovely. Tomorrow we rest and maybe shop for a bit depending on my mobility…

The Wilds of Lawn Guylan

Today we packed up about half the alcohol we've had lying around for ages and went to visit our friends Phyllis and Richie in Bellmore, whom we hadn't seen in way too long. They have the coolest backyard area and gardens, I got to each freshly-picked celery (although the basil I picked straight from the plant was a bit much and made my tongue kind of numb). The snacks and lunch/dinner they prepared us was wonderful, as was the entertainment as I learned all about Angine de Poitrine, Avatar, and Babymetal. Hey, gotta keep up with the latest musical trends, if only for my education. On the way there we went over a drain stuck out into the left lane that jogged our hubcap loose, but it doesn't appear any harm was done. Richie was also kind enough to fill our windshield wiper reservoir, allwaying fears it had sprung another leak (I guess I've just used a lot of fluid). Alas, no auto shops near them that could do a state inspection were open, so I'll have to resume my search to find someplace before next Sunday.

Out of the Woodwork

As the thaw continues and February finally ends, I'm starting to get just a teeny bit restless to get out and Do Things. Mostly those things are obligatory stuff that I've been putting off because of the storms and the cold, like visiting my uncle in his assisted-living facility three blocks away from us (but down a big hill so we have to drive), taking the car in for a much-needed oil change and a look-see at the noise my power steering assembly is making (we've had that before so I know what it is but I can't do anything about it), and finally getting to the bank that's only open on weekdays so I can open up a new account with the checks from Mom's estate. But I do miss socializing with non-work friends, of whom I have too few nowadays, it seems. Lo and behold, I got texts from two of them today at the same time - my friend Marjorie who lives in the Hamptons and shares a birthday with me, and my friend Terri who's the mother of my godson. So confusing for this one-fingered texter to go back and forth between the two of them! I hope to see one on Monday or Tuesday evening and the other possibly this coming weekend but that's all dependent on whether I can get the above necessar tasks done. At least my usual Saturday stuff is accomplished (food shopping, pills, comics sorting and ordering) so I'm making incremental progress.

Ladies Who Lunch

Despite today's cold, I met my comics industry friend Allison for a lovely lunch. Allison is a Jersey girl who now lives in Atlanta with her husband Adam, a fairly famous comic book artist. In fact, she's a pretty damn good artist herself, as well as a dog person. I mean, a Best In Show-type dog person, with English sheepdogs that enter agility and show contests like the Westminster one at MSG this week (in which she nd her dog Ginny participated). What a delightful lunch! She's so knowledgeable about so many things, and I can't remember the last time I had such an interesting and wide-ranging conversation. Afterwards we checked out Russ & Daughters, which opened a branch right near my office that I never knew about! Now that I'm making a bit more money I can see a few R&D splurges in my life. And part of me is ready to have an actual social life again. Um, when the weather warms up, of course.

The Journey and the Destinations

Big day for me today, visiting Mom to toast the Jewish New Year with cardamom challah and apples & honey, then later gathering with my college frat folks for our annual reunion. We had three hours to kill between the two visits  (which were only a few miles apart) so we took a drive around rural and mountainous NJ (where leaves are changing already!) to visit Willowwood Arboretum (way too humid to stroll about comfortably, plus zero cell service) and the quaint Main Street in Clinton (alas, way too early for Dickens Days). The gathering was fun but very exhausting and, as I said, a bit too humid for my liking. Nonetheless we stayed for at least 2-1/2 hours until I reasoned I'd better get moving before I dropped from exhaustion. Home and happy now, even the GWB traffic behaved itself. Considering how much we ran around and how many things I hate that I shouldn't have, I'm sure I'll pay for this tomorrow.

Peter

I first met Peter David when he'd just become a writer at Marvel. He was the first comic pro I really got to know, and we'd been friends for around 40 years. Alas, a series of illnesses has caused him to shuffle off this mortal coil, and I'd like to think he's with his buddy Harlan Ellison and my buddy Leah Adezio having a snark-off in the hereafter. So many memories have been flooding in. The way he always seemed to travel in a cocoon of noise, so that you could tell when he was coming and going like a Doppler effect. His amazement at my flip phone that reminded him of a Star Trek communicator. The births of his two youngest daughters, Ariel (now a mom of two) and Caroline, and Ariel's bat mitzvah. All the conventions where we had the privilege of sitting next to him and his amazing partner Kathleen, puppeteer extraordinaire. How thrilled I was to give him at least a couple finished pages of every comic he wrote that Robin inked. How far he would go for a really bad pun, and not always in the best taste. His quick wit and smile. His pride in his four daughters. His obvious love for Kath. The way he sneaked my name into a Star Trek novel he wrote. All the lovely folks I met because of him. And his writing, sometimes groan-inducing but always fun and clever. I'll miss the contributions he could have made if only, if only... RIP Peter.

Silly Site o' the Day

A jam-packed day today, starting with exercising my franchise on the first day of early voting in New York. And oh, was my early-vote polling place crowded! I almost wept with joy, as a large turnout these days almost inevitably means tons of votes for Democrats, but then I'm in a very blue city in a somewhat blue state so that part is no surprise. Then off to visit Mom in the nursing home to which she's finally been transferred. Very fancy, almost like a hotel, and I hope we can all make her comfortable in her remaining days. My California brother supervised the final move, and we've now reconnected after not really having had contact for a half dozen years, so I think that bodes well. It's not going to be easy for any of us to bid Mom farewell, but her decline has been such that she's no longer the Mom she was even a few months ago, so we should be grateful she's been around and alert for 93 years. After that brief visit (Mom was drifting off to sleep and the room had to be around 85 degrees) We then attended the annual reunion party of my college fraternity (the co-ed service frat Alphi Phi Omega), which was coincidentally about 20 minutes away from the nursing home, but easily 90+ minutes from our home. So in addition to the emotional highs and lows I now have to deal with the physical pain induced from so much repeated driving (and especially the traffic slowdowns approaching the GW Bridge) in the last couple of months. The outside of right shin is already seizing up again (shin splint?) and the referred pain will go right to my heel, which hasn't yet recovered from Tuesday's stress. Also, the Yankees are losing the second game of the World Series, so that doesn't help my mood. I need a quiet week of staying off my feet and doing nothing, but it's Riverdale Restaurant Week now so that's not going to happen. At least I can take buses (local for the restaurants, express for my Manhattan days) instead of driving this week! I just hope there's no food trickery involved:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

What a "perfect storm" kind of day. I hardly slept at all last night as my neck was seriously hurting me, I was once again slammed with work, and I had to deal with my car's brand-new power steering belt coming off again. I had a feeling that "thunk thunk" noise it made on Saturday before it calmed down wasn't a good sign. The landlord's helper moved it out of the way of some work being done, as I was in Manhattan and couldn't do it, then handed the key to Robin announcing that the power steering had gone. Fortunately it's all under warranty and the auto shop guy came and picked it up. I even saw it sitting in the shop's parking lot from my homeward-bound bus. So I guess I'll pick it up Friday morning when I'm finally working from home again, and I'm sleeping with my travel neck pillow (and some ibuprofen) tonight so I can function again tomorrow. Then I got home and read that my friend, famous comics herstorian Trina Robbins, passed away, and it's just made for a hell of a day. Tomorrow has to be better. Although I'm also tempted to travel to the past in my head and play games like this.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, that's my big social soiree for the year! And what a perfect day. By the time we got to the NJ side of the GW Bridge the sun was actually shining. On a Saturday! Unexpected and wonderful. We drove across I-80, down I-287, then across I-78, amidst the trucks and cross-country adventurers, and admired the absolutely awesome foliage along the way. I live all year for this. I guess in a way I also live all year for my annual college service frat reunion party, but this year was extra special as my old roomie from my junior year, was going to be in from CA, and I haven't seen her in lo these 40-plus years. But the light was still in her eyes as we hugged and hugged; she'd just lost her husband of lo these same decades, and they were kind of the Brenda and Eddie of my college experience, so I was pretty heartbroken on her behalf. But she was, as she's always been, amazingly resilient and still smiling and laughing, so that along with so many other moments should make for lovely memories (if I can hang onto them). We even got home with no problem, as I decided to ignore the GPS in favor of my driving instincts which turned out correct (I-80 turns into I-95 no matter what side of the divide you take). After this I just want to go back to my old yearbooks and seek out their photos again, but I'll make do with this instead.

Object Permanence

How can this blog be 21 years old today? In internet time that's at least a century, considering the speed at which things change. I'm amazed blogging software still exists, considering all the new apps I've had to learn at work in just the past decade. Yet here we are, and here I am, still (relatively) healthy and hanging in there, saying farewell to too many folks I loved and admired but greeting new additions with all the enthusiasm a childless-but-grandmother-age person can muster. I've become the kind of person to whom hip-hop is still "that new music the kids love but I just can't get into" but fall short of "music was better in my day" because, for all I know, music is still wonderful even if it's not made for me. I think reading comics primarily made for young men all these years has helped in that regard; I'm used to not being the target audience for pretty much any form of entertainment. And yet, I find many things still make me smile. So much streaming media to catch up on that I'll never get bored. Even though I lost my fifth cat earlier this year (I still fondly and lovingly remember Gypsy, Phredd, Datsa and Amy, along with Zed) I'm yearning for another to love, and I continue to peruse lots of cat memes and videos. I don't have any real close friends besides Robin, but I do have lots of online Facebook "friends" and work colleagues, all of whom bring me joy. And I imagine this blog still has at least a few dozen readers. So there are reasons to continue, including this blog. Thanks for still being around.

Silly Site o' the Day

With the weather still hot and sticky, we ventured down to Long Island, only about 40 miles as the crow flies but, unfortunately, a little over an hour on NYC-area highways. Still, well worth it to visit our friends Phyllis and Richie, who made us a lovely lunch spread. The afternoon was filled with great conversation, but towards the end the heat (even in their shaded backyard nook) got to me and I had to excuse us around 5 PM. Tomorrow we do nothing but rest so I'm ready for work again on Monday. After all, I never know what might come up, although I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be double decker bus racing:

Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

What a glorious day, and a very fun evening! I invited an old friend from Queens to make a 2-hour schlep up to the northwestern-most part of NYC and join me at the burger place run by the woman in charge of the DineOut Riverdale initiative. On the way I stopped by the local bakery which has finally come out with sugar-free cookies (delish) and the BBQ place from which we ordered on Monday so I could finally say hi to the proprietor and put a face to the name. And then... well, as disappointed as I was that there was no outdoor seating and I'd have to be in somewhat unsafe environs without a mask, as soon as I walked in at least 2-3 people said "Elayne?" and greeted me like they were old friends as well, even though I only know them from our neighborhood Facebook group! It was surreal and wonderful and well worth the hour-long walk to and from the place. My Queens friend was kind enough to walk me back up the hill, and Robin took it from the halfway point back home with me. Where we met our basement neighbor who offered a free sample of his wares as well. Great day for freebies! And I didn't even miss NY Comic Con, where my friends are probably in conditions much less safe than me dreaming of getting selfie action figures:

Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

I admit it, I don't know much about how to get about in Queens (or Staten Island, for that matter, but that's not relevant today). But I know a bit better now how to get to and from Bayside via the Mosholu Parkway and Bronx River Parkway and Cross-Bronx Expressway and Throgs Neck Bridge, and without construction and traffic I'm told it's little over half an hour but with the nonsense it was about 45-50 minutes today to see my now-retired work friend Lynne and her husband. We met up at an Asian Fusion place in their neighborhood and, for the first time since the pandemic began, I actually didn't put on a mask at all in the restaurant or to hug them and it felt... strangely weird. But they've been careful and so have we and we were reasonably distanced from the other diners, so I felt like I may have taken my first tentative step into a post-pandemic world. The ostensible reason for the get-together was so that Lynne could notarize my notary renewal application (we've notarized each other's applications since we started working together) but it was also lovely to catch up on work doings and retirement plans and our respective families. She doesn't miss working at all, although I suspect she'd like it better if we did an annual roast day like Wendy's. Unfortunately the on-again, off-again cloudiness-bright sunshine situation, plus allergy season, despite the Flonase, had us plumb exhausted upon returning home, so we'll do the grocery shopping tomorrow.

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits, happy Lunar New Year, and it's finally February. On the one hand, the temperature was up above freezing today, we didn't need the space heaters after mid-morning, and I didn't even have to layer. On the other hand, a good Facebook and comics industry friend of mine suddenly passed away from a stroke and I'm still in shock. He was a long-time editor so I like to think he'd appreciate the weirdest children's books available on Amazon. But damn, I'm going to miss him...

Silly Site o' the Day

A better day than yesterday, as I wrapped up a couple projects including a wonderful virtual retirement party for my backup exec assistant, and preparation with the new backup (who's also lost her counterpart) so I can finally take days off without having to worry about coverage. I'm more or less ensconced in the bedroom now as I took a chill during dinner that not even exercising could cure, and I still have leftover you-know-whats, so here are some costumes for lazy people. Which I definitely am not, except when it comes to costumes.

Silly Site o' the Day

I'd been both dreading and looking forward to this day for awhile. I think our trip to the Botanical Garden on Wednesday buoyed me a bit, as I'm definitely relaxing more in an outdoor setting near folks I know are vaccinated, but there's no way of knowing if all the folks in my old college fraternity are the same, as I haven't seen them in two years. Nonetheless, we ventured into the NJ mountains, where the foliage is abundant so I was quite happy with the drive, and spent two hours with lots of folks who knew me when. We were unmasked outside until we couldn't stay there any more due to the rain (which got heavy about two seconds after the group photo), then masked up indoors except while eating (and even then we tried to stay at least 3 feet apart from others, but I'm fairly certain everyone was double-vaccinated and a few even had their boosters like us. A really fun day, and now we'll see what the coming week or so brings but I suspect we'll be just fine; at least the stats are on our side. Ah, for the Before Times when folks sang songs like these around this time of the year:

Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

I decided today was to be my out-and-about day, so we invited our CT friends Tom and Lili down to treat them to the Bronx Zoo's just-revived Holiday Lights event. While it was nice to get a 30% admissions discount, and the company was as always wonderful, I think that's the last time I attend one of these things. So crowded, so noisy, so migraine-inducing! But I'm happy I can say I've been. Next year maybe the Botanical Gardens train show. Unfortunately all the actual animals had been put to bed so it was weird going to the zoo and not seeing any, but I'll have to settle for these strange animals I guess...

Silly Site o' the Day

A lovely ending to a great weekend. Our friend Tom was stopping by on his way from NJ to CT, which gave us impetus to clean house a bit. The minute the vacuuming was done we could both breathe much more easily; must have been a lot of allergens settled in the carpet! Both NY baseball teams won for a change, and I'm more than ready to go back to work for what's sure to be a busy week, what with two photo shoots in the same week. I am assured none of the photo subjects will be wearing track suits like these Russians.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, our dinner with our friend Ed didn't go quite as planned, and I'm mostly to blame. Last time I attempt to find a decent and reasonably priced sushi place in the Grand Central area. Next time we go German. Or just head for the nearest black hole and await the response memes.