Memorial Day Weekend Birthday Paddle!

All things (particularly cancer and coronavirus, fie on both of them!) considered, I've really had a wonderful Memorial Day + Birthday Weekend. There was enough good food that I may do another post about that, but the best part of the weekend was that by pure coincidence, the Sebago Canoe Club reopened after 62 days (not that I was counting or anything ;-D ) closed while the city and state dealt with the initial onslaught of COVID-19. Marinas were among the facilities closed by order of Governor Cuomo, and although I don't think of our club as a marina, that's the category under which we fall. The club closed on March 22nd, as I vividly recall because a friend and I happened to sneak out for that one last paddle that day and only found out about the ruling when we came back to find the gate sealed with a lot of packing tape wrapped around a sign that said "CLUB CLOSED". Oops.

Anyways, things are gradually opening up again here in NYC - "returning to normal" would be a stretch, but as we've gotten past the awfulness of the first wave of the virus, people are now carefully figuring out how at least some commerce and recreation can resume. As NY State allowed marinas to reopen, NYC parks followed with particular guidelines for city marinas; unfortunately those were aimed at more traditional bigger-boat marinas, so Sebago at first wasn't able to, but our board went to them and talked to them the difficulties things like only single boats being allowed to go out posed for a paddling club.

We've been a tenant of the parks department for a very long time, and Parks listened to the board and asked the board to come back with a management plan addressing various concerns. The board worked with them, and although the final results unfortunately mean only those of us with our own boats get to paddle or sail until further notice - at least we have that, and I'm grateful to the board and the parks department for working that out.

Official reopening was actually the 23rd, but it poured all day that day so TQ and I stayed home and read and messed around on our computers all day - quite relaxing. If anyone paddled in the rain, more power to them!

The 24th was my birthday and TQ took the day off to take me paddling!

It wasn't the most beautiful day ever, a little gray and overcast, but oh, was it beautiful. The water's still pretty cool - TQ and I both got a little warm and ducked our heads using each other's bows for support and had ZERO desire to roll after that, partial dunks were plenty. I was delighting in NOT being in a drysuit since the water's up around 60 now and a wetsuit is sufficient - but I didn't quite want to get that all the way wet. I'll let the water warm up a bit more!

My last paddle, some of the summer denizens were just back, now the bay is thoroughly into the Spring swing. Laughing gulls laughing, brants still here but discussing their flight plans for their travels to their northern nesting grounds (hrrnk hrrnk hrrnk!), sandpipers and swalllows flitting by, ospreys tending their little ones (we could see little heads popping up in the nest at Canarsie Pol while one of the parent perched nearby).

And of course oystercatchers - one of my favorite moments of the paddle was when a pair of oystercatchers took off from Canarsie Pol as TQ and I were paddling parallel to the Pol's north shore, maybe 30 yards out. The pair flew a big circle around us, wheet-wheet-wheeting all the way so easy to follow - first crossing behind us, then flying past us well off on the Brooklyn side, and then coming back in towards the Pol and then, wheet-wheet-wheet, right past my bow! Felt like the perfect welcome back to the bay. Also possible we were being cursed out but hey, it's my projection and I'll make it chipper if I want to. Yougottaproblemwiddat? 

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We kept it on the short side, around Canarsie Pol, over to the Duck Point Marshes, and then home again. I'd thought of going through the marshes to see what was stirring there but as we approached the break between the marshes, we could see that there was a huge flonk of brant relaxing in there. Hrrnk hrrnk hrrnk. Jamaica Bay's bird life is so rich that it's really hard to paddle without putting up some birds, but I didn't want to wilfully disturb a flock that big, and there was no way to go through without spooking the entire gang, so we scratched that leg. Ended up doing about 6 and a quarter miles and that was good; we were both feeling OK in our boats despite the long break, but there's this "Sunscreen" thing we'd both forgotten, and although it wasn't bright and sunny, it was that thin cloud cover that lets the UV rays right through. So we're both feeling slightly overexposed today.

And we got back in time to say hello to the larger Usual Suspects gang who'd gone out earlier - I'd bailed from that paddle when TQ told me he was taking the day off because we're not fast starters, and although the group start time was hardly crack o' dawn, we were still going to have to hustle ourselves a bit. It was really nice to just go when we were ready to go, but it was also SO nice to actually see folks and get some in-person birthday greetings, even with face masks and social distancing. Really couldn't have asked for a nicer day under the circumstances!

And today I did an exploratory bike ride to the club; I can get there in half an hour without even pushing too hard, so that'll work great! I didn't get going early enough to actually paddle (partly to stay out of the sun), but it was a nice ride, I went on over to Canarsie Park after the club, they've got nice bike trails there that link to the Brooklyn Greenway bike trail, so I got in a nice leg along Jamaica Bay. Looking forward to some biking/kayaking crosstraining - that's actually great for fitness!

Just photos now - click on any photo for a slideshow view. 

Taco Time!

Warming up the tortillas, steak staying warm on the smaller burner

Aside from the medical appointments in midtown, I've pretty much been following the NYC social distancing rules. I'm actually a little bit on the introvert side - the sort who enjoys socializing but does need occasional down time alone now and then - and TQ's good company, so I'm doing OK with this. Working from home is a bit strange, I've always resisted that because I like work to be work and home to be home, but I'm dealing, you kind of have to. I'm into an OK rhythm - I work, I read, I've done a little drawing, I go outside for exercise (considered an essential activity) and fresh air. As I think I've mentioned before, I have really been enjoying watching Spring spring in my very pretty neighborhood!

My only shopping these days is the grocery store, but I was never big on shopping as recreation anyways. The local grocery stores have been generally well stocked after the early panic buying, although you do still need to be a little flexible; TQ and I both like to cook so we've been eating pretty well!

I have NOT been able to participate in this much-vaunted Stress Baking of which I have heard tell due to the fact that our gas has been off since the gas company detected a leak in early February. Boo. Gas leak is of course serious business, and once National Grid has had to do an emergency turn-off, there's a fairly complex set of requirements to meet and inspections to pass before it can be turned back on. The building management estimated probably about 3 months and provided all the affected tenants with double hot plates. We've supplemented that with a couple of camp stoves (used with the kitchen window open and a fan running for good ventilation) and a crock pot, and we've been getting by OK. Management and our super super have done a really good job of keeping things on track - they're up to one of the final steps, getting a city inspector; that may be harder because of the coronavirus shutdown, but in the meantime, definitely not starving. But no baking on a whim.

However, I did get an achievable whim while shopping the other day - suddenly decided to cook TACOS! This is DEFINITELY a shutdown thing - ordinarily I just wouldn't think of making my own tacos because we have plenty of good Mexican places nearby. Even now, I could have gotten much better tacos from Tacos El Paisano, the taco truck that parks near the Newkirk Plaza subway station in the evenings, I've stopped there a number of times on my way home from work back when we all commuted and their tacos are really good - but I was shopping, they had some nice little chuck steaks, and I got those, a sweet onion, cilantro and some tortillas. TQ picked up the lime I forgot and the avocado I forgot I forgot on his way home from work, I put together a melange of spices that seemed appropriate for the steaks, and the came out pretty well! I made rice and beans, too, managed to juggle items so I didn't need to use the camp stoves. The cast iron collection got a workout (and so did I, juggling all that cast iron)!

And I had so much fun with the fixin's - started slicing and dicing things and had to get out ALL THE PRETTY BOWLS. Doesn't this look nice? 

Final result - nowhere NEAR as good as the taco truck, but not too bad.

And of course I made about 150% more fixin's that we needed for one meal, and I had one more beautiful chunk of striped bass from an October fishing trip with a Sebago friend that I'd just thawed out for lunch (big enough to share but TQ is not a fish fan so it's all mine!) so for yesterday's lunch - fish tacos! 

And then this morning, the fixings just kept giving - this time it was TQ's turn, I never would've thought of putting cilantro in with sausage & peppers, but OMG, it was delicious! So glad we are both cilantro fans. 

So that was a fun experiment. And btw - here is what the original fish looked like. I didn't catch anything but the way my friend Jonathan handles fishing trips he organizes fir his friends is the catch just gets split 3 ways - and with his other friend catching this enormous fish (missed being the "pool fish", the biggest fish of the day, by THAT MUCH) there was plenty to go around - and it was delicious! Beautiful day on the water, too - more photos here, if you missed it the first time.  

2nd day of necessary travel - Iconic Buildings and Empty Streets

36th and  Park Avenue, looking north

April 2nd I had 2 more appointments at NYU Langone. I took my camera along again, of course!

The day before, I hadn't been able to resist the boat ride. Day 2, I knew there would be a good bit of time between meeting with my oncologist and the 3rd test that was scheduled, so I decided to do a little walking around the midtown east neighborhood where the Perlmutter Women's Imaging center is located. I've made a lot of visits up to this neighborhood since my first diagnosis in 2015, but I always had to get back to work - I would look at the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building as I came and went, and I would think the requisite oooh and aaah thoughts, but I never took a camera. This time I knew I would have time to get some nice photos of these iconic building, and I also really wanted to get some of those empty street photos that represent this strange time in NYC so well. I am going to do some descriptions on these, but click on any photo for a better view.

This second photo isn't that great, but I'm including it as it shows an experiment that only ran for around 10 days. Certain city streets were closed to vehicle traffic so that residents could use them for walking - the idea was that sidewalks could be too crowded and this would encourage residents to get out for exercise (considered an essential activity) while maintaining social distancing. It ended up not being very popular, and it took a lot of police to maintain, but it was really interesting to see Park Avenue like this during its brief stint as a pedestrian mall. 

More Park Avenue cherry trees

Looking north on an empty Lexington Avenue. Middle of the day on a weekday, this should be full of traffic!

Caught my eye as I was walking north

Heading towards the Chrysler Building

Chrysler Building

Chrysler Building and its neighbor to the south, the Socony-Mobil Building. I've always liked the almost quilted effect on the steel panels with which this mid-50's landmark building is clad.

Time to wander meant time to discover historic surprises on the side streets in the area - neat!

This was hung outside of an Indian restaurant and caught my eye, and of course I wondered what the significance was. I did a little Googling later, and it turns out to be meant to either ward off bad luck or possibly lend a healthy quality to the air around it - either one most appropriate right now. Click here for a variety of explanations on the Quora q and a website. Also found a really yummy looking northwestern Chinese place a little bit south of here - test #3 was one of those barium milkshake ones where you can't eat for 7 hours beforehand, so I just tortured myself reading the menu, then went back later, ravenously hungry, and ended up buying enough food for me and TQ for half the week! Sorry no pix but I'll give 'em a link, Dunhuang Noodles had some really scrumptious food! 

Another side street in the area

I just liked this

And last but not least - the Empire State Building. I've taken way more pictures of this one than the Chrysler Building, but hey - it never gets old!

A farewell

Terrible loss last week to the Sláinte session and the NYC Irish music community as the news came out that much-loved regular Kevin Brooks had passed away due to COVID-19 complications.

That's him on the bones (the brisk clickety-click), switching later on to bodhrán (goatskin frame drum). He was also a great one for the old-fashioned Irish songs, the ones speaking of the emigrant's longing for home and loved ones and the beauty of Ireland.

The bodhrán comes in for a lot a grief, as it can be hazardous in the hands of an overenthusiastic novice, but in the hands of an expert and sensitive player it's a singing heartbeat for a tune.

It seems unreal that when this thing has run its course and the session is once again able to gather, Kevin won't be there in his usual spot.

Take care and please stay safe, everyone.

Much love from Brooklyn.

It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (of Midwood, Brooklyn)

I just found out yesterday morning I'm being furloughed for 2 weeks starting Monday, so I'm in absolute scramble mode trying to wrap everything up before I start, but it was an absolutely glorious day outside and I did give myself a lunch hour stroll. I've been meaning to take a photo of the magnolia tree I would pass on my way to work, back when my work commute was a little longer than going the bedroom to the living room, and once I was outside with my camera I pretty much had to keep going.

Midwood, Brooklyn is a lovely neighborhood and it's all springety-spring-spring-spring right now. Got back to my desk with the Mr. Rogers theme song running through my head.