Snow Day Blues

Bed-Stuy Snow Days

So they gave us enough warning and some of us paid heed, this was nothing. This was just another snow storm to live through for a native New Yorker. They complain the Mayor did not shut the schools down and they will complain later when the Mayor tells them they have to make up those snow days.  I remember as a young boy having to walk through the blizzard of 78, snow storms are not new to this city so quit crying.
It was a grand time to be had shoveling the snow off of my stairs and side walk.  I had to shovel three times just to stay ahead of the snow. If you let it pile up it can get to be heavy and a pain to move.  So I did my duty and shoveled snow and salted, grimacing and grunting all the awhile.
Walking through the snow was a pain for most New Yorker's  but it makes it worst when you don't have the right gear.  I had on my army cold weather boots but them things are heavy and clunky. I wear them when I have to because I hate my feet being cold and wet.  I was frost bitten on my feet, hands and ears when I was in the army so I will wear cold weather gear. Now I like to think that I am smarter so I like light weight cold weather gear like the stuff from Uniqlo and REI.  So I recently brought a pair of cold weather water proof boots, so this snow storm was nothing to me. The thaw made walking in the city like puddle jumping in the arctic. The streets were covered in snow and the gutters were running with water, the cross walks were ponds of slush for people to navigate.

    The buildings were dripping with the thaw, it was a day the sun came up and tried to dry up the snow. It is not going to work since it has not finished snowing.
Its okay to me since I have more salt and my cupboards are full so if it snows any more I will just shovel the snow, salt the stairs and snuggle up to my
wife.

A long way to go

How am I suppose to work out in this weather? When I was a younger man I would run through this stuff like it was nothing.  I ran in all over the God's green acre when I was a young soldier. A long, lean fat bellied steely eyed killer as my old platoon daddy would say. I would get drunk all week end and wake up Monday morning for PT, a 0630hr run to sobriety.  It was a sight to see, a bunch of young drunk soldiers lined up for the mornings exercise. The sergeants would run us like a pack of prized dogs over and through the mountains,  forest and even deserts. The run was sweating the poisons of alcohol from our bodies, purifying us,  the occasional guy throwing up while running, yet never missing a step. If you were any where near us as we were running you would smell the stench of vomit, sweat and alcohol as we passed. The runs would last for at least 5 miles once they ran us for 12 miles and most of us actually made it. We would run in the rain, snow or what ever as my old sergeant would say "you train as you fight".
The army trained me to operate in any type of weather and now I find myself complaining about snow.  I was younger then but now as a older man I find myself know the weather by the pain in my knee's.  I once jumped out of the bed with a hang over and ran a 6 minute mile now I find it difficult the just make it across the Williamsburg bridge.  Its okay when I think about it, some of my friends did not make it to my age and here I am complaining.
I walked across the bridge from my house, it was a nice stroll of about 2 miles. I am working up to do a 12 mile road march, I am working up by increasing my distance, so far I have done 7.5 miles. I am going to do this I will work to find the soldier with in the man.

 

Fat Bastard

Okay I have to first see the problem to fix it. I like to eat and I am a good cook. I am a foodie and cook that is a bad combination. It makes for some tasty late night ventures into the kitchen where after watching my Tivo'd Nigella  session I create.  When I was younger this was not a problem I worked out like a beast. I would run 5 miles a day for fun. It was a way for me to watch sexy sweat women run around the park with out looking like some kind of perv.

So here I m going on 50 years old and my gut is throwing shade on my junk. I getting the old dinky doo as I used to call it. that"s when your gut sticks out farther than your dicky do.
I would post pictures of myself with my gut poked out, hanging over my belt but I do have some sense of pride.  I will tell the truth, I am 245 lbs. as of this morning when I stepped out of the shower.  At one point in my life that would not have phased me, I was a body builder. I was 260 lbs. of muscles with 22 inch biceps and a 19 inch neck and a 56 inch chest and at 5'11" that looked real good on me.
The body I built as a soldier was big but slow, I had to lose weight so I road marched and ran to lose 40 lbs. It worked for me then so I am going to apply the same technique with modifications in my eating to lose the weight.  I can't body build any more I am a disabled vet with torn ligaments in both shoulders and 3 bad vertebra, so I am limited to my options.
I have started walking and it hurt like hell, my knees did not like my fat ass walking and made know their displeasure with the whole idea. You know what they say " pain is just weakness leaving the body" so I guess so pain left yesterday. I got my Ipod and my hydration pack some fruit and I will start slow and work up to Infantry standards. I will do a 12 mile road march in three hours before the summer get here.
I will find that skinny guy inside me.

   

Are we done yet?

OKay, so after fixing the top floor and the parlor floor apartment, we are looking to work on our curb appeal. The stair need work this is not to say that this will make the front look better, it needs a little more than that. The front facade of the building was mistreated by the fashions of the day, painting and astro turf helped to destroy the stone face. There is water that seeps through cracks in the stair that I had patched before I went to Iraq. There had been work done to the stairs but it was patch work and can only hold for a while. So far we have had the original banister rails removed but kept the banister heads.
So here we are have contractors come by and giving us estimates of work that claim they can do, but after reading up and asking too many questions, I have come to the realization that they all lie. My next door neighbor is a master bricklayer, and we talked about what was needed to be done to my stairs and he told me to just replace the stairs and the kickers. After some thought I think that that will be the result of all this effort.
I still keep my dream of one day finishing my apartment and being done with all the work, but I look down the block and see neighbors doing the same thing, fixing up a brownstone...
Bedstuy a work in progress, don't get me wrong I like seeing my hood transform into a place to be proud of, the new hip place. But it is a lot of work

Its another day in Brooklyn and I got to write something. I woke up to my wife reminding me to move the car so my bedhead having self pulled some shorts on and found a parking spot around the corner. At least I don't live in Parkslope.

This weekend in Brooklyn

It was another popping weekend in Brooklyn, so many venues to enjoy. I started this weekend looking outside my front door. I live in that latest area to be the refuge to those folk that make kool, kewl. I mean to say the riders of the edge of Bohemia, some call them artist, but hey to me life is art so we are all artist. Some can afford to live like an artist some like to eat, and I for one never thought the starving artist was a goal for me.
I live on the edge on bedstuy and bushwick, and it is a wonderful time to be here watching the neighborhood change. As for those that call it gentrification, I say where were you when they shoot DJ Hollywood. If you don't know what I am talking about then you have know idea how bad it was. I like the change and welcome it, the change brings diversity and even better it brings good restaurants.
I remember being run out of Ft Green because I wasn't from there, now I am here hanging out at the AfroPunk festival. I am like being able to hang out in Brooklyn and enjoy the flava that is my HOOD from Gowanus to Flatbush , Brooklyn is my home. BedStuy is where I live and it is from here where I watch the change up close and personal.