Tag: congestionpricing

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Screenshot of a map showing the NYC area. A 35.5 mile route is superimposed over the map with numbered markers for each mile.

The big news this week: Jonas and I walked the perimeter of Manhattan. As I write this, I’m hurting a little bit—to be expected base on first-hand accounts from others with experience. While we had sort of trial run about a year and a half ago when we walked the length of Broadway in Manhattan, I’m not sure if anything can fully prepare one for their first 35.5 mile walk.

Overall, it was a great experience, one worthy of a post of its own. Stay tuned for that, once I’ve had some time to collect my thoughts. In the meantime, here’s a screenshot of our route.

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Photo of a yellow trail blaze newly nailed to a tree. The round blaze has text on the top reading "Midwood Loop" and "Prospect Park Alliance" on the bottom. The Prospect Park Alliance logo is in the middle.

This week’s picture comes from Prospect Park. In all my years exploring this park, I don’t recall ever having seen a trail blaze. Judging from the shine on those nails, this one looked newly placed and I wondered if the trail markers were new. Well, through the magic of the information superhighway, I can confirm that these are (relatively) new: The formal nature trail system was launched in August.

Otherwise, it’s been quiet around here. I think I’m still trying to settle back into the day-to-day routine after the holidays and a bit of a break.

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Photo of of a band on stage.
Marky Ramone’s Holiday Blitzkrieg at Gramercy Theatre 2025-12-05. Credit: Kenny Rennard

For the one or two of you following along in real time, this post is a full week late, sorry. I mention so as not to confuse about the dates. Marky Ramone’s Holiday Blitzkrieg was a week ago Friday last Friday, not last Friday.

Timing issues aside, Marky and the band did not disappoint. More than thirty numbers delivered in rapid fire with absolutely zero banter in between. Big thanks to Kenny for scoring the tickets for this event.

In other musical news, the new Jamulus server setup I mentioned last week passed its first live test with flying colors. With the whole band on, everyone sounded great and there was minimal noise. In fact, I don’t think it has ever performed as well as it did in the last jam session. We’ll have to get a few more sessions in before declaring victory, but this is very promising.

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The July 4th holiday, and the number on this weeknote post provide a potent realization: “Crap, halfway through another year…”

Yeah. Time really flies.

Due in part to that realization, I was thinking of a way to remind myself of things–goal oriented things, not a todo list things. Perhaps a personal, daily newsletter will do the trick. I do check my email in the morning, so that’s a good place to get something in front of me. There are myriad ways to do this; I chose to create a little Python personal newsletter mailer script, mostly for fun. A very basic version is getting sent to my inbox every morning. I’ll see if it helps…

This also gave me a chance to try out Codeberg as a replacement for github. So far, so good on that front. I don’t notice much difference since Codeberg seems to have the github features I use most often (git repos and issues).

In US Political news, congress passed a spending and policy bill this week that seems destined to drive this country off a fiscal cliff so that the most wealthy among us can become more wealthy while the rest lose what meager benefits they have. Also, they opened a concentration camp in the Florida everglades and gave it a cute name to distract people from the fact that they are warehousing people in cages, in tents, in a swamp. I really hope the hurricane resistance of those tents aren’t put to the test.

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Went for a sail in a buddy’s boat on Long Island Sound this week. It was a somewhat late shake-out sail. While smooth sailing is far from guaranteed on the first sail of the season, nothing broke or fell apart on this voyage. In fact, it was a lovely sail. We got back in time to watch the afternoon thunderstorms roll through from the deck of a local yacht club. This was followed by some home pizza making, good conversation, and a just a couple sips of wine.

The following day, I went for another sail (lucky me). This time in New York Harbor was much more spirited with a gusty 15 knot wind and accompanying chop. It ended up being a short sail due in part to my own schedule. We did manage to have a quick beer after, which is almost mandatory.

While we were having that beer, I noticed that almost all the serving items in use at this busy restaurant were disposable. Cups, glasses, plates, napkins, all used just once then bound for the landfill. This seems both unnecessary and irresponsible. Perhaps the cost of these plastic and paper goods plus the disposal fees are slightly cheaper than proper dishes and the staff required to clean them. However, I expect better, especially from an establishment located in a park with a mission statement touting “…innovative, and sustainable management and design.”

I won’t return to this place, nor any other that needlessly uses so many single-use items for dine-in service. They won’t miss me, but there will be one or two fewer plastic cups carted off to the landfill or becoming litter on my behalf.

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