Tag: congestionpricing

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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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We tried two new tunes in Friday’s jam session. They sounded surprisingly good given that this was the first time playing them together. I got complements the drum track for Last Time, I think it was because of the tambourine. We have a live jam coming up in a couple weeks we’re all looking forward to. Need to practice more than I have been.

We saw 80º (26.6º C) in NYC on Saturday. Pretty much everybody was outside, seemingly in or on there way to a city park. The Great Meadow in Prospect Park was absolutely rammed. There were so many people that the din of their collective conversations was noticeable to passers by.

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I don’t have much to say this week, so it’s all about the links.

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Finally got back to some sort of a running routine this week. It was hard getting back to it this winter, the cold weather being a major hurdle. It’s just a bit easier to motivate now that the weather is getting more springlike.

When heading back from the park on Saturday, a woman stopped me for directions. In my post-run, pre-coffee state, I didn’t notice the Trump visor she was wearing right away. In my defense, it wasn’t the usual, garish red ones, it was a somewhat more tasteful white with blue lettering. I pointed her in the direction of the subway she was looking for rather than the opposite direction without any snarky remarks. I hope her visit to the nightmare of the inner city was all she had hoped for.

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