not-so-sticky

The proprietor of Hudson Coffee Traders is awesome, indeed! He kindly acquiesced to my demands for a larger 'Alex' sized cup of coffee! One evening, an anonymous comment was posted on my former blog - Day 188 - simply asking, "What size would give you the caffeine boost you need?" I called Kyrce on the phone almost immediately. "What size do you think would make the 'perfect' size coffee cup? Ideally? What did they used to have at the Citgo before it shut down?" This was very important. Just recently, I had ingested the largest size cup available at Hudson Coffee Traders by the time we hit New Paltz on our commute to USR. Two stops on the way to work wouldn't work, if we were ever to be on time! Kyrce is great because I can call her and ask her stupid things and she doesn't suggest they are stupid. We discussed various coffee sizes available at various vendors and settled on 20 ounces. 20 ounces is the perfect sized cup to get you from Hud...

Last year, Seth came home with an English textbook. It was a reading primer and his assignment was to read Ricky Ticky Tavi. The next day, I called the school to make certain Seth had been not been accidentally placed in the wrong class. Nope. Guidance verified he was in the right class. In fact, the counselor confirmed that Seth was in the highest level available for English. What books did he read last year? Nothing remarkable was assigned by his teacher, so I generated my own assignments for him. Poor kid. And remember the library? Seth asked to go there in place of recess. It wasn't allowed. In fact, you were permitted to go to the library only if your purpose was to research a paper. You could not just 'go' there without a school-designated 'purpose'. Going to a library simply to peruse books was arcane. Given these fine experiences and the fact that Kingston High School is also centrally located on lower Broadway, we registered Seth for Coleman Catholic and r...

When half of your life is spent as a corporate lackey and the other half of your life is spent as a caregiver, you have no time to spare. You have to take the fun where you can get it. Even lunch at the cafeteria can seem fun... So even though the commute is terrifying, the carpool has become more of a social club. Whoever is driving needs to be kept awake and entertained. Therefore, passengers are under a certain obligation to perform. The carpool line-up was going to be a bit different this afternoon. Kyrce had rehearsal and wasn't returning to Kingston right after work. So the Intern (she gave me permission to use her name, but I enjoy referring to her as 'the Intern'...) had parked her car in the morning at the Wal-Mart ( cringe shudder ) in Monroe. She had some trouble getting there, having made a wrong turn along the way. Monroe looked terribly confusing to me. I couldn't imagine driving through there myself, and actually navigating to a 'real' destination...

Vacation is almost over and I'm already beginning to anticipate next week with a certain amount of dread... But - it's still vacation. So enough about that. I have developed a love for photographs of urban decay. I haven't fully evaluated why this is but it's a fascination I've been fostering. Last night, while poking around Flickr , I found this photo which gave me the geebies. It's this photo of an old, dilapidated brickyard in Kingston . (Since it's not a photo I actually *took*, I don't want to post it on my blog so just follow that link...) Just looking at that picture made me tremble. I like trembling. It reminds me that I am living. I got the shivers. It made your imagination run. Dana and I - all alone - for Dad was with Andrea, the babies with Evelyn and Seth at school - drove down to the Strand along the Rondout. I wanted to poke about and take some of my own photographs. Yup. Dana and I have a moment alone and we go to snap photos of decayin...