On The Scene

I have been at our base of operations in Jersey City, New Jersey since Sunday, it's now Wednesday. We have two campers on a RV site that overlooks the south end of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. It's pretty cool to go for a jog and look over at the lights of New York just before sunrise.  To the casual observer driving around the area things seem pretty normal. Most of the mess left by Sandy has been cleared away in the areas I have been in; mostly Manhattan, many parts of Long Island, Jersey City and Hobokan. But once you get into a home or business, that's when you seen what a couple of feet of water does to someone's life. Everyone has there own unique story.

Robert's was the first home I got to see close up.  Driving through his neighborhood you would have little idea any thing was amiss. When Sandy hit, he had just gotten home from the hospital and having had his appendix removed. He was also still recovering from hurricane Irene. The first floor of his Baldwin (just east of Queens on Long Island) bungalow had all new furniture and flooring for less than a year.  He had finally been able to replace his washer and dryer only three weeks before the storm. When I met him, Robert was reviewing the effectiveness of our drying equipment working on his exposed sub-floor with a slightly dazed demeanor. "It is all a bit too much to take in" he uttered, while offering me one of his many cats to take home with me. His entire first floor consisted of damp plywood and walls stripped down to the studs for the bottom 24 inches.

Don has owned and operated 7 rental properties in Rockaway since the mid 80's. His insuranc lapsed in September and he had to wait 30 days for it to be in effect. He mused "since it's going to be Halloween before my insurance will kick in, I may as well wait until the spring." Not bad logic, just bad luck

On the lighter side...

We had dinner at an awesome neighborhood bar in Jersey City, PJ Ryan's, http://www.pjryans.com . Lindsey, one of their barkeeps, had some amazing tats. Two of her's had won best in show at East Coast tattoo conventions. We told her we are thinking about a commemorative tat if all goes well here and she recommended 3 artists in NY; Jon Mesa (traditional, realistic & color) of Sacred Tattoo, http://www.sacredtattoo.com; Andy B (black & grey and portraits) also at Sacred Tattoo; and Guy Ursitti (anything! "trust me") of Thicker Than Water, http://thickerthanwatertattoo.com/.

 

 Lindsey had this award winning tat of Tim Gunn by Andy B. of Sacred Tattoo

My personal goal updates:

Physical Log: Back to walk/run cycles but still going out every other day. Hope to be back on my 5K training schedule shortly.

Fiscal Log: Much more challenging. Lots of work up here after the storm but we are still struggling with cash flow, i.e.., we need to reverse the tide from ebb to flow.