Month: October 2014

I can’t wait for Halloween this year! Last year, for the first time in almost twenty years, I didn’t drum in the Halloween Parade. Drumming in that parade is one of the joys of my life (I wrote about learning to drum in order to do it in Waiting for My Cats to Die). But for some reason I didn’t drum last year and had an amazing, fantastic time walking around my neighborhood.

What I’ve been missing every year because I don’t get home until late, when the streets are taken over by drunken college kids (which is actually a different kind of fun, I’m not complaining) is how my neighborhood is transformed by mini-theatre-like events or tableaus, mostly for the benefit of children, but are entertaining for everyone. I’m sure I must have posted about them last year. Oh yes, I posted a lot about what I saw. Here’s one with a brief movie, and here’s another with a couple of good shots.

I’m thinking I will forego drumming again this year to walk around and enjoy the sights. The crashed Tardis on Perry Street is one of the highlights! Every year I strive to get a picture that really shows how great this is and every year I don’t quite capture it’s full glory. Some attempts here and here. This year will be my year!

This is not a Halloween decoration (I don’t think!). Just a kinda creepy front yard due to that half mannequin.

I’ve been going out of my mind! Every night a mosquito or two will feed on me throughout the night. As the bite starts to itch I wake up, so I end up waking up over and over and over. I haven’t gotten a decent night’s sleep in months. I used to get the occasional mosquito but now it’s completely out of hand. In the beginning, whenever two bites were even remotely near each other I’d panic and think bedbugs! But even when I didn’t catch a mosquito in the act there was always one nearby on the wall.

Although I have screens in all my open windows I’ve got very old windows with huge gaps everywhere. There are plenty of places for mosquitos to come in. I didn’t want to cover my windows in plastic because even in the dead of winter I like to open the windows.

Thank you Garber Hardware and Aemon, my fantastic next door neighbor who works there for suggesting I try using Frost King air conditioner weather seal, 2 1/4″ x 2 1/4 ” x 42″. You can cut it to any size, and, unlike some of the others things I tried that didn’t work, you can take them in and out easily when necessary. It was so easy to fit it into big and small gaps. I went around to every window and carefully filled in every opening. (That reads like a commercial! I’m just trying to pass on a tip.)

I also planned to buy some sort of bug spray to catch any stray mosquito that might already be on the inside, but when I read the directions and cautions on each can they read like certain death for me and the cats. So I went to bed with a bottle of Windex within reach. I figured that can’t be good for them, that it might kill them slowly.

Last night only one mosquito showed up, I got him with the Windex, and he never showed up again. I slept well. The end. Thank God.

Setting up lights on Broadway for a movie shoot.

I’ve got a cat named after this bar. It’s the bar of my youth and I remember it fondly. The table in the back right corner was my favorite, it was probably everyone’s favorite of course. I wonder what the story is behind that Blue Devils jersey? I googled it for a bit but didn’t find an explanation. My guess is he simply drank there a lot, or a sadder possibility, he drank there a lot and died and the jersey is there as a memorial.

I heard a bunch of people screaming outside my window last night, but I often hear that. It’s usually a bunch of kids partying or having a drunken argument. I live across the street from a parking garage and people tend to fight at the end of the night when they’re picking up their cars. Except the screams felt more … urgent. I don’t know the backstory, I didn’t look right away, but when I did this guy was laying on the street, not dead, not bleeding, and the police were there questioning everyone around them.

The FDNY came and put him on a stretcher, but no one seemed in any hurry about it. I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know if this guy is a victim or if he was the source of the trouble.

Finney was crying, so you’ll also hear me periodically telling him it’s okay.

My phone broke. My scanner broke. My camera broke. My doctor dropped my insurance plan (except she might get back on). My teeth are hurting under my new bridge so something it going on (hopefully it won’t involve root canal).

But the results from my CT scan came back and they found absolutely no sign of lung cancer, so YAY. Take that, bad week!! Woohoo!

Also, my camera seems to be unbroken. I just took this shot of Finney and it seems to be working again. Crossing my fingers. Scroll down to see the shot which made me believe my camera was broken.

See? It seems like a possible issue with the shutter? I took this because it was the first Halloween decoration in my neighborhood (non-commercial, that is).