Stacy Horn

Happily, I still come across a few people a day who are polite, and practice basic sidewalk etiquette, but for the vast majority it seems all bets are off. They park themselves in the middle of small Village sidewalks, instead of moving off to the side, making everyone squeeze around them, they walk two or three abreast when there’s no room for that (note: exceptions made for people with animals or children).

There’s one thing that some people do that is beyond the pale. You’ve got people going in two directions on the sidewalk. Sometimes, when you’ve got slow moving people in front of you you need to go around them, like passing a slow car. Except some people will do it whether they have an opening or not. If you don’t get out of their way they slam into you. I had two people slam into me yesterday. Insane. No apology, no nothing. I was already as far over as I could get without going into the street. I mean what is wrong with people like that? How is that okay? I can only guess that they must be having seriously terrible lives.

A bird eating a fish on Roosevelt Island. Poor fish. Doesn’t it look like the bird is eyeing me, thinking, “Don’t try anything. You’re not getting any of this fish.”

I’m happily watching The Bachelorette this season when UnReal debuts. It’s a drama about the making of a reality show The Bachelor, except in UnReal it’s called Everlasting. But it’s The Bachelor.

Now, we all know that there’s a lot of editing going on with these shows, and a lot of prompting, but if UnReal is at all real, and one of the producers worked on The Bachelor so I’m guessing it is, then I’m blown away at the extent of how unreal it all really is. Also, I thought the people on these shows were in on it, and they are somewhat. But the degree to which they are being manipulated is horrifying! Again, if this is what it’s really like.

This doesn’t get at all in the way of my still enjoying The Bachelorette and The Bachelor, but holy shit. UnReal is very entertaining though, I’m seriously enjoying it.

Now enough with the slut-shaming of Kaitlyn. I actually don’t blame Shawn and whoever else finds out for being pissed about it, but Juan Pablo didn’t have to do these endless camera talks-of-shame when he had sex in the ocean with whoever that was.

More shots from my walk around the perimeter of Roosevelt Island. I loved getting shots of forgotten artifacts now grown over.

Steps to nowhere, my favorite kind of artifact.

A few shots of the Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island, designed by James Renwick, the same guy who designed Grace Church, where I sing. Renwick also designed the more famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was quite the over-achiever, entering Columbia when he was only 12, and getting his first commission, Grace Church, when he was 25.

The stone used here, for the hospital, was Fordham gneiss, one of the oldest rock formations in the world. It was cut from quarries on the Island by convicts, some of whom probably ended up in the very structure they helped to build. Kinda like asking someone to dig their own grave. It is pretty though.

There was a lot of renovation going on a little north of here, in the location where I believe was the former penitentiary. I couldn’t get close, but from a distance I kept scanning the site for artifacts sticking out of the dirt, but I didn’t spot any.

Scroll down for a short movie I made of some geese.

Sorry for the shaky cam in the beginning, as I walked up to them. There’s a little bit of drama at the end. Will he make it??

I’m going to take a walk along the perimeter of Roosevelt Island today. That’s the Island that was once called Blackwell’s Island. (Readers of this blog know I’m working on a book about the Blackwell’s in the 19th century.)

It will be a roughly 4 mile walk and I will be back with pictures!

The fireworks were on the east side this year, which is on the other side of town from me. Except my neighbor pointed out there were three sets of fireworks going off all around us.

Every summer I have a mosquito problem. Never mind the West Nile Virus threat, I don’t get any sleep as one or more mosquitos feeds off of me all night long, keeping me awake with the horrible itching, itching, itching.

I have screens on the windows! Plus, I went around and tried to plug up every possible opening (they are very old and rickety windows). But at least one invariably gets through.

They always get away if I try to swat them, but spraying them with Windex is effective, I’ve discovered, if you can spot them. Anything spray-able will do it seems. I once got them with leave-in conditioner. The wide spray cuts off all exits, and they fall and then you can smoosh them. The problem is finding them, and this is always an after-the-fact solution anyway. You’ve already been woken up at this point and are dealing with the itching, itching, itching.

Yesterday someone posted a link to this DIY bug repellent on Facebook. I couldn’t find one of the ingredients, the Thieves essential oil, but last night I put all the other ingredients together and gave it a try.

No mosquitos! And while that could just be a coincidence, I’m hopeful. I don’t love the smell though. I don’t hate it exactly, I think it’s the lavender smell that I don’t like. Or the rosemary. Also, I never got around to lighting the tea lights, but I do agree with Claire, who posted her homemade recipe, these are very pretty. Thank you, Claire!

Update: Okay, so it didn’t work. But they were pretty.