The Adventures of Restoman

My friend, Chris, aka: stormdog has been coming over every day this past week to take Lily for walks. Lily loves going for walks and loves Chris too. On Saturday, John's dog, Zoey, was visiting Lily. The 2 of them had a great time running around my fenced back yard. Chris came over and played with them both, then took both on a walk. Here they all are by my back porch:

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( 10 more pictures )

This afternoon, I was standing on my porch talking to Wes, when there was a low rumble that lasted half a minute. I said "Was that thunder?" Wes said, "Maybe it was a train derailing." It didn't really sound or feel like either, but then Wes remembered that the grandstand at the Fairgrounds (about 3 miles away) was being demolished today. I wish I had known about it in advance! Anyway, here's the footage:

http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/01/watch_the_nys_fair_grandstand_blow_up_photos_video.html

In the first clip, the blonde-haired woman is the County Executive, Joanie Mahoney. You can see Governor Cuomo on the left.

I borrowed this from a Facebook friend.
Enjoy!


An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and, upon returning to her car, found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle.

She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her lungs, “I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car!”. The four men didn't wait for a second threat. They got out and ran like mad.

The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver’s seat. She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition.

She tried and tried, and then she realized why. It was for the same reason she had wondered why there was a football, a Frisbee and two 12-packs of beer in the front seat. A few minutes later, she found her own car parked four or five spaces farther down.

She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report her mistake.

The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn't stop laughing. He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale men were reporting a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than five feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun.

No charges were filed.

The moral of the story?

If you’re going to have a senior moment… make it memorable

This was all that remained today of that double French Mansard style house in my neighborhood. It was demolished yesterday. Nothing was salvaged out of the building because of the risk of collapse.
I am heartsick over this.

I was startled to see another house in my neighborhood getting torn down today. I drove by late in the morning and saw that a demolition crew had already taken down the front of a Queen Anne style house (c. 1890) a block and a half from mine. At one time I had considered buying this place and went through it twice to assess its condition. Ultimately other houses were more appealing projects and I passed it by. It was on a small, narrow lot, and needed considerable work. Again, I had hoped that someone else would rise to the challenge, but unfortunately, no one did. :-(

Since the 19th century, Syracuse has been a place where immigrants from many different ethnic backgrounds have settled and established their own communities. For many years, Syracuse's north side was home to a large Italian-American community. Before that, much of the north side was settled by German immigrants. In the past 30 years, other groups have settled there: Vietnamese, Afghan, Sudanese, Somali, Bhutanese and Nepali, to name a few. Syracuse seems to be a popular resettlement place for refugees from all over. To some extent the newer groups replace the earlier ones, but there is a great deal of mixing going on as well. On Lodi Street, just a half mile from my house there is an intersection where a small market run by a Chinese family sits next to a Middle Eastern meat market. Across the street is a Bhutanese restaurant, and on another corner is an Italian bakery. Most of the businesses are relatively new, but Di Lauro's Italian Bakery has been there for over a century.

[Edited 10/7/15: My memory failed me, the "small market run by a Chinese family" is a block away from the other 3 businesses.]

I am a regular customer at Di Lauro's. Their bread and rolls are excellent, and their pizza is good too. But it is some of their more unusual items that keep me coming back.

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This is called Tomato Pie. It is a thick-crust pizza, topped with a thick layer of rich tomato sauce and just a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top. It is baked in a rectangular shape and usually served cold. For many years this was a local dish, only found in Utica, NY. But lately I have seen it available in several places around Syracuse.

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This is called a DiLuna. They take a circle of Italian Bread dough, place about a cup of filling on it, then fold it over and pinch the open edges together. Then they put a small slit in the top to allow the steam to escape and bake it. It is similar to the "Pasties" found on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but with an Italian flavor. Fillings options include: Broccoli & Spinach, Pepperoni, Mushroom, and my favorite, Italian sausage. All of the fillings include some Mozzarella cheese. I often get one of these for lunch.

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If I can get there early enough, I get one or two slices of this: Breakfast Pizza. Although breakfast pizza is available at a number of convenience stores and gas stations around the area, I think Di Lauro's makes it best. Unfortunately, they often sell out by 9:00 AM. Breakfast Pizza is made like traditional pizza, but without any tomato sauce. Instead, it has scrambled eggs and Mozarella cheese, and is topped with bits of ham, sausage, and crumbled bacon. It is sooooooo good!! I get a slice or two for breakfast whenever I can.

I got my annual flu shot today at Wegman's. It was easy, fast, and relatively painless. My insurance even paid for it in full! YAY!
I took the air conditioner out of my bedroom window a few days ago. The furnace has been running on cool nights for a few weeks. I have even bought 3 large pumpkins for Halloween.

A few weeks ago, the city put up cameras, mounted on utility poles, at key intersections in my neighborhood. The cameras are monitored for illegal activities ~like drug dealing and prostitution. Prostitution hasn't been an issue in my neighborhood for decades, but drug dealing still is. Of course, I hope that the cameras will dry up some of the drug dealing, but I can't help feeling uneasy about this further intrusion by Big Brother monitoring our lives. I live in the middle of a block, but there are cameras at both ends of my block. Earlier this year there were rumors that there would be a camera in the middle of my block, directly across the street from my house. Fortunately that didn't come to pass ~so I can still safely step out onto my front porch in my boxers and not worry about the police watching me. ;-)

WORK, WORK, WORK!!! I have been keeping very busy, but this is a hell of a way to spend my retirement! Actually, my time is spent telling my 9 workers what to do, and getting the tools and materials that they need. But, just doing that has been running me ragged. I spent 6 weeks this summer, sick with a bad sinus infection, and then pulled a back muscle from all the coughing. Fortunately, I have survived the ordeal. As my grandmother used to say, "It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in."

So here is some of the work we have accomplished this summer:


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Mark, painting from scaffolding.
( Umpteen More Photos, Click Here )

Here are some random summer photos:

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There is a Honeysuckle vine growing on the side of my workshop. I planted it because it reminded me of pleasant memories from my long-ago childhood. When I was about 7, there was lots of wild Honeysuckle growing in the woods near our house on Long Island. My friend, Robby, showed me how to pick a flower, carefully snapping it off below the little bulb at its base, then pinch and slowly pull off that bulb, which pulled the pistol through the flower, collecting the nectar out of the trumpet of the flower until it formed a tiny drop at the flower's base. If you deposited that tiny drop on your tongue, you were treated to the most wonderful, sweet flavor, better than any candy. Robby and I, along with the other kids on the block would spend hours combing the woods for Honeysuckle vines and enjoying their sweet nectar.
I tried a couple of flowers today, delighting in that sweet nectar that I hadn't tasted since I was a kid.

( Click for Seven More Photos )