08-29-22 Monday I landed at JFK after my economical flight on Azores Airlines. I had a second-floor apartment reserved via Airbnb in Brooklyn so it only remained to get there. It took three subways to deposit me on a street corner in SW Brooklyn, the middle class Bay Ridge neighborhood that was somewhat familiar to me. My best friend from high school had moved there in 1967 and we spent some pleasant afternoons playing stickball thereabouts. I exhibited my usual lousy navigational skills, hefting my heavy backpack in the wrong direction until a local set me right. I found I was to share a 1950-s era flat with two women. They greeted me cheerfully even at the late hour I arrived, near 10 pm on a Friday night.. I got a tour of the facilities, a shared kitchen, a bathroom crowded with their toiletries, and my spartan room — bed, dresser, closet, TV. The next morning I got my clothes cleaned at the local laundromat, had some NY pizza, got a new SIM card for my phone, and in th...
Blog 06-15-22 Wednesday Amsterdam Cities that make me feel like, “I’d be happy to move to this place some day”: Hong Kong Buenos Aires Tel Aviv London Redondo Beach Belfast And now Amsterdam. I came here with a positive bias thanks to watching a vlog called “Not Just Bikes”. (Check it out some day. Here is my favorite post. It says much about American life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_0DgnJ1uQ ) Alas NJB has also made me dissatisfied with my home city; I drive around lamenting what might be but can’t be. I knew it was a very livable place, but experiencing the place for even a few hours confirms my leanings. Thousands of places to eat and drink just within a few blocks of my hostel. Safe streets; pedestrians as King and Queen; a place designed for people. If you wish to know where I am, just search in Google for “Sarphati Park” on Google. My first act last night after leaving my hostel was to buy a beer at a local pub. People exuded friendliness. The beer...
Blog 06-19-22 Sunday Amsterdam I was resolved to get eight hours of sleep last night after several days of insufficient snoozing. My six-bed hostel room was empty except for me when I retired a bit after midnight. At about 2am the door opened, the overhead light came on, and I heard what sounded like two or three guys came in speaking a guttural language that I didn’t recognize, Serbian? Ukrainian? They fussed about for a few minutes then, blissfully, extinguished the light and went to bed. The disturbance to my rest was minimal. Fifteen minutes later the snoring began. One of the guys sawed wood loudly and forcefully. It bothered me a bit but I remembered that I’d slept under the catapult of the USS John F Kennedy (CVA 67) for nearly a year. I knew how to handle noise that would disrupt the repose of lesser beings. The problem was that his companion was less forgiving. “Wake up, you’re snoring!” That’s what I translated from the sounds emanating from the guy’s distre...
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