The little notification beep on my phone tells me that there’s motion in my backyard. Sometimes it’s the Cardinal enjoying a snack. Weeks ago, when this was just beginning, we put a little birdseed on the deck to see what would happen. After a few days the cardinals appeared. A sweet couple - bright red with a black face and soft brownish-red. They …
This blog is for both grandparents and their children. Being a Grandparent in this time of pandemic- with physical isolation and social distancing--is difficult. We also recognize that parenting young children in these times was tough on our children.A response has evolved.A while ago, I offered to “virtually babysit” my 3 year old grandson. Not th …
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Well most of us don’t take a lot of notice, especially in these work at home times. But every time I log onto a Zoom or WebEx meeting, for a brief few seconds, I see an image of myself, blown up in full color. It actually is a bit startling as this is really how others will see me. But what do you see of …
About a week ago, my friend, Gil, sent me the picture shown on this blog. Twenty people wearing masks over looking Jerusalem. Prophetic ? Not exactly…. We were on a trip to Israel with about twenty people. Two weeks of touring on a bus and meeting people. We didn’t know — until about the end of the first week, that we were an incubator for the Flu …
I’m being inundated with “advice”. It’s coming in all forms: emails, drop downs, alerts...online, on tv and radio, and by word of mouth from a safe distance. I admit. I cannot process all of this advice. I’m even having trouble sorting out what I may want to follow up on at a later time. Smothered by advice in the time of pandemic.
I am sitting in our living room and gaze across at the dining table which now serves as my office desk. (I’ve never spent so much time at the dining room table as I have during the last few weeks.) I also gaze upon the artwork that surrounds me and some of the studio glass in the room. There’s the Blue Cloud by the glass artist Nancy Callan. It w …
Now, more than ever, it is crucial to support local businesses that are struggling to stay alive.We have a few local restaurants that are offering take-out and we alternate among them. We cleaned out our winter clothes and took them over to the dry cleaner who is suffering because no one is wearing business clothes to the office that need launder …
Washing my hands will never be the same.Finding paper towels on the supermarket shelf and throwing them into the shopping cart will never be the same.And hugging my family and friends will never be the same.
We are members of a loyalty program at a local food store. Recently went for a walk and stopped by for takeout. As we were rung up, the cashier commented on the amount of rewards balance in our account. Did we want to use our points? Thoughts ran through our heads. Use the points or pay cash? And other thoughts. Will the store survive or will our …
After taking care of a few technical glitches—people dialing in on the wrong number and eliminating static from a bad connection — we settled in to our first Gotham Covid 19 conference call on Tuesday at 5 pm. (In the interest of not leaving anyone out or getting names wrong, I will not mention names.) It was informative group therapy.... We shar …
I commented on Nancy’s blog on Tuesday about handshakes (and other forms of greeting) by recounting a recent meeting where the attendees waved to each other. Since then I have had a recurring image of the late poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen and his gesture of greeting and acknowledgement: palms together and a slight bow…. a simple, yet very me …
Last Sunday, we took a flight back to New York from the happy island of Aruba (that’s the subject of another blog). I had given some thought to the usual concerns associated with flying and getting sick. Flo had a very adequate supply of antibacterial wipes - which were put to good use. I thought I had it under control yet was surprised by my r …
The March 1st deadline is quickly coming. It’s the day that single use plastic bags are banned in New York State. With certain exceptions, you will no longer take your groceries home in those plastic bags. As I thought about it, I decided to check on my inventory of reusable bags. I first checked the glove compartment in my car and found four b …
We are all affected by politics. But this strikes closer to home than most….. I am enrolled in Global Entry - the travel program that allows easier movement through customs and security entry when you return to the U.S. Recently, New Yorkers have been rendered ineligible for the program. Without debating the reasons, they have nothing to do …
The only certainty is change; how do we handle change? We checked into Ink48, a favorite hotel of ours in the City, on Friday, January 31st. As we checked in, we were advised that, as of midnight, the hotel would no longer be part of the Kimpton hotel chain. We had always known it as a Kimpton. Will we be going back to Ink48? Does the change gi …
