11 am tuesday

waiting for the street cleaner to come by . . (didn't find a monday/thursday spot the night before).

here . . and there

 this morning it was my turn to sit out in my car and wait for the street cleaner . . who didn't come today either! i saw him pass by on other streets, but he decided to not bother with the cobble stoned street i was parked on. that was fine by me. i worked on my sock knitting and listened to knitting podcasts and watched the rain come down.

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 out on montauk my sister's family has been working hard . . here my brother-in-law is treating the deck . . 

with help from my nephews . . 

painting all the walls "navajo white" from benjamin moore.

 sanding along the skylights . . 

 love the shades!

 changing the broken lock on the slider door . . 

 and the broken lock on the front door . . 

 my sister cleaned the mildew from the window glider tracks . .

 and my nephew sorted through all my dad's "stuff" in the downstairs closet. i wish i had a before pic!

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 korrina's sunset photos on her way home from work . .

 taken with her new phone . . 

my sunset photo from the bedroom window . .

and the book i read today, which i recommend. i read it along with black coffee with white friends, a book discussion group which is hosted on the good reads website. marcie, the leader of the book discussion, has a blog which can be found here, which is filled with book recommendations (found here), shared experiences, history, personal stories, and important conversations (particularly the one here). it's a good introduction to learning about the experience of black americans. it's important to know . . to listen, to learn, and marcie's voice is honest and accepting. this is the link for the book club.

 dinner tonight was bratwurst from the butcher with zucchini and potatoes sautéed in butter, and fresh cucumber and radish.

it's slowly getting dark earlier, and i've begun occasionally lighting a candle again.

thursday morning: car sitting

 i was out the next morning to help kendall move her car . . if needed. we sincerely doubted if the street cleaner would pass by on her street, as two restaurants have their tables on either end of her short block. 

 sure enough, we watched the truck pass by in front of us and twice behind us . . turning away from her block each time.

we had a peaceful time with the little one.

tuesday: street cleaning, neighbors and asilomar again

my favorite asilomar pic . . 

at 11:45 today i moved the car to the other side of the street and sat there watching all the local residents move their cars around. the orange car (which i found out was owned by jose) didn't move until the little police mobile came by, and then he moved right back to the same spot until the street cleaner came by. another resident moved their car into their garage, and moved it right back out afterwards. there wasn't much sitting around in the cars! it's much more relaxed and simple than at home. there's also not many parking spots with everyone's driveway taking up the sidewalk. we keep our car parked in front of our landlord's driveway.

it's a very noisy street cleaning truck!

we certainly stick out on this block, being the only new york car in a sea of california license plates. jose introduced himself to me and we talked real estate . . how the price of houses and apartments has skyrocketed and how difficult his tenants have been (all the houses on the block have upper and lower apartments), and that renting out the lower apartment is the main way the residents in this neighborhood keep up with their mortgage and tax payments. he was very curious as to how long we would be here for, and commented at how our house's owners have been a good addition to the block (he's been in the neighorhood for thirty years). so now we are part of the 'hood for another three weeks!