Open and Inhale

Someday Sniff Technology is going to be in place. Maybe it already is and I just don't know it.  (And maybe if I were marketing such a technology I would brand it Aroma Pixels because Sniff Technology sounds a little, well, canine.) But getting to my point..........

You should be able to click on this picture and smell hot-out- of-the-oven fresh baked bread. The kind of bread that takes time to make. The kind of bread that you let rise, knead it, and let it rise again. The kind of bread you take out of the oven, let sit for a few minutes, then cut it up and slather a healthy helping of real butter on it. The kind of bread that's chewy, and warm, and oh my.

I live on the opposite side of the block from a bread factory. I know. Right? I can watch men in white uniforms load up fresh baked bread into their vans sporting the corporate logo from my windows. Every day. Their website says they bake bread twice a day. The aroma is enough to set my mouth watering each and every time. I can smell it in my living room, my bedroom, and from the rooftop. There is no escaping it. There are days when I feel like I have doubled in size just by breathing that glorious scent.

I can't think of anything I would rather smell than fresh baked bread. I'm not saying anything to the building managers, but they really need to advertise that our building gets a twice a day spritz of bread perfume. I'm willing to bet there are a few people who might think that makes the rent a little more appetizing appealing. Now, if I could just come up with those Aroma Pixels their advertising e-mail could be entitled:

Open and Inhale.

Ride On

We brought bicycles to NYC. For Mr Y. this was a great idea. For me, not so much.

Mr Y. loves to grab his bike when he is in town and ride over to Central Park, dodge between all the marathon runners, then jump onto Riverside Drive and head up to the George Washington Bridge. Twenty six miles later he is back at the apartment happy to know how easy it is to get around NYC, or even make a dash over to New Jersey, on his favorite mode of transportation. Seems this is a bike friendly town. (Considering almost every restaurant uses bikes as their only method of home delivery I'm thinking that's a good thing.)

My bike riding stays confined to bike paths, no city streets where a NYC taxi cab and I dual it our for space. My one foray out on my own bike over Memorial Day took us to the East River esplanade, up over a pedestrian bridge to Randall Island, and to a wonderful bike/walking path under Hell's Gate Bridge. It was a great ride that took us by pretty maintained flower gardens, picnickers, and the chance to witness the shake down by the NYC police of a harmless looking guy also out for bike ride on the path. (No clue what that was all about.)

When my sister and her family came to town a few weeks ago we headed for Battery Park, picked up rental bikes as part of a tour package we had all purchased, and spent the day riding up the Hudson River side of the island. It was a glorious day, the path is flat, you have the cityscape to view, a nice little restaurant along the path to stop at for refreshments, the Trapeze School at Pier 40, and eventually you make your way to the George Washington Bridge. The nice thing is there are bike rental kiosks along the path so you can drop your bike off at those points and not have to return them to your original rental location.

Biking will never be my preferred method of getting around but at least NYC makes it a pleasurable  touring alternative. Ride on!

Yes, it's true. There really is a trapeze school along the path and there were trapeze artists, or aspiring trapeze artists, working on their skills the day we rode by.

I Am A Lapsed Blogger

I am a lapsed blogger.

There I admitted it. Surely there must be a support group out there for the likes of us. A safe place where we can stand up, shift from one foot to the other, look at the floor, and seek forgiveness for the sin of not keeping up. Where others will look at us with soulful eyes and you know they feel your pain. A place where we can talk about how many calendar days it has been since we posted, what part of life got in the way, or the writers block that is paralyzing us from sharing. (Or not, but I needed to infuse a little drama here.)

So. It's been awhile. For those of you keeping track it's been 33 days. (You know who you are.) In the great scheme of things that's not all that long but when you have just experienced several life changing events (s) over a two month period that seems like an awfully long time.

Life Changing Event #1 - Moved from small town to major east coast city

Life Changing Event #2 - Mr. Y retired from major communications company that has paid him religiously, bi-monthly for the last 28 years.

Life Changing Event #3 - Mr. Y turns 50 - the year of the (yet to be determined what form it will take) mid-life crisis.

Life Changing Event #4 - I turned a year older and as the author of this blog I do not have to disclose WHAT that year is but just know it is closer to 60 than Mr. Y is.

All of these events except the first one occurred during The Lapse Phase so my next blogs will catch you up. Or I may need to begin seeking out that support group............