Thought of the Day
Some people who know me say I'm a dork - I don't watch a lot of football, baseball, my grill skills are lacking, I can't fix anything, I studied English in college and sometimes my fashion can be challenged.
I listen to books on tapes things like "The life and times of George Washington" or Lyndon Johnson's 4 volume biography masterpiece "Passage of Power" or 52 hours of the Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich, while reading "The Quest - Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World" (which by the way makes the pop-star anti-frackers seem all the more silly in their fluff approach to science) , and "Undaunted Courage" (who knew Merriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark ended up broke, depressed and then committed suicide!!). I go to dorky Harvard Club science debates, and search the NYC libraries of Frick, Morgan and Carnegie. Top that off with the fact that I actually record PBS Nightly Business show and you can see where I'm going with this.
So it should come as no surprise that I was reading a New Yorker critique of the well-received new adaption of Tennessee Williams' 'Glass Menagerie' when the critic, the well known Hilton Als said the following about Jim, one of the main characters I guess -
"He is an amiable Irish-American, a go-getter who's increasingly baffled by his life; he can't break out of his niceness to achieve anything truly great".
"He can't break out of his niceness to achieve anything truly great." I like that- I get that. That Y in the road was really clear to me when it arrived on the horizon.
Nearing Completion - Sullivan County Real Estate
On 13 acres in Barryville NY stands Barn VII, on 13 acres, nearing completion.
Interior Painting and final trim phase.
Floor finishing, handrails, countertops Oh My.
Little bit of tile to be done (hummed to that tune 'little bit of blah blah blah blah blah")
Nice stained accents throughout, but not too much.
Awesomeness in this bathroom.
A bedroom...
Some stone work.
And a good pic of the general house palette. Pretty sweet.
Saturday Musings
In Saugerties I dropped off a winter muff hat (yes I said muff) with a furry flip front and furry flip ears coverings. It was a favorite for multiple reasons - it was stylish, he was like one yr old, it really kept him warm and it was a gift from Jeanne and Deb over at Cottage 14 (celebrating their 5th anniversary in the home in 2014).
So I dropped off the muff hat in a large black bag and a couple of weeks later it was 'in the window', paired with this red bear and convict racoon. Sort of sad to see it in the window all 'toy story-like' but I'm sure it was picked up quick.
On my evening stroll to the Saugerties Light House, a 1/2 mile sandy narrow trail out into the Hudson. Ending one of my tri-county sojourns of job site visits and management.
And on the way back the Church from 1860.
And Saugerties, the Original Instagram Town.
Ranch VI on a Sunny Late September afternoon in Barryville, NY.
Always love to see the furnished.
A new gut renovation in Port Ewen along the Hudson River to meet the men doing the demolition.
Farm 24 in Woodstock NY to meet the sheetrockers. We will be painting that before too long.
Then off to the building inspector's office in Woodstock to get submit all the paperwork for the Certificate of Occupancy for the Mt Tremper modern job.
...where I had stopped early to meet the cleaners and the carpenters.
Then over to Stone Ridge to meet the excavators and concrete folks for the footing design on the Stone Ridge Farmhouse we are just starting.
Barryville NY Cottage 45 has a lot of exterior action...
And over at Barn VII the interior is wrapping up with the painter working his magic.
Then over the Rhinebeck to check out some building lots for our cross-hudson expansion. Hello Houty Touty.
A stop at Macy's for some fall additions to my wardrobe...
I've always wanted to be able to tell a tree by its leaf, and here's a start.
Health Insurance
There is nothing more exciting than the prospect of universal health care.
Down in the trenches, where people are working hard, not to be able to afford or attain health insurance, to have your entire life revolve around health insurance decisions, to be an emergency room visit away from being broke. it's just not human.
These are things we see everyday in our business, and regardless of the rhetoric where a person like me - making dough, small business, dozen employees. I was so supposed to be the poster child for understanding the horrors of this law and tax increase - it would drive me out of business, it would disincentivize my work ethic - that I, as a small businessperson . would be automatically and staunchly opposed on economic and fairness grounds.- it's just not true.
Oh contraire, to me it's a beautiful thing - almost godly, for the impact it will have on real lives, right away. To free modest-living folks in the richest country in the world from lack of health care insanity and fear and life-style and job choice chains, that new freedom seems to me unassailable in it's profound fairness.
I will gladly contribute to that effort, to help achieve universally, what I couldn't supply to deserving employees individually.
