New York City, 8-23-11

This past Tuesday, the family and I went into Manhattan for the day.  There, we decided to tour the city on foot and along the way hit the big places, such as Ground Zero, Wall Street, Times Square, The Highline, and Radio City Music Hall, where we saw the show Zarkana, by Cirque de Soleil.  We first arrived there in the morning and parked in the upper west side and walked to a local subway station to take the Express into downtown.  At the station, we met up with a friend of my mother's and her son, who are from New Jersey, and unlike us, rather informative of how subways work.  Because the family and I are from Connecticut, the word subway means a place to get lunch.  Boy were we in for a surprise when we got to New York and that just wasn't the case....

We had some real difficulty getting into the subway.  Our New Jersey friends, who frequently visit the city, had no difficulty in accessing the underground transit, and all they could do was laugh from the other side of the turnstile as we floundered with the faulty ticket machines and made everyone else late for work.  I had never heard the phrase, "Please dip your card" until that day, and I was just as confused as the rest of my family when we were asked by the ticket machine to do that.  But eventually, after 20 minutes of fussing, we finally made it to the Express and were on our way to downtown.  We arrived at Wall Street.

The New York Stock Exchange

We made our way from Wall Street to Ground Zero, where we saw the progress that was being made ten years after 9-11.  It was impressive to see how well this city was able to pick up the pieces and redevelop the sacred ground.  Construction of the Freedom Tower is in full swing, and the grounds and surrounding buildings are being built as well.  

Freedom Tower being built

The 9/11 Memorial

The Winter Gardens at the World Financial Center

I was able to catch the last five minutes of a tour that was being conducted at the World Financial Center where the guide was retelling her story about what she did on that day.  Her husband was a police officer who was badly injured from the attack.  Side note: Here's something she said:

"About a year later, the doctor told me that I had about six months left to live.  People wanted me to be angry, to be mad, but I wasn't.  I was happy.  I was happy  because I was given the gift of time.  I knew that I had six more months, and I was happy.  But here I am today, giving this tour."

After visiting Ground Zero, we decided to get lunch....at a rather bizarre place: Dakota's BBQ .  Quite an obscure place to eat lunch, I must say.  While there, some members of our party claimed to have felt someone shaking the table, but after concluding that such a thing could not have happened, they thought nothing of it.  That is, until we left and went outside to see the entire city of New York flooding the streets with fire engines and ambulances racing around street corners.  As it turns out, the earthquake had just struck, and had rocked some of the buildings in downtown.  Every hi-rise was evacuated, and everyone was in the street trying to make a phone call and to find out for themselves because of the incredulity of an earthquake occurring on the east coast.  The city must have been pretty scared when that happened, especially being it almost 10 years after 9/11.  But, after the slight disturbance in the tectonic plates, we mushed on to the Highline.

On the way there, we passed Magnolia's Bakery, but of course didn't wait on line to get anything there.  Also on the way there along Bleeker Street, we passed an ice cream truck parked in front of a playground that was playing an irritating jingle. But, we got to the architectural wonder that is the Highline.  For those of who that don't know, the Highline is a renovated elevated rail line that has been re-utilized as an urban garden located high above the streets of the old Meet Packing district of Manhattan.  Of course, there's no more meet packing industry there, so the elevated line just sat there to rot away, until a private founder decided to pour some money into it and turn it into what is now a beautiful green oasis in the urban jungle.  Whomever's idea it was, they are a genius.  The city then picked up on the idea and the renovation quickly exploded into a full-blown urban renewal of the area.  Dilapidated brick mid-rises have given way to modern hi-rises.  The railway at once split right through old buildings that have now been converted into apartments with a view of the greenery.  The Highline is an architectural masterpiece that is leading the way in re-utilization of abandoned eyesores in cities across the world.

The Highline runs right underneath this residential building.  To which I had to ask, which came first, the rail or the building?

A bridge between two buildings from the highline (like that wasn't obvious)

Here's where the rail ran through an old factory.

The rails were left in tact at most locations, which  was  very cool, so you never forgot  that you were still on an elevated rail line.

The rail clearly went right into the side of that building, but the hole has been patched and the rail replaced by greenery.

 The Highline has many interesting features.  It has many different seating areas scattered throughout the park. The benches were a modern design that formed out of the cement ground and provided an excellent seating area.  Also, there are wooden benches that are placed on the tracks and can be moved to form different seating arrangements on the old abandoned tracks.

Remember that ice cream truck I mentioned before?  Well, it followed us.  All up and down the highline, it criss-crossed beneath the elevated park ringing out that same irritating jingle, and drove (me in particular) mad.  There was no escaping the annoying sound of the that frozen dairy delivery van....

This is an interesting feature of the highline.  These here are benches that were set up like a theater that led down to four windows that over look the street below.

In this picture, you see the interesting apartment building on the far left that recently finished construction.  It has an interesting effect on the windows that make them appear blurred from the outside.  To the right of that, is another (lower) apartment building.  What's special about this one is, although it may be hard to see, there is a glass wall that folds up like a hangar door and opens an entire room to the outside where there is a balcony.  This specific apartment is in the upper left corner of that building    

It was a beautiful day on the Highline, and it was pretty busy

The building on the left here is very interesting.  I'm not a fan of the ultra modern design, but this particular building I found very appealing.

A close up of that apartment building

A roller-rink was built at the end of the Highline

That brown stretch of elevated rail is currently being converted into the third section of the Highline 

So then afterwords, it was off to Roc Center, but it wouldn't be a visit to NYC without stopping in at Times Square.  So we did.  

If there's anything I learned from working as a pool attendant, it's never multi-task. You've got all the time in the world.

For those of whom that don't know, I landed a summer job at a marina.  Not just any marina, but Pilot's Point Marina, the second largest marina in CT.  It's owned and operated by Brewer's Marina corp.  The marina consists of the upper class of Connecticut, and owning a BMW or MBZ is a requirement to be a member.  I landed a job here in desperate need for gas money, and luckily Keith, my boss, hired me.  I work only on the weekends from 8 to 8, and Friday from 4-8, so I put in a lot of hours into work.  For only two and a half days of work a week, it's not bad.

I wear this great hat there, too.  It makes me stand out, it makes me noticeable.  Many a time, actually, people have commented on my straw fedora saying, "nice hat, I like it."  When people see the hat, they know who I am, the pool boy.

The Job:
The first and last hour of work are always the most interesting.  In the morning, I have to clean the bathrooms and manage the pool and occasionally backwash the filter.  Exciting, right?  Well, the first four hours of work go on by and I start to meet people.  For example, there's this old lady who frequently "bothers" me whenever she comes to the pool.  I say "bothers" because she really just talks with me about my job, and her daughter, perhaps in her 30's, is convinced that she is bothering me and asks her to stop talking to me.  Well, I convinced them both that having her "bother" me makes my job more exciting and interesting, and for that, I thank her.

At about two, I usually take a break, because between then and six, sitting in the chair when the umbrella shade has moved is the equivalent to burning in hell for four hours.  So, because no one likes doing that, I ask Rich (the dock master, whatever that means) to send up a relief, to which I say, "here ya go, sucker," and I leave for a little while and check out the boats.

One day at work was "Kids day."  The marina brought in large inflatable bounce houses and a popcorn and snow cone machine.  On this particular day, it was raining quite a bit, and there was little attendance at the pool.  So, my Rich came up to me and told me "Stephen, we're gonna have you be working on the popcorn machine because I know you've always wanted to learn how to make popcorn."  No, I didn't, but I guess that  would be a useful thing to know how to do.  So, I made popcorn for two hours.  (Popcorn cooking wasn't in the job description, but alright)  PPM, the only place where a pool attendant can go from doing their job to making popcorn for two hours and then back again.  Well, that made for an interesting story.

The boats:

At PPM, there are boats.  Didn't think so right? Well, there are something like 650 boats located there, and I see many of them on my break.  Boats of all sizes from dinghy's and jet skis to  mega yachts, such as the Debbie Lou or the Miss Daisy.  The Debbie Lou is (from what I learned from Steve, more about him later) the largest yacht in the marina and is owned by an executive at UTC, the empire that owns Otis Elevator and Pratt and Whitney, and many other various CT based industries.  I also learned that he received  over 20 million dollars in bonuses in the last year.  There's also my bosses boat, Feather, a 42 foot sailing boat that he charters.  There's also the Miss Daisy, a gigantic classic yacht at dry dock in the parking lot.  (out of Block Island)  Also, there were a couple large sailing yachts like the Crown Jewel, a 50 something foot sailing yacht that was on her way to England for a yachting regatta.  Now, working at the marina pool isn't exactly what I had in mind when I went to work at a marina, but its better than nothing.  Maybe next summer I'll do what I really want to do, work on the docks or in the maintenance bays on the yachts in the large hangars.

Cleaning:

Cleaning the bathroom has resulted in a few.... interesting...surprises.  I'm asked to take out the trash from each of the bathrooms and throw it into the trash barrel outside the bathrooms and then at the end of the day throw that into the dumpster.  When determining if the trash should be taken out, I made a few interesting discoveries in the trash cans such as:

An empty box of Wheat Thins
Two empty cans of Bud Lite
An empty Pringles can
An empty Monster can

Honestly, who finishes that stuff when they're sitting on the john?  That's just weird people.

The people:

The people I meet at the marina really spice up the boring hellish day.  My hat makes me stand out, and I usually start talking to people who actually notice it and say something like, "nice hat."  I usually get at least three of those a day.  (By the way, do something obscure to make yourself stand out, like wearing a straw fedora if you want to be noticed more in the work place, works like a charm.)  Also, a group of really interesting characters that looked very out of place at a high end marina came in.  I'm gonna be completely honest, they look like the stereotype redneck.  They wore ratty T-shirts, and the wife had a back of cigarettes tucked in her shirt.  Interesting characters.  So, the people I met:

Steve:
There are two  Steves.  This one is a friend of a boat owner named Lou, who works for UTC.  Hence, where I learned about the largest yacht in the marina.  After talking a bit about UTC and work, I discovered that he lives in Madison as well.  He was listing off names of people he knew in town, but I didn't know many of them, except for one.  He asked me, "How do you know that name?"  I replied, "Well, the girls are in my class."  To which he replied, "Good answer!"  We all got a great laugh out of that.  He also told me "Hold onto being sixteen, because next thing you know you'll be like me, 50 and asking yourself, 'where did it all go."  Thanks Steve, I'll remember that

The other Steve:
The other Steve is the security guard who works at the marina.  He's a big guy, and believe me, you wouldn't want to get in a tussle with him, because he looks pretty tough.

Skip Dohl:
Skip I met at work the other day because, of course, he noticed my hat.  Skip is another interesting character, with unorganized hair and a ratty old button down shirt.  He and I got into talking because he's a gear head and I'm interested in cars and I later found out that he went to good ol' DHHS.  That is, in the 70's he did.  He worked at the marina for 25 years now in the maintenance bays working on yachts that he openly admits "Will never be able to afford."  But he was telling me about how he has no wife or kids and how after high school he didn't do anything but party.  He told me that he never did anything with high school, but that it didn't matter to him because he's as happy as can be working on boats.  He told me "What you'll get out of high school is related to what you put in.  If you put in a lot, you'll get out a lot.  If you don't, like me, you won't get much out of it.  But that's just me, I'm happy with what I do and I couldn't ask for anything more."  Well, good for you Skip for being happy.
On the note of him living in Madison, I told him where about I lived in town.  He then asked me if I knew a neighbor of mine, and I told him yes.  Then we really hit it off with each other.  I told him that the woman who he had mentioned taught me how to swim, and he said that three of her daughters worked as a pool attendant at the very pool I'm working at now.  He and her still keep in touch, and he told me to tell her about him next time I see her around town.  I think I'll hang out with him, he can show me around the boats and teach me a couple mechanical techniques and how to be happy.

Griswold Airport once again

Because I now have my license, and that I'm mobile, I took advantage of that today and drove down to my favorite place for photography, Griswold Airport.  I'm sure I've already explained on previous posts what exactly is going to happen with the property, so I won't go on about that now.  Instead, I noticed that some of the plans are underway, and its being prepared for demolition.  In the front, there use to be a trailer which is now removed, and a lot of brush has been cut away from the buildings.  Also, many locks have been removed off the doors, leaving them open to the demolition crew, vandals, and well, me. I don't think its been vandalized too much, but I noticed that doors have been broken into here and there.  So, the lack of locks on the doors (Or the lack of doors) allowed for some new things to be seen, although, not many new things.

Not much has changed since I went last in the winter other than the tarmac has been torn up and all the buildings have more wear and tear on them.  Not much is left unlocked there anymore, so access was easy.  I started off in an abandoned house that had been gutted out by a fire, and only a small corner kitchen remained untouched by the flames, but it still had 30+ or so years of decay rotting away at it.  Left behind in that kitchen were family photos in frames of someone's prom and a "I wish you were here dad" caption.  (Pics of that later)  The fact that it was placed on top of a cross made of sticks with flowers wrapped around it added to its eeriness.  I was able to access what I originally thought was a hangar, but discovered it was just a garage with a work bench left over.  I had to be real stealthy there because the summer village next door was quite lively with a family picnic right outside the window!

Afterward, I went over to the large hangars, one of which was missing a door, and went in.  Everything by this time was pretty well cleaned out, and nothing very photogenic was left behind.  After a little while of snooping around in the hangars, I realized that the plopping sounds I heard were the sounds of bird feces hitting the floor, so I decided to make like a baby and head out of there before I got some excrement on my shoulder.  Other than that, nothing new is going on down there, and it will sooner or later fall to the wrecking ball.  (Although I remember hearing that the whole place would be razed by last February, obviously that didn't happen)

Oh, and as for me, I had a bad case of the finals last week, but I'm better now, and school is OUT!  After a lot of searching, I finally landed a weekend job as a pool boy down at Brewer's Point Marina, and I can't wait to start making some money.  I'm also going to class to get my boaters license, and wouldn't you know it, the season I decide to do that is the season the boat doesn't work and my dad doesn't feel like making it work.  *sigh*  I guess I'll have to keep myself entertained during the week with floating around in the boat tube in the pool or working on the (oh so much fun) AP history work for the summer.  Fun fun fun....here are the pics.

Here's that burned out house

Inside the burned out house

Some old bikes were stored here.  I have no idea why. 

Here's that kitchen

There's the picture of the prom on the cross.  The caption reads "My Prom!  I love you and I wish you could be there."  Then the plaque in front of it reads, "I'm just as blessed as can be-because the world's greatest dad belongs to me."  The cross adds to the creepy affect of this whole thing, and this pictures raises a lot of unanswered questions.

This is what the burned out house looks like from the outside

This is inside the garage

The work bench in the garage

Someone planted a couple of american flags in the ground

Oh yea, this plane flew over too.  He was quite low, and it was pretty obvious he was taking the same little trip down memory lane I do whenever I come here remembering the little airport that was

A winch for opening the hangar door

Just some papers on the wall.  No significance.

A fully working scale and my boot

What remains of the torn up tarmac

But that didn't keep me out