Yes. We survived the remnants of Ida. Rain came in buckets starting in the late afternoon. There was a bit of lightening and thunder, but mostly just buckets and buckets of rain.You’ve probably seen photos of flooded streets and stadiums. We went to bed late (watching the US Open) and all seemed fine in our neighborhood. I went to sleep wishing that I could ship the water to the fiery west.

Glen got up this morning and went to grab his computer from the basement and oops. The basement has about 1/2 inch of water throughout the space. Landlord is on his way back from vacation with a new shopvac. This is why you rent instead of own a vacation home!

We are off to Staten Island for the day. We have recently ventured to Coney Island and Rockaway Beach. Hitting all the summer hot spots! Maybe The Hamptons in early Fall?

We are going to the US Open (tennis) tomorrow! Look for us in the Louis Armstrong stadium during the night matches.

In California, it’s pretty simple, we have these three large, color-coded trash cans – blue for recycling, green for composting, and black for landfill. Our trash is picked up once a week. Easy and peasy – to quote one of my first grade English Learners.

In New York, there are no (or few) cans. You separate your landfill trash and put it in a black or clear trash bag. The plastic/glass/metal recycling materials goes into a blue trash bag. Paper recycling goes into a different blue bag. All of the bags are placed at the edge of the sidewalk the night before collection, as all types of trash are collected one day a week – for us, it’s Monday – so we put it out Sunday night. In addition to the “all trash” pick up day, there are two other days at which you can put out black/clear landfill bags – for us, it’s Tuesday and Thursday nights. I assume the frequency of pick up has to do with the tight living quarters in the city. If everyone had to hold on to all of their trash for a whole week…I don’t even want to think about the smells and visuals of that quantity of trash.

The system works though it has its drawbacks. First, it’s kinda unsightly as it can sit out on the curb for most of the day. Second, it attracts…critters – the ones I’ve written about before and lots of flies. Third, it makes walking Dug a bit challenging as it’s like walking him past a veritable smorgasborg. It’s hard to get up any speed on our walks!

Also, I haven’t figured out how this works, but if you look at the photos, people tend to think of the “big” trash day as an opportunity to put out EVERYTHING they want to get rid of AND at the end of the month, many people are moving to new apartments so there is a LOT of other trash…hoping to be picked up by someone…anyone!

Finally, the City places trash cans on just about every corner so there is no excuse for dropping your trash on the ground. Sadly, it seems that the message is not clear as in certain areas, there is a LOT of trash on the ground. AND the corner trash cans are also often full so they are well-utilized – there is just a LOT of trash in a city!

Bottom line – trash is an interesting issue in urban settings. Something new to ponder…

I think I wrote, or certainly have been thinking we’ve been coming to Brooklyn for 10 or 11 years. And my oh my, how things have changed. Back then, The Wythe was either the only, or one of the very few upscale hotels in Williamsburg, Broooklyn. Now? My oh MY!! Williamsburg is filled with em.

Back in 2010 we absolutely loved it, yet I struggled a bit with the hipster thing. I never really understood, until NOW!!

We have dear DEAR friends visiting us starting next Sunday. So we’re out exploring places to go for an adult beverage and a view. One of the best things of BK is the night view into Manhattan (It may be my favorite thing about The Wythe). So some 10 years or so later, we decide to go to the rooftop bar at The Wythe. And while we are there, some late 20s hipsters are having a surprise marriage proposal / celebration. And of course their friend who is a photographer is recording.

I struggle with the fine line of self awareness and self absorption.

So, now I understand.

For many years, I regularly posted three gratitudes on my Facebook page-not on a schedule, but as the spirit moved me. For some reason, I’ve fallen away from that practice and yet I have so much gratitude in my ❤️. So…

1. My heart ❤️ is so appreciative to have this opportunity to explore our world in such a unique way. As I said in an earlier post, I’m a suburban girl and this city-living is exciting and full of opportunities to learn and experience our world in such a new (to me) way.

2. Those of you who know both of us know that GAT is the master planner and I am the “seat of my pantser “. Both ways have their places in our world. AND I’m super grateful for the Planner who masterfully managed our financial life so that in our “golden” years we could live out our dreams.

3. You. I’m grateful for all of our family and friends who have shared our journey – the journey we are writing about here, but also the journey throughout the years. People come and go throughout our lives. Each person has an impact on us – whether you know it or not. Whether we’ve told you or not.

So as we sit in the backyard of Brown Butter enjoying our Sunday morning fried chicken and waffles – thank you life – from the bottom of my (pointed little 🤪) ❤️.

We were just talking today about today being the end of our fourth week and feeling like we are just getting started (and I guess we are). We’ve both always experienced this pull of home when we near the end of three weeks. We’ve both (in lives before we were together and since) made a point of taking long adventures. I went to Europe in 1984 for a full month and JDT was in Europe six months as a late teen. Anyway, it is strange that this feels different.

I think it is a good thing?!?

One of my goals for this time in Brooklyn was to build new habits. Frankly, my habits while at home in the Bay Area had become very tired and lazy.

I have an interesting relationship with lazy. One of my memories when I was about 10 was overhearing a conversation between my Mom and my Grandma (Mom’s mother in law). My lasting memory from that was my Grandma saying “Glen is lazy”. Maybe we all have an interesting relationship with lazy. All I know is that it has been both a positive and negative influence in my life. I’ve used it as fuel to accomplish most everything in my life. AND when I take time to decompress, relax, do nothing, it creates negative self images that effect me and those around me. I wish it weren’t true – it is!

The life I’m creating for myself contains much less work, and by definition more unstructured and idle time. (By the way, this is at least a distant cousin of JDT’s recent post.) I have a theory that this is part of why so many Baby Boomers struggle with the transition to “retirement”.

I was talking to one of my dearest friends Todd. Actually I was struggling with something, and I really needed Todd’s advice. You see, I love Todd. AND Todd and I are so different. He’s a scientist, I’m not. I’m an intuitive thinker, in Todd’s world all the best decisions are rational. Anyway, I had this thing. I was thinking about something in a very binary way. Black – white, on – off, yes – no. And this very clearly wasn’t working for me. Todd’s solution? Don’t. BRILLIANT!

So, I’m working hard at not seeing myself as either lazy, or not. Less yes – no. Less binary.

Each day I wake up with a new slate and the wonder of living in Brooklyn in front of me. And you know what, those habits driven by my former binary thinking are SLOWLY melting away and being replaced with incredible new experiences and even some wonderful new habits.

I said to Glen the other day…Have we been here two weeks now? Nope. We’ve been here three. Then my sister, Chris asked me…Does it feel like three months will be too long or not long enough or just right? (Don’t worry. I’m not going to “Goldilocks” this story. Or maybe…) This got me to thinking…How exactly are our days in Brooklyn unfolding?

Going backward to go forward – As Glen likes to say about my retirement that began in June 2019 – Every day is a Saturday! Or six Saturdays and a Sunday! While this is absolutely a truth, there are challenges with this more free-form lifestyle. (Trust me – I’m not complaining.) The first is that I have to pay attention to the calendar or days and hours just roll into each other. I found that I had to consciously set up a daily schedule of some sort or at 3:00, I’d look at the clock and say…Dang it, the day’s almost over and what have I done?! The same occurred as the weeks rolled by – Thursday already? So I made myself a loose daily and weekly schedule to keep me moving forward purposefully through my new life.

Then COVID hit just as I was getting into a retirement rhythm. I had established a routine that was far different from my work life, but it provided some organization and flow. I felt that I had found some purpose to my days and weeks. And as we all experienced in March 2020, I had to learn a new way to move through a new reality, to adjust to a new way of living. A new rhythm.

So…here we are in Brooklyn where we are figuring out a new balance-a new way of being. We want to “live” here, not be “tourists” here. What does that look like for us? We’re figuring it out. At the moment, I’d say we’re working our way to a rhythm where we balance chores, work life (for Glen), neighborhood explorations, city explorations, foodie explorations, down days, busy days, exciting days, dull days, history and culture learning days, and just “being” days. (Why am I hearing Dr. Seuss here?) Will we successfully create a new iteration of a “JDT and GAT” lifestyle? Do we even need a routine or a rhythm? Time will tell.

But to answer my sister, Chris – As I find myself thinking – It’s ALREADY been three weeks?!?!?!?! I have the answer to your question. Goldilocks said it best.

All y’all want to know about our first experience with a hurricane, don’t you?!? It’s ruff on Dug.

So how did we end up in Bed/Stuy? Well…there’s a story.

Since Glen and I had been talking about this trip for years, I’d off and on been checking the usual apps for Brooklyn rentals. I’d also done some research on the different neighborhoods, but not much. As we got closer to thinking it was a good time to go, I began searching in earnest and wasn’t finding much on the market.

Meet Tiffany, a NY realtor. (And so much more. She’ll be playing in the poker tournament in Las Vegas this fall!)

Somehow I had been following her on IG (not a stalker) and I thought…why not reach out?!? Maybe she’d be interested in helping or give us ideas of other rental resources. What did we have to lose? She kindly set up an appointment to FaceTime with her while we were in Charleston with our Texas friends, Brian and Joan and man o’ man! Tiffany was a bundle of energy and positivity! She offered to help by using her network resources, quickly discovered that Airbnb was the way to go, and the way that she could help us was to go and check out the units and the neighborhoods in person. So we narrowed the options to five units and the morning of our call, 3 of them were off the market so things got urgent! Luckily, Tiffany quickly contacted the owners, was able to get to the two addresses and sent us videos of the exterior of the houses, the streets, and the neighborhoods. Boom! Bed/Stuy it was because as Tiffany said, there was lots of activity, lots of people walking dogs – so many dogs – and a vibrant, energetic community vibe.

That brings me to today. While on our quest for the best breakfast tacos (it’s a thing here and also we are researching for a visit from Brian and Joan), we walked through the neighborhood that we didn’t choose, Crown Heights. We crossed the actual street of the house that we were looking at though it was likely a couple blocks away. And while we were only one neighborhood away, it was completely different from Bed/Stuy. As Tiffany had reported after her visit – Few people out and about. No one sitting on stoops – in fact in places – NO stoops! Blasphemy! Few brownstones. No bodegas on all the corners. Restaurants only down the busy business streets, not on every neighborhood street. People seemed to be in a hurry to get to work and didn’t make much eye contact. Not so friendly. Not so “neighborhoody”. Not so “communityish”.

Now, was I just back to the unfamiliar thing – it being a new neighborhood and all or had we just made a better decision for us? The answer – we made a better decision. Bed/Stuy just feels right. For all it’s quirks – trash, homeless (unhoused?), sirens, loud music, loud cars and motorcycles, etc. – it’s our neighborhood and we’ll take the bad…with ALL the good.

And…Full circle. I had lunch with the fabulous Tiffany today! (Sadly, forgot to take a selfie.) So…reach out. Take a chance. You never know who’s gonna be there to help you when you need it!