PopWars

We met Richard Carstensen in the back corner of Temple B’rith Kodesh’s parking lot and headed off into the woods, bushwhacking style. We were wearing our socks on the outside of our pants, our shirts were tucked in and our Permethrin hoods were up. We skirted but deliberately stayed off the newly dedicated Brickyard Trail. We found fox holes and frogs and butterflies. They are still out there.

We bought tickets to the Landmark Society’s “Inside Downtown Tour,” mostly newly renovated loft spaces in the old garment district but a couple of historic churches and the Clade Brandon designed Chamber of Commerce building were included. My grandmother worked at Suberba Cravet, the tie makers, whose building was right around the corner and my grandfather worked for a shoemaker here before he opened his restaurant. Frank Paolo lives right in the the thick of it or, more accurately, above the thick of it, but his Brutalist building was not included. Someday it will fit landmark status. We called him and asked him to step out on his porch so I could take this picture.

Most of the open plan lofts were under a 1000 square feet but the ceilings were so tall and the windows so large, in some cases floor to ceiling, that the spaces felt very livable. One of the developers of HIVE@116, Dan Morganstern had his place place open and his wife greeted us at the door. We ran into Gap and Janet Mangione there. The Morgansterns had a huge place and the walls were covered with art. Peggi spotted two of her clown paintings from RoCo’s 6×6 show. They looked sensational!

Our Lady of Victory Church was giving away Saint Theresa medals from Italy so I put on on my keychain. I had not been in World Wide News in years. I went in just to see if they still sold magazines. They do so I bought aN Art Forum. We finished with a complimentary Genny beer inside the the Micheals-Stern Building.

We checked out Thai Mii Up, the new restaurant up on Ridge Road, by bringing home an order of one of the chef’s specials, “Salt and Pepper Shrimp.” It was especially lively with a whole jalapeño pepper sliced like you would slice bread and mixed in with the lightly battered crustaceans. I would go back.

Aman’s will be taking their “Fresh Corn” sandwich sign in for the winter pretty soon. The corn was coming from a farm in Hamlin and now one in Penfield but the clerk told us it was coming to the end of the line. We had some black bean and mango salad at the Genesee Co-op the other day and I wrote down the ingredients. It was delicious and corn was in there(Black bean, mango, corn, sweet bell pepper, garlic, olive oil. cilantro, red onion, lime juice). I plan to make it with last night’s corn leftovers.

Louise brought us a small grape pie. We split that for breakfast.

We took care of my sister’s dog for a few days. Clarabell looks exactly like the Hush Puppy dog and people can’t resist her. We had neighbors come out of their houses to pet the dog while we were so-called “walking” her (letting her poop on someone else’s lawn and then retrieving the poop in a Wegman’s bag). My sister bought us some peanut butter fudge to thank us and made short work of that.

It is our neighbor, Sue’s, birthday so Peggi made her a cherry pie and plan to walk it down to her as soon as it cools.

At one time Rochester was the smallest city in the country with a subway system. Most of the lines were above ground so it was more of a streetcar system but it sure looked cool in the movie we saw at the Little Theater tonight. It was screened in Theater 1 and we almost didn’t get in. It was sold our so we put our names on a wait list and then spotted the director, Fred Armstrong, who told us about a couple of seats up in the balcony, the best seats in the house. This movie is twenty years old and was narrated by Walter Dixon. All the old-timers featured in the movie are dead and it made me realize how lucky we are that this history was preserved in film.

My father would talk about the subway all the time. How he’d take it to the end of the line with his family and his dad would go in to a bar there while he went swimming with his sisters. They had a great panel discussion after the movie with the directors, a city councilman and a state transportation engineer and a couple of guys from the The New York Museum of Transportation. They would have you believe the streetcar is still viable and could be in our future.

I had never heard of “Cornell Chicken” but our neighbors had. Rick and I were playing horseshoes and he told me the Cornell Cooperative Extension on St. Paul Boulevard was doing their annual chicken barbecue. He asked if we wanted him to pick up a couple of dinners. We didn’t have any dinner plans so I gave him twenty bucks and he took off. He called about ten minutes later to say he was a night early.

By the following night he had already told the neighbors down the street about the Cornell Chicken so he picked up six servings of chicken, boiled potatoes and corn and we ate on their new porch. You may know that Rick and Monica traded houses with the young couple who lives across the street from us. We listened to Duane’s “Crucial Roots Chapter 2 Dub and Circulate” and the dinner conversation swung from corporal punishment in Catholic schools to recreational drugs. Close calls and busts but mostly funny. War stories for a certain set. One of the group is from Jamaica and another via Puerto Rico but the stories are all the same because we are all about the same age.

As far as I can tell Cornell Chicken is salty and fairly dry but it has a nice barbecue flavor.

We stopped up to see my mom today and decided to do our day’s exercise up at Cobb’s Hill. We walked around the reservoir a few times interrupting a women’s exercise group in the main building each time we circled. And we stopped to watch a couple of City employees unlock the gate and go inside the reservoir with a long handled net. They came out with a pair of white, high-top running shoes. Someone had thrown them in our drinking water.

I knew we would meet the owner of this 1965 Mercury Comet inside Vic’s Place. In fact, we sat right next him at the counter and struck up a conversation right away. I started by asking him if his hood had blown off. He said, “No, everyone asks to see the engine so I just leave the hood home.” He told us there is a vintage car show every night of the week around Rochester. In fact he rattled them off and recommended the one at the Shriner’s place on Bay Road tonight. You can get a good fish fry there too.

We were out riding bikes this morning, in and out of all the little neighborhoods that back up to the lake in Sea Breeze. We’ve been keeping our eye out for a house for Brandon at the Friendly Home. We saw an old campaign sign that read, “America Against Obama 2012” and a few new ones for Trump. “Repeal the Safe Act” signs often accompany the Trump signs. There was also one that read, “Veterans and Military Families for Hillary” and then one that read, “2016 We’re Doomed.”

We stopped at Vic’s Place for lunch. I know Duane will be jealous if he reads this. We usually save our visits until he comes to town. It’s a pretty heavy lunch. Peggi had a grilled cheese and fries and I went with a white hot and onion rings. A guy came in with a t-shirt that read “Shoot Them All and Let God Sort Them Out.” I had not seen one of those since the Viet Nam days and this guy was too young for that. Most of the people who eat here are pretty unhealthy looking. I watched a guy come in with a crooked walk. He sat nearby and ordered, “3 Texas.” Three! I couldn’t imagine. Around here the choice is “Porker” (what I had) or “Texas.”

We continued down to the lake and stopped amidst a sea of twenty something Pokeman zombies. We were watching the boats come into the public dock when a woman called for help. She was trying to pull a man from the water. I went over and helped her get him out. She told me he wanted to feel the water but then slipped in. I asked how he liked the water and the woman said “he can’t hear, see or speak.” As we rode away I was wondering how she knew he wanted to feel the water.

It was supposed to rain today and it didn’t. Just the way it has been going. We are still in a drought. Not that it has affected our garden. There is plenty of water from the hose and we’re only a mile or so from a Great Lake. Our plants have been loving all this sun and we have more produce than ever. We’re overeating to keep up with it all.

This summer’s record heat has driven us to the water. We rode bikes out Edgemere Drive where this photo was taken and down to the bay where Seneca Road dead ends at the Newport Yacht Club. We’ve been to Sea Breeze, Summerville and Charlotte more times than ever.

Today we rode through the park, along Lakeshore and then up Oakridge to Titus where we stopped at the library. I checked out “Kill ‘Em and Leave,” the new James Brown biography. I’m hoping its as good as “Buck Em,” the Buck Owens autobiography. Matthew let me borrow that one and I zipped through it. Who knew the star of Hee Haw had near perfect pitch and a photographic memory. His band used to play 14 hour sets. No break at all. And he juggled women.

The water in our pool has dropped to 75 degrees. In yesterday’s 85 degrees it felt great but the temperature dropped today. I’m hoping this dream doesn’t end too soon.