There’s an abundance of politeness going on around here – in Miami – that I’m not used to. People are nice in New York, so I am used to that, but in Miami, not so much, but in the past few days I’ve seen a lot of politeness.

I was at Panera Bread for lunch the other day – take out. And I came in and ordered at the place where you order your own stuff. As I walked to the pick up window, a girl that worked there asked if I needed any help. I told her I was waiting for my order.

Just then, a guy from behind the counter calls my name. I said, “It’s ready already? I just placed the order!” He laughed and said, “No, I just wanted to let you know we received your order and are working on it. Did you need anything else?”

Then, the girl who had asked me if I needed help, went table to table and refilled drinks for people. She would pick up their glasses and bring them to drink/soda machine and refill the glasses and return them to the tables. She did this with everyone who was sitting and eating. I never saw them do that before.

One of the managers who never said anything to me in the past, started talking to me, and it just felt weird, since this never was the way before. I guess they are hurting for business or something, and they went out of their way to be overly friendly.

Then at our condo building, three workers who came by for things were overly friendly, too. The elevator was broken, so the elevator guy came over to fix it, but before he came, the fire box guy came – the guy who attends to the fire alarm box, which is connected with the elevator.

I asked him if he was the elevator guy and he introduced himself and told me he was from the fire company and then explained what he was doing here. But he literally shook my hand and introduced himself.

When the elevator guy came, he introduced himself, shook my hand and I took him around the building to each floor to work on the elevator. He must have used the words, “please” and “thank you,” 100 times. He wanted me with him since the elevators open right into the units and he didn’t want to be in the units alone.

He would say, “Thank you for handing me the screwdriver,” “Thank you for helping me.” “Please would you hand me that thing over there?” And so on. He gave me his number and shook my hand coming and going and he was back twice and did all that politeness twice.

He told me how nice my apartment was, he liked it a lot. He complimented about the other units, too. He was very friendly as he muddled around in the elevator shaft.

After the elevator was fixed, we had a new neighbor moving in. When I came back from Panera, one of the moving men was at the elevator. He shook my hand, introduced himself as John, and made conversation.

The next day, the new neighbor moved in. I happened upon him early in the morning. We greeted each other, he extended his hand, introduced himself, we shook hands and that was a pleasant way to start the day.

I honestly don’t remember the last time there was this much politeness. I like it.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to this blog here – and each time I publish, usually twice a week, you’ll receive it in your email.

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY

I had mentioned our easement next to our condo building in my previous post.

Well, it’s there to allow neighbors access to the bay. It’s sort of small and not many people use it in the neighborhood, but over the years, many people from around the county would use it to fish, hang out, smoke pot, and other things. If you blink you will miss it. It’s a tiny piece of property. It’s a proffer for allowing buildings to be built and block the bay. A little concession for the rest of the neighborhood.

It was a well-kept secret. But over the past year, we had a lot of street work and other major jobs done which kept visitors from getting access to the area.

The easement is wild, meaning it is unkempt. At one time there were wild fruit trees in there – a banana tree, some sort of citrus tree and I think a peach tree. But over the years they died off.

But there are still many palm trees and various bushes and growths and the small easement looks like a jungle at times – which is what this whole area of Florida looked like before over-development 100 years ago, so it’s basically a living historic display of the area. Sort of a living museum display.

Recently I was made aware of a bunch of people in the neighborhood wanting to turn this beautiful tropical jungle into an open area – adding a cement walkway to the bay, adding lighting and benches, which seemed odd since there had been a lot of talk and local meetings about keeping the neighborhood safe and adding security, not inviting strangers in to fish, hangout and etc.

Since all those guys were here working on the street renovation, neighbors felt that they could easily add cement and make that part of their streetscape project. There was even a meeting set up with the local City of Miami commissioner, to discuss the whole project.

This was not going to happen as far as I was concerned. I had myself added to the neighborhood WhatsApp chat, which I had taken myself off in the past because it was annoying. Anyway I got myself on one day and started an argument about why the easement should be left alone. First off being that it is the responsibility of our building and everyone else in the neighborhood has no right to decide its fate. We maintain it and live next to it and deal with the visitors who use it, so we should have say as to what happens with it.

I also brought up the fact that it will bring in strangers to the area who many are trying to keep out for security reasons. After all this time, people were kept out due to all the projects in the area and they found other areas to fish, etc. Now they are “inviting” them in again?

Let it be known, that it never bothered me that people visited the area and fished, etc. But it bothered most of the neighborhood and now some dolt wanted to open up the area again after having multiple meetings talking about security issues including putting a guard gate at the entrance to the cul-de-sac, etc. Ironically, no one wanted to pay for that. So what was the point of lighting up the area and accommodating the people they wanted kept out?

So, for almost a full day neighbors and I went back and forth on the chat, arguing, discussing and throwing tantrums.

After a day of arguing with everyone, I left the chat, as I had done previously. I said my piece and left. In and out. Leaving while I was at the top, as they say. I put the whole mess out of my head and just assumed one day I would wake up to cement trucks dumping cement all over the precious landscape.

Interestingly enough, since my phone number was shown on the chat, many people in the neighborhood reached out to me, telling me they fully agreed with me. But they never spoke up in the chat. They all remained silent.

Some weeks later, one of the city workers who was working on the streetscape out front, told me that the whole easement project was canceled. It was not going to happen.

Why? Because I opened the eyes of most of the neighbors who realized that one neighborhood bully wanted her way (to clean up the “mess,” as she called the easement), but everyone else was afraid to speak up in the chat and say they wanted it to remain a natural area.

So lo and behold, my arguments got all these “shy” people who were afraid to speak up to finally say something. They did not want the area cemented in. They wanted it to remain natural. They didn’t feel that nature is a “mess.”

So today, the easement is saved. It’s not so jungle-like because the cement-loving neighbor has her maintenance guy in there all the time “cleaning it up,” which I fear killed a lot of the foliage. But at least as of now, there is no cement – no lights – no park benches. Just a quiet little jungle-wannabe. An oasis in the cement jungle.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to this blog here – and each time I publish, usually twice a week, you’ll receive it in your email.

Lobster Mini Season is coming up this week, which always reminds me of the smuggling which goes on in the easement next to where I live.

Lobster Mini Season is a couple of days in July, where recreational boaters, divers, etc. get a crack at catching spiny lobsters before the commercial fishing season begins. There are rules, which many poachers do not follow – 6 lobsters per person is the limit around here, other areas in the state allow 12 per person.

The lobster must be 3 inches and larger and there are other rules. But over the years I have seen people sneaking large quantities in through various means.

I enjoy looking out onto the bay the first thing in the morning during these two lobster mini season days, and where it’s usually quiet and empty, there are little boats, with diving flags, and people diving for the lobsters. It’s a scene.

It’s not overwhelming, but it’s different than a usual morning.

Back to the easement – it’s next to where I live, it’s only about 15 feet wide, and it is a little trail to the bay. It’s well-known with amateur fishers, smokers, dog walkers and others who sneak in and do their thing. It used to be very jungle-like, which was a living history of old Florida – it’s what the neighborhood was like over 100 years ago.

And that secret little area is special to some lobster hunters, too. I’ve seen them pull boats up to the seawall and hand off hundreds of lobsters in dozens of coolers to waiting people on land, and the lobsters end up a few feet away in a van on the street, which speeds away to wherever.

The boat then heads back into the bay, pulls into a dock somewhere nearby, their catch is counted and measured by the coast guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife and the poachers are off with their “legal limit.” While their illegal limit is off somewhere in a van.

I’ve seen this more than once and not realizing at first what was going on, started yelling at the people to leave. Now I know better. I don’t argue with people doing illegal things. But it bothers me when I see it.

As for the easement – I saved it for the neighborhood. Some neighbors wanted to turn it into an open area with lights and a cement sidewalk, with benches at the waterfront, which would have been a disaster for this special place.

Stay tuned, I’ll tell you about it next time.

Subscribe via email to this blog here – and each time I publish, usually twice a week, you’ll receive it in your email.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY.

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY.

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY.

I was watching Jaws last night on my new tv.

Yup, I got a new tv.

I had to, my previous one died! I was watching Big Brother on Wednesday night and all of a sudden, the tv turned black. But it did a fading type thing. It started getting dark around the edges and then slowly faded into the center and then the whole screen went dark.

I thought it was fading to commercial. But then when I tried other channels, I saw it all was black. And dead.

When the cable guy was here in May, he did use the phrase “fried” to describe the tv. So I guess it was time. It had a good life.

I have another tv in the living room and one in my office, so I wasn’t without, but I usually watch the one in the bedroom, which has Roku on it and I like that. So I ordered a new tv online and it arrived the next day. This time I ordered a Roku so it would be easy to set up and it was.

It was very easy – the Roku set-up was fast. I signed in with my old account and it all just came on. Literally in minutes. I had planned to spend half the day getting it all up and running, but I didn’t have to.

I did spend about an hour trying to use the old brackets from the previous tv, to hang it on the wall. It was a bunch of maneuvering and taping and trying to get it just right. Trying different screws to fit the tv and things like that. I even got the wire inside the wall like the previous tv’s had.

But as you can see here, the bracket did not hold. Luckily one part of it did, so the tv did not collapse and fall onto the floor. It hung there and I was able to save it.

Yeah, those books, I have to bring them to the charity shop one of these days.

Anyway, for the time being, I decided to put the tv on stands on that little table and get a new bracket for the wall.

But you know what? I like it on the stand. It’s lower and actually at my eye level when I’m sitting or lying in bed. In the past, the tv’s were always higher up on the wall, but on the stand it is so much nicer. It seems larger than it is and being eye level it sort of pulls me into the scene. I’m not looking up at it as if it was a picture on the wall. It’s so much better.

The picture is bright and while I usually get Sony or Samsung tv’s this one with the Roku built in works for me and I like the picture. And of course I loved the fast and simple set up.

I recently got a new printer and that was a very fast, simple set-up, too. I guess technology is catching up to those of us who are not very technology capable.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to this blog here – and each time I publish, usually twice a week, you’ll receive it in your email.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY.

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY.

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY.

Last week, a few of us went to the Museum of Broadway. I’ve been to so many museums in NYC, but this was new for me. The museum is fairly new, opening in November 2022, but the enjoyable thing is all the old things and history inside!

If you’re looking for something new and unique in New York City, the Museum of Broadway is the place.

The museum, of course, consists of everything Broadway – play related and musical related. I didn’t know what to expect, but in the end, it was so great.

There are props from so many shows, there are actual sets from the actual shows and there are props, scripts, costumes, scripts, and so much more. There are quite a few levels, where you go up and down steps to different eras.

I sat at the desk in the set from The Producers, where Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom sat (Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick) and we stood in the cornfield from the original “Oklahoma” production. We also sat at the diner, part of that whole set from “West Side Story.”

I saw the red dress that Bernadette Peters wore in Hello Dolly, which I saw just a few years ago with Bernadette in the leading part.

Many original production posters fill one room.

Over 300 years of Broadway history is presented, and I didn’t realize, but over 500 productions have a presence in the museum of some sort.

More than the props and settings, I enjoyed the history of it all. To see items that were 100 years old or more that are part of the history of New York and Broadway theater was amazing.

I loved seeing things like the original Ziegfeld Follies costumes that are over 100 years old – I’m used to seeing them old black and white movies and there they were, life size in bright colors.

The Museum of Broadway, is at 145 West 45th Street in Times Square.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to this blog here – and each time I publish, usually twice a week, you’ll receive it in your email.

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS AND MY OTHER CARTOON WALL ART.

I was looking for new sneakers the other day. I don’t know why, but out of force of habit, when I’m in NYC I go to the DSW store at Union Square and often I buy a new pair of sneakers.

My older pair isn’t really bad, so I leave them in the park somewhere where a homeless person may find them and hopefully get some good use out of them. But I notice that as you leave the store, they have a bin where people put their used shoes and sneakers, so that’s a great idea.

Anyway this article isn’t about that. It’s about the fact that I was trying to find comfortable walking or running shoes, so I googled “What are the best men’s walking sneakers.” And a list of 10 brands came up.

The top ones on the list were Brooks walking shoes, which to me is not a common brand name. But maybe it is.

I was sitting down on one of the little stool type things where you try shoes on and I thought to myself, “Where am I going to find Brooks sneakers around here?” Not thinking that DSW would have them. I figured I would have to go to a high-end shoe store or maybe a Brooks shoe store.

As I got up to leave, I noticed the whole time I was sitting in the aisle filled with brooks sneakers! The whole row. That image above is the actual row of Brooks sneakers.

I love when things like that happens.

I ended up getting a great new pair and I left my almost new pair at the front of the store in the donated sneakers box.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to this blog here – and each time I publish, usually twice a week, you’ll receive it in your email.

CLICK HERE FOR MY CARTOON WALL ART.
YOU CAN SUPPORT ME THAT WAY.