First Night Oneonta

Fireworks over Friendly's at the end of our block.

Happy New Year!

Boxing Day

Brunch at Sanford's Astoria, then on to the Museum of the Moving Image and the exhibit Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off.

Into Manhattan as the snowstorm Euclid hit. Visited Apple and FAOSchwartz before taking a bus on up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dinner at Porterhouse at Fraunces Tavern where George Washington gave his farewell to the officers.

We didn't have any extra time before the theater so no traditional shot of us by the marquis.

Mixed review of Cat on a Hot Tin roof.

Christmas Day

Caught the train up to Astoria and the Zenon Tavern.
In the evening, Whose afraid of Virginia Wolfe? at the Booth.

Sunday in New York

First the morning view out our window, west to Manhattan: the Queensboro Bridge and the Empire State Building.

NYC

Saturday. We took Amtrak to Penn Station. Then we walked a couple of blocks to Greeley Square to pick up the F to our home away from home in Long Island City, Queens. After leaving our bags, took the F all the way to the other end, Coney Island, Brooklyn, about an hour on the local. We returned to an Italian restaurant for a lovely dinner. Didn't get to walk around much to see the damage from Sandy. After toying with the idea of stopping in Manhattan at the Apple store, decided to head on home.

Final Exam

Hartwick College

Above Morris

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

It was a glorious day.

I am thankful

I was late this morning. So I couldn't take time to stop for a picture.

The time of my commute does allow time for reflection and in this week of Thanksgiving, I have three thanks I want to offer from my drive this morning.

First, as I was between West Oneonta and West Laurens, the pink of the sunrise filled the entire sky, not just my rearview mirror. I am thankful for the sunrise.

Next, after driving up the hill out of South New Berlin, I am thankful that the driver of the red Nissan 4x4 in front of me knew the "Rule of Two". When one deer goes across the highway, there will be at least one more following. They were beautiful creatures. I wish I could run up that hill with them.

Lastly, I am thankful for the school bus driver that pulled off when he could to let me zoom on by. Even though I never really see their faces in my rearview mirror, I wave at them as I go by. I'm sure they have a very tough job.

Sunrise in my rearview mirror

Above Bainbridge.

Late Fall

Yesterday there was snow on this scene. Miller lot, Hartwick College.

First snow of the commute

Center Road @ NY 23.

Cemetery of Cranes and Eddys, Pharsalia

Gate.

Between Moffet and Van Heusen

SUNY Cortland

Moffet Hall, SUNY Cortland

Where I spend most of my time on campus.

Hartwick from the town

Paul has taken this shot the other way.

North Pharsalia, NY

The sun was beautiful this morning.

Today's Commute Home

Note to self: Avoid Whitney Point when school lets out.
I did stop for $3.98 gas in WP, but ended up behind a half a house being hauled up and down. In Greene, they were closing off the major intersection for paving. I was stopped for about 20 minutes. Finally got this picture as I made it to Bainbridge before getting on the highway. In all it took about half an hour more than it should.

Miller parking lot, Hartwick College

Along NY route 23 in the town of Pitcher

Triangle, NY

I like the name of this town.

Coventry, NY

Light over the hills.

South Plymouth, NY

Caught a glimpse of this stream. Glad I had time to stop.

Bainbridge on the Susquehanna

Established 1786. Home of Elmer's Glue.

Hartwick College

The path to JSC.

SUNY Cortland

View out the window of the HR office.

Behind David's, greater Lower Cincinatus.

Nice place to stop on the way home. FYI, no cell coverage.

The commute

I'm traveling to work. Near Pitcher Hill, NY.

The Fairlawn

As I mentioned in a previous post, we stayed at the Fairlawn on the way to Bangladesh three years ago. It is quite an institution. It has been a hostelry since before WWII. Run by a family for most of that time, now ruled over by Violet, a youthful 91 year-old. As I greeted her on this visit, she is doing well and not camped on her children's doorstep. Her staff are her family and by extension, ours.

The bungalow has rooms on the edge of large interior halls. Upstairs, there is a large sitting room and downstairs it is split between a smaller sitting area by the front desk and the dining room.
The walls are covered by years of momentos, family pictures and regional nicknacks, as well as many items brought by loyal guests from their travels. The ceilings are high with fans whirling. There are many layers of heavy paint on any surface, not just the walls, but old pieces of furniture. The paint dies it's best to keep away the mold and decay I'm sure.

Our spacious room was recently painted. Two single beds pushed together, another along a wall. There were various furniture pieces: a wardrobe, sitting chairs, vanity, cupboards and stands. The floors were tiles of marble. The fans were again on the high ceiling, a smaller window a/c unit kept us comfortable. We had a small refrigerator, which we really didn't use. They stocked insulated carafes of drinking water, an electric kettle and makings of tea. The bathroom had been recently redone into an open fully tiled room with overhead shower. We did have a TV, with a few English language channels, BBC, etc. We really appreciated that they had made sure that the room was sufficiently wired with multi-pronged plugs for all our electronic gear. And despite the warning that the wifi was only available in the public rooms, we were able to get sufficient coverage from the room. It was truly our retreat.

The room rate included breakfast, cut fruit, choice of cornflakes or oatmeal, eggs and toast. The coffee or tea was served with a cozy so that you could sit and sip as long as you wished. The first couple of days, the room was crowded with a group of h.s. students from Belgium with matching red T-shirts on a three week mission trip. They had breakfast at 8 and gathered to load a bus at 9, off ready for their work, always with guitars close at hand.

The Fairlawn was a great place to strike up a conversation. On a later day, I met a woman from the Netherlands who had recently relocated to Dhaka. Because of her visa restrictions, she had to leave BD and reenter the country every two months. We enjoyed swapping stories of trains to Dhaka and bus travel in the region.

The other end of the day at the Fairlawn was centered in the garden. Tables and chairs under trees and open rooms with overhead fans. It was a wonderful cool place to sit with a cool one after coming in from the Kolkata streets. It was definitely a gathering spot for tea time or happy hour or whatever your nationality does to celebrate the end of a day.

Here P and I met up with a middle-aged couple from Australia who were staying at the Oberoi, a fancy hotel around the corner for their anniversary. They seemed very interested in our accommodations I was proud when the next afternoon I saw them upstairs as paying guests. The following day we shared a table in the garden to swap stories. He was in town to interview for a headmaster's position at a local school.

We had noted it to ourselves and she independently proclaimed it enthusiastically, "Isn't this just like the Exotic Marigold Hotel?"

Our day trip to Chandannagar

Took the ferry over to the local train. Then about one hour up the river to the old French colonial town. Pleasant time on the strand. We stopped for dinner. Took the crowded train back to the city. What an adventure. Hope some of the pics show how incredible this day was. Sorry they don't seem to be in order, but you get the idea.