Monday – 8/15/11
Dinner with Bob Greenstein and Elissa Parker here in Hudson. They stayed at the Inn at Hudson.
Monday – 8/22/11
Went to Dr. Szilak. Heart results clean. Gained 10 lbs in year. Otherwise everything is on an even keel.
Spent lots of time revising template for riversidebusinesscoach.com. Also sent PR for DOG.
Tuesday – 8/23/11
Going to NYC with Karen… Pick up pictures in Peekskill. Then, NYC to galleries and museums. Stay in Harlem. Uncomfortable about John.
Stopped in Peekskill for fruitless attempt to pick up the pictures. Pat never showed up. Met Joe Adami, fine painting and glazing…. Karen got more of his personal story. Originally from NY, then lived in S. CA, then returned to NY because of a relationship. Now fallen apart, but very involved with grandson.
click to enlarge
Drove to city. Arrived about noon. Parked car in Harlem. Due to miscalculation, ended up at Grand Central via 42 St. and the shuttle. 
Took lots of iPhone pictures in the main hall. Experimented with Autostich for panoramas and composite photos. Walked to German embassy to see Simon Dinnerstein’s “Fulbright Tryptich”. He was standing right there and chatted amiably about his work. The triptych seems to stand alone as a form within all then other works by him on display. A man with a T-shirt with a cryptic “Istanbul” came by. Idea for how to deal with “I see you every fuckin’ day” line.
Walked down to 42nd street and took cross-town bus to 6th ave. ICP exhibition of Elliot Erwitt retrospective. His 100 favorites. Many images familiar. Beside humor and wit the guy had a long and varied career. Also saw exhibit of Ruth Gruber. Mostly photos from late ’30s to early ’50s.
Long bus ride up Lexington to 105th St. to Museo del Barrio. Dreadful exhibit of the same old art school junk so current these days. Much poor workmanship and worn out conceptualist drivel replete with mentions of all the art schools the artists went to. Very cranky and tired by this juncture.
Walked back to 121st St. Karen Went to 125th St on an errand for Andrea and brought back food from Manna.
Watched an episode of “Intelligence” on the iPad in bed….
Wednesday – 8/24/11
Better sleeping arrangements on garden level. Had coffee with John. He told us about a new business venture in medical billing. He has a track record of starting businesses. Think he can be successful at this one.
Left at about 10:30am to subway for the High Line. Entered at 14th St lots of people walking on the High Line. Many more iPhone photos. Walked up to 23rd St and exited for trips to galleries. 25 artists/25 years at Laurie Soll. Lunch at a deli on 10 ave. Multiple part subway right to the New Museum on the Bowery for a show of works from Russia and the former Eastern bloc countries post the collapse. Very interesting. Too much to see in an hour left before we had to. Run back to Harlem to meet with Bo June Kwon or upcoming photographer for the November show. Wonderful works. Drove home arriving about 8pm.
Thursday – 8/25/11
Started tracking eating on iPhone. Spent hours working on NYC iPhone pictures. Talked with T. Parsons and M. Nyerges about library matters. Updated Photobook contest form and PayPal button website. Talked with Danny Brundage.
Went to Sheffield MA to a sales pitch for Great Vacation Adventures. Walked away with two round trip Southwest tickets plus two nights hotel. We will use these for a West Coast trip next winter.
Friday – 8/26/11
Meeting with Theresa Parsons at library. Lease for 217 Warren still in the works with Virginia Benedict. Talked about the search for new librarian. Focused on four candidates. Need to contact committee members (Mark Young, Sharon Getty, Anne Terwilliger, possibly Sharon Almstead).
Also spent time with Anne Terwilliger about her new email.
Returned by 11:30 am.
Drinks and appetizers with Judy Garvey at Swoon. She has had rheumatoid arthritis since middle age. Ended her piano playing. Single mom with five kids. MA, then Baltimore.
Saturday – 8/27/11
Breakfast at Tanzeys promised to meet Tisha on Monday to round up changes to their website.
Trip to Price Chopper with a diversion to Walmart. Nit a single D battery to be bought. Fortunately our battery situation is not too troubling.
Gallery was open. Rainy afternoon. 4 visitors.
Went to a 60th birthday party for Richard Edelman in a town a bit north of Saugerties. Lots of artists and others. Not really ready for all this socializing. Richard is a strange personality. Unpredictable, erratic.
Sunday – 8/28/11
Hurricane downgraded to tropical storm. 4 – 5 inches of rain. Very windy 30+ mph in the early going with winds in the 20s all afternoon into the evening.
Cable/Internet went out early in the morning. How would we get through the day? Came back by 10am with intermittent outages all day.
Spent lots of time working on RivesideBusinessCoach.com. Created graphical elements for most pages. Just about ready for review by Karen.
Checked for water in basement twice. No flooding. Think that better downspout arrangement is helping.
Broke up stormy day with Law & Order.
Took across at 6pm to look at Howard Saunders’ house on Fifth St. and then on to Spook Rock Rd to look at the kids house.
No troubles on Fifth St.
Claverack was a different story.
Spook Rock Rd was closed at the Hudson proximate end at 9H.
Claverack Creek was roaring. Water to within two feet or so of underside of bridges on 9H. Widespread flooding in low areas near the creek. Stone Mill Rd bridge was very close to being overflowed. Flooding running across the road just beyond the bridge. Stone Mill closed before the bridge at the far end near where the road ends at Spook Rock.
Turned around, retraced steps and tried to approach from 9H. Stopped to take a movie at another bridge. County worker let us proceed onto Spook Rock Rd.
No damage at kids’ house.
Returned to 114.
Ate curried chicken.
Monday – 8/29/11
Late start. Went to Tanzy’s to meet with Tisha Mulligan about the Tanzy’s website: tanzyshudson.com. Came back and finished the correction to Tanzy’s site. Wrote note to Jess Puglisi about graphic design work.
Reviewed Bill Coyne’s new website. Wrote email to him.
Sent note to Ava Geyer about iPad apps.
More work on RiversideBusinessCoach.com
Took walk to Promenade to look at river. Still very and the current is as fast as I have seen. Then walked down to park.
Jumped in car to go to Claverack. Spook Rock Rd and Mill Stone Rd. still closed. Drove around 9 to other end. Utility trucks working.
Found power out at AJL’s house. Took frozen hamburger home. Had some for dinner.
Last of two joints from Greenstein. Last trip to bodega for ice cream sandwiches.
Tuesday – 8/30/11
Eye check. Clean bill of health.
Pupils dilated. Forgot to bring dark glasses. Drove home tentatively.
Delivered draft lease to Nick Haddad for 217 Warren. He talked about running for mayor much longer than I prompted or needed. Spoke bitterly of Linda Mussman entering Democratic primary.
Came home by 10:45am.
Worked on fixing fence between our house and 116. Finished by 3pm. Had to buy an extra bag on concrete. Looks good.
Went to Claverack to check on electricity and fix downspout torn off during storm. Moved furniture out and pushed grill back into place.
Wednesday – 8/31/11
Went for four mile walk with Karen. Up to top of hill, between town house complex and water reservoir, then on down through the cemetery. Just when we came through the line of trees at the boundary of the cemetery a fairly loud roaring sound appeared. At first I thought it must be a freight train, but on a little orienting thought I realized that it could not be a train. It was sound of the rock crushers at the quarry. I wonder where else this sound can be heard?
After breakfast I went to the Ackerman building at the upper end of Warren. This two story 1918 former car dealership has come on the market. Met Theresa Parsons and Joe Rapp to dour due diligence. This massively build reinforced concrete building has 12,000 sq. Ft. But, it would be a big project requiring tons of money and it doesn’t fit with our overall strategy. On to getting lease for 217 Warren signed.
Cleaned up rest fence project. Looks good. Puttered around until 2 pm talk with Anita Harris.
Went to Bard Hessel Museum. Show of founders collection had some interesting points, especially modern furniture. The mounting of the show was unnecessarily mysterious. Bad or non-existent wall placards. Handouts that referenced gallery numbering that was completely unmarked and contained no explanatory curatorial notes. Strange for a place that is part of an institution of curatorial studies. This has been the case on earlier visits, excepting the student curated shows.
Collected baby crib from Claverack house. Cleaned pool of storm debris. Drove, circuitously, to New Lebanon to deliver it to Syma’s house.