Author Archives: markorton

Tuesday – 2/17/15

IMG_9012Getting warmer??

Spent most day working on consolidation of diary. Did clean out In Box and threw away lots of old papers.

IMG_9016Went to sports palace. Saw Paul Stewart, the artist/carpenter from Germantown. Talked about condition of ice in the river. He described feeling like walking on insulation board. Maybe we should go tomorrow?

On the way out the door saw this satisfaction meter. Joe Keenan thought last night at dinner Monday that it said “workout” instead of “service”.

Sent him a picture.

IMG_9018We had flat iron steak for dinner. Karen thinks this is a made up name. But, turns out that it is a traditional cut from the shoulder.

$9/lb. very good. Pan Grilled. Mushroom gravy. Will have to buy this cut again, though it is fairly expensive.

 

 

 

Monday – 2/16/15

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Intense cold. Strong winds.

Temp at 7am.

Paid bills.

Spent most of day old consolidating diary entries into diary.markorton.com

Noah and Nyla came by for chat. John and Stephanie dropped them off. Talk about photography w Karen.  Also their favorite books.

Cooked butternut squash soup w spicy sausage & asparagus confit. Karen made salad. Joe Keenan, his wife Lynn McElroy and Dave Drake came over. Good fun.

Sunday – 2/15/15

imageUp early. Shovel sidewalk, again. Coffee, then went to gym. Adding mobility exercises mimicking lateral tennis steps. 25 min on bicycle L8.

Went to Opera House for CSA farm gathering signed up for Letterbox Farm. This is Faith Gilbert’s operation Met woman from herb farm who I worked with a bit last year. Talked about building business plan from the financial model out.

Had a haircut later. Very cold and windy. Snow blowing back ov er roads.

Spent time on  blog entry in currentmatters about internet access in Hudson. Also spent time consolidating entries into the diary.markorton.com site.

Internet Access in Hudson – redux

Using Hudson Area Library's wifi - 17 degrees - 25 mph winds 02152015

Using Hudson Area Library’s WiFi – 17 degrees – 25 mph winds Sunday afternoon 02/15/2015


Internet access continues to be a problem for many in Hudson and Columbia County. It is expensive and slow.
02152105-MHCable-adThere have been no substantive improvements in broadband service here in the nearly six years since we moved here. We continue to see the insulting advertising by Mid Hudson Cable. They may have the “fastest connection” in the county, but they are sadly slow by any world standard. Continue reading →

Saturday – 2/14/15

Bob's Diner, Fairview Ave. Greenport NY

Bob’s Diner, Fairview Ave. Greenport NY

 

Breakfast and shopping.

 

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Gentrification upper State St.

 

Later went for a walk around the hospital loop. Snowy sidewalks.

Stopped at the Columbia County Council on the Arts (209 Warren) to look at sculpture show. “On and Off the Wall”  – Sculpture – Works can be free-standing, wall-mounted, relief or assemblage. (January 24 – March 21)

The gallery sitter was one of the artists, Stepan Kubicek. SteelPuddle.com. Interesting talk with him that evolved around to the makerspace idea. His work is the free standing sculpture in the photos
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Friday – 2/13/15

Temperature at 7 am.

Meeting with HAL board candidate Agi Clark cancelled due to her illness.

Spent most of morning catching up on accounting for DOE.

Walked to post office – 8 degrees. Found Valentine’s card for K.

Went to see Selma (IMDB entry), the movie. Was afraid that it might be a bad movie. Proved to be well constructed with good interlacing of personal, organizational, and public events. Meetings with LBJ featured. How many times did King really meet with him in the White House.

 

Thursday – 2/12/15

FullSizeRender 19Drove to Albany for a UTM meeting with Belvedere Home Care for a requirements gathering meeting. Jan Woodcock led the process. Very active customer inputs from four staff & CEO/owner.

Then on to UAlbany for the regular weekly meeting with the students.

My visit to Albany Made Here Creative Space at Albany Public Library was cancelled due to illness. Will see this next week. They are building this in partnership with Etsy.

Finished last of season five of  The Wire. Now have seen the entire series again. Still most compelling TV.

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 Wednesday – 2/11/15

1 North Front St. Hudson - home of Chamber of Commerce and HDC

Hudson Business Coalition meeting at Hudson Dev Corp at Firehouse. Two hours long because there were new people, including conspicuously Russ Gibson, co-owner of Croft House and Barlow Hotel.  He reported on B&B matters. Interesting support for Lodging Tax proposal with some useful caveats, including spending some of the receipts on marketing Hudson.

Hudson-Walking-Guide-2015Also spent time on Hudson Walking Guide – its future. Set up a strategy committee to come up with overall marketing direction. SJ Williams volunteered to organize this.

Got a chance to talk with Chad Weckler about the Etsy /CEDC support for a makerspace. We will collaborate further. He has a proposal ready to go to Galvan focused on the Van Kleeck Tire building.

Went to gym.

Tuesday – 2/10/15

FullSizeRender 18Shoveled garage doorway out so that I could drive car to UTM. In the end, though the storm carried on for almost 24 hrs. it only left 8 inches of snow here.

Meeting at UTM with Seth, Eliel and Jan to discuss development costs. David stuck his head in but did not attend. After almost a year we are still in a situation where there is no plan or none that anyone is adhering too.

Left UTM meeting to come home for a meeting of the HAL Nominating Committee. I scheduled this on Tuesday because David had cancelled the regular weekly UTM meetings on Tuesdays. Because of the repeated snow storms, this committee meeting has been rescheduled twice. Today, out of six members, only Marie Rasner and Gwen Gould showed up. Still a good productive meeting. Talked a somewhat reluctant Gwen into serving as Treasurer for one year. Brian Stickles who I bumped into at KASH just this morning has committed to being Treasurer next year after he finishes his MBA.

Karen decided not to go to Boston tomorrow because the snow storms – 77″ of snow in 17 days – have paralyzed the place.

 Monday – Tuesday 2/2/15 – 2/3/15

imageimageimageSnow storm that was predicted to be 12 – 18 inches veered away to sea leaving us with 8 or so inches. Enough to cause trouble but nothing big. Boston gots lots. NYC not so much though they shut the city down in anticipation.

Lengthy UTM telecon with Seth, Troy Web and Jan. Way too much background grinding by Seth. Boring, excruciating. Very little gained from 1 1/2 hrs.

A snow day extending into Tuesday. We went for walks both days in snow. Nice crunching sounds.

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