Dinner with Bob Greenstein and Elissa Parker here in Hudson. They stayed at the Inn at Hudson.
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.
Going to NYC with Karen… Pick up pictures in Peekskill. Then, NYC to galleries and museums. Stay in Harlem. Uncomfortable about John. Continue reading
Ed in action on Nantasket Beach. Those in doubt were inside cooking rice and beans.
I found niece Maggie staring at a peak of Chef Boyardee cans at Stop & Shop. She was in some nostalgic revery of choice. I pointed out that a life mystery for me was the constituents of the the meatballs in “Spaghetti & Meatballs”. She thought the mystery lay in the raviolis.
Then, I picked up a can to look at the label. One glance reminded me of Michael Pollan’s Food Rules. One rule says something along the lines of, “if your third grader can not read the label don’t eat it.”
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Hudson is famous for its parades and during the holidays its store window displays. Here are iPhone photos, un-retouched, from a stroll up and down Warren St.
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Parker graduated from Montgomery Academy Wednesday June 29, 2011. Karen and I attended with Ed, Meredith, and Maggie.
It was quite personal since there are only twelve graduates. Special gifts were awarded to each with amusing commentary concerning some quirk or talent.
It was especially nice to meet some of Parker’s school friends and some of his teachers. Unfortunately, I only captured a name here or there. Apologies.
Here are a few photos.
The Procession
Parker listening to remarks before receiving gift
Parker with his teacher Adel
Maggie, Meredith, Ed and Parker
Mark, Maggie, Meredith, Ed, Parker, Karen
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| Wardrobe malfunction |
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This was a busy weekend for us here in Hudson. We hung a new show, “Theaters and Theatrical” this past week in the gallery and held the opening reception Saturday evening. Following that we were off to Club Helsinki for Musty Chiffon and the Sex Magnets, headlined by local B & B owner Dini Lamot. By one of those little coincidences, Stefanie Klavens, one of the photographers in the new show, used to hang out with Dini et al back in the ’80s when they were a well-known rock band, Human Sexual Response. |
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| iPhone cameras are handy but not very good. |
| Sunday evening, after our usual stop for Scotch at our favorite watering hole, Swoon Kitchenbar, we went to the Hudson Opera House for a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the http: hudson teen theatre project. This turned out to be a wonderful, spirited production. A third sold out evening for this troop. |
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| These young ladies greeted us with programs at the door. |
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| Then, this boy showed up, but could not stand still. |
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| These three appeared later in the production itself. |
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| Bottom and his troop perform for the newly weds towards the end of the play. |
A few pictures from recent walks around Hudson, mostly Warren St.
Opening the renewed playground on Promenade Hill
at Noonan Antiques
Flag Day Parade
Pride Family Day - BeLo3rd Warren
Amy Madden selling her jewelry
Memorial Day weekend came with infinitely better weather than suggested by the forecasters or the preceding two weeks of rain.
We spent time with Andrea, John, Nyla & Noah and others including the Browns. Struggled to fit in three barbecues. Missed John Sr. and Jeannette.
A few photos from jaunts around town.
A sharper image - 444 Warren St. Hudson
Theron Ware - 21st Birthday - 548 Warren St.
245 Warren - this anonymous store front continues to greet seasons and holidays
Winnie's near State and N. 7th. - a new addition to good less expensive food - much needed in Hudson
a new business: Italian Market & Deli - Columbia and Park St.
Cafe Le Perche - almost ready to open - finally - at 230 Warren St. with its own French-built oven
A new sign - 26 Warren St
New play equipment at Promenade Park - part of sprucing up with move of Chamber of Commerce to Front St.
An encouraging sign - large building on corner of Warren and Front Streets.
Romeo's Wanderlust on construction shelter next to Bank of America
This offer from Mid-Hudson Cable showed up today in a bank statement from The Bank of Greene County. Mid-Hudson always gets my attention but almost never for good reasons. This ad is a continuation of their finger in your eye approach to customers. Note that it offers “DOUBLE” and “TRIPLE” your speed for Internet service without ever mentioning what it is that they are doubling or tripling. This is simply a further progression in making it hard to find out what exactly you are paying for or even what it is they are promising to provide.
If you pop over to their website you can find this (my screen grab from today with added red arrow), that says that the regular residential service package provides “5 meg”. From other advertising I know that this is likely to mean 5 MegaBits/second (MB/sec) a meaningful identifier.
Here is the rub. In almost two years of experience with Mid-Hudson I have never experienced this level of service nor the 10 MB/s for which I am now paying in an effort to get my service level up to something useful. In fact, after hundreds of measurements over the last year, I can tell you with some assurance that “5 meg” really means 3.8 meg. And, if you use the Internet services during the peak hours of late afternoon and into the evening, the service level is significantly lower.
All of this has led me to think that Hudson and Columbia County needs an Internet Service Provider that is serious about both providing service to everyone and at world competitive levels of service. I had thought that perhaps when the contract between the City of Hudson and Mid-Hudson comes up for renewal that we could put some real teeth in a new contract. Yesterday CCSCoop published this story, “Mid-Hudson Cable Gets Icy Reception in Greenville” that included the following: “
The non-exclusive contract between the town and Mid-Hudson is for “video” service only, meaning for cable television and not internet service, explained Pat Johnson, senior municipal consultant with the state Public Service Commission (PSC).
“I think you are all here for the wrong reason,” Johnson told residents, emphasizing that by state law the cable agreement cannot include conditions for internet even though Mid-Hudson provides both.”
So this appears to leave us in a situation in which Mid-Hudson has a de facto monopoly on high speed internet service in the county (Verizon only offers DSL service which is, for technological reasons, limited to below 1 MB/sec service levels) without any regulatory or contractual leverage.