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It looks much nicer at night. 4th of July St. Patricks Day Fathers Day Christmas Hanukkah

👍 Some of the traffic reporters on radio & TV still refer to it as the TZ Bridge as well. Rumor has it that NY State officials threaten to fine them for not using the official name. Not sure if that is true but I guess it does make sense for travelers driving thru the area who are not aware. In addition to being super congested, it was falling apart. The poster child of NY crumbling infrastructure. There were times when potholes would break thru the rusted steel below so if you were lucky & drove past before it was hastily repaired, you could look straight down & see the river below. It was built "on the cheap" due to steel shortage during the Korean war, opened in 1955 and designed to last 50 years with a maximum capacity of 100,000 cars daily. It lasted 62 years and as you pointed out, averaged 138,000 cars a day, 170,000 on busy holiday weekends. I commuted across it daily for a coupe of years until I moved out of Rockland. My 45 minute drive to work would easily double once or twice a week.

@Ocean Boy You mentioned you recently were in Martha Vineyard - ironically there are no vineyards in the island - where the movie Jaws was filmed. Just in time for summer, keep your eyes out for Frosty, one of 4 Great Whites making their annual migration north "On May 21, Frosty, a juvenile weighing in at 393 pounds and measuring 9 feet 2 inches long, also pinged off the coast of Rhode Island. " https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/28/us/ny-great-white-sharks-memorial-day/index.html

@George C You had mentioned in an earlier post about going to Swing 46? What did you think of the place? DW & I went some 20+ years ago and had every intention of returning but never did. Swing 46 - located on 46th street in NYC - is a 1940's style Jazz and Supper club. Pretty cool concept. In addition to being entertained by Big Band music while eating dinner, you can also take dance lessons there too.

Beautiful day for a walk along the Hudson River in Sleepy Hollow, NY, home to the Headless Horseman. Actually home to the author Washington Irving who wrote that tale. The towns actual name was North Tarrytown until 1996 when it was changed as Washington Irving based the fictional Sleepy Hollow on the real life North Tarrytown. The was done to attract tourists (and their $$$$) after GM closed its factory, eliminated 4,000 jobs & a sizable tax amount it paid to the town. For those really interested, you can read more here. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-sleepy-hollow-saved-north-tarrytown-2015-10 But far more importantly is the small lighthouse located along the Riverwalk. The kind of lighthouse that doesn't get posts deleted, wrists slapped or get you sent to the Monopoly room.😅 It's currently undergoing renovations & no estimated completion date posted. Eagle-eyed @BonTexasNY will notice that is Rockland County behind the "new" Tappan Zee Bridge. Officially known as the Gov. Mario Cumuo Bridge but locals refuse to call it that. No disrespect to the former governor & Andrew Cumuo father but most people prefer the name of the old bridge it replaced. Nothing political about it, just that everyone grew up with the old name - Tappan Zee Bridge - for 60+ years and it became part of the regions identity. Especially since that part of the Hudson is 3 miles wide & goes by the name Tappan Zee. Zee is Dutch for Sea and the Dutch were the first European settlers to the area. And to put this in a East Coast/West Coast perspective for @Coralc, imagine if the Golden Gate Bridge was renamed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Bridge 😆😉😇

Back in the days when I used to go to Beach Haven, NJ on LBI, it's an almost 2 1/2 - 3 hour on way drive but at times it could stretch to almost 6 hours. All I can say is thank god the Garden State Parkway has full service rest stops every 20 miles. When I could, I'd arrange my travel around peak driving time. Being a night owl, I'd favor night time, leaving my house around 10 & rolling in around 12:30 am. Roads were still somewhat busy and man-o-man, that drive was dark. Especially thru the Pine Barrens. Other times, I'd leave at 4:30 am which was kinda nice. Watch the sunrise as I drove down the parkway and rolling onto LBI and grabbing breakfast just before the morning rush kicked into high gear.

That's my chore for tomorrow! Hoping everyone will be at a parade or BBQ and the big box stores will be empty. I was leaning towards Home Depot as they have $2 for a 2.0 CU FT. bag of mulch (Virigor) vs $2 of the 1.5 CU FT of the Scott's Perfect Color at Lowes. Normally Home Depot would be the hands down winner (more product that the same price) but it's in a very heavy traffic part of town so I might just do Loews I only had a driveway dump of mulch once and I got waayyyy too much. I think I spend the summer trying to give it away to neighbors. Never again although I'll probably make 3 trips to the store to get the right amount. I'm really bad at judging things like that.

Yes, you are!

Also wanted to say that our different memories are proof that men and women think differently. Men really are from Mars and Woman from Venus. But I do remember the Bubble Boy episode from Seinfeld and well as the movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" with John Travolta? EDIT: Yes, it was John Travolta after consulting The Googs!

You and I have di................different dancers? It's okay. I no judge you, 😉😇 Ohhhhhhh, different memories. 🙂 Gotcha! That makes sense. "Bubbles", the "Gentleman's Adult Lounge".....and I'm using the word Gentleman very loosely.... might have been shutdown by the time you moved to Rockland. It was in the 1980's and I'm pretty sure they were closed down for some less than legal activities. Have you heard of those classy, high-class strip clubs where guys take their wives and girlfriends to? This was the complete OPPOSITE of that. Some of my friends even refuse to even admit they went once, just to check it out. They were located on Rt 59 in Nanuet and were replaced by......I kid you not....a Tuxedo rental store.

Since there is a lot of love here for Taylor Swift, she is performing this weekend in the Tri-State area at MetLife Stadium. Over 82,000 fans in attendance Friday night but sadly some of them spent $300 for fake tickets, including a Mom who flew up from Florida with a group. "A group dropped $300 per ticket, just to be denied entry due to the phony tickets. One mom flew up from Florida just for the show that the group didn't get to see after all. ""There has to be a better system for real fans. To enjoy music is like a therapy at this point and people need that, you need that security and you can't even get that anymore," said one of the frustrated fans". https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/taylor-swift-rocks-metlife-stadium-but-some-fans-left-heartbroken-trying-to-get-in/4371060/?_osource=SocialFlowFB_NYBrand What I don't understand is how there could be fake tickets? I attended a Yankee game on the same night and Yankee Stadium - like so many other sporting, concert & event venues - have switched to Mobile Ticketing only. No more physical paper tickets or print-from-home computer tickets. You need to use the Ticketmaster App on your phone. In addition, the mobile phone ticket has a security feature which refreshes the bar code every 30 seconds. This is to eliminate forgeries & "screen shot" fakes. I would assume a super star like TS would employ the same security feature to ensure her fans that spend up to thousands of dollars for a ticket are getting the real deal. Although I guess that would be up to the concert venue, in this case MetLife Stadium, not the performing artist. Now, while this security feature is great, it did cause me some inconvenience at Friday night Yankee game. I was going with my brother who had purchased the tickets. Normally he transfers one ticket to me. That way I have the ticket on my phone (Ticket Master account) in case we get separated in the crowd, I can still get in. Normally, its a easy process and when he transfer the ticket to me, I get a text message with a link to accept it. Except this time when I hit the link to accept, the TicketMaster (TM) app just froze and nothing happened. Turns out, the TM site had crashed and the transfer did not go thru. No ticket on my TM account but not a big problem, right? Just stick with my brother and he can scan me in. Nope, his TM account showed the ticket as transferred to me & the barcode was no longer valid. But I still did not have it on my account, it had just vanished into the vaporware of the Internet. So off I go to the Customer Service window where there were several hundred other Yankee fans with the same problem. Word was that all of the Swifties at Taylor concert a few miles away had once again broken TicketMaster when they flooded the site with ticket transfers. Fortunately, Customer Service was able to get me into the game and I narrowly escaped becoming a victim of @Ocean Boy famous friend and neighbor.😀

Reading the posts about The Bubble Room is bringing back memories from my college days. Nothing to do with the restaurant in Fort Myers but , **ahem**, the very first "Gentleman's club" I went to called Bubbles. Let's just say it was a bit on the low-end and while I did appreciate the exotic dancers at the time, it was really the cheap drinks & cheap cover charge that brought us back over and over. So now you can guess what I'm picturing every time I read about The Bubble Room. 😲

TSOTD is NY Yankee #21 Paul O'Neil. My favorite player from the 1990s. Also wearing a NY Yankee jersey with #21 on the back. No name as the Yankees do not put names of players on the back of jerseys. You should know who they are just by the number (confession: I don't always know) Also going to the game tonight. If @George C flight gets in early, see if you can score some last minute tickets & I'll treat you to a $18 beer. I'll be easy to find, I'll be wearing the Yankee #21 jersey. 😁

Next time I'm in Rockland Lake park, I'll take a picture of the Turtle Crossing signs. Some are mounted down low, like knee level. As if its easier for the turtles to look up and read. 😆

You have a very good eye. Yes, it is Rockland Lake. I grew up about 10 minutes away and even though I have now moved to the other side of the Hudson River about 45 minutes away, I visit every couple of weeks. There is a small cemetery tucked away in the woods that not too many people know about. My wife, both of my parents and two of my brother-in-laws are buried there, scattered in various locations. Very quiet and serene. The 3 mile walk around the lake afterwards is a good way to clear the mind. As you know, it's just as beautiful as its' ever been.

I have a few turkey pictures that were taken in a cemetery but somehow it feels disrespectful to post even though it almost impossible to read names on the headstones. So instead, swan pictures! Momma swan resting on her nest. I zoomed all the way in, I was nowhere near that close. Mommy & Daddy swan? And a few weeks later, the family out for a swim

Sue's classic "Rats & Snakes" speech. Pretty sure no other jury speech comes close.😅 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBSMBfoMVHk I used to be a religious Survivor watcher up until they started recycling the same players over and over. It seemed like they were going to keep bringing back Boston Rob until he finally won. And the most undeserving winner ever, Sandra, won twice?? I think I stopped watching around season 20. I liked when they used to have different locations - Africa, The Outback in Australia, etc. I think they now use the same one or two islands over and over. I get the reason. Cost control as they have already everything there. Equipment, staff housing, etc. No need to rebuild from scratch for every season. Still, was nice to see different locations.

I know Tom Sawyer diner very well. Had a many late night, weary dinners there after shopping in Paramus Park mall back in the day. No sales tax on clothing in NJ. Saved a bundle back when I had to wear suit & tie to the office.

I first heard about ChatGPT a few months ago. School students have been using it to generate 5 page long essays by asking a few simple questions and spend a few minutes "linking" the responses to make it look like they went thru the process of researching a topic and using their critical thinking skills to write and present the essay. Some people may call that "cheating" or "plagiarism". On the flip side, the students still need to read the response from ChatGPT and figure out how to connect them together to make a coherent essay that flows. In that respect, its not different then reading from an encyclopedia at the local library.

My brother-in-law & his wife went to see Bruce at his most recent concert in NJ last month. She is a huge fan. Totally enjoyed the show & said he has the energy of a 25 year old.

If your granddog is right, I'm going to ask if he can pick the next lottery numbers.

We had a freeze warning here last night although I don't think the temps dipped below 34 either. I'm like you, once I start wearing shorts & short sleeved shirts, it's tough to go back. Plus, older house with small closets means a lot of my winter clothing is packed away in the attic already.

I'll take "Who is Joan Jett?" for $500 please.

Did you just say Y'all? I wonder what that sounds like with a British accent? 😉😄😇

I thought the same thing about Bob Dylan & Bruce Springsteen. Great songwriters but after listening to a few songs, my ears start begging me to put something else on.