Trooper York Commenter Meet Up Dates Set

The Trooper York Commenter Meet Up for 2013 will be at the Seatuck Inn on Labor Day weekend. This was a photo of last years meet up at Fort Lauderdale's dog track (courtesy of Cody Jarret).

I hope I see all of you there.

Even you Spinelli.

RIP Trooper!

Our friend Trooper the golden Lab from the Seatuck Cove House has passed away. He was twelve years old and had been ill for quite some time.

He was a loveable dog with a great personality. He loved to come and sit on Lisa's feet which is very funny because she is not a dog person but she loved him.

He will be sorely missed.

A mere bag of shells!

We are perfectly fine and thank all you for your best wishes.

The problem with this storm was the high winds and the flooding because of the combination of a full moon and rising tides. Most of the coastal areas were hit hard. Red Hook which is pretty close got some flooding. What is funny is that the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel got most of the run off from Red Hook.

Carroll Gardens is much higher ground than most of the rest of Brooklyn. In fact during the Battle of Brooklyn, General Washington set  up his army here on the higher ground as he prepared to meet the British. So when they told people to go to higher ground they mean to come to where we are.

We spent the day cleaning the house. Mopping. Dusting. Vacuuming. It was hell.

Just as I had finished making dinner and we sat in front of the TV.....the cable went out. As did the Internet which just came on this morning. So I am able to get back on the net.

Most of the family did just great. The mother in law lost power on Long Island but that is because most of the Island has the power lines above ground so that happens all the time. Lisa's sister on Staten Island lost power too for the same reason. Her brother has a big estate in Jersey and all of his trees blew down but he only lost power and he is fine. One of her cousins lost their house on Breezy Point but nobody was there thank God.

And the Seatuck House is just fine. I was worried about it as it is right on the water and when we were there a couple of weeks ago the winds were crazy. But that house is a tank. They had some flooding in the basement just a few inches. But they did fine.

So now we have to dig out and repair the damages. We were going to be closed on Halloween anyway so we weren't going to be making any money this week anyway. No subways will mean that business will be really, really slow. Or you never know. Sometimes when you least expect it is when people come in. There is still the on-line store which I hope does some business. Of course I don't know when UPS will start up again. So we are taking a couple of days off.

Oh shit. She is waving the mop at me again.

Sophie's Choice of Ferret

We did a lot of errands while we were in Seatuck. Since we don't drive we tagged along with Colleen while she had to do stuff. One of the things she had to do is go get lots of dog food for her two huge Labs. So we went to Petco Discount and while she was shopping we wandered around looking at the pets they had for sale. This was a giant pet food store in a mall and had a bunch of stuff for sale.

They had a whole tropical fish department with all kinds of stuff. Reptiles. Snakes. Turtles. Birds. And a ferret Aushwitz.

They had this big tank filled with ferrets. There must of been twenty of them. They were all asleep and laying on top of each other. It looked like one of those movies you saw about concentration camps. It was pretty disgusting.

Who wants to buy a dead ferret.

Well except for Garage Mahal.

Swans......

We saw a lot of wildlife while we were in Seatuck. Bunnie rabbits. Deer. Squirrels. And a couple of nasty old Swans.

We pulled up at this lake to take photo's and these two swans were all the way across the lake. When they saw us they swam all the way across the lake and walked right up to us. They must be used to people feeding them. I told Lisa to be careful since they will attack people. In fact we had seen them attack some kids on the sandbar across from the house in the summer. But these two were in the 47% because they just wanted to beg.

We took a bunch of photos and this was the only one where they made a "heart."

Of course the pixels on the I-phone sucks but what are you gonna do? At least they come out great on Insta-gram.

Fall in the Hamptons

We had a great time. We did a lot of fun stuff. Went to wineries (more on that later). Went to a Haunted House. Went to some decent restaurants and a local pub that was a lot of fun.

But it was autumn. We had to put away our floats and our noodles and our bathing suits. We couldn't lay out in the sun. No barbecue on the lawn. We really missed our friends who vacation with us. But we still had a blast.

So we might make it an annual thing.

Autumn can be lost of fun.

Corn!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the best things about Long Island is all of the vegetable stands that sell lots of fresh stuff. We went to one that was a huge operation that had everything. A corn maze where you could walk in and get lost. Horse rides for the kids. A petting zoo. A pumpkin patch.

And fresh hot roasted corn. Smothered in hot butter. Nothing better on a chilly afternoon.

Daniel Boone was a man....A Big Man...but the bear was bigger...

So we went on this long nature walk for about a mile to get to the beach. It is one of the reasons why the beach is always pretty deserted. Mostly people who are walking their dogs or who need the excercise go there.

Now we are city mice so the great outdoors are a little foreign to us. Or at least to the wife. She hates it. But she was a good sport and walked along but was a little leery of it. I mean she makes Caroline Manzo look like Daniel Boone.

The dogs kept frolicking around us as they found cool things to smell or chase around till they were whistled back to the trail. The walk was pretty long. It was kind of cold at first but the longer we walked the quicker we warmed up. It was a lot of fun.

I like the outdoors as I am kind of familiar with it. I mean it has been years but I used to go camping all the time. I was able to point out the poison ivy which made the wife run screaming up the trail. For Lisa camping is staying in a hotel without room service. But she was a good sport and had some fun.

I would love to do it in the summer with the reward of jumping in the water at the end of the trail.

If nobody hears it......

Maybe it didn't really fall.

I didn't get to watch the last game of the Yankees getting swept.

So maybe it just didn't happen.

It was all a bad dream.

Like the last four years of this failed Presidency.

If only it were so.

I will be seeing you......

So it was so cold that some of the time we hung out on the second floor in the nice sitting room with the telescope. It has very comfortable couches and a great view.

We were the only guests in the house for the whole week which was great. We didn't even have to get up for breakfast. Lisa has become great friends with the inn keeper so we would just jump in the car and go places. So we could sleep a little later and hit a brunch spot in the Hamptons. Since the season is over we could have gone to any of the fancy places but we preferred to hit the regular joints where the working people go.
Great food at great prices. It was mainly Moms who dropped their kids off at school, construction workers, and fisherman who were waiting for the tides before they went back out.

While we were packing we opened all the windows because the A/C wasn't on and it got a little humid. I even opened the doors to the balcony in both rooms to get more air circulating. I was wandering around naked as I got read for my shower and the wife asked me "What if the people across the water have a telescope like we have here on the balcony." I replied "Hey I am ok as long as they don't have a microscope. Don't sweat it I'm Irish."

She didn't give me an argument.

That is not optimal.

Summer is over officially!

When we planned the trip for our Anniversary week we were all excited that we could get into the pool. You see it was heated and we figured some of these warm days would be warm enough to jump in and swim around for a while. It would be like going to a Spa in Russia or something.

But unfortunately it rained on Monday and the wind whipping off the water was so strong that there was no way we could get into the pool.

They closed the pool and covered it for the winter on Thursday morning so we were shit out of luck.

The worst thing about it was that I couldn't blame the shrinkage on the cold water.

Life sucks sometimes.

While you were sleeping.......

A lot of stuff happened.

I was enjoying a week out at Seatuck Cove House and so much was happening in the real world.

My Yankees got swept by a superior Detroit Tigers team. Kudo's to Cousin Ron and Darcy and all of you Tiger's fans out there. The drunken drowned ghost of Norm Cash is surely partying up in Heaven for all it's worth. Well done. Stay thirsty my friends.

It seems like the Jug Eared Jesus has imploded. "Not optimal." When I heard that on the radio I couldn't believe it. The polls seem to indicate a blowout of the Mitt Man but I don't want to jinx it or get over conifident.

Titus is up to his old tricks. I just want to thank him for turning his tricks here instead of TOP as he is consistently entertaining no matter how deep we get in the doo doo.

I especially thank youse guys for stopping by while I am lazing around and relaxing. I really appreciate you keeping the conversation going while I am off enjoying myself. Well Done dudes and dudettes.

I wish I was still on vacation...

It was really hard to come to work today.

After church I thought about all the Sundays I used to have before we opened the store.

I would cook up a great old school Italian dinner. Or better yet my Grand Ma did. A big sauce with meatballs and sausage and braciole and a gravy round. Pasta. A big green salad with fresh olive oil. Fresh from the oven rolls and Italian bread to dip in the sauce. A cheese cake or cannoli's for desert with espresso and anisette.

A cigar while reading the Sunday papers.

But those days are gone.

As are the vacation days for now.

It's back to the UPS machine and people complaining about not getting their orders.

I miss sitting on the porch watching the sunset while having a Margarita.

Summer goes much too fast.

Oh yeah.....I forgot to tell you....

We are on our annual vacation to the Seatuck Cove House that we take every year with our best friends Chuck and Amy.

We are having a great time. Hanging out at the pool. Drinking beer. Eating great food.

We just got massages and are going to hang out at the pool all day.

We left all our problems and issues for a little while. I had to go on the computer for a minute to do one stupid transaction so I figured I would drop youse guys a line.

Right now we are relaxing.

Keep on talking amongst yourselves.

Where's my beer?

I wish I was still lazying around in my lazy boy!

This was my favorite chair in the Hamptons. I just sat there at the end of the day and checked up on my blogs. I didn't comment a lot. Just read quickly before we went down to dinner.

This chair was really really comfortable. It had an Ottoman to put your feet on and was butter soft. You couldn't recline but you sure could doze the day away.

I wish I was still on vacation.

I hate it when we have to go back to work

We can't get back in work mode after spending such a relaxing time on vacation. We had no stress as we shut off the phones and the email and computers.

Well all the messages were there when we got back. Boy that sucks.

But at least we have the memories of how relaxed we were when we were out there relaxing.

What's another Day?

We had such a good time that we decided to stay another day. The weather was beautiful and we just loved hanging around in the pool. So we just floated around all day and spent the day on Thursday out on the Island until late at night.

Morning in the pool. Then check out. Then checking out the antique stores in the town. The wife found a bunch of stuff she loved and she loves stuff so we bought more stuff to bring home to add to all the other stuff we have accumulated.

We have a lot of stuff.

But you can't beat a couple of hours floating in the pool on a beautiful summer morning.

It was like heaven.

Get those Ducks in a Row!

Where the Duck are you?

We stopped by a duck farm on our way to pick up lunch today. Thousands of duck quacking and crapping and running around. It was quite a sight.

Then we went into Riverhead to this old school Polish Deli and got some great stuffed cabbage, perogies, meatballs, kielbasa and other goodies. We brought them back to the B&B and had a great lunch.

By the way when you get a bunch of ducks in one place it really smells bad. Just sayn'

It's time to relax

We are just relaxing at the Inn and taking it easy. No internet. No emails. No phone calls. Just relaxation.

Time for lunch and then back to the pool.