You wouldn’t believe it to look at the way I live now, but I used to be hardcore. I was a type B+ go-getter with the alarm set for 7 am and a two and a half year plan. Two years — okay, eighteen months — in things went off the rails.

If it had been only my wheels going off the rails, well, that would be sad and all, but look around. There aren’t many wheels securely railed anywhere except in Jeff Bezos-land. Oh, and Walton-family-land. Things are pretty rosy in those places but in our land? Please.

Back…

So there I was, tooling along on my nifty new stationary bike enjoying a leisurely tour of Venice Beach. YouTube, it turns out, is awash with videos made by people who plunk their Go Pro video cameras onto their helmets and then go out on their bicycles.

I usually opt for this madman on a fixed gear bike from Brooklyn, Terry Barentsen, who zips along Go Pro-ing equally insane cyclists in kamikaze bike races around New York City. These are the idiots who make you want to outlaw cycling in the city. Or just start shooting the nimrods. They disregard…

City streets are lined with, well, sheds these days. The first sprouted around late April and early May 2020 when the virus emptied out all the diners and restaurants.

In those early days, the structures were pretty basic. Fast forward nearly a year and some of these “outdoor” dining options are not very outdoorsy. And some are quite elaborate!

Seventy weeks ago — or 490 days which sounds more impressive, I think — I did something I seldom do. I took the advice of a particularly strident bunch of content providers on this platform. So a year and five-plus months ago I launched my first and only newsletter. The name was easy to come up with: Remington Write. Not very flashy or clever, but easy to remember.

I realize I’m late to the party but that’s never been a problem for me. …

I’ve been to the top of the Empire State Building twice in twenty years. Both times with out-of-town friends. It was fun but I’d never do that on my own (please). Having friends in from out of town, especially those few with deep pockets, however, can be a very special treat. Like when that friend visiting from Prague booked a helicopter tour of Manhattan in 2010. Certainly something I’d never do on my own! Good times.

Don’t get me wrong. Most of the time I write regardless of whether I “feel” like it or not. I’d never get much written if I only wrote when inspiration spit on my hands.

But not tonight.

I accompanied a close friend to Memorial Sloan Kettering to get her second COVID shot. I brought home groceries and cooked beets to be frozen and used in smoothies. I edited a piece for a client. I made a snack for myself and my partner. I got the newsletter put together and out (up to 81 subscribers!). …

We live two blocks from Central Park meaning we’ve essentially got an 840-acre backyard that attracts some serious birds unlike the birds who are attracted to my fire escape but we’ll get to that. Snowy egrets come through Central Park in the spring, red-tailed hawks glide above, and everything from our famous snowy owl to herons and swans and cormorants as well as every description of migrating songbird make appearances.

But living on the fifth floor just above several trees means that here we have mourning doves as well as (three) blue jays and the little brown birds, sparrows and…

Billy Marie knew it was home. Her real home. Her real and forever and always been there home. The moment she gazed up into those sooty old-timey windows, she knew it.

She was exploring the new neighborhood. Again it was Mom’s job that had them in yet another new city. Mom might say she didn’t like all the moving around but Billy Marie wasn’t buying it. She knew her Mom. The crazy thing was that Mom’s job wasn’t even a career or anything. She wasn’t some high-powered anything. She was a consultant for social service agencies. Big whoop. …