{"id":296,"date":"2017-06-25T20:32:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T02:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=296"},"modified":"2024-04-22T02:46:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T02:46:16","slug":"20-things-in-two-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2017\/06\/25\/20-things-in-two-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"20 things in two weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During my vacation over the past couple of weeks, some random things popped into my head. I&#8217;ll have some more in-depth things soon.<\/p>\n<p>My posts take 2-6 hours to write and another 30 minutes to post. I have dozens I want to do, but never seem to be able to find the time to get them done.<\/p>\n<p>Also, my cat, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/2017\/03\/she-soothes-my-soul\/\">Cinders<\/a>, has been on my lap since I returned home from vacation. There is little else I can do except pet her. My legs are numb. Her claws are permanently embedded in my leg.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I am in a debate with myself over whether I should try to get something I wrote published or just throw it up on my website.<\/p>\n<p>Paul is upset he didn&#8217;t see any aliens while in New York. We passed through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.onlyinyourstate.com\/new-york\/pine-bush-ny\/\">Pine Bush<\/a> several times, but there were no visible aliens. Paul hopes they will kidnap him next time so he can cross that adventure off his bucket list. <\/p>\n<p>My cousin, Kaylie, swore she saw one in Middletown, but it was just the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit\">stealth bomber<\/a> buzzing the treeline on its way to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stewart_Air_National_Guard_Base\">Stewart Air National Guard Base<\/a> for a public viewing. In Kaylie&#8217;s defense, she was about 10 years old when it happened. I think she&#8217;s smarter now.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_297\" style=\"width: 639px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/alien-IMG_0232.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-297\" src=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/alien-IMG_0232-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"629\" height=\"353\" class=\"size-large wp-image-297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/alien-IMG_0232-1024x575.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/alien-IMG_0232-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/alien-IMG_0232-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/alien-IMG_0232-1536x862.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/alien-IMG_0232.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-297\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A shop that welcomes everyone.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For the record, I&#8217;m pretty sure all the sightings in the sky are experimental aircraft coming from the Stewart. But <a href=\"http:\/\/www.weirdus.com\/states\/new_york\/ancient_mysteries\/pine_bush\/index.php\">whatever<\/a>, believe in little green men if you want to.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UFOs and aliens in Pine Bush!\" width=\"629\" height=\"472\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4De3mqfjkiM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Even with no internet connection, I still heard about Trump. The only international news I could find on a regular basis was on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/\">RT<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/RT_%28TV_network%29\">Not the best choice<\/a>, but my only option at the time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SaffronFineIndianCuisine\/\">Saffron<\/a> is a damned fine Indian restaurant. If you&#8217;re ever in Middletown, go eat at Saffron. Every dish is good. I&#8217;m partial to chicken Korma. The garlic naan is fantastic as well.<\/p>\n<p>My family still embarrasses me in public. They do this even at nice Indian restaurants.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/06\/23\/nyregion\/gabe-pressman-wnbc-dead.html\">Gabe Pressman<\/a> died while I was on vacation. Pressman, along with Chuck Scarborough[https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chuck_Scarborough] and Sue Simmons[https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sue_Simmons], was a staple of my childhood. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnewyork.com\/news\/local\/In-Memoriam-The-Life-and-Times-of-Gabe-Pressman-430332453.html\">His career spanned six decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"UTF-8\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnewyork.com\/portableplayer\/?cmsID=430420103&#038;videoID=s4ki2YcHHFSs&#038;origin=nbcnewyork.com&#038;sec=news&#038;subsec=local&#038;fullWidth=y\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t miss the friggin&#8217; humidity in New York. Yes, I said friggin&#8217;. I believe it&#8217;s required by law in New York State to include that word whenever you speak of the humidity. I have no idea how I grew up there without air conditioning and survived.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_298\" style=\"width: 639px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Hudson-river-from-the-air-0613170950b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-298\" src=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Hudson-river-from-the-air-0613170950b-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" class=\"size-large wp-image-298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Hudson-river-from-the-air-0613170950b-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Hudson-river-from-the-air-0613170950b-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Hudson-river-from-the-air-0613170950b-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Hudson-river-from-the-air-0613170950b-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Hudson-river-from-the-air-0613170950b.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-298\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view from the air of the Newburgh and Beacon area. The Newburgh-Beacon bridge can be seen center-left.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I miss the trees in New York. There really aren&#8217;t enough trees in western Nebraska.<\/p>\n<p>There are 19 books on my desk. Given the fact that I have read eight books in six months, I don&#8217;t think I can read them all before 2017 is over.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_299\" style=\"width: 639px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/donut-IMG_9811.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-299\" src=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/donut-IMG_9811-1024x767.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"629\" height=\"471\" class=\"size-large wp-image-299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/donut-IMG_9811-1024x767.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/donut-IMG_9811-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/donut-IMG_9811-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/donut-IMG_9811-1536x1150.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/donut-IMG_9811.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-299\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bavarian Kreme donut from Dunkin&#8217; Donuts at the Hoboken train station.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I got my Bavarian Kreme donut at <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dunkin%27_Donuts\">Dunkin&#8217; Donuts<\/a>. It&#8217;s a good donut.<\/p>\n<p>Vacation time is limited, so I didn&#8217;t get to see everyone I would have liked to have seen. Hopefully, next time I will. My cousin Patrick has already guilted me enough for not seeing him.<\/p>\n<p>I am thankful for the invention of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Loperamide\">Imodium<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is this awesome thing at Legacy of the Plains museum on Monday, June 26, from 5:30-7 p.m. It&#8217;s called the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/968744113263572\/969199976551319\">Eclipse MegaMovie Awareness Tour<\/a>.\u201d I&#8217;d really like to go, but I&#8217;m still wiped out from vacation and I really don&#8217;t want to work on my last day of vacation. I know. I know. I&#8217;m going to regret not going, but I need some rest.<\/p>\n<p>The terror of going outside and talking to people is still there. It will probably never go away.<\/p>\n<p>People who take selfies and pose for glamour shots in front of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/National_September_11_Memorial_%26_Museum\">World Trade Center memorial<\/a> are assholes.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thei84diner.com\/\">I-84 diner<\/a> in Fishkill, New York still has the best cheesecake on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>American Airlines was mostly okay. They should offer more than two <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biscoff.com\/indulge\/lotus-biscoff-cookies\">Biscoff cookies<\/a> on a flight. I certainly paid enough money to warrant some kind of snack.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_300\" style=\"width: 639px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/funny-bones-IMG_0391.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-300\" src=\"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/funny-bones-IMG_0391-1024x868.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"629\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-large wp-image-300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/funny-bones-IMG_0391-1024x868.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/funny-bones-IMG_0391-300x254.jpg 300w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/funny-bones-IMG_0391-768x651.jpg 768w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/funny-bones-IMG_0391-1536x1302.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/funny-bones-IMG_0391.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-300\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The best snack cake ever made.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If you give me <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drakescake.com\/139\">Funny Bones<\/a>, I will probably love you forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During my vacation over the past couple of weeks, some random things popped into my head. I&#8217;ll have some more in-depth things soon. My posts take 2-6 hours to write and another 30 minutes to post. I have dozens I want to do, but never seem to be able to find the time to get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[156,257],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ramblings","tag-funny-bones","tag-new-york"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3888,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/3888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}