This year was the same as previous years but also a bit different.
In the past, we used to go out and wander all over the UWS. But something felt different this year.
My kid’s dressed up as French soccer player Kylian Mbappé.
I’d been reading about shootings in the area on the upswing and I just didn’t feel comfortable with Nate running around outside; especially since, in the past, there were times I felt penned in in some streets and the last thing I wanted at that time was some violence.
It turns out that I was right, because my sister wrote me to tell me that a McDonalds – which my kid and I’ve been to easily 2-3 dozen times – had a shootout just an hour after when we were supposed to start trick or treating.
So, while the Firecracker and her kid went trick-or-treating out and about, I only let the kid do it in the large apartment complex next door.
On the positive side, though, it’s nice that he and I have so many friends in the neighborhood that we have the opportunity to do things like that.
It stinks that kids can’t just be kids these days.
Like all parents, I try to shield him from what I can but it’s a losing battle.
Still, he’s such a resilient little kid, I’m hoping it’ll be ok, somehow.
I’m not slated to do any more shoots until 2025, which is great, because I’m pretty beat.
Ever since we started doing these shoots, I’ve got a newfound respect for content creators; it’s pretty draining to shoot these scenes over and over again until they’re perfect.
I just checked – I did my first shoot in the summer of 2019 and we’re now closing in on 2025. Close to six years.
Man, time is just sprinting by these days.
On that note, check out the above video – it looks like me but it’s actually not me at all!
It’s an AI generated video from my Scenic Fights producer.
Wild, right?
(The picture above *IS* of me, though).
On that note, I met up with my boss at the law firm for lunch the other day at the Bryant Park Grill.
I’ve been with the firm, in one form or another, since 2008 or so, so some 16 years.
That too reminds me that life is sprinting by.
Now that I’ve been a lawyer for close to a quarter-of-a-century, I’ve been lucky in that I can be very picky with the new cases I take on.
Him: Well, what in particular? Me: It’s gotta be something interesting OR with a huge payout. Otherwise, my patience for dealing with other people’s nonsense is pretty thin these days. Him: (laughing) I get that. OK, interesting cases or big check. Me: Essentially.
We were supposed to meet up with the Surgeon and his family for some hot pot the other night but that shifted to a party at their pad, which was actually even better since the kids could play.
Wanted to bring something so I asked Pac if he could recommend something to buy at H Mart now that it was in the UWS.
Me: Heading to a dinner party tomorrow and don’t wanna schlepp alla way to Chinatown for Chinese dumplings. Him: Anything from Bibigo is solid.
So, we went and got a bag of beef dumplings and a bag of pork ones.
While the pork was definitely good, the beef was killer and we chowed through a lotta that before the other guests even came.
The Surgeon was mixing drinks all night and said – at the end of the night – that we kicked an entire bottle of mezcal with the four of us (him, his wife, me, and the Firecracker).
I didn’t think that it would affect me the same way as tequila does, but it turns out, it’s much, much, much worse on me than tequila is, which is saying a lot.
More on that in the next entry.
You may wanna skip that one.
In any case, the Surgeon and I popped out so he could pick up some sushi for everyone as well.
When we got back, more people were there, including a student of the Surgeon’s wife, who’s a professor of music and pretty talented in her own right.
Somehow, we got onto the topic of Scenic Fights and he immediately connected that I was the Logan from it.
After we posted the below pic on IG, his friend wrote him and said, “What?! How!?”
Me: Why don’t I just carry everything, so we don’t have to bring your granny cart? Her: I LOVE my granny cart! Besides, how are you gonna carry everything. Me: Hold on. (thinking) If I have seven cans of oil-based paint, and a gallon of oil weights approximately 7 pounds, that means I’m carrying around 50 pounds. (sighing) Fiiiine, bring your granny cart. Her: You’re gonna be so happy I brought it when you realize how much we’re gonna be carrying.
The Firecracker proudly using her granny cart to haul away a hoverboard and a buncha paint cans.
The first time I went to the Firecracker’s pad, I asked her why she had a vacuum cleaner and a kid’s hoverboard in her bedroom.
Her: They both have batteries in them that I have to wait until the city will take them. Me: How long have you been holding onto them? Her: A year?
I understood.
I’ve had paint and tar in my basement for at least the last 25 years and some were there when I moved in, meaning that two or three cans were like 35 years old.
This latest one was right by my gym BUT we were filming on the day of it, and I had to carry a whole boatload of costumes down from my pad for it, so we figured we’d miss this one too.
Her: Hey, we can go to the SAFE Event now! Me: OMG, you’re right! Her: See! Always look on the bright side.
So, we packed up her granny cart and headed downtown to do just that.
That was pretty quick, so we hit up a clothing store as the Firecracker needed some new gear.
Afterward, I rang up my buddy Ricky – as we were near his pad – and he said he was actually in a cafe just around the block from where we were.
We ended up walking over to his pad and chilling out on his gorgeous rooftop deck.
I brought some pork rinds, and he brought a bottle of sweet Moscato.
Honestly, I’m not sure life in NYC gets better than this.
Me: That’s what we like the most, random cool meetup with friends. Her: Especially friends with roof decks! Him: (laughing) Well, I’m glad you called then.
Speaking of advice, a friend asked me to go with her to court to help her with a case she was involved in.
Well, a case she had to restart because of things way outta her control.
I’m not a court attorney but I know enough to at least tell her where to go and what to say.
We all need help finding our way, sometimes.
It’s good to have a friend during those times.
To this end, we went down to the courthouse the other day.
Me: I used to come here with my buddy Steele when we were both clerking for the same judge. Her: That was a while ago. Me: A lifetime ago, really.
The building directly in the center of the main picture is where Alison and I got married.
Now that feels like several lifetimes ago.
Going to court in NYC is a bit like going on a scavenger hunt, because, invariably, you gotta go to several different offices and speak with different people to get anything done.
While she didn’t get to accomplish everything that she intended that day, she got a bit closer to her ultimate goal, which is always a positive.
Afterward, we walked over to Chinatown to get some lunch – Taiwanese food over at Taiwan Pork Chop House.
Her: I never realized how close the courts are to Chinatown. Me: That’s why there are so many lawyers that have lunch there.
Along the way, ran into not one but two Scenic Fights fans.
The first one was on the train ride down there.
Him: Excuse me, but do I know you? You look super familiar. Me: Do you watch Scenic Fights? Him: Yes!
The second was after we were done with court and went to Chinatown to get food.
Stuart: I love Scenic Fights! Me: OMG, will you take a picture with me? Him: Sure!
In the end, my friend didn’t get everything done that she wanted to get done, but it was a (good) start.
Court stuff is difficult, for sure.
But all difficult things are overcome, as long as you start – it’s the starting that usually the hardest part.
Her: Thanks for coming. Me: Happy to help, although I’m not sure I did much. Her: You did – we have a contact now and a plan. Me: That’s more than you had before. Her: Absolutely.
Location: earlier today, a rooftop with Ricky and the Firecracker
Mood: fatty-fat-fat
Music: Knee deep in a muddy trench (Spotify) Subscribe! Like this post? Tell someone about it by clicking a button below.
Me: I dunno, man. Him: Well, what would you do here? Me: (sighing) That’s the thing, I guess. She’s controlling you right now. If nuthin else, I wouldn’t allow that. I can’t allow myself to be controlled by another person unless I wanted to be controlled. And I don’t think you wanna be controlled, do you?
There’s this small coffee shop a few blocks south of me that I used to go to when I did my dry cleaning as my dry cleaner was just next door.
The coffeeshop was a tiny joint but my dry cleaners lost their lease (boo!) but that meant that the cafe could take over that space and expand (yay!).
Lately, I’ve been meeting people there for coffee and meetings since it’s so much nicer now.
Now, the reason I’ve been going there – besides occasional visits with neighbors and my buddy the Pastor – is because, for some reason, people keep asking me for advice.
Like, I tell people to try to drink as much green tea as possible because of all of its document health benefits.
Other things, though, I’m less certain of, ergo, I’m hesitant to offer any advice.
Like, there are no less than three people I know of that are going through divorces.
As a lawyer, I know little to nuthin about the topic, but I started doing some research to try and help them here and there.
I think it’s more dangerous to give advice when you have no idea what you’re talking about than to say, “Sorry, man, I don’t know anything about the topic, I wish I could help.”
But they’re in a pickle so I try to help however I can.
My old buddy Johnny – who got a divorce himself decades ago and took none of my advice – used to drive me crazy by always offering advice on topics he had zero background in.
He was probably my third wealthiest friend, so I think that wild success makes people think that they’re qualified to give advice in all fields rather than the one that they actually are qualified in.
That’s one of a million reasons I decided to stop being friends with him.
Getting back to my friends, some of them insist that I give them some opinion, so I do when pressed.
But I wonder if I’m truly helping or harming sometimes.
Then again, free advice is probably worth what you’re paying for it.
Him: Fuck no. Me: (shrugging) Well, then there’s your answer then.
Even now, they’re pretty rare because people just got used to going without.
However, the rats in NYC may change alla that.
See, Mayor Adams is convinced that the garbage – fulla food – laying around for hours overnight in plastic bags is helping the insane surge in rats in NYC.
I think he may be onto something.
One of his major plans are to deal with the obscene garbage situation in the city by:
Standardizing garbage cans for everyone in the whole city – so everyone has to get cans that look like the ones below with a lid on them.
Making everyone separate out their compostable materials.
He’d never done one before but was game to tackle it.
Unfortunately, my sink was easily 40 years old, so the drain was rusted tight.
Took us two hours just to be able to remove it, which we did with a specialized tool.
Him: Man, once we had the right tool, it came right out. Me: I remember my buddy Buckley telling me once that nothing’s ever an issue if you have the right tool.
Since this was the first time he’d ever installed one, lots of things went wrong.
Like this arm was the wrong size and leaked everywhere.
Wally planned to be here to paint and install it for about four-to-five hours but ended up staying 10 hours and had to return two days later to finally fix everything.
BUT, I have a garbage disposal now in NYC!
I think I’m gonna start running tours to show it off with a reasonable $5 admission ticket.
I’ll let you know when I roll that out.
In the meanwhile, here’s a quick time-lapse video I shot of it in action.
It’s 1.25 horsepower, which is about 5X the power of an average garbage disposal, so it chews through most anything but I’m just using fruit peels and eggshells to keep the gross factor to a minimum.
If you don’t have one, definitely consider installing one!
Location: a NYC pad WITH garbage disposal and freshly painted doors and gates
Mood: accomplished
Music: I will try to fix you (Spotify) Subscribe! Like this post? Tell someone about it by clicking a button below.
Man, did I have an annoying past coupla days – where to begin?
I have a metal gate, which leads to two blue metal doors that then lead to my apartment.
Used to paint them every few years but the last time I painted them was a decade ago in 2014 for reasons I’m sure you can guess.
All three were getting pretty worn and rusty so, I decided to paint them with the help of my buddy Wally.
He actually did the heavy lifting and took off the rust and some of the flaking paint and we both painted.
Initially, I just wanted to paint the clearly rusted and chipped areas.
To this end, I got paint mixed that matched the paint on my doors and gate.
This isn’t my pad, it was actually Teddy Roosevelt’s but that’s essentially the same as my pad.
Unfortunately, because of sunlight hitting different areas of the doors and gates, the colours were all off.
It looked worse after painting because all the colours were all slightly off – so then we had to paint EVERYTHING.
So, the small project went from two hours to…four days.
The Firecracker ended up having to help out for several hours across two days.
It gets worse though.
Teddy’s pad again – you can visit yourself when you come to NYC by heading to 28 East 20th Street, NYC.
While painting the gate, I had to remove the lock and I found out that two screws rusted through, which meant that that I had to manually remove them with pliers.
That took over an hour as I went a 1/4 turn each time for these 3.5 inch screws.
Then, when I brought them to the hardware store, the guy told me.
Him: Those are specialized screws. We don’t carry them here; you gotta go to a locksmith. Me: Goddammit.
So, off I went to find one but then he said.
Him: We don’t have these screws, you have to buy the whole lock again. Me: Goddammit! How much is that? Him: $80. Me: Jesus Christ!
Ended up buying it online for $45. For two screws.
It took two days to get to me, so we had to find different – and novel – ways to lock the gate for those two nights.
Because I was worried about the kid, didn’t sleep a wink.
Not my apartment nor my gate – just a pic of a street in NYC. But that is the type of garbage cans we’re required to have moving forward.
But wait…there’s more!
In the middle of alla this, Wally tried to install a garbage disposal for me AND – because I run the building – I also had to replace alla the garbage cans for the building.
Welp, the replacement garbage cans never arrived and Wally didn’t get it all right the first time (which is no real fault of his own) which meant that we ended up getting water everywhere and had to dismantle the whole thing.
The garbage and garbage disposal are much more involved stories, which I’ll save for the next entry, but it meant that for three days:
I had no locks on my door.
No working kitchen sink.
This meant that the kid and I had to eat out for every single meal for two days.
Paint and plumbing supplies everywhere.
Garbage and garbage bags everywhere.
No garbage cans for myself or anyone in my building.
To say that I was irritated is the same as saying that water’s wet.
I’ll wrap this up in the next entry.
I need a drink.
Location: early this morning, the courthouse, telling someone she’s an awful person for cutting the line
Mood: So. Irritated. Man.
Music: gonna build castles from the rubble (Spotify) Subscribe! Like this post? Tell someone about it by clicking a button below.
Like I said, the kid started school the other day.
Him: (the morning of) I’m a little scared. Me: Makes sense. But you’re always a little concerned about your first day of school and it’s always worked out ok, hasn’t it?
Him: I guess so? Me: (6.5 hours later) How was it?
Him: Great! My teacher is the nicest teacher, ever! Me: Ever?! Well, high praise. See, it all worked out.
The rest of it is his story to tell and he’s getting older so I’ll stop here.
But, because he was in school, I was able to dash down to midtown to grab lunch with the NFL Player and my buddy Thor.
Waitress: What would you like to drink? Me: Seeing it’s the middle of the day, how about a White Russian?
Him: Sensible.
It was nice seeing the fellas, whom I see a lot less these days, now that I’ve switched gyms.
Thor: I got this one. Me: Dammit, I shoulda ordered more alcohol.
Hopped the train back to the UWS with the NFL player and we caught up – he’s been doing really well at his gym and I, mine.
Also spoke to Thor a few days later as he had an issue that was troubling him but turned out to be just fine.
Him: Thanks good news on [that] front; [its] too long to put in text but main thing is that I’m ok! Me: YES! Here’s to good news whereever we find it. Him: Thanks for checking in Logan it means a lot man. Me: After all we’ve been through now? Of course!
The world’s a lot more manageable with good friends that are also good souls.
The kid started school the other day so, as a last hurrah – and because both my kid and the Firecracker’s kid love trains – we went on a train adventure the other day.
NJ Transit has been having alla these issues lately so, as a mea culpa, they offered free train rides all week last week.
Now, my kid was already at my in-laws so, bright and early one day, I went to get him.
But not before fueling up with some empty carbs.
Carbed-up, we hopped the train…
…transferred to another train, and then got off at Journal Square.
It was super cute, when he saw the Firecracker, he like RAN to give her a hug.
They both played at the playground for a bit…
…before we went in search of food.
We found this cool little joint called White Star and ordered a ton of food and drink.
We continued our train adventures by hopping the light rail to see my SIL.
Her: Can you help me bring a rug to my basement? Me: Sure!
It was a HUGE rug so I should really ask details before I agree to stuff.
Afterwards, she gave us a lift to the local pier…
…where the kids had more fun.
And then we walked through Hoboken…
…to get to Benny Tudino’s for one of their obnoxiously huge slices of pizza.
It was actually his second time there – I told you about the first time we went back in 2021.
Bellies full, and fully exhausted, we headed back home.
All-in-all, it was a good way to end out the summer.
Him: I’m a little worried about school. Me: You’re always a little worried about school. That’s normal. But, every year, it turns out ok, right? Him: I guess so. Me: You’ll be fine. You gotta trust me here.
