I went to the Mensa dinner last night. There were eight of us, and it was a good group. After dinner, four of us went to the gilded Otter in New Paltz to play in some kind of national trivia thingy - I don't know what it's officially called, but there is a screen, and multiple choice questions, and you choose your answers on a keypad. I didn't do so well because I have trouble translating from my brain to my fingers, and I kept forgetting that I could change my answers. Next time...! There's a Mensa group that competes as a team in a particular bar in NYC, and they are always in the top several nationally, so we are toying with the idea of a field trip down there to meet them. Just that Thursdays could be difficult for those who have to go to work the next day.
When we left the restaurant to go to New Paltz, one of the guys asked if I wanted to ride with him, and he'd bring me back to my car afterwards. Stupid me, I said no, it's easiest for me to go home up the thruway from New Paltz. He's 45ish and and it's highly unlikely there was anything else in mind, but conversation and getting to know him better would have been nice. I need a few more male friends - male viewpoints and so on.
This morning I checked out the spa in the village. It's not like a gym - they have no treadmills (and no males, thank you) - what they have is a series of machines, each geared to work on a separate set of muscles, and you move from station to station at a set rate, to a music tape. I got a free week's trial. So I went this morning, just to see if I could do it. It was ok. I plan to go every morning for the week and see how it goes.
I was surprised to find that my left arm is a lot weaker than my right. My left leg is also weaker than the right, but that's the hip that gives me the most trouble, so that didn't surprise me.
Then I ran a bunch of errands. I got a new burn permit, picked up some new tapes for the phone machine (the 8-year old tape is getting stretched), bought and mailed some postcards for the son of a friend of a friend who is in some kind of postcard competition, bought some furnace filters, got the van a checkup and the oil changed, went to the grocery store, and some other stuff I can't remember right off. It was like 55 degrees with no wind, so it was nice to be out.
I got home around two, and found a half-hour old message on the tape from Roman. His mother is progressing, not as quickly as they had hoped, but he's satisfied that she's looking and sounding better. He said in his message he'd call again later today, and hoped I'd be in. He confuses me. I don't understand. I guess this is also strength training.
Later edit - He did call again in the evening. I was surprised that he did. I told him about dinner last night. He said he really wanted to attend, but the aide who was supposed to come to care for his father never showed up, so he was unable to leave. I was surprised to hear that he wanted to attend, since he would have had to return either that night or the next morning. That's a long round-trip drive just for dinner in a mediocre restaurant. He confuses me. I don't understand.
The town has a new bee in their bonnets - they plan to impose a 2% tax on all home sales in the town, on the amounts over the median sale price for homes in the county. The county median is $380,000 (ouch! That's twice what it was before 9/11.). The money would then be used to purchase the development rights on farmland in the town.
Quick tutorial for those not familiar with New York local governments: Municipalities are hamlets, villages, and cities. A "town" is like a sub-division of a county, and may include multiple hamlets, villages, and cities. The town board handles things like zoning, snowplowing, garbage collection, fire fighting, and such outside the individual municipalities (which usually, around here, means the rural areas). For example, I used to live just outside the village of Highland, in the town of Lloyd, in the county of Ulster. My address, however, was Highland.
Since 9/11/01, folks have been spreading up and out from NYC, driving up housing prices as they go. In the past few years, many have actually moved all the way up here (a 2.5 hour commute to Manhattan!). They buy here because they love the rural aspects - the vineyards, orchards, horses, and farms - and they seem determined to keep it that way. There isn't a single fast food joint within 13 miles of the village on this side of the river, and no place to buy a pair of stockings. (Woe to you if you get hungry after 9 pm and there's nothing at home. There's nothing open.) The original residents wouldn't mind a few conveniences, but pretty soon it won't matter to them, because they can't afford to live here any longer. The traffic in the village is getting horrible. It's near impossible to turn left during the day anymore, and because the village doesn't have real "blocks", or even cross streets, it's not like you can make three rights to make a left. It's all very strange. Well, just another thing I don't understand.
Oh, I found out at the exercise place why I haven't seen girl scout cookies in ages - the girls aren't allowed to sell door-to-door any more. Sheesh!
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