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NY State of Mind
3 Plays1 year ago
We spent a lot of time in our neighboring state this week. Tune in to hear what we were up to.
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Greene Street Joinery is a custom design & build shop located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. We build multigenerational furniture with an eco-friendly and sustainable mindset.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:24
Speaker
Well, sorry. Well, on the fucking. On the audio tech, technicianing. It's early. Yeah. I think it was doubled because the, this was on the chat, which is like a monitors what's coming here. So that's, it was that lag. Yeah. Um.
00:00:51
Speaker
Yeah. Sorry. Brain's still warming up. It's 6 47 in the morning. Um, this podcast should have already been released a couple hours ago, but you guys know how it is. We're busy.
00:01:03
Speaker
We had a long couple of days. Yeah. Real quick. Want to thank our sponsor, Haefla. Haefla offers a wide range of products and solutions for the woodworking and furniture making industries from hinges and drawer slides to connectors and dowels, sandpaper, wood glue, shop carts, and everything in between. Exclusive product lines such as looks, LED lighting, and Slido door hardware ensure that every project you create is built to last. Learn more at Haefla.com.
Haefla NYC Visit
00:01:29
Speaker
Speaking of, yeah, we were at Hayfla NYC yesterday. Buddy Ed, who you guys heard on episode...
00:01:43
Speaker
I don't know, it had to be like episode 30, something like that, this season. Reached out on Tuesday. I was wondering if we knew, you know, any installers who had availability to help out with some stuff in the showroom out in Manhattan.
00:02:06
Speaker
He was looking for Wednesday, but unfortunately, Wednesday, we were out in the Hamptons. So we told him, you know, we could do it Thursday. So we linked up. We took the ferry in yesterday morning, bright and early, and help the guys out over there. And took the ferry home. Yeah, it was a good day. Yeah, it was fun. A little change of pace.
00:02:35
Speaker
Oh, so it's been, it's been a long week.
Weekly Recap and Hamptons Preparations
00:02:42
Speaker
What happened Monday? What, what? Monday was Memorial day. Oh, Monday was Memorial day. So we were off on Monday. Yeah.
00:02:51
Speaker
Um, came in Tuesday. I think we did a bunch of computer work on Tuesday, didn't we? Yep. Yeah. Um, only thing I did was throw together a couple of my kitchen cabinets that just needed to be assembled. Um, but yeah, working on.
00:03:07
Speaker
design and bids and stuff on Tuesday, doing some client communication, and loaded up the van for a Hampson strip on Wednesday. Yeah, which was another long day left here at 3.45.
00:03:27
Speaker
That's AM. Yeah. So we left 15 minutes earlier than usual and it ended up saving us, I think, at least about a half hour in terms of traffic. I agree. So we got to the job at about 7.10. Whereas before we left at 4, a lot of times we weren't getting there until 8 or after.
00:03:52
Speaker
And you get, what would you say, three quarters of the way there or more before the traffic really hits? Yeah. It, well, I mean, in terms of miles, it's, it's probably more than three quarter. Yeah. Cause, um, where that traffic starts on, what's going on here on sunrise highway. Oh, I see you caught underneath that thing.
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, traffic starts and it's basically all workers, tradesmen. Yeah. There's so much work going on in that area.
Hamptons Commute Challenges
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. It's insane. I mean, I don't know how much more work is going on there than anywhere else. I think it's more of an illusion because all of the work there is imported. You know, there's no tradesmen living in the Hamptons.
00:04:44
Speaker
I guess you're right. And there's just that one road that goes here. So it's like a funnel. Right. So, you know, if you drive around Rumson or Fairhaven, there's just as much building going on, but everybody's local. Whereas there, I shouldn't say there's no tradesmen in the Hamptons, but you know, the vast majority are coming from, you know, probably an hour or more away. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:12
Speaker
So, yeah, it's just a bottleneck to two lane highway into the Hamptons with, you know, hundreds of trucks and vans and all kinds of different subcontractors going in there. You got your landscaping, your concrete, your electric plumbing, HVAC, carpenters, everything tile guys. So it's a lot of a lot of traffic.
00:05:37
Speaker
Yeah. And he, and all the cars, you know, all the workers, the painters, you know, all the guys working for the subs. I mean, they were telling us, uh, uh, Francisco was telling us about his guys that live in Long Island. When do you say on Long Island? How, how long it would take them to get to work even.
00:05:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I forget where he said they live, but yeah, he was like, yeah, sometimes it takes them three hours. Exit 50 something. Yeah. That's like, um, you know, not too far from Patchogue. Right. Um,
00:06:14
Speaker
So, yeah, we shot out there. We had to do the barn doors. We had to install the mantle. We had to adjust the doors on the foyer piece and touch up some spots on the countertop where I think somebody, not the homeowner, I think somebody got something on there and they tried to clean it off with something. Yeah. And they screwed up to finish because
00:06:43
Speaker
There's no way water would have done that. Yeah, it was pretty rugged. Yeah. And concentrated in areas where there wouldn't typically be like a lot of water. And what else? We had to put the legs on the cabinet. We made some legs for a cabinet that they had, a polyform. Those brass legs. Yeah.
00:07:09
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, it all, it all went off without a hitch. Well, you know, a couple, a couple little hiccups here and there, but, um, you know, everything came out good. It was pretty easy. We were done there by what, 12, 12, 1230. Yeah. And, and there was quite a bit of downtime there too. We were, you know, taking a tour of the home. Yeah.
00:07:35
Speaker
I was eating my very first flagle, which is a killer. She's like, you want to see the house? I'm like, no, we got to get to work. And then next thing you know, we're walking around the house. I'm like, God damn it. I'm like, we got to work. I'm going to get the shit done. It's a four hour drive. Yeah.
Luxury Cottage Visit in the Hamptons
00:07:53
Speaker
Well, yeah, once we wrapped up with all of that, the gentleman who is doing the painting in that house, Francisco, he I guess he's he's sort of like a like a GC, I guess, and he runs, you know, some painting crews and they do carpentry and stuff like that. So.
00:08:13
Speaker
He's got a couple homes that he's doing work on. And so he wanted us to come to this first house in Sag Harbor and measure up for some doors, which we had been talking about for the last maybe two weeks.
00:08:29
Speaker
Black locust interior doors that he had me price out. And surprisingly enough, and black locust is expensive because it's not it's not very common. I think I have some leads on stuff that's a little bit closer. I'm going to call around today and get some prices. But, you know, I gave a very high, very high price and homeowners were fine with it.
00:08:55
Speaker
They don't blank out there. No, it's a, you know, it's a very small house and, you know, he's was saying like how many millions of dollars it is it's worth. It's a cottage. Yeah. It's like smaller than the downstairs of my house. And I have a small house. Um, like my house is only 1100, 1200 square feet or something like that. Yeah. And it's about the size of the downstairs.
00:09:20
Speaker
So we went over there and they did a really nice job with everything that they didn't in there. They did a bunch of horizontal v-groove pine paneling floor to ceiling inside and did a bunch of work in the basement. I mean, the basement looked great for not a finished basement, but just
00:09:39
Speaker
Very clean epoxy floor and and, you know, not not all kinds of pipes and shit hanging down the ceiling. It had nice high ceilings. They did like a shower outside and just, you know, nice work. You could tell that they do they do good work siding and gutters and all that stuff. And it's like, oh, well, you're here. Well, just give me a price on a kitchen. I mean, the kitchen didn't need updating for sure, but
00:10:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's like right out of like the 80s probably. Yeah. Pink for mica countertops, you know, both light sort of that gold, a little bit lighter than golden oak, but oak, you know, raised panel cabinets. And the layout too was kind of, uh, of that era, you know, with the corner stove and that angular, uh, counter cut back. Yep.
00:10:34
Speaker
Yeah, just definitely needed updating and for the, you know, that and the, it looks like they're in the process of redoing the bedrooms, but, um, and, and the bathroom was fully gutted. So those were really, you know, like the family room area, cause that's all it is, a family room, kitchen, two bedrooms, a linen closet and a bathroom. Yeah. Um, those, that area, the kitchen really needs, uh,
00:11:02
Speaker
brought up updating. Yeah. Um, he said, you know, the people only, they're only out there a month or two months a year to live in
Commuting Experiences and Traffic
00:11:10
Speaker
Miami. Yeah. The exterior was real nice. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Um, like split shakes painted black, you know, it looks, it looks the part. It looks very Hampton's. Um, the split shakes are, are a nice change though. I didn't see a lot of those out there and they got their own little doc in the back.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yep. Little garage in the front. What was strange is there's no path to the house. It's just grass. Yeah. They, they got to do some, some kind of walkway.
00:11:40
Speaker
Cause they didn't notice even a door on the back of the garage. Like a, did they have like a passage door on the back of the garage? You know, I didn't see. So you, you know, you park your car and you got to walk around back, you know, into the street area, you know, around the front of the garage. And then, oh, nobody parks his garage. Well, he didn't really have a driveway there.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah. Right in front of the garage. Oh yeah. I thought that was the street right there. Yeah. Nobody parks in the garage. It looks like a three car garage. Yeah. It was just a little one car.
00:12:19
Speaker
three cars and then you can only fit one car in. You get so much shit. Yeah. You know, they got bikes and all kinds of stuff in there. I'm sure. And then he said, we were talking about veneer came up and he said, Oh, I've got this job out in East Hampton where all the veneer on the doors failed. I've already, you know, already had to replace fridge panels and this and that. He said, why don't you guys go out there? Take a look.
00:12:46
Speaker
So we drove out there. That was like another 20 minute ride because of, you know, the roads out there are all 30 mile an hour roads basically. And there are twisty turny back in the woods. Um, yeah, I didn't know that it was like that out there. Yeah. I thought it was like all like the beach. You know what I mean? You know, straight roads and, but yeah, it's, it's definitely, uh,
00:13:08
Speaker
We're in the compressor. Work is completed. Um, definitely more wooded than, than I was expecting. It's, there's like pine barons out there. Um, so we went and we looked at that job. You know, we show up and there's like a gate and we're like, how do we get into this place? And there was a landscaper outside. We're like, is this 42? He's like, yeah, push that button. So we, you know, the gate opens up, we go down and he, he sent us to talk to his guy who was painting Oscar.
00:13:37
Speaker
And we're like, Oh, are you Oscar? Yeah. Uh, Francisco told us to come look at the doors. He's like, Oh, doors. It's like, is it in the main house or the secondary house? You know, we're staying in front of this giant modern house, probably 8,000, maybe more 10,000 square feet. And you know, look over to the right and there's like another like 5,000 square foot house right there.
00:14:06
Speaker
Um, it was nice, but yeah, no service. We took a little bit to get, get figured out where they were, but we go into the main house, the kitchen and yeah, something was going on with the, with the finish on these doors. Yeah. They were, the veneer was coming off of the core material and, and sort of cracking. Yeah. It was a lot of like that crazy sort of thing. Yeah. Um,
00:14:34
Speaker
So we took some measurements on that. I don't know what, you know, aside from a complete re-face, there's not really anything that we could do there. Trying to match that finish, you know, better off just getting new doors from the manufacturer. And at that point, you know, it seems like it would be a warranty issue, but you know, it didn't hurt to go look, we were already out there. One of those things where when you're four hours away,
00:15:02
Speaker
And there's, you know, just go look at the job that's 20 minutes away because. Yeah. You're never going to do that from home. No.
00:15:12
Speaker
So, yeah, after that, you know, we left. We're trying to there's no service. So we're trying to get back. We're ready to leave to come home and just trying to drive to get service and then finally got service. And, you know, we were way north on the on the islands. And, you know, usually we're always south.
00:15:34
Speaker
So it took us all these crazy back roads to finally get back. We got back on the North Highway or whatever it's called, which turns into the Sunrise Highway. Yeah, it was sketchy there for a while. The great part was like turn left on Old Montauk Highway. It's just like a 12 foot wide road with no curbs. Not even a center line.
00:16:05
Speaker
Oh yeah. So yeah, it was a, it was another long ride home. You know, we left. I don't even know. Was it about three 30 when we got on, uh, got on our way home? Cause it wasn't five hour drive. Let me see what, um, texted my wife.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah, about 350 actually. I think we got back to the shop at like 805. So it was, you know, a little over a four hour drive. It was pretty good until we hit, you know, once you pass Exit 50 on Long Island Expressway, there's just always a ton of traffic.
00:16:58
Speaker
I don't understand that that flow coming from the east into yeah into New York at that time of day. Like it's rush hour. Why is everybody going in? Yeah. Well, the traffic is equally bad in the opposite direction. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess there's.
00:17:17
Speaker
there's industry out in long island where people are working who live in the community living in queens and and going out to long island you know warehouses and stuff like that i don't know yeah it gets rough there for a while
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I mean, it's rough all the way you're on the LIE and then you get off onto onto the BQE and then the BQ onto the Koski Osco or however the hell you say it. I want to look that up. Yeah. I was thinking about that when we were driving. I said, look up how you say this. How do you say this? It doesn't really clear up until you get like out of downtown Brooklyn area.
00:18:11
Speaker
How's the Oscar? Pretty close. Um, yeah. So like you get like, you have like a half a mile of no traffic. I mean, I shouldn't say no traffic because everybody's getting off too, but yeah, between the LI and getting on the BQE, like you get onto the cost kiosk. I'm just going to keep saying Costco because I don't even remember what the hell they just said. And it's just gridlock right there. Then you, you know, um,
00:18:40
Speaker
I guess, is that the BQE? It is. Yeah. But then you get up and you got a bear to the right to stay on. Yeah. It's all, you know, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Yeah. Um, and it's just, you know, it's, it's terrible all the way to the Verrazano bridge. So from exit 50 on the LA all the way until you get into Staten Island, it's just horrible traffic.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, we, it kind of cleared up like around the Golanis on Wednesday night. Yeah. But it was still very congested. Oh yeah. It wasn't stopping go, but it was, it was heavily congested. You know, you're not doing
00:19:24
Speaker
you know, 10 miles over the speed limit, which is what I want to drive minimum. Yeah. That's normal. That congestion. That's the way it always is. Yeah. Um, and then once you're in Staten Island, it's a breeze, you know, cause you're, we're, I don't know how wide it, I don't know how long it is between the Verrazano and the outer bridge. It can't be more than what, 15 miles.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, I don't think, uh, think the whole length of Staten Island is like 15 or 16 miles. Yeah. So it's gotta be less than that. It's probably 10, 10 miles or something. Once you go over the outer bridge, it's like, you may as well be home. Yeah. Cause we do that, that drive.
00:20:05
Speaker
We do that drive a lot basically from the Driscoll Bridge home.
Personal Anecdotes and Past Experiences
00:20:12
Speaker
The outer bridge is right basically a couple miles from the Driscoll Bridge. So it's like the Driscoll Bridge is always like the sign that you're home. That's the barn fever.
00:20:22
Speaker
Yeah. Cause it's only, uh, for school is exit what, one 22 basically. Um, yeah. That's the last exit before. Yeah. One 27. Right. Yeah. It's one 27 to go to Staten Island and take a left. So it's 10 miles. Driscoll bridges, 10 miles from our exit. And then, you know, it's another, it's deceptive because it's another 10 miles from.
00:20:46
Speaker
from getting off the Parkway to get back to the shop. Um, at least I'd be more cause it's five miles from my house to here. No, it might be another 15, but either way, you know, you finally feel like you're home cause this is our, you know, that's where we live is this area. So, uh, yeah, we got back to the shop, you know, eight, eight something.
00:21:13
Speaker
We would be. Yeah. That was a long day. 17 hour day. Yeah. But I had that Wendy's chicken wrap to hold me through. Yeah. That smelled good. It was pretty good. It was pretty good. I can't lie. I ate my horrible dinner out of Tupperware parked outside of a CBS in uh, Millersville. What was that town? Sarge to the M.
00:21:39
Speaker
Uh, oh yeah. Um, not Morrisville, not Millersville.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah. Monroeville. I can't think of it right now. I think it's Monroeville. Um, out in that like Stony Brook kind of area, Long Island. That's where we get off. That's where we get onto the LIE. It's captain Dan row ROE and row highway. Yeah. Yeah. Exit 70 something I think on the LA.
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah, pulled over there. We had to send out an invoice for this kitchen that we're doing. I'm back on my one meal a day. I'm going to drop this holiday wait about six months, six months later than it should be.
00:22:28
Speaker
I was going to ask what holiday that was. Well, it usually starts around Halloween and then it goes all the way until New Year's. The Memorial Day. No, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't eat anything I wasn't supposed to this weekend.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah, you were quite disciplined. Yeah, I got it. I just feel terrible. I dropped like five pounds. I weighed like 210 when I should be like 185. Man, it happens so fast. It does. It'll happen overnight. Yeah. I feel like ever since I had COVID, it's been harder and harder to lose weight.
00:23:11
Speaker
It could be. You never know. Correlation does not equal causation, but, um, it could just be that I'm getting older also. Um, so yeah, I'm trying to, trying to drop some pounds. That's for sure. So I have my ground beef and eggs. Yeah. I had a soda also, which I can't remember the last time I had a soda.
00:23:39
Speaker
It was pretty good, but I like a soda every now and then. Yeah. I like Diet Coke. I just like the taste of Diet Coke. I had like an orange cream kind of was like a creamsicle kind of. Yeah. Stewart's has that orange cream soda. That stuff's good. Yeah. I haven't had that man. Can't even tell you how long.
00:23:59
Speaker
I like all those. I mean, they're not very, I shouldn't say they're not common, but it's not like a go to for people like a, like a birch beer or like a cream soda. Yeah. I like cream. You ever have a big red? You ever hear a big red? No. Oh, I've heard of it. Yeah. It's a red, red cream soda. Yeah. That was big when I was in high school in Texas. Yeah. There's certain areas where there's like, there's an area where the cream soda is pink. Um,
00:24:29
Speaker
You know, around here, it's like that light brown tan. It's like a tan color. Yes. I like cream soda. I like the taste of it. I don't like them like the mouthfeel. I like a very dry. It's the same for me with with beer, but not wine.
00:24:48
Speaker
I don't like really dry wine, but I like really dry beer. And I mean, I think I shouldn't say I like dry soda because I really don't drink soda, but I think that's what I like about Diet Coke is like it's very dry. I was never a fan of the diet soda.
00:25:07
Speaker
I remember when, though, you're probably too young for this, New Coke. I've heard of it. Yeah, I've never had it. That was my first political stance. I came out strong against New Coke. If only things were still so benign. I think I even wrote a letter or something like that. Oh my God.
00:25:35
Speaker
I can't remember what kind of. Write your congressman, get rid of new code. Ridiculous thing I did, but it was the first thing that upset me. Well, now everybody's upset about everything. Yeah. On both sides. Don't make any inferences. Oh, no, no.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I remember I was a petty cab driver at the time, you know what I feel like those rickshaw things in San Francisco. That was a great job. We had like these, it was like a bicycle with a little fiberglass thing that had a seat for two people.
00:26:15
Speaker
Did it have like a fairing on the front or? Uh, no, it was like a regular bike on the back. Yeah. It was like, I had two wheels in the back. And so we worked just like a cab driver that didn't own their car. You know, we would go to the barn in the morning out on the pier at San Francisco. Uh, you know, like the fisherman's warfare. And you'd pay, let's say it was like $10 or something like that to rent, to rent the bike from the guy who owned all the bikes.
00:26:45
Speaker
And then you go out there and there was little designated areas where they'd let you hawk your, your, your tours. And you just do people around the wharf basically.
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'd take people into Chinatown. I was like, I was quite the huckster. Gotta have some, some quad muscles. Oh yeah. Take people through Chinatown. Yeah. Yes. They were like three or five speeds. I'm going to say, man, single fixed speed. Yeah. No, no. I mean, you did have to have some, some muscle to do it. Yeah. Especially with two people. Yeah. Yeah. So, um,
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah. You, you, you develop quite a little, you know, you ever have a job like that? Like, like, like being like a little huckster kind of thing, you know? I mean, being a waiter is, is a little bit like that. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Come on. Round trip Chinatown. $20. You know, not where I had to be like a, uh, you know,
00:27:49
Speaker
a, a Barker. Yeah. Barker. That's it. Oh man. That's like, you know, working on the boardwalk. That's, that's where you are. Yeah. Yeah. Got the dark game here. Yeah. That was it. That was everybody wins. I mean, it's a, what a subculture. Yeah. There was that. And like when I was a bike messenger, another deep subculture,
00:28:16
Speaker
Yeah, like Seaside, and I don't know about Point Pleasant, but Seaside was all Eastern European, like,
00:28:24
Speaker
You know, what do you call it? Like when you come to like work for the, you know, they could just come here in the summer and work. We always call them Russians. I don't know if they're actually Russians. It could have been any Eastern, it could have been Polish for all I know. But that's who we would get to be the dishwashers. You know, we'd send somebody out to the boardwalk to just find some guys. We like have these two.
00:28:50
Speaker
Life was simple, wasn't it? We even had them making salads, I think. We sure had staff tonight, Jeff, run out to the boardwalk and get us two guys. Now they say the whole summer.
00:29:05
Speaker
You just got to get them in the, in the beginning. Oh man. That's what they, they're out there to work. Yeah. Cause they, you know, they know that there's a huge influx of tourism in the summertime in these certain areas. I'm sure it happens in a lot of different cities. Um, so yeah, imagine that you fly out to
00:29:26
Speaker
You know, whatever. Yeah. I'm going out to the Maldives for summer bartend.
Relationships and Living Dynamics
00:29:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That was, I mean, when I went to Europe, uh, back in the early nineties, it was like that, you know, you get these pub gigs where you'd live at the pub and you know, you'd clean up and do all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And it was all travelers. Yeah. I remember, um, what's it, is it a Rincon Puerto Rico?
00:29:57
Speaker
People were talking about, oh, cause a guy that owned the place around here, I think was either he had a place out there or he was going to buy a place out there. We're talking about like, you know, going out there to work for certain seasons, maybe like the winter time or something. That would have been cool. That's the kind of thing you got to do when you're young. You're in all 34. Yeah.
00:30:23
Speaker
That's the kind of thing you got to do when you're young. Yeah. Like 10 years ago. Yeah. I mean, I remember when I was like in my twenties, 30 was sort of like my, uh, imaginary cutoff line to like figure out what I was going to do and do something. Yeah. Uh, got into this. I was, uh,
00:30:52
Speaker
The 2012 23. I never looked back. Yeah. I had a much, much more twisty road. Yeah. Yeah. He's was it was Sandy 2012.
00:31:16
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. It'd be 14, 15, sorry, 13, right. 11, 11 years, 11 years in October. Holy cow. Over a decade ago. Yeah. Crazy. I know. I mean, where does the time go? Yeah, I know. Yeah. I, uh, I'll be with my wife 11 years this year.
00:31:44
Speaker
Wow. Well, congratulations. Not married for 11 years, but yeah. Married for 2016. Seven. Wait, is it only seven? 2023. Yeah. Why do you think this year was eight years? I don't know.
00:32:08
Speaker
Yeah. I think this year I'm going to be married 23 years. Wow. That's, that's unbelievable. Yeah. Yesterday was my buddy Anthony's five year anniversary. Oh yeah. I said, ah, congratulations. I made it over the hump. He's like, yeah, I crawled. You didn't tell him there's another hump coming, did you? It's just one big hump.
00:32:34
Speaker
Nobody warned me about all the hopes. It's like like what they call those bunny hills. Yeah
00:32:41
Speaker
Oh man. It's a series of peaks and valleys. Yeah. Cause I didn't get married till, uh, let's see. I was, I was like 39 or 40, um, 2000. Yeah. I think I was 39, but I was, I thought it would be easy. I thought this, you know, once you get married, you don't have to like, you know, it's like, if you're dating, it's just the same thing.
00:33:05
Speaker
Yeah, right. After you learn all the idiosyncrasies of the other person, you just coast through. Yeah, because I had to live with my wife for...
00:33:18
Speaker
You know, I mean, she moved in with me soon after we started dating. So that's like, you know, all it 2013 and we got married in 2016. So we had already lived together for three and a half years. Yeah. Um, more, almost four. Cause we got married in October of 2016.
00:33:38
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, it's a, and you know, things start to piss you off. Like things that you put up with for four years, then all of a sudden it's like, I can't take it. I can't take this anymore. You know the, you know, the movie network where the guy hangs his head up. I'm mad as hell that I can't take it anymore. I've never actually watched it, but I know, you know,
00:34:04
Speaker
Yeah. I probably saw the film back when it came out, you know, close to it, but, uh, I don't really know anything about it except for that scene. Yeah. There's a couple, there's like another scene where he's on air. That's pretty famous. Yeah. Oh man. That's the reality of living with somebody.
00:34:30
Speaker
Yes, that's right. I mean, it doesn't matter if they're your roommate or your spouse or whatever people get on your nerves.
Urban Life and NYC Challenges
00:34:36
Speaker
It's actually harder because with a roommate, you could just like, you know, like I've had roommates where it was like, I'm fucking done with you. Like, this is no longer an amicable relationship. You can't do that with your wife. No, no, you got to get along. Yeah. Like you can exist in a house with a roommate that you hate and just like, you know, avoid each other. And, you know, I had a roommate in college and and we were friends in high school. We went to college and and
00:35:05
Speaker
you know, decide to be roommates. And I was out at a bar and I got a call that the RAs had like raided my room. Oh, God. Just him and my other buddy were in there drinking. And then when they came in, they found all the empty beer cans were in my closet. Oh, geez.
00:35:27
Speaker
So I got, you know, everybody got written up and he let me take the fall for it. Like he didn't say like, you know, he had nothing to do with it. So that was it. I'm like, you're done. Oh geez. Um, so like, when like the whole second half of that year, I didn't, we didn't speak a word to each other. And he had that, that was like unforgivable in my book. And those rooms are not big.
00:35:54
Speaker
No, like a little bit bigger than this room.
00:35:59
Speaker
You know, what's funny is that that pair, yeah, they just pair you up. Like if anybody who hasn't done that experience, like you show up, if you're living in the dorms and you don't have like preset stuff, you just get a roommate. Yeah. They just stick some guys together. Yeah. I mean, you would know who your roommate is. At least, you know, like when I went to college, like they would tell you who your roommate was ahead of time and give it the contact information. So you guys could,
00:36:25
Speaker
When I went, it was just two people just show up. Oh my God. First come, first serve. Room 110. Yeah, that's me. Oh, hey, what's your name? I got really lucky though. Yeah. I still remember my college roommate first year. Both our real names were Robert. His last name was Jones. He went by Jones and everybody called me Zoom.
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah, this kid, my my parents, they were like, oh, yeah, you got a thing in the mail. I won't say his name is trying to become a cop down in Florida and he needs a I was like, OK, what makes him deal with your roommate?
00:37:14
Speaker
Well, he was like always like I mean, looking back, like he was heavily autistic. You know, he was like real quiet. You know, very, very socially awkward, like extremely socially awkward.
00:37:29
Speaker
But back then like, you know, this is 2007 call it, you know, I had known him since probably let's say whatever 1998 or something. We played football together and everything. He was just like a weird quiet kid. You know what I mean? Like nobody was like, oh, he's autistic. Yeah. People didn't know that kind of stuff back then. Yeah. Totally undiagnosed as far as I know. But looking back, like very, very autistic. Let's give him a gun.
00:37:58
Speaker
I'm sure he's got him. Not that not that autistic people are predisposed to violence. But yeah, some, you know, untreated mental health issues that he probably needed to get figured out.
00:38:18
Speaker
Yeah, I was not going to be his reference. Not because he's autistic, just because he did. He dicked me over. Yeah, that must have been a short list if you were on. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, it's like, man, you haven't made any other friends in the last 20 years because that was. Oh, my God. You know, we're talking like.
00:38:43
Speaker
Last time I saw him was 2008 probably. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. Yeah. Oh man. It feels like it's going to be another hot one today.
00:38:54
Speaker
Yeah. Like the radio said it was going to be 89. This is 86. Oh crap. You know, that's, that's a New York radio station. So it's always hotter in the city. It's heat islands. Yeah. Yeah. We're at the beach. So it's, it's pretty warm. It was hot yesterday walking back to, you know, taking the subway and walking back to the ferry. Yeah. The subways are so much nicer now.
00:39:17
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, like Ally's mom was asking me, she's like, so like, how was the city? It was like, cause everybody says they're like, Oh man, since COVID, the city's crazy. A people on the subway out of their goddamn minds. I thought it was like so tame. Yeah. Yeah. It didn't seem.
00:39:34
Speaker
We only saw two homeless people. Yeah. Um, the one guy faced down from the bench, like, yes, pants off. What the hell? Yeah. He was in a bad way. I mean, there was no crazy people on the subway. No, like no panhandlers. Not even anybody that looked crazy. No. Sometimes you get the guy who's just sitting there looking crazy. Yeah. There wasn't even that.
00:39:59
Speaker
No, we all, we got seats every time. Yeah. Air conditioning. The subway is funny. Everybody just, yeah. It's like everybody makes an effort to just like look at the floor. I feel like, yeah. It's like, all right, don't, don't make eye contact. Yeah.
00:40:19
Speaker
I remember one time I was heading out to, I used to be in this band that rehearsed in the Queens music building, which is the last stop on the F train. So you got it. So I'm leaving the city and it's rush hour. Cause it's after work.
00:40:37
Speaker
And it's one of those things. Have you ever been on the train like when you can't even like get to like one of those handrails up at the top? Not like on the subway, but I've been in like in in college. Yeah. Like this tram called the PRT that. Yeah. So I was like, imagine like a subway car, but it's only like eight feet long. And there's like, you know, two seats and two seats and then like poles. Yeah. People will just cram in those things. Yeah.
00:41:06
Speaker
So I had, I was playing base at the time. So I got my base and I got the cases standing up, you know, tall, tall ways. And I can't even get to anything to hold on to. And so you're crammed in there and you're swaying with the train, you know, and everybody's trying to keep their balance. And this one guy is just leaning on me. Like, you know, I just felt like it was like intentional. It's like that Seinfeld episode where the train stops, Elaine's going to the lesbian wedding. Yeah.
00:41:37
Speaker
I don't know. I was just, I must've been having a bad day. Cause uh, so then I go, I scream, we're leaning on me. No opposite. I got like this circle of space around me. Like nobody knew who they were. I was about to lose it. I calmly reached up and grabbed something strangely effective.
00:42:08
Speaker
Yeah, I was surprised, you know, it was. Yeah, it's pretty mellow. Yeah. You know, makes you wonder, well, there's all this conjecture these days, 90 percent of it is total BS.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah. In general, I mean, there weren't a lot of the, like the electric bikes, you know, creating havoc and what else, you know, I don't think I saw any homeless guys pushing stuff around like we did in the last time we saw like one or two when we went to hateful last time. Yeah. We saw one or two with their like big, their big car. Oh yeah. Yeah. But this time was,
00:42:50
Speaker
I mean, one thing I noticed, there was a lot of debris and trash on the streets. I mean, I mean, we didn't spend a ton of time up on the streets. It was, you know, we kind of just jumped from one subway station to another, but it was only like a couple, we only walked like 10 blocks or something. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the subway is where you expect all the crazy shit to be happening. Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:13
Speaker
not, you know, not once did I like side eye somebody and like, Oh, I gotta keep my eye on this guy. Right? No, no one using the bathroom. Um,
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We'll be, we'll be back out there on Wednesday.
Commuting Options: Ferries vs. Trains
00:43:31
Speaker
Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. See Rob and Corey. Yeah. So Rob and Corey are going to come out. Um, I think we're going to try and meet up beforehand. Maybe get some, grab some breakfast. The class is at nine, but you know, you don't want to be going into the city to get somewhere at nine. That's like the worst possible time to go in. Um, and you know, the fairies nice, but I don't, I don't know if it's any,
00:43:53
Speaker
easier or faster per se. It might be slightly, probably slightly faster. I wouldn't say it's any easier than taking the train. No, the train. I mean, I think next, I think we should go in on the train this next time even. Yeah. Because they're going to go to Penn station. Yeah. We should go to Penn station. That's true. Otherwise we're going to have to take the, unless we meet them somewhere around Hayfla.
00:44:24
Speaker
Yeah. Cause it'll be a much longer walk. Yeah. Yeah. We should definitely try and sit down, eat some breakfast. Yeah. You'll have to look and see where a good spot to go get. It's so hard in a place like New York city to find something good because you know, all those commuter spots.
00:44:46
Speaker
Yeah. Well, if you just look like what's a good breakfast spot in the flat iron, you're going to get 20,000 different things. And how do you know, you know, after the reviews online or BS, they're all fake. Um, just set yourself up for massive disappointment. You don't want to go to one of the touristy kind of places where it's like, you know, let's ask Ed. Yeah, that's a good idea. He probably knows.
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, maybe come with us. Oh, yeah Although he'll probably be there setting up. Oh, yeah But yeah, yeah, I mean the ferry is a much nicer ride that that train ride is brutal It's not it stops every 10 minutes You got to get the Express. Yeah, even then yeah, we took the Express home last time and it sucked. Yeah Yeah, you're right. I'm
00:45:38
Speaker
I'm sugar coating it. Yeah. We want the helicopter. Yeah. Blade.
00:45:48
Speaker
One thing I enjoyed was sitting out on the deck on the boat. It was nice wind blowing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the, the ferry, it's like, it's very much like an airplane kind of on the inside, you know, it's with the way the seats are set up and everything. And you know, all the ferries are new. They're nice, clean, the bathroom spotless. Oh yeah. The place was super clean. Yeah. You know, they got a bar.
00:46:20
Speaker
That's some good pictures too off the back of the boat. Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice scenic ride. You know, the train, you're looking out the window, but the highway and to get there. Yeah. Hoping that the thing doesn't derail because our railroad infrastructure is so horrible.
00:46:40
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah. The most dangerous time on the boat is when they're docking. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what's going to happen out on the open water? That's true. Anything that that thing hits is going to be smashed to smithereens. The ferry is going to be just fine. I think it's huge. The one, the Commodore. Let me see. They just built that a couple of years ago down in Louisiana and brought it up here. It's a big sea streak. Commodore. Yeah. We wrote on the little boat, they call it.
00:47:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. They have, um, it's 150 feet long and 40 feet wide. The Commodore. Wow. Oh wait. They have the courageous, which is 157 feet long and 40 feet wide. It only draws six and a half feet of water, 600 passengers and crew. Um, 525 interior seats, 240 exterior seats.
00:47:39
Speaker
That's more than 600. You know, maximum speed, 39 knots. Got four diesel engines. And guess how many horsepower it is? 12,000. 7,274. You can see I have no idea. They've got the Commodore, which is basically the same boat. It's only 150 feet long or 40 feet wide. They got the NAND Tuck It. Might be the one that we were on.
00:48:11
Speaker
which is 140 feet long and 34 feet wide. It holds 505 people. That one does 42 knots and it's 4850 brake horsepower. You know what? I was amazed at how close we were to the shore when we were pulling in. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's like right there. Like you could see the sand. Yeah.
00:48:35
Speaker
We've got a couple of small, small boats. Like the one that we were on was, was this, uh, 140 foot long one. They got two of those. We got the MVC streak Nantucket express. Okay. So we were on the, the New Jersey, New York Highlands boat. It looks like. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I saw that on one of the life preservers. Yeah. 140.7 feet long, 40, 34.22 feet wide.
00:49:05
Speaker
Um, yeah. 42 knots. That's quick. 7,500 horsepower. How many mile per hour is a knot? I think it's just light like, um, let's see, 42 knots, two miles per hour, 48.3 miles an hour. So 50, 50 miles an hour for a boat is fast, especially a boat that size.
Historical Tidbits and Panama Canal Discussion
00:49:31
Speaker
Like, isn't there some like old meth, like the knot comes from like knots in a rope or something like that? I thought it was nautical miles. Oh, maybe that was like a old sailor's tail or something like that. Maybe. Or just knots feed or originate.
00:49:53
Speaker
term not states from the 17th century when sailors measured the speed of their ship using a device called a common log.
00:50:07
Speaker
Nautical mile is slightly longer than a mile on land equaling 1.1508 land measured or statute miles. Nautical mile is based on Earth's longitude and latitude coordinates with one nautical mile equaling one minute of latitude. Okay, makes sense. The word mile might have you wondering if there's a nautical kilometer too. There's not.
00:50:31
Speaker
The International Nautical Mile is used throughout the world. The measurement was officially set at exactly 1.852 kilometers in 1929. It was now known as the International Hydrographic Organization. Here we go. The term knot dates from the 17th century when sailors measured the speed of their ship using a device called the common log. Common log was a rope with knots at regular intervals attached to a piece of wood shaped like a slice of pie.
00:50:59
Speaker
Airners would lower the wood piece into the water, allowing it to float freely behind the ship for a specific amount of time, often measured with an hourglass. When the time was up, it would count the knots between the ship and the piece of wood, and that number estimated their speed. Yeah, you're right. That's crazy. That's wild, isn't it? Yeah. Look, they got a little graphic. I love that.
00:51:28
Speaker
But what was the distance between the knots? Yeah. Anyway, the point is it's a fast, fast boat. You know, it's, uh, 40 minutes to go from where we live to, um, uh, Manhattan street. Yeah. Yeah. I kept getting confused that, uh, that the wall street terminal was the ferry terminal.
00:51:59
Speaker
Cause the only, you know what I mean? I kept thinking that's like why I thought we were going to take the one train. Cause that goes to the ferry. Right. Yeah. Cause we took the one to 14th street and then took the three.
00:52:15
Speaker
But the two also goes to Wall Street? Yeah, the two and the three, if I remember correctly, go to all the same stops except towards the ends of their run. Like in Brooklyn, they diverge and in Upper Manhattan, they diverge. But they share the same track in the middle. And
00:52:46
Speaker
A lot of those, a lot of those trains have changed since, uh, you know, I was a regular rider, but yeah, I used to take, um, take that, that line to Brooklyn college and on it, uh, clock street in Brooklyn, I think was the first stop in Brooklyn.
00:53:10
Speaker
So they all go over the Manhattan bridge or someone go underneath or, um, no, only a cup. I think, I think the, the red lines two and three, I think they go underneath. I think they go under the river. I think the only trains that go on the Manhattan bridge were like the ones in the orange circle, like the D and the F and
00:53:32
Speaker
Not positive. The N, I think. So those are the yellow circles. What's the difference between the letters and nothing? It's just, I don't think there's anything. Yeah. There's a nine train. Yeah. How hard are the letters go?
00:53:47
Speaker
I think there was a Z, but there were, there aren't all the alphabets. Let's see. There's a B C D E F G. I don't, I don't know if I, I don't know. There's a, I don't think there's an H and I as a J is, I don't think there's a K as an L as an M as an N. I don't remember if there's an O
00:54:14
Speaker
No P. There is a Q. There's an R. There's an S. I don't think there's a T. I wonder if there were and they just retired the line. U they had. I don't remember of B. I don't remember W either or an X or a Y or a Z. Wanting or so. Yeah.
00:54:44
Speaker
I mean, there might be more and there were some that like, like the G train, I think, like some of them had like very little limited runs. And then some of them like go from, you know, one tip of Brooklyn, like the, the F train goes all the way into Brooklyn, goes into the city, into Manhattan, and goes all the way out to Queens.
00:55:09
Speaker
What a loop. Yeah. Like it goes into the city and then takes a, takes a right. Um, you know, and then the, like the, the red trains, they don't, the, they don't go too deep into Brooklyn, but they go all the way up into the Bronx. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Those, I mean, imagine building all that stuff. Yeah.
00:55:35
Speaker
And they did it a hundred years ago. They had all those illegal immigrants down there digging what shovels and bales.
00:55:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I remember reading some stuff about it, like, you know, then talking about, they weren't illegal back then, you know, cause they let people in. Right. All you had to do is come in and give them your name. Yeah. But you know, talking about the difference between the ethnic groups and like their work habits and everything like that. I won't single anybody out, but yeah. And you know, certain different areas of the world had, you know, specialize in different things. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh,
00:56:18
Speaker
Man, people, I mean, that was some work. There was no OSHA back then. That's like the Panama Canal, like how many tens of thousands, I don't know what the exact counts are, but like how many tens of thousands of people died? Right, digging that out with my hands. Yeah, like they're literally embedded in the concrete. Yeah. Holy cow. And malaria, how many died from that?
00:56:45
Speaker
I mean, what an undertaking. Yeah. I mean, of course there was machinery, but all the handwork. Yeah. I was what? Steam powered back then? Yeah. Yeah. That was what? Uh, 19 early 19 hundreds, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Who was the champion of that? Was it Teddy Roosevelt? I was going to guess Teddy Roosevelt as well. That's got to be what? The twenties. Let's see. Let's look up Panama canal. A man, a plan canal Panama.
00:57:15
Speaker
That's a palindrome. Oh, you remember that from your school days? Yeah. All right. Panama canal. They completed 1914, August 15th. Yeah. They brought a lot of redwood down there. I think. Right. Oh, wow.
00:57:46
Speaker
82, it's 51 miles long. Got a 50 foot draft. France began work in 1881. US took over in 1904. Canal in 10 years. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:12
Speaker
There's no a little title that talks about the deaths. How many people gave their life for this thing? Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French originator of the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. United States acquisition.
00:58:45
Speaker
Wow. I tell you, it's, it's a shame. We don't know more about our history. Yeah. It's just, I guess, uh, yeah. I see Roosevelt's name here. President Theodore Roosevelt. Yeah. Yeah. You were right on the money there.
00:59:08
Speaker
Yeah, they're removing history from the textbook, so prepared to know less. Well, at that, folks, it's getting close to eight o'clock here. We've got to get to work and I've got to get this uploaded before I get 20 messages saying, where's no podcast today? All right. So we'll leave you with that little tidbit of history. Yeah. Panama Canal, Teddy Roosevelt completed in 1914. All right. Take care, everybody. See you next week.
00:59:35
Speaker
As always, Rob and I, thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next week. If you want to help support the podcast, you can leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Again, we appreciate your support. Thanks for tuning in.
01:00:05
Speaker
the chain.