T'was the holiday season upon us.

Well folks the holiday season is here and I guess I should write something. I've notoriously been blue this time of year. With the dark cold days and Tidbit out of the cold Hudson before it freezes. But its always been hard this month ya see my mom passed away in December as well as her birthday was always in December. Add to the fact that I no longer have the perfect little life with the family and house all lit up with stocking hung on the fireplace mantel and a little girl running down the stairs waiting to see what Santa dropped off. Hell I don't even have a tree or any decrations in my apartment, I know kinda sad but I prefer it that way. Now add to the fact thatwhile I was cleaning out a bunch of bins in my closet and came across a whole stack of love notes from Tabitha. Amazing how the tide of emotions can change, still brings me to my knees. I seriously have got to get over this so little suprises like this do not spin me as hard. I'm currently seeing a beautiful woman who loves me madly and who I'm slowly letting myself open up too. But as you can see I have burn marks from the last love that prevent me from burning myself again. I've decided to live in the moment for now and take it in little emotional bites. So I will be spending Chrismas Eve with Tess and Christmas Day with Renee.

Aside from that I'm starting to feel more balance and stability in my life. I'm working at this gormet concept and its both challenging and rewarding. Its not a huge money maker but it affords me way more comfortability than I've been used to in a long time. Its also very good for my soul. Also I never have to worry about ever going hungry LOL.

The sailing season is obviously over, we waited far to long to pull Tidbit and ended up in strong wind and freezing weather haul out. But she is safely on her trailer and covered for the winters nap.

But living in the moment has its simple joys. I'm composing this while sitting at a sun lit cafe table in the place that I run, with a good cup of coffee and a fresh hot buttered scone. People walk through the door and nod and smile and greet me now by name. I chat with regulars it has become a "Place" with a life and heart of its own and I'm a part of that experience. The sun feels especially nice. I hope everyone enjoys this Holiday Season.

Foodies The Next Chapter

So I know I've been missed and you all have been eager to know how I've been making out LOL

So here is whats been going on in the aaj world.


After being laid off from my corporate cubical job from hell I started working for my landlord fixing up a property that had originally been a VERY greasy disgusting deli pizza place in a little sleepy town across the river from me. In the process of cleaning a million pieces of stainless and scrapping five gallon buckets of grease off the walls and experiencing many of what I began to refer to as "Mike Rowe Moments " I started to fall in love with the place and more importantly the "Vision" my landlord started to have with this place. The combination of hard physical labor and the friendship I formed with "Bob" my landlord as the project moved from a hole in the wall to a serious gastronomical epicurean destination.

Towards the end of the construction process Bob approached me with his own "Vision" for me. To run, manage and over see the vision, with eventually taking the vision to the next conclusion which is more places. So that will utilize my real estate, design, sales and communication skills.

OK so what is the "vision" ?

Well I think the name of the store and the brand says it all, Foodies. What is a Foodie ? A foodie is a person that experiences life through taste, all that we offer at this place is what you could dream of, the best of everything from the fair trade certified organic coffee brewed to exactly 204 deg filtered through 6 process before the water hits the freshly ground beens to simple pleasures like hot fresh Paulie home made mozzarella or a fresh hot donut made on site. Sunday Gravy with fresh meatballs and sausage to epicurean delight like sea weed salad flown in from the Pacific within 24 hrs. Thin crust corn meal crust pizza as well as sour dough and spelt crust pizza.

I'm overseeing a staff of 10 including chefs and pizza men, and working all day and loving it all. I feel as though this is almost a calling and I truly share the vision.

When the winds of November come blowing

Well I haven't been keeping this blog up as much as I should. I guess it's about due for an update.
You would think that with it being November that sailing in the North East would come to an end. It almost did, the boat club pulls all the docks and all boats have to be out of the water by mid October. But October and November are some of the best sailing months. With strong breezes cooler temps. I was fortunate enough to bump into a boat club member during the work party pulling the docks he offered his brand new mooring in foundry cove.



Since he became a full member he now has a slip and wont be using the mooring.



She looks at home





And here is a couple of fall sailing videos.

Circumnavigating Manhattan in a 19'8" Boat

Fellow formite and local sailing friend, Howard Sharp has invited me to join him on a righteous quest to circumnavigate Manhattan in his beautiful built Chebacco, "Lily Catchpole".



We have been keeping an eye on the weather and optimum tide and it looks like tomorrow will be idea
61°F
Sunny
Wind From W at 10 mph


We will launch with the morning tide from Hazard's Dock Boat Ramp beneath the George Washington Bridge Tomorrow AM.





PHOTO'S

Launch Site under the George Washington bridge on the Jersey side












Underway







Captain



Happy crew



Off to circumnavigate Governors Island


Lady Liberty keeping a watchful eye (on Howards cap )



Here's a lovely bridge I hear is for sale





And more bridges



Howard seemed to navigate them all nicely



I brought the refreshments and umm did most of the emptying



Reading 7.0 on the GPS we got up over 8



More Bridges that Lilly Catchpole easily went under without needing 4 hrs notice



Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg are we not sailors



Up the East river




Capt'n Howard plots our course up the Harlem River



Look at this Lighthouse on top of a building - COOOL



and this house OOOFA



Ahhh the Circle Line circling us



Ahhh Through the Spuyten Duyvil you can read more about it here
http://www.washington-heights.us/history/archives/spuyten_duyvil_creek_and_the_harlem_river_ship_canal_125.html



And back out into the mighty Hudson and home



I would like to take this time to thank Howard Sharp and his FREAKING beautiful PERFECT boat for an amazing one in a lifetime trip. Thank you thank you thank you

Gut Shot

Being that this is MY blog and I think it should be an open part of my life the good as well as the bad as seen though my daily existence. So with all things in life a little pain must fall.

Where do I start ? You know that feeling when you hear something that truly affects you. You body physically reacts to it. You get that taste of copper pennies in your mouth and you feel as though someone just slammed a baseball bat into your gut, you feel woozy and disorientated, the room looks brighter and things glow, you feel faint. It's almost like you can't prevent you body from absorbing the shock. Then you just slack and let it wash over you and you sink deep into it. I'm at the tail end of that now. Ya see Tabitha just told me "Yes I met someone that I like " it went on bla bla bla about being friends and all, but those seven little words is what caused the physical reaction.

Yea I know the whole thing was doomed when she moved to VA and I even started dating others myself. But I have to say I NEVER LOVED A WOMAN LIKE I LOVED HER. For what it's worth no other woman I've been with, past or present, has come even remotely close to what we had and what she was. I never so fully clicked with anyone in all aspects as I did with her, my heart is truly broken. Man, its amazing how your mind will mess you up, ooooh yea you go down ALL roads and some of them aint pretty, especially the ones when your trying to sleeping alone and you start to imagine she's not, OUCH that's one is a killer.

But I'm pretty resilient, and at the end of the heartbreak I love her enough to want her to find happiness again and I deserve to be happy as well. for what it's worth the last year and a half was horrible trying to jump start a romance with a few hours together after months of nothing is just awkward. Long periods of no communication and depression on both our parts. And to be honest me not being the best monk in the monastery the last few months didn't help. I'm sure she had many of her own sleepless tormented nights, for that I'm more sorry now than ever.


The following day we reconciled like an old married couple to be friends. She is one of the great persons in my life and no matter how my romantic feeling are hurt we are both not ready to give up on the special bond we shared. I guess its more important to me that she's happy cause God knows she deserves to be. Of course in the back of my mind I'll keep a little spark of hope, but as someone once said Hope can be the most destructive of all emotions, I just can't help but hold out a little hope just way less than the hope that was choking us. But women like this come along once in a lifetime.

To add she was a fine sailor a quick study and lover of woodenboats she will be deeply and forever missed. ...... who knows how this will play out

When the winds of October come calling

Well the last few days have been hella windy. Yesterday was off the chart with gust reaching 50 mph + blew apart my sail cover. I have lots of canvas work to tend to in the off season this year, something to do when it's snowing

Anyway, today was just PERFECT wind from WNW steady at 15-20 mph with little or no gusts. I took my faithful dog Lucky. We walked down to the dock and its crystal clear and wonderful. Tide was full high when we untied and shoved off. Headed north with the last bits if the incoming tide. Just hauling ass close reached.




















Sailed all the way up past Beacon. Tacked through the mooring field of the Beacon Sloop Club. Came about and headed on a broad reach back down river. This is when things really picked up. On that point of sail "Tidbit" just put her shoulder down and dug in for the run home.




Enjoy the video I hope it captures the exhilaration of a fall sail in the Hudson Highlands.

Blogging Requirments

So it's been a couple of days since my last post and I've been having a rough time. Came down with a nasty fall cold Friday that lasted until this morning. I put myself into a Nyquil induced coma for three days. When I went to walk Lucky dog yesterday morning I coughed the wrong way and felt a spike in my lower back. Ya see when I lay in bed too long my back gets week and can go out, ahhh the joy of being forty five. Anyway it's Tuesday and the sun is shining, the cold has subsided and it's time to work out the back a bit. I figure I'll run a few errands with Lucky dog, send out a few resumes, Oh yea by the way this is my second week on unemployment and part of the 9.8 % out of work Americans . It's actually not been all that bad so far. I worked for a large corporation that I hated for the last year and was woefully unhappy and underpaid. With unemployment and helping y landlord I'm living a little better than I had been. This also gives me time to reflect and decide exactly the new and hopefully final direction of my life.

So with this new found freedom I've decided to post this blog and see where we end up in a years time. Sort of like a diary of self exploration.

I find it's pretty easy to make one of these things, a lot easier than I had imagined. Basic tools needed is the ability to write, a computer, options include a digital camera, a flip video camera, food ( lots of coffee ;)) and a friend to hang with.

October Skies

I'm still getting the hang of this blogging, so I decided to take my best friend and old pal Lucky thar Dog sailing with me this morning. Ya see Lucky Dog has been with me for about 11 years now and he's starting to show his age. He's got a little arthritis in his back and hind legs so she sort of shuffles around now. But he loves going out on Tidbit with me and sniffing the sweet river breeze. So I thought of no better addition to my new blog than a little photo & video of me & my pal sailing on my vintage 1964 wooden catboat "Tidbit"...... enjoy.

By the way here is a link to Russ' blog where you can see his sweet little stove I mentioned in my video. http://www.sjogin.com