🏷️ buffalo

The other day I was at buffalo General again getting my post surgery checkup. My doctors appointment was at 8am and the doctor showed up just around 10am. I was really happy after waking up at 7am for nothing.

The one good thing is that I got these great pics of the city out the windows in the different rooms.

Carlton house looks so out of place on the medical campus. I wonder if they are going to knock it down and build a big building in its footprint.


Downtown Buffalo actually looks bigish.


Here is the whole of downtown


In the back left you can see the windmills on the waterfront.


Here they are up close making power.


I took this one in the direction of my house but all you can see is the roof. In the way back on the right is a city, is it Toronto?


Here is a close up of that corner, what do you think, Toronto?


It is amazing the clarity and distance I can get with my tiny point and shoot nikon s7c. The new s series is even better. I think the s700 is like 12MP point and shoot. Here is a review but it is minus wifi. Mine has wifi for emailing the pics, which I never use so I guess it doesn't matter.

The s600 is a point and shoot 10MP and it is only $236 on amazon right now That is so crazy cheap for something so powerful. I fyou are looking for a digital camera I would grab it. It is one of the ones ashton is promoting, lol. Look they even bought the URL ashtoncoolpix.com

The mayor and city officials announced the formation of the Erie Basin Committee. Buffalo Rising ... On May 24th we're opening the beach for everything but swimming."

I hope that a couple of volley ball nets are added to the budget... and some grills, and a shelter or two in case it rains, and some sightseeing viewfinders, and some bike racks, and some fire pits... looks like Erie Basin Marina is going to be the place to be this summer.

Is this really going to make any difference? I guess if you are a Volleyball enthusiast it would be nice but isn't the point of a beach to have swimming. If you can't have swimming then why bother pretending to have a beach when it is really just a park.

I guess the problem with all the water around the city is that it is too polluted. That is why the beaches that do exist like Wendt and Bennett are closed most of the summer anyways. I remember one day when @mike, @terry, @matthew and I headed over to Bennett on a not closed day. It was so nice to get to swim near home. @paul #31201 Look how crappy my cell pics were back then. I think it was the sidekick 1 and that was before we have comments on the blogs. Its weird to have so many with no comments from 2003-2005.

The other day we were over at our rental property fixing a interior light that had a broken switch.

When I noticed the Fargo mansion around the corner. Its really quite pretty.



They were working on the roof that morning.


Afterwords, we went on down to the neighborhood that is going to be destroyed for the stupid peace bridge. I can't even imagine if that was my house. Many of them are the same calibur or even nicer. I wish they could just move them into the empty plots on Linwood.




I just feel so bad for them. On the one street they had a million "Don't truck up my neighborhood signs."

I tried calling rent4bufflo today to rent an apartment for one month for @terry, @matthew and I, as it is cheaper than the Hotel Lenox on North and includes more. I wanted to support a local business before I looked into the corporate solutions near the airport. I found this craig's list ad for rent4buffalo.com

Accept under the desperate conditions of having the floors redone in toxic oil drama and needing a place right away, I would never suggest renting from rent4buffalo.com , somewhere so out of the way.

So I called and the old guy who answered asked if I was familiar with Buffalo and I told the guy we lived in Buffalo and were having our floors redone and wanted a place to stay while that was going on. He then asked how many people and I said three for one month. Their ad said it could house 2-3 with contracts as short as one month.

He then said we don't do 1 month rentals and that "we would be unhappy and he would he unhappy." How does he know that he would be unhappy. He is right though I would be unhappy in their ghetto ass apartment building. Look at the tinfoil laundry room.



You know what - fuck you liar. Your ad says you do one month rentals and that you can fit 2-3 adult so why say you can't. Are you just not willing to do it because it includes utilities are we are three people? Then don't advertise that you can handle that and waste my time.

I hope that your apartment business fails. Seriously, who in their right mind would ever rent from someplace so far out in the nasty of post-industrial wasteland if it was for a longer period of time than a month. If you were going to go with a longer rental you would be far better off with a real apartment anywhere else in the living part of the city.

Whether you are being transferred, or on temporary assignment,we offer you a "HOME-like" environment. Fully-furnished 2-bedroom home/office in downtown Buffalo close to waterfront, major highways and all transportation.

Your choice of short or long term lease to suit your situation. One year lease at $900./month including ALL utilites.

Shorter lease (1-3 Month) is negotiable.

Fully furnished and decorated, including the bed linens, soap and towels. Full kitchen w/ utensils. In-unit washer & dryer, folding table, ironing board. Computer desk w/ high-speed internet. Cable TV/HBO DVD/CD. Central station alarm system. Safe Parking

NO SMOKING ALLOWED. No pets. Security deposit required. Our hope is that you'll feel welcome and excitement in downtown Buffalo.
See our photos and more contact information;

While on a little tour of Park Side we went to the Golf course section of Delaware park so that Gaylin could take some pictures for her project. I think it is the first time I ever made it out to this rock. As a side note, that park is filthy, disgusting filled to the brim with dog shit. I never saw so much in my life. This makes me sound like an idiot but never having had a dog I always thought the plastic bags full of shit everywhere were so weird.

I didn't realize they were from dogs till way late in life and thought that humans, who couldn't make it to bathroom were shitting in grocery bags and leaving them outside.



The ground was so soft at the park, you could see mud everywhere instead of frozen dirt.


We also saw the progress on the Darwin Martin house. It is coming along great. I love the style of the house. At the same time with the Fence around it, it kind of looks like a prison camp gun tower.

And for a totally unrelated ending. We were at the research library at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society the other day and I saw this section of Buffalo phonebooks. Look at the style explosion that is the row which represents the 1960s.


You can see how advertising is changed forever with the addition of color print. What you can't see is the rise of the electronic phonebook.

Noah Pred at Bel Cibo
So last night @mike, @terry and I headed over to Bel Cibo to hear Noah Pred whose music I realy like. For those of you that do not know Bel Cibo is a new Italian restaurant on elmwood in the place that used to be Sofra and before that the Elmwood Soda Bar. @mike says they have pretty good food. Unfortunately, I was totally not into the venue or the crowd - I don't think I would ever go back. I am not saying people should not check it out for themselves but I found it a bit lame and over priced as a music venue. It was five dollars to get into the crowded venue and it cost $16 for two Rum and Cokes and one Jack and Coke.

The people were anything but fun to look at accept for the waitresses and the door guy which are the hired staff. Everyone seemed to fancy for me. I don't get that whole thing - fancy but fugly - why not just go casual then. We stood in a corner and finished our drinks and then left. I would probably never go back unless it was Kimya playing.

Tabu
Then we went to Tabu the new gay nightclub in the Sidway. It was really nicely designed and had great potential but not many people showed up. I think part of it is that the place is so huge. If the same amount of people were in any other bar it would be crowded.

The DJ, from NYC, was so frustrated that she came up to us to ask what we wanted to hear, she said it was so hard to read the crowd and she needed some feedback. She asked if we though it was more of a lounge or a club environment. Then I suggest she play something with "more bass" which she mistook for Rob Bass and seemed excited about. It was not what I was looking for but I didn't want to ruin her excitement. I think there was much potential to dance in that place and the second story bar overlooking the other one is pretty sweet. I think it is the first dance like club in Buffalo that could make it if the right music and crowd was matched up.

I took some pictures but you know how awesome that iphone pics are in the dark. I decided to post it just to show how crappy they are.

Today I signed the online petition against the peace bridge plaza expansion . Before you go ahead and scream at me for blocking progress I want to go over why I signed it.

1. I would like to stand in solidarity with other owners of historical homes hoping that if it was ever reversed they would stand by me. I can't imagine if the government came to me and said, hey we are going to give you less than you house is worth and you have to move because we are expanding main street and building a giant truck parking lot - sorry eminent domain. Just think about that for a minute. what if you had planned on living there the rest of your life and had invested a lot of money into your house. I would just leave Buffalo forever at that point.

2. I think that a giant truck plaza is going to create so much more pollution in an area that is just starting to recover from the pollution of its industrial past.

3. Why build all the extra stuff around it. Can't the visitor center and duty free shop be located elsewhere, say more downtownish?

...includes a visitor center, duty free shop and a 477 space parking garage. It is these attributes of the alternative that would result in the highest impacts to the low income residential neighborhood. To minimize these effects, the document should assess alternatives that locate the visitor center elsewhere in the city (e.g., downtown).

Also, we could find no information in the document that supports the need for such a large parking structure at this port of entry...

I didn't realize just how much land was going to be taken.


After

Horsefeathers
Today we went around to the various places to find door hardware. Unfortunately, no one had what we were looking for. I think it will require a blacksmith. Horse feathers over on Connecticut was the coldest fucking place I have ever shopped in. I am pretty sure it was warmer outside. I would never go back in the winter and I am sure I would never go back in the summer as it probably is too moldy and full of dog dander for me.

They have lots of stuff.

Looks like something @mike would like.


And this cool window


Buffalo Reuse
Afterwards, we headed over to the ghetto to see if Buffalo Reuse had what we needed. They didn't either. The place was extremely disappointing to me. Same with the other time we visited over on Washington downtown before they over to North Hampton - which is an awesome street!!!



The prices were insane cheap but I would say 70% of the stuff was crap. There were some things that I couldn't believe anyone would bother reusing. They looked like crap from the get go. On the other hand, if you need a cheap door - it is the place to go. there were some doors as cheap as $10. also a place that requires hat, gloves, scarf as it is completely unheated.

I mean I think it is a good cause to keep stuff out of a landfill but I think they may need to re-evaluate what is salvageable. I know, everyone is going to hate me for saying this but I seriously think too much of it isn't going to go anywhere. maybe if they match up really poor people who need stuff with the crap that no one wants. I wish I took more pics so you could see but my fingers were too freezing after spending an hour at horsefeathers to press the camera button anymore.

The guy from Buffalo Reuse is supposed to come to our next block club meeting but I don't understand what they are going to say. Most of the stuff there was too craptastic for anyone to want in a fancy home and the people with fancy homes on our street are no looking to demolish so I am not quite sure it is a good match. Maybe if you need doorknobs, they have those.


On the way out of the East Side I spotted this nice house on North. I really liek this style house. I want to have one in the country someday.



Old Editions Book Shop
Then we headed over to old editions book shop in downtown Buffalo on Huron

This place was heated, unlike the other two shops, and had lots of great books and other collectibles. I think i could have bought a lot of things here if I had a lot of time and a library to fill. Or maybe if I read more or had interests outside of computing. Definitely worth the trip, I would go back.




They had some book on slang history where I learned the meaning of Queer Bitch


They had this fancy map that cost $4,000




Fianlly, I headed over to feelrite and the pet store on Delaware. They had this whole section of dog treats that were definitely marketed at humans. I mean I have seen dogs eat some nasty shit. I doubt they care if it has sprinkles on their sheep ear and eyeball goop crunchies.





I just wish somewhere had one of these horn chairs I really want.

I didn't go skiing with @terry and @matthew today so that I could reset up the old server and go shopping for my mother's birthday with @mike. Inside the old server I found a 250GB drive I installed but never mounted. That was really freakin convenient for backing up some important info before removing centos 4.5 and installing centos 5.

We went over to the galleria to get my mother's gift. The nail studio near Macy's was exuding a cloud of toxic gas so bad that the whole wing of the mall is like one poison gas cloud. Seriously, I was not being overly sensitive, just ask @mike. It was unbelievably strong, we had to use another door to exit.

Random pics:
Can this be real? This coffee $50 coffee machine uses 1100 watts of electricity?


This is just way to many police for whatever the situation was with that Aldi's shopper. If he didn't have a gun then really do they ever need more than two? There were like 4 or 5 police cars on main street.


The smoke stack at UB south campus reminds me of the imagery in the movie metropolis


Does anyone remember this bar on Main Street. I think it was called Molly's or something. Did they finally get shut down for underage drinking?


These two houses on Main St near the Trimain building aways remind me of houses overlooking a river. I think it is really overlooking the railroad tracks.


I ate some more octopus at Kostas on Hertel. It is the only place in Buffalo i can find it this way. I love eating octopus. They got rid of their fresh Calamari appetizer on the menu and only have the fried kind now, lame.


Dork Chic is apparently back in this year. I will fit in well during the summer.


Damn, the apple store was so crowded. It seems like everyone and their mother are converting to Mac.


I kind of want an RV like this one but I know I have like 30 more years before that is practical.

Here is a pic I took of @matthew today using the nokia 7900. It ttakes 2 megaapixel images but I usually just take them at 640x480. It also lets you take videos and use them for ringtones.