Paul's Journal

10/13/2008 10:48 #46082

My Letter to the Mayor
Category: buffalo

The corner of Franklin and Linwood by my house is ridiculously dangerous. Its so weird that intersection is in the middle of a city, does not even have a sidewalk on the southside. You guys who have walked downtown from our house have all seen how crazy that corner is, especially at nighttime. I wonder when they decided to make the street curvy like that. Both sides Franklin and North Pearl are curvy.

Dear Sir,
I am writing to express my concern for the safety of pedestrians at the corner of North and Franklin. I own the house at 24 Linwood, the first house on Linwood after the intsersection and have witnessed many near accidents as pedestrians, including myself, attempt to cross the street. The southside next to the park is especially dangerous because it does not even have a sidewalk. It is so strange, right in the middle of the city, to have a busy intersection with no sidewalk and just a dirt path along a stretch of it. When you add to the mix the extreme traffic from rush hour or that many drunken drivers head home from Allentown and Downtown bars via Franklin->Linwood, the confusing corner becomes even more of a danger.

I encourage you to please include the final stage of funding for the Franklin, North, Linwood Intersection project in the 2009 Capital Budget.

Thank you for your time,
Paul Visco

matthew - 10/13/08 11:40
Linwood Ave and Franklin Ave did not originally connect. I think they changed that in the 1960's when they put in the subway and redid mainstreet. I think it's crazy that the traffic is so dangerous on that cornor when you have Tapestry elementary school on one side and a senior citizens housing building on the other. It's next to impossable for anyone to cross the street. The city hasn't even painted a crosswalk on the street, the simplist thing to do to make it safer and more pedestrian friendly. Im glad the Linwood Association has raised the money to fix this and better the neighborhood, god knows the city needs a little push every now and then. I also wrote a letter.

james - 10/13/08 11:35
good grief, the buck sure gets passed around a lot.

paul - 10/13/08 11:32
The block club already met with the councilmen who told us to write to the mayor. In their email to the residents it said: Do NOT send a copy to the councilors. I think during the meeting with the councilors they suggested we write to the mayor.

james - 10/13/08 11:21
You should also mail that to your city councilman David Rivera
darivera@city-buffalo.com

10/11/2008 21:44 #46069

Bathtub

I freakin love the bathtub in the back bathroom but I hate the shower
connector faucet. It is so relaxing to take a bath. If you javent
taken one in a long time, you should try it. The heigt of our tub
gives you that wild west bathing in a bath bucket feeling.

So back to the faucet. It's an ugly, dripping piece of crap. I
stopped at home depot and bargain outlet to try and find a nicer
replacement but neither sells bathtub facets sans shower. At home
depot the guy acted like I was crazy to even ask. I guess no one has
just rubs minus shower anymore.

The rejuvination catalog has fancy ones but they are like $300-700+
and I want to spend like $100.

iriesara - 10/13/08 13:24
I had a cold this past weekend, and took THE BEST bath. I set my humidifier up in the bathroom, and let the room all fill up with steam while the bathtub slowly filled up with VERY hot water. It was so hot it took me like 5 minutes to be able to fully immerse myself. Laid back, snorted some good steam, and sipped a strong hot toddy....I felt like a whole new person!

matthew - 10/13/08 12:15
it's not a claw footed tub, it has a skirt. But it is free standing. I'm embarrassd to say that I've lived in the house two years now and I still haven't used that bathroom tub.

james - 10/13/08 11:36
When winter comes there is nothing better than a hot bath, a book, a tall glass of whiskey and sinking into oblivion.

johnallen - 10/13/08 01:42
Hello Legs. You should try Seneca Plumbing on the corner of Seneca and Michigan. I get the stuff for church that i can't find anywhere else from there. In the rariety you can't find something old there, I've had luck with Buffalo Re-Use too. (think I got the name right)

theecarey - 10/12/08 17:03
This picture/post reminded me of one from back when you lived at 444, where you took a picture of yourself sitting in a tiny little tote box placed in the bathtub. You now seem all so grown up to me in your big-boy claw foot bathtub, lol. (which I miss, baths are so not cool in anything else)

metalpeter - 10/12/08 11:29
The first part of the journal sounds like you are inviting people to take a bath in your tub. I know that isn't what you mean. From the tittle I sure thought there was going to be the showing of someones junk in this post. I know baths are supposed to be comfy but that doesn't look that way. Yes they are more relaxing then a shower however unless you do the lots and lots of bubbles then you sit in the dirty water. But if someone takes a bubble bath don't they then have to get clean and get all the bubbles off of them. In terms of the romance part I think sharing a shower is more about lust and sharing a bath is more about romance.

libertad - 10/12/08 00:37
I forgot to say I have the same type of claw-foot tub and they are awesome.

libertad - 10/12/08 00:37
I take so many baths now. I really do love it.

tinypliny - 10/11/08 21:50
I find it hilarious right now that you take your phone whereever you go. :)

10/11/2008 21:18 #46068

Pretty Yellow flowers

I had no idea that these plain grey looking leaves would make such
pretty yellow flowers in our garden.

dragonlady7 - 10/11/08 22:43
I planted dusty miller in my front garden a few years ago. It didn't bloom, but to my astonishment, it overwintered, and bloomed the second year. It got huge and overgrown and I just thought it looked awesome.
Z's mom scolded me for how untidy I let the yard get.
I do it every other year, get the front yard all prettied up and then just get too fascinated by the unexpected plant growth to cut it back, and I just let it get all cool and crazy and weird...

I'm really not cut out for the suburbs. My mom's beautiful garden features weeds taller than I am, but somehow it looks OK when she does it. Perhaps because I live in a shoebox with a miniature yard on a street with tightly-spaced other shoeboxes, while she lives in an old farmhouse on 50 acres off the end of a dead-end road?
Maybe.

Anyway, yes, dusty miller is totally cool-looking, but doesn't always bloom so you must be doing something right. How cool-looking!

tinypliny - 10/11/08 21:40
Wow, that does seem counter-intuitive.

matthew - 10/11/08 21:24
it's called dusty miller.

10/11/2008 18:35 #46065

Housing Costs in Buffalo?
Category: housing

I am so confused about the housing market. My friend bought a house of the lower west side for $137,000 that was like $20,000 last year before it "got its hair did". I thought those flip days were over.

I thought housing prices were slipping. Then I was looking at Zillow to see if our house's estimated value had change. In fact it had. The value went up a lot. Our house is now estimated at $279,000 a good $100,000 more than we bought it for. I guess that was a good investment. I mean I put some money in, but nothing like that. Imagine if it had a new exterior paint job and new roof. I don't think this value will hold when the depression starts but I really have no interest in selling or moving. Its proximity to my job is worth well over $100,000 - especially over a lifetime in travel costs saved.

The creepy part is how did they know we went form 3 bathrooms to 2 bathrooms. I used to say 3.

drew - 10/11/08 22:28
same thing with my house. I hope it's true.

fing - 10/11/08 19:58
I did the same an our house went up almost exactly 100,000. I don't think that is right if you ask me. I would not pay that much for my house. Granted I love my house but there is some updates that need to be done to bring it to that leve. However, if anyone wants to offer me that much I would take it. I have heard many people talk about how the Northeast in general has not been effected by the housing market like California etc. I think because in so many places the houses were over valued. We have been in our house almost 2 and a half years. 100 K in 2.5 years is not bad ;)

metalpeter - 10/11/08 19:06
I thought that when ever you did work like removing a bathroom there was some kind of permit you had to fill out or something along those lines so if you did that it might explain it. Also since your house was in a tour maybe the tour people pass that information on to someone else not sure. I didn't know there was a 3rd bathroom I knew about the one with the two doors, it might be a good idea for the next party to point out where the 3rd one is, wait I did use it once but now can't remember where it is, interesting.

tiburon1724 - 10/11/08 19:04
Something's not right about Zillow, it estimates my house at $145,000 when I bought it in March for $120k. So in 7 months it increased $25,000?

tinypliny - 10/11/08 18:39
Maybe they didn't know about the 3rd bathroom, or maybe you are being spied on...

Erm.. that is disconcerting.

james - 10/11/08 18:38
Buffalo was probably insulated from the housing crisis because the value of homes is so incredibly low. No one is taking out a 300k loan to buy a house in this town.

10/11/2008 18:09 #46064

Shove a sponge in it?

Okay, I totally don't know anything about women's menstrual cycles but
putting sea sponges up there seems crazy. I mean, I get that dioxin
is bad and tampons are bad. That unbleached cotton is safer and that
you probably should try and not lose a multitude of tampons up there,
like one of my friends - you know who you are. But this borders on
totally strange to me and they are $15. Maybe you just rinse and
repeat.

Then again, I was in the feelrite buying ear candles- so maybe it's
not that strange.

tinypliny - 10/11/08 21:47
More evidence-based-medicine: :::link:::
Please let me know if you'd like to read the complete article!

tinypliny - 10/11/08 21:34
Thanks for sharing, (e:dragonlady). I will keep that in mind and might switch when the guilt becomes unbearable.
Blood is not revolting or even disturbing to me at all.

As for ear candles. PLEASE RETURN THEM!!! They are clinically not efficacious, and in fact injurious.
:::link::: I was so grossed out by the sponges that I totally missed that you bought them!!

If you want to get earwax out, try and get eardrops/oil and drop them into your ear for a week or so (a few drops daily). This will soften the wax up. Then get a syringing appointment at the ENT clinic. Syringing is a process by which a fine spray of sterile water is pointed into the ear and pushes out the softened wax.

More tips for ear-health:
PLEASE get rid of all your earbuds. They are the NUMBER #1 reason for impacted wax and do more harm and no good at all. They push ear wax deeper into the ear. The ear has a natural conveyor belt like assembly whereby ear wax is naturally circulated outward from the tympanic membrane into the external ear canal. The best way to clean your ears is by swishing your finger gently around your external ear while you are showering. Poking and using earbuds are the reason 50K Americans report to the ENT clinic with impacted wax every year. I cannot reiterate this enough. Get rid of the ear candles and the earbuds. Both are evil little implements of ear ruin. :(

dragonlady7 - 10/11/08 21:04
Sea sponges!!!! Weird.
Since you brought it up...
I do use the natural rubber version of the silicone cup (e:leetee) was talking about. I've used it two years now. it's actually really great. And I generate absolutely zero waste (I dunno about you, tinypliny, but I used to use a hell of a lot more than 4 pads in a month-- I bleed for a solid week! Maybe I'm just a freak. I am a much bigger person than you are, so that might make sense that I would generate a lot more volume-- but that might not be science, so don't quote me). You can even do the opposite of generating waste, and dump the blood out of the cups into your compost bucket, or dilute it with water 4:1 to use immediately as fertilizer for houseplants. It's organic! It's nutrient-dense! It's clean!
It's amazing how much cleaner and less disgusting all that mess seems when it's not in a grody bleached paper and plastic thing in your manky underwear. When it's just blood, it's totally not gross or nasty or smelly at all anymore-- it's just blood. And blood isn't particularly gross. Slightly disturbing, but not really gross.

But a sea sponge seems totally nasty. I would not shove anything like that up there. Also, I am fairly certain that would leak like anything. Rubber at least is hygeinic-- you can wash it in hot water and vinegar or soap. The silicone ones, you can boil. That makes sense to me. They don't get stained, they don't get stinky, they're waterproof and don't leak.

So yeah, wow, ew.

Are ear candles any good??? I read somewhere that they were a crock and dangerous and didn't work and whatever, but I don't remember where I read it so I have no idea whether it was just some idiot saying that.

tinypliny - 10/11/08 18:31
I am not sure I would like to shove anything in, including tampons. :/ I think pads are a hygienic and non-invasive way to go. I know they create a lot of waste etc. But it's a matter of hygiene and good health and I cannot short-change that aspect. I briefly considered those silicone cups that (e:leetee) recommended, but was freaked out by the idea. To compensate and not feel overtly guilty about creating a waste of about 4 pads/month or 48/year, I try and cut down all the other solid/plastic/non-biodegrable waste from my household as much as I can. :(