New York New York

Yeah..I pretty much never want to see that place again. It was better this time…without my parents or a funeral going on…but still very difficult. Through various forms of miscommunication…we were under the impression that we didn’t have to empty the entire house. This was quickly changed when I talked to the realtor myself and realized that the entire place needed to be gutted. Added to this the fact that when we got to the airport I was informed by my older brother that he did not take Monday off so we needed to be back on Sunday…this became a big ass job with one day less than we thought we would have for a pretty big ass job. Enter a 30 yard dumpster and a 4 day mad freakin dash….ugg. Imagine dumping 90 plus years of shit in 4 days…and putting a bunch of stuff in a 16 foot POD to be trucked across the country for my parents so that when they’re gone….I get to do this again…lucky me.

There were good parts…lots of laughs and joking. Skip set 4 different alarm clocks and put them around my little brothers room set to go off anywhere from 3 to 5 AM. I bought Skip a Perry the Platypus hat that we couldn’t get off him for two days. I got to run in that beautiful Muttontown Preserve again which was stunning and beautiful…and let me keep my sanity and not kill anyone. We spent time with Alana and Brian who were Johns neighbors and my newest set of favorite people. It was good to spend some time again…with the only two people in the world who share the exact same blood as me. And Skip got to see his best friend from California who had moved to New York and they had not seen each other in over 8 years. I was also able to take Christmas wreaths for my grandparents and John out to the cemetery…Bruce took me….it was nice….but sad. I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.
The bad parts were as I expected. You can’t have that much ego in that small of a space and there not be some power struggle and childhood bullshit come up. My older brother and I have never been tight…and in a lesser way..he is every bit as lame and hording as my Dad which I HATE! And of course it pissed me off that TONS of this could have been done the last time we were there if my father had not been with us and Bruce had buckled down and realized that he couldn’t bring everything back. I mean…why bring shit back that you already have? Why transport things that you don’t need? Give it away..you don’t need it…and someone else could use it. Bullshit…blah.

Bruce getting his sweep on.

Good Stuff
I am still doing the Shred. I took 5 days off while we were out there because dude didn’t have a DVD player and the TV’s went in the dumpster the first day. So I finished day 10 of level two but am going to stay on it for a few more days before progressing due to my missing days. So I figure I’m about 13 days from finishing the thing. I will wait to do measurements again till the end and post them. Dom is still running…we’re going to do our second 5 miler tonight. I bought him new running shoes because his ghetto Vibriams just won’t cut it in the Wisconsin winter. We ended up getting Reebok's version of the Nike Frees…I can’t remember what they’re called. But we ran 4 miles Tuesday night and he liked them…but said they were heavy…lol. I need to piece together some winter gear for him and we need to start looking at training plans…I’m excited…excited to see him commit to something….he’s going to be a hell of a half marathoner.

Trail at Muttontown Preserve

Walled garden...a bit overgrown.

Mansion Ruins~stairs

I think I would run there every day.

Hope everyone is well!