Clear skies?

[shadowkat]

I can't think of a subject heading. It's a pretty day outside, mild, blue, breezy, and low pollen count. Pleasant. One of those days that is neither too hot or too cold, just right. I should frolic in it, considering I spent all day inside, and two hours commuting. The commute was partially outside at least. I walk two miles each day - mainly to and from the subway and the commuter railroad.

I'm tired. So I don't want to frolic. I want to sit here and stare at the beautiful sky, trees, and roof tops outside my window. As long as I don't look down - it's a great view - although there are the occasional feral cats wandering about - harder to see now, since the trees and foliage have grown to astonishing heights. The building behind me either doesn't have any grounds keepers or they fell asleep on the job. Not sure what to make of the houses - which apparently aren't into maintaining their backyards either. They've just let it grow wild. I almost forget I'm actually living in a city sometimes.

But alas, I am. Which of course has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side - I don't have to drive and haven't since 2000. So, 22 years? Might have been 1999. I can no longer remember. On the negative side? It's expensive in regards to housing (according to the news this morning in order to afford a studio apartment in this crazy city right now - you have to be making $120,000 a year - I don't know how true that is, but I also have a rent stabilized apartment - but they are raising the cap on that to potentially 4-6% for 2 year leases and 2-3% for one year leases) and lots of people.

Thing about cities, in particular New York City, is real estate comes at a premium and there just isn't enough space for large shopping centers, supermarkets, convenience stores, etc. No, those tend to jump up in suburban environments, also rural environments. How you know someone doesn't live in a major urban area or "city" - they go to Kroger. It used to be Trader Joes and Whole Foods, but they figured out a way to infilterate or weasel their way into The City, the others - not so much. They may not see the need, too costly (real estate comes at a premium, remember), or they haven't figured it out yet. Costco is outside the city as well.

This brings me too...a topic that I got inspired by the various comments to the last post. Easier to just do a post on it - then attempt to respond to all the comments.

Shopping for Ice Cream in New York City - or rather my neck of the woods in NYC - which is Kensington, just below Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park, near the F/G line at Church Avenue

[It pays to be specific, or someone will pop up and tell me that these stores are in NY and why don't I go there.]

Stores I've yet to see in NYC:

* Costco (it's out on Long Island and elsewhere, but not in the city or metropolitan area, and no you can't get there by subway or train. Car, yes. Wales used to get driven there by a friend and buy stuff.)
* Wallmart (I've yet to see Walmart in the city - I'm sure it exists somewhere in the area. Target, yes, and certainly K-Mart - although it kind of got kicked over the years, and the pandemic did not help, so it has disappeared. But no Walmart. The last time I saw or was in a Walmart was in Hilton Head, SC.)
* Krogers -it has a shop in Greenwhich Village, apparently acquired Murray's Cheese (Greenwhich village is 20 subway stops from my home and an hour away, so not worth it - the ice cream would be melted by the time I got home). It's mainly under different names - like City Market, etc, and not big, pretty small. And there isn't one in New Jersey at all (not that I'd care - I don't live in NJ, but I did find it interesting.)

What is near me?


* Within five blocks: Carnival Fruit and Vegetable Store (doesn't sell ice cream), and
* Carvel Ice Cream - which does. It only sells ice cream. But it has a horrid selection. I do like their coffee ice cream shakes, however.
* Wallgreens - does sell ice cream, but people seem to steal it off the shelves, it's often empty (I know, stealing ice cream is odd to me too - wouldn't it melt? Maybe not - maybe they live close by?)


Within ten blocks or about a fifteen minute walk:

* Food Town - crappy selection. They have a lot of sugar free ice cream like Halio, which is disgusting, and Enlightened. Artificial Sweeteners and me, are unmixy things - they either make me ill (erithyol), give me a head ache (aspartme), or just ugh.

About 20-30 minute walk or a mile away - 20-30 blocks.

* Frontiere - gourmet and somewhat pricey healthy selection - small pints only.
* Flatbush Food Coop - See Frontiere.
* Sweet Tea - home made gelato (I know right) but alas no peppermint


Fifteen subway stops (fifteen minute subway ride) and ten blocks away

* Union - limited selection of ice cream, pricey brands, and top tier - stuff like Jenni's, McConnells, Van Leu Wellen, Blue Marble (not to be confused with Blue Bunny). Union is a gourmet grocery store.
* Health Food Store - more of the healthy brands (also several blocks away and a walk)
* Trader Joes (see Whole Foods, also not much in the way of ice cream, and a headache to shop in - long lines, and impossible to get stuff around other people. City's are not meant for these nutty stores.)


Near Atlantic Avenue Terminal - and about twenty minute subway ride.

* Whole Foods (kind of similar to the others - but in December you can get peppermint - it's a pain to shop there though, long lines, and headache inducing. Also lots of steps or escalator, and a bit of a walk. I hate shopping there - I do it only with necessity. Also it's painful lugging groceries home on the subway.)
* Union Market (no real ice cream to speak of, and very specialized - or pricey - it's there but top notch and pints - also a long walk from the subway.)
* There's a few deli's with ice cream - but it's mainly Blue Marble, and McConnell's - in Fort Green. (Not worth it.)
* Target (I hate shopping at Target - long lines (assuming you can figure out where the line ends) mass chaos, and it's impossible to find things. Plus it's at the back and top of Atlantic Avenue Terminal Station - in the mall. So a pain to get to.)
* Safeway - I've never gone - it's behind the Terminal station, and a headache. Very car oriented.


So there you have it. Lots stores abound, but availability of peppermint ice cream, not so much. Not that I require peppermint ice cream. I'm willing to settle on something else. Also, to be honest, I'm probably better without it - it's hardly good for me. High in sugar, also they don't make it for people who are slightly lactose intolerant.

I do wish the Coconut Bliss ice cream hadn't disappeared from store shelves. Not sure what that is about. I looked it up - it changed its name to Cosmic Bliss - and apparently the stores didn't catch on and order it? (It's a Vegan Plant Based Ice Cream - that is good for the planet. Or so they say. Who knows really?)

Another source of ice cream? Fresh Direct. I was ordering ice cream during the pandemic. It was a little treat I'd get in my at home deliveries while working remotely. But I only like two flavors of it - Coffee and Chocolate.

Ice Cream Bars & Popsicles & Bubbles...



Bars
* My parents love Chocolate with Vanilla ice cream Dove Bars (real chocolate coating, vanilla inside) - my father would have one after dinner every night. I wonder sometimes if he misses them. Mother doesn't buy them as often now - most likely because they remind her of my father.
* I prefer Hagen Daz Coffee Almond Crunch Bars - coffee ice cream with almond and chocolate crunch on the outside. Next? Chocolate covered Chocolate ice cream bars.

Popsicles
* I do not like Fudge Sicles, and don't get the point of them.
* Tried Creme Sicles (basically orange popsicle on the outside, vanilla on the inside) - don't work for me, but better than Fudge Sicles.
* Popsicles - don't work that well for me any longer - feels like fruit and sugar on a stick. Although niece was making her own tonic water sicles which sounded interesting - they did that when she was a kid, she loved tonic water. They are gourmet brands that I've tried - my favorite is green tea - green tea and hibicus popsicles are amazing. I also liked grape growing up.

Bubbles
* Bubbles are well...it's ice cream mochi. Ice cream inside a rice pastry. A Japanese and Hawaiian invention, which my brother and his family discovered in Hawaii and got my mother and then me into. Bubbles is the best - that's the Hawaiian brand, doesn't have them coated in gross rice flour (that I am allergic too - I'm allergic to powder or it makes me cringe, I can't handle it - any powder, doesn't matter what it is). A lot of brands are coated in rice powder to prevent sticking. Bubbles isn't and the ones you get at Whole Foods aren't. My favorite flavor is green tea, although chocolate is good, as is mango. I picked up Strawberry - not sure about it. Also adore Cappucino.

[As stated above - brand is important here - My Mochi - is coated with rice powder, and just no. I had to wash it off. Avoid that like the plague.]

* Ice Cream Sandwiches - basically two cookies with ice cream inside - there is a brand, more than one, that has gluten-free cookies with ice cream, but I'm not huge into this - hard to eat for one thing. Also, something is always off. We did do it a lot when I was a kid though.
* Klondike (?) - these are ice cream squares, coated in chocolate. (I used to adore them, but no longer bother with them - hard to eat.)
* Bon Bons - there are Keto ones that are bit size chocolate covered ice cream bites (kind of miniature Klondike bars). Also hard to eat.
* Good humor bars - you can get those now from the store - but it kind of kills the charm. The fun of those - was getting them on a whim.

There are ice cream shops about Brooklyn - little places where you can get home made ice cream, the Chocolatier next to the movie theater in Cobble Hill provides home made ice cream, as does Cold Stone Creamery near the water front, and there used to be a gourmet store that sold Indian flavored ice cream - such as Chai, Sesame Seed, Tahini, Curry, etc.

The lovely thing about NY is if you are into ice cream - you can pretty much find every flavor imaginable. Same with frozen yogurt - there are frozen yogurt places about. Although not quite as many as there were in the past.

Hmmm. I miss Dairy Queen. We used to go Dairy Queen when I was a kid, get sundaes. After going to the swim club in East Whiteland, in Chester County, PA, which was an hour drive. This was in the early - mid 1970s. We'd spend all day there - it was a cool club, the pool was surrounded by sand. And then grass. Also in the summer, they'd show movies. And you could get all sorts of treats at the snack bar. I loved it. Also miss Zarda's Dairy (in Kansas City - fresh home made ice cream), and Ronny's - a New York Brand, that used to ship home made ice cream (or it tasted like home made ice cream).

***

Crazy Work Place

Rumor has it that we'll go hybrid. But we're skeptical.

As AA pointed out? We're public servants, and the public wants us to account for our time and see us going into the office - they want to know that we are working every single minute, since they are paying us with their tax dollars.

Dear god.

Oh, the newscasters were talking about them considering enforcing a four day work week for many companies and people.

***

Chidi came up to me and apologized for being rude yesterday, when I went outside to chat.
I told him I'd forgotten about it. I had.
My brain does that now. It's lovely. I wish it had done that previously.

***

Okay time to make dinner and lunch for tomorrow.

Comments

[spiffikins]

When I lived in Calgary one winter, I didn't have a car, and did everything by bus. That was probably the closest that I came to your experience - just because of schlepping the groceries home on transit. There was a big grocery store at the train station that I would get off at, to switch to a bus for the rest of the way home - so I would dash in sometimes on the way home, grab some groceries and then get on the bus to get home.

But I've always lived in towns where I have access to a full sized chain grocery store - usually more than one either within walking distance or on the bus route, or I had a car and could drive to wherever the grocery store was. It's something that I take for granted - and probably shouldn't!

PS - all this talk about ice cream, got me craving it! I made a special trip to the store today on the way home from lunch, to get a pint of chocolate ice cream :D

[shadowkat]

Bus would be more of a nightmare - I think? At least here - since they are packed, and there's no real space. Subways, if not packed, aren't a big issue. Also more even transportation - less jostling and no hair spin turns. (I don't like buses - I get claustrophobic and motion sickness, but weirdly subways don't bother me at all. Less congested - or mine are.)

The closest I have to the full-sized chain store is probably a Whole Foods - where I used to live, but it's too far out of my way now. Also it was pricier, so don't really miss it. We call Whole Foods - "Hole in Your Pocket Book Foods".

We're not bereft. In the city - you just tend to go to more than one store for your shopping. Also, weirdly there's more diversity in choices. I can get stuff that comes directly from Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Korean, Africa, etc. Plus less supply issues.

The difference is - instead of just going to one big store, I might go to several smaller ones.

However, Food Town is a large full-sized chain grocery store - which kind of fits most suburban stores. So I do have those in my area. It's not huge - or a "super-store" like Krogers or Whole Foods or Walmart or Costco. But it is sizable.

[spiffikins]

LOL, we call Whole Foods, "whole paycheck" here!

[mtbc]

I've always lived in places I could drive, even if I didn't have a car, I was a member of Zipcar or whatever so could occasionally make runs that'd otherwise be inconvenient. (Wouldn't want to drive in NYC but Boston was fine.) Though, for the not-car runs, I found a decently large proper hiking backpack (the kind sold in terms of how many days' supplies it holds) helpful for the grocery-lugging. I also had panniers on my bicycle.

It sounds as if awkwardly many useful stores have unpleasantly long lines.

The form I like ice cream in is much determined by my sensitive teeth, I really do not want to have to sink my teeth into ice cream and properly bite it. I try to keep it away from my teeth.

mst3kmoxie's father would like the ice cream cake from Dairy Queen for his birthday. I enjoyed getting to have a slice or two.

[shadowkat]

The nifty thing about NYC is you can pretty much get any food you want in a pinch, and deliveries are easy and not that expensive. I was getting a lot delivered during the pandemic - and it's easy to do here.

Also, I have about ten grocery stories, delis, and food markets within walking distance, including a farmers market, and multiple ice cream stores, restaurants, etc. I'm not bereft.

I just don't have the huge grocery stores that are as wide as two city blocks, and go on forever. The closest I've seen is a huge Whole Foods back near where I used to live. (I don't go to it - too far out of the way for me now) But it was the equivalent of what you would see in the suburbs and rural areas.

I get the sensitive teeth issue - I've pulled back from meat eating and certain foods for similar issues.

[mtbc]

I can sure see that, once you've learned which neighborhood stores have what, you're set, you don't need the large chains. Where I'm moving to in Aberdeen apparently has some walkability and local stores, I'm curious about that.

[yourlibrarian]

At least the Coconut Bliss ice cream hasn't been discontinued. This is a bad period for accessing items. Aside from the usual problem of companies discontinuing stuff, there's also merchants discontinuing orders, or simply not being able to get items even though they are ordering it. So there's no telling why something's not on a shelf anymore.

The store I always get groceries at has been renovating for the past two months and each week has added a new difficulty level in getting items. There's the fact that the physical layout is changing in a permanent way, but also a temporary way every week as they move stuff around. Then there's the fact that the changes mean some items are simply not stocked anymore (there's no longer a meat/fish counter) and then there's the confusion about whether some stuff is not there because it will not be carried any longer, because there's a temporary shortage, or because it's no longer being made.

All I know is that I have yet to see anything that has been improved for the better but every week's shopping is like a scavenger hunt.

[shadowkat]

I've noticed this as well - although not quite as a big a problem here. For the most part things are in the same spot, and same availability. But, there are things I loved - that have disappeared from the shelves. There was Anita's Coconut Yogurt - which I can't find (granted it was a local business), Beecher's Gluten Free Mac & Cheese was available for a bit - then gone. Ice cream brands - vary in availability. Also various other smaller things - like cut celery.

But being in NYC - it's not quite that often. We have less supply issues - for well obvious reasons.