TGIF

1. Discovered that the Crazy Org's headquarters in downtown Manhattan - it doesn't own. ( Read more... )

Sigh.

Also, very important to check title - when buying anything. Who owns the land is important, as well as who owns the house, and what are the community zoning rules and regulations.

There was an office building in NYC that originally sold for $325 Million and in resale, went for $8.7 million (less than many apartments). But the land is still owned by a Real Estate Development Trust - who charges around $200-300 K a month.

Right now apartments (to buy) in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens are going for $1.9 -2 M, and in Manhattan $4-10 Million.

This, my friends, is why I rent.

Owning a car in NYC ranges from $6-12 thousand a year, or in some estimates $1,000-1700 per month depending on where in the city you live.

Only reason to have one in NYC is if you like to drive out of the city on weekend excursions or weekly ones. ( Read more... )

2. Watching the Women's Gymnastics.

Co-worker stated that Simon was the World's Greatest Gymnast.

My response? For now.

It's temporary. And I'm willing to bet that in 20 years, we'll forget about her.

Also, you can't really compare to the previous gymnasts since the apparatus are completely different. They are different than the ones I had to use in the 1980s in gym. (I wish we had those apparatus and mats, ours were bloody dangerous in comparison. And not nearly that level of padding.)

Here's Mary Lou Retton on the Vault in the 1980s:



Here's Simon Biles in 2024 -



See? Hardly comparable. The old vault was a nasty piece of work, the new one is rather padded and lot easier. I was afraid of the vault in high school. And someone actually seriously injured themselves. This was the old vault - similar to what Mary Lou Retton had. No padding. Hard. With a wooden ramp. And not a lot of padding or matting around it. Everyone injured themselves on it - even professional athletes. Hence the upgrade.

The Horse or Vault resulted in a professional gymnast paralyzing herself in 1988 (See I was right to be afraid of it.)

That said, it's lovely to watch these gymnasts compete. And Simone is amazing to watch. At the end of the day - it's fun to watch. And I'm glad I'm not the one doing it. I also really like Gabby Laurie Hernandez (Simone's former teammate from Rio) who is the female sports commentator for the women's gymnastics. Among the better commentators.

3. Rainy weekend and the next few days are supposed to be rainy. We had major thunderstorms around 7-8pm.

View out of my living room window of clouds after the storm: