Exercising In Brooklyn

Things at the grill house have quieted down as the summer is ending and kids are going back to school. This evening Thor Equities has given churches vouchers for free food and rides for the children of the ghetto. Now everyone at the Grill knows that Joe Sitt is trying to warm the community up to his ideas about how Coney Island should be developed. But most of the kids who get these vouchers are only interested in the free rides and food. This year was a good summer for the lingering vendors on the Coney Island boardwalk. Nearly every weekend was a good one. Tourists have also been visiting in droves and they spend lots of money. Tonight I cracked a raw clam and put some extremely hot homemade sauce on it and devoured it. My rule is only one clam a week... The Grill House does not lean towards healthy foods. All the workers generally bring their own food because of the calories in anything you might get there. However, that said, I love a good grill house hot dog. Just a little hot mustard and you have a delight. Now if I really want to die soon, there is the sausage sandwiches. The girl who makes these is my friend and she knows which sausages are least likely to kill you. I am not sure which one she gives me. (remember you can click on the pictures to make them larger)

Now that brings us to another part of Brooklyn. Exercise. Not to many people exercise. I mean not to many people exercise in open public places. They mostly go to gyms where they line up with headsets on and walk fast or do other things with machines that seem very unnatural. For all of this they pay about $70 per month. One noteworthy thing is that kids really don't exercise in Brooklyn. Ok, they have soccer and Baseball teams that meet during church on Sunday, but really, kids don't exercise in Brooklyn. I guess all of that catches up with you and by the time you are 60 you realize that exercise is a good thing. Each morning near the walkway along the narrows water front there are groups that exercise. These groups meet from 6.30am till about 7.30 every morning. There are different theories with regards to which exercise is the best to do, and this collection of exercisers tend to be very interesting. Generally the groups divide between the Russians and the Chinese. Now sometimes when I pass by them I will whistle a nice tune that corresponds with the gracefulness of the aerobic moves. Even though the melodic whistle adds a wonderful flavor to this moment, no one will even turn a head to see where this music is coming from. However the leaders who are either a Russian man in his late 60's or a Chinese man can see me and often acknowledge me with a gentle smile. At the other end of the bicycle path some 5 miles away is another site. Every morning a lady and her female trainer labor away with the task of getting this pretty lady toned up. They use the bench at the end of the path as their launching pad. The trainer is brutal and has her doing all these seriously painful tasks. I often stop to remark how nice the lady looks, hoping that her effort might not go unnoticed. For all this pain she pays her trainer $100 per hour. Now her trainer has taken a liking to me and often comments how nice I am looking after so many miles of riding. So recently I have been riding with my shirt off to show her exactly how toned my body is. She persists with her evaluations. If Brooklyn is at the center of the universe, and if people who live outside of Brooklyn have the same exercise habits as we do, then you can imagine how much trouble we are going to be in when our obese children reach adulthood.

And by the way, the price of gas suddenly dropped this summer to below $3.75 a gallon. I guess we all showed the gas companies who was boss. Everyone stayed home and they got stuck with all their expensive gas.

Well that is the news from Brooklyn, where some of the people are a bit abrasive and chunky, the beaches are wonderful and the cost of living is below average.

The weather today in Brooklyn is picture perfect. Valentyn is still holding out giving birth. She is due the end of this coming week. There is definately an excitment growing here in Brooklyn.


Little Eric continues to grow and is into everything. He is so much fun to be around. Little Eric will be going for his driving permit this week. He has shown an amazing abilitly to handle a moving car.... How blessed are our children.








Ann decided to come back to work at the grill house, which was short lived. Her first day back was very hot, she was tired and in a really bad mood. Half way through the day she through in the towel and left. Tommy who this week emerged from the bed bug crisis was seen on the boardwalk and today will take over Ann's place. Tommy is a bit more crazy than Ann. The customers like Ann because she cleans the seats as well as the tables.


Well this week on the boardwalk was a very busy week. They found the little girl who drowned last week floating on bay 5 at 4am thursday morning. A late night fisherman spotted the body. No mention of this was made in the papers and for the most part her young life has been forgotten here. Another man drowned that same day and another lady was pulled out of the water this morning. She was thankfully still alive.


This week while riding on the boardwalk I spotted a dead pigeon. The pigeon was near the Brighton area of the Boardwalk. Oddly enough it also looked like someone had run it over. People were just passing by it, not even as much as looking down to see this bird. That reminded me of the day when this lady laid flat on her back drunk on the board walk. The people there did not even blink an eye towards her. One group of adults were just playing a game of chess, another having a jolly time talking. The lady was around 70 and looked quite dead. Life just passes people by on the boardwalk.



While riding my bike this week I passed a homeless person who had placed a bird feather hat on his head. This feather hat as it were, was made from pigeon and swan feathers from prospect park. (Click on picture to enlarge it). Although he was very proud of his feather hat, he was more proud of the tiny bird that he had saved from certain death. He was feeding the bird and keeping it alive. This man had no home but made a safe home for this tiny bird. He wanted me to take a picture of the bird that he had saved.


It seems that Brooklyn is full of these contrasts, of people who care and people who are just to busy to pay attention to others around them. More than this, I am reminded of Christ's words about the care that God gives to the birds and to a much greater extent, cares for our lives. This man who cared for this bird, had a total trust that God would care for him.

What a wonderful image this is for our lives. Thats the news from Brooklyn, where the Ocean is Blue, the people Abrasive and the cost of living a bit below national average. Be Blessed, Barre.

Baby Coming Soon

This week was a wonderfuly week in Brooklyn. The weather was warm and sunny with a few showers during the week. Just what we love.


It looks like it will be a few more days until Valentyn gives birth. We are as ready as anyone could be. She has that radient pregnant look. The house is clean thanks to Tyke who cleaned hard during his stay a week ago. We got rid of a lot of junk and trimmed down the contents of the home.


For most people living in Brooklyn, we find ourselves at the center of the world. Some of the people think that the world revolves around us. Here are some of the things that happened here this week.

Milk prices rose by nearly $1 per gallon. I guess it just costs more to get all the milk to us. Needless to say there were no raises given out at work this week to compensate for this increase. Actually most of us have not gotten any raises for years and whatever raises were seen we not enough to cover cost of living increases. Oh well, we are now a lot poorer than we were 4 years ago.

If that were not enough the NYC Transit wants more money from a raise in fares. This fare increase will make history if it happens. Never have they had two fare increases so close together.


People in Brooklyn are scratching their heads, wondering how on earth some people are getting really rich and others are getting really poor. Our papers published articles about the record setting profits of oil companies this week.



Ann Silverberg, who used to be the snake lady at the Coney Island Freak Show, has been working at the Grill House on the Boardwalk. If you want to find out what is happening, the Grill House is the place to be. Well, Ann decided that she no longer wanted to work there this week. The sun was to hot and she was just plain tired. So without any warning she just did not show up. Tommy, who also worked there but had to quit because he got bed bugs and his wife got mad at him and threw him out of his house so he could not get showered for work. Well Tommy might have come back to work, but no one actually could find him. So no one was there to clean the tables which made the regular customers a bit beyond themselves.


On Sunday a 10 year old girl drowned at bay 27. This was a horrible tradegy and word spread quickly. Duke the supervisor of the beach was worried about the impact that this would have on the parks department. It is not clear how this girl drowned, and they, to date, have not recovered the body. Those two factors have kept this event very much alive. People are wondering who to blame. The parents were not watching this child, she was swimming next to barrier rocks, the area was an unprotected part of the beach and it was after lifeguard hours. However there is speculation as to all these facts, so everyone is putting forth their own list of people to blame. People from Brooklyn always need to blame somebody for things that happen, hoping this blame might fix future events, which it rarely does. This is just the way it is in a city with 4 million people.


The fire works, which happen every Friday night have been really good this year. They have come up with some new ones that have brought cheers from the crowds of people who gather. Everyone is wondering who is paying for all these events, since the future of our amusement parks is uncertain and the owners are trying to get as much profit from their businesses before everything shuts down. None the less the show goes on.


Well, that is the News from Brooklyn, Where the Beaches and Ocean are clean, the People are abrasive, and the Cost of Living is below national average.