Go, Dog, Go!

Dog.

Big dog. Little dog.

Black and white dogs.

Hello! Hello!

Do you like my hat?

I do not.

Good-bye. Good-bye!

P.D. Eastman

I would like to start off by telling you that we have a dog, 

his name is Dutch.  That's him in the above picture.  He's pretty cute.

We have a dog, but we do not consider ourselves "dog people."

You know what I mean by the term, "dog people?"

We don't leave the air conditioner on for our dog when we aren't home.

We don't leave the television on so he's not lonely when we aren't home.

We don't feed him people food.

We don't like taking him on vacation with us.

The dog doesn't have a stocking at Christmas-time.

You see what I'm getting at?

Don't get me wrong, we love our dog.

We feed him. We take him for walks.  He even sleeps with the kids.

The question I keep asking myself, almost everyday since we've been here is, 

"Do dogs belong in New York City or more specifically, Manhattan?"

I understand having a dog in suburbia, there's grass, plenty of space to run around in, squirrels to chase, and room to roam.

One may argue that city life offers some of those exact same benefits.

I've tried to be objective about this, but I just can't get over all of the concrete.

The one thing about concrete is that it doesn't absorb urine and 

dog poop isn't easy to clean up off of the street.  

Dogs seem to be a huge inconvenience in the city.

If you live in a building with a doorman, you may be required to take the service elevator when you walk the dog.  And, walking the dog needs to happen several times a day.

The service elevator isn't the best.

Another down side of having a dog in the city is that dogs force you to be oddly friendly with other dog owners.  If you haven't noticed yet, dog owners can be so weird. 

The city doesn't seem to be overly friendly towards the dogs either.

There are signs like these all over the place:

Dog urine smells horrible when it sits on the cement, baking in the sun.

Here is a polar bear dog we ran into one night. 

The dogs are seriously everywhere.

Every. Where.

Dogs are said to be man's best friend.

That may be reason alone to think that dogs belong wherever people are.

However, I don't know if I am sold on being a dog owner in the city.

But, can I live without this face?

Garbage and Things That are Beautiful

A long time ago, on posts written a long time ago, I have mentioned the garbage in this city.
So, it shouldn't surprise you that I'm going to talk about garbage again.

I'm not obsessed with the garbage situation in this city, it's just that the garbage is just really, really easy to notice because it is everywhere.

Here are some examples...

Okay, that's it for the garbage.

I'm not the cynical one in the family (we will leave that identity up to your imagination).  

There are approximately 19 million people who live in New York City. 

Of course, there is going to be garbage, and a lot of it.  I am acutely aware that you do what you have to do to get your garbage picked up.  It means that bags and bags of garbage sit stacked on the sidewalks until the sanitation workers load it by hand into the back of the truck.  

I really do not know, but every day seems like garbage day.

But this city isn't just about the garbage sitting all over the place.

Garbage is a fact of life.

If you exist, you generate garbage.

There are different smells in this town besides the lovely smells of trash.

Cue the flowers. 

Almost everywhere you look, just like the garbage, there are flowers on every block and on almost every corner.

This is a community garden that sits in Liberty Park.

It is truly amazing to see tomatoes, apples, herbs, and every type of flower, sitting in the shadow of the Freedom Tower.

On 28th, the street is lined with flowers and greenery of every kind.  Had I done my research before writing this I could tell you if this was the Flower District, but I didn't, so I can't.

I just know there are flowers everywhere.

There are hydrangeas all over this town.

There are even blurry hydrangeas.

The flowers just gone on and on....

I understand, as long as we are on the earth there will be garbage.

It is extremely nice to know that there will always be flowers to make the world not only look beautiful, but smell better too.

Yes, there's a pineapple on the top of this flower filled pedestal.

I will try to stop taking pictures of the garbage.

Some Things You Do Not See Every Day

Whether you are walking or taking the subway, 

you may just find yourself seeing things that surprise you.

I want to say, "You just need to know where to look."

But that statement isn't true. 

The truth is, if you have eyes to see, you will see something every day that you haven't seen before.

Seriously.  

Something on every corner and even on the straight ways.

The trick is capturing that "thing" digitally.

We haven't been perfect, but we are getting better.

Here are a few things we have seen in the past two weeks.

This is for real.  A giant bottle of Nutella?

Yes, I think I will!

Something artsy on the Highline.

I like it.

These signs are really all over New York City.

Are you asking yourself, "What does it mean?"

Okay, well, maybe you already know what it means, but I didn't.

This is just a more technical way of telling people they can't sit in their cars while the car is running.

It means, you can't fake park here.  

Don't keep your car running, while you are in it or not in it and pretend that you aren't parking.

It has absolutely nothing to do with standing around on your feet.

These two guys really are on a corner.

The bike that stayed chained to a tree a little too long.

These types of bike remnants are not few and far between.

Sad and true.

It is worth noting that this frame is still firmly locked to the tree.

We walked by this guy, the one in the kilt, and Alec followed him into the store to get this picture.

We do what it takes.

We don't see this every day. And, I'm sure you don't either.

This next one is something we see every day, multiple times every day.

This is a picture of our elevator.  It's not a big deal.

It's not a big deal until you look at the missing floor.

There isn't a floor 13.

That's normally not a problem. But in this case it is a problem because we live on the 14th floor.

The 14th floor... Or is it?

No, of course it isn't the 14th floor.

 It's the 13th floor with the number fourteen slapped on it!

But, we are not superstitious.

Not a problem.  We live on the 13th floor.

Keep your eyes open!

This Might Make You Laugh

Walking around New York City can be exciting, exhausting, and even educational.  There are moments that can even make you laugh. Even laugh out loud.  We have been here two weeks and I feel like the first post, after a long hiatus, should be something humorous.

Advertising: the act or practice of calling public to one's product, service, need, etc.

I'm not convinced that this guy is convinced that his price point is correct.

Alec laughed about this sign and its possible meaning.

Does it mean that if you smoke, hamburgers will randomly hit you in the head?

Does it mean that you should be eating hamburgers instead of smoking?

Or, 

does it mean people will, in fact, throw hamburgers at your head to make the cigarette fall out of your mouth to ultimately stop your smoking habit?

Either way, this is a funny sign.

If you aren't smiling, just a little, then you need to look at this a little longer.  Seriously.

It's common knowledge the subway is the most efficient way to get around this city.

We don't have time, nor the energy, to discuss all of the reasons why you may not want to ride the subway.  However, this clever and honest travel agency ad points out one of the more unpleasant reasons why subway travel is uncomfortable.  Uncomfortable, and sometimes smelly.

Yes, there are smells of all different kinds on the subway, and one of them is body odor.  

It's a big deal and it is enough to make you think about taking a vacation.

Long live clever and humorous advertising.