raulwrojas

Update - Weds 10/31/12 - my commute

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Weds - 10/31/12 - David's 4th bday! I left the house at 7:15a. Drove and picked up Steve at Starbucks, since no trains were running. See video of our commute in over the bridge a steady crawl.
Dropped him off around 61 and 1st and he jumped into the car in front of us. It was a taxi. That was convenient. The first parking garage near work /hospital was already full at 8:30a. The next garage wanted $45 for the day, but I had to at least try to get cheaper since I had some time. I found a place on 72nd and York. $15 for the day! Nice again. The hospital and dr's offices did not have phone lines due to the telephone company losing power all day. My day was fine. I taught my classes and one of Shelley's classes, but only 2 of the 8 users showed up. The commute home was not near as smooth. I drove 45 mins to go 8 blocks. Once I got on the Queensboro bridge I made it home in good time. Total of 1 hour 37 mins. I can't really complain, right?

Filed under  //   new york sandy commute  

UPDATE - TUES, new videos, voicememo -- Checking in from storm watch home central - Hurricane Sandy. Videos

Friend and family,

Hurricane Sandy - update from the day after, Tuesday October 30, 2012 at 2:45pm.  This will help serve as a journal for us too. 

We are fine. Thank you for checking in and your prayers. We had heat and power the entire time with flickering of lights starting around 7p and throughout the night. Other parts of Jackson Heights lost power yesterday, so we continue to feel fortunate and blessed.  

Below are other comments to share in no particular order. 

Anne's parents and sister don't have power. They are about 45 mins north of us.  One of their neighbors' trees crashed into their home and unfortunately a man did not make it. 

We have a friend from church that tried to save a man that was in his car that was caught under a tree. Unfortunately, the man did not make it.

We tried calling our building office to notify them of our roof, but we were not able to get through. The line seems to be down.

We have not been able to get through to Anne's sister on her cell phone to what sounds like cell phone service not working. AT&T? We heard that they are fine. 

Around 4p yesterday we decided to put tape on the windows. Only a few other neighbors in our complex had done so. We said, well we have time and tape, so better to be safe than sorry. Around 9p we were really thankful we did.  Our windows were really shaking at multiple times. We told david that the reason we were putting on the tape on the windows was to help keep us warm. 

The winds really started to pick up around 6p and were strong off and on through 11p last night. 
Around 9p and 10p we definitely felt our building move because of the wind. 
That says a lot since our building is solid brick, built in the 1950's and only 6 stories tall. 
Our street and back of building is like a wind tunnel, so I'm fairly confident that the winds around our house were at least 60 mph.  We live a short 5 min drive to La Guardia airport (LGA). 

Here is an audio clip I did just before going to bed. Hear the heavy winds. 

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New video of plant and dangling roof part. Link.
Workers arrived around 9am this morning (Tues) to fix or detach the broken roof part. 
From this morning: 

80 houses burned down in Queens which are about 8 miles from us. 

Some Hospitals in Manhattan had to be evacuated (NYU)last night, our hospital (WCMC - NYP) is fine. 

No power from around 33rd St and south in Manhattan. Safiyya and Luke and a few co workers are fine, but with no power. 
There were many cars that were floating down the street last night. 

Broken crane on tall building in midtown near 57th and 6Th ave is under control and likely not going to fall. 
Random pix from Twitter: http://instagram.com/p/RarxxmCwzv/ 

I just received another automated work email saying that work will be open tomorrow and we should make every effort to make it to work, even though all the trains/subway will be down again, because of extensive flooding. 

We are thankful that are friends are family are safe. Thank you for your prayers! Add this to the list of crazy events on NYC! 

On a lighter note...

Did you see our Evil Green Evil video that we made last night before bedtime? FUN!

Let us know how we can pray and if we can help anyone.

Best,

La Familia Rojas


On Oct 29, 2012, at 12:58 PM, raul rojas <raulwrojas@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey friends and family near and far!

Thank you for those of you that have checked in. It's 12:45p on Monday and we're a-okay so far! We've had some rain and lots of wind. The news says that we should be getting the worst of it starting at 5pm through tomorrow at 5 am. We're on the 6th flr (top floor), but the evacuation zone is around 1/2 mile away from us, so we're keeping an eye on things.

Please pray for our friends all over the world that will be effected in serious ways by this storm (and many others), including our friend Monique who is on a long term missions trip in Haiti.

Here is a ~2 min video of david's 4th bday party yesterday. Actual birthday 10/31. ;0)

Here is 15 second video of what is happening outside our apartment at 12:15pm in the midsts of hurricane Sandy.

We have a good chance of losing power tonight, so thanks again for the prayers and let us know how we can pray for you.

Very best,

~r

Journal post - after work randomness in Manhattan & the commute home

Got out of work about 5:20p. Anne took the kids to see her parents and was coming home after dinner, so I had some time to do what I like to do...wander & explore new & exciting things in NYC.

Headed down to finally check out Chinatown Video Fair. One of the only old school arcades in Manhattan located in deep Chinatown on Mott St. I was disappointed to see only about 30 machines total. No Pac Man, no Star Wars, and mostly ...sad about ...no Galaga. I did however have a decent game of Missile Command. After I bought the card (correct, no quarters in this place) I think the one game cost me at least 75 cents. That's a lot since this place is pretty dumpy. The glare off the screen was tremendous (see pix). May have to bring big blanket to cover myself and the machine next time. Only mostly kidding. ;0) That particular machine also has Millipede and Centipede. Remember those? I ended up getting my name on the high score board with a score that's less than great. There was a cool looking Dj game that I may have to try next time. 

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From there I traveled through Chinatown and noticed another big whoops on Apple Maps on my 2 week old iPhone 5. There were train/subway entrances missing! I was standing in front of a couple of them in Chinatown and Apple Maps didn't have anything for a couple blocks away. Wow. Bummer. Thankfully they are improving/fixing it daily. I checked Bing and there they were. 

Out of curiosity I looked for iPhone 5 covers there in Chintown. Figuring they were going to be everwhere at cheap prices. A few places didn't have any. Some places had some and wanted $8. They had covers with batteries for $25 that the guy was quick to lower to $20, but only for the iPhone 4. I only found one place that would go down to $5 each for iPhone 4. Most places did not have a good selection of any one of them. Of the 4 stores that I asked no one would go lower than $8 for an iPhone 5 cover. One place said $15. I bet he would go down to $10. 

Anne really likes Chinatown. If she had her choice we would eat there a lot more often. She loves stopping in to find new treats to eat, sweet or savory. I decided to stop in to a place called Tai Pan Bakery
I looked around this busy bakery to see what I could see. It was all in Cantonese (ill tell you how I know in a minute) and some of the signs in the food cases were in English. I asked lady #1 if they had anything that had some apple in it. Figuring that would be safe. She looked at me long and hard. Hmm. "What?" she says in her broken English. "Apple." She looks at me again, nods yes and then calls to the other girl at a different counter. She says something to her and them she looks at me. I say to lady #2, "anything with apple?" Another long hard stare. She points to different things in her case. Pork buns, things that look like sweet bread, but no apple. So I go back to the first lady and ask for one of the small chicken (pot) pies for $1.50. She says ok. She asks the other lady about my request. She points to the other lady. I try one more time with the new lady. Apple?! I pretended to pick an apple from a tree and take a bite. Then lady #3 came to me. What would you like sir? "Oh, good" I thought. Do you have anything with apple inside? She looked at me long and hard and then a long pause. I smile and think bummer. 

Oh wait, I got this! I ask them Cantonese? Mandarin? One lady says. "Cantonese" in a happy tone! I whip out my iPhone, click on Google. Click the microphone and say, "translate apple in Cantonese." Unfortunately I got a few apple apps to translate. Oh well. I tried. 

She is waiting for me to say something.  She says again, "How about a chicken pie? Pork pie?"  "No, that's ok, I already have a chicken pie. Thank you." I left with a big smile and thought to myself that was awesome. And Anne is going to be happy with her treat. 

As I continue my walk home, I walk by a (possibly) drunk homeless guy trying to stick his hand in a chinaman's food cart. The homeless man very slowly tried to persuade the Chinaman to give him some food. It wasn't happening. 

I saw random Thai dancers in Columbus park doing their thing. 

I had a slice of pizza at Sal's just North of Chinatown. There must be at least 20 different pizza places named Sals. I shall eat there to pay respect to my good friend Sal Santiago. It's as good excuse as any to eat pizza. $3 and it was good. Not great, but pretty standard and fresh. Have you seen my NYC pizza pizza list? It's good. I'll post it. Hopefully soon, only if you promise to comment and let me know what your favorite slices are.

I can't believe I haven't been to Roio's. The place where my old favorite Rays was on the corner of 11th and 6th. 

I walked up one of my favorite streets (Crosby) in all of NYC and made sure the very cool and relatively new Crosby Street Hotel (This video is pretty awesome with the making of. The lightning scene is pretty darn cool. Love the music) was still looking cool and it was.

Lahore Deli, just south of Houston, ia  hole in the wall that serves Pakistani food, was still there. The diversity of the businesses of this street is one of the many things I love about this street.

On my way home, I gave 50 cents to a homeless lady who had a really cool fresh looking daisy in her coin cup. Not to mention her really clear communication skills. Hm. Ok.

Took the F train home to 74th St/Roosevelt and then the Q49 bus. Got home in time for a super hug from my number #1 son. Blessed.

Random news from the past week

AM New York highlights: 10/3/12

• Last season of Jersey Shore starts today. (Never watched it)
▪Prez Debates tonight. - ask Sal about abortion topic.
▪Life After Top Chef - new show
▪Best brunch list: NoMad - Reynard - monster egg sandwich ABV - UES ▪Zagats new guide is out. Top restaurants in certain categories are from Brooklyn! Ee gads.
▪Goatober - goat is the most widely eaten meat in the world. Goat tacos. ▪#nycwff New York food n wine festival
▪Kids continue to gain weight. Poor example from parents.
▪Multiple studies remind us that exercise lowers stress.
10/4/12
▪Jake Gillenhall sighted exiting N train 49th st.
▪30 Rock last season - tonight.
▪ Accd to Am New York. - Romney on the attack and did well.
▪John Harrison has listing on UES - AM New York. Found out later it was a different John Harrison.
▪I decided that AM New York is much better than Metro. It's more of a local paper.

▪Our conductor on 10/3/12 morning: Attention passengers, Attention passengers. Please be careful to put your coffee in a position where it will not scold your fellow passengers. Thank you.

Filed under  //   AM New York  

Taken 2 in ETX - $17 per ticket and not IMAX

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On the 7 train to see Taken 2 with John P Condon my bro in law. New AMC theatre #6 has updated Dolby surround sound system IMX size screen with many speakers shooting down from the ceiling!

We got free Taken 2 t shirts too.

Filed under  //   times sq  

The familia

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Summer 2012


~r
raulwrojas@yahoo.com

sent from my brand new iPhone 5, typos and all.