Leave Long Island forever

but i’m having a midlife crisis (at 16? these young’uns are maturing faster and faster these days) and i have to get out of here. (besides the fact that i know i’ll never be able to afford to live here on my own).

But living there…

Who knows… maybe one day I’ll change my mind but for now I’m very happy to be a NYC resident again.

But would come back after the enormous taxes are 6 feet under and RIP.
Great place to live.

One day I want to return to long Island for a while maybe in a few years, pretty good place to live but way to expensive. I lived there for 7.5 years. Nice place to live, nice place to run business BUT if only for those damn taxes.

As soon as my ex-housemate and I finish working on the old disaster kitchen.

Granted its still on the Long Island landmass, but politically its outside of that scope. I’ll be back in NYC.

There are things I’ll miss about LI (Trader Joe’s, vineyards, Stew Leonard’s wine shop) but I can always visit.

Woman Thrown From Amusement Park Ride; 2nd Death This Week

http://www.wnbc.com/news/4926050/detail.html

POSTED: 4:17 pm EDT September 1, 2005
UPDATED: 8:52 am EDT September 2, 2005

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. —For the second time in as many days, a person has died from injuries suffered at a Long Island amusement park, this one thrown from a ride and into a nearby parking lot, police and state officials said Thursday.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Images: Woman Thrown From L.I. Amusement Park Ride
Also: Teenager Killed While Operating Kiddie Roller Coaster (Aug. 31)

Barbara Brady, 45, was killed after being tossed from the Top Scan, flying over a 20-foot-high wall before smashing into the windshield of a car parked next to the Adventureland Amusement Park and rolling off onto a roadway, said Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the Suffolk County homicide squad.

Brady, who lived at the Central Manor Home for Adults in Queens, was part of a group of 25 people on a field trip to the park with five counselors, Fitzpatrick said.

Adventureland general manager Paul Gentile said his staff was cooperating with the investigation into what happened. He offered “heartfelt condolences” to the victim’s family.

Besides police, the accident was being investigated by the state Department of Labor, which has jurisdiction over amusement park safety, and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agencies had collected pieces of the ride in their bid to determine how Brady was killed.

The Top Scan features rotating cars that spin high into the air in the shape of a pinwheel. It requires riders to be secured with shoulder harnesses, but it was not immediately clear if the victim was wearing a harness when the accident happened.

A man who answered the telephone at the Central Manor Home for Adults, a long-term care facility, said he had been ordered not to talk about Brady or the home.

The accident follows the Wednesday death of a park employee, Stephen Gary, 18, of North Babylon, who suffered internal injuries after being struck the previous night by the Lady Bug Roller Coaster, a kiddie ride.

Thursday’s accident was the latest in a series of amusement park fatalities this summer in New York.

Last week, a worker died while setting up rides at the New York State Fair in Syracuse. Eric Frigin, a full-time employee of James E. Strates Shows, was working under a ride called The Enterprise when the supports shifted and the ride fell on him.

Earlier this month, a 7-year-old boy died at Playland Amusement Park in Rye after he slipped through a 14-inch-wide gap in the floor of a boat ride, Ye Old Mill, and became wedged under its conveyor belts.

Department of Labor spokesman Robert Lillpopp said Thursday the Lady Bug had been reinspected and was cleared to resume operations. He said the Top Scan ride would remain shut pending the investigation into the death.

Despite the accident, the remainder of the amusement park - which has been in operation for more than 40 years - was open to visitors on Thursday afternoon.

Lillpopp said the park had a good safety record and the two fatal accidents this week were the first on record there.

it’s just impossible to live here any longer. The taxes, the cost of living, the housing costs… it’s out of control. Once the youngest is comfortable in college, we’re leaving. I know I’ll be sad, I know I’ll cry, I know I’ll probably regret it, but what else can we do? For the working class on Long Island, it’s just a day-to-day survival.

My nightmare became real.

I fell asleep on the LIRR and missed my stop… and I wound up in Deer Park. That’s right. Suffolk County. Not the nicer parts waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out at the end of the earth, but that middle section, where civilization ends and nobody mows, so the weeds have taken hold. Yes, I was stranded at the ass end of NY.

I pulled into Deer Park around 8:17pm. I know this because the 8:17 train going back to my stop was just pulling away as I stepped onto the platform. I watched as my escape from that nightmare sped off into the distance, leaving me there until the next train, due to arrive around 9:30, assuming it was on time.

Watching my escape from the barren wilderness I was in ride off into the sunset (literally) I did what anyone in my position would do. I set off in search of a stiff drink and maybe a little food to chase it down with. Lookig around I saw a mini golf arena and… really shitty looking warehouse style buildings that looked an awful lot like the kinds of crack warehouses you might see on COPS were they desperate enough to film on LI. I was on a road that (and I’m serious) is called Long Island Avenue. Its the kind of generic, unoriginal thinking that really captures the spirit of the area. Sorry, I’m a little bitter towards LI because really, there was NOTHING within walking distance for me to go to. Get off at any of the stops west of there, yes, even Wyandanch, and you can find something to do/drink/eat pretty quickly. Granted at Wyandanch you may be dodging blades and bullets, but hey, at least you won’t be bored.

So I set off looking for drink and food, and yes, in that order. I walked along and took a few photos with my Nokia 7610, the one above being one of them. Sunset was pretty beautiful… too bad I was stuck there looking at it!!! I thought back to the day I walked over the Golden Gate Bridge looking at the amazing sunset I saw there, and I became even more miserable as I walked through the patches of overgrown weeds, hoping and preying some oversized mutant deer tick wasn’t going to leap out and give me Lyme_Disease 2.0 or something.

After wandering around and taking some photos I went back to write in my journal a bit, where I basically bitched and moaned like I’m doing here, but with some added drawings that I think I’m going to burn at some point soon. Ah well. Its ok.

Ok I posted my goodies to flickr.

Working in NYC, I don’t hate being on LI as much. I know a large part of it is not having to drive to/from work. I think being away from LI most of the day is theraputic for me in general.