Dryden Is Home

Cornell's Ride Board / Easter in New England

My cousin Deanna (sitting in the middle), with her son James on her lap and James' cousin Max (my cousin Sandra's son) standing at left.

I went to New England this past weekend to spend Easter Sunday with my dad's side of the family. Fifteen members of the Makar family gathered at my grandmother's Sunday afternoon for Easter. My two cousins with children were there, as well as two other cousins and my sister, my aunt and uncle and their spouses and my grandmother. It was probably the coldest Easter I can remember. It was good to see everyone. I missed Christmas with the family this year - I went to Buffalo to spend the holiday with Arjan's family. I caught up on what my cousins were doing (shopping for antiques on Craig's List, hanging out at the new cafe in town, creating custom made invitations and greeting cards, learning about raising a baby) and on how my grandmother (now 87) was doing.

I carpooled to New England and back with a group of Cornell students. I posted an ad on Tuesday night at about 6:30pm on Cornell's "Student Ride Board" website (http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Student/RideBoard/). By 7:30pm I had recieved two phone calls and two emails requesting seats in the car. Felix, my Jetta, only comfortably holds four total people. The two emailers were looking for roundtrip rides and the two callers were looking for one-way rides. It all worked out and by 7:30 the plan was set.

For the next two and a half days I received calls and emails requesting information on availability of seats. I had to say no to everyone else, but at one point, I thought about renting a 10 person van and taking everyone with me. I don't know if all of those other people ever made it to Boston this past weekend.

The Pros and Cons for the Ride Board:

• Pro: Helping the Environment by cutting down on number of cars
• Pro: Helping the Environment by filling a car instead of driving alone
• Pro: The passengers help to pay for gas, tolls, and other expenses the driver sets
• Pro: You have someone to talk to if you want, which might be better than driving alone
• Con: You might have to go slightly out of your way to pick people up in Ithaca (I had to drive 10 minutes to Collegetown and then back by my house  - both on the way to Boston and on the way home. This added about 40 minutes to my total driving time).
• Con: You might have to go way out of your way to pick people up in Boston/DC/NYC/etc (I had to drive from Blackstone, Mass - near RI - to Newton to pick up the return riders. This added about 60 minutes or so to the trip home.
• Con: Your passengers might have to stop to go to the bathroom every hour (mine didn't)
• Con: Your passengers might talk on the phone for five hours (one of mine talked for about 30 minutes, but it was an entertaining conversation about college admissions)
• Pro: You leave on time. Usually when I travel by car and don't have a set departure I am 15 minutes to 3 hours behind as I rationalize about doing more work before going. Knowing that 3 perfectly good strangers are waiting helps you to be much more on time.
• Con: They might not like your music (though they might have an ipod)
• Pro: You might meet someone new!

Finally, the Student Ride Board group is its own community. I drove east with three people. One of them had been a rider with each of the other two - so they already knew a little bit about each other. It seems likely if you are going on a common ride (Boston, NYC, Philly or DC) you will probably get riders who know each other.

I didn't profit from the trip, but the gas and tolls were paid for. I told my friend Joe about the Ride Board and since he has an alternative fuel car he might be able to make a small profit on his longer distance trips from Ithaca.

Cornell's Ride Board: http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Student/RideBoard/

Ithaca Craig's List Ride Board: http://ithaca.craigslist.org/rid/

My Flickr pictures of Easter Sunday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157600062105141/

My cousin Deanna's son James (my second cousin) looking serious and me smiling:

Cross-posted at Ithaca-Blog

Now Showing!

Apartments are now available for rent for the 2006-2007 school year! I am once again helping my buddy J. out with his apartment building management. If you are looking for a place to live next year (from either June 1st, July 1st, August 1st or August 15th) look no further. I have 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apartments located just a 10 minute walk from the Arts Quad (8 minutes to the Johnson Museum). Each apartment comes furnished and your rent includes heat and hot water. All you pay for is electricity and cable and phone. We even have parking spots available if you are interested.

See the apartments here: http://www.edgecliffllc.com/

Call me on the phone or send me an email at dmakar@edgecliffllc.com

Hello old friend

Hello my old friend #934 Stewart. I'm back visiting and taking care of you again for a couple of days. I hope you still remember how well I treated you this winter and spring while Joe was away for four months. I filled about eight of your apartments with good tenants, tenants that checked out with their single phone call background checks and tenants that swore to pay on time and not wreck the place and to keep it a graduate student oasis on a hill with many undergraduate party houses.

Joe will be back on Monday, he'll only have been gone five days. You can handle being babysat for five days right? Just let me do my thing and you can just sit and watch Ithaca Falls and bake in the warm summer air. I'll open up the two apartments to the two new tenants moving in this week. I'll collect their rent checks to deliver to Joe. You just go on being you.

Yeah, I know, we should at least briefly talk about what happened Wednesday night. We treated each other right the entire time Joe was at sea. I never had to wake up in the middle of the night to visit you. The spring tenants made our lives simple. I guess the thing with Wednesday night was...what, yes, it was Thursday morning to be exact. About 3am I believe. Just because Joe's away shouldn't mean you have to start misbehaving. When the new tenant from apartment #3 called me at 3am complaining of a high pitched beeping/whistling/horn sound I knew you were testing me. I knew it wasn't a fire. I knew it wasn't anything dangerous.

However the tenant requested that I come down to stop the noise. The noise you were making. Why did you pick 3am to do this again? So I went into his bathroom and heard the noise. It sounded like it was coming from the vent. I could hear it on the other side of his bathroom wall in the shop. I knocked on his upstairs neighbor - no answer - they are still out of town. I went up another flight, brand new tenant in tow to apartment #13. The sound was loud. It was constant. It wasn't smoke detector piercing but damn you it was loud and piercing to the ear. I knocked on the tenants door. No answer. I touched the door knob. No heat. I knocked and yelled Landlord. No answer. I unlocked the door and managed to get into the apartment. The sound was louder. I looked around. I got to the bathroom door and the sound - the high pitched wail was coming from the bathroom. The light was off. There was noone in there. I flipped the light / fan switch on and that helped to drown out the sound, but only momentarily. I shut the light / fan off. I went to the sink. That is where the noise was coming from. I turned the cold water on. It was completely off. I turned it on until it sprayed and the sound immediately ceased. That was it. I shut the water off and the sound returned! I opened up the faucet again, full strength. I waited a few seconds. I shut the water off. The sound stopped. It didn't return. I left the apartment. I went down two flights. I locked up the shop. I got in my car and headed home. Thank you #934 for the early early wakeup call.

I stopped in at the P&C on the way home and finally arrived at 1960 a little after 4am. I drifted back to sleep and did not see daylight until almost 9am.

We only have two days left until Joe gets home. Let's try to be nice about these next two days. Maybe I'll get an icecream at the farmer's market tomorrow and drip some on your sidewalk - a little treat for you to cool off with. How do you like that?