The six-month checkup

Six months ago, I purchased a new car.  In keeping with my usual choices and preferences, I stuck with a General Motors badge, and the 2013 Chevrolet Cruze became my fourth personal motor vehicle. It’s been a decent workhorse – the car is comfortable, it has a great miles-per-gallon average, and the car has a…

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Best of our TU Independent Blogs, November 24, 2016: Ten for Thursday

So it’s Thanksgiving.  I’m sure everybody’s ready to binge on turkey and stuffing, gather with the family and longtime friends, and watch three football games to finish out the day. Well, besides being Thanksgiving, it’s also Thursday.  And around the TU blog portal, that entails another tradition. Yep.  It’s independent blog wrap-up day. But before…

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Would you take my place at Equinox tomorrow?

I thought I could battle through this.  I thought that by now, everything would be fine – or at least reasonably so. But that isn’t the case.  And now I need to ask your help. Background. For the last decade, I’ve been in line at the crack of Thursday morning at the Empire State Plaza,…

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Should I get a Netflix subscription for Christmas?

I know, I know.  Everybody in the whole world has a Netflix subscription.  I get it.  And I don’t have one.  I get that, too. Part of the reason why I haven’t acquired a Netflix subscription is because, well, I’ve always thought that there were already plenty of shows I could watch that didn’t require…

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Another Verizon “nickel and dime” trick

It started last week, when I noticed something different about the phone numbers on my Caller ID feature from my BlackBerry PRIV cell phone. Normally, when I receive a call from someone, their phone number pops up as a Caller ID message.  And if I’ve programmed their name into the phone, then their name comes…

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J-Mac: Running from Philadelphia to Boston

How many of us have had a dream, a goal, a shining fantastical moment that we hope will come true?  All of us have.  And if I can take a moment from my blog to get personal, let me share this. This morning, my best bud Jeremy McNamara – my trivia teammate and long-time good…

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Taking stock on my clock

I’m currently trying anything and everything to take my mind off my broken foot.  I have to.  Because if I can at least focus on other things, then I can get through another day and get one day closer to healing or surgery or repair or whatever. So I’m trying to focus on other projects,…

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Best of our TU Independent Blogs, November 17, 2016: Ten for Thursday

So what’s on the mind of the Times Union’s independent and community blogging team?  What are their thoughts this week, their dreams, their desiers, their concerns, their fears, their regrets and their furies? Well, over the past seven days, here’s what they came up with.  Right here in this blogroll recap. This week’s list of…

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The Trading Cards of the Albany Patroons

The Albany Patroons have always had a special place in my heart and in my sports memory.  I was a fan during their days at the Armory; I cheered for them when they moved to the Knickerbocker Arena; I cried when they moved to Hartford; I celebrated when they came back to the Armory; and…

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