StormSurge

I took these photos in the last two weeks. (That house on the left of the second photo is the house from Garp, affectionately known as "The Garp House".)

The World According to Garp was filmed here. Here's a pretty cool drone video I just found: (Camp Wooten must be the nickname the author's gave to their house. There's no such place.) There are a few vids on Youtube, but they don't really capture the place that well. I'll try to do that for you all. What makes this place unique is how much effort has gone in to making it a secluded place. There's nothing here on purpose, to keep tourists away. The eastern half of the island is private. You need to purchase a sticker for your car to drive past the gate house (a summer job I had in '96 & '97). $250 per car (only $40 for year-rounders!!) and it's a bit of a hike if you wanted to walk from the ferry. And if you wanted to bring a bike? No charge for a bike sticker, but the ferry charges $55 (!!!!!) to bring a bike over! The fee for a car is $56 in the summer & $40 the rest of the year and that doesn't include the passenger fare. (Again, year-round residents get a significant break on that.) There's literally a grocery store (open year-round, but funky hours, especially in the winter & very expensive), a cafe that's open from June through August, the bar (which now serves pizza!) open from June until about the week after Labor Day, an ice cream store (June - Sept.) & a liquor store (year-round of course). That's it. There's two private clubs with tennis & golf (one course is ranked #11 in Golf Digest's Top US Courses this year) but you & I aren't getting in there without knowing someone. That's my long way of trying to say there's drips & draps of articles & videos showing this place, but they don't show much & a lot of what's shared is inaccurate. I'll give you all the straight dope on why I think it's so great.

I'll turn this into an epic thread! (Hopefully) So, some back story on the whole "life-long dream" thing. My father grew up on Fishers. He was one of seven children. He lived here from 1944 until he joined the Navy in '62 of '63. (Interesting aside, his aircraft carrier picked up two Project Mercury astronauts after splashdown.) One of his brothers has never left the island. He's still here today. Another brother & two sisters had summer homes here. One sister married a wonderful man who is the reason I'm here now, but that's a longer story for another day. Some of my earliest memories all involve visiting Fishers Island. I spent many summer weekends & weeks here from the time I was an infant until I graduated high school. One of my best Thanksgivings was spent here. As I grew older, it was more difficult to spend time here. My cousins were grown up too & had their own families. I hate inviting myself places and so my visits were infrequent, but still magical. In future post, I'll get into a lot of the experiences I had as a child that made me fall in love with the place, as well as how I ended up finding a job & a home here, and what my current days are like. Hopefully it won't be too boring. One other thing I've always dreamt of doing was joining the fire department here. (volunteer) I had uncles that were members and spent time at different functions that took place at the fire house growing up. You need to be a year-round resident to join, so obviously I never thought it would happen. Well, I'm a resident now. http://fishersisland.net/8-fishers-islanders-enroll-scfa-firefighter-course/

I can definitely do that. It's truly unique & I look forward to sharing with you all. It's also the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to live here. (It's also where I laid my hands on a 2600 for the first time. NES too.)

Or, "Why I Can't Camp Out for Toys Anymore". And, no, my home is not even close to what's described here & yes, there really is nothing here. But it is truly beautiful & special. I doubt there are many "true" communities that exist that can compare to the 250 of us who live here year-round. http://nypost.com/2017/06/28/the-secret-new-york-island-you-need-to-buy-into/

I had my eyes on the Scorpio, I mean Xbox One X (definitely a silly name Lee) since last E3, but Mrs. Surge surprised me with an Xbox One S for Christmas last year. I was hoping the price would be a little lower so a trade-in would make the upgrade easier to swallow. I also don't have a 4K TV yet, so I can't take true advantage of either machine anyway. I have a Flashback 2 & haven't seen a need to purchase any other iteration since, but I am intrigued by the 8 Gold. (I also have a FB Portable) I do have high hopes for the Retron 77 but slim hopes for the Atari Box.

I LOVE Target! Before we moved, I would pass one every day on my way home. It was 10 minutes away, so at least 3 or 4 days a week I would find some reason to stop. ("Oh, we're out of Q-Tips, better hit Target on the way home.") Our Red Card got a workout. (Gotta save that 5%!) Now, to visit ANY type of store requires a 45 minute ferry ride (not cheap), my visits will be minimized greatly. I'll still be headed over to "town" often since there's nothing here & Target is only 10 minutes from where the ferry comes in, but most of my Target shopping will be online. Still good but nowhere near the experience of wandering the aisles looking for whatever will catch my eye. As for your original question, I picked up some Harry's at Target as well a few months ago. I was a slave to the Gillette's, which as you know cost a small fortune for a four-pack. Unfortunately, I found that I didn't get as close or comfortable a shave as I do with the Fusions.

I'm with you. I'll keep my hopes up for the Retron 77 instead of this. Again, if I'm able to nab one, awesome. If not, I'll keep trying to track down any of the games I'm interested in & play them on the actual hardware for the first time, thanks to my awesome Secret Santa.

No way am I going to get my hopes up for this. If I luck into one like I did with the NES Classic, great. If not, oh well. My days of driving from town to town checking at brick & mortar stores are done so my chances of landing one are reduced significantly. It looks great though, especially the UK version.

I absolutely will!

Well, it's a different state now since I've moved, but it's still the same area. (Long story ) Pumped!!! http://www.theday.com/local/20170625/old-fashioned-arcade-proposed-for-olde-mistick-village

This sounds like it will be right up our alleys. He's a fantastic writer. I'm looking forward to this. Sting-Ray Afternoons: A Memoir https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316392235/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_RJPtzbVH8NBX8 A wild and bittersweet memoir of a classic '70s childhood It's a story of the 1970s. Of a road trip in a wood-paneled station wagon, with the kids in the way-back, singing along to the Steve Miller Band. Brothers waking up early on Saturday mornings for five consecutive hours of cartoons and advertising jingles that they'll be humming all day. A father-one of 3M's greatest and last eight-track-salesman fathers-traveling across the country on the brand-new Boeing 747, providing for his family but wanting nothing more than to get home. It's Steve Rushin's story: of growing up within a '70s landscape populated with Bic pens, Mr. Clean and Scrubbing Bubbles, lightsabers and those oh-so-coveted Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes. Sting-Ray Afternoons paints an utterly fond, psychedelically vibrant, laugh-out-loud-funny portrait of an exuberant decade. With sidesplitting commentary, Rushin creates a vivid picture of a decade of wild youth, cultural rebirth, and the meaning of parental, brotherly, sisterly, whole lotta love.

Most of our Caldors become Ames.

Yeah, playing anything aside from solitaire on a touch screen is pure torture.

Ha, that's great! I'm hoping we end up getting some rain from Cindy.

Caldor was my go-to store here in CT for all things Atari & Star Wars. Lots & lots of memories shopping there.

Unseen Photos of Mount St. Helens Eruption Uncovered From Forgotten Camera A vintage camera from the early 20th century containing a roll of undeveloped film has yielded an extraordinary set of images showing the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, considered among the most disastrous volcanic eruptions in US history. http://gizmodo.com/unseen-photos-of-mount-st-helens-eruption-found-in-for-1796229370

I knew it looked familiar but I couldn't place it. The second clue sealed the deal.

Jordan vs. Bird??

How To Win At Super Mario Bros might be my favorite item from ALL the junk boxes!

Very sad news. My condolences to all that knew him & everyone who he touched with his work and outreach.