"Capt. Rob" wrote
Vito, your quality of life isn't even close to our level.

Bwahahahaha! That's for sure!! Smelling my neighbors cooking (and worse) and
listening to their bawling brats isn't "quality", it plain sucks. Same goes for
childish 'dress up' cocktail parties. Face it, anything within 250 miles of NYC
is a garbage dump - certainly no place for children. OTOH paying $million for a
tenement does impress me - with its stupidity. One could get a nice place for
that.

I choose to live in a fine antique farm house over 100 years old, with a history
and character, centered on several private acres backed up on 200 more. It's
not perfect - I can still see two of my neighbors' houses through the woods in
winter but it beats suburbia, let alone a city tenement. I can sit on my rear
deck and watch the deer, foxes, chucks, turkey and bears or even shoot one for
my supper should I choose. Of course you have wildlife too: rats, pigeons,
winos, addicts ....

We entertain almost every week when at home. SWMBO plays harp and piano expertly
and our friends play violin, dulcimer and other instruments so we have little
need to pay for entertainment. And fortunately we can afford homes large enough
to entertain in, obliviating any need for 'private parties' at public eateries.

If this idyllic life gets too pastoral, we take our motorhome from our driveway
for a trip to some national park, or with summer coming perhaps a weekend on our
boat or ride our H-D's out to California again and visit friends there. But
I'll prolly wait for fall when the leaves change in the Rockies to do the
latter. Spring is the time to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway end to end and enjoy
the mountain laurel altho I might miss that this year - gotta go to Florida and
look at some homes near Canaveral (Winter cold grows tiresome). Maybe sail down
this summer - you're right, the bay is almost as filthy as LIS. Tomorrow, I'll
drop off the Yamaha and Triumph at the shop for spring service then lunch at the
botanical garden to discuss history with some learned friends. Haven't decided
where to sup tonight, we enjoyed Mexican last night, Italian the night before at
rather nice restaurants, and corned beef and cabbage at home before that. I'd
make a Yankee pot roast myself but Yankees are so hard to clean. So perhaps
we'll go out for Indian or Chinese again ....

Nope, my quality of life isn't even close to yours, thank goodness. I feel
sorry for you and your kid .