HAPPY JAR 2026

 At the beginning of 2025, I set out to resume blogging, to go side-by-side with a Happy Jar.  The Jar would have a note, with a few words to jog my memory, each note would be explained in more details on this blog.  Like many New Year Resolutions, it worked well for a few months, then the blog stopped getting updates.  No new notes in the Happy Jar either.  Still, as the year winds down, I see that at least I had 40 posts made in 2025.  That's a big jump from the previous years, whose number of posts were in the single digit.  A new year, a new hope, I will try again in 2026.  There are 52 weeks in a year, hitting 40 isn't such a bad thing.

In other news, I really love LibraryThing.com and expanded its use to my yearbooks collection for my high school, Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens NY.  The collection aims to catalog all the publications that my school produced over its 125+ existence.  Most of the entries are yearbooks, but I have a handful of literary magazines and other club magazines, too.  Take a gander at, change the catalog to that of Newtown Publications.  I love seeing all the covers and many have links in the Comment field to see the inside of the yearbook.

Qaptain Qwerty books on LibraryThing

One thing LibraryThing tells me is that over the years, I already spent over $1,000 on buying yearbooks.  Most are from eBay and Newtown itself, but AbeBooks and Amazon provided some.  A bunch were donations by generous alumni or teachers, thank you so much.  Still, I would like to get some financial support to keep the project going.  I turned to GoFundMe to make it easy for Newtown alumni to contribute to the project.  I already got $225.00 collected out of the initial $800, hope you can help me reach me goal!

Newtown HS Yearbooks Project

JHS 73 CLASS OF 1968

Lately I spend a lot of time with the alumni of Newtown High School of Elmhurst, Queens NY.  I am sure you saw the few posts about the Class of 1985's 40th Reunion, which came and went, with success, whew.  Before Newtown, I went to JHS 73 in Maspeth, Queens NY and I wrote some years ago about my time there.  Maybe it was just proper timing, the post was my most commented on, almost 150!

I recently received via email a link to a YouTube video.  The sender is from Class of 1968, which is almost 15 years before me.  I don't recognize any teachers, but the format of the yearbook is pretty much the same between 1968 and 1982.  Students are shown in group only, with a nickname each student themselves selected.

Enjoy!  Thank you, fantansam!

I NEED MY POPPY FIX

 Life sure is interesting.  I have this book, "The Poppy War" by R.F. Kuang, possibly from a bundle that I picked up from someone who moved away from my neighborhood.  She hated to throw them away and put in a free offer in the NextDoor app.  At least that's what I vaguely recall.  My intention was to re-distribute the books through my local Buy Nothing group or drop them off, a few at a time, at the many Little Free Libraries I visit every now and then.  For some reason, I set "The Poppy War" aside to read.  Maybe because I suspected it's about the Opium War that the West waged with China.  My late father used to commented that China lost the war because each soldier had two guns, one to shoot at the enemy and one to shoot drugs into their body.  Maybe I want to know a little more about China's history.  For months the book sat on a stack near the bed, waiting to be read.  Not long ago I saw some mention of the author R.F. Kuang.  I cannot even remember what the mention was, but it got me into starting to read the book.

At first, it seemed to be a chick lit, i.e. a piece of literature from a woman's point of view.  Not something a regular guy like me would be interested.  But once I start reading something I try much to finish it.  It seems to take place in China, because of the names, but there are other names that don't sound Chinese.  I stuck with it through the first few chapters.  Things got more interesting, some martial arts were involved, before I know it I was bringing it to work to read during lunch-break.  That's always a good sign.  Recently I finished it and discovered that it's merely Book One of a Trilogy.  Argh!  It turned out to be a popular series, Brooklyn Public Library has a long waiting list.  I will wait but I will explore other avenues.  Maybe some Little Free Library out there has it.  I know The Tom Lynch LFL in Staten Island has many books.  Maybe New York Public Library may have it.  NYPL covers Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island.  I commute through S.I. every weekday.  At one time, my Brooklyn library card was linked to NYPL so that I could borrow materials from NYPL.  Time to re-establish that link, assuming the option is still available, it's been a while.

Life is funny, eh?  One day a book was ignored, some time later its sequels are highly sought after.

AMAZING AMAZON DELIVERY, IN A BAD WAY

I used to live in a few places in Queens, NY so I belong to a few Facebook groups for those areas.  One common thread I see regularly involves mis-delivered packages, probably from Amazon since they are such a big deal nowadays.  There would be a photo of the lobby where the package was delivered to, but the recipient of the photo doesn't recognize the place.  I don't know how badly the mistake was made, maybe the street names are similar, maybe the house number was misread and some last digit wasn't seen.  I think in general some delivery people are just sloppy.  Don't give a dang about their job.  Under too much pressure to meet some quota so they just do the least amount of work, sometimes even less.  I once witnessed some UPS guy simply just dropped off the package and didn't ring any doorbell or knock on door.  One guy did yell "UPS", but that is only good if you are right by the door at the time.  The company is to blame, too, always squeezing more and more out of their slave workers.

This week it happened to my brother's package.  Around 6 PM, he was notified by email some package was delivered.  By 7 PM when I came home there was still nothing.  I walked to a few houses near mine, there were a few packages on the neighbors' porches but none had my brother's name.  I even went a block over because a few times I got packages and such meant for a house on that block, same house number.  No luck.  I told my brother to let Amazon know and hopefully they will send another package, no charge.  Strangely, he didn't even get a photo.  Was the delivery guy that lazy?  They told him to wait until 5 PM the next day.

The next day as I went off to work, early before the sun rose, there was a package on our porch, who knows since when.  It was the "missing" package.  I suppose it was mis-delivered to some house nearby but the neighbor was decent enough to drop it off at my house.  It is good to know there are still good people around.

FAKE SYSTEM ALERTS VIA WEB ADVERTISEMENT

 I was previewing this blog looking for typos and such when one advertisement caught my attention.  I cannot remember what it was but once I clicked it, the web browser put up a bunch of fake system alerts, with voice, claiming my computer was compromised.  That I should call some phone number and pay some exorbitant amount to get my system corrected.  You cannot just close the web browser, nothing in the web browser is responsive.  Luckily, I've seen this before, here's what you need to do if you ever get into this situation, at least on computers running Windows:

1. Press the three keys Ctrl , Alt , and Delete together
2. On the screen that appears, click Task Manager
3. In the Task Manager window, as shown below, select the web browser that's screaming foul.  In my case, it's Google Chrome
4. Click End Task.

The entire web browser will close.  When you re-open the browser, do not say Yes when asked if you want to re-open all the tabs, because doing so would re-open that offending web site again.

I am disgusted that Google would allow the ads to be placed in the first place.  I will try to complain to Google but with big corporations nowadays I have little faith anything will be done about it.  Maybe complaining about it openly in my blog will get their attention.  Or maybe they will shut me down, a la Jimmy Kimmel, ha ha ha, I am nowhere as influential as Mr. Kimmel, just a thought.

LIBRARYTHING

While I like to read books, I didn't own that many books.  Most of the books I already read were borrowed from public library.  Public library, a great use of taxpayers' money.  For the handful of books I owned at one time, years ago I used Delicious Library, a cataloging software for the Mac, to keep track of them.  Its interface is a book shelf, very elegant.  Perhaps because of some upgrade of the operating system, Delicious Library stopped working, along with many other software.  I hate it when Apple does that.  All of a sudden, a bunch of my software simply stopped working because they rely on codes that Apple decided to drop.

Not long ago, through the NextDoor app, I connected with an elderly woman who needed to gently dispose of her book collection.  She could have just dumped them, but she hated to see books go to waste.  Over a few trips, I brought a large chunk of her collection home.  All of a sudden, I have a lot of books to catalog!  Recently, by chance, in a Facebook group for supporters of Little Free Libraries, I learned about LibraryThing.  A free app for the iPhone, also accessible via a browser.  I don't mind paying for software I really like but the trend of forcing the subscription model stinks.  I get it that developers need money too, months after months, but I don't want to pay for something continuously just to be able to use it.  LibraryThing is great!  Free is good!

Here is a snapshot of what I currently have cataloged:

There are only twenty-four books in my catalog at the moment.  I definitely didn't spend enough time with LibraryThing.  But it got me to complete reading a few.  It's nice to go into the app and add a Completed Reading Date.  The scanning feature is great, but for some reason not all books are in whatever reference database that they use.  For example, the Star Trek book had to be entered manually via its ISBN number.  One minor quibble I have about the software is that when you edit a book, say, to indicate when you finished or started reading it, the Save button appears at the top of the Edit screen but as you scroll to find the field you want to edit, the Save button rolls out of view.  The Close button, however, remains visible the whole time.  A few times, I made the change, but mistakenly tap the Close button instead.  The program gladly close and didn't ask for confirmation that the change(s) was to be abandoned!  Overall it's a good program with a very good price.

GEEK OUT: ACROBAT READER WITHOUT THE SALES PITCH

 PDF is a good portable format and by default Adobe Acrobat Reader is the tool to read PDF files.  Unfortunately, Adobe has ruined the experience by constantly pushing for the purchase of Adobe Acrobat Pro or similar, to allow the users to edit, combine, make changes to PDF files.  Most users are perfectly happy with the reader, at most they need to fill out some forms or sign the document, things the reader fully capable of doing.  Thanks to the following articles, the PDF experience can be made not so unpleasant.

Disable New Interface

Disable Upsell

Hide Tools

The first one is simplest, as it involves using the Acrobat Reader menu.  Just pick the menu item as indicated and you see fewer upsell stuff.

The second link involves adding a key to the registry.  You may need to use an admin account to do it.  As all things with the registry, proceed with caution.  Once you have it done, no more "Try Acrobat Pro!" or such hawking!

The third one involves creating a folder in a critcal spot and moving three files into said folder.  It really provides a clean interface, without all the tools that do not work fully but are constantly shoved into your face.

GEEK OUT: WINDOWS 11 START MENU PINNED ITEMS

 

By default, Windows 11's Pinned Items, shown above in the Start Menu looks very busy.  The items got there because Microsoft thought they would be useful, or whatever.  You don't have to live with it.  I prefer a cleaner list of Pinned Items.  I am just trying to get some work done, I don't need to look at an airplane cockpit full of buttons.  I would remove the icons that I don't need and end up with something like this:

Now it is a lot cleaner, simpler.  But what if I have a bunch of computers to setup and want them all to have the same list of Pinned Items.  Just the useful stuff, nothing to distract the users.  That's where an article like

Backup and Restore Pinned Items on Start Menu in Windows 11

comes in handy.  Technically, when I apply the tip in the article it is not backing up but rather copying settings from one machine to another.  On computer #1, just remove icons to your heart's content, save the file in some place, move on to the computer #2 and replace the file in the same location, done!  Onward to computer #3 etc.  In my case, the file is called start2.bin, so don't follow the article to a tee.  Windows changes all the time, use the article as a guide.

FAUX LFL RE-SURFACED

 According to my son, my faux little free library went out of commission in April this year.  I cannot seem to remember these little things.  It was held up by two keyring hooks attached to an I.V. pole.  My Mother one time had a nurse come to the house to administer some fluid injection and when the work was done we were left with two I.V. poles, one of which became the support for my faux lfl.  I think one time I had too many books in the milk crate and the wind was strong, the hooks, or at least one, got twisted out of shape.  Somehow I never have the time to fix it, until recently, some four months later.  This time I use zip ties and so far the lfl is holding up.  Come patronize, take a book, share a book.  On Bay 40th Street in Brooklyn NY, near 86th Street.  I still have the cello-shaped magazine rack that also serves as an lfl.  It is chained to the fence with a lock but this past weekend I found it laying face down, luckily still chained.  Someone either wanted to take it for their use, or just want a piece of metal to sell to some junkyard.  Sad, that is why we cannot have nice things.

NHS '85 40TH REUNION - SEPT 4 DEADLINE

The 40th Reunion of Class of 1985 at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens NY now has a deadline of September 4, 2025.  That's one month ahead of the actual reunion date of October 4, 2025.  The event will be at the Marriott LaGuardia Airport, 7 P.M. to midnight.  Payment of $150 per person is to be done through BillHighway.com .  Contact me at linusly@mac.com to have your BillHighway account created.  I believe we already reached all interested parties and some are just waiting for a deadline to act, so now you have the deadline.  Event is open to all 1980s so bring friends and families!

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

I used to carry a small pouch to hold coins.  One after another became unuseable so after a while I don't carry coins any more.  But I get coins when I pay for things with cash.  Slowly the coins built up.  I thought of using one of those coin machines but they charge a fee.  Or you get a gift card but it's not the same as cash.  When you buy something, your money is already de-valued.  My son came up with the wonderful idea of paying for train rides with coins.  In New York City, subway and buses take MetroCard, a thin plastic that one swipes at the turnstile to get into the transit system.  I normally pay for it with a credit card, occasionally with bills, but never thought of using coins.  I recently put the idea to work, even though it was for the MetroCard's replacement, OMNY card, comes January 1, 2026.  It was a bit of a hassle, but I was able to spend $3.00+ to get an OMNY card.  It costs $1.00 to get the card, probably just to discourage people from just throwing empty ones away.  Yeah, humans suck, that's why we cannot have nice things.  I recall when the MetroCard didn't cost $1.00 to buy, spent ones were littered all over the subway station.  Anyway, back to the OMNY card, the coins had to be dropped just right in order for them to be registered.  If not done right, they travel down some separate path and come out in the tray where the cards would come out.  Still, it's the best way to use coins.

HAVING ECLAIRS AND VERY SHY

The ColdPlay couple, there are so many re-enactments but the audio stayed the same.  Over and over I heard "They either are having an affair or they are very shy..."  My punny mind twisted it to say "They are having eclairs and they are very shy" and came up with the drawing.  By hand, on a dry-erase board.  Not a work of AI, which I poked fun at by drawing extra arms on the people in the picture.  Maybe AI will be perfect in the future but for now it cannot handle fingers and appendages.  Most humans have only  five fingers, two arms, and two legs, but AI often gives them extra fingers, or longish fingers, or feet where hands should be.

I LOVE ICE

Tuesday, July 15, 2025, new fridge arrived and installed.  While my early childhood took place in some small town in Saigon, without luxuries like refrigerator, I don't remember much of that.  I do remember living on the third floor of a big building, with a refrigerator.  What a luxury!  Ever since living in the U.S., I appreciate refrigerators even more.  I just love cold drinks.  For a few years, my anemia caused me to have nasty bouts of sneezing whenever I didn't have enough sleep.  The day would start with frequent sneezes then by the end of the day the headache would come.  I just had to drop everything and go straight to bed, then the next day I was good again.  Tried a few doctors, one was a Chinese herbal doctor and he told me I would have to give up drinking cold stuff.  Good thing I decided to get to do more physical exercises, namely long-distance running, and continued to drink cold stuff.  What a sacrifice in life that would be, no cold drinks.  When the previous refrigerator was installed, we decided not to bother to have ice made.  Drinks were still cold, if left in the fridge long enough, but at times I sorely missed having ice ready made.  With the new fridge, I made sure they hooked up the water hose, voila, ice available all the time.  After the few days without a decent fridge, I love my ice.  Yes, the real ice, not those January 6th thugs who go around kidnapping people, no accountability, probably already promised by King Rump that whatever they do they would be pardoned again.  Go, South Park!

A FRIDGE TOO WARM

Thursday July 10th, almost end of the work day, Wife texted me if I did anything to the fridge in the kitchen.  The freezer stopped working!  I cannot remember why I wanted to do it, but I thought about moving the fridge out enough to get to the back and Swiff it.  Clean it, gather up some dust.  Not long ago Wife started stacking these plastic boxes bought from Temu or such to better organize things but I think they choke the fridge.  There just isn't enough circulation of air.  Thought I did but didn't do anything, that's why Wife asked, maybe to blame me for somehow killing the freezer.  The time has come, but alas Swiffing didn't do much.  There were some grills so I used a hand vacuum to pull out dirt bunnies.  Using a vacuum designed specifically for computer keyboards got some more bunnies, but nothing changed.  I cannot recall the exact sequence of events, but I think I unplugged the unit, unscrewed the cover, there is so much dust to remove.  Over fifteen years, the fridge was not cleaned once.  Note to self: treat the next fridge better.  Once a year it should be cleaned.  For this current fridge, while much dust was removed from the fan and it started to spin again, nothing changed.  Maybe the compressor is dead.  Sadly, it costs too much to repair, so fifteen years is a good run, we will shop for a new one on the weekend.

EARN IT OFF

I don't care much about the Apple Watch but I recently discovered that my health insurance, UnitedHealth, offers a rewards program that can get me a free Watch.  Up to $300, that is.  You need to install the UnitedHealth app and let it connect to a tracker app, such as Apple's built-in Health program, so that UH can track the number of steps you make in a given day, how many hours of sleep you have, etc.  You earn a few dollars here, 50 cents there, take a health survey, participate in some weekly challenges, basically doing healthy stuff.  Ideally, you do enough to earn $20+ a month, but if you don't then the difference will be charged to your credit card and the "free" Apple Watch isn't free any more.  So far, for the first month I have a few extra dollars earned.  They will help me pay off the watch sooner than July 2026.  Here's to healthier living!

STATEN ISLAND STRIDING

CitStrides.com is a web site that collects your walks and runs onto a map.  It's fun to look at the map and see where you have been to.  To make it even more interesting, you are ranked against other walkers and runners in the cities you have activities in, in terms of completing streets.  You can make things private and only you can see where you have been to.

When I first started using CityStrides, Brooklyn NY was my target.  Some guy named Dan was at the top of the list, I was in the top ten somewhere.  I was still an active long-distance runners and competed with a few others to maintain my spot.  All for bragging right!  On more than one occasions, I sailed past my competitor in the morning but she then inched past me, so I went out for another run, on the same day, just to beat her again.  At least temporarily.  What a silly thing to do, but it was so enjoyable.

At a past job, I traveled all over Long Island and the five boroughs of NYC.  I would either leave for work early or pull over at some strategic spot on the way home just to get a walk in, to complete a street or two.  At one point, I became the champion in Staten Island.  Years later and at another job in New Jersey, I started to cover areas in New Jersey.  Elizabeth, Rahway, Carteret, victories came with some work.  One day I happened to glance at my position in Staten Island.  What?  Since when did I get to #2?  And not just by a little, the gap was over 100 streets!  Time to regain my #1 title in Staten Island.  I don't know how long it took but around the end of June 2025 I finally made it.  I don't know what my challenger's plan is, I know I will keep widening the gap until it is over 100 streets.  Then I will re-visit the counties of New Jersey again.  I lik to see new areas, even if they are just people's home or public parks, nothing too exciting, but it's my thing.

THE LANTERN - FIVE FOR $25!

 I run the unofficial alumni association for my high school, Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, NY.  One feature of the group that I am proud of is the collection of yearbooks, made available completely in the Facebook group.  Over the years, the yearbook collection is quite good, from donations by teachers and other classmates, plus purchases from eBay, which isn't cheap.  Off and on, the school had a literary magazine called The Lantern.  Until recently, I only had two copies, one donated by a former student and one I bought from eBay.  Then this past weekend I was alerted to a bundle of five Lantern magazines from around 1958.  I immediately bought the bundle, for $25, which is a very good price.  Someone mentioned that he has some copies from the 1990s, which raised the question, "When was the last issue of The Lantern?".  I hope to know the answer some day.

PLAYED TOURIST - AMSTER YARD ETC

I recently took a day off to play tourist in my own home town.  First, I took the subway from near Coney Island all the way to Elmhurst, Queens, to visit my high school, Newtown High School, to pick up gym shirts I ordered for my alumni group on Facebook.  I miss the buskers on the subway and there was one in the tunnel connecting the Sixth Avenue train line (B/D/F) to the 7, but he wasn't that good.  I think he was singing some Whitney Houston song but I didn't catch it right away.  I actually got off the R train a station early to do some CityStriding.  I don't go to Queens often so every little bit helps.  By the time I was done it was lunch time.  Stopped by Phở Bằng, near Broadway and Elmhurst Avenue, for lunch.  I didn't enjoy sharing a big round table with two other lone diners.  Next time, maybe I will try Phở Bắc, further in in that same strip mall.

First stop in Manhattan was a re-visit to Amster Yard on East 49th Street.  It's a courtyard garden for a private Spanish library, Instituto Cervantes.  Without reading about it I wouldn't venture past the gate on 49th Street.  But it's open to the public, I used to go there regularly when I worked in the area, indirectly for TIAA-CREF, or whatever their name is now.  It's nice to be there and not hear the noise of the city outside.

Next stop was the "rooftop garden" of the re-built NYPL Midtown Manhattan Library.  I know, it's now known as the Niarchos Foundation Library, but old habits die hard.  I read about the "rooftop garden" but haven't had a chance to visit.  It's actually referred to as a "rooftop terrace".  My fault really, I like "rooftop gardens" so that was my expectation.  Lots of sitting area but very little greenery.  There was some area under construction, hopefully that will add some plants etc to the terrace.

Lastly, I visited the "new" Moynahan Train Terminal, which is where the Main Post Office used to be.  The post office windows were still there, perhaps preserved for historical purpose, but behind them toward Ninth Avenue there is a large area with skylight, shops etc.  I heard much about the Moynahan Extension of the High Line.  I expected it to be a part of the Moynahan building but it turned out it's an avenue over, on the block across Ninth Avenue, an area called Manhattan West.  The nice thing is where the Moynahan Extension ended is a plaza a few floors above the street.  Such plazas were popular in Hong Kong, the last time I visited the "island nation".  "Sky bridges" would connect a few such plazas so people can travel from one part of town to another without ever being on street level.  I love walking and enjoyed such walk very much, no need to deal with vehicular traffic.  I traveled the entire Moynahan Extension, past the giant pigeon sculpture, back to the High Line near Hudson Yard, back toward 23rd Street.  Took the C downtown to transfer to the D and got off at Grant Street station - Chinatown.  I love Vietnamese heros - bánh mì - so it was necessary to stop by Saigon Bakery to get some.  I also got some nem for my mother, from Tân Tín Hưng grocery store.  Another long subway ride home and that was my day being a tourist in Manhattan.

'85 REUNION ANNOUNCED ON SCHOOL WEBSITE

It is official - Newtown High School (Elmhurst) Class of 1985's 40th Reunion is announced via the school website.

https://www.newtownhighschool.org/apps/pages/reunion

The promo flyer went through a few changes, things were too quiet after I submitted it to the school, but eventually it was up.  Hopefully this will fetch the reunion a few more paid attendees.

The promo flyer is repeated below for even more exposure.  The QR code is a nice touch.  It brings up the texting app on a smartphone, my phone number already entered.  Got to make it easy for people who are interested.  I already receive regular junk text and phone calls, I suppose it won't get any worse.

While it is marketed as a 1985 reunion, alumni from other '80 years are welcomed.  We already have people from '84, '86, and '87, maybe ten total.  Reach out if you are interested!

FREE COMPOST ETC

 The best thing in life is free.  Really.  Especially when the free stuff aligns with your belief.  In particular, I am talking about recycling.  New York City recently made a big push to get more organic recycling to happen.  For a brief time, it became mandatory, fine would be issued if houses have no compost bin out for collection.  Sadly, people complained loudly and now there is no fine, I am sure some people just take that as a sign not to bother participating.  I really like that after separating out paper, metal, plastic, and now organic stuff, there is little left of garbage.  The City pays a lot of money for garbage to leave town, on trains destined for some neighboring or faraway states.

Anyway, what's the use of collecting all that organic waste and not making use of the end product?  Free compost!  It's a bit of a challenge to sign up for these events.  You need to check in regularly, the dates are open for registration for like two weeks ahead.  I managed to snatch a ticket for this past Saturday May 31, from the NYC Department of Sanitation depot up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn North.  It's a long drive but for ten 40-pound compost, it's worthwhile.  I like that it was in the morning, traffic was low and I was home by ten or so, still time to do other things.  I plan to share my loot with members of my local Buy Nothing Group, in Bath Beach/Gravesend.

While waiting for the depot to open, I happened to discover the Kingsland Avenue entrance of the Newtown Creek Nature Walk.  I first discovered the Walk's Paidge Avenue entrance but I was in the area for something else and didn't have time to actually visit it.  It was a few years ago, I vaguely recall it was Phase I of the Walk.  It is a great idea.  All these waste treatment plants are already all over the area.  Instead of fighting them, the Walk just meanders alongside them.  Granted there are walls to keep the Walk away from the facilities, some tanks are so huge you cannot avoid seeing them.  Along the Walk, there are trees, bushes, benches, waterside seats, and more.  Look out the water and far away you would see the skyscrapers of Manhattan, plus a few in bustling Long Island City.  I only walked a few steps in from the Kingsland entrance because I didn't want to miss the queue of cars quickly forming outside the DOS Depot.  After I got my freebies, I made a leisurely visit to traverse the entire Walk and back.  The sky looked like it would bust open any minute so I didn't take the chance of making a big loop south to Greenpoint Avenue and back.

Free walk, free compost, wait, it got better!  By chance, in the afternoon, I happened to notice a freebie event at the Latino church near my house.  From far away, I thought it was a fund-raising event for the church, perhaps the items were offered at low price.  No, they were totally free!  Clothes, shoes, some packaged food, some toys, and dear and near to my heart, music CDs!  Call me old school if you must, but I still like to play music from CDs.  I do have a collection on my phone, but it's a nice feeling to just pop a CD into a player, and play the music loudly in the living room.  Or in the car.  I have a portable DVD player that can handle music CDs just fine.  I got a stack of music CDs, mostly from the 80s.  It was a great weekend.