The sounds of fall at Norwood Park

Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I came across the Eastwood Bears as we circled the blocks surrounding the Little Bitty in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood last Sunday morning. The day was bright. Both sidelines were filled with parents and friends rooting on the home team and visitors from Central Square. I rather…

An October feel in my neck of the woods

Yes, I thought on the last day of September as the temperature dropped while I was typing in my work chair/recliner in the living room of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Now this feels like October. I didn’t flip the furnace switch to on. But I did shut the windows…

From green to yellow to brown

A warm walk with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle around the blocks surrounding the Little Bitty this first week of autumn did not reveal any bright reds or oranges. No, this year the trees of our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood appear to be going straight from green to yellow to brown. I don’t know…

Shine on supermoon

Brighter minds than mine have come up with some mighty big names for what I just saw in my Syracuse sky. It was not just any old moon this evening, you should know. According to Robert Roy Britt writing on livescience.com, we started with a full moon and raised the ante with a lunar eclipse.…

The Valley View House brings back working memories to Allen

My trip back in the old Wayback Machine to reminisce about the time my father Frank brought we Bialczaks up to that Polish resort in the Catskills has struck again. I posted The Polish in Me here in May 2014. It stirred up tales, all solid in my memory. Some of the details such as…

A new pizza joint opens in my neighborhood

For the past couple of seasons, it’s been comforting to know that a good slice of pie was just steps away from my league play at Bowling Green in North Syracuse. Too rushed to catch dinner with my dear wife Karen, I could visit The Pie Guys. Attached right to the alleys, their little restaurant…

It’s still September, so leave me time to golf

My friend George has a good mind. He wouldn’t let this entire golf season go by without us getting out there for a round. The bridge between summer and fall turned out to be perfect, he with the boys back to school and me with a mid-week morning I could free up from freelance and…

It starts with pie and apples and grows from there

It’s apple-picking time in my home turf of central New York state. Loads of folks gather up the kids or friends and get out there and get their own. Me? I’d rather select a bag or box that somebody else has already rounded up from the orchards. My dear wife Karen and I took a…

Any way you slice it, Yogi Berra was our treasure

It’s over. Yogi Berra left our world, the news show told me this morning. To generations of New Yorkers, the man born Lawrence Peter Berra on May 12, 1925 was forever endearing. For the way he looked, squatted square behind home plate with the gated mask over that likeable mug and lefty stance dangerously over…

Flexing the Quad

For the third game of the 2015 Syracuse football season, my dear wife Karen got to the campus early enough to catch the festivities on the quad flanking the Carrier Dome. Hover over any gallery photo for a description. Click on the bottom right photo in any gallery for an enlarged slide show. Of course…