Closing of a Season

At last, Fall is here for real! How do I know? Not only because the weather has finally dipped down to the 50s and 60s ( yay!) and I now get to use my heated seats (yay again!) but also because a local tradition is shutting down for the close of the season.

When I moved out to Suffolk I was introduced to Ralph's Famous Italian Ices. Now, I don't believe that everything that claims to be famous actually is, however, these ices certainly deserve their fame. Overall I'd say ices aren't particularly high on my list of crave-worthy desserts, however my opinion has certainly changed since trying Ralph's.

I thought there was just one little ice shop, but I soon discovered that they are all over the Island, not to mention Queens, Manhattan, New Jersey ( not near my parents) and Staten Island. Ralph's proudly displays their story in each store of Ralph Silvestro, who came to the US from Italy and started the first store in 1928.

You can buy the ices in 3 different sizes or take home a pint. In my opinion, they are far better "fresh" from their freezers than if they sit at home in my freezer for a while. The flavors are truly awesome. I started with a simple cherry, which might be the best cherry ice I've ever eaten, then tried some other more interesting flavors. Currently my favorite is the peanut butter cookie dough. The ices with dairy in them, like that one, have a unique texture somewhere between ice and ice cream. Many of the fruit flavored ones have actual bits of fruit in them, as the cherry does.

This weekend was the last open weekend of the year so I stocked up with mint chocolate chip and PB cookie dough. Other flavors include cantaloupe, sour cherry, root beer, bubble gum, island punch, java chip, lemon, chocolate, canoli, black cherry cheesecake tons more. According to the flavor list, the ices with dairy are considered sherbert. So long Ralph's! Maybe I'll see you next year!

Mint chocolate chip

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

The Worst of the Worse

My frustration with Long Island drivers has been reaching an all-time high lately. I have never been incited to road rage as often as I have been in the past few days. Drivers are rude, impatient, angry, reckless, irreverent and just plain annoying. I may have just described myself.

If you’re a pedestrian, watch out because you will get squashed. I can’t even remember all the ridiculous things I have seen the last few days, but they generally concern drivers suddenly deciding they want to make a turn out of the blue, failing to signal ( except when they forget their blinker light is on and proceed to drive for 3 miles down the highway oblivious), cutting people off, weaving in and out of traffic, and especially, driving at obscene speeds. People also like to honk at you like it’s their job if you aren’t doing what they want you to do ie. turning on red, moving over, accelerating to 70mph half a second after a light turns green.

I think I’ve mentioned before that there seems to be no happy medium for driving speed. Either you are going recklessly fast or ridiculously slowly. It annoys me to no end when a driver decides to ride up behind me with a foot of space between us to tell me that I need to go faster. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about sending signals to other drivers to tell them they are going to slow; I do it all the time, but when I’m in the left lane already going considerably above the speed limit and you’re riding my tale because I’m not doing 80 or 85 then I have very limited sympathy. And especially when there’s another car in front of me or general traffic that would mean if your car got in front of me you’d get nowhere on the road. I enjoy watching these people try and pass me on the right and then get stuck behind a slow car. I generally will move over for someone who wants to go fast, but when the road doesn’t permit it then I won’t do something completely stupid just so you can pass me.

Merging is another killer. I’m amazed by the amount of people who won’t let me merge onto the highway or merge in situations where you really can’t come to a full stop. Yes, it might be slightly annoying for you, but if you either slow down or speed up then you can avoid having to deal with me at all, so don’t be rude and not let me in.

Now, the unfortunate situation I’ve seen lately is that by far the worst drivers are the police. I don’t favor bad mouthing law enforcement but there’s a reason that cops have a bad reputation sometimes. I’ve seen more examples of bad driving from cop cars probably than anyone else. The other day I saw a cop on the phone while driving!!! That is very very illegal in New York, but hey, if the law is doing it then why shouldn’t everyone else right? More annoying still are the cops who turn on their emergency lights to get through a traffic light and turn them off 2 seconds later. I’ve seen several cops use their lights to get through traffic. Unless traffic is at complete shutdown standstill, I’m pretty sure you can wait like the rest of the population.