The Long Island Blog

A quick post to let everyone know that I just finished a short guide to the Nautical Mile restaurants. All 18 restaurants, the Italian ice shop and the ice cream shop are covered. So get out there and eat!

During my, uh, “research” for the restaurant article I had the pleasure of running into Rocco Abbondola again. I’ve received some email from readers wondering if he was still alive. Well, not only is he alive, but he’s as rambunctious as ever. If you’d like to meet him yourself he’s usually at Otto’s on Saturday afternoon/evening.

Rocco Abbondola at Otto’s, August 2008

It’s that time of the year again on Long Island. The time when orb weavers make their presence known by building huge webs around porch lights, shrubs, garden paths, and anywhere else suitable for scaring the pants off unsuspecting passersby.

There are two of these spiders around my house this year. One directly under a porch light, and another in the dark near a sidewalk alongside my house. Both spiders are quite large, but their webs are different sizes. The web in the dark is about 5 feet tall (huge!), while the one under the porch light is only about 2 feet in diameter. I wonder if that’s because the light attracts so much food she doesn’t need a larger web.

I know these are females by their size. The males are much smaller and build smaller, less organized webs. The web below (click pic for full size image) is in almost complete darkness. It is illuminated here only by the flash of my camera.

This is a closeup of the spider under the porch light. I don’t know what exact species she is, but does it really matter? It’s big, ugly, and yet incredibly beautiful.

Ever see someone in an old pickup truck filled with junk picking through your trash? A few days ago that was me…

I’ve heard from more than one person about how they make money by cashing in scrap metal, especially aluminum, that they found in the trash. So, when I came upon what looked like a ton of the stuff, I couldn’t resist.

The metal was actually a swim deck from an old swimming pool. The pool had reached the end of it’s life and was discarded. The aluminum decking was in the trash waiting for the garbage men. luckily, I got there first. The 6′ x 8′ pieces were too heavy and too big for me to handle alone, so I had my son help me lift and tie them to the top of the truck.

At the recycling center there’s a giant scale that weighs your truck as you drive in and then again after you unload your scrap. The difference is the weight of your scrap. We had 180lbs of aluminum. The price that day was $0.64/lb, so we earned $115. Not bad for doing virtually nothing. Smaller amounts of metal can be carried in by hand and get weighed on a smaller scale.

Mountians of metal at Crestwood Metals will be melted down and turned into new products

So, if you have some old copper pipes, aluminum patio furniture, bike frames, whatever… why not haul it down to the nearest metal recycler and see what you get for it? You’ll put some change in your pocket and help keep stuff out of the landfills too.

Need help finding a place to bring your scrap? Try these for starters:

Gershow Recycling – Multiple Locations

Crestwood Metals – 1100 Lincoln Ave. Holbrook, NY / 631-567-2727