It’s been real quiet here in my little pocket of the city over the Labor Day weekend. The hustle/bustle was hushed such I could hear little outside my window beyond the steady and stiff north wind associated with Hermine on Sunday and Monday. It whipped around the blinds on my north-facing window and made for some excellent sleeping weather.

I’m down to just six working days before launching my big trip to France.

My Dad comes for a three-day visit to NYC just before I leave.

I’ll be out of town during what seems like an unusually dense cluster of great rock shows here in late September and I’ll be gone for the first presidential debate.

But I don’t care. I’m getting really excited for vacation.

Almost all of my time off from the job is back-loaded this year so I’ve worked pretty solidly through the first eight months or so (other than the stretch I was stuck at home post-surgery).

I was on the receiving end of some wisdom at Finback’s tap room yesterday from a young guy born in India who has lived here roughly 30 years in Richmond Hill, Queens. This fellow identified himself as Grillpaul and he wielded credibility as he spoke. He made two noteworthy proclamations:

1. Grillpaul rides his bike everywhere and is obsessed with using this mode of transportation inside the five boroughs no matter the occasion or mission. He believes bikes will eventually win the battle (a struggle now very much in its infancy) for safe, protected movement in the city. When I asked him if he wore a helmet – or was concerned for his physical well-being given the current level of disrespect given to bicyclists by motorists here, he laughed. “I’ll be fine dying on my bike if that’s how it goes. It’s what I do. It’s how I go.”

2. Travel to Cuba came up in our discussion and I told Grillpaul I was concerned the pending American influx would ruin the place. Grillpaul has been to Cuba twice in recent years and says the place is so rich in culture and tradition, there’s no outside force that can undermine it’s very special vibe. “Go,” he said. “Go as soon as you get a chance and don’t worry about it ever becoming anything other than what it is now.”

The air carrier I work for initiates service to Havana in two months. Enforcement of current US government policy as it relates to legal forms of travel to Cuba has been characterized by the Times and others as non-existent which suggests one can make a pure leisure visit there without worry.

Still, current US law requires certain conditions be met – and for that reason – my employer has said it is mulling a ban on employee leisure travel to Havana until it can better sort out what seems to be mixed US government messages on what’s expected of a regular American who simply wants to see and experience the place.