Saturday reflections

Taken on the way to school this morning.

My knee replacement surgery is two months from today. Mostly I am able to get around, but I desperately miss walking. Just walking.

I hobble, I limp, I lurch, but it's walking only in a technical sense of the word, in that I manage to transport myself from one location to another. Slowly and gracelessly, but I get there eventually. Doing it for more than a couple of blocks is exhausting though, despite the industrial-strength prescription NSAIDS I am taking.

Which I forgot to take on Thursday, and then again this morning. I took a pill as soon as I got home, and by tomorrow I assume that all of the screaming joints will have quieted down again, but I am so ready for this to be over.

Not that I can blame my unmedicated state for my bonehead move of the day. I have braces for my knee and ankles, so getting dressed is more complicated than it used to be. This morning I put on a shirt from the closet and grabbed a clean pair of socks, then moved to the chair where I strap myself into all my medical accoutrements. When I was ready to put on the ankle braces, socks, and shoes, I couldn't find the socks. I knew I had just had them, and they were nowhere to be found. So I hobbled back to the dresser, got another pair of socks, put on my shoes, and left for school.

Later, I was standing in my classroom chatting with the early arrivals when I happened to glance down and saw the missing pair of socks poking out of my cleavage. Clearly I had needed another free hand while I was gathering clothes and shoes and just stuffed the socks down my shirt temporarily.

The students thought it was hilarious, and once I got over the embarrassment, so did I.

Urban poetry

Juxtapositions in Hell's Kitchen.

The building in the foreground is the Interborough Rapid Transit Powerhouse. It was originally the power station for the IRT, New York's first subway line (and I had lived here for decades before I knew what the letters IRT stood for). Now it's part of the city's steam system. It was designed by Stanford White and completed in 1905, and that's an era of New York history that will never come again—when a commission for a distinctly unglamorous building is given to a star architect and built in Renaissance Revival style.

Saturday reflections

The GM Building in Midtown.

I had met a friend for breakfast, and I realized how seldom I leave the apartment for anything purely social these days. The heavy-duty NSAIDS I am taking definitely improve my mobility, but there are still many days when I only go out if I have to, and those reasons are almost always work, chores and the apparently endless stream of doctor's visits. But for food and conversation? I'd almost forgotten what that was like.

Urban poetry

I always love these juxtapositions of different building styles in Manhattan. This was on the Upper East Side a couple of weeks ago. (One consolation of being forced to get a new phone is that the photo quality is noticeably better, especially since I also lost my Olympus in the same incident.)

We're having an unseasonably early nor'easter; fortunately, where I am, it's just steady rain.

Saturday reflections

Here's a picture of reflections in a Manhattan bus, taken towards the end of last year. It got buried in the flurry of end of semester class pictures, and I apparently never even looked at it.

Saturday morning meeting

A little urban poetry (those big windows hanging over Broadway putting all of the people inside on display), a few reflections.

Taken on the Upper West Side yesterday on my way to teach the first class of the semester. I was very glad that I no longer have a job where I might be required to attend a meeting on a Saturday morning; although I was on my way to work, I hadn't already spent Monday through Friday in similar conference rooms, unlike I suspect most of the people in that room.

Urban poetry

It's the sad anniversary of 9/11, and classes start tomorrow and I'm nervous about how I'm going to manage with limited mobility, so here's some serenity: a tree and a tree house in 6BC, a community garden in the East Village.

Urban poetry

A laundromat in the East Village a few months ago.

Leaving New York

Looking down Seventh Avenue Friday night, towards Madison Square Garden where apparently some kind of wedding was going on.

The street closures had made traffic a nightmare all day—and it was over 100 degrees—so I cancelled my appointment at the DMV and spent the afternoon packing with the air conditioners blasting. I took this picture through the window of the Uber to JFK; the thunderstorm was brief but fierce.

Saturday reflections

Today is my birthday and I wanted to post a really cool reflection shot to celebrate, but this is the best I can find: buildings in lower Manhattan.

Urban poetry

A chain-link barrier hanging off one of the piers in the Hudson. I love the colors.

Saturday reflections

Layers of reflections through the windows of the Fifth Avenue bus, a few months ago when it was still dark in the early evening.

The in-betweenish spring weather is lingering longer than usual this year: a day in the 80's is followed by one in the 50's. I met some students in Central Park today, and when I walked outside it was much colder than I had expected. As there was no way in hell I was walking back up the four flights of stairs to get a jacket, I made a quick stop on the way to buy a hoodie at the gift shop at the zoo. And I congratulated myself on this very clever solution, right up until the moment the cashier rang it up: $60!

Saturday reflections

The reflections are secondary maybe, but I liked this truck in camouflage colors I saw parked in the East Village last night.

More urban poetry

I really like this one—early evening, and the sunset reflected in snowmelt on Park Avenue.

Urban poetry

It doesn't get much more urban than this: Times Square on a winter's evening this past February.

I seldom carry a real camera around any more, and can't remember why I happened to have it with me that day. Maybe I thought I'd take something I could use in my class this semester—the theme was photography—but it took me three months to get around to looking at the pictures and classes ended last Saturday.

Geometries

A plaza between West 41st and West 42nd Streets, near Bryant Park.

Saturday reflections

A ceiling at La Guardia airport earlier this week.

When I was planning this trip, I expected that airfares would be higher than last year, but I was surprised by how much. So I dithered and delayed, and—surprise, surprise!—the flights didn't get any cheaper. And I've used up most of my miles and points, so I ended up booking Delta flights out of La Guardia because it was the cheapest option. Both of the flights had connections, which makes for some long travel days, but I'm still leery of Newark, though I haven't heard of any major delays there recently, and JFK is just so far away, so I was happy to have the option of La Guardia.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Then the TSA delays started, and the lines at La Guardia were of course the worst of the three New York airports—3-4 hours the day before I left, even with TSA Pre. Standing in line is unpleasant under the best circumstances, and is really, really unpleasant with a bad knee, so I was, um, stressed.

But I dutifully arrived at the airport four hours before my flight, and got through bag check and security in less than 30 minutes. I indulged in breakfast at a nice restaurant with comfortable seating, where the scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, juice and coffee cost me $45 dollars and was worth every penny.

Urban poetry

A fire escape on the Lower East Side a few years ago.

Urban poetry

The view from my living room a few weeks ago.

On Tuesday it was 80 degrees. Yesterday it snowed. I miss having actual seasons.

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

The Tenth Avenue bus yesterday. That snow bank was not as daunting as it appears in this photo; there was a path behind it for getting on and off the bus.