Category: Life

  • A Story of Living in New York

    In the spring of 2017, I don’t know exactly when, but I know it was warm out as you still needed a coat. I left work a little early and was walking down the west side of 6th Avenue, between 15th and 16th street. My intention was to get over to the 14th Street 1,2,3 station, as I needed to get uptown in a hurry, and trains on the Red line get rather stupidly packed at rush hour.

    I was lost in my own thoughts, as the company I worked for was nearing bankruptcy and I had the job to try and stop that from happening. (It didn’t end well, so you know.)  As I tried to puzzle out a solution, I looked down 6th Ave and walking up the street toward me was Fran Lebowitz. She was just walking, dressed how Fran always dresses, and passed me without a glance.

    That’s it, that’s my story.

  • Covid Test Results, And Thinking About Schools

    I got my results yesterday afternoon, and I am negative for Covid. Turns out that I just have a cold. I won’t even get into the fact that I somehow have a cold. How did I get a cold when I am social distanced, wear a mask, and wash my hands all the time? But, whatever.

    With all of this going on, the wife and I started talking about the shit situation we are all in due to Covid. And we are again started talking about sending our kid to school. I agree 100% that remote school is not what is best for the education of children. The kid would be better served in a classroom, with other students and teachers. We are lucky that I can be the dedicated parent to make sure the kid stays on top of her lessons, and also gets an opportunity to explore new subjects. I know that not every family has the luxury that we have.

    Now, I also understand where teachers are coming from. I wouldn’t be comfortable with teaching children without a vaccine, and until I got one, I think I would like to remote teach as well. A teacher’s health is just an important as their students’ wellbeing. There must be some balance.

    I wish the vaccine rollout had been handled better, and I do hope the Biden people do a better job of it. All teachers need to be vaccinated as soon as possible. I also think, and truly hope, that everyone will hold teachers in a higher appreciation, and pay them what they are worth.

    I know we are a long way from being over this disease, but I think we are getting closer to being able to believe that a light in this tunnel may exist.

  • Getting Covid Tested

    A strange thing happened to me late in the morning, yesterday; I felt like I had a cold. I felt fatigued, had a stuffy nose, and there was a scratchy feeling in the back of my throat. I hadn’t felt symptoms like this in over a year, and it really threw me off.

    In the olden days, I would get at least one cold a year, and it usually happened after the kid got sick. The last time I remember feeling sick was around New Year’s 2019/20, and that was from a cold that was going around the office. Since Covid started, and the kid has been out of school, we have adopted a healthy regimen of hand washing, mask wearing, and keeping out distance. What this has produced is an epically long time since anyone has been sick in our home.

    So, as this “cold” feeling kept increasing in me over the course of the day, I was a little dumbfounded how I could be sick, as no one else in our home is. Odds are that it is just a cold, but the reality is that I am the one in the family that runs all of the errands, and as such, if there is a chance that this could be Covid, I should find out as soon as possible, and not endanger anyone else in the neighborhood.

    I had to go get tested.

    Fortunately, there is a City run medical center in our neighborhood, and I headed over for a test. This would be my second time being at this location to get tested. I was pretty surprised that there wasn’t a line; just five of us waiting. Also, having been though before for a test, I was in and out pretty quick. Total time there, maybe fifteen minutes.

    Now, I am in the limbo of waiting for the test result. I actually feel better this morning, but I know if it is Covid, that really doesn’t mean anything. I have to wait, and that does drive me crazy. I can’t run the family errands, and I just have to sit around. I am sure it is nothing, and I am acting out of caution, but I really don’t want to think about if I did get it.

  • Parking Car Meditation

    Once a week, I sit in our car for about an hour and a half, waiting. Waiting for the street sweeper to go by, and also waiting for the traffic cop to stroll along as well. Most of the time, the sweeper comes through early, and all of us in our cars do a do-si-do, getting out of the way of the sweeper, and thus returning to our spots. Then we sit in our cars for the cop to stroll by and ticket the cars that didn’t move for the sweeper. You would think these two actions would happen in tandem to each other, but actually, they can be an hour between them. Hence, the sitting in the car.

    In this time of waiting, I have adopted the habit of reading the news off my phone, then an article or two from the latest New Yorker. I will end with writing in my journal, all the while listening to music, which to be honest, is now the only time that I have to listen to music.

    I have been doing this for close to a year now. Sometimes the wife takes a turn moving the car, but I would say that I take care of it 75% of the time. And in this time of taking care of the car, I have yet to see the same people each week. You would think since we all live in the same neighborhood, that I would at least see some repeat people.

    In all of this car sitting, I keep coming back to the same question; what do these people do for a living? I mean, we all have to have the ability to take an hour out of our mornings from 8:30am to 10am. For me, I’m unemployed/Stay at home parent, so that’s an easy answer. I am sure some of people are in the same boat as me. But even in normal times, people had jobs. What do they do with their lives?

  • Walking NYC Again

    My daughter’s birthday is coming up, and the wife and I have been taking turns shopping for the event. The wife was able to get all of her purchases taken care of in, and around the neighborhood. My big errand for the birthday shopping was to go get some books. Luckily, there is a great children’s bookstore in Manhattan, Books of Wonder, and I headed out for the Upper West Side location.

    Now, I could have taken some sort of mass transit there, but I am still a little hesitant, and also, I could use the exercise of a good walk. So on Saturday, I head out on foot. It was a nice winter day for a walk; not too cold, but cold enough to be bundled up.

    For the past ten months, I have rarely gone any further north than 145th Street, a never below 93rd Street, so to head down into the 80’s was like going to a new foreign land. The thing I noticed first was the amount of people, who were younger than me, all crammed around tables on the sidewalks for brunch. I know that the restaurants need the business, but the lack of masks, and close proximity didn’t seem very safe or wise. I don’t know what the answer is here, but there just needs to be a better balance out there.

    But, as I walked on, down Columbus, and then over to Amsterdam, I began to enjoy being out in the City. Hearing people’s conversations on the street, and the movement and action of coming and going. I know it was only like 50% of NYC, but it was a friendly reminder that this was once a city that I wanted to be in and explore. It was nice to see people, even from a safe six-foot distance.