Times Square

This is the Chrysler building. I had to take a picture of it because I can see it from my apartment.
Times Square. You can see the "pens" the police use.
The Toshiba Tower, from which the ball descends. The ball was not up, so I didn't get a picture of it.
There is some dude outside sitting on his horn. I hear other horns interjecting as well..I think they are trying to communicate. Some kind of Morse code, perhaps. I think horns in NYC need to come with a time limit. Only a total of 60 seconds of horn for every 15 minutes of driving. Or maybe after 60 seconds the car will flash cute kitten pictures until the driver calms down. Dude, if they didn't hear you for the first 60 seconds, they probably won't hear you for more than that. Horns are not anger management tools. If you don't like the traffic, get a bicycle and lose some pounds. I am not sure how I manage to sleep through this.

I made it down to Times Square to check out the New Years set up. Every year about 1 million people gather to see the big ball drop at midnight. The police are so strict with security that I don't see the attraction in attending. At 3pm the police start to corral the crowd into "pens" starting in the middle of Times Square and then moving out. People may leave a pen, but can not go back in. By midnight they have most of the crowd closed up. Now, no alcohol is allowed, no backpacks, and there are no restrooms. That is half of the essentials of life canceled out right there. No way I am going to wait nine hours with no booze to see the big ball drop. I will do much better celebrating at home.

I went shopping down on 42nd street for a suit. I didn't by anything, but if you are the type who wants to go to every store and see everything in the store, you will never come home from downtown Manhattan.

I don't know if this happens to others or not, but for some reason people pick me out of the crowd to ask directions. Is there something about me that says "helpful" or what?

Happy New Year everyone!

Canada Sends Its Greetings, New York

The doorman to the building I live in knew me when I had a big beard, and he really liked it. He even began growing a beard after I began hanging around. Then I shaved it, and next day he shaved his whole head. We are in grooming-sync, I guess. Does this make us "bristle-brothers", or something like that? "Fluff-friends"? "Mane-misters"?

It is so cold right now, which is made worse by the strong winds, that the pedestrians are running through traffic a little more crazed then usual. They are trying to get to their destination faster, road-raged drivers be damned. Not a good mix. Good thing the roads are not icy. I went out for groceries, and the cold was so bad that it hurt. Reminds me of Canada. Canada came to New York City for the week. I don't have my protective chin-scarf anymore.

My friend "Mr. Donuts" went skateboarding in Central Park, and he said he had the whole park to himself because no one wanted to go out into the cold. So he was able to zip down the paths without those obstructive pedestrians slowing him down. Crashing is more fun at high speeds, you know.

Central Park Adventures Part I

I finally got out to explore parts of Central Park I have not seen yet. I use to only go down the middle by the reservoir. This time I went north and discovered that there actually is a natural forest in Central Park, with old bridges and waterfalls. I then went shopping for some sports gear so I can start jogging and lifting weights. I had to get home before I could make any purchases, though. I found a cheap gym up in Harlem I am going to go check out. Problem is, its in Harlem, so I really should stay on the main roads to avoid any conflict with the ghettos ("this turf belongs to us, and no one else!"). White guys are not welcome in Harlem. Harlem has developed and become much safer over the last twenty years, and most of the really crazy people have moved further north into Yonkers. But still, best stick to the main streets, and only at daytime.

I went to some health food stores and Thai restaurants to see what was there, and I am happy to report that prices are only about 20% more then back in Upstate New York, so that is not prohibitive.

Feeling "The Rush"

New York City is always in a rush. I think there are two reasons for this. 1.) it is hard to get from point A to point B. People have to either walk or fight their way through traffic. Either way it takes a lot of time to get where you want to go. 2.) Stores have no space. This means they can only hold inventory for a couple of days at the most, so trucks have to bring inventory to every story/restaurant, every single day. This fills the streets with trucks, and a lot of time is spent loading/unloading inventory, while doing regular high volume business at the same time. People are always racing against the business-day clock. Businesses here don't make money from their prices, they make it from the sheer volume that they move every day.

Last night New York City was flooded. It turned warm and rained, and all the snow melted. We had rivers and rapids going down Park Avenue. Luckily that happened on a Sunday and not a business day. Traffic would be soggy and desperate. I didn't go out because I don't have an umbrella. But this morning everything is nice and dry, sunny and warm. It feels more like late fall than winter.

Noise, Money, And, Um, "Privacy"

Wow, is New York quite this morning! No horns, no helicopters, no construction. Just light traffic. I had a good nights sleep. I finally have developed a normal sleep pattern. I go to sleep around midnight, and I wake up about seven hours later. Then I might take a nap in the afternoon if there is nothing going on. I don't need much sleep as long as it is good, uninterrupted sleep. I am not perpetually sleep deprived like I was before.

It costs me $9 to do a load of laundry. Thankfully me generous host covers the cost for that as well. Every little thing here is so expensive, and that goes together with huge costs like rent and parking. Most people who live here don't own cars because of the expenses to keep them, and also because they simply don't need them. Everything can be reached by taxi or walking. The subway is the best way to get around.

In New York City, there is a different meaning to "privacy". For example, people leave their blinds up at night. No one finds it weird that there are about forty apartments across the street that also have their blinds up, and we can see each other. The only time they put the blinds down is to keep the morning sun from shining in and waking them up. There could be a creep with binoculars watching me type this right now. GUY WITH BINOCULARS, IF YOU CAN READ THIS, GO BUY A TELEVISION! When I sit and watch tv, I just have to turn my gaze out the window and see across the street at least three other families watching tv, who could be looking at me. For some reason, if just one guy could see me, I'd be uncomfortable, but if forty families can see me, I don't even notice.

He Saves Gotham With A Snow Shovel

No one has called "the SnowMan" yet to help dig them out (we wrote "call The SnowMan at 315-867..... While eating breakfast I got to watch a native New Yorker struggle for 25 minutes to free his car. He only shoveled out one shovel width worth of snow in front and behind his car, which didn't give him enough space to gain momentum and break free. Nobody in New York knows how to deal with snow. No one has snow tires, for example. At best they have all-season tires which don't work in snow like this. If it wasn't for vigilantes like SnowMan, I don't know what they would do!

I am using a borrowed computer until I get my buggy laptop fixed. I am looking into buying spare parts for cheap off the street. Tonight I am invited to be wined and dined in the Park Avenue flat which will be my temporary home for a few weeks. I have a job offer already, I just don't know the details yet. My generous host wants to celebrate my new freedom with me, and then put me to work because he is a businessman after all. I look forward to learning from him anything I can.

Off With A Bang(-ish)...

I'm off! The weather is sunny and clear, so I can see the mountains and valleys as we go down the Thruway. Unsurprisingly, but still to my annoyance, there are a couple of things sitting in my room which I forgot to bring down to the shuttle. Oh well. I promised myself to abandon anything that didn't fit into my luggage, so I'm just going to let that stuff go.

I had to say goodbye to my old home, and I figured the best way to do that is blow off some old fireworks I had laying around. I was saving a rocket for a special occasion, and I found some firecrackers in my room while I was packing my things. A few years back there were a lot of firecrackers being smuggled around the community, and I hid the ones I got in different places in my room. I quickly forgot about them, and ever since then I would I have been discovering firecrackers in the weirdest places. Sure enough, I found this pack while going through my things. There may be more. They may need to call in a bomb squad to clean my room out....

The rocket was disappointing. I guess it was too old already because it didn't have enough thrust to break lose from its stick. And instead of a stunning "bang" I only got a "poof" as it tossed some sparks into the air. The firecrackers performed as expected, and the chattering explosions echoed all over the place. My accomplice and I ran indoors giggling before anyone saw us. So there, that is how I say farewell.

New York City is buried in snow. By law, building owners have to shovel the sidewalks clean, and so they shovel the snow into the street. The snowplows then push the snow back onto the sidewalks. Parked cars get caught in the crossfire and completely buried. My friend, who we shall call Mr. Donuts, thought up a scheme where we post advertisements on poles in the street offering to dig cars out for $25. It is freezing outside, and the snow is hard too, so maybe people will go for it. We were up last night putting up signs around the surrounding blocks. We'll see what happens. My first night in NYC and already I'm part of a scheme. Not bad. I like the direction this is taking...