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Riverside Park, around 5:30 pm, I was working on a blog entry (see below), and then I heard the scream.
About fifty feet away, a young man lying on the ground, another young man standing over him his face contorted in agony. A large tree branch had fallen.
People leaped off bikes, jumped the fence, called 911 on their cells. So much blood. The police arrived followed by an ambulance. Thank God he was still alive. The tree branch that hit him was at least 15 feet long with a thick base. He was strapped to a board, and placed into the ambulance. His friend in a heap crying for him.
Everyone in the crowd said the same thing in their own way - you never know.
An old saying comes to mind: Man plans and God laughs.
The Post:
The last two days have been quiet ones for me. I didn’t even get on the subway if you can believe it. Didn’t even feel like taking any new pictures, I would just like to work on the ones I discovered on my photo CDs.
I’m sitting on a lovely bench I discovered in Riverside Park today. There’s a tree right over it that provides the perfect amount of shade. This quiet little spot even seems to have a built-in breeze all it’s own.
It’s just me, my NEO word processor and a Diet Dr. Pepper. Bliss.
I’ve scheduled time Friday and Saturday to help a friend with a few things, but Sunday & Monday are all mine. I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of writing here on this bench.
A trio of a sparrows just landed on the bench opposite me. They act as if they own the park. Hey it must be nice to fly where you want, land where you like, and poop without a thought of who’s watching you, or under you.
The kids are so cute. A little girl of about four just strolled by with her mom. They are headed for the sprinklers in the playground. The little girl is wearing a pink bathing suit and little jellies to match.
The early dog walkers are out. The squad that comes out between 6:30 and 8 PM is huge.
All the strollers make statements. When I was a tot most strollers were the same. Heavy dark things that you needed muscle to push.
I think of grandma and how impressed she was by my daughter’s Aprica stroller with it’s turbo wheels. It took hardly any effort to push at all. She also loved the disposable diapers, bottles and wipes that came in port-a-paks. Grandma loved gadgets that saved work and entertained.
“You got to stay in style Frannie,” she’d say.
When she came to America she cut off her long braid in favor of a fashionable bob.
And I am sure she lit candles in church to honor the person who invented permanant press shirts. That was a biggie in her book.
In 1998 when I told her that I had bought a desktop computer, she said; “You can talk to people on those things.” Someone had tipped the old girl off to IMing.
And where did she get this knowledge? From her favorite all-time gadget - the television.
Among the family photos is a picture of the beautiful console TV set her son bought her, after he returned from serving in the Korean War.
It was a 25 inch color set, with a fine wood cabinet and it cost 2500 dollars. Grandma was the biggest thing on the block when the neighbors saw it being delivered, and carried up five flights of stairs. It represented nearly a years pay to some. The rent on her two bedroom apartment was less than 60 bucks a month at the time.
These days in New York you’d have to hire a private eye to find a TV repair shop. They have become a disposable item. When your set goes you just buy a new one twice as big with more features for half the price.
We need a new VCR because hubby has a big collection of videos. It will cost me 79 bucks to replace the one I paid nearly 400 for, and the new one will have more features.
It all started when I decided to clean out a drawer, and found several CDs of pictures.
Of course, they found there way into the laptop that I had just put away.
I just coudn’t not go through them. Everyone one is saved onto the laptop, this way I can create a master DVD.
Two years worth of pictures with about bazillion memories attached. It was of those I laughed, I cried, I sighed experiences. There’s a few pictures that never made it to my flickr, and they will be uploaded during the week. Having them all in on in one place makes the project more doable.
Needless to say a few will be making an appearance here.
Everyone enjoy your day.
Just posted my Wordless Wednesday . Please note that no living creatures were harmed in the shooting of that pic.
Actually a street vendor was selling these tiny little reptile/dino foamie things, that grow 50x their original size when dropped in water. Kids love them.
Also posted my second Word Beads.
I’ve scheduled a creative date with myself for tomorrow afternoon. The plan is to do some drawing, and write a love poem. Yes, you read it right, I’m going to write a love poem. This one line I wrote keeps buzzing through my head, and I know it would be just perfect for a love poem. Let’s hope I’ll be able to come up with a few lines to go with it.
Be back at you soon.
While I ate a late lunch on the Upper East Side I watched my first women’s basketball game. The team we were rooting for was New York Liberty. We being me and the couple sitting next to me. The wife was a big fan in her bright blue team shirt. She did the wave the wave every time a point was scored. I got interested in the fourth quarter; the ladies were 18 points behind, and suddenly they made a big comeback and the score was tied 71-71. In the end they lost by three points, but still I was impressed by the group dynamic.
After they left I sat writing for quite a while, and then called best galpal to just say hi. The call lasted an hour and 49 minutes. Hopefully we’ll get to meet later in the week for dinner, and have a real chat.
After I finally left the restaurant I stopped in at Circuit City to look at video cameras. The film making dream is alive and well here in New York. Guess a vlog will be added to the family soon.
A lady clown was sitting outside the Best Buy so I moblogged her.
While sitting on a park bench writing I looked up and saw these clouds framed by the trees.
The clouds reminded me of my blog buddy Lissa and her wonderful photoblog. Today you’ll find a fabulous pic of a snoozing polar bear, but as you go through the photos you will find many pictures of clouds.
Well, time to get ready for Monday.
Waving at you all from New York
My afternoon, as yet unplanned, awaits.
Last night my notebook and I found a quiet little corner in Manhattan. As I nibbled on my pasta and sipped tea I fell into writing. Suddenly the male half of a charming little family asked me what I was writing. Seems he’s filled a notebook or two in his time. We had a brilliant chat that lasted at least an hour and covered a lot of ground. An intense discussion with a perfect stranger is just so my thing. Topics ranged from the school system and dealing with family to Islam, The Bible, Judaism, mass fiction, shopping and the art of the deal.
Right now one of my favorite movies is on - American Beauty
Last night I had the pleasure of watching one of my She Who Blogs buddies in in a film called Megasnake
And let me tell you this girl can scream
Well, I’m outta here. Be back at ya soon.
If you read my post from Thursday then you know I e-mailed John. I had enjoyed his writing for several years. Well, I got an e-mail from John today, and he also commented on that post. Gotta tell you it was pretty cool.
Just finished posting my Saturday Photo Hunt. This week’s theme was happy.
I am so loving the moblogging experience; I highly recommend that you give it a try. And don’t think that you have to be super techy - you just need a camera phone - actually you don’t even need the camera part.
Tomorrow evening I’m going to find a quiet corner somewhere and work on that Lifestory book.
Sunday will probably be a Solo Sunday, which is as of yet unplanned.
Maybe I’ll just grab my camera and NEO, hop on the subway and get off at a random stop.
Everyone enjoy your Saturday.
Recently I was reading about Wil Wheaton and how he started blogging.
It was simple; one day he came across a young woman’s blog and began to read it. There were three years worth of entries. He wrote eloquently about how it felt to get to know so much about someone, and then just have it all come to a halt. There was no good-bye post.
And I thought about the person who inspired me the most when I got started online. Actually it wasn’t his blog I followed at first, I belonged to a Yahoo Group for folks who kept journals.
John wrote so well about his everyday life. He could make a corn muffin sound irresistable. Then one day he left the group. Why? Because someone was so unbelievable nasty.
After a while I discovered he had started his own blog, and I happily subscribed through Bloglines.
Unfortunately with the exception of a quick post this past June, he stopped blogging in January 2006.
After reading about Wil Wheaton’s experience, I decided that I ought to let him know one more time just how much I missed reading his posts. So I e-mailed - hopefully it didn’t end up in a spam folder.
Here’s the blog address - enjoy Zen and Now
Now go let someone know how much you appreciate their blog!
Waving at you all from New York.
My dad Nick would have been 73 today.
As I sat looking out at the drizzle this afternoon, I wondered how things would have been had he not left this plane of existence in ‘91.
I pictured him as grandpa of the bride at my daughter’s wedding.
Proud grandpa at her graduations.
Wonder what he would have to say about the Internet?
One thing for sure - Do the blogging under an assumed name.
Good Night All.
Good Night Nick wherever you are.
Bicycle covered with Metrocards
The Chelsea Hotel
It’s gorgeous out. The shine is shining, and there’s a nice breeze.
No need to refrigerate ourselves, the ceiling fan is more than enough.
I’m looking forward to an evening of endless raspberry ice tea, and writing in my notebook.
Tomorrow Jersey friend is coming in for the afternoon, so that means photostrolling & a nice late lunch.
Wait till Jersey finds out about the mobile blogging. I drive them crazy enough with the camera - stopping every ten steps for just one more photo, or darting from one side of the street to the other for the perfect angle. Now I’ll be typing up posts and e-mailing them during meals or while standing in line for movie tickets. I can practically here it now.
August is such a quiet month. Everyone is away. Where is my hustling bustling September?
What can I tell you? I just can’t sit still.
Oh, if you like go visit my Saturday Photo Hunt. Don’t worry the animals are all friendly.
Waving at you all from New York
Today marks 25 years living in the same apartment building.
We’ve been in our current apartment over 20 years, and have the accumulated clutter to prove it!
My daughter has been married only three years, and they’ve moved three times already. I tend to be adventuresome, but I like having my funky little ole apartment waiting for me at the end of the day.
Today’s culinary adventure is this empanada bought from a street corner stand in uptown Manhattan. They fry ‘em up right in front of you.
If you like check out my Four for Friday - it’s one of the new memes I tried this week.
Ciao for now
Even if I just tune in during the final five minutes I end up in tears.
Mobile blogging aka moblogging
A couple of days back I was waiting on an endless line wishing I was blogging instead.
Then I realized I could if I wanted too. My cell phone plan comes with 200 free MMS (multi-media messages). That’s a lot of pictures and posts.
I spent a good part of Wednesday working on a new blog just for posting on the go.
It should be ready to show all of you soon.
So what are you all up to?
Today I went to the Social Security offices & The Department of Motor Vehicles.
Just needed to have a small correction made to my last name.
Started whole process at 10:30am, and finished at 4:30pm
The information operator told me that there was a Social Security at East 29th Street. It’s a neighborhood I like, so off I went on the subway. When I got there all I found was a sign that gave the office’s new address - 15 blocks away.
I get myself over to the address, and get a number - A165. They call A140 right afterwards. **sigh
Things I Did While I Waited:
- text everyone in my address book to let them know I felt like there was a pitchfork in my eye
- cleaned out handbag
- added up all the credit card receipts accumulated over two weeks
- realize how much I spent and sit stunned for several minutes
- come to and go downstairs to buy an ice cold Arizona Sweet Tea at the corner deli
- stand outside of the corner deli, sipping tea and admiring the cut flowers on the outside stand
- got chased by the largest bee on the planet
- go back upstairs and struck up conversation with the lady next to me
- read newspaper over someone’s shoulder
- made a to do list that I’ll probably never do
A165 finally gets called after nearly two hours, and the lady I;m talking to cheers for me.
I get an excellent clerk, who was able to solve my problem. She even provided me with a letter for the DMV.
Feeling heady with success I decide to rock over to the DMV and get it all done today.
Took a couple of pics along the way.
Get to DMV and get an application to change name.
Stand on a long line.
Take eye test.
Smile for picture.
I hate having my picture taken.
Prove that correction is valid to clerk.
Clerk okays application & gives me a number - B342.
Play peek-a-boo with adorable two year old.
Call friend to hear about gorgeous guy she met.
B342
Practically skip to window because in minutes the transaction will be done.
Ask woman at desk question.
Get ignored.
Ask question again.
Get ignored.
Say excuse me so many times it sounds like a mantra.
Get ignored.
Woman at next desk tells me clerk is very very hard of hearing.
Look at woman strangely.
Ask her to clarify.
Woman explains that clerk is so hard of hearing that she can not hear me at all.
Ask woman if superivisor is available.
She offers to answer my questions.
Ask woman questions, get answers and take completed papers from hard of hearing clerk.
Pay five dollars for new card to be mailed to me.
Grab myself a snack and head home.
Pick up mail.
Letter from IRS.
Sink slowly into chair.
Dial IRS customer service.
Incredibly wonderful person on other end of line fixes everything in a nanosecond.
Thank person profusely, hang up, and go collapse face first on futon.
My first.
This week’s theme is Favorite Treat.
Our host is Give It A Try - One Day At A Time
Two of my favorite treats are juicy burgers & cupcakes.
An absolutely brillant restauranteur recently opened a place on West 23rd Street that features both:
On my last visit I had the turkey burger with goat cheese and a side of caramelized onions.
And for dessert the fresh peach cupcake
And no, I didn’t put mustard on the cupcake. I posted this pic before and more than one person asked that.
Official Burgers & Cupcakes website
Okay, now everyone have a really FUN Monday.
I was browsing through my photos and found a folder of pictures I took a year ago.
Thought it might be fun to repost a few:
Just finished posting my Saturday Photo Hunt
I was browsing through The Daily Meme this past week, and decided it woudl be nice to try a few new memes this coming week.
My blog buddy is hosting Fun Monday this week, and I signed up. The theme is your favorite treat. I’m never going to be able to pick just one, but I do hope to narrow it down to three or four.
Actually this will serve as my excuse to indulge myself Sunday afternoon. One should invest a little of themselves to get a project right - right? ;) Plus I’ll take pictures of said treats, now that’s real research folks.
Time to go work on Sunday Scribblings; the theme is goosebumps.
Ciao for now.
Oh here’s a pic I took on Wednesday. Some planted these all up and down West 13th Street. And yes, the leaves are as big as they look in the photo. You could make one into a parasol.
Murphy Brown is fighting a traffic ticket on TV Land.
I just got back from the 24 hour deli/pizzeria/bakery/salad bar across the street. The fresh cheese croissant was irresistable; I washed one down with a Diet 7up. It tasted good, but somehow seems so wrong now that I see it written down.
Sleep snuck up on me before 11pm last night, and I woke up at 4:30 am.
Murphy just blew it; the show ended with her picking up trash by the side of the highway.
Why didn’t she take the suspended sentence originally offered?
She felt she was in the right, and wanted to prove a point.
Sounds like something I would do.
Lucky she didn’t get the chair.
Time to crawl back under the covers.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………………………………..
As per my last post, this morning I dropped off the laundry and headed for Starbucks.
The joint was mobbed, so I went down the street to the EuroPan. Hey, you always have to have Plan B right?
I chose a fruit salad, that surprisingly had lots of melon, grapes and fresh pineapple in it. A lot of places try to cheap out by dicing in lots of browning apples. A huge red strawberry, cut in thin slices, sat like a crown on top. It was already nearly 85 out, so I grabbed a Gatorade to go with it and sat down.
After I ate I opened my notebook and began to freewrite rapidly.
Somehow I got on the subject of multi-tasking, and that brought back my college registration days.
Suddenly it was 1980, and there I was in that huge auditorium facing all those big ugly institutional tables. You know the ones, with the cardboard brown tops and the ugly pipe style legs.
The idea was simple. Every available class had one table. Of course, several time slots were available for each class, and everyone wanted the classes between 10am & 2pm.
During my two years in college I took mostly Liberal Arts courses. This gave me an edge at registration because I did not have to worry about requirements.
Well actually maybe there were requirements - I just never worried about them. I signed up for what I wanted, and handed the registrar my check. The only thing I ever heard out of her was thank you
The nights before this twice yearly Cecil B. DeMille movie I would prepare several schedules. Then I would assign each a number based on preference; of course numero uno was the preferred. I also made sure that I had a list of alternate choices for each time slot, this way if just one class I wanted was not available I could salvage the rest.
It was like getting ready for a marathon. I always wore something very dressy with comfortable shoes. My theory was that something dressy would show I was serious, and the comfortable shoes enable me to cover more ground quickly.
Can I tell you how many girls wore their highest heels to registration?
I would get there early, and work with my first choice list. Usually the third class on the list would not be available, and then I would try and pick up my second or third preference in that time slot. If nothing I liked was available, then I got out list 2 and began registering for each class on it. If I got everything then I would go and unregister myself from the classes on list one.
I never took more than three hours to register, and I always managed to have classes just four days a week. One term I managed to have everything work out so I only went to school Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Every term I tried to teach some of my friends the system - no one ever got it.
It was too simple - but letting go is very hard sometimes.
One term I ended up taking Statistics when I really wanted something else. I still love statistics, don’t ask me what the class I really wanted was - I’ve forgotten.
I’ve declared that tomorrow to be totally for me, and totally creative.
I’ll be back at you tomorrow night with a full report.
Peace. Love. Joy.
Maybe it was the post that I did for Sunday Scribblings that started it all.
As the train pulled into the 116th Street station I got to thinking about my life.
Highlights of the last ten years fast forwarded on my mind’s screen. I witnesses the highs and lows without getting too emotional.
One thing was apparent - a lot of learning had taken place.
When I got home my husband was watching a discussion panel, and the leader said something that had an immediate impact on me.
She said too many people dwell on what they don’t do well.
We should concentrate on our talents and what good could be done with them, and not worry so much about our shortcomings.
That we should be confident that the universe would provide.
I was going to do the laundry tomorrow morning, but have decided to take it to the service place and let them do it. I’m going to use that two hours for a writing session.
Peace
If you’ve ever looked through a template site you may have noticed the words Lorem Ipsum
I know I have, and today was the day to find the meaning.
I thought it might be Latin for template site or maybe up your nose with a rubber hose.
This is the meaning, and it’s very interesting.
Just another bit of trivia brought to you by Frances who loves things like this.
Well, at least when it comes to this week’s Sunday Scribbling topic- DECISION
Hopefully I’ll have a creative flash that will produce an A+ post.
Oh, speaking of creative what do you think of this?
Wow, that was a Beverly Hillbillies moment if ever there was one.
Was just cruising the Writers Online Workshop schedule, I’ve already one of their classes and it was good. I’m wavering between Technical Writing & Poetry. Sometimes it’s problematic being equally left & right brained.
This class has been on my wish list for a long time, and I’m finally making time to take it come September.
While I was cruising around the net looking for online learning sources I ran into the Video Professor
He actually has a 99 cent sale going on!
Well, I have to get up early so I’ll say ‘nite for now.
Sweet Dreams.
In New York the best meals are often found in humble places.
This morning I got to thinking about this raggedy Indian place in Lower Manhattan; they used to serve a great buffet lunch. Guess what? They still serve a great lunch, and the owner even had the saggy old ceiling tiles replaced. He used to cover up the really bad ones with sari fabric.
There’s even new matching light fixtures, though I kind of missed the Christmas lights he used to keep up all year.
As soon as I walked in he said; “hey it’s been a long time since you were here.”
“You’ve changed things it looks good.”
He beamed as if the joint just had been awarded 5 fives.
After lunch I wandered over to the little park by City Hall to yak on my cell phone. Speaking of which I better check my minutes. The fresh batch starts on the 28th of the month, and at least 300 are already gone.
I came home to straighten out some paper work, and get my online banking done.
When the sun goes finally goes down - it’s at least 90 out there - I’m going to go have a cold drink and a bit of writing session.
What are all of you up to?
Museum lighting can be very challenging.
