New York City: the Beginning

              It was 46° on my Google home page this morning when I sat down with my first cup of coffee at 4:30 a.m. I had to do it. The furnace was turned on for the first time this fall. Mainly it was to clear out chill and dampness. Even Stumpy is in the house and curled up on the bed, a sure sign of the colder weather.

In all their wisdom I-Google is doing away with providing “home pages” on the 31st. This is the page Google automatically goes to when I sign into Chrome. I really never got into the habit of using the calendar function to share with friends my schedule. I can barely remember to write on my kitchen calendar what I need to remember, let along program that information onto my computer! But, I have sites I visit daily through that page. I’m in the process of attempting to set up another comparable homepage. From what I have read on discussion boards having such a "sign-in" page is too old school and does not generate enough advertising traffic.

Speaking of infuriating..Open Diary is working my last good nerve. It is impossible to navigate or note anymore. Trying to access favourites from my diary I keep getting the window I don’t have access to the page requested. If I go to the diarist’s home page I can access their latest entries from there. Every navigation now takes some 20 seconds when you average things out. I really think we might be the ending days of this once great site. I hate to see it die, but there has not been much improvement in a long time to the ongoing problems…

Time to get back to documenting my last New York City trip.

Left the house for the Birmingham Airport at 4:20 a.m. I was at Budget to park the truck at 5:30. It took forever for the guy ahead of me to get his rental car settled. I got my paperwork straightened out. I did not think the driver was ever going to show up to drive me the short distance to the Airport. I still had just about an hour to departure time when I got into the long line for security. It took forever. I had left my camera with the extra batteries in my check in which got scanned three times! I just arrived at the gate as the last of my A boarding group was going through the door. My next trip I’ll give myself even more time.

I had a two hour lay-over in Chicago. First thing I did was to get to the departing gate. This was way off the beaten path. Then I went exploring for coffee. No Starbucks at MidwayAirport. The TSA agent told me the coffee at the bookstore was pretty much the best to be found. She was right, it was not bad.

We departed a bit late because of flight crew scheduling; still made good time. It has been ages since I have flown into LaGuardia. It really is a pain to get inot the city from here. Caught the M60 Bus which took me into Harlem to 125th St where I caught a numbered train to Grand Central Station. It was a short walk to the “Y” from here.

Got settled in and headed to the diner for a hamburger. I was famished and just wanted to eat something close by and filling.

Changed into my “good” dark brown Utilikilt for the show tonight. Kinky Boots had a curtain call of 7:00 tonight. I finished up my Starbucks in the lobby where I unfortunately had the low part of the night. These two older, white, rich couples were berating president Obama saying how “uppity and arrogant” he was in not negotiating with the Teabaggers in regards to the debt crisis. I was so incensed, but being around this type so much I kept quiet. Having such good hearing I was able to eavesdrop on everything they said. The way they were dressed it was evident they were in the upper 1%. The one super obnoxious guy sent his driver and car home early as both coup

les were going to ride back together. Enough said. I lucked out in a great seat on the orchestra level pretty much in the middle of the left side.

The show was unreal. It has been years since I have seen been uplifted by such a performance. The bulk of the play takes place within a decaying boot factory. The sets were so well done it felt like I was actually in the plant. I was reminded of my days working at a plastics factory running a press making thermo set plastics. This is the type of plastic that used to be used for pot handles and knobs.

After the performance Cindi Lauper was on stage with the cast and crew for a meet and greet. It was such an eye opener learning how the actors prepare for their roles and how they nurture the personas onstage for each performance. This was held in conjunction with Cindi Laupers True Colors Fund.  Cindi told the story of her older sister who is gay. She said how this sister was a pipefitter who worked on ships and is now an acupuncturist. To hear Cindi tell this story in that NYC accented voice was worth the trip!  Then to learn about how the show came about in the planning stages gave a whole new insight how these projects evolve. I was floating back to the “Y” with a huge smile after we were ushered out.

I only took one picture of Cindi on stage for my journal entry.

Friday morning I did a quick row on the Concept 2 at the “Y” before heading to the Plaza for breakfast. It was so good to see Spiro behind the counter. He gave me a big smile. He remembered me from last year. I guess Utilikilts are pretty hard to forget!

Got back to the “Y” and checked out, storing my bag in the “Y” storage room. I went out in search of adventure. I walked all over the city as is my habit. I almost got some restaurant china steak platters at Fishes Eddy. I don’t have much space to carry anything back and truth be told I don’t need any platters as I use the Pals Cabin plates Billy gave me too many years ago when I fix up my steak.

The farmers market at Union Square has such a variety of foods to choose from. Got two New YorkState apples: a Johnathon and a Winesap from an upstate vendor. What flavor. How I miss these apples here in Alabama. The cardboard WashingtonState apples can’t hold a candle to New York State ones!

I took a nice relaxing stroll on the High Line. What an asset this is to the city. I fell in love with this billboard. I pulled this image off the internet:

Walked back to the “Y” in time to get my bag so I could catch the 4:00 bus to Wayne from the Port Authority.