It is Friday evening, and I am still working on Tuesday.
Hopefully I will have some time to progress on this still tonight, or remember it all for a bit longer.

So this post is about Tuesday evening.

Our primary activity was a Mets game at Citi Field.

The route to Citi Field involved 3 subway lines. This alone is enough to sway Ashlan towards Yankee games.

Batting practice for us lasted about three batters again. The gates are only open 1-1/2 hours before gametime, and we were not waiting at the gates when they opened. We were also frisked upon entry.

Rey and Carl at BP

The food choices were much better than Yankee Stadium. They even had a gluten-free stand.
The stand below was the Shake Shack. Ashlan said they had good burgers, and they did have the longest line.

Citi Field –

Pre-game festivities

Spent a bit of time getting some different view points

You can see our seats to the left of the scoreboard

A closer view of the scoreboard.

The view from our seats.

from our seats in left field

Our seats were in the third row of left center.
The first two rows were super premium at twice the price.
The ushers were initially diligent about checking our tickets for the correct section, at least 3 sets of people sat in the same “Premium” seats in front of us. I doubt any of them actually owned the tickets.
Then there was a small lower picnic section in front of the “first” row.

Essentially, we were near the front, but it felt much further from home plate than our Safeco Field seats. Citi Field has a big outfield.

Today’s (Tuesday’s) line-up

Pittsburgh Pirates vs New York Mets

It was also WINDY in left field. This made this event the first time we looked for our outer-wear.

How’s my hair?

Are we having fun yet?

The wind may have helped with the four home runs. (We were close to this celebratory fruit.)

The Home Run BIG APPLE

I was actually not too cold, with 3 layers.
Carl did not get cold until the 9th inning.
Ashlan and I were not there to witness this event, as we left shortly after the 7th inning stretch.
It had been a long day, including work for Ashlan, and home seemed like a good place to head towards.

Not quite sure why there is a big pig in the concourse.

On our way home we stopped off at Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Terminal

The above is a repeat picture, but it really was the close (picture wise) to Tuesday.

And the Mets lost, but  I can’t quite remember the score. Possibly 8-6 (unverified)

It is Thursday morning, and I am still working on Tuesday’s material.
Suffice it to say, Wednesday was very full, and I am trying to keep things in order.

This is a continuation, or rather, specialization of the MET experience.

My father has long had an interest in Annunciations. We have one hanging in the living room.
That is in my parents house.

Once upon a time I had explained much of the symbolism in Annunciations.
A few include: Lily = Purity, Enclosed garden = Purity, Cross = Virgin, Dove = Holy Spirit, the Virgin’s ear canted upward = the opening for conception. I don’t know what the open book means. The angel is the Archangel Gabriel.

Anyone is welcome to correct, or expand on, these explanations.

We saw lots of Annunciations, and some of them turned out better than others.

Click on a picture to get into the bigger versions

Next – the other Mets.

Rey and Carl actually started their Tuesday in Baltimore.
They attended 2 Orioles vs Blue Jays games in one day.
This was bookended by bus trips to and from NYC.
More on this in a later post when I have some pictures and better explanations.

The preceding introduction was really only to let you know that they were a bit tired today, having arrived back at Ashlan’s just before 6 AM. They did sleep for a while, but not as long as they might have  liked.

Anyway, this post is a series of pictures of our visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Although there were tired folks and feet at the end of the visit, we could have spent a lot more time here.
We never did even find where the Warhol exhibit might have been.
(Note: Part 2 of this blog day is also from the museum.)

Today is my day on my own.
Carl & Rey departed this morning for Baltimore (Orioles game of course), and will return early tomorrow morning. About a 22 hour sojourn. I hope they get a little sleep, although we have nothing planned for tomorrow morning.

Ashlan was going to spend some time with me, but I slept late (part 1 of my plan for today), and she got called in for an earlier shift at work. (Part 2 of my plan was to do some reading. That part has not materialized as of yet.)

I did have what might be considered a luxurious morning.
After a brief time vertical, in which I made coffee and wished the boys, “Bon voyage,” I slept until 10 AM.
Ashlan made me a smoothie for breakfast, and I had some of the previously brewed coffee.
(This may not seem like much, but this Seattleite went the entire day yesterday with no caffeine.)
Then after she left for work I took a shower, without worrying about anybody else needing the bathroom. This was indeed a luxury in a place currently inhabited by 6 people.

Finally it was time to venture out into the CITY.

So, with apartment entry tools in had, I exited.
Found my way back to the subway entrance, and the side of the tracks running west.
The stop I was ending at was the end of the line, so no real mystery there.
Two blocks further west, and the stairs to the High Line appeared directly in my path.

The High Line is now a park, but was a train that served the industrial area near the west waterfront.
There were some signs explaining the history, and just lots of vistas to check out.
Buildings, people, scenery… and it was OK to look like a tourist with camera in hand.

I even got stopped by a group asking for advice about raising kids.
They liked my 1 line answer, so I had my picture taken and was provided with a $5 Starbucks card.
[My advice was, “Wait for them to answer.” To frequently the parents are on to more questions before the wee toddler has formulated an answer to the first question.]

I have put together the following pictures from my day in one small part of the city.
The High Line is about 1 mile of trail, and I went from end to end, so a short walk. At least I got some exercise in.

(Apparently you will need to click on the pictures to get to the larger view)

The return trip went fairly well, except I chose the wrong exit out of the subway (wrong corner of the intersection that is). I turned around 3 times trying to get going in the right direction, but never got too far wrong before I figured out my mistake. Anybody choosing to watch me probably got a chuckle, and I am SURE I looked like a tourist for these few moments.

Ashlan lives in Stuyvesant Town. (From their web-site)

Manhattan Living with an 80-Acre Backyard

Located in the East Village, Stuyvesant Town is something totally unique in Manhattan… oversized, renovated apartments set within an 80-acre private park, featuring an abundance of activities, amenities and services. From the hundreds of social events, seasonal greenmarket, live music, movies, and food fairs, there is always something going on at Stuyvesant Town!

Oversized is perhaps a bit of an overstatement,  but perhaps not for NYC.
It is comfortable.

It is also large enough to be recognizable on the aerial maps, which is helpful for when I am trying to figure where all things fit together.

Stuy town from the air. Ashlan’s Apt is near 14th and Avenue B (for those that know NYC, near the right side of the photo.

Ashlan was a bit hazy on the history, so I consulted Wikipedia.
In brief, a post World War II housing complex. Located on what had once (in the 17th century) been the 80-acre farm of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director-General of New Amsterdam.

The area was part of the Gas House District in the early 1900’s and home to large gas tanks.

Gas tanks seen from East 20th St towards 1st Avenue in 1938

Stuyvesant Town was built after World War II as a public-private partnership between Met-Life and NYC. The early history of the complex include discrimination and lawsuits regarding condemnation of land, and whether private companies  should profit from “public benefit” takings of land. (It seems that on that subject not much has changed over the past 70 years.) The lawsuits continue, or at least until recently.

In the present it has afforded Ashlan an almost affordable reasonable place to live.
She started her adventure in a Brooklyn apartment. A bit less expensive, but considerably further from work and play.

Today revolved around a Yankee vs  Athletics game at Yankee Stadium.

Bought a 7-day pass for the subway and set off.

Subway

I was really feeling like a fish out of water.
I am not shy about using mass transit, and we had our knowledgeable guide, Ashlan, but I did not have a grasp of the general direction, how to get in and out of the  subway stations, how do you know if you are on the right side of the tracks, etc ….

The subway to the game was not too overcrowded. We even got to sit down a bit on the second train.

We  arrived early, hoping to catch a bit of batting practice, but there were  no players on the field.
Wandered for a bit, and then three Yankees stepped up to the plate.

3 person BP

Good thing we were  paying attention, because they were the only players that hit.

The kids

We did not catch any balls, but Carl managed to get one from the Athletics bullpen, which was next to our seats.

The day was warm/hot and the stadium was crowded. 48,000+ if I remember correctly.
Our seats were in left  field. 2 in the front row, and the other two a few seats down in the second.

We’re in the front row (which has a rather high concrete barrier that would block the view of a diminutive seated person).

Just to the right of Ichiro. A mirror of our vantage point at Safeco for so many years.

The other back-side of Ichiro

It was funny listening to a couple of fans comment on Ichiro’s continuous stretching. They surmised it was due to his advancing age, but we know he has done it all along.

Yankee Stadium Flags

The game was pretty good, scoring on both sides with the Athletics prevailing in the end. And closing on 4 hours long – much too long for a 9-inning game.

Bric-a-brac

In the middle of the game 5 planes provided some entertainment from above.
They were promoting the arts, and defending the arts.

D E F E

We were not in a position to see the entire message, but here are a few samples.

DEFEND THE ARTS …..

Carl got a second ball tossed up from the bullpen to end our Yankee adventure, and gave it to a kid who was late in arriving for the ball begging.

Back out with the crowds and on to the subway.

And at the end of the day, I could get to the first subway station we went in to, and know where two grocery stores are located.

Tomorrow the boys are going to Baltimore to see the Orioles.

Happy Boys

We have arrived.
Yesterday, with a total of 1-1/2 hours sleep we left for the airport.

2 flights later we landed at Laguardia.
(We changed planes in Denver, and I am pretty sure I saw the Fort Collins Harms block. (Mind you this is a square mile block or so.))

Ashlan took pity on us and met us at the airport, although there was a brief moment of right vs left.
The sights we have seen were mostly from the taxi ride – good introduction to NY traffic.

Ashlan picked up Rey without the dozing parents, and we are now all together. [The dozing turned out to be much dryer than the Rey/Ashlan walk.]

The couch (aka Rey’s bed)

Off to Yankee Stadium.

“” am typng ths on Ashlan’s computer, whch has a balky “” key. I want you to apprecate the extra effort t took to get ths down n a legble format.

Day to of the new reality went a little more smoothly. Blood and everything.
And this was in spite of the Mariners 18 inning loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

Now it is not 19 innings, but darn close.
By 17 innings the crowd was getting a little sparse.

A small group of outfield area fans watch the start of the 17th inning of the Seattle Mariners versus Baltimore Orioles game at Safeco Field Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012.

Photo by Erika Schultz, the Seattle Times. Not in the hard-copy edition. It was too late, the paper had already gone to press.

I did not attend the game.
Not even the first 9 innings.
It is obvious that Carl did. And Kevin, exiting stage right (or is it left).

Carl had indicated he was just going to go to batting practice and try to chat with the Mariner bullpen coach. He has been helping Carl with a few of his projects. In this case he had two scorecards from Carl for Felix’s perfect game. Signatures on the scorecards is the request.

Carl had some friends playing a Senior League game, and was going to leave after an inning or two to watch their game. I did not want to go for just a few innings, so stayed away. Work called anyway. Trying to squeeze just a few more moments in this week.

I was asleep before Carl reappeared. I think the game went until 1:30 AM or so. Not really sure.

Tonight I stayed late at work for some budgeting fun.
When I decided I had had enough I checked on the Mariner game.
Tied in the 10th inning.

But for a real fan, perhaps more baseball is a good thing.

So it is day 1 of the new reality.

And we started off with a failure.

Part of yesterday’s exercise in the medical community was to get some new hardware to help monitor Carl’s sweetness factor. Why is it that everything seems to need more hardware? We watched the pharmacist give a brief demonstration, and it did not seem too complicated.

That was until we had to figure how to get the cap off of piece one, finally done.
Put the sharp bit two into piece one, without poking anybody.

But when it comes time to try to poke somebody – the tiny little needle shoots out, but only teases the skin. Several pokes later we have little ticks at the skin, but not able to get enough blood to attract a mosquito.

Carl later went back to the big medical complex where the nice person said he had the machine used for soft female fingers. He needed the machine for big touch male fingers. Machine provided, demonstrated, and hopefully we are now off and running. Well, at least bleeding better.

So we now have one more.

Let me start by saying Carl is feeling great.
Better, in fact, than he has recently.

This is due in part to some magical half-domes (Yamuna Foot Wakers) that cousin Aimee introduced about a week ago. His feet are loving the nubbly massage and moving better than they have in quite a while.

Foot Wakers

Thursday evening was going along swimmingly.
We were not swimming, but it was going smoothly.
I had returned home from work late, and Carl was in the kitchen fixing tacos.

And then the confusion started.
Full sentences, full person and place recognition, but not knowing why things were where they were and how they got to be there.

So off to Urgent Care we went.
The memories returned with a bit of effort, but it was foggy for a few hours. CAT Scan, blood work, EKG, the usual battery with no formal diagnosis.
So off to the hospital we continued.
They monitored him for the night and put him through an MRI the next afternoon.

Still no firm diagnosis, although we are leaning toward Transient Global Amnesia.

But what was diagnosed was diabetes (Type 2).
Carl has always exercised, and I don’t think our diet was all that bad.

It will be getting better.

I think that leaves it to me to eat all of the “bad” food so Carl won’t be tempted.