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.

Due to:

1. Computer Malfunction
2. Areas of no connectivity, and no working computer to connect
3. Lack of conscious time with cogent thoughts

I use computers all the time, but occasionally they can be baffling. Like when they work fine in the morning, but by the afternoon you can not connect to the internet. Usually when that happens we figure it is with the internet connection itself. Unfortunately it takes a day or two to get that idea off of the plate.

Probably more than 1 week later, I finally got the computer in to work, where our resident Wizard was able to find the sneaky program that was keeping the computer from connecting. Trojan, virus, not sure. But in addition to detecting and eradicating the don’t connect program, he was able to delete several thousand bits of things that were probably slowing this old computer down.

There is a reason we call him Wizard!

And there were the 3 days on the island of little connection. Lopez that is. It was very interesting to be back in a time where land lines trump the cell phone. Liberating even. We basically turned off the phones for the duration.

The reason for the island time was the wedding of a first cousin once removed.
It was a great event, and we wish the bride and groom years of happiness and adventure. The entire group of people we got to meet and know for a bit were wonderful. The housed us, fed us, told us island stories, and made our weekend magical. It was a really fun family time, with beautiful surroundings. We kept saying, “We have not been anywhere that did not seem beautiful.” The wedding party family and friends did an awesome job.

The wedding also provided us with the opportunity to show off a bit of Seattle to sisters, cousins, and in-laws of various degrees. Carl was the primary tour guide. Space Needle, the Troll, EMP (Experience Music Project), and the Pike Street Market. Other places as well I am sure, but it seems like forever ago already.

Work has been flying at me at a maddening pace. I try to put in some extra hours, just to keep up. There are a few things that just need to get done, so the time must be spent.

That is until something more important comes along, like unexpected visits to the doctor. And why is it that these are never during a convenient time? (Everyone is OK.) The system worked for us, although there were a few too many hours spent waiting, but, since it was not as dire as others’ issues, one must learn to be patient. (That is a little joke, hee, hee.)

Carl was impressed with the skills and patience of the health care providers he saw and heard. Especially heard working with others. The end result of this event is we will pay much more attention to our diet and exercise. More in a future post I am sure.

We spent almost 24 hours getting to know the medical system just a bit better, and then slept for about 12 straight.

So I am at work. Just arrived.
I usually count on weekend work to be free from most interruptions.

Today will probably be the same, but I arrived to find the gate open, with a sign for the public,

Hmmmm.

Apparently we have a main break (water main). It is along a stretch that has at least two other recent breaks (over the past 10 years), including one that had a fire truck in the hole. Maybe it is due for a complete replacement.

The crew is showing up. But a field admin assistant was also trying to get some work done, so she will more likely be the one to respond to any radio requests.

Yesterday night started as a sunny evening.
In the sun I was warm.
As soon as the sun set I was looking for my sweatshirt, a sure sign of the approaching change of seasons. A few months ago I published a picture of our bat garden.

It has been growing well over the summer, along with the weeds.

Another sign is that Rey’s team has most likely played their last home game of the season.

At work it feels like work is accelerating toward . . . . something.
Maybe the departure of my assistant, riding off in to the proverbial sunset, has set me to thinking.

And so the sun set behind the walls of the stadium, and the Mariner game began.

Not much going for the Mariners in last nights game.
It was long, and low scoring (for the Mariners anyway).

On the positive, there was a family of three from Orange County sitting next to us. They were nice folks, and good to chat with through the game. Cheering for their team, but not overly obnoxious about it (as many routing for the visiting team can be). Their 3-year old was non-stop energy. I have seen many children over the years, and this kid was on a different level than most. The father allowed that the child would stay up to 1 AM at times, so they took to driving him around in the car to get him to fall asleep. He said that after being pulled over a few time (“What are you doing out at this hour sir”), the cops would just wave and smile.

The game finally ended and we headed to the car.
Only, the battery was dead. Apparently there was some time spent pre-game with lights on and radio going before the game.
Luckily for us we had recently decided to join AAA. I had made the call, and didn’t even try to meet the folks parked in front of us when they returned. The car was started by a friendly AAAer, and we were off. Hopefully it will start again this AM!

Yesterday was also a Blue Moon, sort of. Read this article for a bit of interesting history of the current use of the term. Much easier to remember the 2 moons in one month, but the other explanation is more interesting.

And with that I must get myself ready to head to work.

Carl is heading to the Mariner game a bit later.
Felix Hernandez is pitching again, and he and a few neighbors (father/son team) are going to join the Felix K Section. This is a view of the poster from the last Felix game.