This is another one of those ‘great news!’ but I really don’t know details, and neither does anyone else working for the MTA. At least not anyone I asked. To purchase a ride-the-bus-card, one usually goes underground to the Metrocard vending machines . Once you locate them, and understand that they are always at the entrance to the subway, it’s a no brainer to get a ride-the-bus-card. But if you’re a tourist and you see a bus you want to take what then? At one time you purchased tokens; now the same Metrocard is used for bus and subway. But most people above ground don’t know to go underground to buy an above ground card. But a good thing is happening. I just can’t tell you how often as I have only seen it twice. A MetroCard vending machine, at the bus stop! It is so unexpected and so infrequent you might overlook it. But when you see it and figure out what it is, it is a lifesaver. Because bus drivers do not sell tickets, make change or conduct any business transactions. They do all the other things you have read about, but you getting on with fare is all up to you. So keep a look out on your next trip here, there very possibly is a ticket vending machine at the very bus stop at which you are waiting!
Imagine This
It’s Sunday 9 am and I hail a cab. I step in and he says something after we exchange ‘good morning’. I don’t understand and ask him to repeat it. On three tries I am hearing something about ‘1st’. Concerned that he has mixed up my directions to go to 4th, I ask him to please repeat it one more time. Then I hear it, ‘It’s his first day of cab driving!’ And the second sentence is ‘will I show him how to get to where I want to go’. By the time we arrive at 4th, I felt the first thing he should do is pay me for the instructional time. Ooh and I was so thankful that, a. there was light traffic, b. that after waiting through the green light he finally turned right just as the light was changing to red, not already red. c. that the destination was not so very far because during all of this the meter was running. So would you have tipped?
All Time Best Advice
Learn which avenues/streets run North and which South. This was suggested to me by an astute young man, when I initially told him the story of coming out of the subway and having no idea where I was or how to get to where I wanted to go. Learn which streets run one way north, and which one way south, and then when you exit, and you see 6th Avenue and you remember it is one-way north, then you know where East and West are. Brilliant and so simple and totally necessary. So one Sunday I walked West to East with a piece of paper, crossing over all the North South streets and noting which one went which way. Now I never am in a quandary as to where I am and where I want to go. [well at least physically exiting the subway!]
Bygone Glory
If one looks up in some of the subway stations, you can see the glory that used to be, but is now gone to ruin. Not only has it not been possible to keep it up, but new wiring has been placed in an unattractive but necessary way. There must have been a time when the subway stations were a thing of beauty all along the route.
More Detritus
I have to think someone saw it. I was trolling my purse behind me, in a sturdy bag, slipped inside a large paper Bergdorf bag. When I arrived at my destination I reached inside the Bergdorf bag for one of my two bottles of water. Gone. Both gone. In the bottom right corner of the bag, I see a hole. Both of the bottles must have slipped out. Ya woulda thought someone should have noticed and said something. Or, that I would have seen or felt it! No to both scenarios.
Weed
Part of me thought this was funny. I passed this city truck and noticed that the truck had some sort of extra charm on the front grill. So I went for a closer look. There is SpongeBob with a weed leaf in his hand. Found that pretty gutsy on a City vehicle. However, I am not keen about someone who has just toked being in the same lane of traffic I may be trying to maneuver. That’s where it fails to be funny.
The A Train
There is nothing like the A train. It rides from 14th & 8th to 168th & Broadway in 22 minutes. That’s pretty astounding if one considers what the traffic above ground on those same streets is doing. Or not doing. It whisks one from one end of Manhattan to Brooklyn if that is your route. 4 policeman who looked like an advert for joining the forces boarded at the top. 2 white, 1 african american, 1 hispanic. All fit, all tall and young. After 20 minutes and a couple of stops, they were still standing. Come to find out, an officer in uniform is not allowed to sit. That could be a long ride! The other surprise while riding this train was how the stops were called out. There was 34th, 42nd, and then came 5-9 followed by 1-2-5, with the next two stops being the single letters as well of 1-4-5 and 1-6-8. That can throw a wrench in your listening-for-your-stop-ear. Completely unexpected.
The Deal
Everyone surely agrees: if you don’t mind that there are only 3300 products from which to choose, and you don’t mind the no-frills display, there is no better place for grocery shopping than Trader Joes. Here in the City it is just as good as where you live.
But look at these prices…
2 hothouse cucs $1.
3 spinach bundles – a pound each @ $1.25 each
3 full bunches of green onions $1.
2 lovely big bunches of cilantro $1.
2 bags of enoki mushrooms – $1.25 each
2 pounds of carrots -$1.00
1 mixed bag for $1. which had 4 large tomatoes – yet to ripen, 1 red pepper, 4 brown rootie looking things, about the size of a duck egg .
[These when peeled, became slick on the outside, but the inside reminds me of a radish-turnip, sort of. In the soup, they became rather potato like and I wonder if they could be a thickener].
And my all time favorite: boxes of Trader Joes black and blue berries for $1. each.
How can you not shop in China town with prices like these!
[The 4 brown duck egg size rootie looking things turned out to be Chinese arrowroot. I kept thinking tapioca.]
Looks Like Snow
The Spring nights continue. And when I looked up and saw the street light reflecting in the blossoms of the tree, I realized that it looked like snow on a winter’s night.
Dogs & Cats
Yesterday I was again in an apartment where two cats live. These apartment cats never get out to walk the streets. If the apartment has a balcony they may get out there, but most cats see the world, by window sill. A friend once made the following observation: the City is full of dogs, we see them being walked all the time. But the cats, we never see. I bet, he continued, that there are twice as many cats at least in the City as dogs, the hidden pets. So I think about that. Imagine that on a given day all the hidden cats came to the windows of the places they live. I think we would be astounded at the number.