Blonde & Black

The first night I saw a blonde haired young woman standing near the ticket vending machines at the subway entrance/exit, it dimly registered in my mind that she was waiting for a friend to exit. Her excessive eye makeup and her black and white outfit caught my eye. The image stayed with me. I doubted if what I thought was true. Then last night there was a raven haired young woman in the same ‘waiting area’ with elaborately made up eyes and the light dawned. Looking and hooking for johns as they either enter or exit. I wonder how that works? Yes, I know how that works, I just wonder where they go?

More The Bus

And the bus drivers:  I have heard Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Oprah announcing the next stops.  And I have seen the doubles for Denzel, Whitney, and Roseanne Barr driving the busses.  These persons are courteous, sane, competent and now and then especially humorous.  One recent evening, I was dressed upper-west-side to attend a YCA concert.  This means, perfect hair, bandbox suit, and shoes with slender high heels.  The bus stops for me at my usual stop and the doors open.  As I look at the driver and am about to put my fare card in the slot, he says in a loud voice ” Cocktails will be served in just a few minutes”.  I wasn’t the only one laughing

The Bus

Why it’s great to ride the bus. #1. you can see where you’re going and where you want to get off. #2.  it’s like a tourist ride for the price of the fare. #3. the plethora of persons that the bus gathers as it rolls along the streets. Every strata of life from the boisterous school children in the back at 3:15 just out of classes, and running on sugar sweets purchased at the deli behind the bus stop; the street-living man with his black plastic cupboard [we’d call it a garbage bag], sleeping until he is awakened. No longer may one stay on the bus and ride it around. At the end you have to exit. Since I never ride it north or south to the end, I don’t know where vagrants get out. Perhaps the park.  And moi.
I am awed each and every time I see how the bus accommodates the mobile restricted. If it is a bus with a 2 step entrance, the driver can activate a ramp that slides out from under the bottom step. Attached to the ramp are large hand rails on either side. The person in need, steps onto the now sidewalk level ramp and it hoists them up to equal to the top step and pulls them into the bus. They then pay and amble off either by foot or motorized convenience toward a seat. If it is a flat entry bus, the entire bus can lower so the flat entry is sidewalk level or again, the flat entry can be opened up like you open a powder compact, it swings up and back, away from itself, 180 degrees creating a ramp that is now over the curb gap leading from the sidewalk to the bus’ interior. Said person can now drive up the ramp, or walker up. And all of this delays the schedule in only small amounts. What a service.

Zipcar

Clever concept. Rent a car by the hour, by the day. Price is inclusive fuel. The vehicle drives by unlocking it with a smart card and the key is permanently attached close by the ignition. Your responsibility to the following driver is to leave at least a 1/4 tank of fuel, a clean interior and your obligation to the company is to pick it up and bring it back at the agreed upon times.  Should you fail to fulfill any of the above stipulations, the fines can be steep. Had a callback out of town today, and with tolls included, the train would have been cheaper. But it was a beautiful sunny day and I was driving to countryside I hadn’t visited approaching it from the north. To have a car to pick up and drop off a half mile from my residence, made it feel like an old fashioned outing.

Facelifts

Walking along Fifth Avenue one is confronted with the facelift factor on passing females. You can identify a facelift easily and the women resemble one another, as if members of the same family. But I have some questions for you sisters. #1 For whom are you doing it? If it is to keep your significant other from trading you in for a younger version of you, a face lift falls short of what you need to alter. You will actually have to undergo an entire body rebuilding and revert back 30 years to a younger mentality. Good luck with that. So it can’t be the spouse. #2 Your hands. Try as you may, I don’t know of a method to make your hands match the new facts of the face. So should you happen to raise your old hand to apply lipstick to your new face, there is loud screaming dissonance. #3. You all apparently go to the same expensive doctors who have similar style of surgical adjustment. Why don’t you go to another country, say France or Hong Kong and get a Dr. with an ‘other’ perspective so that at the very least you look less similar to your neighbor. #4. What do you see when you look in the mirror? The bleached hair, the false eyelashes, the withered skin to be hidden under fine clothes and glove-leather boots. [I love the fine clothes and the glove-leather boots for sure], but are you complete? Have you achieved what? And this is today. What happens tomorrow? Answers please, I want to understand this, for whom are you doing it? Not for me, that’s for sure.

One Glove

Lost one glove. This never happens to me, but now I can never say never. I retraced my steps from yesterday, visited the two places on route and still no my glove. Did see a pair of white with black stripes, laid atop an in-window cooling unit, for someone to find, walked along side a freshly dropped hat on the sidewalk, a black glove in a dark pool of water by the curb, but no my glove. I asked 5 street cleaners if they had seen one. No. I am not convinced I lost it on the street, but given the size of my living space.. you would see it, trust me! I think there should be a 24 hour one glove rule. If you see a single glove on the sidewalk or pavement, hang it from a tree branch, drape it over the iron work around the bottom of a tree, place it in a prominent spot like a lamp post [provided you can afix it] but give it’s owner 24 hours to find it before you toss it in the corner trash bin. Thanks.

Why Me?

Why am I the one observing what is going on around me? Because everyone else is walking and talking and texting and looking at their phones and not only about to walk into me, but are not seeing the events and people that I am seeing because I am not walking and texting and talking.  When I once traveled across the States by train with a small child, I remember saying, rather continiously, ‘look out the window’. Another, smaller boy, with red hair and freckles [which has nothing to do with anything except I can still see him in my mind’s eye] asked, why do you keep saying that? I explained I wanted the other small child to be aware of his surroundings and see things he hadn’t seen before.  Oh well….

I Know, I know, I know!

But I am compelled to continue along this important rabbit trail on which I find myself. Did you know that ‘after a user allows an application on any apple device to have access to location information, the app can copy the user’s entire photo library without any further notification, or warning…’ [this is from the website Bits]. So you are now properly warned.  It was found to be true that applications were already copying address book information, as you will know if you have ever gotten unsolicited adverts from your dear friends encouraging you to take up home work of some fashion or another.  What this actually means is that once it leaves your domain, and is relegated to cyberspace, you have less than zero control over how and when the photos or whatever is purloined will be used.

I know, I know…

but do you? The company that owns twitter, yesterday, sold access to the last two years of tweets to an English company. Now every tweet you ever sent will be used to market to you goods and services. Are you aware of the public access of tweets? There is no privacy. The tweeter can only access 7 days history. Just a thought. – before you share with your public.