Chronicles Continued

Drive The Bus.  Yesterday while walking to the subway, I got stuck behind a father and his young son who looked to be about 4 years old.  They were doing what a good parent does best with a 4 year old, let them set the pace.  Surprisingly there is an abundance of snow piled along the sidewalk curbs and against the buildings which narrows the available walking path.  As we were walking in train fashion, there were a few pigeons foraging along the inside of the sidewalk, for whatever they could find to eat.  The father chatted to the boy about the activity. At last an opportunity to pass them came, and as I went by the father suddenly said, “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus”.  I had to turn around and say that it was my favorite book!  He! smiled, and his boy just kept looking at the busy pigeons.  For whom are children’s books written anyway?

Today, in the aftermath of the snow storm in which 6-8 inches lay on the ground, I was navigating the walk home from the theatre.  At one intersection, I took to the roadway.  It suddenly occurred to me that the roadway, which is cleared by the City was in much better shape than the sidewalks and corner crossings.  How is That now?  The City pays to keep the roads virtually snow free for the cars, but each property owner is required to clear their portion of the sidewalk.  Some owners did not get that memo.  And who is responsible for the sidewalk that boarders the parks.  Guess that memo has not yet been composed.  Giving this some thought, the roadways are for the buses and taxis. But one can not reach the bus from the sidewalk, because the sidewalks are cleared horizontally to the street, not vertically.  And no one clears the bus’ stops that are now blocked by piles of snow created by the snowplows clearing the street. A conundrum indeed!

Dismay.. Determined.  What, you ask, could possibly bring on such emotions?

RED ROCK.

Discovered it, not looking for it, on Amazon Prime Steaming.  An Irish Cop Show, set in Dublin, figured I’d watch episode one; immediately hooked. Decided there can’t be more than 10 episodes to a season; done in no time, as each episode is about 20 minutes.  At episode 15 thought I’d have a look at how many more.  The screen went to 25.  No problem.  At 25 and still no end in sight, looked again. and it appeared to end somewhere around 42.  At 41 checked again: 80!  What TV show has 80 episodes in one season.  What TV show is so good you can not figure out how you are going to do this.  I decide at 45 that I can not give this much time to it and will just jump in at 76 and ride it out to 80; end of Season One.  And that is what I did.  However. Episode 80 does not end the story! The story continues into Season Two.  And how many episodes to Season Two.  You got it.  This is like a bad drug.  You don’t want to continue, but you are hooked.  And Badly.

Went to the ‘diamond district’ for a specific watch repair. A most fascinating street area east of sixth avenue on 47th.  As I walked along, had to brave all the hawkers and their pitch to me, “Are you selling something?”  I noticed that the younger women or women in the company of men got: ‘ Looking for an engagement ring?’ While waiting for the repair man who never showed, I chatted with his space-mate.  His profession was the setting of diamonds in custom-design rings.  He told me that last week he set a 15 carat stone that was insured for 1.5 million dollars to travel the block it took to get from the shop where it was purchased to his setting bench.  It was an emerald cut, colorless  E clarity and no internal flaws stone.  He was in awe of it, but could not take a picture of it, as the ‘owners’ stood right over him.  I asked him if he had ever seen a fake sold as authentic.  He said no.  I told him I preferred Moissanite diamonds.  He understood.  He said if you have a huge, clear, diamond and you held onto it long enough, it would increase in value.  As I walked the street, while waiting, realized how much business goes on every day of which I am entirely unawares.

The temple Emanu-el on Fifth Avenue between 65 and 66th Streets.  Attended an information evening by Eric Schlosser, the Documentary film maker on Nuclear Armament and D. Trump.  But what strikes me most each time, is the imposing structure and was this a memory of the tabernacle in Jerusalem?

The company Snap Inc. went public today – that means it is now publicly traded and is worth 33 billion dollars.  They own nothing, there is no inventory, no product produced that you can ‘drop on your foot’, it is described below.  This whole concept makes my way of thinking obsolete.

From Wikipedia:         Core functionality
Snapchat is primarily used for creating multimedia messages referred to as “snaps”; snaps can consist of a photo or a short video, and can be edited to include filters and effects, text captions, and drawings.[28][29] A feature known as “Geofilters” was added in July 2014, which allows special graphical overlays to be available if the user is within a certain geographical location, such as a city, event, or destination.[30][31] The “Lens” feature, introduced in September 2015, allows users to add real-time effects into their snaps by using face detection technology which is activated by long-pressing on a face within the viewfinder.[32]

Snaps can be directed privately to selected contacts, or to a semi-public “Story”.[19] The private message photo snaps can be viewed for a user-specified length of time (1 to 10 seconds as determined by the sender) before they become inaccessible. Users were previously required to hold down on the screen in order to view a snap; this behavior was removed in July 2015.[33] The requirement to hold on the screen was intended to frustrate the ability to take screenshots of snaps; the Snapchat app does not prevent screenshots from being taken, but can notify the sender if it detects that it has been saved. However, these notifications can be bypassed through either unauthorized modifications to the app or by obtaining the image through external means.[5][13][34] One snap per day can be replayed for free; additional replays can be purchased using microtransactions.[35]

If you are looking for a place to park… and you are driving by… what catches your eye!

It’s not unusual to see someone reading an actual book on the subway, not just a kindle, but it is not usual to see someone sit down and open the book with just three pages left to read.  I was curious that he had not finished it earlier; on the platform, or at lunch or, or.  But finish it he did.  As I exited right next to him, i asked him if the ending was satisfactory.  He said it was.

As you can see, it was sunny, but cold and as I approached this little boxwood, The entire bush was enveloped in song.  It was akin to those battery operated Christmas trees that talk, but this was a rather large bush.  The noise was robust, but i could see neither hide nor hair of a bird.  So I walked right up to it, to seek further.  All at once, dead silence. I mean you could have heard a pin drop.  It make me chuckle, as I was looking for them, they were obviously staring right back at me.