Subway Entertainment

Now that I'm on the subway for at least 6 hrs every week, I get to 'enjoy' a vast array of entertainment. I mean this both in the sense of people watching and in the forced entertainment. Last Wednesday was a particularly memorable ride home.

I got onto a car at the end of the line, having my choice of seat. As usual a picked the 2-person one at the end of one of the cars; this allows me to spread out my stuff (book bag and knitting) and usually avoid having to share until we get to the Financial District. There was a well-dressed man across from me, and only 3 or 4 more people in the car. Shortly after we leave the station, the between-car doors slide open. A strange man wanders and slumps directly across from me, next to Mr. Suit, and announces something about being god and father to all. I do my sniff test (because if he smells bad, I do need to move as soon as possible) but could detect no odour. Mr. Suit also doesn't seem to make any motions about moving, so I figure we're okay for now. In a few more stops, Mr Suit gets up and stands by the door, but it turns out he has a few more stops left to travel. About that time, I start noticing a faint and unpleasant odour. It was like watching the fog roll in:you're not quite sure how long it will take to arrive, or how thick it will be when it does arrive! Anyway, god not only started to stink (delayed odour? I don't even want to think about how that happens!), but I could feel him intently staring at me. It was time to move on, so I grabbed my stuff at the next stop and changed to the next subway car. (I'm not comfortable with the idea of changing between cars through the connecting doors.)

The next car had one of my students, and I felt a little uncomfortable sitting across from her. However, further up the car was a classic bag lady (very many layers of clothes, a cart full of stuff, and several giant shopping bags full surrounding her), so I really had no choice. Luckily the student and I had to share only a couple of subway stops before she exited. All was calm until the prerecorded subway announcements came on (see footnote). This triggered something in Bag Lady who began to pontificate loudly about various matters. Since she was facing away from me, had poor enunciation, and I am just terrible at deciphering accents, I couldn't really understand what she was declaring so loudly. I just caught something about the middle class genocide, and a diatribe about members of other races.

Around midtown, Bag Lady left the car still ranting, but the subway became more and more crowded with each stop. This pattern of crowding is pretty typical. Anyway, this train becomes express during this part of its journey. The good thing is that my commute is much shorter because it's express. The downside is that the relatively long time between stops gives buskers a stage and captive audience.There was Mr. Bulk, who plays really annoying loud music on his boombox and does a few swings and flips using the subway bars/poles, does a hand stand, and then asks for money. The previous time I'd seen Mr. Bulk, he was very angry that money was 'missing' and noted that "Not everyone here is broke! Cough up $2!"Whatever. Anyway, he wasn't that rude this time, but after a long day, at 10pm, I just don't want loud blaring music! Nor do I need to ever again hear the line, "What's the best nation? Donation!" He wandered to the next car, much to my relief. But, that relief was shortlived.

Next came the Magician. He arrived carrying a large case and a folding stand on which was strapped a number of clanging bells. He made an effort to make as much noise as possible so as to draw attention to himself and his act. Then he did a few tricks with his captive (but not captivated) audience, complete with a live dove (poor bird), skimpy underwear, and bubbles. Again, I just want a bit of quiet on my ride home. Besides, I am quite good at entertaining myself, as I'm sure most people are who take the subway. I don't need someone to come entertain me with silly acts! Grrrr!

Other acts I've seen more than once: Trumpet Player (please, not in a small enclosed space!), the Mariachi Band, three/four men who sing "Down By The River". There are also the religious zealots, the "I've lost my home and my job and my family, give me money" people, and the "I've been raped and lost my job and home and my family" people. It's hard to feel too compassionate when you see the same person month after month with the same "I just lost my fill-in-the-blank" and just need a few dollars to pull through" story.

Last night, my train seemed to fill up with the hip-hop/rapper crowd. Usually the financial district spits into the train tonnes of business folk, but last night, it seemed to bring in large black men draped in lots of gold who must sit with their legs spread out very widely and all "rapp'n' wi'cha" very loudly! I was already annoyed, having not packed enough yarn for my usual diversion (knitting keeps me sane for the ride), so I was trying to grade papers instead during this late commute after having been on my feet for 7 of the previous 9 hours. Not happy was I!


Footnote:
The newer trains have quite the collection of pre-recorded messages. At every stop, the woman-announcer tells you which stop we're at, and the man-announcer says "Stand clear the closing doors, pl..." I find it funny that the "please" is nearly always cut off from the announcement! In addition, there are a number of warning announcements: report-suspicious-packages and watch-your-belongings and it's-safer-to-ride-inside-not-outside-the-train and police-are-allowed-to-search-your-bags. Then there are the various delay announcements: the-dispatcher-asked-us-to-wait and there's-a-train-ahead-of-us and to-provide-the-best-possible-service-we-are-wating-for-connecting-passengers, all of which end with "Please be patient." Yeah, we're used to waiting here in NYC, we can wait some more.

It's Autumn!

And with this season comes rain. Its been raining all day, and will do so for the next few days. This means the proliferation of dubious-looking puddles and a surplus of broken umbrellas. In fact, I'm sure by tonight the sidewalks will look like it had rained broken umbrellas, as people literally drop their blown-inside-out models and rush to the nearest vendor to purchase another disposable umbrella.

Not only rain, but odd unpleasant smells too. Perhaps it's because the last few weeks I have finally started to smell things. What a strange new world has opened up for me. Right now, there are pockets of cloying rottenness, which I've learned from Kathy, emanating from ripe gingko fruits. Toby picked up a few (with gloves, as their skins are somewhat toxic) and cleaned off the flesh. We'll refrigerate them and try to grow a gingko plant in the spring. Meanwhile, I've learned to identify the smell and know to look for a nearby gingko tree when I do smell its pungent calling card. (Oddly, I am much more sensitive to the gingko fruit smell than Toby is, so I know one is coming up nearly half a block before he does!)

Another part of Autumn - the heating season begins. This past weekend, when it was a tad chilly at night, we'd closed all the windows in preparation for sleep. I'd donned warm fuzzy pajama pants, socks, and a long-sleeved shirt. I even had a hat handy in case I got too cold at night. And, yes, that was the night the heating season began. I woke up completely drenched in sweat! Ugh! Now, when the heat is on, it's way too warm. I'm currently sitting in shorts and a t-shirt and all the windows are wide open. But in a few minutes the heat will turn off, and I will need to put my sweater back on. Back and forth with this crazy temperature swing, all day, every day, until spring. Yay.

At least the leaves are turning, giving us a lovely palette of colours outside the window! We even tried to see more of the fall spectacle by walking upstate last week! We toured the southern part of the Old Croton Aqueduct. This was built in the 1840's, and brought water into NYC from 1855 to 1955. The aqueduct is submerged for the most part, and drops about 13 inches for every mile (our guide book said). Water was stored at the old Croton Reservoir, dribbled its way into the city, where it was stored at what is now the Great Lawn in Central Park. Today, the state has bought up much of the aqueduct land and has made it into a long, narrow park.

We took the Hudson Line from Grand Central Terminal in midtown up to Tarrytown in Westchester County. From there, it was a bit of a confusing foray through the streets and bridge/highway interchanges to the trail. Much of the trail was wooded with many a busy gray or black squirrel. We went through an estate with beautiful trees, by some strange houses (one painted in pink, mint green and white stripes), and some truly gigantic properties with ostentatious mansions. A lovely expanse that looked like a good picnic spot turned out to be property owned by Toby's work; if we'd known sooner we probably could have risked stopping there for lunch! Instead, we stopped atop some rocks at Mercy College. I think it is a women's college, but looked like a girls' prep school built in 1960's style, with young women in cute little skirts and white shirts uniforms, looking very preppy and like they were preparing for a life of ornamentatioin!

The trail took us through a number of small towns, ranging from the wealthy villas, through a wildlife preserve, and to rundown inner-city-like apartment buildings. We saw deer as we walked by the preserve. Yay! Real wildlife! And, we even saw a coyote zipping across the trail and up into someone's yard! Very exciting to see something other than pigeons and squirrels.

We will need to go back and check out the preserve. There is also a ruined estate nearby with a crazy stone lion at its entrance. Not the Chinese-style lion sculpture, but more like a carved relief. This would be fun to explore at some point! We ended up at the city of Yonkers, just across from the Bronx. The part we walked through certainly felt like (not so nice) parts of the Bronx, and we definitely stood out as we walked through with our hiking boots and backpacks! All in all, it was about 10 miles, and we accomplished it at a fairly easy pace with plenty of stops in about 5 hours. The northern half of the trail is a bit longer (12 miles), and something we ought to do soon!