Home Safely

[catsittingstill]

Cleaning the house was a big job, but I believe we made a dent in the problem.

I went into New York City twice, and saw the Statue of Liberty (on the second try; if you want to see it, show up at the ticket window first thing in the morning--and don't bring anything you couldn't take on an airplane.) and the Empire State Building and the Museum of Natural History, which is a wonder and an amazement. I had to leave when my brain got full. The mimmoth was especially excited by the elephant video in the Hall of Biodiversity. I saw the outside of the Library, and took some pictures of the Lions, but wasn't allowed inside because I had food.

Interestingly enough, the place on Manhattan where I felt closest to comfortable was Central Park. Everything I recognized by name (the Sheep Meadow, the Village Green, Strawberry Fields) was smaller than I expected, but it was green and the bedrock of the island poked up here and there and it was something approaching quiet; I could hear the birds. My guide and I spent a few minutes off the path, resting on the living stone.

The subway stations are noisy and quite hot. I was surprised by the heat, but since the subway cars are airconditioned, all that heat has to be pumped out somewhere, and it ends up in the tunnels. I was more comfortable, noise wise, after I put in my earplugs. Fortunately we never had to wait very long for a train. The plethora of trains and lines were confusing, especially the way they kept swapping local and express service, but fortunately my local guide could decipher what was going on, and a couple of times New Yorkers chimed in and suggested the best way to go.

I did not find New Yorkers to be unfriendly; I'm not sure where that stereotype comes from but I didn't encounter anybody like that.

I got a couple of chances to game, helping playtest a new system a friend of my friend was working out. It took me a while to figure out how it worked, but I had fun.

The friend whose house I was helping clean, moved apparently by a combination of gratitude and a desire to show off the amenties of Long Island, took me out to eat for every lunch and most dinners, which was tasty, but hard on my diet. Between plenty of work and skipping breakfast and snacks, I think I managed to not gain weight.

The drive home started at 5:00 am in an attempt to make my way through NYC before the traffic got bad. I ended up on the far side of the George Washington Bridge, in New Jersey, in a torrential, pounding rain that turned the sky black dark at 8:00 am. That faded after an hour or so, and the rest of the drive was in fine weather and even good traffic conditions, so I can't complain.

Now I just have to clean my house before my dad and brother come to visit.

Comments

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

Did the CD get there okay?

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Yes it did, and in plenty of time! I downloaded the files to my laptop and then passed it back to Donald. Thank you!

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

Oh good.

I'm glad.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Me too! I am looking forward to enjoying the various offerings, though I haven't had time yet.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

And you survived the Book Revue ;)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

It is a good thing that various people gave me new bookshelves for my birthday. :-)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I think pocketnaomi would agree, Central Park is New York's Laughing Place. Alas, I can't say for myself; I never went.

Did you ever get to ride the 2/3 route? (Eastside Manhattan to Brooklyn) Last I rode it (1996) they were old cars that didn't have A/C... if you did and the cars had A/C, yay! they finally got around to replacing them....

New York's subway is confusing because it is a conglomeration of a whole bunch of private rail companies that the NYMTA .... acquired, I don't know how... but the maps are pretty easy to read... it's just that major stations (59th, Grand Central, Times Square, 34th Street) can get real interesting...

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

The 2/3 has had air conditioned cars for years now.

[mneme]

Most cars do have AC these days -- except when it breaks down, anyway.

I love NYC -- and yeah, we do tend -not- to be unfriendly, though we very much have city manners.

[hms42]

The redbirds (old subway cars you are reffering to) have been retired in the past few years and all of the trains I have been on recently (except for 1-2 LIRR cars) have had working AC.

Harold S.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with the Laughing Place reference, but Central Park is pretty special.

We rode the Long Island Railroad, and the A/C subway (and the 1), because we were mostly travelling up and down the length of Manhattan. We never rode the 2/3 route.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

One's Laughing Place is one's secret place that one goes to recharge when one is tired and down and all out of laughs. The concept was explored in Joel Chandler Harris' tales about Uncle Remus and three anthromorphic characters named Bre'r Bear, Bre'r Fox, and Bre'r Rabbit, which tales were the inspiration for the Disney film "Song of the South." Alas, the nice nellies at Disney will probably never release the film again in any form; they fear that the PC types will brand the film racist. (It is a gently-treated reflection of the attitudes of the time the film was made, which some take offense to rather than treating it as history we ought not forget.)

Bre'r Rabbit's laughing place turns out to be a very prickly briar patch, in which he was "born an' bred." It's rather inhospitable for Bre'r Fox and Bre'r Bear, and they are inspired by this (and some seriously trickster reverse psychology on the part of the rabbit) to fling Bre'r Rabbit into the middle of it... which is precisely where he wants to be.

Central Park.... is somewhat more hospitable to Bears and Foxes, and presumably to Cats, too.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I actually remember reading a story with the repeated line "--but *please* don't throw me into that there briar patch!" that as I recall featured Bre'r Rabbit, but I don't remember mention of the Laughing Place.

On the other hand, I reckon I was eight or so when I read that story, so maybe I've just forgotten. Thanks for explaining.

I think if I lived in Manhattan, I would go there as often as I could, because the rest of the place is kind of stressful. So I guess it would be a Laughing Place.

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

Welcome back, glad you had a good experience. I am going out of town for two weeks, but I'll call when I return.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll see you when you get back. Have a good trip.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Yay for surviving, despite the culinary enticements!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-)

Thank you Cat

[(Anonymous)]

I am very, very glad you came to visit and your help was extremely valuable. I am not sure how bright the light at the end of the tunnel is, but at least I now know the right direction to walk. :)

As for taking you around and feeding you, it was my pleasure and the very least I could do. I can only hope that any future guests are half as kind and gracious.

Thanks again.

Your friend in NY

Re: Thank you Cat

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I was happy to help, and thanks for the culinary tour of Long Island!

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

The stereotype of New Yorkers being unfriendly comes from the fact that New York manners are eared to deal with the reality of eight million people. We move quickly, transact business without much chat in order to get out of the way of the next person on line, and don't say hi to everyone we pass on the street because if we did, we'd never get anywhere and we'd go stark raving mad in a five-block walk.

When there's some actual *reason* to interact with a stranger, such as someone asking us for directions or the time, we're quite friendly, and a lot of New Yorkers make a point of being especially helpful and nice to out-of-towners so that they take a good impression home with them.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I can understand that. It's rude to stand around chatting when people are waiting in line behind one; I quite agree.

I grew up in Portland Oregon, which is only about a million people (in the greater Portland area; not all of them live within the city limits), so the manners I learned have some of this quality--which may be why it didn't bother me.

I certainly took a good impression home with me, and I hope I left one as well :-)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember those rocks. Hall of Biodiversity? After my time. Odd thing, the subway tunnels were hot even before the cars were air conditioned; I wonder why. It all seemed quite normal, when I was growing up with them, but they are underground, and I'd expect them to be cooler. Maybe there are steam pipes. ...or perhaps it's the dragons.

Glad you had a good & productive time!

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

The motors that move the trains (I assume they're electric, but it applies even more so if they're diesel) put out far more heat than the air conditioners. All the lighting and all the people (an average human puts out about 100 watts of heat) are also quite a heat load.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's probably it. I wasn't anticipating it, but it makes sense.

I looked it up...

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

"The engineers of the Commission made a careful study of the ventilation problem. They found that before operation began the subway was cooler in summer and warmer in winter than the streets. After trains began running the opposite condition was found to prevail in summer, the air in the subway being from five to ten degrees warmer than that in the streets above. This increase in temperature was caused by the friction of train movement, the grinding of brakes etc. and to a small degree to the animal heat thrown off by the many passengers."--Walker, Fifty Years of Rapid Transit, 1918.

It turns out that the braking system of the trains converts movement to heat, rather than feeding it back into the power system. In addition, the stations are vented with uncooled ground-level air--those sidewalk grills you see all over the place. And now there's cooling in the trains as well. Bad engineers, no donut. (I'm still woozy from today's heat, oh well.)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

IIRC it's 30 watts, not 100, but you get enough of them, plus the motors, plus the air conditioning to keep it all cool, and it keeps the tunnels *rather* warm...

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I don't remember exactly, but I remember hearing that a human puts out about as much heat as a candle.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I think it's like tigertoy said--the heat from the motors and the people. But I too expected an underground tunnel to be cooler.

[chaoswolf]

Welcome home, Cat. mdlbear's album is due to be released soon-ish as I just learned, so I intend on shipping it when I get home if it's arrived by then. (I'm the shipping demon for HyperSpace Express.)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It is good to be home.

I look forward avidly to receiving the album. Is it necessary for me to invoke the shipping demon, or make sacrifices to it? If so, what name should I use, and what sacrifices does it favor?

[chaoswolf]

Mmm...Demon stuff....No names need be invoked, sacrifices made, etc. Chaos is a tame little demon who doesn't need sacrifices. Hehe. I just have to hope there is still some shipping to be done when I get home.