One thing I forgot to mention in all this was the disturbing attitude of airport security in DFW. Here's what happened there.
First, it seems curbside bag checking is back, which is fine by me. Anyway, the guy at the baggage heck counter called up for assistance to the gate, specifying (without my prompting I might add) that we did not need a wheelchair, just an assist to the gate. Well, someone came to assist to the gate: "Did someone need a wheelchair over here?" (AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!) Fortunately, they had the good sense to not ask me to ride in it.
On the way up (or is it down?) the elevator, I asked what this particular person thought of the new more stringent airport security and how had these new measures impacted on them? "Well, there's tighter security I guess, but really things haven't changed much...after all, nothing's happened here." (I added, "...yet...", but either she didn't hear me or chose to ignore it.) That seemed a bit disturbing--if the security's that much more stringent, it would seem to have had more of an impact, don't you think so?
So when we got to the security check point, it went very quickly and efficiently, but I can't really say it made much sense. At the metal detector, I had Karl sit, put him on a long leash, went through, did not set off the metal detector. Called Karl through, and obviously, he did set it off. So they called over for a male pat down person, who dutifully came over and said I needed to be patted down. While I was puzzled that I needed to be patted down when it was Karl (and very obviously Karl, since he went through separately) who set off the thing in the first place, I said, "All right, no problem, knock yerselves out." And so they did, and as I didn't have any knives, box cutters, nail files, or weapons of mass destruction upon my person, they didn't find any. They did not, however, pat Karl down, but as he wasn't carrying any of the aforementioned items either, they wouldn't have found any there. Then, as my stuff went through the X-ray machine, they asked if I had a laptop in my bag. As I did, I naturally said I had one, which the guy said they had to check separately, would I please take it out of my bag? (I'm glad they asked and didn't just do it, as I had a lot of other crap in there as well.) I don't know what they did to it exactly, but they pronounced it good and we went on our way.
OK, so on with the story.
Hi guys,
As some of you know (and maybe some don't), my wife Melanie and I are in the process of moving from the great and sprawling Dallas/FT. Worth metroplex to the somewhat smaller (and colder) Erie, PA. I'm going first (being the unemployed one of the two) to set up housekeeping, find useful employment, and get settled. However, before I get to Erie, I'm making a side trip to visit with Bob and his guide dog Harley, since Bob's decided he wants to start learning Windows and asked me to help. So, since I've known Bob for about six years on these Email lists, I thought it'd be fun to take the opportunity to visit with him. (Especially since he was flying me up!)
So accordingly, I got on an airplane to start this new adventure. My plan is to fly to New York, then from there (at some flexible time that will be determined, but around a week or so) to take the train to Erie. So fly I did. Without a hitch, I might add. Well, OK, if you call bein moved o bulkhead, which I would have preferred didn't happen, no hitch. But really, I didn't complain, since I didn't specify that my seat not be changed, and more importantly, because they upgraded me to first class. OK, I lied. There was another hitch. The luggage was delayed for over an hour! So picture this. Bob arranges for a car service to pick me up at the airport and take me to his apartment building, I call Bob to tell him I'm here, he calls the car service to tell them which terminal I'm at, and the poor driver's sitting there for ages while I wait on luggage. Finally the luggage came, we got in the car, and drove to Bob's apartment.
The apartment is small, as he will tell you himself, and he has lots of stuff in it. But it's comfortable, if a bit warm for my liking. OK, try...sauna. But as I knew we would from talking on the phone, we hit it off great and it was just like visiting an old friend, because, actually, that's what I was doing.
His dog Harley is, some might say, a bit untraditional. But he is in all respects a professional. He did whine with quite a lot of excitement when we pulled up--guess he was interested in just who the heck this strange dog was, anyway. But they both settled down and get along great! Harley's a really nice dog, very friendly if not exuberant, and he absolutely loves Bob.
So here we are. We went to dinner, stayed up late into the wee hours of the morning, chatting about everything from blindness to religion and philosophy. It was really very easy. If you have a chance to meet an Email pal, absolutely do it.
OK, so yesterday, we went to lunch and started to go about getting some of the things we needed to supplement Bob's computers: a keyboard switch, for instance, and some speakers. We went to a computer store and got the switch and speakers, then went home. Upon discovering that we didn't have the cables we needed to use the switch, I made my way back to the computer store about four or five blocks away. I spent an hour or so trying to get them to understand what we needed, but we got it eventually, went home, set the switch up, put stuff together, had some dinner.
I really should stop here and make some observations about Karl's work. You wanna talk about getting thrown into the fire, Karl got it. Being unemployed in a city with little to do if you don't have money and long distances to travel, Karl didn't get much work to do in the past 10 months. He got some, and he didn't forget how to do his job. But when we started working this new area, I could see the wheels turning in his head. He followed Harley beautifully. He only ran one curb the first evening, Thursday. But Friday, he seemed unfocused and distracted. A bit of encouragement got him focused for a brief time. Eventually, he got a powerful correction for really losing focus, walking me up to the third light control box on our route in a row after crossing a street, in fact going out of his way to show it to me. I'm sure he was thinking, well, I can work, but we're gonna just go back to the old sedintary lifestyle. But once he understood we were turning over a new leaf, so to speak, his work was not only good, it was superb. It was became in very short order, flawless. In fact, I'd say it went from very distracted and unfocused to phenomenal within a 15-minute span on the way to the computer store. It has stayed at the phenomenal level ever since then.
Today, Bob told me I'm traveling New York (Brooklyn) like I was born here. I think he exaggerates the point a bit, but I am learning the neighborhood. After lunch, Bob went home, and I went to Radio Shaft (scuse me...Radio Shack) for some headphones, then to a nearby pet store for a much-needed Karl toy. I ran out of room in my luggage, and he needed a new rope anyway. I also got Harley a present--a stuffed furry bone, which he seems to love. (He can't chew anything too hard, cause of his overbite.) Bob told me on the subway home from dinner in Manhattan that if I can get around New York, (this is the big city), I can go anywhere! I'm sure people will think I'm nuts for saying so, but I love walking here! It's so much nicer to walk here than it is in Dallas. Lights are plenty long enough for pedestrians, street layout is fairly straightforward, traffic is pretty predictable, and the subway seems to run often. In Dallas, the lights aren't long enough, traffic is crazy, highways abound, and pedestrians are not at all considered. Ever. Did I mention lights are insanely short in the DFW Metroplex? And let's not even talk about the public transport. It's not worth mentioning.
Anyway, we took the subway to Manhattan for dinner at this nice steak house. I was the complete and total hick from the sticks! I felt like a complete idiot! First, I bought my subway token and was handed a return slip to get back, and what appeared to be sixty cents. I also found a card, which was sitting on the counter and I assumed was pushed through by the guy running the token booth. So like a good guy, I swiped the card, which showed up as "insufficient funds". The guy in the booth shouted through his intercom for me to use the token he'd just sold me. I was puzzled. I was confused. I was, well, baffled. What was he talking about? So some kind soul told me that what I actually had in my hand was 50 cents and a subway token...see? It has a hole in it. How thick am I? I didn't even notice. And it's a stupid thing to not notice, but my thinking was that a token would be about quarter-sized, not dime-sized. So we got the token thing straightened out, and through the turnstile we went. From there, onto the platform, where we boarded the subway. I again was proved to be an idiot when I tried to step up onto the subway and discovered I just had to step across and not up at all. It was cake from there. Relatively. We had to find our way out of the subway station, after changing trains (so out of the second subway stop). Then we had to find our way to the restaurant. All fairly standard stuff, and we got there pretty easily, considering we had only a vague idea where the place was.
Getting back was another challenge, because we weren't sure where the subway going the other direction was, but we got that sorted out as well. Believe me, travel here is actually very nice in comparison to what it is in Dallas!
Tomorrow, we hope to meet up with another friend of mine from another music-related list. More later, and hopefully it'll be more interesting than this was.
Nope, sorry, I'm afraid this installment won't be interesting. It won't be insightful, It won't even (probably) have any redeeming quality whatsoever. I'll post it anyway though. I promise that subsequent pieces will be more interesting, or insightful, or have at least some redeeming quality, even if it's a cure for insomnia.
So since Bob kept me up till well past 5 in the morning, we didn't get any computer work done today. (Bob assures me we'll start tomorrow. It's all good though, I'm perfectly happy to follow his lead and take it at the speed he wants to go. I love not bein on a schedule.) We did, however, scout out computer table replacements. Yesterday, the fold-out dinette table he was using for part of his equipment started to sag a bit. Two wood screws holding up a bracket gave way and their connection isn't at all reliable...in fact, we lost one. So Bob is in need of a new table. Sharon comes to the rescue. Sharon's a friend of mine from a list of Dar Williams fans, and I had told her I'd be in town. When I got settled on Friday, i calld her and she said, definitely let's get together, and if you need any running around, let me know and we'll do that as well. So we called Sharon and asked her if she knew of good places to get furniture like we were in need of. Luckily, she knew exactly the place to go. She showed up, we all piled into the car, and went to this great unfinished furniture shop. We found a table Bob liked and arranged for delivery, then went to Junior's for dinner. I don't know how these guys eat these sandwiches they serve here, they're HUGE! I had to take my slice of cheesecake home--I will probably have it for breakfast. Anyway, we had a great time with Sharon--she was absolutely wonderful about the dogs, didn't make a fuss, acted like she'd been around us our whole lives. I'd only met her one other time about a year and a half ago, so it was really great to see her again. A fine time was had by all.
Now I promised that next time I'd actually have something interesting to say. Well, apart from surely getting together with more folks Bob knows, meetin up with Sharon again, and meeting up with another guy from this same list of Dar Williams folk, Wednesday will prove to be an interesting time. I'll be meeting said list friend at a concert on Wednesday evening. This entails a subway ride into Manhattan. I'll be soloing with Karl--Bob wasn't interested in going. This should be as much fun, though quite a bit less twilight-zoney (I hope) as my graduation trip when I went to the NFB center in Louisiana. That trip was really, seriously, right out of the Twilight Zone. ...
It's raining here, and they say we might get sloppy, slushy snow. Should be new and exciting. The snow I mean. Rain isn't very exciting, but we don't get much snow in Texas.
More later!
OK, since nothing very exciting happened at all up until yesterday, I haven't said much. I mean, we went to lunch, dinner, did computer lessons. Actually, we met up with one of Bob's readers and her husband on Monday for dinner at some chinese place. My fortune cookie said, "The only way to win the race with time is to slow down." As I had quite a lot to worry about on Monday, I thought that that was a very appropriate fortune cookie. What, you wonder, was worrying me beyond anything else I've been dealing with? Well, seems I may be waiting for a job with Verizon a bit longer than I thought--not until March are they hiring again, and I had to decide whether to go back to Texas and come out later, or push on to Erie. Ultimately, Melanie and I decided it was probably best to take things at a slower pace, not rush, and go on to Erie as previously planned. This means that I'll be dragging my feet a bit, but it also means I may be able to spend a bit more time here. And in saying that, I'll also say that Bob has been a gracious and kind host.
OK, so Monday, we had dinner with Bob's reader and her husband, Tuesday Bob got his new computer table delivered and I set that up. Wednesday was my big subway solo. (Sounds like the makings of a sandwich contest.) So I grabbed my cellphone, stuck it in my pocket, folded up the piece of paper with my friend Chris's cellphone number on it and stuck it in another pocket, grabbed an extra baggie, and off I went. This time, I was wiser about the subway token. I remembered that the subway token was the one with the hole in it, I remembered not to pick up the expired card sitting on the counter, and I remembered where to actually catch the train. What I did not remember was that the subway platform is pretty damned narrow. Lesson for today: Buddy is an idiot. Buddy's dog is much, much smarter. Karl stopped and danced around a bit, sort of the indecision dance: the one that says, "Well, here's something, and I don't know what direction to go, really. Hmm. What to do? I thought to myself, what's eating him? Surely the subway platform edge isn't right here in front of me, because I just got up the stairs for cryin out loud! So I cautiously put my foot forward, and my toe went over the edge of the platform. Just my toe, mind you. I wasn't about to step off. Delayed reaction of the masses behind: "Oh! Careful!" (Gasp, no doubt white, stark terror on some faces.) So, feeling somewhat foolish, I turned around, Karl found the back of a bench, someone said, "Hey, there's a bench, go around it to your left!" ... If you've never tried to get a dog to go left that's intent on standing there saying, "Hey, there's something in your way, what you want we should do?" and was intent on going the opposite direction...I'm sure that getting a Greyhound bus to do donuts in the middle of the street is easier. But we got around the bench anyway and, eventually, got on a train.
We transferred trains on Atlantic Avenue, where we met this nice fellow who walked us to the next train we had to meet, as he was taking the same train. We chatted until his stop on Houston (that's House-ton for you Texans...) Conversation on the subway is difficult. Not because of the noise of crowds all talking at once--this subway seemed particularly empty, especially in light of all the crowded subway descriptions I've heard--bu rather, the noise of wheels on tracks and rattling subway cars is pretty substantial! Forget about talking to someone across the aisle. Anyway, Karl of course had his constant and ever-growing fan club present.
So in due course, we got to the Lincoln Center station, not far from
where I was to meet my friend Chris that evening. Helpful fellow
pedestrians answered my questions as to exactly what streets I had
around me, I got oriented, walked from 66th and Broadway to 67th and
Broadway, and tried to call my friend. Lesson #2: Smooshed braille and
frozen fingers do not mix well together. I managed to fold my piece of
paper exactly on the line with Chris's cellphone number on it, making
it extremely difficult to read. So thinking I deciphered it correctly,
I place the call and had the following conversation:
Ring...Ring...Ring...
Woman answers: "Hello?"
Me, somewhat confused: "Uh. Hi. Wait. You're not Chris. ... Are you?"
(I'd talked to Chris once before, and he was definitely not a woman.)
Woman on phone: "Huh? Hello?!"
Me: "Uh. ... This really isn't Chris, is it?"
Woman on phone: "I don't speak English."
Me: (Puzzled...what was it she was speaking with little discernible
accent then?): "Uh. OK, yeah, I dialed the wrong number. Bye!"
Beep
Stuck the cellphone back in my pocket and tried again. Flattening the crease against my palm as best I could, I willed the number clearer. Oh, I think I see my mistake; that was 3230, not 3430. Man, that's really awfully squashed. OK, let's try again, I say to myself, with the cold, brisk wind blowing around my ears and into my open jacket. If I wasn't so close to being there, I thought, I'd go through the trouble of digging out my hat, zipping my jacket, and going on, but seeing as how I'm a couple blocks away...hardly seems worth the trouble. So I dialed again and met with success. Seems Chris was a couple blocks away, so I'd just wait. Again, if you can meet Email friends, absolutely do it. We had a nice time.
Yes, we did. Even though the band we were going to see canceled at the last minute and we didn't stick around for their replacement--by show-time, they still sounded like they were well into warming up, we had a nice time. Chris had a friend (Serge) meet us, and we went to a diner a couple streets away. We took the scenic route--crossing back over Columbus, up to Boradway, across 67th to 66th, back over and across Columbus...now why we did that, I'm not entirely certain of, except that Chris was a little distracted all evening about something. Serge and I had no end of fun teasing him though. So we spent a nice quiet dinner getting acquainted, then took the train back home. [Or was it Columbia instead of Columbus? I can't remember now.]
All in all, a fairly uneventful evening. I must say, the subway stations are a little confusing--I didn't know where to catch connecting trains, but there were enough people to help out, and besides, I guess if I stuck around long enough, I'd probably learn it. I guess I'd also learn which side of the train doors open on at which stops, but someone told me that the rule is that doors open on one side for stops which accommodate express trains and on the other side for all other stops. Not sure I'll ver get that straight, but maybe I would, eventually. (I am pretty thick, after all.)
So I told Bob before I left: "Well, if you don't see me on the 11-o'clock news...I'll see you later. Happily, I wasn't on the 11-o'clock news for plunging to a hideous death on the train tracks. (That would have really put a damper on the rest of my trip.)
Actually, I forgot to tell you about the panhandler! (So it's a bonus installment!)
On the subway yesterday, second train, I was noting with interest that at a couple stations, you could hear some musicians playing. I guess they were subway musicians who I guess play for handouts. A couple of them seemed to be pretty good, too. Almost wished I could've gotten off the train to listen--maybe one of these days, I will. After the second one though, a lady walked into the subway car and stood at the front of the car and began this speech, making her way to the back of the car:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. May I have
your attention, please, for just a moment? My name is Tracy. I'm a
single mother of two children, and we are very poor. If you could find
it in your hearts to make a small donation, anything would be
appreciated--a nickel, a dime, a food stamp, or any bit of
food. Anyone? I would really appreciate any small donation you can
find it in your hearts to make.
And thus, she made her way to the back of the train. I'm not so sure anyone was giving, but it sure sounded like a polished sort of thing to me. And I wonder, with no money, how'd she get into the subway station? I suppose it is not ours to ask, but if she is indeed in such dire need, I wish her good fortune...but I doubt she'll get much of it on the subway.
About all the excitement today was getting a new duffel to replace the one I brought with me, which began splitting very inconveniently. I'll just note here that if you're in a wheelchair, New York doesn't seem like a very good place to be. Stores here don't seem to have quite enough room in them.
I'll close with a Kodak moment. This was absolutely a Kodak moment. Bob and I were talking about obedience, and I said that really, Karl generally got enough obedience during his work, but he did enjoy it when we did it. To prove the point, I ran Karl through a brief obedience session. He got very excited when it was over and went to grab his rope toy, which he always does when he's excited. He and Harley started playing together with it; not tugging though! They were walking around together, each with an end in their mouth, running around in circles, nose to nose. It had to be seen to be appreciated, but it was absolutely the cutest thing I've seen two dogs do in a long time. Especially since Harley, while he got on OK with Karl, didn't really play with him much until recently.
Yet more in the always exciting, never boring, ever suspenseful life o' Buddy and Karl. LOL
Well, OK, so let's see here. Thursday, we didn't do much at all, really. We had lunch, we worked on computer stuff, I got Bob's computer to boot up in DOS only so he could still use his WordPerfect, Bob listened to ice skating, and then we ate pizza. A large pizza here, at least from this place he ordered from, seems to be like what at least in Texas (where everything's supposed to be bigger) would be an extra-large...it was ginormous! But very good. No skimping on toppings here, and real sausage (not the ground kind you get most places). Doesn't take much to impress me, does it?
Friday, we really got crackin on stuff, and Bob learned a little bit about Eudora and more about the Web. He's really getting it, but doesn't think he is doing more than guessing at how to do things. But I figure if he guesses right more often than not, he ain't guessing, so he's doing OK. A friend of his who lives in New Jersey but works in Manhattan came up to visit, we all had a nice dinner a few blocks up the road. For a guy who was worried about not having a lot of friends and about me not having fun, he's sure had me out with folks an awful lot!
Saturday we went into Manhattan again, this time to meet up with Bob's friends Al and Paula. This should be fun, since Bob has known Paula since he was 12. I wanted dirt. And who better to get that from than a childhood friend? So we rode the subway, switched trains, rode a bus for a few blocks, and had a nice dinner. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) On the train from Brooklyn, we saw another of the panahndling variety, this one quite a bit more pathetic than the other. This guy was playing the blind act. We never heard him say a word. All we heard was a fairly steady Thump...Thump...Thump...Thump...Thump... from the back of the car. I thought to myself that it sounded a bit like someone with a cane, but couldn't be sure. If it was, it was a fairly heavy cane, I guess, so Bob asked this guy across the aisle, and he told us it was a guy pretending to be blind. It was a pretty sorry performance if you ask me. Not to mention really sad.
So after dinner we made our way home. Bob took the bus back to the subway, but I decided I wanted to immerse myself in the city a bit and walked the four or five blocks. On the way, I stopped in to visit with Al for a few minutes. I didn't realize it was close to 10:30 at night! No matter, the trains run all the time, I understand, but I didn't stay more than 15 or 20 minutes. After the short visit, we made our way to the subway. During the whole trip, apart from some little side trips to the curb, and attempts to enter stores I had no idea about, and a trip halfway into a random subway (halfway down the stairs I sorta thought, wait a second, I shouldn't be going downstairs!), Karl's work was excellent. And here, I learned while Karl can sometimes have a tendency to wander off into la-la-land, when push comes to shove, he really kicks into gear! This became very evident shortly after I left Al's place, as I came to 6th Avenue and 23rd Street. Crossing 6th Avenue, I noted the traffic light was in my favor, so I started to cross. Uh-oh. That was stupid of me. Bob is getting me into bad habits and I'm getting lazy, I think after I clean my drawers. Because the light changed a bit less than halfway across the street. "Oh (Explitive deleted!)!", I said to myself, as a car whizzed in front of me, followed by another, as Karl stopped. Gulp There was another one coming. Stopping. Thank you God. Moved forward a bit more. Another car zipped in front of us. Cautiously we went forward. I was very glad to find an up-curb. If ever I was worried about Karl's traffic work, I'm not anymore. Thank God for Karl!
After that, everything else is a bit anti-climactic, isn't it? I mean, we got on the train, after a bit of difficulty finding the ticket booth in relation to the gates into the platform. I actually remembered which side of the train the doors would open on and met some nice folks in between trains. This one girl told me she saw Karl looking fairly nervously at the crack between the platform edge and the subway car. Considering his last platformw work before this trip out here was five years ago in San francisco, I'd say a bit of nervousness isn't exactly unbelievable. Dunno if he was nervous for his feet or mine, but whose ever, he handles the thing like the professional he is.
So just a quick stop into the Dunkin Donuts (where the guy behind the counter informed someone that it wasn't illegal for me to have Karl in there), and another into the convenience store next door, and we were home. Just shortly after midnight. Not bad, I thought.
BTW, what's the matter with y'all New York people? This Dunkin Donuts didn't have any chocolate milk! I went in Friday morning and asked for chocolate milk and they didn't have it...hence the extra stop at the convenience store. So, on my list of things to remember:
Whew! Today was a really, really exciting day. Yesterday was not, so I won't even mention it really. Anyway, the first odd thing was actually about the third thing to happen, but I'll mention it: Bob and I agree that we are missing an hour of our day somehow. We got up before 9AM; we certainly left for breakfast before 11AM, and we certainly got back home by noon, maybe a bit after. In any case, I know I didn't take any hour and a half to delete Email, maybe 45 minutes, but next time Bob checks the time, it's 1:30! And there was no way it could have been 1:30. I mean, I know what it feels like to say, "Oh, hey, where'd the day go?", but it didn't feel like that.
Anyway, that was like the third weird thing to happen. So let's back up. First. On the way to breakfast, here I'm crossing King's Highway (a strange name for a street that's really only a couple lanes wide, but whatever...), and this [long string of explitives deleted] had his car pulled up right into the intersection. As if he'd really miss that 30 seconds if he, oh, I dunno, left room for people to actually, you know, get across the [explitives deleted] street?! So Karl goes around the front of the car like he's supposed to, or starts to. But he's pulled right into the intersection, and going that way put is far too close to 14th street traffic for comfort. Like...uh, no. So we went back to go around the back of this [see above]'s car, when the light changes! No, I didn't cross in the middle of the cycle this time. I've sworn it off. No sir, not me, I was doin it all up right this time! It was a hair-raising adventure. So there's the near miss.
The mishap, I wasn't around to see or help with. After breakfast, we left. I left and thought, foolishly, that Bob was right behind me. I get to the doggie relieving spot, and wait. And wait. And wait a bit more. Certainly not any 45 minutes though. More like 5 or 10. And here comes Bob. Seems someone left a cellar cover slightly not quite closed, Harley didn't quite clear it, Bob got his foot caught, and down he went. Getting back up wasn't exactly easy--Bob's a big guy, as he will tell you--and after some help up from some fellow pedestrians, he was on his way again, a bit more banged up, he thinks perhaps with a sprained thumb, but all in all, in good shape, with nothing (thankfully) broken. He seems to be feeling much better now. So there's the mishap.
Finally, the misunderstanding. Thankfully, it all turned out OK, and I suspect this will raise a bit of discussion. Last night, a friend of a friend of Bob's (an acquaintance of his, really) decided she wanted to meet me, for whatever reason someone'd want to do a thing like that. That's all right, I like meeting people. One catch: She has a dog allergy, she says, and while I'm welcome to bring my dog, could I please keep him in the dining room, off the carpet, but certainly well within view of me? I offered to accommodate her allergy by caning it, but she said that wasn't necessary. So I agreed, all right, if you say so, that's fine by me. After all, I'm a reasonable fellow, I don't need my dog to walk around someone's house after all, and she was willing to meet halfway on the deal. So, imagine my surprise when the friend (that's the first-degree friend, you know, the friend of Bob's) phoned to tell me she didn't believe this person actually had an allergy, but rather just didn't want dog hair in her rug. Needless to say, I was a little upset. Now as I say, I'm a fairly reasonable guy, I like to think. And if she had said that to me in the first place, I thought, well I'm sure we could work something out. We work things out in people's cars, so why not? Now just to be clear on a point; the dog wasn't an issue for me. What was an issue, in my head, was that I wasn't being dealt with in an honest fashion, and that seemed a poor way to begin an acquaintanceship, perhaps a friendship. The more I brooded, the more upset I became, until I decided I didn't want to do this meeting after all. (I really don't know if I explained my reasons well--some might say her story was just a "little white lie", but it seemed more than that to me. Others might say I blew things out of proportion. But I set a great deal of store in personal integrity.) Accordingly, I called this person with whom I was meeting, said I didn't think this would work out, and confronted her with what I was told. She cleared it up, said if I really didn't feel comfortable with the thing, she'd understand, but she really did have something of an allergy. So I thought, all right. We cleared the air then, in a manner of speaking, and off I went.
The subway ride, and then the walk from the subway station to my destination, helped clear my head and put me in a better place. I arrived, waited for my new acquaintance to show up. When she did, I said, "I'm sorry we got off to a rocky start. So, let's start over." She agreed, and we had a nice time after all. I got to play computer tutor (again). Maybe I'll actually be able to actually help people with this stuff one of these days.
The trip back was definitely a challenge. First off, we had to find the subway station. Not knowing exactly what to look for, Karl took me into a couple of other stores. Finally, we had a hand to the subway entrance, down some stairs, got on the train. Then someone on the train said, "He needs just a little more training, doesn't he?" So I go into Karl defense mode. "No he doesn't, we're new here, and he doesn't know what to look for. I don't know what to look for either, so I can't very well expect him to, can I? No, he's doing fine. Can't say I blame him for being hesitant." I can't stand people who say things like that! (growl) Although, I must say folks have been very helpful over-all, helping me get through confusing areas and all that. So much for that rude New Yorker thing I keep hearing about--people have been generally wonderful here. Course, I think people are generally wonderful most places, but maybe I just meet the right sort of people. Same thing happened in Germany--most people I met when I was there were great! Not a stereotypically rude and stand-offish German in the lot. But I digress. Anyway, I got on the Q train after catching my first train, and the announcement said to catch another Q train. I thought it said to get off at Atlantic Avenue (when we were at the stop before that), but someone else on the train told me I definitely had to get off at this stop and catch another Q. I did, and I then had to, as I suspected, get off at the next stop and catch another train! I'll tell you, those stairs are hard to find; they don't go all the way across the platform, if approached in the correct direction, I can see how a dog could perceive them as obstacles, they're just difficult if you don't know exactly what to look for (and I certainly didn't!) But I had one of those subway cop guys help me find my next train, but then another lady told me to wait at the top of the stairs for the train, cause the platform was crowded and she didn't "want to scare the dog". I walked down the stairs anyway, we caught the train, and everything was perfectly fine.
So, we had a lot happen today, and I learned a lot of useful things today as well. All in all, a very productive time today, if I do say so myself.
This is probably the last entry here in the city, as I'm going to Harrisburg for a Dar Williams show on Friday, then taking the train to Erie on Saturday. I dunno, maybe that'll be interesting and I'll write about it, but I dunno. And tomorrow doesn't promise much excitement, so there won't be much to say about it, I don't think. The past couple of days really were pretty low-key, but we did do a couple of interesting things.
Yesterday we met with Howie and his dog Miles and that was actually very nice. (Thanks for dinner, Howie!) We had a great time, and I'm sure I'll be meeting up with Howie next trip. Actually, I've got so many folks I'm gonna have to hook up with next trip, it might be as long as this one if I'm not careful! One sort of interesting thing. On the way back home, we caught the bus and got off at the subway station near Bob's apartment building. This subway entrance (the one where the bus drops) is at a T-intersection, with 16th Street being the top of the T. In order to get back to Bob's apartment, one must either cross at the T, then head over to Kings Highway, and from there up to 14th Street, and then to the building. Otherwise, one can walk along the side of 16th Stree the bus drops on over to Kings Highway, then go straight down to 14th, avoiding the T altogether. Since I don't like T intersections and avoid them whenever I can (I like turn lanes with islands even less), I chose to go the latter route, while Bob crossed at the T and went over. I guess he's more familiar with that route, but really, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. We actually met up at 15th Street anyway, so it didn't matter. I just thought it was interesting how we each sort of get into particular habits is all.
Today we just did a couple errands; Bob got a tape recorder from Radio Shaft, and I got another duffel bag from the variety store for Melanie, very like the one I got for myself except they found her a green one. Luckily, they even had a box that I could ship it in! We then loaded the bag with peanut butter Twix (well, OK, we didn't load it exactly, we just put six of them in there), went to the mailing place, and UPS'ed it to melanie. Then after spending an afternoon of non-productivity, apart from connecting the new tape recorder and computer speakers to the audio output of his computer so he can record junk off the Internet, we went out again, this time to meet another friend. While Bob expressed surprise yesterday when I told him I'd walk from here to there (here being approximately Avenue R and 14th Street, there being Coney Island Avenue and Avenue U), I was surprised he was surprised, for one thing because it didn't sound like a huge walk to me, but also because I'd've thought he'd have figured out I'd like the walking. Actually, it really was a nice walk--not a short walk, but not an overly long one either. The blocks between Avenues R and U were fairly long, between R and S and between S and T broken up by some little street or alley of no consequence. The only real problem we had was that, while I figured out which side of the restaurant was on by the address, I didn't know where it was on the block, exactly. Bob told me it was between Avenues U and V, closer to V. OK, fair enough. There was a McDonald's at the corner of Coney island and Avenue U, so I kept going. By the end of the block, we found a large parking lot that appeared, at least according to my best guess, to belong to a gas station. Karl took me into it and up to an Asian-sounding fellow and his truck. I asked the guy about the diner,k whose name I partially forgot. Seaside Diner? Sea-something. Something like that." He said it was on the next block. After a moment of disorientation, I asked him was the next street not Avenue V? He said it was, and I told him I knew the diner was on this block, but I couldn't recall the address. He said I'd passed it, so I went back, but I didn't want to go back too far, believing Bob's direction that the restaurant was closer to V than U. I asked someone else, who said the restaurant was up a bit further. I had walked this stretch of block several times, maybe three or four, and couldn't find an unlocked door. This puzzled me a great deal. Anyway, they said it was up further, and after I assured them I didn't want the McDonald's, they said, "Oh, no, the restaurant's next to the McDonald's." Which put it closer to U, not closer to V. Well, it turned out OK, I found Bob and his friend, we had a lovely time.
I want to make a quick observation about Karl's work. His pace is nice, although sometimes I'd prefer a bit more speed, and sometimes he hesitates at some of the oddest places. Still, he does a wonderful job, and I can't fault his judgment most of the time. Any errors, apart from wanting to go into doors we didn't want, or go across the sidewalk to a curb or door for no apparent reason (which I picked up on easily enough and got him back on track in short order) were minor. He stopped at a window, or something, jutting out into the walkway, which we couldn't easily get around. When I askd him to go on, he didn't quite clear it, so we re-worked it. He approached cautiously, edged around it even more cautiously, showed me we had to step off the curb to have enough clearance. So that's what we did, and it was beautifully done. Only other real clearance error was when my leg hit the front of a car. We reworked it, and again, he did it beautifully the second time. Considering how little work we've done up to this time in the past year, I'd say he's doingexceptionally well indeed!
Another thing. We've been blessed during my stay with exceptionally fine weather. It's been getting up into the 40's, and has been so warm that, even with just a T-shirt, a sweater, and an open jacket, I was still comfortably warm, even sweating a bit, by the end of the walk.
The only other really interesting thing I noted was how quiet and clear of pedestrians this route was, in comparison to, say, the trips we'd taken into Manhattan. Actually, traffic wasn't quiet, but it was certainly predictable enough. On my way home (with the side trip to Baskin Robin's, you're welcome Bob), I believe I counted three groups of pedestrians besides me and Karl. A group was a couple. No single folk walking along that I could ascertain, and no crowds on this route. It was really an interesting contrast. I mean, the bus line wasn't far from where we were, and the subway wasn't either, all things considered. But there just weren't many pedestrians on this route. Nor were there many on the way to, then back from, meeting Howie, apart, of course, from the usual throng on Kings Highway near the subway.
I guess I must travel OK after all. When I came in, Bob said, "Hey, what are you doing here? You weren't supposed to be home for another twenty-five minutes!" He said he was joking, but I'm curious exactly how he arrived at that number. Interestingly enough though, even with the little detour to Baskin Robins, he says I only lagged behind his arrival by ten minutes--and he took the bus. Guess Karl really does walk at a good clip at that!
If anything interesting happens in the next couple days, I'll be sure to let y'all know. However, I really do anticipate this is the last one. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, and if you didn't, I'm glad you were able to delete it. :)
OK, so I lied. I'm posting again.
We've just left Albany about five minutes ago, and we're well on our way. The train needed some mechanical repairs and checks, which put us behind a bit--but what's a train trip without a delay or two?
We had a bit more excitement than I'd planned on, so I guess I'm allowed to write in again. ... :) After I finished up Thursday's entry, I decided what I really wanted was a slice or two of pizza. Bob accordingly recommended what he heard was a decent pizza place around the corner from the subway station, so off I went. (Bob, meanwhile, went to Athens (that diner across the street) instead.)
Now along the way, Karl did something that he has never done in the close to six years I've had him. I guess I should rephrase that a bit; he has never quite done this, and when he came close to doing it, I could see exactly how his mind was working on the problem and came up with the wrong solution. Here's what happened.
First, we walked across East 14th, which always is a small problem, as there's a grate that he hates to walk over. He either hesitates, or pulls way out one direction or the other to get around it. After we passed that little spot, we came, naturally, in the great order of things, to East 15th Street and started across--yes, we waited for the light. All of a sudden, I hear a car honk at me. Well, I think (very cleverly), this is New York. Everybody honks. No biggie. But then I noticed something I shouldn't have noticed: cars were coming towards me, not past me anymore. Uh-oh. Seems Karl was gonna try to diagonal it! This is bad. This is really bad. Kings Highway is, as I said, a fairly amusing name for a street that can't be more than a couple, three lanes wide, and not exceedingly busy. But it's busy enough, and it only takes one. Well, I got Karl to pull right so we would at least get on the curb for chrissake. I was a little shaken, as earlier that morning, as I said, he got a bit distracted by something and we stopped short of a car that had turned in front of us, except that he didn't seem to be in a stopping mood just then. So we crossed back over and waited for the light again. Up comes this fellow who says, "Where are you trying to go?" I told him I'd be fine, and he said, "Fine? I saw you almost get hit by that car, where are you going?" I told him I knew that, and we were re-doing the crossing. He said, "Well,OK..." and started making those stupid kissing noises at Karl that I completely can't stand. I just said, "Look. He's a little distracted right now, and the last thing he needs is more distraction from you." I guess he got the point, because he went away. Some might say I was a bit too sharp with him, and I think I might've been upon reflection. But I have a feeling that those of you who have just been in a situation like that and kept your drawers clean (if only barely) know exactly what sort of space I was in just at that point.
So I got to the pizza place, which was very small and narrow and didn't feel quite like a pizza place for some reason, but it was. Ordered my two slices of sausage and pepperoni and waited. This lady sat down next to me for a minute while she waited for her slices, and we started talking. I told her what was obviously freshest in my mind, and she said, "Well, you know, he's probably just overwhelmed right now, maybe he needs a vacation." She might've had a point, I have no idea, but up to then, his work was absolutely beautiful. So who knows?
On the way back, we had no problem, and his work was great again.
Friday was a loooooooooooooooooong day--a fun day, certainly, but a long one. Sharon, previously mentioned a long time ago, our friend Suzi (who was visiting Sharon from Iowa), and I took a road trip to Harrisburg, PA in order to see Dar Williams play at the Whittaker Center. Just a couple observations on traveling with friends (sighted friends, in this case). Somehow, Karl clued into the fact that I was with other people, so he could shut down a little bit. Not entirely, of course, as he still guided, stopped for things, and so on, but wasn't quite so brilliant in his work as he generally is. That was OK in this case. It's not very easy to have a conversation with friends while working a dog, especially one that needs to know you're on your toes to keep himself on his toes, if you know what I mean. So eventually, I walked with either Suzi or Sharon and heled Karl for a good bit of the walking we did, partly, I thought, to give him a bit of time to relax after our big city adventures, and partly because I wanted to concentrate at least in some measure on enjoying the company of my friends!
So I mean, it all went great! I fully had as much fun on the way up to the show as I did seeing Dar play. They're good company. Suzi and Sharon were making a letter tape (a project, travel log, whatever) for Suzi's roommate Susan, and I got to be part of that. Oh, and Karl is now the "Love Muffin Of Karlness" (LMOK), according to Suzi. (Love ya Suzi, no this isn't going to the Dar-List, so no one will have to know! LOL) Eventually we were all the "Muffin head of" something or another. I guess you had to have been there. Yes, you definitely had to have been there. This doesn't translate well at all!
We took a side trip into Hershey, where I bought entirely too much chocolate--some of it's for Melanie though--and took the Chocolate World tour, sort of like (as Suzi said) the Small World ride at Disneyland except with candy bar characters. Getting on and off the moving sidewalk felt really weird, especially getting off, but Karl handled it perfectly. Then in Harrisburg, they had the annoying audible traffic lights...you know, the ones that go CUCKOO! on one corner and CHRIP...CHIRP...CHIRP... on the other? I mean, we could hear them through the car (with windows and doors closed). I'm sure glad that they've come up with better audible signals since those, but I don't quite get why the corners I noticed that had them had them in the first place, they were really fairly straightforward traffic lights, nothing odd, seemed long enough from just a cursory observation. Ah well.
So we had our huge burritos for dinner and went to the Dar show. We weren't all seated together, but were close. And here is where Karl made up, and then some, for Thursday's little error.
Dar's opener was this fellow named Phil Roy. Well, I didn't much like his voice, so my mind was sorta wandering during his set. Anywho, he finished, and we had a good 15 minutes before Dar came on. I really had to go, so I asked the guy next to me if he knew where the bathroom was. As this was his first time to this venue as well, he did not, so I got up, walked out into the aisle, and out of the auditorium. I took a left, walked down some steps, across the lobby, and to a hall that I presumed might be the right direction. Well, it was, sort of--the women's room was down there, but someone told me the men's room was just around the corner. We found it without a problem, I had my bathroom break, and we headed back. I stopped and bought a copy of "The Green World" (but not a limited edition one) to replace the one (which was a limited edition one) that I had left on an airplane to Los Angeles over the summer. Then I thought, well, OK, so let's see if we can find our way back.
Just to give you an idea, it seems to me that this auditorium was a fairly large one with several entrances. I'm sure Sharon could tell me if it wasn't, but if there was only one way in, I guess I wouldn't be quite as impressed, so I will continue to think there were several entrances. Karl found the right entrance, and then found the correct row where I was sitting. Since my seat was all the way at the other end (next to a wall), that was no problem to find. :)
So Dar was great! She was in excellent voice and was very definitely on. It strikes me that she is most at home on stage, by herself, with just her guitar...as opposed to other appearances where she had backing musicians. Yeah, the shows with the band were good, but this was absolutely classic. Well, I suspect it was. I haven't been to as many shows as some folks. But she joked with the audience a lot, and she had great stories, and knew how to get us roaring with laughter! She even debuted a song that she didn't give a title to. (She asked us afterwards if it was too cheezy or anything...no, it was absolutely beautiful, but what would you expect? I guess if you don't know Dar's music you don't know what you'd expect, but...
So after we greeted Dar on the way out...well, we were all dragging. And we had hours to go yet, because we had to get home. To make a long drive interesting, we got back at around 4 in the morning.
Fast forward to now. I packed my bags, we had lunch, I got in the car and went to the train station. Unfortunately for me, they don't check luggage to Erie, so it's all carry-on, including the huge duffel. I already told you about the delay because of mechanical repairs. I answered Email and deleted Email.
So now, we're on to the next leg of our adventure, and the next chapter of our lives.
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