AND SO IT GOES

FRIDAY
7.25
Relative quiet at last

SATURDAY
7.26

Looking closely at this old planter
I note there's a crack in everything

 walls in every room

kitchen floor

floors in every room

Camode

Cleaning reveals dirt on the outer screens

It's an old space, rent controlled, and I'm fortunate to have it.  However, what I can't do myself, the landlord doesn't want to do.

 
SUNDAY
7.27

Stuyvesant Park 

All my favorites

Blooming to beat the band

Wild  and wonderful

A NEIGHBORHOOD INCIDENT

At a first avenue store where I get a paper, the guy in blue got angry when he couldn't have a free cigarette, so he punched the lotto screen, cracking it, swearing loud and shaking his fist as he left, he kicked the door hard!

I was just rounding the corner from twenty second street when I caught it, and snapped the shot.  I got the back story from my friend there.  He works long hours and knows the guy in blue who, he says, is often unruly and visits there almost daily, sometimes with a gang of 'rude' fellows.  He's worried, but what can he do?  His boss doesn't care.

The cops were called, they came and said they were going to cruise around looking for him.  Then, while I was talking to the seller about it, the guy returned with a dollar demanding a cigarette.  While the seller said just a minute, and called the cops again, the guy ran off swearing again.  When the cops returned, the guy was still in view walking uptown on first Avenue.  I pointed to him but the two officers took their time asking questions, then slowly got into their car, one making a slightly sarcastic reference to overtime being paid by our taxes--I didn't understand the remark until I later found out, one arrest means eight hours more on their shift and a whole lot of paper work--Anyhow, by then the guy in blue was out of sight, and they drove off.  First Avenue is a kind of magnet, mostly deserted at night, near Bellevue hospital, and some projects.  This little store, which stays open all night, is a sitting duck for trouble despite having surveillance cameras, there is no security really.

The incident happened in broad daylight. Another seller in the next block was robbed while he was closing at 9PM last month.  Disturbing.  

MONDAY
7.28

One of my long time writing friends from the group is accepting hospice care at home.  She's been struggling with the return of her cancer for over two years.  Now she has stopped all treatment.  In conversation yesterday she said "I'm ready to let go."  She finished her big book, however, and has sent it to a North Carolina friend who agreed to edit, raise funds and find a publisher.  She is still totally present, sharp, clear.  This is her photograph on our 2012 chapbook:

Her stories, like her images, were always honest, unsentimental, full of experience and knowledge--personal and powerful.
~*~
It became my job to phone the Writers Coalition, get some extra copies of our last chapbook sent to her, and announce the situation to my fellow group members last night.  Still, we wrote.  I'll transcribe my pieces as soon as I can look at them again.

I wandered around in the cool air

At home I cooked, ate, and did some time on the computer working on a poem.

TUESDAY
7.29
Today I posted a favorite delightful story, and the 'opera' inspired by it at my other blog
'Somewhere Sometime'