AFTER

Friday I got thoroughly drenched at Fourteenth Street while waiting for the Avenue B bus. Rain came down, entered sideways from both sides and it even fell up! The ride took about twenty minutes and the six long blocks walk took another ten but, miraculously, I was on time for my Doctors appointment, and she was ready for me too. No waiting!

Good News

My potassium levels are fine, and my blood pressure was 129/80, down from 162/90 last time. A blood pressure kit awaits me at my pharmacy and the plan is to measure levels at the same time every day for several weeks to a month, and Ill be checking in periodically.  If there's a problem the Rx is available to me. One very interesting incident...before the doctor checked my levels, an intern came in and did it. This first one was 150 something over 80, but when the Doctor did it, she asked me to sit up as I do when I meditate...and relax for thirty seconds. Relaxation alone brought the level down!
Proof!
I will self administer the same way--meditate first.

After, while wandering down off Grand and Henry Street, and for blocks and blocks around, there is sky.  No megaliths have risen yet, only a few tall projects. I experience a feeling of spaciousness there. There's a whole lot of green too and there was mist. The people I talked to did not act like strangers, and in general glad to be of service when I asked them about their neighborhood.  I let them know I'd been coming here for years for my clinic visits, and that I breath better whenever I'm down here, that I love the greenery and the feeling of community I experience every time.

Houses of Worship
Next to my clinic is the historic St. Augustine Episcopal Church built in 1827-29 as the 'All Saints' Free Church and constructed out of Manhattan schist.

 There's quite an interesting history.
(see link)

The neighborhood has plenty of diverse options for worship.  Here's The Primitive Christian Church on East Broadway. They offer Pentecostal services in both Spanish and English.
(see Link)

There's also the  Bialystoker Synagogue, designated a New York City Landmark in 1966. It is one of only four early-19th century field-stone religious buildings surviving from the late Federal period in Lower Manhattan and is the oldest building used as a synagogue in New York City. but I didn't get over there to take pictures.
(see link)

One Great Library

The Seward Park branch of The New York Public Library on Manhattan’s Lower East Side can trace its roots back to 1886, when the Aguilar Free Library Society founded it.
(see link)

Off screen on the left is Seward Park,
a 3.48 acre landscaped plot with amenities.
(see link)

~*~
LINKS

Houses of Worship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine%27s_Church_(Manhattan)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/02/nyregion/god-s-word-echoing-english-hispanic-pentecostal-churches-face-bilingual-problem.html 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bialystoker_Synagogue

Library
 https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/seward-park

Park
https://www.sewardparkconservancy.org/features/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seward_Park_(Manhattan)

TWO MORE DAYS

Wednesday?

I have to struggle to remember it. I might have even slept through it, though I know at some point I must have gone for groceries, because they're here today and were not here Tuesday.  A book idea made itself known late in the evening:

This 'generic' Buddha knows what happened to that day.  That's the central premise.

Why not?!

 Now, the choices are huge--what genre, what narrator, what location, what happens and why, and Isn't that some big bird on his head??????  Is it metaphor or magic at work?

To be continued...maybe.

Thursday Morning

I made a list of what's broken or just barely functioning: Dead answer machine, Dead printer, Keyboard whose numbers and letters have to be 'sharpied' in every few days, Very outdated computer model that often fails (also it lost it's DVD and CD applications), Broken ceiling light fixture in the 'closet' room, Dead savings account, One bad eye in need of cataract surgery, Reduced finances (rising price of everything).  That's enough. I will not subject you to all that is working just fine because it would eat all the space.  Besides, it might just be time to be 'practicing' detaching from all these machines.

Afternoon

I had some happy-time in the library returning two audio books (I'm abandoning Dan Brown, there's enough real Vatican news about corruption), and securing two large print books and two audio books:

David Sedaris is just plain funny.  No, searingly, brilliantly funny.  Hearing him perform his stories is worth any ones time.  No one does Sedaris better than Sedaris.

Love Louisa, and the Massachusetts setting, and the blurb says "Susan Cheever brings a unique perspective to Louisa May Alcott's life as a woman, a daughter, and a working writer".  Worth a try. 

Amy Tan delighted me with her "Joy Luck Club", so I have her "The Valley Of Amazement" now and can look forward to "a deeply evocative narrative about the profound connection between mothers and daughters", and a good deal of Chinese history as well.  "The Red Garden" by Alice Hoffman is set in the 1700s in Massachusetts.  Two assets.

Evening 

Grilled cheddar cheese on a bed of spinach and tomato with sesame-ginger dressing.

Bed.