I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

August 28, 2014 - 11:29 a.m.

A Bridge Not Too Far

I don't have as much to write about as I had planned but I have pretty pictures. That should count for something.

Over the last few years I've embarked on a project to walk across all of New York City's major bridges. I have walked across the Brooklyn, Manhattan, 59th Street, and George Washington bridges. While walking with Heather by the Williamsburg bridge I told her that's next on my list. She lives close to it. She had an appointment in the East Village yesterday and proposed that we walk there together and we did.

The tough part of about walking bridges is finding where the pedestrian entrance is. Google Maps showed two routes. I chose the one that was a tenth of a mile shorter. Too bad it didn't work. It led us to a place 50 feet under the walkway with no way to get up there. We walked back to the other entrance. When we got there it looked like a bike not a pedestrian path but there was no sign saying so or telling you where to go for the walkway. So we started walking. It was a bike path and the pedestrian path was on the other side of the bridge. Every time a bike had to veer into the wrong lane to get around us I felt guilty. I was one of those people I hate, actually I was two of those people I hate. The person that doesn't know he takes up space and makes everyone walk around him, and the person that thinks rules are for other people not himself. Now it wasn't deliberate but the people I was inconveniencing didn't know that. Fortunately at the midpoint of the bridge there is a crossover and he second half we were on the right side. Even on the wrong side it was a great walk, You can't beat the views from the bridges. And if we hadn't walked on the wrong side we wouldn't have seen this.

What is the triceratops fighting? What a cool pic that can only be seen from the bridge. It must have been built by ancient aliens like the Nazca Lines

The City really does do a good job of being The City.

The Bridge is not the Brooklyn Bridge but it isn't too shabby. It has character.


It's playing with its other bridge friends.

It was 90˚. I was happy about that. It gave me an excuse to wear my hot weather clothing that I got from storage before Falcon Ridge I was fine with it. I wore my Moxy Fr�vous bucket cap! The walk should have been 2.6 miles but because we had to backtrack to the entrance it was probably about 3 miles. I wish i had remembered to use the Map My Walk app. I have never remembered to use it. I'm an idiot. You might have heard that somewhere.

What I didn't do was put on sun block. Perhaps this was foolish. I am usually so careful but I'm naturally dark and this late in the year I know I won't get burned. Want to see my Teva Tan?

My plan was to go up to my mailbox after Heather's appointment but that took longer than we thought so we just went home. I made dinner, Cajun steak and mashed potatoes. That was delish. The cast iron skillet is great for minute steaks. It's a pain to use but I'm getting pleasure out of the giving the skillet the proper care. I heat it up then apply cooking spray. When I'm done eating I let it cool off before cleaning it. That takes quite some time as cast iron retains heat. I wash it in water, no soap, and scrub it with a brush. Then I put it back on the burner till all the water is boiled off. That way it won't rust. then I apply more cooking spray, let it cool off, and put it away.

The procedure is why I did less yesterday than planned. When it was cooled I went to clean it but my nemesis was in the kitchen. There isn't room in the kitchen for two people to be working. By the time that he was finished and I was finished cleaning, it was too late for me to get to my concert, Robert Sarazin Blake at Rockwood Music Hall. That was a shame. I love Robert, I don�t see him often, and I need music fix. So I stayed home and did nothing useful. I watched Warehouse 13 on Amazon Prime. It falls prey to the fad of current science fiction shows, there's an uber-serious season long story arc. That worked in Buffy but even there it wore out it's welcome as the threats became bigger and bigger. Drama moves into melodrama. The show does have sense of humor. One episode I watched made a reference to "the pawn shop in that TV show." That's a reference to Friday the Thirteenth: The TV Series. The show was nothing like the movies but a brilliant supernatural horror show with a very similar premise to Warehouse 13. In both shows the heroes recover magical objects that give powers but have downsides.

I'm still working on snapping out of my funk. I need to get moving on the rest of my life. Yes I know that so please don't nag me about it. That just makes it worse.

A friend said to me, "I was afraid it wasn't good but maybe that's just the anxiety talking." I said, "Yes that's exactly what anxiety says." Anxiety keeps whispering Murphy's Law in your ear, "What can go wrong will go wrong." "Nobody likes you." "You are nothing." Well that last one never really works on me. I believe in my own worth to my bones. But the rest is sometimes hard to shut out. I have to keep remember that part about my worth. I can do stuff.. That's how I usually state it. In addition to everything else I'm not doing I'm not writing a poem. I slipped and wrote two lines, there are seven more to go. I even know the general plan. Now I'll go back to not writing it. I'm very good and not doing things I should be doing. One of my special talents.

Now I'm going to make breakfast. I didn't pick up my new pan at the post office so it won't be an omelet. mmm. I think it's poached egg sort of day,


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile August 28, 2014
site search by freefind advanced


Follow on Feedly



about me - read my profile! read other DiaryLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!