I arose at 5am, after lying wide awake since 4:30. Two days ago this would have been an hour later. I made use of the time, but now I am at work earlier than ever. No problem.

I encountered the Marathon yesterday. Props to the M. Wells bar for blasting songs with the word “RUN” in the title. Born to Run and Run With Me were heard. It was a very festive, almost perma-glea atmosphere. The sustained joy was enough for me after about 20 minutes. Everyone a hero. I mean, it’s one of those events where it’s hard to find a lot of disagreement. It embodies discipline, good health, determination. People believe in running as an almost religious pursuit. I wouldn’t go that far but I get it. The event reminds me of New Years Eve 2000, when all the world came together to celebrate something arbitrary but fun. Something everyone could agree upon, that Y2K was significant in some way. Every country had its moment in the spotlight. Well, almost every country.

I had considered going up to Mount Vernon for payphone patrol, but Sunday trains are annoying and who knows what impact the Marathon might have had on any kind of travel. I might do that Wednesday instead. I walked a lot yesterday. I ended up going to Main Street Flushing. I had ambitions to consume foodstuff outside my usual routines of pizza, cheeseburgers, and cold cut sammiches. I wanted a bowl of soup with salmon or other seafood and noodles. I thought I found just the thing, for $10.50. It took 15 minutes cruising the New World Mall Food Court to make this decision. Alas, I was turned away. Cash only establishment and I had only $5 on me. I suspect most of the establishments in that mall food court are cash only. I sometimes wonder how workers really feel about turning customers away, permanently, because of the cash-only thing. How long can that last in a progressively cashless world…

I ended up being hungry most of the day, unable to find a suitable replacement for the salmon and noodle soup it had taken me so long to choose. Two hours after the denial of service I still had no food in me, having consumed just a small amount of egg salad and coffee earlier in the day. I ended up, while buying sandwiches for the next day’s work lunch, getting a boring, typical sandwich that had no salmon or noodles in it. You have to understand, stepping outside my food habits is not something I do often. Flushing seemed like the perfect place to do that, and in fact I have gone far afield in food a few times in that area. But yesterday was not to be. Such a simple goal, deflected by credit card phobia.

7 trains are skipping stations that don’t seem like they should be skippable. I wanted 82nd Street, thinking it would be a choice spot to find something like a bolw of salmon and noodle soup. But I was denied easy access to the area so tried to find something at 74th Street, or 37th Avenue. Again, no joy. By then I think I’d given up. I took an R train which was also not running as expected, so back to 74th Street then transfer to a Steinway Street R train.

The Flushing visit did reveal that the payphone at the Main Street 7 station does still work. That is some kind of news, I guess. That and the Rockefeller Center phone are the only two I know for sure still work. The Bronx on Bartow could still be alive. I am very cold sitting here by the air condition erand think I will evacuate.