Yesterday was depressive. I woke not wanting to. 4AM. Sat in the shower, wasting time and seed, for far too long. Did not want to move but did. I got around town yesterday, in a somewhat frivolous and meaningless search for a homeless woman I’d heard had been living at a bus stop in Flushing for several months. I don’t know why but I wanted to see for myself. Maybe she was waiting for me, waiting for whatever powerful force of change I could bring to her conspicuous existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, there she was, monopolizing a bus stop with bags and small furniture and I don’t know what else because I did not want to stare. She was older, Asian, her hands looked tough and calloused, large claws of a bird of prey. She seemed peaceful but oblivious to her surroundings. I probably could have stared, stared and stared and stared until I sated my appetite for the sight of a vagrant woman who made a bus stop her home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She reminded me, of course, of the recent involuntary removal of a homeless woman one block from where I live. She had made a Toyota Camry her home for at least 6 months, probably longer, when she was surrounded, pried from the vehicle, and taken away, screaming like a wild animal, probably to Bellevue or Creedmore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does such a fate await this woman at the Flushing bus stop? Unlike the Camry woman the bus stop woman seems peaceful, if obdurate in her occupation of the entire bench. No one else can sit there, and there happened to be a number of people waiting for the bus when I got there. They were standing away from the bus shelter. I should have mentioned earlier that it is a covered bus shelter, not just a bare stop. I would think some passengers would appreciate the ability to use the covered bench for its intended purpose, especially during rain, as happened quite heavily later in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I feel fine today but yesterday not so much. Poor sleep, poor diet, and confused mental mumblings about a rapid-fire visit to an eye doctor on Tuesday. I used tog et screened every 6 months for macular degeneration. I have what appear to be early signs of the condition. However, I have had these same early signs of MD for about 20 years now. No progression in the degeneration has occured and my vision (with glasses) is A+. I should not have even mentioned it to this doctor, whose speedy way of racing through the appointment was irritating. I quit getting the screenings years ago, took Ocuvite as recommended, though not consistently because it’s a pretty expensive supplement not covered by any insurance. I take it when I can afford it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was hot as hell and humid af yesterday. After wandereing Flushing a bit I returned to Astoria, helping an older couple who were visibly nervous about making their train connections and whether elevators would be available. They were very appreciative of my guidance and you know, they should have been. I saved them from getting on completely the wrong train that would have sent them to Flushing. I believe they were going to LaGuardia, with their luggage and all. Theree is a LaGuardia connection via the 7 train but they probably didn’t know that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like being helpful. I like being useful. Most of my days are spent feeling neither of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did some impromptu research at home. I find it very difficult to do work at home anymore but yesterday was different, for reasons I know not why. I discovered that Staten Island had outdoor phone booths years before Manhattan, among other vital bits of critical information.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later I got caught in the thunderstorm I had no idea was coming. It amounted to more wasted time but I should be used to that feeling by now. Huddled under an awning with non-chatty Astorians. I was en route to procuring sandwiches and provisions for the work week, which is 4 days from Friday to Monday. I also made the ritual bypass of the stripper’s house.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday was depressive. I woke not wanting to. 4AM. Sat in the shower, wasting time and seed, for far too long. Did not want to move but did. I got around town yesterday, in a somewhat frivolous and meaningless search for a homeless woman I’d heard had been living at a bus stop in Flushing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paumAn-cgy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}