A good cry on the train

There's some good souls here, I've said that before, or if I haven't I'd like to say it now.
--
my day
Everybody has a story.
Tonight I'm coming around the corner of the stairs when I hear the guy telling the guy just ahead of me his story. This one's about how he can't figure out what's wrong with his metroCARD, that he just put ten dollars on it but now it doesn't work and he needs to send it in to be fixed but right now he has to get downtown to see his mother. So if you just have just a dollar to help him with the fare. ....... ,
About a hundred yards from this cadger's spot, on the way up the hill this morning, I met a runner coming down the hill saying "Yes,yes ,Yes!!" with a nice hard hiss on the last yes. There was some victory in his story, a finish worthy of this bright Sunday.

Meanwhile, across town on First Avenue the crowds were gathering to cheer and cowbell the runners of the marathon. I watched for a while. Brimming.
I saw Paula go by. Running so fast and ten, no, twelve women hanging onto her heels. ah
Then went to work.
There were the usual.
Paint. Hanging Pictures. Holes to be made or filled.
A knife sharpener. An LED flashlight.
Late, a woman came in. She'd been cleaning the floors in her father's apartment when she made the mistake of plugging the floor cleaner into the same socket as her father's heater.
Something blew.
Now the heater was off and his hospital bed was inoperable.
She cried on the phone to her husband who was somewhere.
We explained how to re-set the breakers.
She was brave.
She was tired.
She was afraid that she had killed her father.
---
At five forty five I reached the Park from the 6 train. The cops were all standing around and the barriers had all been taken down. Here we were seven hours since the start. Paula had long been the winner and was probably having dinner somewhere.
Then, I saw them, not in a bunch but singled up. One just up there, then a couple trotting slowly together.
Forty people I'd say I saw in the two miles to to the 23 mile turn into the Park.
Forty finishers all on their way to their yes yes yes moment.
Two blind runners and their guides.
An ancient man closely accompanied by a younger woman.
A man with one leg and one very badly malfunctioning apparatus.
A weeping woman and a man with a prosthesis at the 25 mile banner.
One really old man all by himself in the darkness.
A big woman with a backpack pacing along as if it were noon.

They were two miles and two tenths from the end and their story, their yes yes yes moment.

Joe(I hope you all had your moment today)Nation

Yes. My cousin called. Long talk. They bought an RV, deals now, you know. They're coming to visit me in the spring. Have been practicing maneuvering the thing, I forget how many feet long, 36, 37?, in the parking lot of the husband's business, which is on the market. We talked about wind to deal with when driving tall vehicles in New Mexico in the springtime. Oy, vey. But they know New Mexico, he was stationed at White Sands a long long time ago. Well, 41 years ago, to be exact. In fact, that was when they heard the ghost.. well, another story.
I'm glad they'll visit. They're the ones who've visited me before; they're the ones that we all don't agree on much and it doesn't matter.
So, a good day.

Izzie,

Get the chooks!... if you can protect them from foxes.

They are so much fun. They will help you with your gardening, whether you want them to or not. They will come charging down the back yard to greet you every time you come out the door. They provide excellent fertilizer (and dig up unprotected gardens, be aware) and you will wonder why you ever liked eggs before. Really fresh eggs are wonderful!

P.S. I am a girl-person, or would be if I knocked off about 40 years. And in Victoria. Margo and I must have had a time-glitch somewhere.

Joe.

I've never much liked New York, as a concept. Never really wanted to see it. The TV presents NY as way more busy than I like and doesn't give it a human face.

Lately, I've been seeing that city as a group of individuals, each with aspirations, aches and the rest. Each a warm, human body.

I just have realised how come the change.

It's in the nature of the filter I get to see it through these days. Thanks for that.

Okay where can I get to meet these warm human bodies?

Mc(sounds like fun)Tag

I strongly suspect you'd have to see them through Joe Nation's eyes.

Can you do it?

Ah! Victorian. In the general vicinity of MsOlga - and she generally has something sensible to say!

I think you need to adjust your A2K clock, to take into account daylight saving. (in your profile) (not daylight saving in your profile)

Sigh. Something else I never did when this new format started.
And I haven't figured out how to figure what day of the week the people of Oz are living. If today in New York is Monday, then right now the Tuesday morning newspapers are plopping onto porches in Victoria. Right?

Joe(So tell us who won.)Nation

Thanks, Margo, I'll look into straightening out my time frame.



I think the horse was View. It was the 12th win for the trainer, who is practically a national icon, and the race itself was a doozy, with the 2nd horse charging down the outside to lose by such a small margin that a photo nearly couldn't pick it.

I do enjoy the cup, but now I'm taking off my big, floppy hat, turning off the TV and going outside to plant tomatoes (the other traditional Cup Day activity )



I get disoriented. As I hit reply it's 10 to 4, Tuesday afternoon, by my kitchen clock.

Viewed! - that's the horse.

Is there some other race on today?

Why do they always hold presidential elections on Melbourne Cup day!

My horse came last - so at least I got my money back!

I see you've adjusted your clock - Spike!

Your post showed at 12:46 am on my screen, Pipsqueak. But, my computer clock is still on daylight savings time, so it'd actually have been 11:46 pm.

Thanks littlek, I do occasionally work it out, when it matters, but if I can know that most of you are roughly 12 hours off it helps to put you in perspective.

I gave up trying to figure it out too. I post now and you all get it then.

http://www.worldtimezone.com/index24.php

I've got a thread on this somewhere, but I lerve this link.

Joe (hugs and love to you) Nation

PDawg (hugs and love to you if you do hugs and love from Brit gals)


JNCrew - you are all fab.

Iz (smooches)zie x

I'm in Venus Bay, Margo. Are we in any way neighbours?

Well - I live quite close to Five Dock Bay and/or Hen and Chicken Bay - just down the road, about half a kilometre - but that's in Sydney.

We're sorta bay neighbours anyway! Where's Venus Bay?

About 50k from Wilson's Prom (southernmost pt).

Maybe 200k from Melb.

I had to laugh at one of your earlier posts. Queenslanders are mainly lovely people, but they do bring their own perspective to things.

One way of looking at it, I guess!

I see this thread has gone on vacation to Oz.

Have a nice time, and don't forget to send us a postcard!