Date: 2007-07-10
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: New York City
Miles today: 0.0

Zero Days (7/10 to 7/13)Three months can be a really long time, or a really short one. I stepped off of the bus at 42nd St. and the sensory clutter that surrounded me sent me into a state of shallow breathing and rapid blinking. That only lasted for about 5 minutes, though, and I was soon bossing my way through the crowds and hopping the express trains around the city.New York City is always changing, but because of that, it feels as though it never changes. In a small town, the construction of a single building is a major alteration. Here, contruction is a perpetual process. It's nice to see that the uptown E still runs to the library I worked in, the little old greek windows still populate the neighborhood around my old apartment, and that cab drivers still serve up hair raising rides on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Some things about this city are as reliable as sunrise and sunset. It's a good place, and I'm glad that I've lived here.My first mission in the city was to go to the outfitters in SOHO and get the tips on my trekking poles replaced. I bought the replacement tips, but they weren't able to remove the old ones for lack of proper tools. So, they sent me to a bike shop around the corner on Lafayette. The place was swarming with urban bike enthusiasts. I felt outclassed since they'd all discovered the wheel while I was still on foot. It was a riot explaining the trekking pole situation to them, but they threw the poles in a vice and popped the tips off with a mallet and a blunt chisel. And, they didn't even charge me for it. There you have it, trail magic in the city.My pressing town chore completed, I hopped on a train and had lunch with two of my old co-workers in Forest Hils. Then I went to Brooklyn to see a friend, tehn into a cab and off to Astoria to meet up with people at the Beer Garden. After 10:00, I felt more tired than I've felt this whole trip.The following day, I slept in and had a decadent breakfast before heading out into the city in search of a place to get my photos burned to a CD. I have a 2G memory card, and for some reason, no photo place has been able to deal with the memory size (?!). I figured that NYC would be able to serve up some CD's for my AT archive. First, I went to a chain drug store to try one of the self service kiosks. After an hour of machine glitches and dealing with the oblivious staff (at one point, a salesperson grabbed the card from the machine and accidentally dropped it in the small dusty crack between the counter) I went across the street to Olympia phota. There, I was able to do what I needed to do. In fact, the nice Greek-American family who runs the place allowed me to hop behind the counter and gave me full run of the digital lab facilities! When I was done, they even offered me a job there! Despite what a cool place it was, and the prospect of a regular paycheck, I had hiking on the brain and had to decline their offer.That evening, my friend in Brooklyn threw a great little dinner pary for me. Post dinner party, we took off to Daddy's, a bar that was just featured in the New York Times. The article stated that librarianship has become a cool job recently, and the local hipster librarians used Daddy's as their regular watering hole.Thursday brought some impromptu cat rodeo activities and another get together in Astoria, where I had my first decent Thai food in months.I had every intention of hopping an early bus to DWG and getting some miles in, but sleeping in late along with running a few last minute errands got me back to DWG after 5:00 PM, too late to do anthing but check into the hiker hostel and sleep. And, after this "weekend", I sure need some sleep!