Only in NY, Four Things

We are at the start of a bad three day heat wave, the heat index is something awful like 104.

I am miserable.

My AC is on at home and it certainly helps but it can't really keep up with these temperatures.

This is my least favorite time of year.

And today was a wacky heatwave day......starting early!

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Thing 1:

This morning I went into the office.

I took my time in the morning but needed to be in for a 10am meeting.

My wifi wasn't working (I usually log in early to double-check the calendar) and i didn't have time to reset it before leaving, but that's ok.

To save some time I decided to take the E train and go express.

I had to transfer at 53/Lexington.

If you know this station this story will make more horrible sense.

All... and I mean ALL of the escalators were turned off.

Why?

Because it's the MTA.

And keep in mind the subway stations are about 20 degrees hotter than outside.

Time: 9:24

Could I make it down to the office before 10am? 

yeah, probably.

But not if I had to wait in the elevator line, and also I would probably die of heat-amplified stench in the elevator.

So walking up the escalator(S) was actually preferable.

If you know, you know.

I did not take this picture, but this is the escalator, well one of them...the second one was more normal-sized:

Subtracting the 2 flights I climbed to exit at Fulton Street, 

my phone tells me I climbed 

22 flights 

of stairs this morning.

In that miserable heat.

I absolutely wholeheartedly DO NOT RECOMMEND this life experience.

When I got to the office (at 9:48!) I found out my meeting had been cancelled last-minute.

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Thing 2

...And this is truly classic............

I went to the boathouse for the public program after work.

Today I was at the top of the line to the dock, checking life jackets and giving the boundaries etc speech.

It was a hard paddle today- I was out for a few minutes before the program started and it was CRAZY on the water!  There was a lot of wind and strong currents and also waves... so I was letting people know they had to be extra strong to stay in the boundaries.

A man came over to me to ask a question.

Not a kayaking visitor.

He definitely looked homeless.

His shoes were literally in shreds.

He was definitely high on something.

He wanted to go on the dock because he said he dropped something in the river.

I said no, but I would go check for him.

I looked over the rail.

Nothing.

He said go by the ladder, so I did.

There was a tiny green plastic vial floating, and I was, amazingly, able to reach it.

It was a tiny container of weed.

I went back to him, handed it over and said "Did you actually drop your weed in the river?"

He said "Yeah!"

He was EXTREMELY thankful for its return.

Shoes in absolute tatters and all this guy cared about was his tiny amount of weed.

He could have gone up to Canal Street and traded that for a nice new pair of knock-off shoes!

Priorities, I suppose...

Anyhow he was EXTREMELY thankful, I said this is the only time iwould do that.  He said he wanted to give me something for getting his weed back.

I absolutely DO NOT WANT ANYTHING from him, OMG NO, and I said so.

He went on his way.

So, weed successfully retrieved for homeless guy from the Hudson River.

I can't believe we were able to get something like that back!

If that's not luck I don't know what is.

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Thing 3

My Boathouse Brother Hector uses a walker.

Canal Street, astoundingly, has no elevator, and he needs help with the stairs.

We both go the same way home, and if I am at the boathouse I always go with Hector to help him.

The stairs are very dangerous for him.

We had a really good laugh over the homeless pot-dropping guy.

At Canal Street, a guy was standing in the middle of the stairs down just.... looking at his phone.
Hector needs to go sideways holding the rail with both hands, and I need the other rail for support while carrying his walker down.

I told the guy to move.

The situation was obvious.

He would not move.

He actually refused to move. Said 'There's enough room."

I can't comprehend this.

The sheer indecency of it just absolutely incensed me.

I got SO ANGRY.

I'm generally a really nice person and leave annoying situations alone but as I passed him to let go of the rail while carrying the walker, I let him have it.

....I'm not sure if I should repeat what I wished for him, I think I won't but it was pretty bad, it just came out. Hector was shocked, he's never seen me be mean like that.... and it's really rare.  I absolutely cannot comprehend someone not moving for a person getting assistance with a walker.

I'm not sorry.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs he was still standing there, just looking at us.  

I told him he was the loser of the year, which was mild compared to what I told him before.

Hector and I had another good laugh about it on the train.

I absolutely cannot believe people, and the absolute indecency.

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Thing 4

Remember I said my wifi wasn't working this morning?

I reset it.

As I reconnected, I saw one of my neighbors has named their network Connecto Patronum.

This is brilliant and and genius!!

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