Live! From Fairlawn, Ohio...
Nov. 11th, 2004 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgp...it's AlexPGP Live! (Or a reasonable fascimile thereof).
Well, if I consider all the side trips I made yesterday, I made pretty good time in covering 450 miles. I started driving around 9:30 am, after a breakfast of eggs and lamb. Instead of heading for the Long Island Expressway (billed by some pundits as the longest parking lot in the world), I turned right at 25A (also known as Northern Boulevard), intending to take the slower, but more scenic route to the city.
It would, eventually, take me past Jackson Heights, where I grew up and where I lived after getting married. I stopped by Galina and my first "apartment," which was the basement of a duplex near 30th Avenue on 84th Street. The place looked pretty much unchanged since the time we lived there. The same could be said of our 4th floor walkup on Northern Boulevard.
Down on 37th Avenue, it was a different story. The place looked different, but I could not put my finger on why. Perhaps it was the trees (there where there hadn't been any; gone from where they had stood). Only a handful of businesses were still in place: a stationery store, an ice cream store, a florist, a produce store, and a jewelry store that specialized -- and still does -- in fine china. The rest was all "new" (including numerous shops that cater to the "send money home" crowd) although if you looked closely, you could still see ghosts of the old neighborhood: the counter in the coffee shop across from PS 69, for example, is in the same place as the soda fountain of the candy store that once occupied that space.
I finally got onto a highway and started to make time yesterday around 11 am. With all the stops -- for translation, food, gas, etc. -- I eventually ended up at a Motel 6 in Austintown around 8:30 pm. Sleep came easily and I had a good night.
This morning, I somehow got off of I-80 and have apparently been driving on I-77 for the past 30 or 40 miles. The good news is that by doing so, I ran across this complex near Fairlawn (I could see the Best Buy and Home Depot from the Interstate, and other signs of massive commercial infestation beyond.) A little driving around brought me to this Kinko's (hotspot by T-Mobile), where I delivered the translation and posted this entry.
Mapquest says I can rejoin I-80 just a few miles up the road. Life is good.
Cheers...
Well, if I consider all the side trips I made yesterday, I made pretty good time in covering 450 miles. I started driving around 9:30 am, after a breakfast of eggs and lamb. Instead of heading for the Long Island Expressway (billed by some pundits as the longest parking lot in the world), I turned right at 25A (also known as Northern Boulevard), intending to take the slower, but more scenic route to the city.
It would, eventually, take me past Jackson Heights, where I grew up and where I lived after getting married. I stopped by Galina and my first "apartment," which was the basement of a duplex near 30th Avenue on 84th Street. The place looked pretty much unchanged since the time we lived there. The same could be said of our 4th floor walkup on Northern Boulevard.
Down on 37th Avenue, it was a different story. The place looked different, but I could not put my finger on why. Perhaps it was the trees (there where there hadn't been any; gone from where they had stood). Only a handful of businesses were still in place: a stationery store, an ice cream store, a florist, a produce store, and a jewelry store that specialized -- and still does -- in fine china. The rest was all "new" (including numerous shops that cater to the "send money home" crowd) although if you looked closely, you could still see ghosts of the old neighborhood: the counter in the coffee shop across from PS 69, for example, is in the same place as the soda fountain of the candy store that once occupied that space.
I finally got onto a highway and started to make time yesterday around 11 am. With all the stops -- for translation, food, gas, etc. -- I eventually ended up at a Motel 6 in Austintown around 8:30 pm. Sleep came easily and I had a good night.
This morning, I somehow got off of I-80 and have apparently been driving on I-77 for the past 30 or 40 miles. The good news is that by doing so, I ran across this complex near Fairlawn (I could see the Best Buy and Home Depot from the Interstate, and other signs of massive commercial infestation beyond.) A little driving around brought me to this Kinko's (hotspot by T-Mobile), where I delivered the translation and posted this entry.
Mapquest says I can rejoin I-80 just a few miles up the road. Life is good.
Cheers...
