Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Ghost Who Haunts the Downstairs Apartment

This time of year, I tend to be scarce- on a typical Saturday, I leave the house by 8AM and don't get home until 1AM Sunday (potential burglars, I don't have anything in the apartment worth stealing- the only thing I have worth stealing is on my person, being typed on). I am pretty much the ghost who haunts the first floor.

Today, I left the house around eight and drove down to the vicinity of Gaelic Park, where I usually park to catch the 1 train to midtown Manhattan for my volunteer gig. There was construction on the elevated tracks, so I had to take a shuttle bus to 207th St in Manhattan to catch the A Train. It took me an hour to get to midtown, and I arrived just in time for the first class.

Once I got to my destination, all inconvenience disappeared- I was among close friends, doing productive work. Since the kids were kinda rusty (and not Rusty in a groundbreaking way), we had them practice ukemi for a while, then went over the basic grip, having the kids practice kuzushi- unbalancing techniques. We had two classes, then I had to shower up, power up, and start to wend my way back to the Bronx, so I could drive to work. I'm writing this in a library close to my place of employment, and plan on grabbing a couple of slices of pizza before punching the clock.

It's a gorgeous day- sunny, with temperatures in the 70s- motivating myself to leave the house was easy, and I walked inside with a bit of a pang (of course, this is just a five minute stop). Thankfully, I'll be working outside today- I have to run around performing those last minute tasks which are crucial on nights when we'll have a few thousand visitors, then go on standby during the course of the event. After the event, I have to run around shutting things down and locking things up... I'm the i-dotter and t-crosser on nights like these. The one thing I really dislike about this time of year is the extreme fluctuation of temperature- I have to dress for seventy and I have to dress for forty... what a pain in the tuchis! I'll be dragging my ass when I get home, the yerba mate only takes one so far.

Yeah, that's my typical Saturday in the fall- I should look into doing one-day subletting of apartment to pick up some extra moolah.

4 comments:

Laura said...

The weather is beautiful here too and also, like you, it cools off quiet rapidly in the evening. I love it!!!

It's nice to be busy but crazy busy can be a pain after awhile. I'm betting that you're happy to see October come to a close. :)

((Hugs))
Laura
P.S. Want me to send you a Turkey sandwich?? :)

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Wow, that is quite a day.

I used to have a routine something like that (working on Wall St. all day, running off, even to Long Island sometimes, for Kanzen Gojuryu, and getting home late at night to do it again the next day).

Now my karate skills and flexibility have gone to the Great Beyond.

At least we have the beautiful weather here...maybe I'll go for a walk and take some pictures.
~

Hunger Tallest Palin said...

Reading that made me ... [yawn] ... Sleepy.

Thanks for the reminder that I am O-L-D.

Johnny Pez said...

B^4, if your previous invitation is still open, I may well be able to drop in on you sometime Monday while I'm in transit between L'il Rhody and Pennsyltucky. Email me!