Hot Days in the City...then back to work

Thursday morning headed to New York.  The radio crackled with warnings for the entire nation to be on extreme heat alert.  We are all inside an enormous heat dome.  The mid-west has been suffering for weeks, but it will be arriving in New York to welcome me. 

Sarah was going to be away so I thought I'd stay there taking advantage of more ample Brooklyn parking, but decided to stay at Jackie's for many reasons.

It was a morning of many shifting plans.  I was going to go over the George Washington Bridge and zip into Brooklyn--I thought I'd park, and if there was time, I'd bring my stuff via subway to Jackie's before meeting Regina, Elaine and Barbara (friends from kindergarden in Jersey City--oh so many decades ago) at the Union Square Cafe for a Restaurant Week bargain lunch.

well-traveled Camry at rest

My Google phone gps suggested the trip through the Holland Tunnel would be easy and indeed it was.  The drive  to Brooklyn, however, looked more ominous. The heat dome was pressing--and in response to a blast of parking chutzpah, I decided to take a quick spin through the West Village--maybe -- just maybe the alternate side of the street parking regulations would be in my favor.  And indeed they were.  I know this is only of interest to an ever-dwindling number of serious New York City parking place hunters--but marvel of marvels--my timing was perfect.  I arrived in the city around noon, and as can be seen on this sign on Sullivan Street--this was at the end of a no-parking period that ended at 12:30.  If I could find a spot--I'd be good throughtout by New York stay.  Reader, I found it.

After that parking triumph, everything else fell wondrously into place.  A splendid lunch with Regina, Elaine and Barbara, which stretched into visits and drinks with Michael and Billy, then a visit with Jackie on Wooster Street.   The next day, I met Dick and Carol in from Newbury at the Met.  It was even hotter than Thursday, but we had a fine air-conditioned art-filled time.  First, the  Richard Serra Drawings followed by a quick cafeteria lunch and a trot through the European galleries.  We were long over due for a proper visit--and what better spot than the long line snaking through many galleries en route to the Alexander McQueen exhibit?  It had been on none of our "must-see" lists, but the exhibit was a wild installation of fashions we'd never imagined--and putting aside all questions of art, fashion, commerce, etc.   A fine time was had by all. The roof garden (where we had decided not to go because of the heat--was in fact closed because of the heat, which shows at least that we were all aware of many extenuating circumstances. 

Dick and Carol headed downtown.  Blithely ignoring the record heat,  walked the few blocks north to the Jewish Museum to view  the many Matisses and other treasures of the remarkable Coen sisters of Baltimore, the upstairs to the Maira Kalman.   Who should be in the corner of one of the exhibition rooms but Maira Kalman herself.  She sets up a little pop-up store in a corner and sells sundry artifacts for $5.00 each --proceeds to the Central Park Conservancy and Wheels on Meals.  I bought tiny Einstein pins, "imagination is more important than knowledge."  The pins come in little votive candle size cans in brown envelopes which I had Ms. Kalman inscribe in her famous hand-writing to Sarah and Sam, both long time fans. 

Hurried across the park for a brief visit with Nancy and George, then downtown to meet Jackie.  Craving air-conditioning, we thought we'd see "The Trip."  It was sold out, so always flexible, instead we watched Tabloid, by Errol Morros--which was weird and wonderful in its own peculiar way.

Saturday morning--I drove to Harlem to pick up Sam---and then for the first time went to the Fairway Market on 12th avenue and 130th or wherever.  It's most splendid feature is a huge refrigerator section--which is to say--a huge portion of the store is a giant refrigerator--shelves lined with meat, milk, cheeses and other perishables--you can wear one of their down jackets---or you can just get delightfully chilled as you shop (we chose the latter).

Expert scraper at work

Then --back to New Jersey where we have been addressing ourselves to all sorts of household chores...many many hours scraping 200 years of paint off the front door-way.  Taking a break from our Fairway food supply, we just went (my first time there also) to the Chinese restaurant in town--a huge cantonese palace with carved carrot flowers and fried noodles with duck sauce.  Hooray for that as well!