I am driving at 55 mph and a police car is passing me.  The speed limit is posted at 30 mph, but I am much more worried about horrendous potholes than the cruiser.  We dash out from the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, Elley’s home in the Big Apple, on I-278, the Brooklyn-Queens (or Q-E) Expressway toward the Verazanno Narrows Bridge and the relative suburbia of Staten Island on our way home to PA.  This atherosclerotic vessel is pumping us forward with traffic, taking us from full stops to full acceleration.  I, a provincial, attempt to keep a couple of car lengths open in front of me, but locals often fill them to push ahead a bit.  I don’t mind.  I’m glad to be at all comfortable navigating this crazy roadway.

We enjoyed a fine weekend in The City even if it was in August.  We slept in her room on the ground floor with open windows and fans on.  The night sounds are different from those to which we are accustomed.  Now at home the roar of katydids in the evening is almost deafening and certainly would be disturbing to the urbanite.  We didn’t hear their calls in Brooklyn, but the street noises were erratic and variable.  Loud voices would make a sporadic entrance and strike me to wakefulness.  A pair of fire engines pulled up one night and rumbled for an hour before going home.  We slept well between the disturbances.

Security is a constant preoccupation in the City.  The doors are always locked.  We scan people we pass along the street.  The need for accessories is considered before each step out the door.  At home we usually lock up when we go out, but don’t always lock the back door.  In the woods a break-in is easier - no one to see or hear - so why make a burglar have to break in.  Fixing that may cost more than what is taken!

As much as anything else, what I like about NYC is the food.  The diversity is spectacular, and as much as one can question the value human diversity, the epicurean satisfaction to be found in groceries and restaurants - at almost any time of day or night - is divine.  At home our habitat provides some excellent provisions, but not the extensive variety that can be found there.  We packed home fine Italian table cheese, sweet green olives, and sunflower oil.  These will add to our dining pleasure supporting what we obtain from local butcher and produce shops and a “Dutch” grocery that sells flour and grain by the sack.  Our groceries don’t have so many exotic gems, but here the customers chat with one another and the prices are not so New York.  We picked up two dozen ears of fresh-picked sweet corn from roadside stands at $3.50 a “baker’s” dozen.  At a Brooklyn “green market” I stared at a sign above a pile of maize that spoke, “$.50 an ear.”  Clearly there is some advantage to country life.

Our entertainment on this visit was mostly simple.  We walked and drove about the Borough of Brooklyn.  It has the elegance, energy, and grime of a busy city.  Strolling through the now rebirthing DUMBO (down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass) neighborhood we looked up at the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, both engineering and architectural masterpieces. 

Supper found us at home two evenings, but on the last we enjoyed French Caribbean cuisine with live entertainment.  Fine refreshment to close out our visit.

Next Thursday we fly to San Francisco to visit Alex and look forward to seeing another great city and a bit of the Pacific coastline as well.  We will boat with Debra Shearwater in search of sea birds we have never seen before (and others we have already seen.) 

I note that we arrived in NYC two days too late to see the gray-hooded gull that showed up a Coney Island for a few days.  We were disappointed, but we weren’t prepared to move up our trip because of bird.  We are staining the outside of our log house and want to complete this large chore before going to California.  Ah, the joys of home ownership.