Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes it eats you.

 

If there's flashing lights in the middle of a NYC street, one has to wonder: Do I risk doing down that narrow one-way street, or do I take my chances on finding a parking spot on another street.  Today, I made the wrong decision, and got stuck behind an ambulance for 45 minutes waiting for them to clear the street and allow traffic to pass.

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Summer is one of those times where it is much easier for me to reach RQS's place.  I was on schedule for a 3 pm arrival at her place, and turned onto her street and noticed an ambulance going down the street.  When I could have backed out of the street and tried my luck elsewhere, I didn't.  And just before the corner, the ambulance stopped, blocking traffic for 45 minutes on a hot summer's day.

If one looks closely at the above photo, there was not enough room to squeeze around the ambulance into the open parking spot, and I didn't want to leave my car to relieve myself before the EMT people came back and freed up traffic.  Immediately behind me were 4 or 5 buses, all stuck on their route to the terminal, as well as some cars who had no way to escape the log jam. The rescue efforts seemed to take forever, and a fire truck came with more personnel to help take someone out to the ambulance. I had to feel sorry for the woman being carried out to the ambulance, she looked like death warmed over, but she was still alive. At least, once the woman was in the ambulance (and in stable condition) they moved the ambulance out of the way, and I grabbed the free parking spot before anyone else came by to take it.

Finally making it to RQS's apartment, I brought my changes of clothes into the apartment.  This weekend, I'd be in full Marian mode, and it was nice to be able to wear dresses for the entire weekend.  Since I was not in the mood to stay inside for dinner, we walked over to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner before checking in for the night.

It's nice to have a girlfriend/partner who accepts me for who I am, and whatever way I choose to present myself. 

It was the end of a weekend, and a long search for a parking spot.

 

All too soon, Monday came and we had to drive down from Croton to RQS's place.  The storage area in my car had stuff from a prior weekend's visit to BJ's that had to get to her apartment.

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Neither of us wanted to get up early today.  But we knew that if we didn't get moving by noon - 1 pm, we'd never get the chance to both stop at Trader Joe's and find a good parking spot.  (Her area of NYC has alternate side of the street parking, and I didn't want to leave her at 7:45 am to avoid parking tickets.) Traffic moved fast, until we reached the bridges.  Both the Whitestone and Throggs Neck bridges were backed up due to lane closures, and it took us more time than usual to get into Queens from the Bronx.

Once in Queens, we had no trouble making it to Trader Joe's for a shopping run.  I picked up some candy for early Xmas gifts, while RQS stocked up on needed goods. Next, we were off to RQS's place where we stopped to unload my car and get stuff into her apartment. And then, the fun began.  When hunting for a parking spot, one has to zig-zag through the streets until an acceptable spot is found.  Today, I had to find a spot on the Westbound side of the street - and this took longer than expected.  First, I made my usual loop down the street for two blocks until I could reverse direction on an adjacent street and continue my search.  After completing most of the first loop through the neighborhood, we encountered a problem: Two ambulances blocked the street for an emergency call, when they had open space to park their vehicles.  I was pissed to say the least - especially when none of the personnel seemed in a hurry to do what they came to do.

After a few minutes, both the car behind me and I backed up, going the wrong way on a one way street, escaping the defacto dead end street.  We were lucky to have done so when we did, as there was a bus about to come up the street, and we would have been boxed in by it.  Yet, we escaped the blockage, and circled through the neighborhood until we found a spot 3 blocks away from RQS's place.

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After dinner, I had to sign on for a closing session for the study in which I participated.  While RQS kept busy in one room, I took the test to see how my skills may have improved via directed game play. I feel a little strange, as my part in this study is almost over.  Tomorrow will be my MRI in Queens, and then it's over.