Categories
Endured Narrated

The Walk To Work

7:34 - Starting My Walk

I promised myself I would do it at least once. Yes, this morning I left bright (!) and early at 7:30 to walk to my office on the Upper East Side.

7:41 - Steinway

After getting over the GCP, I cut down Steinway Street, which was thankfully empty and uncrowded. It’s also full of odd businesses, so that didn’t hurt either.

8:14 - Ruth

Ruth from work was my walking buddy, which made the commute considerably more pleasant and enjoyable.

Once we hit Northern Boulevard, we got asked by a lot of desperate drivers if we needed a ride. It was tempting, but the truth is, we were moving faster than they were.

8:31 - Bikes and Peds Only

Getting from my house to the entrance of the pedestrian walkway for the bridge only took an hour, which is about what I expected, maybe even a little better.

8:43 - Roosevelt Island

Once on the bridge, there were some fantastic photo opportunities, particular once you hit Roosevelt Island. Just based on the pictures I pulled out today, I’m planning on doing the walk again sometime when it’s warmer out.

8:49 - Crammed Tram

The Roosevelt Island Tram made an appearance just as I hit a fenceless patch of the bridge, so I lucked out with a picture. I’ve taken the tram before, and on the right day, it can be downright pleasant. But given the volume of people in there, I’m rather glad I didn’t try today. As Janelle pointed out, “not good for claustrophobics with fears of heights…”

The total walk took about 1:40, which was right around my estimate. My legs are okay (foot still hurts a little, but Advil has saved the day), my brain has returned to normal, and I’m almost – *almost* – looking forward to the walk home. Probably will take a different route, though.

(If you’d like to see the few more pictures of the walk, just check my photos tagged with “walktowork”.)

Categories
Endured

Struck Out

It’s funny; the first day of the [NYC transit strike](http://www.nytimes.com/pages/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/index.html) has been one of the most exhausting days I’ve been through in a long time, but not for the reasons I expected.

When I had caught wind of the strike, I thought to myself – “Hey, this’ll be okay; the walk is about four and a half miles, there’ll be some good photo ops, and I could use the exercise.” I almost looked forward to the possibility.

But unsurprisingly, something got in the way – ironically, my foot. Something in my right foot got messed up over the weekend; can’t recall anything in particular, but the pain started then and grew steadily, hindering me slightly on the way in on Monday and considerably on the way home. As such, there was no way I was going to be able to hobble over the 59th St bridge – so I worked from home as best I could.

But just keeping up with everything for the strike is excruciatingly draining. Coordinating who’s in when at the office, figuring out the car pool, trying to fill the car pool now that a couple people have found other options, having NY1 playing the same segments over and over again, hearing first-hand about the LIRR backlog, wondering how Katie is going to get home with Penn Station shuttered…
Jesus, I’m beat – and there’s little worse than exhaustion when you haven’t done anything physically exhaustive. Hell, walking the 9 miles roundtrip would’ve probably been pleasurable in comparison.

Here’s to hoping the MTA and the TWU reach a fair settlement soon.