NYC Walk

Really, England is not the only place to walk. For part of every week, I live in Manhattan, NYC. If there is a better city built for walking, I have not found it. I stroll east, towards the East River path, and head south. This time of year, it is FREEZING! The wind blowing off the bay heads north along the river with a vengeance, almost angry. I fight the tide, heading south. I pass-- believe it or not-- sleeping homeless all along the way. How do they survive? How terrible must the shelters be to force them to decide to sleep outside when the temperature will dip below 10?

I push along, all the way to Houston, listening to Mozart's Requiem. Believe it or not, its a great power-walk companion.

In the days before I left this great city for Philadelphia (long story, more on this later) I used to run along this route in the very, very early morning. Over time I came to know the regular runners who shared my schedule, as well as "Joe I" and "Joe II", homeless men who were both already up drinking coffee when I ran past at 4 a.m. each morning I think they thought I was crazy, for sure. "Joe I" always said "top of the mornin' to you". He made my day, in fact. If anyone needed the "top of the morning" is was Joe, but he was most gracious. These days, I look for "Joe I" and "Joe II"... to no avail. I wondered what happened to them over the last 4 years. It scares me a bit to think about it.