So remember that time I went to cast my early vote in a wheelchair? Amazing to think that was just 2 weeks ago, especially with all the breath-holding this week - it's felt like a month! Also, if you missed it on Facebook, you may not remember this as somehow it didn't make it into the blog here, I skipped straight from the medical update to that lovely Halloween sail.
So anyways - I had intended to join in the early voting we have here in NYC, but I had of course had absolutely no clue that I was going to be so dreadfully shaky on my pins after 2 weeks in the hospital when the time rolled around! It wasn't that I couldn't walk at all but at this point, one week after my release, I'm seriously not sure I could've made it once around my own block, let alone to Brooklyn College, my early polling location, about 3/4 of a mile away. Also really didn't want to be on public transportation yet, so I asked some friends in the neighborhood if they could help. My friend Gail came through immediately and also had the very good idea of the wheelchair; she has some friends whose daughther has a small theater company and Gail was able to borrow an old but fully functional wheelchair from the prop deck - that worked out so well.
That was the 26th of October. My new chemo was starting on the 27th, and I didn't know how that was going to go, hence my hurry to vote before that. As it happened, the new chemo is going fine and I'm very happy to report that today I actually walked a mile and a half! Still very slowly, but I went up to the Little Free Library up near Courtelyou Road, a few blocks to the north, to drop off some books I was done with, and then I just wandered about enjoying the weather (amazing, 72 degrees when I went out in the afternoon) and the foliage, which is getting lovely. Here are a few samples, click any photo for a slideshow view.
So anyways - I had intended to join in the early voting we have here in NYC, but I had of course had absolutely no clue that I was going to be so dreadfully shaky on my pins after 2 weeks in the hospital when the time rolled around! It wasn't that I couldn't walk at all but at this point, one week after my release, I'm seriously not sure I could've made it once around my own block, let alone to Brooklyn College, my early polling location, about 3/4 of a mile away. Also really didn't want to be on public transportation yet, so I asked some friends in the neighborhood if they could help. My friend Gail came through immediately and also had the very good idea of the wheelchair; she has some friends whose daughther has a small theater company and Gail was able to borrow an old but fully functional wheelchair from the prop deck - that worked out so well.
That was the 26th of October. My new chemo was starting on the 27th, and I didn't know how that was going to go, hence my hurry to vote before that. As it happened, the new chemo is going fine and I'm very happy to report that today I actually walked a mile and a half! Still very slowly, but I went up to the Little Free Library up near Courtelyou Road, a few blocks to the north, to drop off some books I was done with, and then I just wandered about enjoying the weather (amazing, 72 degrees when I went out in the afternoon) and the foliage, which is getting lovely. Here are a few samples, click any photo for a slideshow view.
7 comments:
I am so glad you were able to vote. That wheelchair was a brilliant idea.
I was so glad Gail thought of that, I was so grateful. I'd planned to bring a camp chair for the line but I wasn't doing really well with even just standing up. I just couldn't stomach not voting this year!
Glad you were able to vote. Hope you continue to feel well!
Congratulations on your ingenious way of getting in your vote! And I DO hope you continue to improve!
This was the first year I haven't heard the old "I was too (insert excuse here) to vote." It's inspiring! My American brothers and sisters came through big time!
Wow. So much to unpack here. You should get the wheelchair voting photo framed because it rocks! (you way, way outdid my moment of fame, when I had to vote on crutches). May your recovery continue fast and true and may your current chemo be smooth and effective. Next, your neighborhood. This is not the Brooklyn I know so it took me a tiny bit by surprise. (Obviously I've never been in your neighborhood). The foliage is stunning and so are the houses. What you showed reminds me of parts of the West Side of Binghamton. I've been so craving a trip to Brooklyn (it will have to wait for a vaccine)and I am officially putting this on my mental post-COVID bucket list (along with the parts of Brooklyn I do know).
Thanks everyone! Alana, this is an amazing part of Brooklyn. I actually didn't know about it when I first decide to take the plunge and buy a place in 2002, when the real estate market had softened and my landlord had explained that she still had to raise my rent by a ridiculous percent because the building was full of rent controlled tenants and freeloaders who took forever and a lot of lawyer's fees to evict. I got in touch with a friend who's a broker, I had a list of neighborhoods (mostly a string along the F train route where I'd either lived or had friends who lived) I was interested in if she had anything affordable. She said she had something great to show me if I was free that weekend. I met her at her office in Park Slope. She drove us up Coney Island Avenue - my heart sank a little bit, Coney Island Avenue is pretty workaday, actually lots of car repair places. And then she hung a left into Ditmas Park and then my heart sank again - OH, the beautiful homes, but had she mis-heard how much I could spend?
And then we pulled up to this fine-looking old apartment building and I ended up falling head over heels in love with one of the 2 very affordable apartments she showed me. And that's where I still live!
Glad I moved then, though - I don't think I could afford the place now, my friend got me into the neighborhood just as it was taking off. Not long after I moved in, the neighborhood was abuzz as one of the single-family homes had just sold for a million dollars - I think that would be pretty standard now!
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