Taco Time!

Warming up the tortillas, steak staying warm on the smaller burner

Aside from the medical appointments in midtown, I've pretty much been following the NYC social distancing rules. I'm actually a little bit on the introvert side - the sort who enjoys socializing but does need occasional down time alone now and then - and TQ's good company, so I'm doing OK with this. Working from home is a bit strange, I've always resisted that because I like work to be work and home to be home, but I'm dealing, you kind of have to. I'm into an OK rhythm - I work, I read, I've done a little drawing, I go outside for exercise (considered an essential activity) and fresh air. As I think I've mentioned before, I have really been enjoying watching Spring spring in my very pretty neighborhood!

My only shopping these days is the grocery store, but I was never big on shopping as recreation anyways. The local grocery stores have been generally well stocked after the early panic buying, although you do still need to be a little flexible; TQ and I both like to cook so we've been eating pretty well!

I have NOT been able to participate in this much-vaunted Stress Baking of which I have heard tell due to the fact that our gas has been off since the gas company detected a leak in early February. Boo. Gas leak is of course serious business, and once National Grid has had to do an emergency turn-off, there's a fairly complex set of requirements to meet and inspections to pass before it can be turned back on. The building management estimated probably about 3 months and provided all the affected tenants with double hot plates. We've supplemented that with a couple of camp stoves (used with the kitchen window open and a fan running for good ventilation) and a crock pot, and we've been getting by OK. Management and our super super have done a really good job of keeping things on track - they're up to one of the final steps, getting a city inspector; that may be harder because of the coronavirus shutdown, but in the meantime, definitely not starving. But no baking on a whim.

However, I did get an achievable whim while shopping the other day - suddenly decided to cook TACOS! This is DEFINITELY a shutdown thing - ordinarily I just wouldn't think of making my own tacos because we have plenty of good Mexican places nearby. Even now, I could have gotten much better tacos from Tacos El Paisano, the taco truck that parks near the Newkirk Plaza subway station in the evenings, I've stopped there a number of times on my way home from work back when we all commuted and their tacos are really good - but I was shopping, they had some nice little chuck steaks, and I got those, a sweet onion, cilantro and some tortillas. TQ picked up the lime I forgot and the avocado I forgot I forgot on his way home from work, I put together a melange of spices that seemed appropriate for the steaks, and the came out pretty well! I made rice and beans, too, managed to juggle items so I didn't need to use the camp stoves. The cast iron collection got a workout (and so did I, juggling all that cast iron)!

And I had so much fun with the fixin's - started slicing and dicing things and had to get out ALL THE PRETTY BOWLS. Doesn't this look nice? 

Final result - nowhere NEAR as good as the taco truck, but not too bad.

And of course I made about 150% more fixin's that we needed for one meal, and I had one more beautiful chunk of striped bass from an October fishing trip with a Sebago friend that I'd just thawed out for lunch (big enough to share but TQ is not a fish fan so it's all mine!) so for yesterday's lunch - fish tacos! 

And then this morning, the fixings just kept giving - this time it was TQ's turn, I never would've thought of putting cilantro in with sausage & peppers, but OMG, it was delicious! So glad we are both cilantro fans. 

So that was a fun experiment. And btw - here is what the original fish looked like. I didn't catch anything but the way my friend Jonathan handles fishing trips he organizes fir his friends is the catch just gets split 3 ways - and with his other friend catching this enormous fish (missed being the "pool fish", the biggest fish of the day, by THAT MUCH) there was plenty to go around - and it was delicious! Beautiful day on the water, too - more photos here, if you missed it the first time.  

2nd day of necessary travel - Iconic Buildings and Empty Streets

36th and  Park Avenue, looking north

April 2nd I had 2 more appointments at NYU Langone. I took my camera along again, of course!

The day before, I hadn't been able to resist the boat ride. Day 2, I knew there would be a good bit of time between meeting with my oncologist and the 3rd test that was scheduled, so I decided to do a little walking around the midtown east neighborhood where the Perlmutter Women's Imaging center is located. I've made a lot of visits up to this neighborhood since my first diagnosis in 2015, but I always had to get back to work - I would look at the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building as I came and went, and I would think the requisite oooh and aaah thoughts, but I never took a camera. This time I knew I would have time to get some nice photos of these iconic building, and I also really wanted to get some of those empty street photos that represent this strange time in NYC so well. I am going to do some descriptions on these, but click on any photo for a better view.

This second photo isn't that great, but I'm including it as it shows an experiment that only ran for around 10 days. Certain city streets were closed to vehicle traffic so that residents could use them for walking - the idea was that sidewalks could be too crowded and this would encourage residents to get out for exercise (considered an essential activity) while maintaining social distancing. It ended up not being very popular, and it took a lot of police to maintain, but it was really interesting to see Park Avenue like this during its brief stint as a pedestrian mall. 

More Park Avenue cherry trees

Looking north on an empty Lexington Avenue. Middle of the day on a weekday, this should be full of traffic!

Caught my eye as I was walking north

Heading towards the Chrysler Building

Chrysler Building

Chrysler Building and its neighbor to the south, the Socony-Mobil Building. I've always liked the almost quilted effect on the steel panels with which this mid-50's landmark building is clad.

Time to wander meant time to discover historic surprises on the side streets in the area - neat!

This was hung outside of an Indian restaurant and caught my eye, and of course I wondered what the significance was. I did a little Googling later, and it turns out to be meant to either ward off bad luck or possibly lend a healthy quality to the air around it - either one most appropriate right now. Click here for a variety of explanations on the Quora q and a website. Also found a really yummy looking northwestern Chinese place a little bit south of here - test #3 was one of those barium milkshake ones where you can't eat for 7 hours beforehand, so I just tortured myself reading the menu, then went back later, ravenously hungry, and ended up buying enough food for me and TQ for half the week! Sorry no pix but I'll give 'em a link, Dunhuang Noodles had some really scrumptious food! 

Another side street in the area

I just liked this

And last but not least - the Empire State Building. I've taken way more pictures of this one than the Chrysler Building, but hey - it never gets old!

East River Boat Ride, April 1 -

So of course the bad health news described in yesterday's post meant an unfortunate amount of travel to get to doctors and tests.

Of COURSE I brought my camera along. If I was going to have to break the stay-home rules because of this business, I was at least going to get some photos!

The CT scan I'd had (btw, barium is still a lousy flavor for a milkshake, same as it was in 2015 when I had my first round with this) was done at the radiology department at NYU Langone's Tisch Hospital, which is located on the Manhattan shore of the East River. I'd started my medical appointments at 9 am, it was now 2 pm, I hadn't gotten any further instructions from my GP, who at this point was coordinating everything. And there was the East River rolling by, and I've been missing my salt water so much since Sebago closed and public transportation is really for essential travel only. So I decided to go for a walk by the river, and there was a ferry terminal there and although there was still the possibility that my GP was going to call me with something else to do, I just decided to gamble on us being done for the day, because I just wanted to go for a boat ride.

And it was just what the doctor ordered. Not literally but still a great unwind. It did turn out there was one more thing that could've happened, but the message went to my home number instead of my cell phone, and it wasn't the end of the world, and I enjoyed the boat ride so very much.

I got my ticket with about 3 minutes to spare before boarding the Spring Mallard for the East River route. I boarded at 34th St. in Manhattan, the boat went over to Long Island City, and then made stops along the Queens and Brooklyn waterfronts to the Brooklyn Bridge Park, where I disembarked, picked up pizza at Grimaldi's (hadn't eaten since a clementine at 7 am, so utterly no resistance to the call of pizza), and then headed for home.

Here was the boat ride - sorry didn't think to take pictures of the pizza. Loved seeing these East River bridges from the water again, haven't paddled these waters in a very long time. Click on any photo for a slideshow view, this is it for the writeup. 

Bad news at a bad time

Photo - NYU Langone's Laura Perlmutter Center for Women's Imaging at 34th St, a few empty blocks east of the Empire State Building. 

This is usually not the most personal of personal blogs, but I'm going to share some bad news of my own here in the time of COVID-19.

The breast cancer that I'd though had been taken care of 4 years ago has reappeared in my liver. This is going to be a part of my life now, and I want to share this so that down the road I can talk about it if I want to. Also I wrote this nice explanation on Facebook & figured I might as well put it here, too.  

Saturday morning before last, I was lying in bed and put my hand on my belly, just under my ribcage, and felt a round lump that shouldn't have been there. I didn't immediately think cancer - in fact I googled "lump below sternum" and Google suggested a type of hernia involving abdominal fat. This seemed plausible as I'd been doing a lot of situps for the first time in way too long as part of my sequestration health efforts, and had been pushing it pretty hard.

I went to see my GP on Wednesday morning. She didn't like what she felt and sent me for a sonogram at the Perlmutter imaging center.. Sonogram technician got back to her and after a bit of a wait they sent me on to the main hospital for a CT scan.

After that it was 4 pm and I hadn't gotten any more messages or instructions so I decided to ride the ferry back to Brooklyn (can't paddle right now so I'll take whatever boat ride I can get). Got a pizza at Grimaldi's (possibly my first Grimaldi's pizza ever, and hey, no line!) and headed for home. Dr. Rastegar called me just as I was getting off the train at my station and gave me the news that it looked like my breast cancer had metastasized to my liver.

Thursday I went to see my oncologist and got a PET scan. Friday morning, TQ drove me back to the hospital for a 6:30 am appointment for a liver biopsy (fortunately not too hard to do with the lump that had been my first hint being an easy target).

The results were supposed to take up to 5 business days, but Monday afternoon I got a call from a very happy oncologist. Results were already back and it seems like they were as good as possible for a bad situation. This was definitely my breast cancer returned, and it's likely to respond to hormone therapy, which she was having her nurse set up. The nurse called me around 3 - insurance had approved the request, and when could I come?

Conveniently, all of this is going on during a 2-week furlough from work, so I said "Whenever's good!" and she said "How's this afternoon?" So I've already had my first treatment. What's better than a shot in the butt? 2 shots in the butt!

BTW, everybody at NYU Langone has been great - I would understand if they were tired and stressed, but they didn't show it and I was given multiple assurances that I would still be taken care of, too.

Unfortunately, my understanding is that this isn't so much a licking-it kind of thing as a lifelong maintenance - monthly shots and pills for the rest of my life, unless research comes up with something better down the road (fingers crossed). If hormonal treatment doesn't work, we'll move on from there, but of course I'm hoping for good results. Welcoming thoughts, prayers, white light, healing vibes, whatever you care to offer.

And sincerely hoping to be sharing some more urban paddling adventures here before too much longer - Sebago is closed right now and social distancing is in effect, but things will hopefully get back to normal sometime in the next few months. At the moment I would be perfectly capable of going out & doing ten miles or more and I'm hoping we've started treatment early enough that that will continue to be the case.

So glad I got that last paddle in though!

And as I mentioned, I did get a boat ride out of this, and yes, I had my camera. East River pix coming soon! 

A farewell

Terrible loss last week to the Sláinte session and the NYC Irish music community as the news came out that much-loved regular Kevin Brooks had passed away due to COVID-19 complications.

That's him on the bones (the brisk clickety-click), switching later on to bodhrán (goatskin frame drum). He was also a great one for the old-fashioned Irish songs, the ones speaking of the emigrant's longing for home and loved ones and the beauty of Ireland.

The bodhrán comes in for a lot a grief, as it can be hazardous in the hands of an overenthusiastic novice, but in the hands of an expert and sensitive player it's a singing heartbeat for a tune.

It seems unreal that when this thing has run its course and the session is once again able to gather, Kevin won't be there in his usual spot.

Take care and please stay safe, everyone.

Much love from Brooklyn.

Florida Day 4 - Residents of the Mote Marine Lab

Hello! I am a Burrfish!

What a face, right? 

Day 4 of our January trip to Florida was another chilly one, so we decided to head north again for a visit to the Mote Marine Lab near Sarasota. This place had been mentioned favorably by my friends who live on Anna Maria Island when we'd visited them a couple of days earlier. I think they'd mentioned it during my 2019 visit to them as well because I'd already had it in mind as someplace that might be interesting; I wasn't going to push for it but when others mentioned it I seconded the idea quickly.

The Lab was named after William Mote, a successful Sarasota businessman who loved fishing and the sea, who started supporting it in the 1960's. The lab had been opened as the Cape Haze Marine Life in Placida, Florida, in 1955 under the leadership of Dr. Eugenie Clark; under her (yes, HER, yes, in 1955, how cool is that? she must have worked so hard), the facility became noted for shark research, and that continues to be one of the things for which they're still noted today.* In fact one of my favorite exhibits there was an interactive one about how scientists use tags of various sorts to collect data about the movements and behavior of sharks and other animals. There were more different kinds of tags than I could've imagined, and then the fun interactive component was a large display screen showing the Ocearch marine animal tracker, where you can click on icons representing tagged sharks, whales, seals, sea turtles, and even alligators, seeing what kind each one is and where it's been.

It's not as shiny and fancy as some aquariums I've been to - somewhere on their website, though, they said that that's not what they're after, they're focused on the research and education. They had a really good range of exhibits and animals and lots of interesting information about the local marine environment. Unfortunately their manatee habitat had just been closed for renovations; this was the 2nd close miss for manatees, my Anna Maria Island friends had taken us somewhere where there had been manatees days earlier, but they weren't there. But we did enjoy seeing what Mote had to offer. As always, click on any photo for a better view. 

Sea zucchini!

Nah, nah, nah, just kidding. There's actually a sea cucumber in the grass, and they must like zucchini.

ENORMOUS spiny lobster

Seahorse. They had an interesting exhibit called "Oh Baby!", which gave information about how various sea creatures reproduce and care for (or don't care for) their young - I don't think this one was part of that exhibit but seahorses were of course featured, with the fathers who actually incubate and hatch their eggs in their brood pouches.

Guitar fish! This friendly fish was in an outdoor touch tank that had a deeper section in the center where any of the rays that didn't feel like interacting could go for a little alone time. Most of the rays in the tank were there but this guy was actually swimming around the edge and sticking his nose out of the water.


Shark! And some tarpon, a prized Florida game fish nicknamed "The Silver King". Handsome fish. These were in the largest of the outdoor tanks in the first of the 2 buildings. Once you were done here, you walked over to the 2nd.

Wyland wall on the outside of one of the 2 main buildings. This is where the manatees are when they're there.

In addition to shark research, Mote does a lot of turtle conservation work, and they have a turtle hospital where injured sea turtles from tiny hatchlings up to enormous adults are cared for.

They release as many as they can - 

but some end up not being able to go, like Squirt 2, who was badly injured by a boat propeller.

I think our favorite exhibit was the otters, though. They had a really nice big exhibit with a waterfall for sliding and rafts. The otters were all swimming around when we got there - 

which turned out to be just in time for feeding time. The otters, who are also all anim had some husbandry behaviors they've been trained to do, and dinnertime is reinforcement time. Maybe I'm projecting but they really seemed to enjoy this - they had an air of eager attentiveness, and nobody ever broke ranks to try to steal anyone else's goodies - and then after the session was over they all ended up playing with each other with so much enthusiasm, like they were still excited from the fun with their keeper. 

So all in all, another nice day!

Mote is closed for the pandemic, but like so many other places, they are still sharing the animals with live webcams and also special "ReMote" happy hours!

*History notes from an expanded version of the history page available in a PDF on that page.  

Gil Hodges-Marine Parkway Memorial Bridge

Stealing this from my own post in the Church of the Double-Bladed Paddle group. The group's founder asked for a "bridge binge" recently, and I shared this photo from my "Rebel Without a Clue" paddle weekend before last, with a little information about the bridge. It occurs to me that I show this bridge here all the time, but I'm not sure I've ever told much about it. And it's kind of a good bit of NYC history, so I'm going to share it with you here, now.

It'ss commonly known as the Marine Park Bridge, after the Brooklyn neighborhood on the north end of the bridge, but its real name is the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge. I'm not a big baseball fan, but it's a neat NYC story - Gil Hodges played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, beginning the same year as Jackie Robinson, and then years later was the manager of the 1969 "Miracle Mets". A bridge between Brooklyn and Queens (where the Mets play) is the perfect tribute.

Another neat thing about this bridge - there is a pair of peregrine falcons who nest in the south tower. I got to see one of them once when I was so early for a whalewatching trip (yes, we have whalewatching now in NYC, how cool is that?) that I had time for a walk from Riis Landing up to the south tower and back.

Read more about Gil Hodges on Wikipedia. Very interesting guy!