On the Way to Ohio

First, the two sad things I saw today. On the way to the rental car place, at the corner of 87th and Second which is a complete mess due to the Second Avenue Subway construction, I notice two uprooted stumps of trees. The trees that line the streets make New York livable, and these two had been sawed down, I suppose for the subway. I am glad I wasn't there to see it happen.

The next thing was I went to McDonald's drive thru for lunch and the young woman was this sort of sad looking creature, not attractive, stringy hair, bad teeth. She reminded me of a line from a Richard Brautigan novel where he wrote, "She looks as if the only mail she had ever received in her life was bills." And that's what this young woman looked like.

She also had her arm in a cast and a sling. Spontaneously I said to her something like "Oh no, how did that happen?" and she hung her head and said, "that's something I don't really like to talk about." So I apologized -- said I didn't mean to pry, and I didn't. But I would imagine she had been abused. What was sad is she wasn't clever enough to say "I fell" or any story ''dumb accident" -- she and my relationship lasted 10 seconds so she didn't even have the strength or whatever to make up a story for a stranger.

So of course, despite the weather forecasts, I did head into snow. From what I can gather, it's just one3 or two inches and I have to say it wasn't slippery at all. A little foggy, but that's it.

This is pretty much how it looked most of the way... gray and snowy.

I pass a Scenic Overlook and today I decided to take time to smell the roses, or rather look at the scenic overlook, which I have to say was pretty much underwhelming. When I make this same trip in May, I'll teturn and I suspect it might look nicer then.

Of course, I was pushing my luck and depending on technology. I had about 20 miles to go when the empty fuel light came on, but it told me I had 60 miles so I didn't stop. I'll get gas first thing in the morning.