Ya gotta find the silver lining no matter how hidden and tenuous it may be. I’ve been working in NYC for nearly 40 years. And I’ve been fighting and hating the traffic for all that time. If I had to guess, I’d say traffic costs me 35 minutes a day on average. Nearly 3 hours a week, 150 hours a year. I have to leave earlier in the morning and I get home later in the afternoon. When you put it on top of my commute time (let’s say 45 minutes a day), I spend way too much time just getting from here to there.
I’m a construction worker and I tend to spend six months in one spot, then six in another, and so on. I’ve spent many years in Queens and Roosevelt Island. I’m on the latter now. The island used to be covered with penitentiary hospitals and lunatic asylums in the latter 1800s and into the mid 1900s. Now it is mostly covered in mid-height rental buildings, a high tech learning campus and the Four Freedoms Park. To drive onto the island, I have to take the Edward Koch Bridge (more commonly known as the the Queensboro bridge or the 59th street Bridge-celebrated in a Simon and Garfunkel song, which in turn is more commonly known as Feelin’ Groovy and does not mention the bridge at all).
Going home, I take the upper roadway and exit off the ramp to make a right onto 62nd Street. I then take 62nd through 1st Avenue and York Avenue. there is a traffic light at each intersection. There is usually so much traffic, it takes me 15 minutes to cover less than a quarter mile. I never, ever catch a green light and often have to sit through a couple of reds at each. The last two days though, there have been so few cars, I’ve sailed through each light. I feel like the President, just being waved on to my destination. I’m getting home 20 minutes faster each day. It’s glorious. I just needed a plague to make my life a bit easier and I’m feelin’ groovy.
May you have nothing but blue skies and green lights ahead.
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The Last First Kiss 