Switch Problems

Lighting ho the switches at Jamaica Station knocking out train service for most of Long Island. I got to Penn at 6:10 PM and finally got home 'round midnight. I had to be picked up at a train station on the North Shore about thirty minutes away. Spent two and a half hours on one Babylon bound train that went almost to Jamaica before returning to Penn.

Back Home

One Penn Station and two from Chicago - something old, something new, nothing borrowed, something blue.

My Kind of Town

Penn pan, hard to do with new BB, still you have to love the size of the image and the colors.... Trying the new blog interface and like all so much else I prefer that which I am familiar with....we shall see. I will be in Chicago....weather there is still warm which is good.

Alas for the next week and a half I will be out of town on business and not near Penn or the subways.

Week In Review

I never want summers to end....the calming sound of flip flops and the no down jackets or wool coats anywhere....life suddenly mimics that Michelin tire cartoon.

Token Booth

No tokens sold there but we still call it that, a token booth...quick shot taken while waiting to refill a twenty dollar Metrocard, a shinny yellow magnetic strip card that has replaced those little tokens.

Now subway management they can raise the price of a ride and not have to make new tokens, etc.

Progress.

Tuesday Morning, Not Afternoon

Heading towards the E platform.

Later in the day I cleaned the BB lens - bit murky. Still having difficulties timing exposures with new BB - too many shots are from the back since that allows greatest predictability.

Colors

Escalator closeup, morning at Penn.

Monday Morning Feel So Bad....

....I have Friday on my mind.

nine eleven ten

I am sure that more than one person who walked on this platform ten years or so ago died that day.

I was on a train in that morning and for some reason I was in the lead car on the railroad train facing forward so I could see the path the train was following. About ten to nine when my train got to near Jamaica Station I saw a large plume of white smoke in the distance and I thought to myself there was a large fire somewhere in Queens.

When I got to Penn I got on a very empty E train and someone told me two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. The first stop of the E train I was on had been the World Trade Center so I am sure my fifteen minutes before train had been under the flaming towers. I assumed they were small planes and that it all had been an accident. It was not until I got into the office that I realized the acts of terrorism.

I never went to conference rooms where thee TVs showed people jumping out of buildings. I surfed the internet seeking news. I called home and spoke with Marie.

I do recall that by the next day I determined I no longer was a photographer since I did not rush out, buy a camera and document one of the most historic days of my life.

Five or six hours later I heard that they reinstated the subways and I took a very crowded E train towards Jamaica where I later boarded a crowed LIRR train home. Half the passengers were covered in white dust. Most of us looked displaced.

One thing I respect about that day is that New Yorkers, civilians, walked out with order and did not stampede out of the burning towers. We helped and did not kill each other in a panic.

We are used to crowds and to stress. We find order.

When you get on an E train heading south today the conductor still says we are going to the World Trade Center. At first it felt odd to hear that destination, now it feels normal yet sad.

I remember that Pete Sampras lost the finals of the US Open that year a few days before the attack. That nine eleven was just a beautiful fall morning.

That Halloween we did not litter or lawn with skeletons. It seemed too real.

Every time I cross the George Washington Bridge I look south and notice the towers are not there.

We do put out skeletons again in October.

Blond on the Tracks

Track 21 revisited.

Been a Long Time Since I Rocked and Rolled

Been away in Miami, Florida and the Keys where Hurricane Irene which took a turn and missed south Florida and headed towards our unoccupied house on Long Island. We were spared - no damage and electricity not even lost.

Getting back into swing with new BB - miss the shutter timing of my old BB still, Photo below is of E train platform. This BB loves the color red....