States of America

Manhattan from Battle Hill. All of the following are from Steve's camera though some of them I took

Henry Chadwick: the Father of baseball. Note baseballs left by fans. Steve loves baseball, me not so much

Steve standing where his synagogue used to be. D train, though now maybe it is the B train, in the distance along with where he grew up, Trump Village, considerably less fancy than the residences put up by Trump, fils.There is a photo of him standing right here after his bar mitzvah Perhaps I will post it once he gives it to me

persimmons They had 4 trees of them though I thought one of the trees with smaller fruit was a kumquat

Steve thought these were unusual birds but alas, they are European starlings, probably the most plentiful bird in the US though none ever come in our yard. Still they look pretty in this photo

Stained glass inside Greenwood chapel

heron from afar

despair: how apt for our times

He was able to take better photos of the 9/11 fountain

mangled fire truck from 9/11

entrance to the 9/11 museum

reflections on the Freedom tower

You can barely make out the letters for One World Trade Center

The World trade center

Loungers on the High Line.. Just saw the HBO documentary called the Class Divide on how this refurbished rail line has completely changed the neighborhood

more High Line

looking south along the Hudson River Path. 11 years ago I went to a meeting for work and stayed in Chelsea. This is where I would run

Not the United States as we are no longer united. Scary times. Even if the election went the other way, I assume we would still be subject to demonstrations. There is such a divide among us, I don't think it will be bridged in the near future.

But I can isolate myself out here in the country. My abs are sore from renewing my sit-ups. I've been doing plenty of aerobic activity but have neglected stretching, weight training and sit-ups. Now with my balance ball and 22 square yards of rubberized floor versus 8 yards, I have no excuse.

18 less pounds of me to love after 5 weeks though I had a fancy lunch today(I did take the starchy parts home) Still a long way to go but at least I will look progressively less hideous as time goes on.

We had our first hard frost the other night killing most of my flowers except for the petunias. I will harvest my 6 giant stalks of Brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving. Kale and Swiss Chard still can be harvested too. Who wants kale?

I have to bundle up for my early Sunday bike ride. Hard to keep my feet warm though. Perhaps plastic bags? They never get cold running even in much colder temps but on a bicycle, no blood seems to get to them. 3 miles in and my odometer dies. @#$% (now works with new battery..the battery only lasted a year whereas the solar odometer I had on Josh's bike still works from 1995) No problem, I will just use the app on my phone. It refused to open. Still won't . I assume it is incompatible with all the new iOS updates (the last one was particularly annoying..it has this new 2 step authentication step which involves them sending you a special code. If you don't use this protocol by November 10, you will be frozen out of your devices. Problem is they never sent the code. I finally figured out how to shut this procedure down) I ended up plotting my route on MapMyRide.

I had a visit from Shanna and Tess the other day, a visit from Josh and Allie yesterday and Maya will come tomorrow. Lunch was with a good friend today. Julie is not enjoying late pregnancy and assumes it is due to her being 'old' (I was older than her when I was pregnant with Naomi; my hardest pregnancy was when I was 25 with Shanna). 51 days until her scheduled due date but who's counting. Maybe the baby will come early.