The other direction
Yesterday, I turned left on the Hudson River path. They've bifurcated the path around 70th street, so that walkers and runners are completely separated from bikers and rollerbladers, by a lawn, "decorative grasses" (which we are admonished every 10 or so feet not to disturb; right, we wouldn't want to disturb the rats that I'm sure can't believe their luck that the city actually created a perfect breeding ground just for them), and a steep verge covered in fist-sized rocks.
This is a great thing. For the 12 blocks the path is separated in this way, I don't have to worry about getting run down or yelled at by a biker. Except that at around 66th street, I ran into a fence, and a sign, "path closed." I wasn't going to turn around and walk all the back to where the path forked, in order to get on the bike path. No, clearly I wasn't the first person to be frustrated by this obstacle. To my left, part of the fence between the bike path and the hill of rocks had been pushed open, so I walked across the lawn, carefully down the rocks, nearly twisting my ankle several times, jumped over the puddle of mud left over from last week's rain forest conditions, and emerged victorious on the bike path.
I walked down to Chelsea, to visit James' open studio day. He and his wife Michelle have a fellowship this year at Eyebeam, an interactive gallery, which means they get to play with lots of very expensive electronic toys. The gallery has a 3D printer that can "print" the hollow arms, torsos and legs they're designing. They are creating an animatronic version of their live over the last 18 months, during which time they got married, and James was operated on four times for Chron's disease. The scene they are working on now is the night they woke up at 3am to find James completely covered with blood. I smell a Tony.
This is a great thing. For the 12 blocks the path is separated in this way, I don't have to worry about getting run down or yelled at by a biker. Except that at around 66th street, I ran into a fence, and a sign, "path closed." I wasn't going to turn around and walk all the back to where the path forked, in order to get on the bike path. No, clearly I wasn't the first person to be frustrated by this obstacle. To my left, part of the fence between the bike path and the hill of rocks had been pushed open, so I walked across the lawn, carefully down the rocks, nearly twisting my ankle several times, jumped over the puddle of mud left over from last week's rain forest conditions, and emerged victorious on the bike path.
I walked down to Chelsea, to visit James' open studio day. He and his wife Michelle have a fellowship this year at Eyebeam, an interactive gallery, which means they get to play with lots of very expensive electronic toys. The gallery has a 3D printer that can "print" the hollow arms, torsos and legs they're designing. They are creating an animatronic version of their live over the last 18 months, during which time they got married, and James was operated on four times for Chron's disease. The scene they are working on now is the night they woke up at 3am to find James completely covered with blood. I smell a Tony.
posted by Excellent Walker at 2:56 PM
1 Comments:
I love those illegitimate urban adventures that come, even briefly, with leaving the paths. Although in the countryside, 25 yards (ish) of un-paved terrain would be common, in a city, such a ramble feels momentous and rebellious.
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