Tamara Unleashed

Today was a busy day. I am going to divide it into two blogs as tomorrow will be a much quieter day. I started today out with a breakfast with a old colleague from Pfizer days. We didn’t overlap that long at Pfizer but we continued our friendship outside of Pfizer and it was fun to just pick right up our conversation about all sorts of topics as if 8 years had not passed. He will be a great resource for the next stage of my life.

I then caught the bus to Manhattan – in the midst of the hardest rain of the day. While I had a rain jacket I hadn’t really packed for rain and 40 degree weather but managed to layer well enough for the day. Once in the city, I went to the home of one of my first women in urology friends that I met in 1986 or 87. I visited her apartment many years ago – long before I would have imagined I would eventually live in Manhattan. At the time I was so shocked that anyone could live in such a small space and it is a generous 1 bedroom apartment by NYC standards. She has completely renovated it and has created more custom storage space that I could imagine. It no longer feels small to me. She has created beautiful space with more storage than I have in my 2 bedroom apartment. We then went to lunch and had a great crab curry and Fish Cheeks on the lower East Side.

We then went cross town to the new location of the Whitney Museum. From the Whitney, there was a good view of Little Island, a new park built over the Hudson River south of Chelsea Pier. The first photo is the view from the window of the Whitney and the second is an official photo that shows the full park which is much more than I could appreciate from what I was able to see.

One of the exhibits in the Whitney gave me some new ideas for my kitchen renovation. I had been thinking of more of a black/white/gray theme but this was pretty interesting.

We left the Whitney and went to the south entrance to High Line Park. While I had heard a bit about the park before I left NYC, I had never visited it. I lived on the east side and High Line Park is on the west side quite a ways south. This was built on an unused elevated rail line. The designers used the original rail structures in many aspects of the park.

As we got about midway along the walk in the park, our next destination was visible – The Edge. The platform jutting out of the tall building is The Edge located at Hudson Yard.

Up until this visit, I had never heard of Hudson Yard. It was built over rail tracks between 10th and 12th Ave and 30th-34th Streets. Construction started in 2014 after I left Manhattan. A video describes it as: The Hole; The Platform; The City; The People. Amazing that so many buildings can be built on a platform over train tracks and according to the video, the trains never stopped running during the construction. Between Little Island and Hudson Yard, I was truly impressed by all that had to have transpired between the vision and the reality. Stay tuned for Part 2.

Today I took NJ Transit from Teaneck to Port Authority. It went very smoothly. I got in about 90 minutes before my lunch date so I decided to walk across town on 42nd street to Pfizer and my old apartment building. When I got out of Port Authority, I noticed immediately that at least 75% of the people on the sidewalks were wearing masks. The amount of people on the sidewalks seemed like a Saturday midday rather than Friday midday. The city was coming back to life. It is hard to know what the new normal will be with so many of the jobs staying remote full or part time.

As I got closer to the East Side where I worked and lived it felt normal – like if I had a place to live and a job to do I could walk right back into NYC and be content. Oddly it is not the “sense” of home I felt in Philadelphia – comfortable but different.

Normally at the main entrance of Pfizer there is a steady stream of people in and out and I was literally the only one there. Very odd feeling. I walked around the corner and took a picture with the building I lived in for 9 years in the background.

I lived on the 28th floor of the red building. My vertical commute in the building elevator was longer than the horizontal commute to Pfizer. I had a fabulous view of the Chrysler Building, the East River, Tudor City and the UN. I often wonder how much my living space made the transition to NYC easy for me. There was not a building blocking light or view on 3 sides so I had lots of sunlight every day. I did not have to deal with public transportation – bus, subway or taxis to get to work and could walk to get pretty much anything I needed. I was able to take my time adjusting to what was unfamiliar in my new environment.

After my trip down memory lane I started walking back to the West Side for my lunch date. I realized I was not going to make it hailed a cab. Most of the cabs I saw looked like tiny minivans rather then the sea of yellow sedans when I left – far fewer taxis on the streets.

I had a wonderful lunch with a woman who was a medical assistant for me at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. She then went to WSU, Temple Medical School, NYU Ob-Gyn Residency, Penn Urogyn Fellowship and has been on faculty at NY Hospital/Cornell for past 10 years. It was so fun to catch up with her. I was so distracted by needing to use the bathroom after lunch that I forgot to get a picture with her.

As I was walking back to Port Authority, the temperature really started dropping and it became clear the predicted rain was going to happen. I walked by the Madison Square Garden and saw people going into the new train station under the old Post Office across the street from MSG – work that was just getting started when I left. I was amazed by the number of people zooming around on the City Bikes in the middle of the city. Bikes seemed to be used for commuting – not just being used by tourists to ride in Central Park or on the paths around the city.

I will be back in Manhattan tomorrow and will be on other parts of the city. Hopefully the predicted break in the rain for the afternoon will happen so I can do all of the outdoor activities I have planned.

I had connectivity problems last night so I was not able to blog. Yesterday I had a lovely drive down backroads from VT to Westchester (Brewster). I drove 50-55 mph and just soaked int he beautiful scenery. I arrived in Brewster for dinner with an friend. It was wonderful to catch up on the evolution of this young woman from completion of her MPH to a competent professional and mother. A great margarita and Shrimp Diabolo were enjoyed as well.

I then drove to Teaneck, NJ through the Bronx and across the George Washington Bridge (GWB). While I lived in NYC for 10 years, I did not have a car and I don’t think I had driven over the GWB before last night. Following the GPS and trying to watch signage was a bit of a challenge but I made it. Traffic was really not bad. When I got to my destination I admit I had. feeling of accomplishment. It amazed me that within 10 minutes of being on the GWB, I was in suburbia. It was dark when I arrived so I couldn’t. fully appreciate the neighborhood.

This morning when I went out to the car, I felt like I had walked into a set of a TV show – Ozzie and Harriet. The homes looked exactly like the outside shots of all of the 50-60’s sit coms.

In the afternoon, 2 women joined my host and I and we had a wonderful time on the patio drinking champagne, wine and eating all the foods I do not normally eat. These are all friends from my years at Pfizer. Two of the women live in NYC and were a part of the millions that were “trapped” inside when Covid attached NYC a year ago.

Tomorrow I will take the bus into Manhattan for lunch and if the weather is reasonable, I will go down to the new World Trade Center. The weather for Friday-Sunday is not great, but hopefully it will be better than is predicted.

Sadly this is my last full day in Vermont. It was a beautiful morning and I had the opportunity to read in a couple of different beautiful locations. I think I did more admiring of nature than reading.

This pond is on the property and the little “camping” cabin on Heron Pond is available on Airbnb. It has such a peaceful vibe.

I also had the opportunity to see an artist in action throughout my time here.

This afternoon was for water activities on a lake/river in Brattleboro. We had one kayak and one paddle board. As we were getting on the water, it got pretty windy so we didn’t feel comfortable standing on paddle board. As I have not done much of either activity it was felt that it was easier to just sit on the paddle board that get in the kayak so I took the paddle board. The paddle is quite long when you are sitting on the board and I spent a fair amount of time going in a circle. So we switched paddles. I used the kayak paddle pretty successfully while seated and my friend who is much more experienced made the long paddle work well for the kayak. So I figure what I was doing was kaya-boarding. We saw two geese guarding their goslings and a mother duck with a dozen ducklings swimming along. It was very relaxing. I didn’t have my phone on the water to take pictures. No need to invite trouble.

We then had dinner at the Whetsone Grill overlooking the Connecticut River. I loved how they solved the issue of signage for the toilets. A head and body with two arms and two legs labeled Humans.

On the way back from the bathroom, I was surprised to see Bernie sitting off to the side. He looked like he had been sitting there awhile as he had gloves on. I went up to give him a “safe” peck on the cheek. This was totally unexpected.

On the way home we stopped to take photos of one of the Ob-Gyn practices that I had been admiring every time we drove by. It is very nice to be in an openly liberal state and town.

Tomorrow I head off to the NYC area starting with a dinner in Brewster, NY. Does anyone remember which TV character grew up in Brewster? THAT Girl – Ann Marie. I am meeting a young woman who contacted me at Pfizer when she was looking for a place to do her MPH internship. I had a project that I thought was concrete enough to be a student project but had no idea how it was related to public health. I met her for a lunch interview. I thought she was very bright and capable and she thought the project was suitable for her project. She was exceptional and I figured out a way to hire her as a full-time employee after her internship. Because of her experience she went on to get her DPH. I have not seen her since her wedding 5 years ago.

My home base through Memorial Day will be with a Pfizer colleague in Teaneck, NJ. I will head into Manhattan most days to meet up with friends and meet up with others in their homes outside the city.

I will be sorry to leave Vermont. I couldn’t quite understand how my colleague could work and live in NYC Monday-Thursday but technically live in Brattleboro VT. It seemed like a crazy thing to do from my perspective. Now that I have been here, it does not seem crazy at all. So much to do in a very compact space surrounded by beauty. Mystery solved.

Another beautiful day ended with a movie, Together Together, in the Latches Theater in downtown Brattleboro, VT. It seemed like a pretty ideal circumstance to see a movie – in a small. old theater in a small town in a highly vaccinated state on a Monday night. There were 4 of us in the theater so our guess was correct. It was an enjoyable movie with a interesting story. There was a recorded Zoom with writer/director and main actors after the movie which added some interesting context. There is nothing about this movie that made it better on the big screen versus streaming but it was another step towards normalcy.

We cycled in New Hampshire today around Spofford Lake – having a lunch lakeside. Part of the route was pretty hilly and I am practiced slow deep breathing going up hills. I think it helps and with time I may be able to get over the anxiety I feel as I hit steep sections and start to run out of air. Going to a higher gear and peddling faster only seems to exacerbate my shortness of breath. Temperature was in low 70s – perfect. There was a whole geese family swimming on the lake – 2 adults and at least 5 goslings. Very cute.

Tomorrow is my last full day here. Weather is supposed to be beautiful again and it may be a day for kayaking and paddle boarding.

Today was cooler and we set out for our ride along the Green River around 1130 AM. The temperature was in the 70s and it was partly cloudy. This is the weather I was expecting. It was a lovely ride with many people enjoying the river and the properties were very interesting along the road. The road was packed dirt with some gravel with minimal traffic.

It started raining just as we finished our ride. After we got back and I had taken off my cycling shoes, I realized I had forgotten something in the car. I slid my feet into some sandals that were by the door. As I was walking back I looked down and say my mother’s feet.

It used to drive me crazy when I would see my mother in sandals with white socks on.

Tomorrow is another ride at Spofford Lake. I think I will go back and ride along the Green River again before I leave – not too much of a drive to get there and well worth it.

I borrowed a helmet and took off on my bike this morning to see what I could do on the side of this big hill. The house is up a hill on packed dirt/gravel. It was fine going down with a few places of loose dirt/gravel. I negotiated that fine and got to the pavement and decided to go uphill first. The climb was reasonably gradual. At the end of pavement, I could go straight on some packed dirt/gravel or go right and stay on pavement. I went right and shortly encountered the first hill of the day that I had to walk up. I walked up the hill and found a lovely pasture, a dead end and some good natured kidding from one of the home owners that had witnessed my failure.

Once back to the main road I chose the pavement downhill and came to the spot that we had walked up last night and thought it was not quite as steep so I decided to try it. I almost made it. Walk #2. Back down to the road to continue down hill. I came to the short inexplicably steep part that I thought would be challenging from driving up it but hoped I was warmed up enough to do it. I rode a short distance below it and turned around. I made it exactly to the spot I was concerned about and had to walk a bit. Walk #3. As soon as I got above that spot I was able to ride to where the road changed to gravel. I only had about 3 total miles of cycling at this point so I knew I was going to have to include the gravel. I heard gun shots in the distance and was relieved to discover a sports club along the road. I felt OK on the gravel but turned around before a hill. Back to the pavement and down the hill again. This time I decided I would go even further beyond the menacing steep hill and visualized “the little engine that could”. No such luck – at almost exactly the same spot I had to stop and walk. By now I had about 6 miles. I was hoping to get 12-15 miles but adjusted the goal to 10 miles. Back up the hill and onto the gravel road, past the sports club and up the hill and beyond for another half mile. By the time I got back to the driveway of where I was staying, I was still 1.3 miles short of 10 miles. So I rode downhill .7 miles which was just shy of my nemesis hill and turned around to climb uphill again. I hit 10 miles about half way up the driveway to my destination.

After a bit of a rest we were off to Hogback Mountain where you can see New Hampshire to the east, Massachusetts to the south and New York to the west. The photo does not do it justice.

The day ended with a picnic at an outdoor concert sponsored by Next Stage productions held in a open area behind the Inn at Putney. They had it set up with cones where “pods” of people could sit at a safe distance from other pods and flags marking aisles where people could walk to get to the cones. It was well organized and it seemed to work well at the beginning. By the second set, people were milling around between cones. Masking out of pods was done reasonably well.

Sofia Rei was the latin artist that performed. The music was great. The dancing increased as the evening progressed. The community seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening as did I. My biggest concern was avoiding bug bites as I am a bug magnet. I was successful.

A truly Vermont evening.

My new helmet and mirrors arrived today so I will be all set for the ride along the Green River tomorrow. And by the way, I did my checklist.

As I was falling asleep last night I suddenly realized I didn’t remember putting my bike helmet in the car as I was packing up. in Margate City. I should have had it on the handlebars to avoid this but I had laid it on a stack of old cushions inside the garage. Yesterday morning the stack of old cushions was put out for trash collection and my helmet would have had to have been set aside. I didn’t notice when I got my bike out and put it on the car. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that I already left my tire pump in Lewes. The pump was kindly mailed to me and was here when I arrived in Vermont. Amazon to the rescue – a new purple helmet with a flashing light in back will arrive tomorrow. I am only two weeks into this adventure so I think a checklist is in order.

I had the opportunity to support the local Brattleboro economy today. Charming town with locally owned businesses. I got new cycling gloves (that were inside the helmet), sandals with good arch support and several pieces of summer clothing from a shop called Malisun. All of the shop owners were extremely friendly. We then had a drink at the Whetstone Station that is built on the Vermont/New Hampshire border. I bought the beer in VT and drank it in NH.

Vermont has 70% of its eligible population vaccinated. Indoor mask mandates remain and there is still a fair amount of masking outdoors. As I have been moving around through different communities and states that past 2 weeks as CDC guidance is changing, it has been interesting to observe each communities response. There is no question that I have seen much more outdoor masking since I left Tennessee. Masking or not needs to become a personal choice. No CDC guidance based on the best evidence will guarantee any individual will not get Covid. Even though I am now 2 weeks past my second vaccination and fully protected, there are going to be circumstances that I am feel more comfortable masking even if I don’t have to. It will not be a political statement, it will be a health decision. Now that we know what we look like in masks, wouldn’t it be nice if we made a choice to “mask up” the next time we feel a cold or flu coming on? No need to share.

We took an evening walk (without my phone unfortunately) and I saw 2 adult geese with their goslings. It was last Friday that I saw the same thing outside Philly. Rather than taking time to smell the roses, perhaps for me it is taking time to notice the baby geese.

Today was a travel day. I had a lovely walk on the boardwalk next to Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a relaxing morning. At 2 PM I loaded up and took off for Brattleboro, VT. There was about 30 minutes of slow traffic on Garden State Parkway south and west of NYC but overall not too bad.

While it was over 80 degrees as I was driving into Vermont, the trees are not in fully filled out with leaves yet which seemed like a bit of a disconnect. My hosts live about 3 miles up the side of a mountain. I will be here 6 days so I will see how many days it takes me to do the full ride without stopping. I am OK if I don’t make it, but it will be a nice contest for myself.

I listened to “You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience” on today’s drive. The book consists of essays read by the essay authors about their own experience of being black in America from many different perspective. Their ability to articulate their experiences in such a reflective manner astounds me. What I am starting to be very clear about is that as much as I want to understand the Black Experience, living with white skin and privilege makes that impossible. The body-cam videos of Ronald Greene are shocking. The ridiculous initial story about that he was killed in a car crash during a chase is a manifestation of white privilege. While the state troopers knew the explanation was unbelievable, they knew there was a chance and hope that it would be enough.

I remain hopeful that by the time I finish my car trip, that I will have a better idea how I be anti-racist and make a difference in my new home city.

Yesterday turned out to be a less active day because of a neck spasm. I was able to walk on the Boardwalk in late afternoon after a 5 hour nap. Today my neck was much better and I got out on my bicycle by 1030 AM. I decided to ride south to Ocean City, NJ. I came across this sign and was disappointed I didn’t see any turtles.

I rode to the south end of Ocean City along bayside and along the boardwalk back north. There were a lot more people out on the beach today. An boardwalk observation is that the Atlantic City Boardwalk is a smoother ride. The only difference I could see is that the wood planks on the Atlantic City Boardwalk run at a diagonal and the Ocean City planks run horizontally.

My friend’s 20 month old granddaughter came to the beach today. She helped make a salad for dinner and this was her idea of how to add apple to the salad. Her way was faster than mine.

Today I reflected on how much better my life has been since Neutrogena SPF 100 sunscreen came on the market. I have vitiligo (no pigment) which started 35 years ago. Consequently, I hid from the sun for decades. With the heat and humidity, it was too difficult to stay fully covered. I would burn with SPF 50, 60, and 85. The SPF 100 was like magic and I have been able to cycle in hot sun for hours without burning. Life changing for me.

I found out today that a friend from grade school had a sudden death over the weekend. I had been in frequent communication with him recently as he was having a health issue that was not life threatening. My heart goes out to his family who were not prepared for this in any way. This reinforces my decision to spend time decompressing and catching up with friends and family. During my last call with Ed, we were talking about the bike ride we would do when I am back in Iowa in June. Rest in Peace, Ed.

Tomorrow I will be take off for Vermont. The 10 day forecast has the temperature as high as 85 degrees with only one possibly rainy day while I am scheduled to be there. Fingers crossed for an uneventful trip around NYC.