Ain't No Crowds Here

Where did all the people go? It was a good day today. I started off the morning making homemade pancakes. It's a little challenging but I brought from home a couple of ingredients and bought the rest up here. Luckily by the time I got around to making them everyone had cleared out of the communal kitchen so we had it to ourselves. After breakfast we went back to the room. I was on eagle watch while Jimmy got the tax information ready to mail Jeff.

When we finally left the Hope Lodge our first stop was the post office. It is the main one in the city and it is famous for bearing the inscription "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". I can't take credit for the photo, got it off the internet. We walked past Madison Square Garden to get to the post office. We were entertained by all the interesting people on our walk. Every corner has someone begging for money. Most are sitting quietly with a cardboard sign stating they are homeless or hungry. It is very sad yet puzzling. Many of the folks are young and there are jobs to be found in the city. There are also quite a few mentally ill people walking the streets, yelling out and talking to no one in particular. We passed a man as we walked into the post office yelling to himself. Then there are a lot of religious peddlers. Different groups of people with signs that want to talk to you about God or ask you for donations to their cause. We also passed a man walking through the street with a portable microphone yelling Donald Trump is Donald Duck.

After the post office we started to walk to Whole Foods for dinner ingredients. A pizza parlor caught Jimmy's eye and he ducked in to see what it was about. He ended up getting a slice and it has been the best pizza he has tasted so far since being in New York.
NY Pizza Suprema has been family owned for 45 years. They only offered plain pizza by the slice until 1988 when they branched out. It has been ranked Manhattan's #1 pizza. I am excited because after transplant when Jimmy comes back to the Hope Lodge he will not be able to eat single slice pizza but will be able to eat from a whole pizza provided they do not cut it. Now I know where to walk to get him something he will like. Too bad they don't make a gluten free pie.

We eventually made it to Whole Foods and bought enough ingredients for two nights of dinner. There were no crowds in the store. Very unusual for a Saturday in the city.

We passed a few dogs on our way to the store. There aren't as many down around Penn Station. The white ones were 9 month old English bulldogs and the tan one was a French bulldog.
Speaking of dogs. Today is my precious Boo's birthday. He is 9 years old today. Jim and I miss him more than you can imagine. I'm sure time doesn't affect him like it does us. Thank the Lord for our good friends Jane and John, along with their dog JJ, who are taking care of Boo.