NO PROBLEM

If you’ve been reading my blog you know that we’ve undergone a major life change with downsizing and moving into Manhattan. It’s certainly been fun and interesting adjusting to all these changes but this new life style has totally messed up my writing schedule. I suppose I’m over stimulated and that’s what’s keeping me from sitting still long enough to get back to the ‘revision’ of my neglected novel FISH KICKER. And when am I going to write those short stories that keep buzz around in my head?

I’m not complaining. Life is good!! I have to trust that with the passing of time I’ll get back to writing. I have to tell you, if you don’t all ready know this, NYC is one stimulating city. For example, the other day I was meeting a couple of friends for dinner at Tony’s, an Italian restaurant just off Broadway near 42nd Street.

In NYC most journeys begin with a subway ride. This is a view of  the subway tracks at W. 86th Street with light streaming down through air vents on the sidewalk.

The summer has been miserably hot this year, and humid, too!! This tends to bring out some interestingly attired folks.

 The Naked Cowboy has been on the streets of  Time Square for quite a few years. When the weather turns cold I guess he stays home and counts his money or focuses on his mail order website where he sells Naked Cowboy memorabilia.

The Cowboy now has competition and he calls himself a Naked Indian. I thought I might catch them dueling on opposing street corners, one playing a guitar the other beating a drum. But that didn’t happen. As far as I can tell when the Cowboy closes up shop after four in the afternoon, the guy clad in an Indian costume, takes over the street and beats a slightly sloppy rhythm on his drum.

A new addition to the Naked theme is the Naked Cowgirl. Last year there was a younger woman wearing a bikini and this must be one of her singing buddies because they both wore a garter suggesting tips for a photo op.

There’s plenty to see in Time Square.

This guy strolled up and down Broadway, box placed on his head declaring “No Problem”. I suppose he broadcasted my attitude for the day, but I have no idea what caused him to hide his face and then stroll the middle of Manhattan declaring ‘no problem’. It made me wonder what had brought him to make this declaration. Must have been a big problem to bring him to this point of denial.

Then next to the Naked folks there’s those who wear more than the average person. Grandma Liberty is a good example of this. There were several fully clad Statues of Liberty standing on soap boxes ready to have photos taken with tourists for a price.

Then there were cartoon characters standing around in this NYC summer weather covered in what looked like costumes made of blankets . TIPS THANKS!! You couldn’t pay me enough to do this!!

There are those who know how to dress in this summer weather and they strut their stuff along Broadway, smiling and content.

NYC still has break dancers entertaining on the streets and especially in the Times Square area. They usually work in a team and put on a pretty good show.

One guy wears a tuxedo, puts on a crazy mask, sits on a child’s trike and offers himself for a photo op with any tourist so inclined. It looks like he’d taken a cigarette break leaving his display for passersby to ponder.

All good men must rest. There are still a few people who are either exhausted from shopping, or from the trials of life and they collapsed on the street. Or is this guy listening to the hum of the subway?? There are many stories in this huge city and I find them wherever I look.

We get tourists of all kinds. They come for the entertainment and for sure this family will be as entertained as I was.

I’ll leave you with a farewell from a full-body Cowboy. I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip to Time Square. I did!! Also I enjoyed my dinner with friends. And when I left the restaurant at about eight o’clock, Time Square was still hopping with activity. After my martini, pasta with red sauce and chicken Parm I was ready to call it quits. I stuffed my camera into it’s bag and headed for the subway. Man, oh man, it was hot down there, but thankfully the trains are always air conditioned.

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