Every photo in this post was taken between March and May, in NYC or the area in northern New Jersey which my mother called home for the last forty-five years. Having returned early from my work in Bangladesh in order to be with Mom, I’ve now seen this part of the US through a cold, snowy late winter and into a wet, green spring. Between trips around various parts of the city for medical appointments with Mom or meetings with friends and colleagues, I’ve been around much of Manhattan and northern NJ when the trees were bare and snow was on the ground, through the first blooming of snow-bells and forsythia, to this past week of alternating thunderstorms and clear skies with brilliantly green trees and now the irises starting to pop out. Before leaving this area for more or less the last time after clearing out Mom’s house, it seemed fitting to do a final ode to the sights and seasons of a region that I myself have also called either first or second home since Mom brought us here during the Ford administration…
After a 46-hour saga involving five different airports in three different countries, plus an airport shuttle bus at this end and a very welcome pickup by a dear friend at the park-and-ride on this end, I did manage to spend the night in my own bed last night, and awoke to a 36-degree (fahrenheit; about 2-degrees celsius) cloudy morning here. I’ve ascertain that the second, auxiliary, stage of my apartment heating seems to have either gone on the blink or decided go on strike for under-use these past months (or perhaps someone visiting tweaked the wrong button and set it to cool instead of heat, which my manual tells me would do bad things to that unit if the temperature is below 60…)…so that thus far I’ve been able to get the apartment warmer than 60. Ah the joys of homecoming in winter after many months away :-). Be that as it may: one can dream lof long sandy beaches and warmer sun, but still be glad to have access to one’s own teapot, eh? I’ll post another one or two of these from the photos already prepped, tomorrow and this week, the at some point do a bigger post with all the photos remaining unsorted from my three months in Bangladesh, from which chapter I’ve now moved on. Peace.
So I had a few more photos ready, and as I sit waiting for the fourth and last flight in this 44-hour travel sequence from the longest beach to…well, home…I’m pulling them together to help me stay awake until I’m on board.
