889 Friday Deliveries & Shopping

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Yesterday I delivered the museum's "Pilot Log"s to the Stockade area of Kingston, and Sawkill Road, Lucas and Hurley Avenues, and down Broadway. For the Stockade area I parked behind the Gov. Clinton building (where I had delivered copies to Assemblyman Saland's office), loaded up a tote bag with about 40 pounds of Logs, and walked all over the Stockade. The weather was perfect - low 70s, sunny, enough breeze to lift my hair, but not enough to chill.

The Stockade area is full of seventeenth and eighteenth century houses, many stone, and mostly full of lawyers' and doctors' offices, so it was nice walking around and looking, and, by delivering Logs, I finally got to see the interiors of many of them. I walked miles! Felt like it, anyway. Six hours of delivering, 48 miles on the car.

Last night my right heel hurt when I put weight on it. Probably pulled a muscle or tendon or something with all that walking on old uneven slate sidewalks. Carrying weight. It's a bit better this morning, but I think I'll stay off the treadmill for a while.

Some sections of Kingston can be rough, like the side streets around upper Broadway. Knifings and muggings. I was delivering to a security firm on upper Broadway, and there was a little Hispanic grocery next door. I was thirsty, so I stopped in. Nobody behind the counter. Front door propped open, back door to alley propped open. I picked out a bottle of guava juice, and one of iced tea, and a nectarine, and waited. Nobody. I called out. No answer. I stepped out the back door and called. No answer. I'd have just left money on the counter, but nothing was marked with the price, so I didn't know how much. Finally, with trepidation, I looked at the floor behind the counter. No bloody body. Whew!

More calling out the back door produced a child, who ran up the outside back stairs yelling for Mom, and finally a woman came down and took my money. And then left again. I guess they aren't too worried about shoplifters.... Strange.

Last evening I checked out my winter clothes. I've already replaced most of my slacks, but the long sleeved tops are now all too big. Last winter I'd gone from large to medium, but wore the large anyway. Now I'm into small, and large is just too large. My old bras (38DD) are also mostly too big. So I went shopping last night and bought about eight long and 3/4 sleeve knit tops and sweaters - and before anyone gets excited, I didn't pay over $10 for any, and before you get disgusted, they really are very nice. And four new bras.

I really do think that with the fattening of America, they've adjusted sizes up. Like, will someone please explain to me how a 36D bra fits into a "small" top? And keep in mind that I don't like my clothing tight. I don't like horizontal stretch folds across the bust or lower back. I prefer things a bit loose, skimming. When I lose the rest of the weight, will I have to shop in the teen department?

I've decided that I look best now in pastels (OMG! I'm turning into a little old lady!), and all the tops I bought are very pretty pastels. The stores cooperated this season.

I had planned to go to the Catskill Game Farm today, but it's cloudy and threatening rain, and a visit to Catskill GF would be depressing itself, so I'm not going. I might regret it. I haven't been there in at least ten years.

The Catskill Game Farm is a large operation up the road that functioned as a zoo, essentially. I think originally they were breeding exotic animals for zoos and so on (hence the "game farm"), then they started letting visitors in, then they started getting more zoo-like, then starting with a little train around the grounds they added carnival-like rides and water stuff. But the best part, the part everyone remembers, the part that's been there as long as I can remember, is the feeding pen.

The feeding pen is a large area full of deer, goats, llamas, whatever, and you can buy a box of crackers (cheap) and go in to feed and pet the beasties. Of course they crowd around, and children love it. Daughter and I were there one time when she was small, and we had trouble with animals stealing the crackers right out of the box. So I put the box on top of my head, where the deer and goats couldn't reach it, and handed crackers to Daughter one at a time. Pretty soon I noticed people were laughing at me. I reached up for a cracker, and found a llama nose. He'd been following behind me, stealing crackers. Llamas think four feet eleven inches is exactly the right height for a dinner table.

Anyway, the game farm has fallen on hard times. A while ago somebody went in at night and shot almost a whole herd of exotic deer. They've had continuing problems of that type. Then there was a report, true or not, that they were selling excess animals to those places in Texas that offer people the opportunity to "hunt" tame penned large game. That lost them a generation of customers. Now the state has passed regulations on water parks that CGF doesn't feel they are subject to, but the state does, and they can't afford to upgrade. So, they're closing. This is their next-to-last weekend. End of an era.

Some animals will find homes in other zoos (the rhinos and big cats, among others, probably will easily find homes), but the fate of the deer and goat herds, and the gopher tribes, is not so clear. There's to be an auction, and many people were upset at the idea of an auction, so CGF says they'll "vet" the bidders to ensure the animals don't end up as dog food, but ....

So, that's why it would be depressing, more so with icky weather, and why I might regret not having gone.