I'm just a travelin' man ...

First sunset of the new year, on the New York City side of the Hudson River looking toward the 79th Street Boat Basin.

First levitation of the new year, on the Hudson River path. (Actually, these three women were playing jump-rope, but the movement of the rope was too quick for my camera to capture.)

First scam of the new year, on First Avenue. No thanks, I think I'll wait 364 days to see how the year plays out.



I began 2006 pretty much the way I ended 2005: with a walk. Today's was my customary 12-miler from New Jersey to my friend's Japanese restaurant in the East Village in Manhattan.
I set out expecting solitude because it was a holiday. Perhaps the swarms of other people on the Hudson River trail expected the same thing.
It really wasn't that crowded. Anyway, a crowd is the loneliest place, as they say.

The Hudson was so calm on this brisk day. The only ship traffic I saw from the George Washington Bridge was a massive barge being escorted like a fat dowager by a tugboat as it inched its way upriver.
In midtown Manhattan, the revelers who came Saturday night to see the ball drop in Times Square were still milling about, making the most of the fact that New Year's fell on a weekend. The East Side down First Avenue was its usual dark and deserted self on a late Sunday afternoon, which is why I so love walking down that street from 59th Street, past the United Nations and down to about 23rd Street, where the pedestrian traffic picks up as you get closer to the East Village.

Walk walk walk.
Think think think.
Angels and demons vying for my thoughts.
I'm just passing through.