Random thoughts on a visit to New York City

Some thoughts from me:

• Driving - I kind of like driving down the street in Manhattan. It's kind of like playing a game of "Crazy Taxi", except I'm not the one in the taxi. I wonder how long it will take me to not drive "New York City style". Parallel parking on the left is kind of weird, but I think I'm getting used to it. All taxis here seem to have a reflector shaped light on the back of their cars, but they are never lit up. I wonder what these are for. I tried to ask a taxi driver last night, but he didn't speak English very well. The answers to all my questions were yes. Only one of them was a question where yes was appropriate. I could be a taxi driver, but I don't know how the Cash Cab dude does it without getting into accidents.
  
• Rats - I didn't see any. I was looking. I didn't see any on the street. I didn't see any in the garbage. I didn't pass any park where the ground was full of rat holes. I don't think I saw any rat holes at all. The only evidence of rodent life I saw in the city was a couple of signs in one subway station across the tracks that said the area had been baited.
• Mole Men - I didn't get to see any Mole Men. Rob says that even though some of the homeless live down in the old subway tunnels, they come out from time to time. He insists that there is no such thing as mole men. I think he's just trying to cover something up.
• Accents - I don't think my old accent is coming back. It's gone forever. I've heard lots of them this week. The only one that seemed kind of out of place was the one the stadium announcer at Yankee stadium had. It was a "proper Scottish old man" accent. I guess he's been doing it forever, but it seemed out of place to me...
• People - There are a LOT of people here. A lot of them. All kinds of people. Tara and I like to listen to the odd conversations that happen before a play starts at the plays we go to. The same thing happens here, expect of several orders of magnitude larger. Lots of conversations, lots of things going on. 4 homeless guys got on the train the other day, they were singing A Capella, and did a pretty good job. They would sing a few song, then ask for donations. At the next stop, they got off. An interesting way to ask for a handout, at least they were doing something.
  
• It was good to visit with Rob a bit this week.