There's A Moon Out Tonight

... and it kept me company all the way home -- another delightful day in Metropolis. I had a meeting in Manhattan today at 2:00. Wait, let me work this backwards, from the beginning (does that make sense?) I got up very early. Today, the new housekeeper, Eva, was coming to clean the house (which has been transformed into my bachelor pad; meaning, it's a real mess). She was to arrive at 7:30, having another job in the afternoon. And arrive she did. But I was up to greet her. I was going to hit the gym and I started out, but, man oh man, it was so gorgeous out that when I got as far as the corner, I turned said to myself - "Matt, why don't you bike into Manhattan instead of the gym." I'd be getting my workout and I had to be in the city anyway, so enjoy the day. Why not? Back to the house I went and back to a surprised Eva. By the time I took a shower, finally got my stuff together, answered a few phone calls, stopped for an espresso in Sheepshead Bay at my little Russian coffee shop and made a deposit at the bank -- well, it was too late to bike into the city. What possibly makes me think that I can fit 10 "to-do" items in the time needed to accomplish, say, two of them? My thought processes just don't jibe with the real world.

So, realizing that if I was to meet my friend Ted for lunch at 12 or so and then make my meeting at 2, I would have to take the subway. Which I did. But just to be mobile, on disembarking, I took my bike on the train. It really does make a big difference (i.e. taking your bike). I got off the B at Broadway-Lafayette. I hopped on to my bike and in, perhaps, 7 minutes I was at Ted's veterinary office at Second Avenue and 19th Street. Try doing that on foot -- impossible.

We had lunch at a nice Polish restaurant that we walked to from his office. I forgot to look at the name and I asked Ted, afterwards. He didn't know it either and he's been there a dozen times! Um, strange. However, if you're intent on finding it, it's at 12th Street and First Avenue (on the east side). We sat in the back in a lovely garden and had the five dollar special lunch. I had delicious pea soup, stuffed cabbage and two sides. Ted had a vegetable cutlet as well as the other accoutrements. Sadly, I had to rush...that meeting was getting closer and closer. Back to the office on foot; onto my bike and down to 13th Street and University Place.

I thought I would head back to Brooklyn after my meeting but the 1-hour meeting turned into two. So I headed over to Bob's place: the Gulf Coast Cafe to see how he was doing. I hung out a while and before I knew it, I was having dinner there (crabcakes -- really great and a beer.) It just occurred to me, as I'm typing these words, that I ate an awful lot of food within just a few hours today. Hmmm.


Stan, the chef at Gulf coast, shows me his artwork.

After that early-bird dinner I called my friends, Barbara and Mark, who had asked me earlier in the week to join them at a free Amy Mann concert in Rockefeller Park. That's a beautiful space just above Battery Park City, around behind the new Stuyvesant High School. It's on the Hudson. There's a fabulous lawn to spread yourself out on. And the star tonight was singer-songwriter Amy Mann.


I took the West Coast Greenway to get down to the concert in Rockefeller Park. The bike path now runs, along the Hudson, from one end of Manhattan to the other. Fabulous and very popular!


Concert goers as seen through by bike wheel while lying on my back enjoying the music and the night.

It was an achingly-beautiful evening. She had a lovely voice which floated over the lawn. The sun was setting over the river. Idyllic.


A beautiful lawn to lie on. A fabulous sunset. Great music. Summer in the city.

Now I was ready, finally, for my gym-exercise substitute. I biked it over the Brooklyn Bridge, watching the last vestiges of sunset while the almost-full moon was coming up over Brooklyn. I continued through Cobble Hill then, up hill through Park Slope, through Prospect Park, which despite the darkness, was packed with joggers, walkers and bikers, and then another seven miles southbound and back home. Coming to the end of my ride, I felt like I could have biked another 20 miles. Summertime bike riding at night is exhilarating. It's hard to explain how it makes me feel. But, trust me, it's an experience everyone should try at least once. You'd get hooked on it, I'm sure.


A romantic orange moon lit up the sky on my ride home through Prospect Park tonight.