Sunday November 1, 2009

Today was a busy day, my focus often on the bridge just outside. Low flying helicopters were seen and heard much of the morning - some media - others security. Air space over the bridge is often interesting.

As the New York Marathon began, the bridge swayed with the sounds of thousands of runners as they crossed over, the combined momentum of their journey sending vibrations in this direction, like a giant ripple effect. The sides (arches) of the bridge are like giant harmonic tuning forks in that they capture sounds above and below. Their resonance is experienced in local areas including my building which was built to compensate with a slight sway. The higher floor you live on, the more you feel the sway ... and I live on the top floor. The first time I felt it was the night I moved in, and my bedroom began to sway sightly. I didn't know what was happening, yet I felt I was home and safe, the spirit world embracing me, Z smiling. Neighbors later told me you get used to the sway which happens when the traffic is very heavy, when the wind blows strongly ... or (joke) when a UFO (ship) flies overhead.

Meb Keflezighi crosses the finish line first in the men's division

at the 2009 New York City Marathon in New York, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009.

Meb Keflezighi became the first American winner of NY Marathon. (YouTube)

Most ships, big and small, terrestrial and extraterrestrial, pass
above or below the Verrazano Bridge on their journey to the New City.

On November 2, 2009 ... I watched another ship, the USS New York.

USS New York New York Times - November 2, 2009

The U.S.S. New York reached New York City Monday morning, sweeping under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, pausing at the World Trade Center site and pushing along the Upper West Side before circling around, like a contestant in a beauty pageant, to dock in Midtown Manhattan. Those aboard were awakened Monday at 4 a.m., earlier than usual, with reveille whistles followed by the crackly sound of Frank Sinatra singing 'New York, New York' over the loudspeaker. As the rest of those on board were eating pancakes and eggs in the galley or getting into their dress uniforms, those on the red-lighted bridge of the ship assumed a quiet intensity in anticipation of the final navigation into and up the Hudson River.

The ship came to a stop adjacent to Ground Zero, where a large crowd of onlookers had gathered along the shoreline, the military men lifted their hands in a long salute, followed by an honorary firing of guns. Some visibly teared up during the brief tribute. Afterward, the ship continued up the Hudson past the Firemenšs Memorial, at 100th Street, which in the weeks after 9/11 New Yorkers filled with baskets of flowers, loose candles and sorrowful notes, and which to many still evokes the losses of that day. Passers-by stopped to watch the spectacle of the enormous warship heading toward the George Washington Bridge. When the ship finally eased into to its berth in Midtown at 10 a.m., the front section of bow, where the celebrated section of steel breaks the waves, already revealed the early, unavoidable streaks of rust of a ship at sea.

USS New York Wikipedia

Thursday November 5, 2009

As predicted, the New York Yankees won the 2009 World Series after waiting nine years for championship No. 27. It only seems fitting that the Yankees should win the pennant in the new Yankee Stadium. Hideki Matsui is the first Japanese-born player to win the World Series MVP. The New York Yankees christened the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium the same way they opened "The House That Ruth Built" 86 years ago -- with a World Series title, the 27th for Major League Baseball's storied franchise.

Earlier this week, as I watched the USS New York (see blog below) sail under the Verrazano Bridge, I blogged about seeing a ticker-tape parade in the city after the Yankees win the pennant. It all goes to Ground Zero and the Wall Street area. The parade began on Broadway at Battery Place and continued north up the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall Plaza where Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented the Bronx Bombers with the Keys to the City.

And so the city will be in celebration again, one week after the annual Halloween Parade and the arrival of the USS New York.

... And all shall be well in the land ... as we move towards Thanksgiving and the Macy's Parade where magical characters float through the air to the delight of millions of children who believe them all to be real.