My wife and I went to Rite Aid earlier to pick up some supplies for the week and while we were pondering the cat food choices this guy walked up to us and said to my wife, “Excuse me miss, do you know where the pad locks are? The locks that spin, that turn, with the combinations. Do you know where those are?”
We looked over at the guy and we both took a step back from him. He looked rough. Homeless maybe. His clothes were really worn out and sort of dirty looking. His speech was slurred and hard to understand. What startled us, however, was the fact that the whites of his eyes weren’t white; they were hot red, like maraschino cherries. He was also gesturing wildly and was leaning towards us in a weird aggressive sort of way, but not like he wanted to rob us. It was more like he believed we knew where the padlocks were and if he wasn’t forceful enough in asking us, we would hide the answer from him.
A lot of things ran through my head: ‘What’s wrong with him and is it communicable?’ being the foremost. I also started forming ideas about how to push him away while coming into the least amount of physical contact with him should he suddenly go nuts. Maybe that was just a reaction from having watched so many sci fi movies (zombies, rage virus, Helix, etc.) but you never know what might happen these days, especially if someone is so sick their eyes are literally red. I’ve never seen anything like that before.
The way people are doing experiments with viruses and DNA and genetic modification, it’s not impossible for something dangerous to get out in the wild (the general population of humans) anyway. I suppose you have to expect that sort of thing to happen these days, the same way we sort of expect the government to always be two steps from having a new lie and scandal uncovered.
The fact that he was disoriented was even more troubling. When my wife told him we didn’t know where the locks were, he walked away and we saw him stalking up and down the aisles asking other people about padlocks. I just hope that whatever he has isn’t contagious. I have better things to do with my time than lose my mind and wander around stores looking for padlocks.
A few days ago I had to go to the Veteran’s Administration hospital in the Bronx for my annual physical. I was quite a few months late going this year. Last Semester was just too overwhelming for me to find time to get anything done. I still have lots of errands I need to take care of that I should have done during those four months as well as other things I want to get done before Spring starts.
I somehow don’t think I’m going to get through all of the reading I’d like to do before the semester starts, but I am enjoying having a lot more quality time with my wife. We’re catching up on a lot of television shows together. We sort of stopped loving Breaking Bad because it was dragging too much with the car wash nonsense and Skylar being so annoying (not to mention Walt was turning into sort of a wuss) and now we’re getting hooked on Fringe. Thanks Netflix! House of Cards was good too. I guess we’ll get back to Breaking Bad eventually.
I’m also trying to get my fitness level back up. I’m taking it slow though. I spent four months basically doing nothing physically strenuous. I have a Fitbit Force to help me stay motivated. It’s amazing how hard it is to cheat yourself when you can see the numbers in front of you plain as day, in terms of calories consumed versus calories burned.
Fried Wings, Potato Wedges and a Biscuit at the Bronx VA Hospital
So, coming back around to what I meant to write about in this post, which has to do with calories, I was surprised by just how disgustingly greasy the fried chicken at the VA hospital cafeteria was. When I went for my physical the doctor surprised me by telling me I should have blood work done. He surprised me more by having the nurse draw what seemed like almost a pint out of my arm. I didn’t have breakfast, so I went straight to the cafeteria afterwards to eat a decent meal to make sure I didn’t collapse on the way home.
There were plenty of choices but somehow the need to go a little overboard to replace all the blood I lost led me to the fried chicken buffet. It was a bad move. I put three fried wings on my plate but I could only stomach one before my stomach started to turn. At first I thought it was the change in diet I’d made away from greasy foods to more steamed and boiled dishes, but I’ve had fried chicken from other places, like Popeye’s, that didn’t leave such a bad taste in my mouth. We ate a plate of amazing soy garlic wings at Boka Bon Chon yesterday and it was fine, but hours after I left the hospital I could still taste heavy oil in my mouth. It must just be the way that chicken was prepared.
Thinking about it, I wonder if the same preparation method was used at the cafeterias I ate at when I was on active duty in the Army. Procedures are pretty standard in the military or military related facilities and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a field manual or technical manual related to the frying of chicken and operation of deep fryers. I used to really enjoy that chicken. Now I can’t stand it.
How much did the Army really teach me about physical fitness? I’m beginning to feel like I didn’t learn anything other than how to follow a physical exercise routine in the morning. I wasn’t taught how to evaluate food choices or supplement choices and I wasn’t given any understanding of how sleep, diet, and overall physical activity would affect my health. Perhaps I should have taken the initiative and looked that up myself, but as a young soldier who was trained to just listen and do as instructed, it never occurred to me to think that far outside the box, especially when sleep deprivation and ordering pizza are such big parts of military culture. So, I would exercise in the morning, eat fried chicken for lunch, maybe pizza for dinner, and then I would wonder why I never really saw any physical improvement.
If I recall correctly, the units I was in had people who were trained to be masters of physical fitness. They went to some sort of course to learn about physical fitness. What was the point of that? Were they not trained properly? Did the command structure ignore their recommendations? Or was it just a mark on a check-list to satisfy civilian committees who evaluated the military’s commitment to the health and well-being of service members that was never seriously implemented?
I learned a lot from my time in the military, but the more I learn outside of the military, the more I realize I was left in the dark in areas that were key to being a successful soldier. But, I suppose one can’t expect the military structure, composed mostly of high school graduates, to impart the understanding that comes with a college education and life experience to new recruits. Officers could do something about that, being college graduates, but there aren’t enough officers and that isn’t really their job.
I’ve been dieting since early November. Counting calories is a drag but becoming overweight would be worse. Tonight I’m splurging, though, with a chocolate volcano cake from Veniero’s.
When I lived in Singapore, I used to joke about the misspelled English words I saw everywhere, or the jumbles of random phrases used as shirt slogans. Having English on the shirt made it foreign and cool, I suppose. After working on learning two foreign languages (Arabic and Hebrew), I’m not nearly so critical of spelling mistakes by non-native speakers. Remembering vocabulary is a pain.
However, I can’t help but find it amusing that a person would misspell their own nationality on a manufactured neon sign placed in the window of a restaurant that sells said nationality’s food (or the Americanized version of it anyway).
How do you open a Chinese food restaurant and put up a sign for Chiese Food? Was it really poor business management, or a clever attempt to draw attention? Or did the guy purposefully misspell it because he knew that what he’s selling isn’t truly Chinese food? American Chinese food is nothing like what I ate in Singapore, which in most ways is far superior.
This particular establishment is on Amsterdam Avenue between 169th and 170th.
I was out walking my dog earlier today and right as we were coming to the corner of a block, this cat came strutting around the corner like he owned the place. Maybe he does? Maybe he lives in the building and hangs out there all the time?
Anyway, when he saw my dog, his demeanor changed right away and he walked to this spot by the wall and just sat there, watching carefully. My dog isn’t very big, so I doubt the cat was afraid. It was more as if he was keeping an eye on a visitor to his turf. Sort of like the dudes that hang out on the corners around here all the time.
Because we have a dog, we have plenty of opportunities to go out and experience the weather, even when we don’t particularly feel like it, like tonight, with wind and fairly heavy snow. I think this will be the last dog we own while we live in an apartment. It wouldn’t be bad if I could just open a door and let the dog out into the yard to handle his business, but owning a dog in New York City is time consuming. We walk him about three times a day and that eats up anywhere from an hour to an hour and 15 minutes per day.
Anyway, pet woes aside, the weather is nasty. Earlier today I was out shopping and I saw that someone had created a check-in on Foursquare called Snowpocalypse Winter 2013-2014. I don’t think it will be quite as bad as the snow cleanup fiasco in 2010, though. That was crazy. I even saw snow plows (or what passes for snow plows here, trash trucks with plow blades attached) getting stuck in the snow.
That’s not to say the weather outside is nothing to be concerned about, though. It’s ugly, and there was a weather alert earlier. Not that I understand the reasoning, except perhaps to convince people to not travel, but express trains were set to begin running local stops at 5:45 PM. Some dude even got on TV and said to not go outside if at all possible. That should go without saying anyway. Nothing says fun like getting blasted in the face with ice and snow, right? Better to hang at the house with a hot cup of coffee.
So, I took these photos:
Hopefully, the city is able to stay on top of the snow build-up, or people might be sad on their way to work tomorrow.
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