Dead of brain...

Hard day packing oversize and odd-shaped books. Having to build some boxes to fit. Fortunately, the people doing the pickup were caught in nasty traffic so I go done just after they arrived. Then I got to travel back to JFK in NYC traffic, on the Van Wyck freeway. It's like the 405 but smaller and on steroids. Nonstop construction. Drivers who made my LA attitude on the road seem like a little old lady's.

I was in a Honda CRV and the seats are very comfortable. The SUV drove nicely. It's still a bit big for my tastes, but if I ever do have to get a new car, I'll the open to going with an HRV.

Fortunately, I was not in a rush to catch a plane or get dinner. So I did my Zen and played nice. Nearly an hour and a half to go 30 miles. Faster than walking but still ludicrous. However, NY's freeways are constrained in place, unlike LA's. CAn't build them 5 lanes in each direction.

I made one mistake. It was suggested I take the Long Island Railroad into Grand Central Station as a faster, lovelier route. It's not. At all. The train was niceer than the subway. But then I had to walk a good mile to get to the subway, all of it in a pretty but sterile corridor...till I got to a massive food court where a burger costs you $25. I wasn't that hungry. I got to my hotel in about the same amount of time it would have taken traveling the E train from Jamaica Station.

Oh, and MTA stole nearly $15 from me. I had a Metro card with that amount on it but was outdated by 6 weeks. I talked to an agent they said, Tough. Money's gone. That's outright theft and pisses me off. I'm being careful with this card and only putting as much as I need on it.

Tomorrow is job #2, which I'm hoping to get done with fairly quickly. 181 books. But we'll see how it goes. Tomorrow is supposed to be gridlock. Dunno why; just saw warning signs on the freeway. I've been through gridlock in NYC.

That's why I'm taking the subway.