Stacy Horn

For some of my walks I like to go to places that are normally crowded, to see how they feel now. Yesterday I went to Grand Central Station. When I first arrived there were zero commuters. By the time I crossed the floor to take a picture a train had arrived and this tiny handful of people got off the train. Normally this floor would be packed. More below.

There was a small military presence. I don’t imagine they have a lot to do.

I took this picture because I have very warm feelings gazing up at this spot. Many years ago, before most people had even heard of the internet, on New Years Eve I installed a row of computers across this balcony and with the help of Echo employees and volunteers (the online community I established in 1989) we introduced New Yorkers to social networking. Sigh.

The Wild Bird Fund posted this on their Facebook page (I’m sorry for the upsetting photograph, but I’m hoping it will lead to your emailing these people, as it did for me):

One morning, one building: 28 birds dead, 2 found alive. These are all migrants, most have flown thousands of miles to be here only to crash into a condo building’s windows.

This happened at Circa Central Park, a glass-fronted building recently constructed right next to Central Park, one of the most important migratory stopovers on the East Coast. These deaths occur daily here every spring and fall.

There are many solutions, but the building owners have to implement them. If you’d like to voice your concerns, consider calling or emailing: http://circacentralpark.com/contact

And if you’d like to help us during this intense time, we thank you: bit.ly/wbfdonate

They cracked down on the crowds at the pier at Christopher Street and this is what it looks like now. A little sad, but safe.

My birthday is in a couple of weeks and I’m turning 64! Chances are NYC will still be closed, but that’s fine. It won’t affect my birthday really. I can’t do some of the things I like to do, like go to the movies in the middle of the afternoon while everyone else is at work, or to a museum, or get a pedicure, but I honestly don’t care. It would be nice! But it’s not important.

I have to come up with a plan b though. Binge watch something fun? It’s hard for me to find things to watch because I cannot tolerate tension, anything bad happening, or unhappy endings. Even when I’m re-watching something and I know everything will turn out alright I can’t stand it when there’s tension, and the threat that it won’t.

I’m almost finished with a book I’m enjoying (The End of October, about a pandemic!) and I don’t have the next one lined up. That’s what I could really use, my next good book.

While taking a nice long walk yesterday I learned that dog parks have opened back up. That made me happy. Dogs need their parks. And their owners get to visit too. Good doggies!

After reading a very convincing essay in the Times, I bought a pulse oximeter. It’s very comforting to read that my oxygen saturation is great, and so is my pulse, which remains satisfyingly low due to my regular exercise. For those who’d like to know, I bought the CLINICAL GUARD Fingertip Pulse Oximeter CMS50DL.