A little trip to Bellevue for an echocardiogram. What the hell - sorry, heck - is that, anyway?

Sumpthin's gotta give

People waiting in line for prescriptions (above), people waiting to see a doctor (below), and mostly it's people of color, or from other countries who wait all day to see an overworked MD or pharmacist. I wait, too, but not complaining, right?

An occasional glance down, wherever you are, will sometimes provide a glimpse of sunlight and shadow in a beautiful arrangement of soft hues - a brief bit of another reality over the one you were just in.
And sometimes a sunset will reveal a truly ugly building in all its glory.

And evening will reveal the magic of a noirish Edward Hopper-esque and seemingly innocuous structure as situated in the slower neighborhoods.

And of course the imposition of steel and stone that even an airplane can't crack in the busier districts.

I was behind this man on the stairs at Grand Central. He seemed poor and burdened - it couldn't have just been me projecting. I didn't want to take a picture of his face, which was a fine face, but only of his posture as I went up the stairs behind him. One can go to Grand Central to get out of the cold, to have a seat for a while, and to find a safer spot than one finds out of the street.

A sign in a New Haven shop window. On closer inspection, the rules of the house laid out fairly clearly.

NYPD cops approaching a man sitting in front of Bellevue Hospital. He's telling them to leave him alone, and a man in a wheelchair on 23rd Street nods out whilst his sign informs passersby that he would like some cash.

Blood left on a doorstep, New Haven.

The bar car on Metro-North.

Gowanus, A Hospital That Shall Remain Nameless, and Nite Scenes from the Cell Phone

Night-time via cell phone, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

It's all green lights from here on out, apparently.

***

A trip to a hospital that dare not speak its name. The ante-room for xrays is empty, except of course for the person at the desk and myself behind the camera . . .

While the waiting room to see a doctor is full of frustrated people, some of whom have been waiting for hours . . . time for a change?

The staff's a bit over-stressed as well.

Then one wants one's prescriptions, but one must speak to the pharmacist through a tiny, lowered window, which forces one to speak in a bent down and bowed position. Overworked pharmacist on the other side of the bullet-proof plexi.

Then one can finally exit via the quite nice and spacious lobby.

***

The beauty of Lowe's, Gowanus, Brooklyn

And the rugged handsomeness of the Gowanus neighborhood itself.