A rainy June afternoon in New York City...

and I am standing in the gutter soaked up to my knees and beyond in greasy, sludgy city runoff,  but it is worth it.  It has been an unusually rainy spring, like rain almost every day an inch or two, so it was touch and go on whether to go to NYC as planned today or wait a few weeks.  The forecasts were dire, but I didn't want to believe them so I dove in head first into that giant pot hole that is the lower east side.  Had done two or three laps and was ready to follow my appointed rounds, when I saw this poster...

and just as I was lining the photo up, this woman with a red umbrella walked into the frame, and click, once again serendipity provided me with opportunity.  Its interesting how many times things have coalesced in an instant and if you are lucky enough to be there and quick enough to push the shutter...

makes up for all the missed opportunities you end up regretting for weeks.  The digital era has opened up a new window of possibility, and just when I has begun to think that I had taken my last pictures of NYC, voila!!!

So there I was, standing in a puddle about two feet from the curb in a bus stop at the corner of Essex and Delancy Streets, battling the buses, the heavy rains, the aggressive drivers and an unruly wind driven umbrella, to take picture of people walking by this God given studio like backdrop plastered on the barricade of a construction site/soon to be condo, further obliterating my belovedly, no longer so shabby lower east side.  But at least for the moment on this wet June afternoon anyway, all is forgiven...

Took a bunch more, but you get the idea.  Will check the files later on to see if there are anymore that add interest to the story, but that's good for now.  Back to the Essex Street subway station and back uptown to meet up with Jackie.

On the way down, met up with Jack M. Murphy, a bright, philosophical fellow with a story to tell, no hard feelings against the system he feels has left him behind, and an apparent continued love for the country in spite of it all.  He grew up not far from where I did, and hoped to get back there soon, where he says he has a friend who has a room for him.  We talked for a while, I helped him out and hope that he will find his way home.

Pablo