This apartment had been totally redone with new appliances, fixtures and hardwood floors and a price tag probably 25% less than the going rate for something so nice. I was sold. Until I got outside and the reason for the discount became apparent: The 2nd Avenue Subway Line. Just on the other of the far window in the picture, there were huge cranes everywhere and a ditch that covered three of the five lanes on 2nd Avenue. The noise from the jackhammer digging that ditch nullified every other sound of the city including car horn honking. The trusty construction workers promised me that they only worked 7am to 7pm M-F and 10am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, unless they were behind schedule. Which seemed likely since while the project was slated to be finished in 2018, this is something like the fourth or fifth time someone has tried to get a subway built on 2nd Avenue. Ultimately, it was decided that I hadn't slept all that much in the prior three years and could not commit to the apartment until 2020 (at the earliest when it would actually be worth living there) so I passed on it much to my chagrin.
And now the Wall Street Journal comes out with an excellent article on the latest problem in this neighborhood related to the subway construction: RATS (WSJ: Rats Mob the Upper East Side). While I could have handled these common New York City rats (which can never be compared to the rats in Boston's Public Garden that are the size of small dogs), it reminds me again how exciting it is to living in Rwanda where my household animals consist of a wide variety of lizards and birds that literally just stroll in out of our house as they like. And also, I am hoping to see one of these shoebills (aka Balaeniceps Rex) this weekend at Akagera.
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"If things had gone a little more like I had thought they would" - I'm confused?
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