Public transit

I've been writing quite a bit about modes of transportation - might be time to set up a link-collecting page. Before that, let's talk about public transit.

This weekend I finally made use of the local bus system - one line, for starters. Last weekend I walked to get my groceries, but aside from the time and effort involved, it's not necessarily the most effective way to preserve the more perishable items when one goes home.

It took me a bit of adjustment, but ultimately most public transit systems have settled on a combination of NFC-enabled smart cards and mobile phones, and that served me here.

The buses are pretty much the same as they were where I last lived, although those had been upgraded farther in recent years, and have always been more frequent. Places that have better transit networks have made me feel much freer even than when I've driven a car - I just need to decide where to go, and especially today with path-creating mapping programs, it's very easy to get places through the use of a combination of buses and trains.

This area so far has not made me feel as comfortable. Even if it did, I do think getting a car would be required, although even if the coverage or frequency were better, it's unlikely I would want to limit myself from taking long road trips to the various hiking destinations that are not very accessible through transit themselves.

Landmarks and geography

My new home is dominated by a significant mountain range. It is visible from most points in the region. Aside from being beautiful, and having fascinating interactions with the sky and the weather, they provide a sense of order to the space.

In my previous region, there were two main providers of this order - a large, dominant river, and its tributaries, and an unusually tall set of buildings in the downtown of a big city, which could be seen for many miles away in most directions.

Sometimes this type of feature can lead to confusion. I spent my college years on the side of a highly curved mountain range, so while it did give me a sense of direction locally, it meant that whenever I traveled farther away, I felt disoriented when trying to fit that sense into the larger frame of reference.

Finally, a new home (for now)

I have left the temporary apartment I talked about here, for a long-term solution. It's spacious, and the view is great. I've got some bare essential furniture to keep me until my full shipment comes in a few days. I've done some cleaning and organized a bit, although now that I've done most of what's necessary, I'm feeling lethargic. Finally I can rest for a few hours, knowing I am set for the next few days, no specific deadlines rushing at me with uncertain ends.

Now I can really start trying to make this area into my new home. It's time to explore, to meet new people, to find new activities to participate in, aside from driving, of course.

On fighting navigation software

I am continuing to drive. As I am driving in still unfamiliar territory, I'm leaning on my cellphone's navigation app. It is not the best. It often gives me misleading instructions - although I feel some of the fault lies with the confusing and sometimes outright hostile road design.

I am told to turn right - but this leads me to turn before where I actually should, in turn forcing me into an annoying, and equally confusing detour. I am told to take a circuitous route using one exit off a highway, when an absolutely passable and simple alternative is waiting for me a few miles later - although there, too, I am mislead into a detour.

When turning right, I am told to choose one of two lanes - but one of them would force me to cross a solid line to take the left immediately after.

After a while I learn these nuances, so I am no longer mislead. I gain confidence in ignoring certain instructions from the navigator, forcing it to provide me with what I see as a better path. I have managed to accept when I have made a mistake, instead of dangerously trying to correct it at the last minute, and have also managed to avoid crashing into those who do not have such qualms.

I do wonder if I would have had the same issues if I weren't given suggestions, but instead studied a physical map myself prior to travel, or simply followed the road signs. Perhaps I will experiment more once I've settled.

On driving

Three weeks ago I spoke in favor of walking. And I have done a bit of that around here. But, unfortunately, my main mode of transportation, to work or otherwise, seems to be the personal vehicle.

I have had a license since my late teens, but I was at best a weekend driver. Suddenly, I find myself as potentially a daily vehicular commuter. There are advantages - having a car, visiting most places is a matter of simply deciding to do it and pointing my favorite mapping app at the destination, rather than using that mapping app to plan the right combination of transit, occasionally giving up, because, even though a location is reasonably close as the bird flies, it's a mess getting there with the existing bus or rail infrastructure.

But once I choose that destination, I'm constantly at work - looking around me, trying to parse what the mapping app actually means when it talks of an upcoming turn, unless I'm sufficiently familiar with the area to navigate myself. Perhaps a few weeks of this will make this easier. But I can't say I'm enjoying it very much so far.

An ersatz home

I have relocated cross-country, to temporary housing near my new job. It's a nice enough apartment, but it's not home. I don't have a home anymore - the one I had disappeared around me as the movers boxed it up early in the week. This is the first time in about a decade and a half that I move without a potential new home already set up, to ease the transition.

So, as I discussed before, I walked around. And I made sure to get groceries that will allow me to perform my meal-related rituals - my well-balanced breakfast interspersed with exercise and medication, my light, mostly vegetable-based dinner. Lunches I'm going to leave for the outside for now. My exploration has shown me some variety nearby, although when I have to go to the office later in the week I will have to take my new colleagues' lead in what to do about that.

I will have to go through this process again, soon - I will be looking for a more long-term living situation, which will definitely not be around here.

Despite the somewhat bland architectural surroundings, the scenery is already gorgeous, at least.

On walking

As last week, moving is on my mind. While I am still in the "old" city, I'm trying to walk more when time allows. Looking back, it's something I've done a lot, sometimes by accident, having gotten off the bus at the wrong stop, or missing the last one, and sometimes intentionally, when the bus didn't seem appealing, being full of partygoers.

Walking gives a different feeling than driving, or riding public transportation. You see a lot of detail you'd otherwise miss. You miss a lot of detail you're too low to notice. You have a lot of time with your mind. You get to interact with wildlife - ideally safely.

I'll have to decide, within available options, how I want to relate to my new workplace in the new city. It might be impractical to find a place that has good transit access to the workplace. I might plan around alternating between driving and walking. The new area should be very nice for walking.

Considering how much time I've spent indoors in the past few years, especially after starting to work from home, perhaps it will also be healthy for me to get into the habit of walking to work. Walking with a purpose is good - having a goal, even if it isn't work. Here I have a standard route with a bit of a climb followed by some nice views.

Exploring cities from afar

As I stated last week, it seems I will be moving to a new city. Ideally, I would have liked to visit the place before deciding on moving, and settling on a long-term living situation, but I will have to do as I did more than a decade ago, when moving to this area, and do some planning from afar, followed by a bit of scrambling. This time I should have more help on both ends of the trip, but I'm expecting that it will still be a bit of a shock when I get there.

Using web mapping sites, both general ones and more specific ones, can help. Considering I would prefer to use public transportation if possible, it's important to get a good sense of the transit situation - not just finding stations, but then looking up the routes and schedules, and figuring out what that means for one's workday.

These tools are useful when you're planning on visiting a place, rather than moving there entirely, of course. Depending on the city, preparing to buy some kind of cheap multi-day pass can make using transit more inviting simply by not requiring additional payment. Then, instead of thinking whether to use transit, you start thinking of how to most effectively use it.

Exploring and living in new cities redux

Exactly three months ago I posted about my experience exploring Chicago, and how it brought me thoughts of my erstwhile plans to relocate there, and about whether I should be staying where I am. Well, irony of ironies, exactly a month later, I was informed that my workplace is shutting down, and the following job gave me an offer I accepted is going to relocate me, to yet another city.

This time they will not accept me starting remotely, and I understand - the nature of the work would make that impractical. And honestly, it's better to just get on with it. It's time for a change, as much as I like it here, as much as I think I will miss it when I'm gone.

Hopefully I can use my last few weeks here to do a bit more exploring of nooks and crannies I've been meaning to look at. And then, it will be time for me to experience a new place, this time to live there, hopefully for quite a while. I'm very excited about all of this change. Here's hoping it will provide some inspiration I'll be able to share here. Until then, there are a couple of hectic months ahead of me.

Exploring and living in new cities

I just spent almost a week in a city I've never been to before: Chicago. It's the first time in many years that I've had a chance to explore a new city. It's something I've enjoyed tremendously in the past: just walking around and seeing what interests me, occasionally setting myself goals, such as meeting a friend or acquaintance, or visiting a museum or a landmark. I did some of that in New York City a few months ago, and now I got to do much more of it somewhere entirely new.

Sometimes I've had a similar experience when moving to a new city, although that usually only lasts for the first few weeks, as I get a lay of the environment around me, how to get to the nearest grocery store, or the post office, some basic orientation. After that it's more rare that I'll actually explore beyond that. Which is a shame - when I get around to it, I do enjoy discovering more about where I live.

Moving was on my mind throughout, because I was supposed to move to Chicago. I worked remotely for a company there, and eventually they planned on asking people to come live near the office, and get back to in-person work. Due to how COVID progressed, and eventually, layoffs that swept me with them, this never materialized. But I am starting to wonder whether staying where I live, Troy, is something I really am doing because I like the area, or just due to complacency.

Now that I know that I'm a capable remote worker, I could live anywhere with a solid internet connection, if I wanted to. Just in the US there are so many places left for me to explore, and potentially live in.

And on the other hand, I should make more of where I already live. There are whole neighborhoods of my city that I have not visited, and many cities and towns around I've never even reached.

In any event, I will definitely be visiting Chicago again.

My journey after The Warriors through Van Cortlandt Park

I previously wrote of how I found inspiration in the film The Warriors (1979) for a variation on Apocalypse World's implied setting that I felt more comfortable running with. I have since read the book that the film is loosely based on, also called The Warriors, published in 1965. I will probably not take too much out of the book - it is powerful, and more raw, but also full of content that I would be uncomfortable playing with, and I am glad did not make it into the movie other than through implication.

I was, however, impressed with the further details about the journey itself, from the confab in Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx, back to the gang's home turf in Coney Island. So when, towards the end of my visit to New York City (where I visited MoMA, and did other things besides), I ended up with most of a day to myself, I decided to have my own pilgrimage after The Warriors.

Originally, I planned to simply take the subway up to Van Cortlandt, look around a little, see some landmarks from the film, then take the subway all the way back to Coney Island, then head back to take my bus. However, I realized that this would mean spending most of the day on the subway, with little else to show for it. So instead I decided to spend a little bit more time in the Bronx, and possibly take a detour to Queens to make use of my complimentary MoMA PS1 ticket, and then return to Midtown Manhattan to catch my bus. That is not what happened.

Instead, once I got to Van Cortlandt Park, a short search online showed me that the scene at the start of the movie was actually filmed in Riverside Park in Manhattan. Having already arrived at my destination, I decided I would walk around a bit to get a better idea of the feel of large forested wilderness sliced through by motorways that comes out in the beginning of the book.

So I walked, and walked, and saw some wildlife, and took some pictures, and continued to walk, and had to double back because you could not cross through the public golf course (first in the nation!), and then went down a path that I hoped would eventually let me cross over to a different path down, to continue with my plans.

A long while later, I found the first meaningful map I had seen in the entire park, referring to South County Trail. "South County", I asked myself? Using the GPS-powered map on my phone, I confirmed my suspicions - I had managed to exit NYC and enter Yonkers, a city familiar to anyone who had ever had to fill out a New York state tax return, or used the train through Westchester County, the County of which I was in the Southern Trail. The first way out that wasn't back was into Yonkers.

I started seeking a local restaurant that looked inviting online, when I realized that time was pressing, especially considering how far I was from my starting point now. So I took a loop through Yonkers, climbed one of its famous seven hills, and found another entrance into Van Cortlandt. This led into a bit of a maze of paths, again unmapped, which, with the help of my trusty phone, I followed back towards the subway station, and then down to Midtown, where I had to rush around to eat a late lunch and then to make it to my bus, out of breath, but otherwise on time.

While this wasn't physically too similar to the journey in either version of The Warriors, I unexpectedly found myself emotionally close to this feeling of being suddenly removed and disconnected from my "home", in this case, the area of the bus station from which I had to go back to my actual home Upstate, and rushing back there through parts unknown.

These types of accidental experiences are the ones I treasure most. You can't entirely plan them. You can put yourself in a starting situation, and open yourself catching them as they come. In life, in travel, in role-playing games.