As I was taking my morning walk and scaled the Belt Parkway overpass at East 12th, I noticed that the swimming pool of the apartment building nearby, which had been drained after the summer, was half filled with water. There are still cars here and there with a tire on a curb, having been carried there by the torrents that poured through the neighborhood. Today I ran into Jeff, who used to work at the Exchange. He had the misfortune of having two cars parked in the underground lot of Atlantic Towers. "I've had better weeks," he said. There is a generator in front of Astoria Federal, which is still closed. Yesterday customers were allowed to check their safe deposit boxes, which are downstairs. When my friend's son opened his, water came pouring out. All the documents inside were ruined. Fortunately, his mom had wrapped a stack of two dollar bills she is saving in plastic. She almost had to give them up. There were agents there looking to confiscate large amounts of cash from people hiding income. Somehow they let her slide. Two weeks ago Victoria Valentine, my literary angel, mailed me two copies of her second novel, Sweet Dreams. I finally got them today. I assumed they were lost to a postal worker like Newman, who might take advantage of the storm to plunder the public. I wonder if I will see the DVD of The Hunger Games, which I earned at Zoom Panel Surveys. Will it go the way of the Elvis greatest hits compilation that never got to me? Huge plastic garbage bags and discarded furniture and fixtures still dominate the landscape.
The rancor over the election continues on Facebook. I don't see what it accomplishes. I don't think people on the fence will be persuaded to side with such negativism. If the President's policies are to be defeated, it has to be done with reason, sound argument, not vitriol. One old friend said I was too magnanimous in defeat and professed fear for his children's future. I'm afraid for the country, but hope my fears are unfounded, exaggerated.
I continued to experience good luck as many of my neighbors are having their vehicles towed away. As I approached the corner of East 13th and Z, a car was leaving the lead spot right beside where I set up the floating book shop. I hustled to get it, and it proved a boon. Since I'm running low on the most popular books, I was able to put out two great compilation CDs I've burned, Sinatra and Oldies from the 50's and '60's. Sure enough, a Russian gentleman spotted them. I offered to pop them into my Hyundai's CD player, but he said he trusted me. Later, a woman donated five books in Russian, all of which I sold. Spasibo, folks.
Visit Vic's sites:
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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