The Heights Of Fall

Today is the first day of Fall.  And it feels like it, in a pleasant way:  Billowy but thin clouds waft over cool breezes.

A few hundred kilometers north of here, the leaves have begun to change color. Here, though, they're still green.  So if we want Fall colors, we must look elsewhere:

People who don't know the area don't associate these houses with Harlem.  But they line Convent Avenue, a street that bisects the City College campus in a part of Harlem known as Hamilton Heights.  

I was all smiles on my bike, and everyone and everything--including the stones of these houses--seemed to smile back.

Where In The World Is Justine Valinotti? Not In San Diego, That's For Sure!

Where in the world is Justine Valinotti?

You never know what worlds she’ll find when she leaves a gated community:

She might encounter all sorts of dangers.

Hey, she might even go to San Francisco!

She gets giddy and her imagination into overdrive and she starts talking about herself in the third person when she does crazy things—like seeing how many hills she can climb on her fixed-gear bike.

Don’t ask what possessed her to do that.  The sky was clear, the day was warm (though not overly so) and the humidity was low.  So we can’t blame the weather.

Maybe it has something to do with getting a new bike.  She’s waiting on a couple of accessories, and it will be complete.

So where was Justine Valinotti?  She wasn’t in San Diego, that’s for sure.

She took the first photo at City College in Harlem.

The “tiger” reigns over a community garden in a vest-pocket park at the end of Convent Avenue, a few blocks from the City College gate.

The downhill street is actually in North Bergen, New Jersey.  Yes, she went to all of those places today, on her bike.