DETOUR

Too caught up in my reading I accidentally rode the E train past my stop and ended up in midtown near 6th Ave. I took the chance to walk through Central Park on my way to the YMCA to meet Cara and right at the entrance I found an umbrella, which I smugly considered fortuitous considering I broke mine earlier that day. So I stuck that in my backpack and walk a few feet when a runner points out a Raccoon in a tree. I always get silly when I see wildlife, especially here in urban hell, so I stay for a bit and shoot some photos. The Raccoon doesn’t seem to care all that much about me and heads over to an abandoned bird’s nest where it plops down for awhile and politely asks me to leave. So I head over to the Y and meet Cara in the cafeteria. While we’re talking something smells awful, like really old piss and it’s coming from my backpack where I stuck that great find of an umbrella. Two pounds of coffee I was hauling around killed off the stench. I left the parasol under the table so someone else could feel lucky.