The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The best way to describe the previous week’s weather here in Pittsburgh is simply “last Tuesday was the day it didn’t rain or snow.” Saying that, a humble narrator was busy with mundanities so it wasn’t too much of a deal. One thing I can report to all of you back in Fun City is that I drove over to a local variant of the Department of Motor Vehicles, dubbed as the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation or “PennDOT Driver’s License Center” to transfer my New York State Driver’s License over to a Pennsylvania one in accordance with local statutes. Based on years of experience with NYS’s best analogue of a Soviet toilet paper distributorship, I figured my DMV or PennDOT experience would be miserable and frustrating.

45 minutes later I was walking to the Mobile Oppression Platform with a freshly printed Pennsylvania driver’s license in my wallet. Just had to fill out a few forms, pay a $36.75 fee, and done. The people working there were nice, helpful, and the process clear.

Y’know, when you’ve been drinking dirty water your whole life and somebody hands you a glass of crystal clear earth juice instead…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One hung around HQ during the inclement weather, mostly. A friend from New York was in town on Monday last and I got to spend a bit of time with a familiar face, which was nice. One day, after a particularly heavy wave of precipitation blasted though, the double rainbow pictured above was observed over Dormont, where HQ is now found.

Today’s post breaks format a bit, with a three photo post. Tomorrow, we go back to the usual vulgarity with six shots. As mentioned, the weather has been… well… not fierce, but I’m still not at all used to driving out here on these crazy serpentine roadways with their steep hills and especially so when it’s icy. Take an inch of snow, pour a few hours of rain on it, then drop the temperature below freezing – that’s how you get me to stay home and not drive around.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Pittsburgh is actually deficient at this moment, in terms of its annual averages, for snowfall but it has been fairly chilly. It is, after all, January. As you’re reading this, one is likely behind the wheel of the MOP, heading towards the bureaucratic entity that handles car registration and license plate issuance in Pennsylvania. As soon as that bit of business is handled, the entire “escape from New York City” process will have wound down and can be declared accomplished. There’s still a few things to do, notably rebuilding my office workstation which died a few years ago at the start of Covid. I’ve been working off of a fairly underpowered laptop the last couple of years, which has been sufficient but just so.

Tomorrow, I’m taking you along with me on another scouting mission, this one along the Allegheny River. Remember how I said I was “kvelling” to get a look at one of the several lock and dam locations operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers? Well…

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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.