The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned in past postings, your humble narrator has been playing ‘catch-up’ with the wishes of the Medical/Insurance Complex. They have ordered technicians to irradiate me, beam high intensity sound through my flesh, and also sample the various internal ichors sloshing about within for chemical analysis. All of their ambitions are in my best interest, of course, and several of these annual diagnostic tests are overdue, having been ‘put on hold’ during the broken ankle ordeal.

One of the ‘reasons for Pittsburgh’ is the quality of health care here. Absolutely top notch. They literally cured Polio here in Pittsburgh ‘back in the day,’ and the medical system here is fairly well staffed and equipped. Everything in Pittsburgh is ‘easy’ in comparison to the drawn out struggles of dealing with NYC’s health system.

Cannot tell you how many times that I said, during the physical therapy part of the ankle recovery period, that ‘thank god I’m not in NYC.’ To wit: on this particular morning, I had a test scheduled at the main hospital here in Pittsburgh, Allegheny General. It’s the building you see used for exteriors on that HBO show ‘The Pitt.’

I literally drove here in 15 minutes from HQ during rush hour, arrived at their parking lot and then easily found a convenient spot, got into an elevator and was seen at precisely the time which my appointment called for. In and out in an hour. Back at the parking lot, and then back home in 10 minutes. Easy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the setting for these shots. As you can see, it was quite misty out at about 8:30 in the morning on Pittsburgh’s north side this particular morning. The lot is multi-story, the sort which you drive through and the ramps are set up like the threads of a screw. I always head up to the open air top level. Less crowded. Culturally speaking, the locals will go to blows over a spot nearby the entrance on the first level, whereas the ones up top are normally waiting for a car to fill them.

My test results came back as ‘normal,’ although there’s some stuff going on in there that the docs want to ‘keep an eye on.’ I’m at that age where everything the docs want to look at, or warn me about, sounds terrifying.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Saying all that, I’m nearly 60. The clock, as it were, is ticking. No time to waste. I’m obliging the science stuff here, because it’s colossally stupid not to. Their first name is ‘Doctor,’ and I’m just a schmuck with a camera, so I try to follow the advice of the blue pajamas and white coat crowd as much as possible. If they want photo taking advice, I’m available.

Nothing new has emerged from the various peeks within, which is actually good news. Homeostasis has always been a goal.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My parents were the members of the family who didn’t decamp Brooklyn for Long Island or New Jersey, which meant that they spent a lot of time looking in on and caring for the old timers still in the ‘old neighborhood.’

Take Aunt Vera to the doctor, pick up Aunt Edna on Ocean Parkway and after a few stops, then take them both out for a diner lunch, and then drop off a bag of support hose to Grandma on Linden Blvd. – that would describe my Dad’s average Saturday. I spent a lot of time as a kid around very, very old people and am thereby very familiar with what life’s ‘Act 3’ entails and looks like. The degradations, the humiliations, all of it.

I have no illusions about how my remaining years will play out. Dissolution is the nature of all things. Only thing you really can do for your self is find some way to be as comfortable as possible while you’re waiting on that exit line.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Having stated all of that gloomy yet inevitable stuff, I’ve still got a lot of people to piss off and there’s lots of fun that I haven’t had yet. Once I’m done with all of these medical obligations by the end of July, there’s a couple/three destinations which I want to hit in August/September. I’m also pretty hyped to actually be able to shoot ‘leaf season’ in the ‘burning hills of Pennsylvania’ this year.

Two of the outings are railroad specific, the other is a visit to a nearby urban core which I’m interested in seeing. I’m also pretty hyped about actually experiencing Halloween this year, something which has been denied to me by circumstance since prior to COVID.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, after all.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was time to get on with my day, after the medical testing was finished.

Unfortunately for me, as I really didn’t want to be doing this kind of detailed and finicky work on this particularly atmospheric day, I had to finish a series of table top product shots back at HQ. Such matters are finicky, especially so when there isn’t a ‘stylist’ to prep the device in question for its portraits. A job’s a job.

Back tomorrow with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

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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.