The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As has been mentioned several times, your humble narrator has somehow managed to recreate his ‘lead time,’ that interval between the capture of these photos and the subsequent writing of the malarkey, as relates to the day that the post publishes and reaches your inbox or social media whatever.

As of this moment, while I’m actually typing out this missive, it’s early morning on the 19th of February, and the photos embedded herein were gathered on the tenth of that same month.

Just in case you were wondering why it’s still the height of winter here, and you’re likely seeing the birds returning in mid March. You’ve got a bit more winter coming your way, by the way.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This sort of frigid season just frustrates me. Gets in the way.

Looking back into the archives here at Newtown Pentacle, you’d be hard pressed to not find a January or February posting that doesn’t complain about winter weather, its depravations, and its boredom.

Write a book, they tell me. Yeah sure… that’s simple.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Admittedly, Pittsburgh got whaled in 2026 by what local meteorologists describe as an extraordinary and historic winter season, as judged by their local standards.

Personally, it’s been a pain in the butt.

Week long stretches where even driving was fairly impossible. Forget walking, except in narrow corridors where you could reasonably expect – and be disappointed – to find that the snow and ice have been cleared from the pavement. Given the lingering psychological hangover of the ‘orthopedic incident,’ wherein I shattered my left ankle and then had it surgically reconstructed leading to a long and excruciatingly painful recovery period, ice and snow conditions are just ‘No Bueno.’

Messes with my head while scuttling along, this.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One was heading back to HQ in Dormont at this stage of my day, and the ‘T light rail’ station at nearby Station Square was the destination.

All told, this walk was maybe four to six miles long.

It’s become a fairly standard exercise and photowalk corridor for me, this ‘Dormont to North Side, then to South Side’ thing.

I’ll take the T to one of the stations on Pittsburgh’s North Side and then whirl and twirl over to the South Side to catch the light rail back. In warmer weather when the pavement is more reliably passable, the north/south path usually includes the West End Bridge.

Given the number of abandoned properties on the south side of the bridge, at Pittsburgh’s Carson Street, that path had been avoided as it was likely a skating rink down there.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was a short wait, maybe ten minutes, before a Red Line T appeared (pictured is either a Blue or Silver Line). Soon, I was happily sitting down onboard one of the light rail units, and the trip back to Dormont only takes about 20-25 minutes from Station Square.

It was my turn to cook dinner, so I headed home and got busy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Boneless chicken breast cutlets, with a little glug of olive oil on top and then a bit of salt and pepper. I put a cleaver flat on top of them and give the knife a couple of hard whacks to flatten out the meat and ‘stick’ the seasoning into the meat. Into the air fryer for 16 minutes at 400 degrees. On the stove, a pot of bow tie style pasta was boiled, and combined with a sauce that was formed up from a bit of feta cheese, a bag of frozen chopped spinach and also a bag of peas, and there was also a few tablespoons of Greek yogurt in there. Another glug of olive oil went into the veggies and dairy sauce concoction to loosen it up a bit, before adding in the pasta bow ties. Squeezed a lemon over the whole pasta affair and mixed it up thoroughly. Yum.

One of the lifestyle differences between ‘back home’ and ‘here’ is that you pretty much cook all your meals at home here, as opposed to eating the unhealthy and expensive junk offered at take outs. This ain’t NYC where your kitchen is tiny and it’s actually cheaper to order in. I’ve got a full size kitchen in Dormont with lots of counter space, and a nearby Aldi.

The dinner effort resulted in a big meal for two, a few scraps of chicken which somehow fell into Moe the Dog’s mouth, and then four lunch sized containers of left overs. Worth doing, and it was fairly healthy as well.

Back tomorrow with something different.

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Buy a book!

“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.