Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
Archives #005
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The broken ankle kept me up half the night yesterday, which I guess is good as that’s related to healing. Yeah? Hope so. Things get a little better every day around HQ, as I’m getting my strength back and Our Lady of the Pentacle continues the heroic level of care she’s providing for both me and Moe the Dog.
This 2016 post discussed NYC’S DEP in a positive manner, which is a rare event in the Newtown Pentacle archives. They solved an Astoria problem lickety split.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A couple of times a day I need to lie down just to stretch a bit. The ankle situation has me in a wheelchair, and I’m spending all day sitting. Hunched over in a chair gets super uncomfortable, with the abdominal organs compressed down under the ribs. Ugh. I really need to take a walk, but that’s not possible.
This 2020 post discusses a walk through industrial Maspeth, which I always called my happy place. I like post apocalyptic landscapes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned the other day, the only blessing in this situation is that I’m not living in NYC anymore. All of this would have been so much more difficult to deal with back home.
This 2023 post is from Pittsburgh, and describes a short walk back to the light rail which I took, after having a beer and photographing trains.
Back next week, I hope.
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Archival offerings
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well, here we are.
Recovery from the broken ankle and the concurrent surgery has been pretty rough. A humble narrator has been staring out through a mask of painkillers and a narcotic fog. Luckily, the prescribed course of opioids has ended and it’s just Tylenol at this stage, so my brain is beginning to go ‘normal,’ or at least as close to normal as I get, again. Saying all that, I’m still sitting in a wheelchair as you’re receiving this, and won’t be getting out and about with the camera for quite a while. Luckily, I’ve been updating and posting here at Newtown Pentacle since 2009, so there’s lots of buried archival posts to re-present. My conceit will be calendrical, and you’ll see call backs to something published on ‘this date in XXXX.’
This post from 2012, for instance, contains a series of ‘odds and ends’ photos from the Manhattan Bridge Centennial event which I was a NYC Parade Marshal for. How about that?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pain side of the ankle injury, at the moment, has nothing to do with the broken bones. According to the X-Rays, everything within the limb is proceeding according to the surgeon’s plan. There’s screws and a bracket – all kinds of stuff – holding my broken bones together. The main source of discomfort is actually found on the surface of the foot, where a ghastly looking series of wounds from the clamping down of my foot during the surgical procedure are afflicting the skin. Feels like a burn.
This one is from 2021, and depicts a trip to Vermont’s Burlington. Burlington was our #2 choice for where to move to – post COVID – but the ferocity of the winter up there made the choice for Pittsburgh obvious.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m still on the disabled list, and for a while, it looks like. Can’t drive, as I honestly have no idea how I’d get in and out of the car, and the opiates are still in my system despite not taking them for a few days now, so I don’t exactly trust my spatial perceptions at the moment.
I’m going to try and get the schedule restarted up here again this week, since it at least gives me a focus beyond this nightmare. Can’t promise anything like dailies right now, but I’m going to try.
Finally, here’s one from 2022, depicting a boat ride here in Pittsburgh.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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.
Here’s the scoop
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Written from a wheel chair – So… last week, your humble narrator was locking down the house in preparation of going to bed. Our Lady, and Moe the Dog, had already retreated from consciousness but I’m a night owl and had been watching some meaningless television show before surrendering to biology. Little did I know that my particular biological function would soon become quite the topic of conversation moving forward.
While watching said televisual presentation, I realized that I had left my phone on the office desk found downstairs. Cursing, as I had already locked the door leading down to ‘the engine room,’ your humble narrator stepped onto one of two short flights of steps leading downstairs, separated by a landing.
My left foot lowered onto the second to last of the lower steps, which ended up being a pretty important moment, lifestyle wise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My ankle rolled, and then I went tumbling forward in space. For a split second, I saw the top of my knee and the sole of my foot at the same time, as I pitched forward. I fell into a roll, at which point I saw my left foot turned opposite the direction it was pointing at just a second or two previously, and a loud cracking/popping sound was heard.
I landed on my side, rolling with the momentum. A loud ‘gahhh’ sound erupted from your humble narrator, and pain blossomed. Now, I’ve been hurt a lot over the years, and even had a heart attack once.
Nothing in my experience, however, has been as painful as – or compares – to this moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Instantly, shock set in. Perspiration coated the skin, my breathing assumed a quick and staccato rythym, and I reached down to grasp at my left ankle and foot. Upon doing so, the foot made a grinding/clicking sound. Agony ensued, and I sat there for a moment holding my ankle – which was also making a similar but separate grinding and clicking sound. That’s when I noticed that the ankle bone, which has historically occupied the interior side of my calf, was bulging out from the front of the shin.
It took about two or three minutes to gather myself and soon I was shouting upstairs at Our Lady for help. She arrived quickly, and upon assessing my appearance asked if we needed to call 911. My answer was yes, and after placing the call so she gathered up some personal items I’d need for a trip to an emergency department at some nearby hospital. Wallet, etc.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An ambulance arrived, and then two EMS medics entered the house. They instantly assessed my situation as serious and stoutly carried me onto a stretcher, and into their Ambulance. On the way, a hypodermic of Morphine was injected into my arm, and a field dressing splint installed onto my ankle. My foot hung loosely during this, in the manner of a sock filled with a ham sandwich, and the splint ameliorated the painful side to side shaking of the thing as the Ambulance sped to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital, and I was transferred via back board to a hospital bed within. I was soon in a ‘room’ in the Emergency ward, and an X-Ray technician appeared with a portable examination unit. Things get hazy around here, due to all the medical grade drugs in me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A diagnosis was soon pronounced, and the injury was described as being a Trimalleolar fracture with dislocation. The ankle bones which protrude into the skin on both sides of the joint were now free floating, and a third bone in the foot was also fractured. The foot itself was dislocated from the joining with the leg bones of the calf. Surgery would provide the only fix, but that wouldn’t happen until the next day.
This is when they switched me off of Morphine and over to medical Fentanyl to control the pain. Before this journey through the operating room and back to HQ would be completed – Dilaudid, Ketamine, and eventually OxyContin were added to my list of drugs I’ve taken but never wanted to experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Surgery took around three hours, I’m told, but it’s all a haze. Recovery will take – at a minimum – six months, but it could stretch out as long as two years depending on circumstances. Obviously, I won’t be taking any walks – short or long – for a long time. What about this here Newtown Pentacle, then?
My plan for the interim is to link back into the extensive archives of past posts published here. The conceit I’m planning in terms of choosing these posts will be calendrical in nature. Three past posts chosen from a given day/month which match up with whatever the new post’s publication date is.
Thereby you’ll be seeing a lot of Newtown Creek, Queens, and NY Harbor stuff here again. I’m going to try and maintain my regular publishing schedule this way while I get back onto my foot, and I hope y’all will stay with me through this trial – something which I have no choice but to endure. I’ll try for five days a week, but cannot make any promises at the moment.
Back tomorrow – hopefully.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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.
Gyratorium iter
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well, it looks like this and tomorrow’s posts will be the only ‘new’ stuff you’re going to see here for quite a while. The ankle injury which I mentioned last week has effectively crippled your humble narrator for the foreseeable future. I’m planning on republishing ‘classic Pentacle’ posts during the interval, so there’s that. I’ve been hospitalized and am recovering from orthopedic surgery, am back at home, and on bed rest as of this writing, but it’s going to be a long, long time before I get to take another walk. Helpless at the moment, me, and I’m writing this while sitting in a wheelchair.
Now… on with this penultimate ‘new’ posting.
My short walk on a pleasant summer evening carried me across Pittsburgh’s ‘Golden Triangle’ downtown area to the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River. A weird combination of effort and importance is expressed in this bridge – the original version of it was designed by John Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge), and the modern version was designed by Gustav Lindenthal (Queensboro Bridge).
The river was crossed uneventfully, on one of the two shared bike/pedestrian paths offered by the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing, one negotiated through a tunnel driven through the anchor of the Smithfield Street Bridge. That carried me into the South Side Flats area and pointed my feet at the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail, heading towards that brewery I’ve been haunting at the end of walks in this section of Pittsburgh. I should mention that the T light rail’s ‘Station Square’ hub is nearby, and the service offers me transit from here to a spot just few blocks away from HQ. Easy peasy.
I was hoping to see a few trains rolling by, and I wasn’t disappointed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While walking to my eventual reward of a glass of Cream Ale, which I’m favoring at the moment, CSX #3300 hurtled past on the other side of a wooded fenceline. It wouldn’t be the last train I saw on this particular evening, but it’s the only one I’m showing you today.
Back tomorrow – at this – your limping along Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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.
Pontem nusquam
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
NOTE: As you’re reading this, a humble narrator is likely under a surgeon’s knife. Last night, I broke my left ankle, and then got taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Back to your normally scheduled folderol.
One usually has a half baked plan for a walk, or at least a thought out route, before leaving the house. Instead of observing this habit, I decided to just see decide my feet were pointing and go that way this time around.
That’s how I ended up nearby PNC Park, where the Pirates sportsball outfit is housed, and staring up a flight of steps leading to the famous ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ – which the kids call the Fort Duquesne Bridge. Said span overflies the Allegheny River and connects Pittsburgh’s North Shore to the ‘Golden Triangle’ downtown section.
I like including steps on certain days, as they’re ‘good cardio.’ By this point in the scuttle, one had already decided that the penultimate destination for the evening (I had to get back to Dormont for the ‘ghost tour’ mentioned yesterday) was going to involve that brewery I like, found alongside the CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks, way on the other side of the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Firstly, I needed to cross the Allegheny River. Fort Duquesne offers a fantastic shared bike and pedestrian path over the river although it’s a crossing which I seldom use. Usually, I cross at the Fort Pitt Bridge or at the West End Bridge. Both of those crossings are a bit more ‘photogenic’ and offer visual access to interesting sections of the waterfront peppered with towboats and trains, but I’d walked over each one quite recently and desired novelty.
As mentioned above, Fort Duquesne hovers above the Allegheny River on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Once the crossing was complete, I’d be deposited in Point State Park, and would need to negotiate a path to the Monongahela River to get to where I wanted to be.
Mundane, no?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A path was picked, and I leaned into it. That’s the aforementioned Fort Pitt Bridge in the shot above, whose crossing I rejected as I had just shlepped over it last week.
Also, this is what rush hour traffic looks like here in Pittsburgh.
Back tomorrow – theoretically.
Have no idea what’s happened to me, and this post was largely written while an ER bed at 4:30 a.m., and quite high on pain killers. What? How do pass the time?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 