Vivian Maier and a cliff-hanger

Today was the first time I visited Margie on a Friday, and I had every intention of not writing about Margie for a second time this week. But how can I resist, when my visit with Margie was the highlight of my day? 

I took Vivian Maier: Street Photographer (2011) because I know Margie loves looking at photos of New York City made in the time she remembers. Indeed, a photo of two little girls reminded Margie of her friend Johanna, who lived on the fifth floor of the tenement in the Bronx where Margie’s family lived on the third floor. 

“That could be the two of us,” she remembered. “The shorter one has a nose just like mine. The taller one would be Johanna, except she was Italian and her hair was darker. But we were just like that. I’d go out on the fire escape and call, ‘Jo-haaaaaa-na’ and she would come out on the fire escape and call back. We’d meet on the stairway and go down to the sidewalk to play hopscotch or jacks. I loved those times!”

Sue and I had a plan to leave for the coast on Saturday, and I wanted to find a Pacific tree frog, inspired by posts by Incredibish and RonaldBerry. But on Wednesday, Sue spent the day with someone who said she felt tired, and on Thursday that same person called Sue to say she tested positive for Covid-19. Sue and I are not worried about the acute phase—most people who are fully vaccinated are saying it’s no worse than a cold. But we do worry about long-term effects on breathing, cognition, heart, joints, and state of mind. Especially cognition. So now we’re waiting till Sunday, and then she’ll test, symptoms or no symptoms, and if she tests positive, we’ll probably forego the trip. Cliff-hanger.

Extra: I love living in a city where someone scrawls this message on STOP signs.