New York City, Part 3

I have another medical update. On 6/28/2012 I reported that my blood level tumors markers were down to 2.9, within normal limits (2.5-3.0). Three weeks later they were 3.2. The doctor said then if the level continues to rise, we may have to change the treatment. I went to the doctor on August 29 and found out they are 3.7. The doctor is not concerned about such a small increase! He said we will continue the Alimta treatments because they are working! Yea God! I really did not want to change the chemo drug, since I just ordered it not to give my body adverse side effects and it obeyed me!! Remember in my last post that the painful sores throats stopped? I don’t want to have to take the time to teach a new chemo drug who’s the boss!!

Meanwhile, back in New York City, on Sunday Al and I took the bus and ferry from the Navy Lodge to Manhattan’s Museum Mile on 5th Avenue. I had been to the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museums of Art before but Al had not. The Guggenheim was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and has unusual architecture. Do you remember on November 26, 2011 I wrote about the ziggurats in ancient Iran? Well, the Guggenheim is designed as an inverted round ziggurat! The ramp is on the inside and goes around in a circular pattern to the seven different levels of art galleries. This museum houses modern and current art. Al and I walked up to the seventh floor and then discovered there was an elevator! The next time, we will take the elevator up and walk down!

It was a short walk to the Metropolitan museum and we had a pleasant surprise! The entrance fee was $25 for adults and $17 for military. Then the ticket taker noticed that Al was wearing a navy veteran’s cap. She asked him if he had a card to prove he was a veteran. He produced his life-time membership card for the Tin Can Sailors, an association for navy destroyer veterans. She gave him back his credit card and gave us two buttons with an “M” on them. “Wear these while you are here,” she said. “OK,” said Al. “Where do I sign for the credit card?” “You don’t,” she said as she gave us the receipt, which showed a charge of zero dollars for the entrance fee! Al and I both got in free because he was a veteran!! We were so stunned and touched by this that we walked through the first two galleries of Egyptian Art without even looking at the displays!! New York City loves the military!!

Once inside, I really enjoyed watching Al discover this museum and its treasures. Photography was permitted without a flash and he found objects in the Egyptian galleries which he had not seen before. There were new exhibits since I had last visited also. One of them was the small temple of Dendur, which had been moved stone by stone and reassembled here. The display room was large and spacious with a small pool, and very relaxing. One entire wall was glass and looked out onto Central Park. There was a pink granite statue of a crocodile. Of course, we had to have a picture of that, being from the University of Florida’s Gator Nation.Even though crocodiles are different from alligators, they are still cousins.Actually, this crocodile has an alligator snout. I don’t know who mislabeled it, the Egyptians or the archeologists.  Or maybe there was a species of crocodile that had a rounded snout. Among the hieroglyphics there was some graffiti from 1819. Someone had engraved words and the year into the wall! Imagine that! Graffiti more than 100 years old! And we thought only American gangs defaced buildings with graffiti!

 Actually, we were reminded of some graffiti we had seen in the Galapagos Islands that dated back to the 1700s, put there on the cliffs by pirates. I don’t know what kind of paint they used but it has not worn away after all these centuries. It probably contains some ingredients that are outlawed by the Environmental Protection Agency today!

Pictures show the outside and inside views of the Guggenheim Museum, the Temple of Dendur, the crocodile,  hieroglyphics and friezes, and Graffiti on the temple wall.