A Nice Little Sunday ( 6.10.2007 )

It was the day of the Puerto Rican Parade, a rather large event up here in the El Barrio. Since we live on the border of Spanish Harlem and the Upper East Side you could feel the energy in the air, and at about 2am you could hear it as well. It seemed like everywhere you went, there was another Puerto Rican flag on a car, or a painted face, it was crazy. The Puerto Ricans put the Irish on St. Patty's to shame, which by the way is no small task in this city. Their parade ran basically the same route that the St. Pattys did, up fifth ave to somewhere up in Spanish Harlem.

Molly and I had other plans than people watching this day though, we had Home Depot on the mind. We decided to walk down to 57th and enjoy what was a very nice day. We stopped for some pizza and a checked out Dylans Candy Bar, then to the Depot for celling fans and supplies.

The quote to sum up our day: "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time. "

This guy was so cool, I actually made Molly run about three blocks so that I could get a good picture of him. He was singing songs in Spanish, selling flags, and weaving down Lexington Ave in his wheel chair making traffic drive around him.

Our new Fan! After Home Depot, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond, to cover all the Big Box Stores. Some more purchasing was in order, but carrying the fan three Avenues and five blocks was real fun. Makes you feel like a New Yorker.

We took a taxi home and got our new fan opened. That's when I realized that someone had pulled a fast one on Home Depot. Our fan had clearly been used, abused, fixed (poorly), and returned. It was unrepairable and unusable. The wires had been cut too short, and where the covers had been dented, the previous owner had repainted the fan with white-out. This incident also made me feel very much like a New Yorker. My rage was increasing with every second. Good thing Molly took over and made the call to the "Home Despot". They were unwilling to deliver us and exchange our old for a new. So off to the Subway we went. Molly is sporting this years new line of fan!

Back home, the installation of the new one was a dream. No extra trips to the hardware store, nobody got shocked, just cool cool air from our new friend, Windy.