Day thirteen. Only a few days before I return to Pittsburgh. I decided to begin the packing and cleaning up process by returning the two books I borrowed from the public library last week. I walked up Carnegie Hill, and arrived at the library just as a light drizzle began. Alas! the library was closed until noon. Worse–there is no book drop. I had to return to the apartment before noon as Carol was scheduled to arrive then. I continued walking in the misty rain with the books, ran a couple of other errands and got back to the apartment about 11.

Although I dearly love New York there are some unbelievable inconveniences here. Why can’t the library have a book drop? Every suburban library understands the need for book drops. Pittsburgh even has drive-up book drops. I guess it wouldn’t be New York if it was easy.

After a Japanese bento box lunch, Carol and I went over to the Met and spent most of our time in Egypt. That’s one area I usually neglect, so it was pretty interesting going through it.

Carol had never been to Central Park. We walked across more or less from Fifth Avenue and 84th Street to 81st and Central Park West where we took the subway downtown to meet Julia for dinner. In the past I had often met Julia at a restaurant on 23 rd Street called East of Eighth. We did it again, having a lovely dinner with too much food.

Carol will go to New Jersey tomorrow to visit a friend, then we will spend the weekend together and go to the airport for planes leaving about 5 minutes apart.