Yesterday may have been Robin’s last day in the hospital. She was supposed to be up and walking Friday, the day after surgery. They sat her up in the chair and she passed out, leaving her worried all day she wouldn’t recover as quickly as she had hoped. She was walking when I arrived and continued walking or sitting in the chair all day. We are hoping today will be even better and we can take her to Renee’s apartment where she will recuperate for the next two weeks.

I’m writing this in bed in my friend’s apartment and I’m not online. She has a computer but doesn’t know much about it. I can only get online by taking the USB cord from her machine and plugging it into mine. I’ll do it later. Last evening we went to a concert at the Metropolitan Museum—the Pacifica Quartet, two violins, one viola, one cello. It was lovely, but my tinnitus gets stimulated by the violins and it makes me unhappy. These days I prefer piano music. It doesn’t seem to have the same effect.

The hospital has been very good. Robin and Steve both feel she is getting excellent care. She was in a four bed intensive care unit with constant nursing surveillance until afternoon when they moved her to a regular double room across from the nursing station.

On the day of the surgery, and for many days before, I felt like I had a lump in my chest. As the surgery progressed and we received reports from the operating room, the lump began to lessen. When I saw her again that evening most of it went away. Today I am completely relieved. I know there is much hard work ahead of us, but it’s all doable. Knowing Robin I’m sure she will recover quickly. Unlike her mother she loves exercise and can’t wait to start running again.

You can tell I am relieved by this next story about one of my pet peeves. Going to the hospital I take the subway then transfer to a bus. There is a new bus option: select buses, supposedly faster because of a dedicated bus only lane and they don’t make every stop. Also, you pay before boarding and don’t even show the receipt unless you are asked to do so by an inspector. The fine for noncompliance is $150. At each bus stop there are two machines for use with a transit card and one for cash. The express buses are not new. The city always had a system of limited and local buses. They seem to have extended it to more routes, but only the fare purchase system is new. As usual, I am the skeptic. At least on 34th st. I certainly don’t see the efficacy. The bus only lane is at the curb and there is always a parked truck or taxi blocking the bus. When people get on and try to pay they are directed off the bus and told to use the machines. Mostly they will have to wait for the next bus. I haven’t encountered any inspectors and I have no idea how much money the city is losing. But the thing that gets me most is that you must still carry lots of quarters if you don’t have a transit card: neither these fare boxes nor the ones on the regular buses will accept dollar bills for a fare now at $2.25. I’ve never understood this dedication to quarters, nine of them now.