Wednesday

Last night, before seeing a movie in Maryland, I wandered around Silver Spring looking for a place to have my sunglasses repaired. I lost the little screw out of the lens housing while taking photos from some Brighton Beach Station in New York last Saturday. There was this little sproinnng and the left lens fell onto the platform. I was subsequently blinded by the Coney Island sun until I was able to pick up a cheap replacement pair. Last Saturday we asked the MTA attendant where the nearest drugstore was, and ambled around south Brooklyn according to his guidance. We never found the large chain store he supposed was somewhere out there, but we did discover a drugstore run by a pleasant Russian who taxed his English ability telling me no, no, no when I tried to borrow or buy the necessary little screwdriver. My luck has continued in this vein. Yesterday in Silver Spring I eventually found the glasses store Google Maps led me to, only to discover it was in the lobby of an optometrist who closed at four thirty. Since it was already five thirty, I decided to eat dinner (in the shade) while waiting for my movie. Walking around a new area of Silver Spring had turned up a Cuban restaurant, a wonderfully dodgy fifties-era diner, and yet another frat Mexican place (which is where I ate). Since returning from the movie last night, I have been piecing together composite collages from the photos that I took in New York last weekend. I've managed to get a number of them online today, and they can be viewed here. One of these pictures is a panoramic view of the Coney Island amusement park, taken from some Brighton Beach Station. I took that picture without sunglasses. [Cavin]