alexist

I had a pleasant one today as I was walking through Union Square to the subway. The greenmarket was on today, and the stall I usually buy apples from is at the northwest corner. As I walked past I spotted a basket of Macouns. I have never seen Macouns in May before. They're not considered good keepers, and I've never seen them past November--if that. So I got some. Flavor mild (but Macouns can be variable in flavor) but the texture was excellent. I wonder if they've worked out some new cold-storage procedure. They had Northern Spy too; those keep a little longer than Macouns, but not through the winter. I got some for a pie.

Unpleasant surprise was train service. My parents now live closer to Farmingdale station. This is on the Ronkonkoma branch. However, I discovered that there are express services on this branch which don't stop till Wyandanch. The local service isn't horrendously bad (there are worse branches), but about half the locals are change at Jamaica. (Because they can only run so many trains through the East River tunnels, some services originate at Jamaica; also some start at Flatbush Ave or LIC and then everyone switches at Jamaica.) So I had to get the 17:23, which is an evil train. It goes to Long Beach, with a change at Jamaica for Babylon and Ronkonkoma. It's a crowded train, though there's another one (I forget which) that's worse.

Also, a one way peak fare to Zone 7 (actually Zone 4, they're not named consecutively) is now $9.25 :-(