Mark Citret's Cat And My Wife

Last night I started out with good expectations only to be flummoxed by a complete lack of response by my van. I was on my way up to the Center for Photography at Woodstock to view a presentation by the photographer Mark Citret. Mark was a classmate at San Francisco State University, a former assistant to Ansel Adams and an excellent artist. He lives in Daly City, California where I visited in February of 2010, after not seeing him for thirty years. The image above was taken by my son Solomon with a Canon S90, Mark's cat Chuckie is in the foreground, my wife Stephanie is in the background. I drove up the Thruway from my home in New City stopping at the Plattekill service center for a monster sized Starbucks ice coffee and gas. I topped the tank and got back in to turn the key and nothing, yes complete nothing, no engine no lights, nothing. A one hour wait for a jump start got me back on the road but knowing the car would not start again sent me home. I missed the lecture and a visit with a friend.

The hood of my van can be seen in the lower left corner (of this iPhone Panorama), the location is Sears at the Nanuet Mall, known for the Weathermen/Brinks/Robbery/Shootout of 1981, the event that marked end of the radical left and the death of two policemen and a security guard. 

The mall is an empty shell awaiting rebirth or demolition, Mark and I graduated from SFSU with Masters in Photography at about the same time the Weather Underground committed a triple murder in Rockland County.

I bought a new battery this morning and now the car starts. Some scars will never heal.