NYC

 Chambersburg, Mechanicsburg, Shippensburg, Gettysburg, Harrisburg. It's a burg city. McConnel has another town named after him here: McConnelsburg in addition to McConnelsville in Ohio. I went through the Pennsylvania's dozen burgs, slept in Chambersburg Walmart parking lot, and finally arrived in NJ 3 days ago.

Yesterday I took a train from Princeton Junction to Penn Station. For some reason, I wasn't not as elated to be in NYC as I was before. Maybe it's "been there, done that" syndrome. But I think it's also got to do with the fact that I'm no longer CFSed. Before, all I could do was walk slow. So walking the city streets was just about the only joy I had. Now that I can hike 10 miles over mountains, walking the city is more of a business than pleasure. 

I walked all over. First Astoria to check out the chicken coup. It was no place for humans, so I walked on. Next was the studio for sale for $675,000.  It certainly was a nice, new unit. But not worth over $1000/sf. All the rest was a bust. NYC open houses apparently requires appointments and I wasn't able to view them. So I walked on exploring Jackson Heights and Sunnyside north of Queens Blvd. And I walked fast too. Probably at 104 steps/min most of time, and 120 on the way to Penn Station to catch the train back to NJ.

I think I'll put off buying a pied-de-terre in NYC. The price bounced from the pandemic low and it doesn't make sense to compete with low interest rate borrowers when I'm paying cash. I'll come back to it when the rates get normalized and demand subsides. For now, I need to find a temporary housing for a month. It's not easy; the sublease is not as plentiful as in the summer. I may have to cobble together a couple of short terms, and hotels, into a month. If it doesn't work out, I'll move on; it's not end of the world if I skip NYC this time. In 2017, NYC was the goal. This time it wasn't. Curing my CFS was. I've done what I set out for and I can return Westward satisfied, with or without NYC.