The other day, I had a really bad work day. I work in the facilities department of a New York midtown office tower. My assistant is on vacation and my boss spent most of her time across town so I was essentially alone. Oh, and also the Chief Engineer was on vacation so suffice it to say, I was wearing a lot of hats. People were hot or cold, or water fountains were leaking, the Fire Department shows up for a surprise inspection, leasing agents wanted to tour vacant floors………..on top of all that I had around three meetings that day.
When quitting time came, I was out of the building like a shot. I caught the cross town bus then the ferry to Weehawken. Here is where simple pleasures come in. The seats on the ferry are aligned fore and aft not athwart ships. I was sitting on the port side looking aft when I see a pigeon strutting down the aisle purposefully heading for the bow. As he came toward me, I pulled my feet back and he continued his trek only to come across people who had legs crossed and extended in the aisles. The pigeon tried numerous paths to get around them but was not successful.
Finally, he turned around and walked back toward the stern. He looked up at me; whereupon I responded, “Don’t look at me like that, I moved my feet” People around me looked up and started smiling at the absurdness of it all. Then the bird headed to the stern. Not satisfied, he now took flight toward the bow (within the passenger compartment.) He had to beat those wings a little harder to get there since the Ferry was already moving at 8 or 10 knots.
Then, when he reached the bow, our gray pigeon, suddenly turned, landed near me and walked to the stern again where he took flight out of the rear door. The whole episode was pretty entertaining. It was good to see complete strangers laughing over the antics of the bird.
He came back the next day. But I think his comic days are over. He did a strut down one side of the boat then flew out the stern door again.
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