Our babysitterandsomuchmore called this morning, she calls every morning at 7:30 to wake us up – to say that she goes lovingly beyond the call of duty is an understatement.

I can always tell how she is from her tone of voice. Today she sounded weary, even sad. "I feel trapped in the apartment," she said. "I want to get to work, need to do some shopping, was supposed to go to the dentist on Nostrand Avenue."

I realized how trapped she must feel. Living all the way out in Coney Island, she is really far away from everywere she needs to be (Nostrand Avenue, Park Slope, downtown Brooklyn) Her son works in the Bronx and it took him hours to get to work yesterday. The strike is a huge inconvenience for so many people.

Our babysitterandsomuchmore said she’d been watching the news and praying that the strike would be settled. She tried to get Eastern Car Service on the phone but the line was busy most of the day. Local Coney Island car services are jacking the prices up. "It’s more than $30 dollars to get to Park Slope," she said. Usually it costs about $12 dollars.

There’s Christmas shopping to be done, health matters to be attended to, jobs to get to (I was supposed to have my lipoma bandage removed yesterday).  I think New Yorkers are going to get sick of this realy fast. Historically, this city pulls together in adversity and this is no diffrerent. And this is also a city that has strong labor leanings. So it’s not about that. It’s the convenience factor. We are dependent on our mass transit.

My heart goes out to the Union, to the businesses of New York, and all of us are being inconvenienced by the situation. The Union is being fined millions of dollars a day. Businesses are losing money during what is usally the busiest week of the year, and New Yorkers are unable to go about their lives.

Everyone loses in the short term.

I told our babysitterandsomuchmore not to worry about coming in today. But that, of course, was not the point. She wants to come in, she wants to get out of the apartment and do what she loves to do. She feels trapped in Coney Island and I feel bad for her. Really, really bad.