All That and More

This has been an experience. In the Village all across lower Manhattab, there is no electric and no cell service.
A time line of sorts. Monday.  The first sign that things might be serious was the flower shop across the street closing at 1:10.  They seldom succumb to any sort of early closing.  While at home, received a robo-phone call from ConEd around 3 pm, as did a couple of my neighbors, that the electricity was going to be powered off, so that it could be safely powered up after the storm when the water receded.  About 8:00 it shut down. Having previously lived in the backwoods, I was ready, candles, bathtub full of water, these amazing lamps that run on batteries and make flashlights look like wannabes, and soup.  The soup was so tasty and such a treat that by evening, I was actually feeling over-souped. The first noticeable change when the lights go out at night, is that the hallways in the apartment, are black; that black you can cut. So I propped open my door to shed light on the stairs. It was also an invitation to stop in. The gathering was very ‘gemutlich. Neighbors came with stories, and glasses, and bottles and shared the evening. The street can be seen from above, out my window, so we kept tracking the police car patrols – if the police saw someone out on the street, they spoke through the car-mic to please go back inside. There were few cars, a smattering of dog walkers and the lone pedestrian.  The bars and restaurants all around were closed as the subway and the busses had ceased operations at 7 pm.  It rained lightly, blew a bit and it felt rather like a holiday gathering. The really good time that everyone imagines their famlly one will resemble. Everyone disbanded about 11:30 going to bed, expecting all to be reasonably well the next day, Tuesday.

BDtheH- con’t

Between 2 and 4 am was up and at ’em due to the wonderful quiet of the street, not even the garbage trucks as predicted; the true quiet before the storm. Presently it’s around noon time, the streets of the Village have foot traffic, a few cabs, but no buses and no trucks. And of course the one shop that is open is the flower shop across the street; obviously he gets it. I wonder if all this prep is over kill, but then it is better to save one homeless person than to ignore the segment of the folk that needs our help the most. Maybe this is how post-industrial societies are forced to back off and take time to breathe. Even trading on Wall Street is closed for the day. Healthy. I live in a 3rd-little-pig-building, and it happens to be on a ‘hill’ so huffing and puffing should not have much effect.

Batten Down the Hatches, once again….

… someone out there will remember that the inception of the observations of the City began a year ago, when there were major preparations afoot for a storm.  The City shut down, the neighborhood collected at the local bar and thankfully nothing happened. Now we are at it again. The Subway will close at 7 pm – with everyone remembering how long it takes to get it up and running again – Broadway has cancelled all the shows, all the way down to Off, off, off and beyond off Broadway. My neighbors have stocked up on champagne, baked a coconut pie and are planning on gathering at the immobile-due-to-hip-injury-neighbor. Monday everything is also cancelled for daytime appointments and we wait and see. I too have my priorities on what needs to take place in the event of no water, electricity – ConEd or municipal services. Not quite sure they meet Red Cross standards, but then again, maybe the Red Cross could use some suggestions. One of my buys was flowers. Figure if life was going to be grim for a while, make it better with blossoms. Stay tuned.

Apocalypse

that’s what he termed it as I passed him on the street, as he was speaking to a friend outside of Starbucks. He continued, ‘if Starbucks is closing at 3:45, it must be the end times.’ What apparently he had not taken into consideration is that all the MTA trains and buses were going to cease operations at 7:00 pm and so Starbucks had to close in a timely manner to allow the staff to make it back to their homes.

AirTrain JFK

The final-nailed-it-comment by the person who suggested I had no alternative to get to JFK the airport in rush hour but to take the Subway and the AirTrain was “if you somehow manage to screw that up, we have a far bigger problem’. So the journey began knowing it was a piece of cake.  During rush hour, the clogged roads incites one to leave way too early if taking a car service or taxi.  Or if one ignores the obvious and leaves at the ‘usual’ time, then it is stress all the way there, wondering if the flight will leave before they arrive. Underground all the way is the answer to making it on time in the late afternoon. And how right that is!  It is so easy, so clear.  Caught the A train at the 14th St Station and as the weather was doing it’s thing above ground, I never once was a part of it. You only have to choose the correct A train destination and you are on your way. 45 minutes later after leaving Manhattan, riding through the length of Brooklyn, you arrive at the Howard Beach Station in Queens.  A 5 minute walk in a covered environment to the AirTrain Link and 4 minutes later you are dropped at your terminal of choice.  No fuss, no muss, no bother.  Who knew.

Genius

Unfortunately not in this City.  If you look closely at the photo below, the photo is of steps that lead up to or down from a train platform.  What you are looking at against the wall, just above the treads, is a trough.  This ‘trough’ is the ridge in which you may place your bicycle tire to lead it up or down the stairs without the bump, bump, bump usually associated with bicycle movement on stairs.  As bicycles are allowed in trains in all major cities, how smart it would be for the City to incorporate this into the system.