I have a tendency to check the weather before leaving the apartment in the morning during the winter, as it is good to know if I will need to wear thermal undergarments or not. The one day I chose not to do it out of rush or just forgetfulness, this is what was showing in my Accuweather app :
I opened the app only because I was walking to shul and I felt colder than I remember feeling in a really long time — and the app certainly explained why that was the case! It should go without saying that I deeply regretted not putting on said thermal clothing.
I took the F train to Lexington and 63rd as is my weekday habit and at some point thought about farming, and how difficult things can be for farmers during the winter months — it’s a bit tricky to get produce to sprout from the ground when it is covered with a thick layer of ice and snow! You could probably verify this with people in Winterfell, were it not a fictional location. Perhaps Greenland would be a better place to start. Here is a small community garden.
Not too far from the garden is a lengthy walkway. Unfortunately it seems too often that if a patch of sidewalk isn’t anybody’s responsibility to clean, snow and eventually ice accumulates. Here is what basically amounts to an ice rink.
In the cold snow it really stands out when people intentionally or accidentally allow litter to drop from their hands. How I wished I could have spent some time this morning cleaning the messes that other people made.
I didn’t take a picture but I will say that I spent a few minutes taking newspapers out of a trash can and putting them into a newspaper recycling bin that was adjacent to the trash can. I find that level of sloth to be disturbing.
Lastly, here is what I would like to call dirty ice — snow by the side of the road that became dirty because of all of the cars that drove over or by it before it got pushed to the side and compacted into ice.
Bundle up and be sure to stay warm!
blog of gordon davidescu 