Thursday, January 27, 2011

Observations from the Window 1.27

So this winter from hell keeps spawning new terminology, at least new to me. Welcome to thundersnow. The snowpocalypse was bad enough but last night Mother Nature came to the party armed and it seemed more than a little pissed off. Snow, sleet, and freezing rain were followed by another foot of heavy wet snow. And than there was the thunder, at the same time awesome but so surprising because it is the last thing you expect while sitting watching the snow fall. Yes Mother Nature seems to be mad as hell and is taking it out on the Northeast this winter. I'm not alone in thinking that the Village has had quite enough of it.

It is now officially the snowiest January on record in New York City and has snowed eight times in the Village since December 14th. The mayor just said 1,700 plows are out on the streets but I have yet to see one on our street. But than the mayor was also late for his press conference so even his four wheel drive limo must be have problems navigating the streets. Those bicycle messengers don't seem to have any problem though and it’s funny to watch people dive out of their way as the bikes race down the sidewalk. I think I would need to throw a well placed hip check if one of them tried to run me out of the way but I haven't been that lucky yet.

Funny thing is that so far this year the Penn State’s main campus has received just 14" of snow or pretty much what was dumped on Central Park just last night. Go figure, either the snow is following me or my enviro-geek brother is right and it's global warming. Fresh from a photo walk in the falling snow I checked my email and found one from him with a link to an op-ed piece titled 'Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming.' It could be written in Sindarin for all I know so I'll leave the science to him but he likes it so I'll pass it on.

And finally I give you my thought for the day. I should be sitting on a beach digging my feet into the warm sand and than reaching for the bottle of Corona. No? Well at least I have my skates now.

Corona Extra - The Football