Tag: Hot

  • ODDS and ENDS: Rain, Puddles, Tottenham v Arsenal, and Disco Playlist

    (SWITCH… Jimmy Smits)

    It’s flooding in NYC, y’all! Take a look:

    I found this on Twitter/X this morning showing a bus in Brooklyn. I was out doing the Alt Parking at 8:30am and the water was coming up over the curb. This is a lot of rain. Like Texas flood kind’a rain. And last weekend we had the remnants of that tropical storm sit on top of the City for three days and dump loads of rain. Up where we live in Harlem, I don’t think about it flooding as compared to Lower Manhattan, which doesn’t take much submerge that part of the City. But it just won’t stop.

    Taking the kid to school this morning meant that we had to trudge out in the rain. We had on rain boots, and rain coats, with umbrellas over the top of us. Not that any of this gear stop us from getting wet, but it wasn’t that bad. And what made it a fun walk to school was the numerous amount of puddles along the way. Which, when you are wet already, what’s the harm of slashing in a puddle or two. And there is something deeply innocent and extremely satisfying in stomping through a puddle. It never is not fun. It is an act that serves no purpose other than making you happy, and identifying people who are sticks-in-the-mud.

    The North London Derby ended in a draw. From my totally biased Tottenham Hotspur point of view – it was just as good as a win.

    And, I started making a playlist for when I am at the gym. It’s nothing but disco music, but specifically, the disco music I remember hearing as a kid. And as I am compiling this list, I can’t shake the feeling that this music is sweaty. Like it conjures up the feeling of being hot and sweaty on a dance floor – in the Summer. And it’s not an image I get in my mind, but a feeling, a sensation of being on polyester and dancing.

  • I’m Done with Summer

    Yup, I hit the “I’m done with Summer moment” this weekend. We are currently in our third heatwave in NYC, which makes being in the City pretty unbearable. We have been inside with the a/c, which after awhile begins to feel unnatural and like we are stuck in a bubble. Then added on top of that, I got a summer cold. (We took plenty of Covid tests and they all came back negative.) This all culminated on Sunday when I uttered this demand to the gods, “I’m ready for Fall!”

    This declaration seems to arrive every year at the exact same time; the first week of August. Just like how I will ask for the end of Winter during the first week of February. It’s a pattern and also the rhythm that the clock of my life runs on.

    Yet, I read that from here on out, every year, Summer will start to get hotter and longer, and depending on where you live, you’ll either see more or less rain. Unless we do something, the hospitable human environment that has supported the development of civilization for the past 10,000 years is coming to a close. At least that’s what Neil deGrasse Tyson said.

    I know that’s a dark place to go, but I just want to put on a sweater cuz it’s cold out.