Tag: #NYC

  • Too Hot in September

    It’s hot and humid in New York today, and it’s the end of September. That’s not normal. And it was like this last year. At the park yesterday, I was in shorts and getting bit by mosquitos. Again, that’s not normal.

    I say all of this as I have my air conditioner running in my apartment.

    When I moved to New York back in August of 2006, it was hot and humid; normal. I remember everyone telling me to just wait for September, and everything would be different. And usually around the 10th, the humidity went away, and the high was around 76, with the low being in the 60’s at night. You could leave your windows open all day, no a/c. It was warm in the sun, cool in the shade, and if you went out at night, you would take a light coat.

    I know I sound like a crazy old man, but it’s not like that anymore. This is the second year that we are still hot and humid at the end of September, with A/C’s running all day. NYC summers have always been awful; hot and humid, but it was a northeast hot, like 85 degrees, and maybe three days or so of 90’s. Now, we have several heat waves, three days in a row of more of 90 degrees, every summer.

    It is climate change. It’s here. This isn’t something that might happen one day in the future. We are in it now. And what I feel the worst about is that my kid has to deal with this. That she is getting this used up world. That she has to make it better, and that is too much to ask of any kid.

  • School’s Back, For-Ever!

    The first thing that took me by surprise this morning was the amount of people on the streets. I went to walk the dog early, 7:30am, and I was taken aback by everyone being out. It almost felt like the New York of old, before the pandemic. I mean, I know why. Today is the first day of school, and for many companies, the first day back in the office.

    But the big deal is school being back, and in person. The kid could barely sleep last night, and she was up at the crack of dawn, and ready to go. She had been counting down the days for the past two weeks, and I would say that this first day of school was close to as exciting as Christmas morning.

    Last night, we let her pick out the clothes she wanted to ware today. We took time packing all of her school supplies, and taking pictures. It was starting to feel very real for us as well. Soon, she will be out of the house, and back with kids, learning and having all the adventures that come with a school day.

    I won’t lie, things did not go smoothly getting into the school, and getting settled in the classroom. BUT! I didn’t expect it to go swimmingly on the first day. I don’t even expect that it will go well for the first week even. Tomorrow will be better, and the day after that will be a little better as well. No one has done this for a year and a half, so let’s all cut each other some slack.

    Because, the kids are back in school. And that’s a win.

  • Caught in the Rain

    Man, that was a lot of rain last night. On the UWS, it started around 5pm, and I got caught out in it. I was coming back from a doctor’s appointment, and thought I could out run it. Not so much. Even a ride on the 1 train to get back to Harlem didn’t help, as the rain came down in waves. It would let up, and then come down even harder.

    There is something very humbling with being caught out in a downpour in New York. When a hard rain hits, you can watch as people going running inside, or to the subway, or hopping in cabs or on a bus. Then there are the people who hide out in doorways. Everyone waiting out the rain. You do see people running down the street with an umbrella or a rain coat, because people do have places to be.

    But the saddest of all are the people who are just walking; no rain coat, no umbrella. Just walking like normal, as if it’s not raining. Showing all the signs that they weren’t expecting to get caught out in it, but now that they are, they have accepted the situation.

    Everyone, at one time or other, gets caught in the rain. It’s like a right of passage. It happened to me the first week after I moved to New York. I learned my lesson though. I check the weather and carry an umbrella.

  • New York Move Anniversary

    This past Saturday, August 28th, a personal anniversary of mine slipped by unnoticed. It was the 15-year anniversary of my move to New York. Well… to be correct, I first moved to Jersey City, and THEN to New York City.

    Moving to New York was something that I had always wanted to do. I had been dreaming about it since high school, and though my life went in a lot of different directions, it wasn’t until about 2005 that I sort of got my shit together, and was able to start planning the move.

    But as I think about it, and if I am very honest, I wouldn’t have been able to make the move happen without the support of my friends Alex and Rebecca. Alex was a friend of mine from junior high, and Rebecca was his fiancée at the time. They had a house in Jersey City, and they were kind enough to rent out their basement to me so I had a place to live and get situated. Without them, without their friendship and support, I don’t know how I would have gotten here. And then there was Rebecca’s parents, who would come and visit, and I got to know them, and they made me feel welcome and accepted me into their family group, which was an extremely gracious gesture.

    And as I thought about Alex and Rebecca, I started thinking that in a larger sense, I’ve never really accomplished anything alone. I have been lucky to have friends and family who have supported me, and I really hope that I was the type of friend that supported in return. No one is an island, right?

  • Disc Golf

    Last week I was on vacation with my family up in Maine. The wife asked me what I most wanted to do while away, and this first thing I said was napping. But after that I just blurted out, disc golf.

    Am I a disc golfer? No.

    I have done it twice in my life, and the last time was 10 years ago while at my best friend’s wedding. (Here comes a story!) My friend went to grad school in Kansas City, and that was where the wedding was taking place. As such, he invited a good number of his grad school friends. A couple of days before the wedding, the grad school gang all wanted to go disc golfing, and they were a real nice group of people, and invited the wife and I to go along. We were game, and had a great time with them. One guy brought a portable cooler with beer, and another person loaned us discs to play, so everybody got a little tipsy, and it was competitive enough to allow some friendly trash talking.

    Every now and then, disc golf pops into my head, but living in NYC there really isn’t a place to do it here in the City. But, way up in the woods in Maine, I had a feeling that there would be a place.

    About thirty minutes from our house we were staying in, there was a totally rugged, as it took you up the side of a very steep hill, but also a well-maintained course. The baskets and chains were what looked to be new, and tees all were clean, solid slabs of cement. There were discs to borrow, and being that I was there on a Monday, I had to place all to myself. It was like hiking but while playing a game.

    I enjoyed myself, and it was one of the highlights of our vacation. And I am doing the thing I did the last time I disc golfed; I am wondering if I should go and buy a set of discs. You know, just in case I need them in ten years.