Tag: Summer

  • Everyone’s Back at It

    Today was the first day of school in New York City. Well, for the public schools anyway. But it was also, officially, no fooling this time, the end of Summer for everybody; as somehow, magically it seems, everyone returned to the City over night, and they all decided that they needed to use public transit this morning. There was such a dramatic change in the number of people on the subway this morning, that even my daughter was like, Where did all these people come from?

    The Cycle begins again, I said.

    I got a blank stare from the kid.

    Everyone is back from vacation and has to go to work and school. Then I added, The City’s full again.

    It’s true, the City has all its people back, and from what I observed this morning, most people didn’t have a good time on vacation, because their attitudes were rather piss poor. I mean, this Cycle seems to really have brought out the bad and gruff attitudes in New Yorkers.

    This is my sixteenth Post-Labor Day return, and I am still impressed by it. See, it’s an event that annually happens in NYC, but no one talks about it. People talk about the City emptying out for the Summer, but no one mentions the inevitable return. (If we talk of the yen, should we not talk of the yang?) I find it odd that, as a city, NYC seems to love to point out its annual traditions and cycles, marking the changing of seasons and time, yet The Return (I’m coining it) is a verboten topic of discussion.

    Maybe it’s a tad depressing to talk about the end of Summer.

    Or it might be more basic than that…

    No one wants to go back to work.

  • Opening the Windows

    We are desperate for Autumn in our home. For the past two days in NYC, the high has been 78 degrees or so. For us, that means we can shut off the air conditioners, and open up the widows and get some fresh air in here.

    Except there really hasn’t been a breeze, which doesn’t help cool things off in the apartment. And then there is the new condo tower going up across the way, with its all glass window exterior which reflects the sun in a focused high beam right into out livingroom, thus warming the whole place up by five degrees or so, between the hours of 2pm to 5pm. I now know what an ant under a magnifying glass feels like. We suffer on with fans going – hoping to move enough air to feel like it’s cool at home.

    Which it isn’t.

    BUT!

    The windows are open. That’s something you do when it’s not hot out. Open windows mean the seasons are changing, and it might, sort of, hopefully, get cool enough so I could put a sweater on at night… Or early in the morning?

    This is a silly little hopeful dance we do every year. Thinking that the Summer heat is over, and that we can pack up or short sleeves and shorts, and return them to storage along with the 500-pound window a/c’s that we lug up and down the stains once a year.

    What I really want is it to be mid-October, with the leaves changing and I have an afternoon cup of coffee in my hand.

    That’s what I want.

    But I’ll settle on some open windows.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Spain v England, The Gym, and I Hate Summer

    (You Couldn’t Be Bad…)

    Holy Crap! I do know something about International Football Teams! Or At least I did at the start of the World Cup! And then I changed my mind… But now I am back to my original idea! England will win the World Cup! Unless it’s Spain, which was a team I never had much faith in because everything I read was that Spain was a bit of a shit show that couldn’t get their act together. The point here is that I don’t know anything, and I make predictions, and I am wrong often, but the end result is way more exciting than I expected. It is fair to label me a very enthusiastic fan of football, though not highly educated on the nuances of the sport. Not that it matters as I am having fun with all of it. I really didn’t think England would make it past Australia. As for Spain, I thought there was no way in hell they would get past the Dutch, let alone Sweden… I’ve said this before, if sports was predictable, then there would be no reason to watch it. Looking forward to the final on Sunday morning.

    I went back to the gym this morning. It’s been three months of absence. Even my gym app was asking me if I was planning on going back anytime soon. I’m tying the gym into all the schedule changes we have been making as a family with the kid starting at a new school, at a much earlier time. The goal is to get back to going four times a week. If I lost some weight, that would be cool, but right now I am just looking to get healthy, improve my attitude, and get more focused. Starting this journey today, I did thirty minutes of walking on the treadmill. On the tv in front of me, they gym was playing an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. Not what I was expecting.

    And I want to end on this point; I’m tired of Summer, and I hate the season. Sure, back in March I was all about making vacation plans, sitting on a beach, getting my shorts on, and being outdoors. Now that it’s mid-August in The City, it’s just hot and humid. It’s gross out. I want it to end. I’m an old man bitching, but I don’t care, because I’m dreaming of sweaters, flannel shirts, leaves changing color, the windows being open, and coats – wonderful warming coats. It’s time for a season change.

  • Texas Music

    Texas gets a bum wrap of late, and to be honest, it deserves it. I can say that because I lived there for over twenty years. I might not be a born Texan, but I’m Texan enough.

    Anyway, sometimes a certain song or sound hits me, and it reminds me of that state. Usually, it’s a song from Willie or Stevie, but sometimes it can be ZZ Top.

    I think it’s because it’s really hot in New York, and if it’s hot in July, that reminds me of Texas.

  • ODDS and ENDS: The New Summer, NYC Summer Smell, and Hungry All the Time

    (Clever One-Liner!)

    It’s hot. And not only that, its steamy, too. Not the good, Faulkner Southern Gothic steamy, but the awful humidity life sucks steamy. I’m not a big fan of Summer, and I am even a smaller fan of heat, but when it comes to Summer heat – I hate it. I grew up in Texas, and about my junior year in high school, I had enough. I was going to live up north. I’d rather freeze in Winter than melt in Summer. I had no idea how hot and steamy NYC gets in Summer. Honestly, someone should be out there telling tourists and perspective residents how bad July and August can be in The City. Sure, if you have a half a brain, you’d notice that NYC sits on a bay and well… you know… humidity follows. The thing is that now, just about the whole country, if not the world, lives in this awful extreme heat and humidity now. And it’s not going away, or getting fixed for a very, very long time. Its rather depressing that this is the world that my kid, and yours, is about to inherit – weather that is unbearable to live in. I still hold out hope that we can fix this, but if we can’t… People are going to start moving north and Canada could start having immigration issues from all of these illegal Americans.

    Say, did you know that New York City’s Official Summer Smell used to be wet garbage on a sidewalk. Well, not anymore! NYC’s new Official Summer Smell is Pot Smoke! You can’t go ten feet in this town without being hit by the smell of weed this Summer. Hey, I’m for legalization, but holy crap! It’s like the entire City is getting high. Right Now!

    I don’t know what’s going on with me, but for the past three days, I have been hungry all the time. When I say that, I don’t mean that I feel the urge to have a snack. I mean that I feel like I have been working all day and that I am starving for lunch or dinner. And no matter how much I eat; I never feel satisfied. Back in college, me and my roommate used to call this phenomena “Ravenous Days.” I don’t know what causes it, and eating doesn’t seem to solve it.