Tag: Windows

  • The Windows are Open

    (Yes, I am an old man, and yes, I will be talking about the weather.)

    Oh, thank God! The weather finally broke here in New York. It’s not in the 80’s nor is the humidity/dew point thing in the 70+ range. No, it’s 68 degrees and the A/C’s are off and the windows are open.

    It feels like hope, if you ask me.

    Summer in the City, with window units, is difficult. Sure, it’s cool in the apartment, but the cool air feels unnatural, and never really cools you down. It’s artificial to an extreme. One that I long for to go away around the start of August. I mean, I want the heat and swampy air to go as well, don’t get me wrong.

    For the next three days, we will get a preview of mid-September, here in late-August. It’s just a taste of Autumn, enough to create a longing for the seasons to change.  

    This isn’t an advocation for pumpkins, or pumpkin spice, sweaters, leaves changing, or cold weather. No, what I am asking for is 72 degrees in the day, and 60 degrees at night. I’m looking to be comfortable. May and September used to be those months up here. It was nice, and pleasant, and I will keep going back to the word nice. Nice, nice, nice.

    I know as I get older. I will want to be comfortable more often, and any form of unpleasantness – be it weather, a meal, a conversation, loud music, pants not fitting… – will actively be avoided to the point of being a crank about it. I also know that isn’t always a good thing.

    Not sure if I am ready to give up getting out of my comfort zone to try new things, and explore the world. I have been told that there is nothing I can do about it, that’s just how it is to get older. And I can’t avoid getting older. And the older I get the more I want to be comfortable.

    See… Well… I kind’a talked myself into a corner here.

    I was talking about opening up the windows and I started to draw some comparison of being comfortable was the death of my ability to try new things, right?

    They also say you start to lose focus the older you get.

    I need Scottie Pippen and his Gensana.

  • Broken Car Window Throws Off Local Man’s Day

    By Matthew Groff

    April 3, 2024, 11:37am

    When I walked out of my apartment on Tuesday morning, it was an overcast and drizzly day, which felt appropriate for having to move my car for the street sweeper, as Alt Side Parking is one of my least favorite “New York” things that I have to do, sometimes twice a week. The closer I got to my car, I noticed that the car parked behind me had their back window smashed out. “That sucks,” was my first thought. And then I saw my car…

    “This really sucks,” was my next thought.

    And though I knew that my whole day just got shot to shit, I wasn’t that upset. I called my insurance company, and got that process started. A woman came up to my car and told me that she also got her back window smashed in (four cars total got broken into) and she just called the cops who were on the way. I texted my wife and let her know what had happened, and she was pretty annoyed.

    My insurance put me in contact with a window replacement company, and I was making arrangements with them when the cops rolled up. Clearly, most people don’t put the glass people on hold, because when I told him I needed to speak to the police, he seemed annoyed with me. Anyway, I was raised that when the cops show up, you talk to them right away.

    The police took a statement from me, said they were sorry for the situation, and wanted to know if anything was stolen. A cooler bag, I said. That worth anything, the cop asked. No, it was an old cooler bag, I answered. So nothing was stolen, the cop finished. Nothing was stolen, I agreed. The cops were nice, but I think we all knew that there wasn’t anything they could do, but I appreciate the effort.

    I called the glass people back, and made arrangements for them to come replace the window on Wednesday. I went to the hardware store on the block and got some duct tape and plastic to cover up the window. The wife came out and helped me with it. Not our best work, but it would do.

    Then it really started raining.

    Then the glass people called back saying that they had to reschedule because of the three days of rain we were about to get. How does Friday afternoon sound, they asked. Not good, I said. We’ll see you on Friday afternoon, they told me.

    Then I got annoyed. Not with the glass people, because logically I get it. You can’t replace windows in the rain, as coming out to your car is their whole business. What I was annoyed at was that somehow having to reschedule made me feel like I wasn’t in control of this situation anymore.

    Then I checked on the plastic over the widow to find out that our “not the best work”, in fact, was regular “bad” work; Water was getting in the car.

    Then I really felt powerless. Three days of rain, water getting into the car, and the new window won’t show up until Friday afternoon.

    Luckily, I have a wife who can fight through my annoyance and powerlessness, when it occasionally happens to me, and found a nearby parking garage for the car to sit in for the next three days. Which is smart and makes sense, and though costs us some money, at least the car is staying dry.

    And through all of this, my annoyance and having my day thrown off, I never thought about the person who broke into my car. I never felt anger at this faceless person, or entertained feelings of wanting to get revenge, and any angsty questions of “why did this have to happen to me?”

    This whole thing feels like stepping in dog shit. This sucks, and I have to clean up my shoes, but it happens from time to time.

  • 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.