Trapped by the cold, and trying to be entertained
Now we are having real winter weather here. It had not been missed after last year, and December and most of January had seemed promising. On Monday eight days ago we had our first real snow, about a foot here, but it seemed like a fortunate snow as forecasters were looking for much worse plus high winds, and the Mayor of New York City somehow came up with his own unique forecast of three feet of snow. One foot was limiting to activity, but the wind did not come, the dry snow could be plowed, and we could move about, with great care, until early evening Monday and were back on the road by mid-day Tuesday.
This most recent Monday was not so manageable. We only had about six inches of snow that began on Sunday night, but by morning it has turned into something in between hard freezing sleet and icy rain, if there is a difference. With a temperature of 21 degrees at that time, driving would have been stupid. Even if it could have been managed here, I am always tempted, four wheel drive has nothing to do with ice and some SUV drivers don't seem to stretch their minds around that concept. They are more dangerous than the roads. We stayed in that morning and missed K's day of classes.
We stayed in that late afternoon as well as the temperature stayed in the 20's and another four inches of snow fell and covered the icy parts of the road that salt, sand, and plows had not dealt with completely. It was a long day. It's not that there are some days when we don't go out, there are a random few, but not having the ability to choose to go out was stifling. Walking anywhere would not even have been safe.
That was exacerbated by an unusual coincidence. Most of the time I am reading one or two books and have at least a couple waiting to be read, but occasionally there is a drought. This was the wrong time for that. I had started a book, "The Man From Berlin", that seemed promising, "An amazing first novel" said a review, but trying as much as possible, I was not amazed or interested despite the decent writing style, and after a few chapters gave up. From the library, then was "The Laughing Monsters" the latest Denis Johnson novel, a writer whose book "Tree of Smoke" was a hit here some years ago, but after a third of this short book the characters were of no interest and I did not care what happened, and it was a "NYT notable book". That was a letdown and then this latest snow and ice came. Now I am reading "Corridor of Darkness", another first novel set in 1930's Nazi Germany and, while not riveting, the historical detail is exceptional and the story has potential. It's not the all consuming kind of book that is needed right now, but I'll take it.
Today we were out at noon to the gym and to a grocery store but that's it. With the temperature below 20 and most parking on roadsides unavailable as it was occupied by plowed snow and ice, we elected to head back to our garage and house. Last night we were rescued by the film "Dinner Rush", a film from 2000 that was new here, a combination of a gangster film and at times humorous foodie restaurant film set in the Tribeca area of Manhattan. Nowhere near as good but diverting here tonight was the FX program "Justified".
Snow again soon, supposedly on Thursday and then again on Monday. We will be out and about tomorrow. We need to be out.
This most recent Monday was not so manageable. We only had about six inches of snow that began on Sunday night, but by morning it has turned into something in between hard freezing sleet and icy rain, if there is a difference. With a temperature of 21 degrees at that time, driving would have been stupid. Even if it could have been managed here, I am always tempted, four wheel drive has nothing to do with ice and some SUV drivers don't seem to stretch their minds around that concept. They are more dangerous than the roads. We stayed in that morning and missed K's day of classes.
We stayed in that late afternoon as well as the temperature stayed in the 20's and another four inches of snow fell and covered the icy parts of the road that salt, sand, and plows had not dealt with completely. It was a long day. It's not that there are some days when we don't go out, there are a random few, but not having the ability to choose to go out was stifling. Walking anywhere would not even have been safe.
That was exacerbated by an unusual coincidence. Most of the time I am reading one or two books and have at least a couple waiting to be read, but occasionally there is a drought. This was the wrong time for that. I had started a book, "The Man From Berlin", that seemed promising, "An amazing first novel" said a review, but trying as much as possible, I was not amazed or interested despite the decent writing style, and after a few chapters gave up. From the library, then was "The Laughing Monsters" the latest Denis Johnson novel, a writer whose book "Tree of Smoke" was a hit here some years ago, but after a third of this short book the characters were of no interest and I did not care what happened, and it was a "NYT notable book". That was a letdown and then this latest snow and ice came. Now I am reading "Corridor of Darkness", another first novel set in 1930's Nazi Germany and, while not riveting, the historical detail is exceptional and the story has potential. It's not the all consuming kind of book that is needed right now, but I'll take it.
Today we were out at noon to the gym and to a grocery store but that's it. With the temperature below 20 and most parking on roadsides unavailable as it was occupied by plowed snow and ice, we elected to head back to our garage and house. Last night we were rescued by the film "Dinner Rush", a film from 2000 that was new here, a combination of a gangster film and at times humorous foodie restaurant film set in the Tribeca area of Manhattan. Nowhere near as good but diverting here tonight was the FX program "Justified".
Snow again soon, supposedly on Thursday and then again on Monday. We will be out and about tomorrow. We need to be out.
posted by John Borden at 12:17 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home