Snow Falls In Brooklyn

It's a sad state of affairs when I have to find out we've had our first snowfall of the season via an internet message board rather than by looking out my window. Especially when my window is closer to my bed than the computer.

But apparently the computer has become my true window on the world, because that's where I seem to head first most mornings, this one being no exception. It wasn't until I logged onto the Pop Punk Message Board, saw Rich Grech's complaining that although the was beautiful, and thought, hmm, if it's snowing in Queens, it very possibly is in Brooklyn, too, that I determined to do some empirical research by opening the blinds to see what might be out there.

And there, to your left, is the spectacle that awaited me. If I'd grabbed the camera only a minute or two earlier, you could have also seen the host of fluffy white snowflakes that had been filling the air, but instead you only see the window screen that turned out to be a lot more visible on camera than it appeared to be in real life. The snow was piling up fast for a while, to the point where it looked as though it would soon be deeper than the tops of my shoes. Since I don't have any boots yet, and since I had an early engagement in the city, this could have been a problem, but about 15 minutes before I was due to leave, the snow stopped and up and down the block, the shovels came out.

It's been a long while since I've lived in a snowy city, so maybe my memory isn't quite accurate, but I don't remember people being so anxious to tackle their shoveling duties back in Detroit. Or maybe I'm projecting; I know my own attitude was always to put it off as long as possible on the grounds that a sudden warm spell might blow in or that it was only a few months more until spring or that it was only going to snow again anyway. By the time I had to walk to the subway, all the sidewalks were clear and apart from the slight chill in the air (21F/-6C), it was a beautiful morning.

So maybe I'm being excessively optimistic about this winter thing (especially since it won't even officially start for another three weeks), but I'm thinking maybe it won't be too bad. I've heard all sorts of complaints from longtime New Yorkers to the effect that you might as well curl up in your apartment, hope you've got good heat, and not come out again till April or March, but so far I've found that if I dress warmly enough, it's not really a problem at all. We'll see what I'm saying come January or February, though.

And that's all I have to say today, or at least all I have time for. I'll be in London and Bristol for the next week and a half, hopefully blogging from there if the internet gods don't throw a monkey wrench (I suppose I should say spanner) into the proceedings. Next Sunday marks the semi-annual reunion of the West Country Walking Society, and apart from that I'll be visiting other friends, lolling about in cafes, and, thanks to the strength of the pound/weakness of the dollar, looking at lots of fabulous things there's no way I could afford. Hopefully, you'll hear from me tomorrow; if you don't, it means either I or my computer are suffering from sticker shock or that we've plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. Wish me well, and hopefully I'll speak to you soon.