My First Snow in NY

It didn't take long. I'd only lived here two and a half months when the blizzard of 2005 hit the northeast. Just two days after we moved my furniture to the Gershwin, the city was blanketed in a foot (at least) of snow, on January 22. It was so beautiful last Saturday and Sunday when it first fell. Nice white, clean, drifting snow.

Traffic was virtually halted. For the first time in my experience, the streets of NY were calm and quiet. Very few cars on the roads--mainly taxi cabs somehow plowing their way through the deep white stuff. Workers with snow blowers came out across the street from the Longacre around 1am or 2am and worked for hours clearing the sidewalks. For once there were no horns, and no sirens. It was eerily quiet those two nights.

Monday and Tuesday were another story. As snow blowers pushed the snow in one direction away from the sidewalks, the snow plows pushed from the streets in the other direction, creating huge piles of snow in the gutters. This narrowed both the streets and the sidewalks, leaving even less space for the thousands of people and cars going to and fro all day long. The horns started up again, but walkers seemed to be fairly patient. The pristine snow became black slush on the sidewalks. I remember getting on the subway to go to work Tuesday - the floors were covered in dirty water. My backpack with wheels left a black watery trail wherever I pulled it.

I've been in Cleveland and seen this much snow, but this is a first for me in NYC. Thank goodness for my new long down coat! (Photo above.) There's no way I could have survived without it. The wind was so strong Sunday night that I was barely able to make forward motion while walking back the one block from Food Emporium.

The temperature hasn't been above freezing in several days. Right now it's a balmy 22 degrees. The good news is, the days are getting longer and spring is near.