Rain, Rain Go Away!

It has rained for eight straight days. Not just rained. Poured. What is this – Grey’s Anatomy?? Long Island has reported 12 inches of rain this month, which is at least quadruple the normal precipitation for October. Parts of New Jersey have suffered so much flooding that a state of emergency has been declared.

I’m done with it. I need to see the sun. It’s getting depressing! This is reminiscent of one bad Seattle winter four or five years ago when we had 93 straight days without sun. I kid you not.

I’m sure everyone has heard about the big subway terror threat (slash “hoax”) last weekend in New York. Most people here didn’t let it stop them from carrying on with their normal routines. Let’s face it – you’re no safer anywhere else, unless you live in Greenland. I’ll stick with riding the subway for two bucks. Cabs are just too expensive – either that, or I’m just too cheap.

Although I must say I’m impressed with the NYPD presence. On Sunday I was coming out of K-Mart at Penn Station, crossing 7th Avenue, when an endless stream of patrol cars came flying through the 34th Street intersection, sirens blaring. I’d never seen anything like it. The line of cop cars was as long as a funeral procession. (I had heard on the news earlier that a drill was taking place in Times Square that day.) A lot of passersby stopped on the pavement and stared, some fearfully. After that I asked a cop outside a parked patrol car, “This is just a drill, right?” He said, “I hope so,” as he scrambled back into his car, and I jay-walked over to Macy’s.

On Tuesday I was going up the stairs outside the lower level of the Paramount building after a physical therapy session. When I reached ground level, I found myself face-to-face with an automatic assault rifle. The cop holding it was dressed out in full combat gear (like you see on TV when SWAT arrives on the scene). I looked around and there were two or three cop cars parked on Broadway, along with an NYPD van marked “ESU.” It was easy to identify the plain-clothes cops alongside other uniformed ESUs on the sidewalk. But people came and went like any other weekday in midtown.

One observation never escapes me when I see New York’s finest patrolling the sidewalks or subway stations – it’s that the male uniformed police officers here don’t look a day older than 22. They’re all clean-cut and handsome. I admit I love a man in uniform – but feeling old enough to be his mother takes all the fun out of it.

Seriously, I appreciate the service these guys provide to our city. Their presence alone lends a lot to my sense of security. And I can’t help but admire any man or woman brave enough to be a cop in a tough city like NY.

Well, my beloved kitty just plopped his rear end down, covering the left-most keys on my keyboard. That’s a hint that it’s time to sign off the computer.

Ciao for now.