Monday, February 13, 2006
A Snowday in the Country
I'm sure most people with blogs are writing about the snow today, and I have to admit I'm going to be one of them.
I love snow. I liked it so much I chose to go to Syracuse, where dealing with snow is often as commonplace as getting coffee in the morning. By the time one has hit their second semester at 'Cuse, you can often brave the snow wearing just a hat, scarf and gloves.
However, back in New York City I've noticed the weathermen tend to hype up snowstorms, only to have it blow over. Hyping up a snowstorm, regardless of whether it comes or not, is like hyping a movie or an album. You're bound to be let down.
So I left for Old Greenwich this weekend thinking that I would spend Saturday shopping and Sunday at the gym. But then, as I drove home from the mall on Saturday...a flake. And then another. And another and another, until it was a full on blizzard piling up and up and up.
Thanks to my trick back (read: herniated disc) I weasled my way out of shoveling. But it was still nice to not be cooped up in my little Gramercy bunker while the snow fell. Instead of shoveling, I read most of the Sunday New York Times. (How often does that happen?) I did an exercise tape. I cleaned the kitchen.
Of course, trying to get back into NYC this morning to turned out to be a to-do. Even though NPR said the Metro-North was running well, as soon as the packed train I was on in got just outside Pelham, it stopped and started running backawards, all the way back to New Rochelle.
I really wasn't sure what was going on, especially since I was engrossed in Miss Missery by Andy Greenwald (I'm reviewing it for The Job.) But suffice it to say that books and other reading material can only amuse you for so long while a train is sitting completely still in the middle of the tracks.
I finally got into work at 10:00, all while carrying my enormous weekend bag on my back. At least it's not freezing. There is much to do this week, indlucing Valentine's Day.
Some good articles to read:
New York magazines discovers this crazy thing called a Blog.
This is an amazing piece about the after-effects of wounded U.S. soliders in Iraq.
Malcolm Gladwell writes a piece about "power-law" distribution and how it can help fix social ills such as homelessness.
