sarah in nyc

  For the past couple of nights I have been so cold when I got into bed that I put a sweater on over my pj’s. As I put on the sweater, I thought about the folks in the Rockaways, and Coney island and Atlantic City who have no power and are REALLY cold as they go to sleep. So if life isn’t bad enough for the people just starting to get out from under Sandy, I looked out the window and saw ----snow.   This isn’t the pretty fluffy stuff kids dream of. This is the wet soggy snow that makes even the young feel arthritic and old.   It’s even starting to stick. Most years, I react like a five year old to the first snow.  It usually feels like a party.  This year, as I think about my fellow New Yorkers who live by the sea, I really don’t feel like celebrating the first snow of the season.   My older son though, hasn’t seen snow in three years. he’s delighted,  even by this flying slop.

Last night I felt hugely grateful to be living right where I am.  We don’t have river views. Riverside Park  is a steep walk down hill.  Our building was built 100 years ago when buildings were built to last. The winds were ferocious last night.  The lights occasionally flickered and the building shuddered once or twice. We have power. We have lights and we have internet and we have lots of food in the house.   Our friends who live downtown are not as lucky. People who live in low lying areas of the city have really suffered.   I took a little walk today. Our building suffered just a bit of damage. A small bit of facing on the side of the cornice was sheared off by the wind. This tree in our back courtyard was uprooted. Luckily, all it damaged was a fence. It could just as easily have broken windows and hurt  some of our neighbors.   The building across the street lost a large piece of it’s cornice. Apparently, last night it w...