Pretty much all of the leaves have fallen by now. It was very windy last weekend, and the trees that were holding out the longest finally had to give in and release their leaves. As a result, trees that previously offered shade and concealment now are bare and, yes, transparent. The greenway (natural bit of open space inside the city) by my apartment that I walk along each day is fairly narrow, and I can now see through it to the street on the other side. I also now have a better view of the piece of Muddy River along the middle of the greenway.
And if the trees are transparent horizontally, they’re also transparent vertically. I used to be able to walk along the greenway and keep the sun out of my eyes by walking on the shadier side of the street. Now that the leaves are gone, there is no shade. Furthermore, since the sun is lower in the sky, it hits ya right in the eye. Surprising, then, that a major department store doesn't sell sunglasses in the winter. Today I wore my ski hat (to keep my head and ears warm) underneath a hat with a brim to block the sun. This may be routine and now the things I’ll always have in my backpack are: umbrella, sunglasses, scarf, gloves, ski hat, and brimmed hat - unless I find a brimmed ski hat. This is in addition to the standard Kleenex, camera, Chap Stick, etc. (My friend Heather pointed out that a brimmed hat will also keep snowflakes off my eye lashes.) It’s dark here by 4:45pm, so I only have to adjust for the glaring sun during my morning walk. I was thinking that it was weird to have it completely dark by 4:45pm, but we’re still not at the winter solstice yet, so the days are getting even shorter.
According to weather.com, this morning it was 29 degrees on my walk to work, but with the wind chill, it felt like 16 degrees! The ski jacket that I've had for years has kept me warm where it covers, but this weekend I hope to get a winter coat that covers my butt – everyone says this is very important. I went out to dinner with a friend last night, and on the way home, we saw a puddle that was frozen on the top. I held onto his arm for an anchor and tapped the puddle with the toe of my shoe. The ice crackled satisfyingly. Said friend also told me that if you breath into the collar of your jacket, (which is so inviting since your breath warms you up), your jacket will end up soggy: wet and cold. Wow, the things you learn.
Depending on which weather report you look at, snow is expected for tomorrow...
" I recall / Central Park in fall." Actually, I guess it's not fall anymore, but Central Park still looked great. I kept looking for the building from Ghostbusters, which I believe faces the Park, but I didn't see it.
I'm not sure how romantic the Central Park carriage rides are with the drivers chatting on their cell phones...
I was tempted to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, but I didn't. And there would have been a very cute picture of me in front of the Radio City tree, but each try by a stranger on the street came out unfocused.
Here's a small holiday-themed shop window. Many department stores really go all-out with their holiday window displays, many of which you can see on youtube. They're very elaborate; it was a little like being at Disneyland. And the holiday shoppers were out this weekend in force. Good thing I don't get claustrophobic.
Lots of guys stand on the street, handing out fliers and selling tickets to shows. The picture above of Time Square includes people waiting in line for tickets.
It was great to see the city decorated for the holidays.
Aside from all of those fours looking cool, I thought this was a nice representation of the temperature. It was clear most of the day. I've gotten to the point that temperatures in the 40s don't bother me much. I feel that I have the gear, so I haven't been very cold, unless it's been in the 30s. All those people who didn't think I could make it through a real winter have to keep waiting.
Maybe it's because New York City doesn't do anything halfway, but even their Salvation Army bell ringers are cool. In San Diego, it's easy in the winter to see folks ringing the bell by the Salvation Army donation bucket. In NYC, the Salvation Army folks sing or play instruments, and they're really good. Except for a couple of young women, who must have done it out of the kindness of their hearts, but were terrible singers (they were as bad as I am). I walked more quickly down their block; ouch. I know I have a bad singing voice, so although I enjoy singing, I now know I should never do it for more than a few lines, and never in front of crowds. I feel guilty for all of the karaoke audiences I tortured when I was on cruise ships. My logic was that since I was the hostess, I should fill in the gaps when no one wanted to sing. I now realize how mistaken I was.
And that's my new winter jacket! REI didn't have longer jackets, since those aren't as sporty, so with less butt coverage, I think I'm going to start wearing flannel boxers. They did have lots of jackets with fur-lined hoods, as does everywhere else. It's really the rage this winter, fur-lined hoods. You can, of course, get real fur or faux fur, but I usually try not to join in with the popular stuff. There was a cold snap about a week ago (see last blog post), but since then, it hasn't been terribly cold. (They keep promising me snow...) When it gets really cold again, if my jacket won't cut it, I can reevaluate.
We got a deck of cards and had dinner in with wine and Hearts.
It was sunny most of the weekend and the leaves were gorgeous. There were far fewer of them that even just the week before, but we found some beauties.
I organized the first annual Pumpkin Carving and Cider Sipping at work. Mine is the little guy on the right.
