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| “Shades of Spring”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
The Fall of Jeff Glovsky
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Rain Dance (reboot)
When it's not icy cold in New York, it's raining. There are so rarely days of pleasant weather, or of pure sunshine ...
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| “Can’t Stop the Weather”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
In remembrance of some messy Marches, and other months of the year when it's not just winter in the U.S. northeast -- and in toast to St. Patrick's Day, when Erin goes braless and drunks will be pissing like New York skies -- I give you a little rain rant, from my ongoing (decades long) work in progress ...
It's said to rain a lot, Seattle. London is renowned, of course, its foggy, mossy climate ...
How come no one ever sees ugly New York for what it is, though?
It's a grey and pissing open wound! Forever dripping, drizzling like a swollen, leaky faucet. Let's give credit where it's due, now! Let's acknowledge that we rot here in our festering putrescence, in the scalding fetid moisture of our cemetery skies.
Let's hoist mighty, high, our rain guards as we slam through, past each other ... as we're snarling in our moldy streets. While cursing and drowning and suckling, and snarling ... While always hurry scurrying to our empty lives and nowhere beats ...
GUESS WHAT!? You're gonna die, you Suit! You pick out my eye with your sodden umbrella [... even make that aimless be-there poked with passion on your phone toy!]*
It matters nicht, 'cause we're all dead.
from Central Park
* * *
*original text (1993): "... even make that aimless be-there scrawled with Cross pens in your ledger!"
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
It's Only Winter
"The furious hoarfrost bearing down upon us knows neither mercy nor reason ... Clutch your babes close to your breast and take small comfort in knowing
that they will howl for but a few hours before death becalms them
forever." -
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
I want cabin fever.
I actually want to be "non-essential" ... so that when I'm forced to stay home from work, losing money and faced with an actual blizzard (of backlog, coming back into it), I don't stress;
I want to believe the "weather team", from whatever "information" source being forced down my throat, throbbing, stuffing my ears full of dire "news" about the fact that it's winter, and sometimes it snows!
... I want to believe them when they tell me, all day, excitedly, babbling repeatedly, warnings about the "historic" storm ... The inexplicably NAMED winter snowfall. "Why is the snow called 'Juno', Daddy?
"Is snow going to hurt us?"
... The five year old's questions more calm, more rational, more simply reasoned, than anyone breathlessly standing outside in this winter season's first "event", holding a microphone while loudly declaiming and pointing at things: "Now we're starting to see sanitation workers move into place!" as a garbage truck passes in front of a camera ... "You don't want to be outside in this MONSTER!"
NEWSFLASH: It's winter. It's one of four seasons. Sometimes it snows, hard.
It's NOT "Snowmageddon".
It's ONLY WINTER. Sometimes, okay, there is even a blizzard (and sometimes, in SUMMER, there's thunder and lightning!). It's not invitation to fill me with dread ... try and addle me mentally, put me to bed!!!
The "Extreme Threat Alert Message" received on New York City smart phones Monday -- "All non-emergency vehicles must be off all roads in NYC by 11PM until further notice." -- was, to me, as unnecessary as it was vague, discomfiting and deeply unwelcome. Heavy-handed and Martial Law-like, as "violators" were reminded on local newscasts of summonses, and possibly even arrest.
This is why Americans kill each other. Everyone's harangued so relentlessly, so kept on the precipice of fear and panic ... bombarded with overwrought, negative messages ... that we're all batshit crazy.
Not in a good way.
Only the five year-olds stand a chance ... if they can be left alone to enjoy winter.
... I want to believe them when they tell me, all day, excitedly, babbling repeatedly, warnings about the "historic" storm ... The inexplicably NAMED winter snowfall. "Why is the snow called 'Juno', Daddy?
"Is snow going to hurt us?"
... The five year old's questions more calm, more rational, more simply reasoned, than anyone breathlessly standing outside in this winter season's first "event", holding a microphone while loudly declaiming and pointing at things: "Now we're starting to see sanitation workers move into place!" as a garbage truck passes in front of a camera ... "You don't want to be outside in this MONSTER!"
NEWSFLASH: It's winter. It's one of four seasons. Sometimes it snows, hard.
It's NOT "Snowmageddon".
It's ONLY WINTER. Sometimes, okay, there is even a blizzard (and sometimes, in SUMMER, there's thunder and lightning!). It's not invitation to fill me with dread ... try and addle me mentally, put me to bed!!!
The "Extreme Threat Alert Message" received on New York City smart phones Monday -- "All non-emergency vehicles must be off all roads in NYC by 11PM until further notice." -- was, to me, as unnecessary as it was vague, discomfiting and deeply unwelcome. Heavy-handed and Martial Law-like, as "violators" were reminded on local newscasts of summonses, and possibly even arrest.
This is why Americans kill each other. Everyone's harangued so relentlessly, so kept on the precipice of fear and panic ... bombarded with overwrought, negative messages ... that we're all batshit crazy.
Not in a good way.
Only the five year-olds stand a chance ... if they can be left alone to enjoy winter.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Arctic Corollary
Ha! Told you so!
As I suggested in a post last week, I'm not alone in believing that we've become a nation of sissies when it comes to weather ... specifically, cold weather.
Leaving aside for now the global warming arguments (and any kooky renditions of "Ice Ice, Baby"), let's just say that America, as a nation, is prompted to overreact when it comes to extremes. And don't get me wrong: 30 degrees below zero (in some cases, plus wind chill) IS extreme ... as is the (*ahem*) 'polar' opposite: 100+ degrees in some nasty, fly / mosquito bake-off ... but for many Americans, neither extreme -- brutal cold nor baking heat -- is beyond what might be expected seasonally, or at least geographically.
In other words: SHUT UP already about the cold, and stop throwing words around, like "dangerous", "deadly", "advisory", "warning" ... It's WINTER. Sometimes it's cold outside.
As I escaped the clutches of the holidays last week ... emerging from torpor and "polar vortex" ... my three hour drive to the airport was clear: not a hint of snow or even black ice on the freeway (I-35 between Duluth and Minneapolis, MN) and the point of every star sharp and crackling like glass.
Beyond this, my overnight flight back to comparative warmth was delayed a little, maybe two or three hours ... but by 8am, I was back in my home away from Home, and back to my normal (winter) morning routine.
I did not stay indoors, avoid driving or change travel plans ... and yet (amazingly?) I did not freeze to death, become sick or frostbitten, spin out or worse on the side of the freeway, or be forced to sleep on an airport floor.
... I just went about my life in winter.
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| "Homeward Bound", ©Jeff Glovsky |
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Overkill (Polar Bromides)
Fast Forward (2015): It's Only Winter
When winter storm "Hercules" took a dump this past week, I, like millions of Americans, woke up to CNN newspeople yelling and laughing, and climbing snow banks and oddly gesticulating, as they do, toward satellite maps and radar readouts. They made jokes and threw snowballs, and pointed out snowplows and train crews doing their jobs.
When the MTA cancels full service for something other than a shooting or a sleep-deprived speed demon, you can rest assured the weather is actually bad. Millions of people in the New York metro area alone are impacted directly ... Not to mention the densely populated Eastern Seaboard, from roughly Richmond, Virginia up to Boston, and inward (Philadelphia, Newark, Albany) ...
Add to this the domino effect of canceled flights, disrupted travel, delays and impatience, shutdowns and slowdowns, severe Arctic cold and a weather-related death or two ... and you've got the makings of a weather "event".
But seasonally speaking, is it really so newsworthy?
Like millions of Americans, I woke up Thursday morning to a snowstorm. Like hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Americans, I wondered after the fourth or fifth hour of "Breaking News" coverage, what the big deal was.
In other words, like millions of Americans -- and people from various regions across the globe also directly impacted by winter weather -- I woke up to a snowstorm.
What's the big deal?
Visiting family and friends in northern Wisconsin this holiday season, I'd already spent several weeks with frozen finger and nose tips, relentless gray skies and accumulated December snowfall of over three feet (nearly 1 meter). As an uncout' yout' growing up in the northland, I remember regular "snow days" - when school would be closed not because of snow, but because it was twenty below zero and pipes would freeze ... not only my pipes, but the plumbing in the late 19th century school buildings also. It would be too cold for school!
When winter happens ... even a powerful winter weather "event", like a "Hercules" (or "Ion" now!) ... I don't need to be seeing reporters bundled up, telling me to keep warm, or how to throw snowballs. I don't need to learn the phrase, "polar vortex".
It's WINTER. It's cold out. It snows. Sometimes, it snows hard, fast, wet and sloppy ... Sometimes the cold is subzero, and ice forms. Ice, if you're walking or driving on it, can make you slip and slide, lose control ... Drive safely.
It's winter outside. If you prefer to stay inside, set your thermostat to 70-ish. Don't open the window to let in fresh air - It may feel good for a minute or two, but in the end, you're only inviting the cold in; what you want to be doing is keeping it out. The human condition of comfort demands warmth.
Stay warm this winter. Bundle up. Dress in layers - but don't wear anything too tight, or you might sweat.
Stay indoors if you'd rather, or if you must. Have plenty of food on hand, a flashlight, blankets, and make sure all your prescriptions are filled.
Then read a book. Or better yet, talk to your family. Communicate. Play games ... some charades, a little Monopoly maybe, some Trivial Pursuit. Build a house of cards or play poker, or chess ... But unplug, if you'd like things to thrive while "surviving". If the power goes out, try not to light candles ... It might be romantic, but you might fall asleep and your house might burn down.
Beyond this, don't be afraid to embrace winter: its beauty, its power, its furious grace ... and celebrate what we 'up north' -- in the Northern Hemisphere -- are lucky to know as our holiday season.
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| “Tundric Technicolor”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
Visiting family and friends in northern Wisconsin this holiday season, I'd already spent several weeks with frozen finger and nose tips, relentless gray skies and accumulated December snowfall of over three feet (nearly 1 meter). As an uncout' yout' growing up in the northland, I remember regular "snow days" - when school would be closed not because of snow, but because it was twenty below zero and pipes would freeze ... not only my pipes, but the plumbing in the late 19th century school buildings also. It would be too cold for school!
When winter happens ... even a powerful winter weather "event", like a "Hercules" (or "Ion" now!) ... I don't need to be seeing reporters bundled up, telling me to keep warm, or how to throw snowballs. I don't need to learn the phrase, "polar vortex".
It's WINTER. It's cold out. It snows. Sometimes, it snows hard, fast, wet and sloppy ... Sometimes the cold is subzero, and ice forms. Ice, if you're walking or driving on it, can make you slip and slide, lose control ... Drive safely.
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| “Rude Conditions”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
Stay warm this winter. Bundle up. Dress in layers - but don't wear anything too tight, or you might sweat.
Stay indoors if you'd rather, or if you must. Have plenty of food on hand, a flashlight, blankets, and make sure all your prescriptions are filled.
Then read a book. Or better yet, talk to your family. Communicate. Play games ... some charades, a little Monopoly maybe, some Trivial Pursuit. Build a house of cards or play poker, or chess ... But unplug, if you'd like things to thrive while "surviving". If the power goes out, try not to light candles ... It might be romantic, but you might fall asleep and your house might burn down.
Beyond this, don't be afraid to embrace winter: its beauty, its power, its furious grace ... and celebrate what we 'up north' -- in the Northern Hemisphere -- are lucky to know as our holiday season.
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| “Celebrate (Life / Work)”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
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