Tag: Winter

Dashcam Video – Driving in NYC during Thursday’s Snowstorm

Bradley Farless2 Comments
About 44 minutes of dashcam footage of various parts of the city. Links to locations available in the video description on the YouTube page.

Last Thursday, I was out and about in the city, driving around. I run a dashcam, because you can really never be too safe. Plus, there’s always the chance that something consequential or bizarre will happen and get caught on camera.

I didn’t expect the snowstorm to be as bad as it turned out to be. The weather report predicted 1-3″ followed by warmer weather and rain that would basically wash the snow away. I found out later that we wound up getting about 6″ total, but I knew we were getting more than 3″ while I was out there in the street.

This was the first time I’ve ever driven around during a snowstorm. We had a lot of snowstorms last year, but I just left the car parked because we knew in advance it was going to be something I didn’t really want to drive around in. Not that driving around in the city is ever that much fun anyway, but you know what I mean.

I was pretty happy with how our 2017 Honda CR-V handled the snowy streets. I only lost traction two times. Once was because I braked too hard and slid up to a stop sign instead of decelerating towards it. The other time was when I was making the U-turn near the Governor’s Island Ferry to head north on the FDR. I was going just a little too fast.

But, I never got stuck, which is more than I can say for some other people out there on the road. Not that it’s really too different from usual, but people were driving really stupid out there on Thursday.

First of all, people in 2WD cars were out there driving. That’s pretty dumb to start with. I saw a guy pushing a car on the FDR that was stuck on an incline while the driver floored the accelerator. That sounds like a good way to have a car slide backward and crush you. Here he is:

https://twitter.com/BradleyF81/status/1063858937013944320

Second, it seems that snow means that you have an obligation to block intersections on north-south avenues and prevent crosstown traffic from getting past you. My experience looked basically like this:

And, of course, people were cutting each other off, jumping between lanes, and speeding, as usual. I had a guy cut in front of me to make a left turn and just expected I would be able to stop as usual. I’m glad I have an AWD vehicle with tires that don’t suck.

Travel time in the city was insane. Looking at stuff on Twitter and in the news now (regarding the kids being stuck on school buses) it looks like most people were experiencing vehicle commutes that were 5 times longer than usual, like 5 hours instead of 1. And most of that pain was self inflicted. To all of you out there that were blocking intersections, I hope your cars throw a rod. Jerks.

Anyway, I left my car downtown and took the train home. I was home in about the same amount of time as it usually takes me to get to Union Square. And, thankfully, the city used some common sense and canceled ASP rules for Friday morning, so I didn’t have to rush back downtown to get my car. That wasn’t really the point of it, of course. It was to keep people from circling in that snowy crap Thursday night trying to find parking that was good for all of Friday.

So, I read that this winter is going to suck, basically, because of El Nino. It’s supposed to be ~8 degrees cooler than usual in January and February. It’s pretty cold right now, actually. A lot colder than usual, and we don’t normally get this kind of snow until January or February anyway. So it’s probably just going to be a bad winter season all around.

I need to get some winter cycling gear.

January 2016 Winter Blizzard

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Earlier, 6:55 PM:

So, we’re moving into a blizzard weekend. Two weeks of laundry to do, groceries to get. I thought we had until tomorrow afternoon, but now I’m checking the weather channel (online of course) and I see that we’re going to start getting snow around 11:30 PM here. Whiteout conditions, until sometime tomorrow. 24 hours of snow. 14 inches of blizzard apocalypse. Can a guy get laundry done during a blizzard? I wonder what things will be like on Sunday?

I have to prioritize food. I don’t want to rely on food deliveries that might be cancelled tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere either. Maybe we’ll just lay around and watch TV. That’s not so bad, as long as the heat stays on.

Now, 11:51 PM:

Going to the grocery store was like walking into madness. It looked like everyone in the neighborhood was jammed into Key Food on 172nd Street. We got there just in time to grab a jug of water. They ran out while we were in line. We figured it would be best to stock up, just in case a pipe broke and repairs couldn’t be done for a while. Mostly we just got regular food and some snacks. The lines snaked around to the back of the store and people were constantly squeezing past each other or bumping into each other. Something that we noticed was that no one was losing their temper or acting crazy, though. Everyone was pretty friendly, in fact. Camaraderie in suffering, I guess.

Anyway, we’re home now, relaxing, and ready.

A case of Stella Artois.
Stella Artois

Are We There Yet? When is Spring Coming?

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

This winter has been really long and unpleasant. Every time the snow on the ground is about to melt, we get hit with another snowstorm. This morning, I was excited that the weather was warming up. Today it got up to 54 (a heat wave!) and tomorrow it will be 53, but then I saw that next week the temperature is going to drop down close to freezing again.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=140556

I just wish we could get a good solid rainstorm to get rid of the snow and all the filth that’s covering everything. On all of the exposed concrete there is a layer of grime that looks almost like dirty, blended newspapers and mud. It’s most noticeable on the stairs leading down into the subway stations. It gets on everything.

If it has to be cold, can’t it at least be clean? Snow is only pretty for a few minutes in New York City.

Wine, Cheesecake and Winter Break

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

IMG_3291

Today, my wife and I had a relaxing dinner at home followed by cheesecake and wine. The cheesecake is from Veniero’s Italian Pasticceria downtown on 11th Street and 1st Ave. The place is pretty famous and attracts a lot of tourists. It’s been there since 1874 and it lives up to its reputation. We used to eat at there all the time when we lived downtown. Maybe it’s a good thing we’re not close by anymore, though. It’s hard to meet fitness goals with this big a temptation right around the corner. I could eat their desserts every day!

A week ago, I was rushing to finish a paper at the last minute for a class I had this past Fall semester. I was rushing, doing classwork up until the last minute. No matter how often I tell myself I’m not going to get bogged down by class-work during the last week or two of the semester, it never works.

Oddly enough, now that I should have time to relax, I’m even busier than I was during the semester. I’ve been out all day, every day, trying to take care of errands and chores that I’ve been putting off for four months so I could focus on school. It’s a lot to get done, but it’s getting there. I have new glasses and I’ve done some much needed shopping. I still need to get some winter boots.

IMG_3283

One of the things I’m most excited about is that I have time to go back to the gym now. I’m hoping that’s a trend that will last into next year and next semester. I’m taking it easy for now, and trying to build up my distance walking first. I kinda miss when I was running 6 miles in an hour.

Anyway, I’m hoping my rushing around now pays off and I get to spend at least two weeks just sitting around doing nothing (except going to the gym) before I start preparing for next semester.

I’ll still be an officer in the CCNY History Society, but I’ll be taking it easy, relatively. Last semester I took Arabic 3, Hebrew 1, Jesus the Jew, a graduate Historiography & Historical Methods, and an Independent Study. In the Spring, I’ll only be taking four courses: Hebrew 2, Sacred Objects, Art of Jerusalem, and a graduate history course on the Arab-Israeli Conflict. They all sort of tie into each other, and I’ll be spending a week in Jerusalem as part of my course of study, so it should be a very cool and very fun four months.

End of the Semester

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Every time the end of the semester starts coming up, I say to myself that I’m going to try to get ahead of things and not get bogged down with work during the last week or two and every time I seem to fail. I have two language finals next week; one on Monday and one on Wednesday. Then I have a 15 page paper due on the following Monday that requires me to read four books. Let’s just say that I’m not on schedule with the reading. Going to be a lot of long days this week.

First Snow for New York City (Winter 2011)… in October.

Bradley Farless10 Comments

First Snow For New York City 2011
First Snow For New York City 2011

It’s looking like a mini-blizzard out there.  I didn’t expect to see this in October!  I do remember it being so cold we had to bundle up tight for Trick-or-Treating when I was a kid though, back in the 80s, and that was in Maryland.  Maybe this isn’t so unusual after all.  Maybe it’s more like things going back to the way they were before.  Regardless, it’s snowing, and it’s getting me in the Christmas spirit before we’ve even gotten past Halloween.

It’s not supposed to stick, thankfully.  I can do without piles of snow on the roads for a few more weeks at least.  I’m planning on moving to a new apartment and I have absolutely no experience driving in snow.  Hurricanes, yes.  Snow, no.

Officially a Full Time Student Again For The First Time in Almost 12 Years (And more snow pictures)

Bradley Farless5 Comments

A picture of Townsend Hall at CCNY.

A picture of Townsend Hall at CCNY, prior to all the snowstorms New York City has suffered through over the last month.

Everything went off without a hitch today, other than a lack of sleep due to anxiety.  I woke up at 5 AM and couldn’t fall back asleep, after going to bed at 1 AM.  I’m starting to feel that now, now that the excitement of the day is winding down.

Getting up to CCNY was surprisingly fast this morning.  I had expected there to be delays, due to leftover snow from the snowstorm.  Instead, I got there more quickly than usual, even though I walked two blocks to the nearest subway station to get a MetroCard.  The commute was only an hour, compared to the hour and 15 to 20 minutes it had been taking me before.  I imagine that was partly because I was traveling during the morning rush hour, so there were more trains and buses running.  I’ll allot more time when I head up there for class, just to make sure I have the commute time right.

In my last post I said that the only thing I really had to worry about was busting my ass on the hill going up to the school, and maybe I jinxed myself.  I didn’t completely fall, but I looked like a flailing idiot more than once, scrambling to catch my balance.  Someone I know told me once that Dr. Marten’s are great shoes for jobs where you have to do a lot of standing, but they really don’t have any traction in the snow.  She was completely right.  I need to get some proper snow boots, but it’s probably too late in the season to worry about it now.  I’ll just keep that in mind for next year.  I really need to take a photo of that hill too.

I wound up getting to the school at about 8:20 AM.  I went over to the Veteran’s Affairs office first, to let them know I was there and to ask where I should be going.  Unfortunately, I beat the VA counselors to work, and I stood around in the courtyard for a while scoping out the snow.  It was knee deep in places.

The area these photos are taken in is called the “squad”, or so I was told by a girl that worked in the Gateway Advisory office, which I visited a short while later.  I asked her why, but she didn’t know.  I’m guessing it’s a combination of ‘square’ and ‘quad’ that someone thought was cute, and it just sort of stuck.

After talking to the VA counselor, I got sent over to the Gateway Advisory office.  I showed up there at 10 minutes to 9 and then stood around waiting for that office to open.  When it finally did open, at 9, I found out the advisors didn’t come in and start advising until 9:30.  Not a problem!  I had my Kindle with me.  I’m reading an interesting historical fiction book by GA Henty called The Cat of Bubastes (link to free download on Amazon).  It’s a story about ancient Egypt that’s turning out better than I’d expected.

By about 10 we had discussed the courses still available and I chose the ones that most suit my major and didn’t duplicate something I’ve already taken at another college.  I’ll be taking Introduction to Anthropology, American Government and Politics, Introduction to the Visual Arts of the World, and World Humanities 1, a course about literature from the Greeks up to the 1500s.

What took up so much of my time was getting the financial part of things taken care of:  standing in line to get my bill, then walking back to the VA office for the VA deferral form, then back to the admissions office to stand in line to get the VA form verified, and then standing in line to get the zero balance verified so I could get my student ID is what took up most of my time, not because the walk was long, but because the lines were long.  I was surprised by how many people were there trying to pay their bills.  I had a low priority for registering for classes, and was only allowed to register on the last available day, because I’m taking classes as a non-matriculated student this semester.  I figured most people would’ve finished this all up by now.

Getting my student ID was an interesting experience, and oddly, my first thought was, ‘I wonder if I can use this to get discounts on stuff?’  While I was there, I saw one guy that looked like he was in his 50s getting a student ID, but most of the people there looked too young to even be in college.  Still, it was comforting to know I wasn’t the only ‘older’ person going back to school to get more education.

Anyhow, I’ve got a pretty good schedule.  Except for a 9:30 class on Fridays, all of my classes start in the afternoon.  That means I can still sleep in!  I’m looking forward to kicking things off next week!

Awesome Snow Pictures of Annoying Snow

Bradley Farless5 Comments

Yesterday, in the early afternoon, I took some time to go out and see the snow.  First, I took some pictures from the balcony, and then I took a few photos while I was out in the street, on my way to Newport Centre Mall in New Jersey.  These photos were taken on the 26th, prior to the big snowstorm that night (last night).

A photo of the snow from our balcony.

A photo of the snow from our balcony.

These are photos I took from the balcony before leaving the house to head to New Jersey.

14th Street, between Avenues B and A, facing towards Avenue A.

This is a photo of the snow in the trees along 14th street between Avenues B and A, facing towards Avenue A.  As you can see, early yesterday afternoon, the snow wasn’t sticking to the street.  The snow on the ground wasn’t much more than what was there already.  The snow hasn’t ever completely melted since that big snowstorm in December.

This is a photo of some snow covered evergreen trees outside the Newport Pavonia PATH station in New Jersey.

Snow in the trees outside the Newport Pavonia PATH station in New Jersey.

I saw these trees just outside the Newport Pavonia PATH station in New Jersey, where you get off the train to walk to the Newport Centre Mall.  At the time, the snow was coming down in fat, wet flakes and it wasn’t really sticking to the ground at all, but it did give the trees a sort of Winter Wonderland feel that I thought was really nice.  By the time I got home from my shopping trip, the snow had stopped completely.

Later in the evening, the snow started coming down again, a lot heavier than before.  The news was saying that it was going to be a pretty bad storm, and it damn sure was.  At times, I could barely see the building across the street.  I’m still impressed by snowstorms, so I thought it was pretty cool, but I had a feeling it was going to make my day today a lot more annoying than it would have been otherwise.

You see, yesterday was supposed to be my last day of freedom, before going back to school full time.  I was supposed to head out to the school today to register for classes, and then start classes tomorrow, depending on my schedule.  Things didn’t turn out quite that way, because of the snow.

When I was going to bed, the news reports were predicting school closures today, and it had me on edge, because I’m really anxious to get my class registrations done.  I’ve been out of school for over a decade, so going to college full time is a pretty big deal for me.  Sure enough, when I got up, there was a message in red on my school’s homepage, saying that the school was closed.

For a while, I worried about how that would affect my registration, but I realized there wasn’t much I could do about it if the school was closed.  I figured I’d just deal with it as best I could, and rolled back into bed for a few more hours of sleep.  Maybe it’s a holdover from the time I spent in the military, which gave me a lot of exposure to institutional stupidity, but I don’t put a lot of trust in public institutions to make common sense decisions when things don’t go as planned.  I half expected the school to just tell me, tough luck, enroll next semester.  You see, I enrolled late because I was outside the US still when the deadline for normal registrations came and passed.  I also had a few issues with my direct admission since I went to high school in a different state, and I was given last priority to register for classes on the last day of registration.

My fear was thankfully unfounded.  Later this morning, the college updated the message on their website, saying registrations would be extended to compensate for the closure today, so now I’ll be heading up to the school tomorrow to take care of that and all I’ll have to worry about is slipping and busting my ass on the long slope heading up to CCNY from the train station.

NYC Sanitation Department, Killing Babies Is The Wrong Way To Protest Budget Cuts

Bradley Farless3 Comments

The news this morning made me look at the video I posted previously in a whole new light.

Was this done intentionally, as part of the plan to botch the cleanup as a protest?

A lot of people were saying that the cleanup after this recent blizzard was botched.  It was slow, ineffective, and lots of people suffered for it, and now we know why:

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.

“They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens)…

Read more at: NYPost

Their labor issues are more important than what?  The lives and safety of New Yorkers?  I read quite a few stories where people were seriously injured, or where deaths occurred because emergency services couldn’t reach people in need.  One that stands out in my mind was a woman who gave birth in the lobby of a building.  Her baby died before EMS could reach her.

Her baby died to protest budget cuts.  Good job, sanitation department.  You’re real fucking heroes today.  Someone should be made liable to criminal charges for the deaths caused by the unplowed roads, since they’re direct results of a plan to botch the cleanup.

Trash piling up after the December 26th blizzard in New York City.

Want to hear another problem this is causing?  Well, since the sanitation department was intentionally slow with cleaning up the snow, they took longer to get back around to their main purpose: picking up the trash.  Now, I don’t imagine we’re going to see any outbreaks of diseases just because the trash wasn’t picked up for a day, but the trash is really piling up, and it’s everywhere.  Additionally, with the sanitation workers still dicking around with the snow, or what’s left of it now, the regular cleanup of streets and the city trash cans on the corners is behind as well.  It’s disgusting.  Most of 14th street looks like one big garbage can.

Trash piling up on 14th street after the December 26th blizzard in New York City.

This whole problem seems indicative of a massive lack of common sense to me.  Whoever planned to have this cleanup botched should at the least lose their job.  Seriously.  And whoever took part should receive demotions and pay cuts, exactly what they were protesting against.  I’m all for protesting, but not when it endangers peoples’ lives.

Winter 2010 Blizzard in New York City: Part 3

Bradley Farless4 Comments

The roads are finally getting cleared.

Ok, this is the third day of snowy fun and activities and things are starting to die down.  Temperatures went back up above freezing today and the snow in the roads was already turning to slush.  That’s worse than snow, really, because you’re more likely to get wet from splashes when it’s really cold out.  Plus, it could refreeze at night into ice.

Slushy areas where people have to cross the street.

The slush also hides other things, things which could cause you to slip and/or hurt yourself.  You’d think more effort would be put into clearing pedestrian crossings.  This isn’t a back area.  This is at Union Square.

A bus stop that's blocked by snow.

A lot of the bus stops are still blocked by the snow that was plowed off the road.  In a few places paths had been shoveled through the snow by workers, but most still looked like this.  We had to stand in the road while waiting for the bus.  Passing vehicles greeted me with sprays of slush that splattered all over my pants and coat.  Damn!

Earlier today I heard a radio address by the mayor saying that they’re doing the best they can given the circumstances, but I get the impression that response efforts are disorganized and the workers weren’t trained very well.  Besides the snow plow driver that got her snow plow stuck in the snow yesterday, there were still 58 ambulances that were stuck around noon today.  Why were ambulances on roads that hadn’t been plowed yet?  Why weren’t they responding by foot from the nearest clear street?

Anyway, the roads aren’t the only thing being affected by the blizzard.  I know this was a coincidence, but our boiler broke the first day of the blizzard and because roads were impassable, it’s still being worked on now.  This whole no heat, no hot water thing is really annoying.  To cap things off, Time Warner Cable is having an outage that started early last night.  The problem is ongoing.  I suppose snow is hampering repair efforts.

I am no longer interested in the joy and beauty of snow.