Snow Day!!!

Snow Day!!!  And yes, parking in the garage was the right decision.

Cars were covered by at least a foot of snow, and according to Jorge, found on Riverside Drive shoveling out his car for his reverse commute to Yonkers, he'd been digging out his car for at least 45 minutes.

On the way to Riverside Park to walk our schnoodle, we passed a buried Prius.  

And a neighbor walking her dog, 

and an M-5 bus making its way up Riverside Drive.

The park was glorious!

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To Park on the Street or Not to Park on the Street

To park on the street or not to park on the street.  Generally, we park on the street.  It's not too hard to find a parking place on our street in front of one of the schools where parking is permitted from 4 pm until 7 am.  Usually I'm delighted when it snows because we can leave our cars parked for days (not in front of the school) when alternate side parking restrictions are lifted.  Then I take care to park on Riverside Drive -- where I'm sure I'm not in a school spot and sure I won't have to move my car before 7 am.

Today school was dismissed early because of snow.  Our last three 80 minute classes were cut to 45 and we all went home at 11:30 am.  Woo Hoo!!!  I traded the Prius (not good on ice or in snow) for the Volvo parked in the middle school lot across from the train station.  The wiper blade became detached because of all the snow and I had to stop before getting on the parkway to clean the front window and re-attach the side-swiping blade.  One one car accident on the Saw Mill -- a huge SUV spun around down a hill off the side of the road.  The snow was heavy and wet;  The road slushy and slippery.

I had to decide whether to leave the car on Riverside Drive where it was sure to get covered by a foot of snow and get plowed in by another three feet when the plows went through or put it in a garage down the street for $15 a night.  In the end, it was a no brainer.  I didn't want to be shoveling out heavy, wet, icy snow two or three days from now.  What a relief to pull into a garage.  What a luxury!  And on my way home there was a neighbor shoveling out her car, moving shovelful after shovelful of white weight from street to sidewalk.

My only concern was that we wouldn't have a snow day tomorrow -- that I'd have to call the garage at 6 am to have them pull my car out.  The call came at almost 10 pm.  A snow day tomorrow!!!!  And outside our window, Broadway is white.  And the cars parked on 109th are covered in white and blocked up to the top of their hubcaps with a berm of white pushed there by city plows.  And we're still expecting another 6-12 inches tonight.

Check out the story in the New York Times.

A Dog Story

This is not quite a commuting story, more of a dog walking story.  In Riverside Park I met Annie and her fluffy beigeish dog, Picca.  We walked from the park where Picca had been sitting for a very long time gazing at a tree, hoping for a squirrel sighting, to Lenscrafters at 107th and Broadway.  Just as Annie and I were saying good-bye, a man in a leather jacket turned to ask if that was Annie's dollar bill on the sidewalk.  She said no, and asked me.  I said no.  Then she asked another woman walking down the street if it were her dollar.  She checked her zippered silver clutch and said no.  Suddenly, there was a second dollar bill.  And a five.  "Dollars from Heaven" does not have the same mellifluous sound as "Pennies from Heaven," none-the-less, that is exactly what three green wing-like bills landing on the sidewalk appeared to be.  The man again suggested the money must belong to one of us.  And so we picked up the bills, handed the five to the woman with the silver clutch and divided the two singles between us.