For three days, it felt like summer, almost. I rode in shorts and worked in skirts without hosiery. The classrooms and offices were too warm, and my students wanted to do anything besides listen to my lectures although, of course, they would never tell me that. If I were any of them, I'd've felt the same way, probably.
The temperature dropped a bit today, though it still felt pretty balmy for this time of year, even with a brisk wind--into which I pedaled out to Rockaway Beach. The sun played hide-and-seek but the wind was, as we say in the old country, definitely in-your-face. Not that I'm complaining: the ride was a decent workout even if it wasn't very long, and I felt invigorated afterward.
Invigorating turned to bracing on the Cross Bay Memorial Bridge to Rockaway Beach. The temperature seemed to drop about 10C as I crossed the span. Such a change is typical on a warm late-winter or early-spring day: Even during a winter as mild as the one we've had, the ocean temperature drops to 3-5C (about 37-40F); the water in Jamaica Bay is probably just as cold.
There are other signs spring hasn't sprung yet, in spite of the warm weather: The trees and plants are not yet budding, and no shoots are poking through the ground. There are only the recently-planted grasses on dunes built to forestall further erosion of the kind Superstorm Sandy left in its wake:
That "dune" will probably be no more lush in another month, or two, or three, as Spring forwards into Summer. But we will see the other signs, not yet visible, of the season that is incubating in the warmer-than-normal weather we've experienced during the past few days.
The temperature dropped a bit today, though it still felt pretty balmy for this time of year, even with a brisk wind--into which I pedaled out to Rockaway Beach. The sun played hide-and-seek but the wind was, as we say in the old country, definitely in-your-face. Not that I'm complaining: the ride was a decent workout even if it wasn't very long, and I felt invigorated afterward.
Invigorating turned to bracing on the Cross Bay Memorial Bridge to Rockaway Beach. The temperature seemed to drop about 10C as I crossed the span. Such a change is typical on a warm late-winter or early-spring day: Even during a winter as mild as the one we've had, the ocean temperature drops to 3-5C (about 37-40F); the water in Jamaica Bay is probably just as cold.
There are other signs spring hasn't sprung yet, in spite of the warm weather: The trees and plants are not yet budding, and no shoots are poking through the ground. There are only the recently-planted grasses on dunes built to forestall further erosion of the kind Superstorm Sandy left in its wake:
That "dune" will probably be no more lush in another month, or two, or three, as Spring forwards into Summer. But we will see the other signs, not yet visible, of the season that is incubating in the warmer-than-normal weather we've experienced during the past few days.
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