It seems that since Hurricane Sandy left, the weather has been colder than I can recall it being at any time last winter.
Of course, I don't claim to remember every single day about last winter. (At my age, it's hard to remember every day last week!) But I do recall that it was an exceptionally mild season, and that we had our only snow well before the winter started and a couple of cold days after it ended. But in between, the only signals of the season seemed to be the bare trees and short days.
So now I have some winter clothing I bought last year but never used. Mainly, I bought wool undergarments and socks, as well as some insulated waterproof boots.
The good news is that I don't have to buy those things this year, and that even if I do no clothes shopping for this winter, I'll still have some things I can donate to the hurricane victims.
Somehow I suspect this winter won't be so mild.
I don't mind cloudy days. Actually, I like them, especially for cycling, particularly along a seacoast.
However, during the past few days, clouds have spread a thick gray curtain between us and the light of the day, even though Sandy had passed.
Today, though, those clouds gave way to the less ominous overcast skies one often sees in coastal areas. And we saw something that might have been reported as a UFO, given recent conditions: the sun.
In fact, near the end of my ride this afternoon, I saw a sunset that caused me not to rue the fact that it came so early as a result of turning the clocks back an hour:
I captured the light as best I could with my cell phone from the Unisphere.
As Yogi Berra once said, "It's deja vu all over again."
I could have said the same thing the other evening when I came to the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Motorized traffic had all but come to a standstill, and I could feel (and hear) the mounting tensions. The bicycle and pedestrian lanes were better, if only in comparison.
I suppose that the near-jamming of two-wheeled and two-soled traffic is a good sign: At least some people realize that cycling (and walking) can be viable options for them. Plus, cyclists and pedestrians seem to have more patience than motorists.
In witnessing the throngs of cyclists and pedestrians, I had a flashback:
Some say that the eleven-day New York City Transit Strike of 1980 was the first time since the turn of the century when large numbers of people rode bikes or walked to work. Speaking anecdotally, I can say that is probably true: Up to that time, I couldn't recall seeing so many people getting to their jobs or going to shop, or even to the movies or theatre, under their own power. I was in my final semester at Rutgers and came into the city three times during that strike. The second time, I brought my bike on the train into the city and the third time, I took the 25-mile ride in.
The strike is also said to have initiated the practice of wearing sneakers on the way to work and changing into heels or other dress shoes upon arriving. I don't detect any sartorial statements emerging from the disruptions of mass transit caused by Hurricane Sandy. However, I think--or, at least, hope--that some people who've begun riding or walking to work will continue to do so after full service is restored on the subways and buses. It seems that many people who pedaled or hoofed it to work during the 1980 strike abandoned those habits once the trains and buses started to roll again.
I hope not to have deja vu about that!
