This afternoon around 4 PM I rode the “L” into Manhattan and walked around in the vicinity of Grand Central Station and Lincoln Center. I saw a lot more skin than I am used to seeing. Women were wearing short skirts and halter tops. Both men and women were wearing shorts and t-shirts. I saw pink, pale skin, untouched by the sun skin, with one exception. I saw three women with sunburned shoulders sitting near us at the sidewalk café. One of them even had a tube of suntan lotion sticking of her day pack.
Along Columbus and Amsterdam the outdoor sidewalk cafés were packed. It was the first day since mid-autumn that many were even open. We were lucky to find a table for two at Fusion where we enjoyed Karin and sushi al fresco.
Walking home from the subway around 8:30 PM I realized as I was walking through that the neighborhood sounded different than I am used to hearing it. It was no longer quiet. I heard the sounds of Latin beats and other music leaking out of open windows. I heard children laughing and yelling as they played games in their back yards. Apartment dwellers were sitting on the front stoops of row houses and playing cards or just talking.
Today was the first day in a long, long time the temperature rose above 80. The mercury while I was in Manhattan topped out at 88, a degree lower than the record. 84 was the temperature while we were walking home. Tomorrow might be even warmer.
SUMMIT TO SHORE: Theologically and philosophically informed eclectic ruminations on everything between summit to shore, especially cycling, hiking and backpacking, kayaking, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology, politics, culture, travel, poetry, and creative writing by John Edward Harris, a progressive Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Minister of the Word and Sacrament.
2 comments:
It felt good in many ways. I think the quick heat wave didn't give the sidewalks a chance to bake and radiate that heat into your body. Are we go to have a scorcher of a summer?. Any odds are this?
I agree. The concrete did not have time to store the heat, and the humidity was low as well. I wonder, however, what the two or three days of unseasonably high temps did to warm up the water in Jamaica Bay. With daytime highs in the 50's and 60's it now seems more like spring.
Post a Comment