Two kinds of rain

In my various ramblings over the past couple of months, I've had occasion to have a bit of a whine about the weather. In fact, we were unlucky enough on Thanksgiving Day that the weather outside was about 1 degree C, and windy and raining, so we didn't get to go to the parade. It really was miserable outside. The rest of the weekend was beautiful; still jacket and jeans weather, but nothing more. Well, it looks like that's finally over. The cold we've had so far was just a rehearsal. the real thing's on its way. There's a front coming from northern Canada, and it's a cold one.

The forecast for Friday in Brooklyn is around 32 F (0 degrees C), but as the cold front settles in, by Wednesday next week, we're expecting -3 C. Even worse, with the wind, rain and humidity, it will actually feel like -12 C. That should be fun.

I've now found out that there are two types of rain. The forecast predicts "Rain in the evening followed by rain and freezing rain late." What's freezing rain, and how is it different to normal rain? Does it come down in blocks? Do you need a helmet if you're out in it?

There's even mention of snow on its way. Not that I'll be able to ski to work or anything like that, but snow should be fun. I'll keep you up to date.

The three hour bargain!

Thanksgiving weekend's coming to a close, so the holiday season's officially underway. We've just had a four-day weekend, which really doesn't come often enough. I'm sure Alicia's covered the Thanksgiving goings-on in her blog, leishasblog.blogspot.com.

Today, we thought it would be good to get out for a while, so Alicia scanned the Entertainment Book and found something called Johnnyboy's in Queens, close to Flushing Meadows. We had a voucher for one free Texas Johnnyboy; didn't know what it was, but it was free so long as we bought another one. Being in the Entertainment Book, we knew it would be worth the trip. We also had a voucher for mini-golf in the same area, so it would be a good day out. The idea was that we catch the G Train and connect to the Q58 bus, and we're there; easy enough. So off we went and caught the G Train at Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, one which we've never been to before. It was only about 5 blocks from our place, but it took about half an hour to find the station. As it turns out, we actually didn't find the station, but we got on the train at the next station along the line. No drama - the G Train pulled up as soon as we got into the station.

We'd been on the train for about 15 minutes and things were looking good. Then the train stopped, the driver got out of his cab and told us that the train wasn't going any further. Fair enough, we'll just find a connecting train. So I looked at the map and figured the V Train will get us to the station we needed for the Q58 bus. We found the platform for the E and V Trains, and after three E Trains came and went, one of the MTA people kindly told us the V Train doesn't run on weekends (sounds like "the train doesn't stop at Bowen on Thursdays"). So we got the E Train to another station and connected to the R Train and finally got to the station we needed.

After walking around for about 10 minutes looking for the Q58 bus stop, we found it and things were looking better. Anyway, it showed up, we got on, and things were back on the original route, although our schedule had copped a hiding. We arrived at the intersection we needed and went in search of Johnnyboy's. We walked around for a while, but there were only light industrial shops (like glaziers, carpenters and the like) and a the back of a giant Home Depot (just like Bunnings, except bigger; of course). There was no way it was where it was supposed to be. The Home Depot was at the exact address, so we gave up and decided we'd have a look in Home Depot, and see if there was somewhere to get a feed. We went around the front of the store and found a semi-permanent hotdog stand. It turned out that was this was the Johnnyboy's we were looking for. We also discovered that a Texas Johnnyboy is a hotdog with cheese and onion.

By now it had taken us almost three hours to get to this place, and all we got for our troubles was a free hotdog. Even worse, because we'd spent so long getting there, we didn't have time to do the mini-golf we'd planned to do in the first place. We walked around Flushing Meadows for a while, had a look at the giant sphere of the earth (as seen in the opening credits of King Of Queens) and walked past the Arthur Ashe Stadium (where the US Open is held).

Rather than doing the reverse to get home, we went with what we knew and caught the 7 Train to Grand Central, connecting with the 4 Train, stopping just a couple of blocks from home. It took less than an hour.

So that's the story of my three hour free hotdog. It didn't taste very good either.

The etiquette of Excuse Me?

OK, so New York's a big place, and every now and then you're going to get in somebody's way or cross paths, as you would in any city I guess. What I'm trying to figure out though, is the etiquette around running into people.

At home (meaning Brisbane, not my apartment ), the etiquette is to make eye contact, usually with a brief smile, and say a quick 'sorry' and be on your way. In NYC, it's a little different. You'll say 'excuse me' in a very flat tone and push on through. It's not the wording that I'm having trouble with (I do have a background in speaking English), but rather what they actually mean when they say excuse me.

Is it 'excuse me, I'm sorry for being in your way'? I really don't think so. That's far too polite.

Are they saying 'excuse me, I thought we'd have enough room to squeeze by, but I guess I was wrong.' Hmm, I don't really think so - see above.

Is it 'excuse me, but would you please get out of MY way. I'm very important and I can't have you wasting my time by being in front of me'? More likely, in fact this is the winner so far. New Yorkers are a funny bunch; very driven and extremely aware of their own importance.

Maybe it doesn't mean anything. Perhaps saying 'excuse me' is a warning that they'll just barge on through regardless of fault or likely injury; in much the same way a car horn doesn't say anything, but its meaning is clear enough.

I'll keep on trying to figure this one out. I do know that 'sorry' and a friendly glance doesn't have a place in New York.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

It's been quite an uneventful week, but kind of eventful at the same time. As much as I want to go out ice skating again, the knee's still a bit too sore for that. It's usually pretty good, but when I hit it or go up or down stairs, it hurts. Hopefully by next week, I'll be fired up again.

On Tuesday night, we went to the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. It was a lot of fun to watch; there were floats and people dressed up as all kinds of spooky things. Kyan loved watching the people go by. Luckily, the weather was beautiful. It was around 63 (18 degrees C), so that seemed to bring the crowds out. Apparently there were 2 million people along the parade route, so we were lucky to get a good vantage point, although we walked for about half an hour to find it.

The next day, I was off to Chicago (again). Because it was an overnight trip this time, we got a hire car. More accurately, I got the hire car and the other guy just kicked back while I drove. No problems at all this time driving. It doesn't take long to get used to driving on the other side of the road. It's certainly not intuitive yet, but I'm getting there. On the morning of the second day, the car had totally died. While the AAA (=RACQ) was playing around with the car, I was standing around absolutely frozen solid. The actual temperature was 28 (-3C), but with the wind, the apparent temperature was 19 (-7C). To cut a long story short, I got another car and on my way to the client (about 10km), it started snowing. At first it kind of looked like raindrops that couldn't make up their mind if they were falling or rising with the wind. Once I got out of the car, it was pretty obviously that it was snow. It's not like the ground was white and people were in toboggans or anything like that, but apparently this was unseasonal for Chicago. I'm going back there tomorrow for a couple of days, but it's become warm again.

Yesterday, the New York Marathon was held, going through all five New York boroughs (Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Manhattan). It went straight past our place, so the street was completely blocked off, as was the entire 42 km route. It must have played havoc with traffic in Manhattan, because it certainly did in Brooklyn. It was great before any of the runners came through. It was the first time the place was actually quiet since we moved in. I've got a feeling it's going to be the last time before the marathon next year. There were 37,000 people participating. We were at about the 4 mile (of 26) mark, and the spread between the front runners and those at the back was about 5 hours. I can only assume some people are still going!