HALLELUJAH FOR WARMER WEATHER

 After a few weeks of freezing cold weather, Brooklyn NY and nearby area finally had some warmer weather.  Funny how 40 degree F is considered good weather.  It is all relative, I guess.  Maybe it is a sign of being older but I used to prefer cold weather.  I can dress for it, whereas when it was scorching hot, no matter how little clothes I wear I would still sweat profusely.  But not this winter.

First it snowed heavily.  As usual, unlike rain, snow just silently fell.  I like to shovel snow in layers so I did some in the morning.  Then another shovel job later on when it finally stopped.  Thanks to a huge tree and its expanded tree pit, my sidewalk is narrower than most of the block so I didn't have too much to do.  Being the civic-minded type, I cleared a path from the sidewalk out to the street.  Most people would just clear their sidewalks and would create snowbanks separating the sidewalk from the street.  People who want to cross the street would have to either climb over the snowbanks or go to the corner in hope of finding something more navigable.  I also cleared a path for my alley.  It's always good to have multiple exits from a house.

Next day, next task was to make sure the car can leave its parking spot.  I was fortunate enough to find a spot on the left side of the one-way street.  Department of Sanitation's plower always push snow to the right side, so the unfortunate cars that were parked on the right side ended up being locked in by tall snowbanks.  If you really need to get out, you would have to move quick and blast through those snowbanks, whether with professional help or lots of your own time and elbow grease.  Not in my case, but I still had much to do to make sure the car is useable, to get to work the next day.  The windshield obviously needed to be cleared of snow and ice, but a recent law in New York State required that the roof also be free of ice and snow.  It makes total sense, especially on highways.  You wouldn't want to be hit by a small avalanche of snow and ice that can temporarily blinds you or worse, like cracking your windshield.

I think overall the City did good with clearing the roads.  Not only the avenues were plowed, the side streets were too.  The challenge was in finding parking spots, which this year I was lucky and always managed to find a place to park after I came home from working in New Jersey.  Mind you the spots were not perfect, in that I had to spend an hour after parking to dig around the car as much as possible to ensure a smooth departure next day.  I didn't want to be late for work because I couldn't easily exit the parking spot.  I tried to be considerate but one night I had to park in the third spot of a three-car strip.  A car was already in the first spot, under normal circumstance I should park in the second spot, but there was a good chance someone would park behind me and I would have a difficult time getting out next day, because of all the snowbanks on the side of the road.  Somehow someone was able to take the second spot, it seemed the driver was able to backup into that spot.  All my worrying was not necessary.

Park, shovel, drive, rinse and repeat.  At long last, temperature reached 40+ degrees and while parking spots are not back to normal, i.e. there are still a few small hills of snow taking up precious parking spots, at least getting in and out of whatever available spot is not as difficult as it was just last week.  Well, tonight I did have to park at a meter spot and to my surprise even on Presidents Day, the big holiday about Presidents, the meter will need to be fed tomorrow.   I already have my alarm clock set to remind me to move the car before the meter goes into effect.

I LOVE ICE

Tuesday, July 15, 2025, new fridge arrived and installed.  While my early childhood took place in some small town in Saigon, without luxuries like refrigerator, I don't remember much of that.  I do remember living on the third floor of a big building, with a refrigerator.  What a luxury!  Ever since living in the U.S., I appreciate refrigerators even more.  I just love cold drinks.  For a few years, my anemia caused me to have nasty bouts of sneezing whenever I didn't have enough sleep.  The day would start with frequent sneezes then by the end of the day the headache would come.  I just had to drop everything and go straight to bed, then the next day I was good again.  Tried a few doctors, one was a Chinese herbal doctor and he told me I would have to give up drinking cold stuff.  Good thing I decided to get to do more physical exercises, namely long-distance running, and continued to drink cold stuff.  What a sacrifice in life that would be, no cold drinks.  When the previous refrigerator was installed, we decided not to bother to have ice made.  Drinks were still cold, if left in the fridge long enough, but at times I sorely missed having ice ready made.  With the new fridge, I made sure they hooked up the water hose, voila, ice available all the time.  After the few days without a decent fridge, I love my ice.  Yes, the real ice, not those January 6th thugs who go around kidnapping people, no accountability, probably already promised by King Rump that whatever they do they would be pardoned again.  Go, South Park!

SCENES FROM A RUN: UNPLOWED SNOW UNDER THE BRIDGE

I live near what I call the Belt Parkway waterfront.  To be exact, it's that waterfront path between Caesar's Bay and Owl's Head, primarily for pedestrians and cyclists.  "Near" is a relative term.  It's probably about 2 km but for us distance-runner that's near enough.  It's a great place to jog as it is devoid of car traffic, except the occasional maintenance vehicles from the Parks Department or those belonging to NYPD.  It's not so great when it snows, as the place is not plowed, or at least not completely.  Some time ago I went there after a snowfall, with steel-toed boots, to find out how accessible it was for runners.  It was not.  Here and there there were shoveled spots but around 17th Avenue toward the Verrazano Bridge the snow was intact.  Some brave souls may have walked through the snow but it's still not much of a path, with snow up to the ankle or worse.  Since that exploratory trip, I know better not to go running by the Belt Parkway waterfront.  I just don't like slogging through snow.

Yesteday when my running partner J said we should run on the Belt Parkway waterfront, mere days after that big 12" snowstorm plus yesterday's 1" of fresh snow, I should have thought better and not agree.  J mistakenly thought that NYCRUNS just had a race there yesterday.  How bad could it be if a few hundred people just went through the same area?  They wouldn't have the race if the road was not clean, right?  NYCRUNS did have a race yesterday, but that was in Prospect Park, which has car traffic so surely it was plowed nice and clear.

I decided to run from home to Caesar's Bay, as opposed to driving.  I thought if I drove, I would use the lame excuse that it was nice and warm in the car and would end up staying in the car too long.  So I ran, along the elevated tracks of the D train to Bay Parkway then turned left for the bay.  I thought the roads would be clean to run on, but it was not that clean.  The sun didn't yet rise when I got to Caesar's Bay.  I saw J's car, I did tell him to go ahead and I would catch up to him.  We run at the same turtle speed but I fancied I would switch to turbo mode somehow and overtake him, wishful thinking.  Just a K or so in I knew this was a mistake.  It was cold, dark because the sun hadn't come out, and there was a lot of semi-hard snow on the ground.  I had a bandana mask on but it didn't stay up, very annoying.  I usually take a few photos on runs like this but it was too cold I didn't want to take off the gloves to take photos.  Such is one disadvantage with smartphone cameras.  With the typical digital camera, you know, the one that not too long ago displaced the trusty 35mm camera, you can control the camera if you gloves fit snugly.

Still, I pressed on, at times just walked it since there was little difference between trying to run and walking.  My worse fear was that I would twist an ankle but luckily nothing that bad happened.  A few times I thought of taking some overhead bridges over the Belt Parkway to run on Cropsey Avenue or some civilized street that should be plowed already.  But I promised J I would meet him on the waterfront so I soldiered on.  By the second footbridge after the Verrazano, the path was perfectly straight all the way to Owl's Head Pier.  I decided that if J was not heading back by then, I would just go back the 4th Avenue exit of the Belt and snuggle up with a nice hot cup of coffee.  Probably even a full breakfast and walk my way back.  J did show up, I met him halfway and we went back together, unplowed snow and all.  It actually warmed up a bit, enough for me to remove gloves to take the second photo, of icicles on the guard rail.

Now that it was over, with no damage from the cold and the slipper snow, it was a good run.  By myself I would not have done it.  Still, as long as I remember it, I won't do it again.

The bike path is completely covered with snow.  Cyclists sometimes get testy when us runners invade their lanes, but in this condition no bike would make it.  The Verrazano Bridge is in the background.

I love to see water freezes as it tries to fall to the ground.  I imagine some wave splashed onto these rails but didn't move fast enough and got frozen.  That's my crazy running partner on the left in the distance.  Way back in the center of the background is the Parachute Jump in Coney Island.

PPTC CHERRY TREE 10-MILER AND RELAY 2013

So there are many web sites where green-minded people can post giveaways to humanely get rid of stuff they no longer need.  The one thing it comes down in the end is how "nice" the people are.  There is no telling.  I had a few good weeks of actually giving things away, but this past week I re-acquainted with the down side of freecycling.  In three separate incidents, the recipient was no-show.  I don't mind if something comes up and the person notify me.  I made sure they have my cell phone and they already have my email from our initial contact.  But no phone call, no text message, no email.  Oh well.  I guess some people just have no common decency to alert me if things don't work out.  Or maybe they are just sloppy or busy people who don't keep a neat address book.  Whatever, let's get back to running news.

Today I volunteered at the Prospect Pack Track Club (PPTC) Cherry Tree 10-Miler and Relay.  The day started with me getting at the pre-dawn hour of 5 AM.  The race took place in Prospect Park but we had bib distribution and food service to be setup at Bishop Ford High School.  The school is not near my D train and weekend train transfer is a pain, so I decided early on to run to the school.  My friend Chicken Underwear already told me that it was not a good idea as I would spend the whole day in the cold with sweat-soaked clothes, but I prepared a set of clothes to change into after the run.  I went mostly along the D train itself, along 86th Street then New Utrecht Avenue, then Fort Hamilton Parkway and MacDonald Avenue.  It started out dark and gloomy, cold too, but by the time I hit Greenwood Cemetery the sun came out and the birds were tweeting their status updates.  That's the nice thing about morning run, there's literally light at the end to look forward to.  On the other hand, evening run at sunset can only lead to more darkness as the day wanes.

I once rode a bike to the area and can vividly recall the difficulty of going up the hill once I made the turn from Fort Hamilton into MacDonald, along the cemetery's perimeter.  The hill was still there today but it seemed somewhat easier to climb than being on a bike.  I thought of stopping once, perhaps at some traffic light, but I kept pressing on, just one more block.  Soon enough I was at the corner of Bishop Ford and decided I had enough of a workout.  The trip came out to be 7.88 km, or less than 5 miles, done in 1:00:04.  I missed the chance to help unload the U-Haul van with the fruits and water etc but there was some other work to do.

One funny thing is there happened to be some school trip so many kids showed up with luggages.  At the PPTC Turkey Trot run on Thanksgiving Day 2012, Bishop Ford had a clear presence, with kids running and helping with water stations etc.  I thought today's kids also ran, but what with all the luggages?  Eventually it was time for the kids to get on their buses and we had the cafeteria to ourself.

It was nice and warm inside the school, with food and hot chocolate within reach, but there were many volunteers so when the chance came to get a ride to Prospect Park to help with the setup of finish line and start line, I went on the ride.  It was freezing cold out there!  I already changed into dry clothes and had many layers on but the hands with only one layer of gloves were cold.  Luckily, I was able to grab a pair of bling gloves for the race, thin enough to serve as the inside layer.

I thought I would help with IDing finishers in the top three but that was not the case.  Since the race was both a 10-miler for individuals and a relay for teams of three runners, there was a need to tell the runners where to go to keep running or to get into the transition area to hand over the baton.  For a while I held two signs to direct the runners, but the letters on the signs were too small.  Most runners knew where to run, but for some by the time they were close enough to read the signs they were already steps away down the wrong path.  I gave up on the signs and just shouted out instructions, along with other PPTC volunteers in the area.  Without the signs to occupy my hands, I put the free hands to work to photograph the runners.  There were too many runners so I just focused on taking photos of people sporting PPTC items of clothes.  There was a friend from a recycling group who happens to be a great runner and I looked for her but couldn't find her.  I did see a different friend, from DailyMile.com.  She ran the 10-mile course, or 3 big loops of Prospect Park, so the first time I caught her, the second time she caught me, and the third time I was ready to catch her in action, going hard for the finish line.

The Cherry Tree race is advertised as a race for the hard-core.  I don't consider 10 miles a very long distance, but with the kind of temperature we had today, in the teens (Fahrenheit) it sure is hard-core.  After the race, runners and volunteers went back to Bishop Ford to relax and re-supply the bodies, and there was even free massage.  After standing for hours in the cold, I could use a massage but I was supposed to rush back home to take the boys swimming.  So, I only had cup of soup, an ice cream (Enlighted - the good-for-you ice cream!), and a bagel with cream cheese.

Enjoy some of the photos I took at the event!

The whole Picasa album:

https://plus.google.com/photos/109153989599275468311/albums/5846077348243420289