I went on good long walk through the city on this grey and misty autumn day, and here’s what I encountered:

• South along the High Line: thousands of slow-walking tourists stopping and puzzling over fold-out maps. Autumn leaves, autumn smells. A few stray patches of residual snow from the recent nor’easter.
• South from there along Greenwich St: cobblestone streets, beautiful architecture.
• Hudson Square area: I’ve heard a bit about new commercial real estate projects here. It has a feel of things to come — construction and billboards with marketing messages from realtors. At this point, it’s not a very interesting place to walk through.
• East to Soho: I stopped off at Souen, a restaurant that describes itself as “organic and macrobiotic” and consumed an insanely healthy lunch: sautéed brussel sprouts with peanut sauce (topped with walnuts), and wakame soup. Continue reading →

The other evening, a nor’easter bore down upon NYC with sudden sleety volleys of wet snow. I decided to visit my neighborhood diner to take in the view from a warm place with big windows. I joined a group of local folk at the bar, some of whom I’d seen in there before, and we traded Sandy tales. Continue reading →

I wasn’t able to pick up my mail last week; my local post office branch was closed with no power. Fortunately when I stopped by there on Monday this week, my voter registration card had arrived — right down to the wire!

Along with it, I received a “Voter Report Card” from the League of Conservation Voters. Although I definitely *have* voted in all general elections for the past twenty years (just not here in NYC), I still found myself immediately feeling self-conscious, standing there in the post office with this indicting report.

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I went to a neighborhood barbershop this afternoon to get a haircut. The barber quickly intuited that I was a new customer, and as he got started, he asked me, in a strong Russian accent, about other places I had gone to get a haircut. Do they offer an online appointment system? He was curious because he had just launched this service for his shop. “Did you receive a confirmation email?” he asked me intently. I told him yes, I did. “And did it provide the correct time?” he asked. I said that it had. Apparently other customers have had issues; the recent daylight savings time changeover has caused a bit of a bug. He interrupted the haircut to call someone to complain about this, in Russian. Continue reading →

Walking through the East Village and Alphabet City today, I spotted a-frame signage sporting a variety of post-Sandy messages. Here are a few examples.

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Just returned home and all is well. Sounds like power was restored to my neighborhood right after I left on Friday. 

As I traveled through New Jersey on the Bolt Bus this afternoon, I saw an incredibly long line of vehicles at a gas station. And I wasn’t able to take the subway to my area from 34th St — looks like my local subway stations (14th st, 8th st) are still closed.

Other than that, what I encountered in my trip home today looked basically like it did before. It was good to see my neighborhood businesses with their lights on again, and the typical evening bustle of folks here. 

Sounds like my power should be back on when I return Sunday evening, although a native New Yorker who lived through the '03 blackout warned me that my building might not see power restored for another week or more (because it's a century old). 

I made sure to completely empty my refrigerator and freezer before I left this afternoon, to make sure I don't have any fun science experiments waiting for me when I return.

Walking through the West Village this afternoon, I saw a few scrappy vendors selling flashlights and batteries. If power is restored tomorrow, this may be a very short-lived enterprise.

11:45am

Had a great dinner last night with my gracious Brooklyn host and a friend who lives nearby in Park Slope. Both of them, like so many others in Brooklyn, have been working from home this week, with Manhattan office locations still out of power. We talked about how our survival instincts have kicked in this week — the evidence of which is:

• Eating more than normal — our dinner last night, for example, was a celebration of carbohydrates
• Sleeping more than normal
• Vivid dreams, not all of which are pleasant Continue reading →

The Think Coffee location nearest me lost its awning in the storm – took this photo yesterday. This morning as I walked south towards the Manhattan bridge, I saw several awnings and signs in similar condition.