July 7th Heat in all ways

July 6th Heat


The circus around the 4th of July is done, I am glad. The masses were too many, the weather is all around too hot for anything and the fireworks, well, real pretty, but a half hour long and all I could think about, is how many people could have been fed from all that money that went into it. Ten minutes would have been pretty too.Not to mention the rest of the country…….

The weather was 103 today, practically unbearable and it will be till Saturday. In the city you cannot go from AC car to AC building, unlike Austin,you have to walk in it, to get anywhere at all, wait on platforms that are hot hot hot , when the train comes some relieve arrives, but no AC can handle this heat properly
My apartment is reasonable – I hear some people lost power!! – but even with working AC, it is reasonable, not great.

The barrage of the Senses:

It is remarkable, I never really thought about it that much.

Touch: Everybody touches everybody, especially in the subway. There is no carefulness about that, no mindfulness, it just does not matter. Having lived in Texas where nobody touches anybody under any circumstances, I have become sensitized to all this touch. Men sit in the subway legs spread apart, and wether there is a seat or not, no room is made . Big people have no problem using up two seats and all the while anyone just leans into you or at best, touches your legs, arms, hip, whatever.

Smell: there is always garbage on one street corner or another, some street or another is due for pick up.

Sound: too much, too loud. When I come home I need to use an escalator to get to street level and it sqeaks and grinds.

Then again, I get treated to one performance or another South American, classic guitar, break dancing (yes, they still do that here) and so on.

Visual: as much ugliness as beauty. Buildings are amazing when you bother to look up, avenues spectacular, fountains, statues, combinations of high rises that are beautiful in variety of color, size material and shape.

I feel very safe in New York now, more so than when I lived here 20 years ago. By and large, people are friendly when asked a question, but no unnecessary smiling while walking about!!