I don't know if it was because I was sick yesterday, or maybe because it was a Sunday, but it was my experience that yesterday's snow storm generated just about excitement for me, and other New Yorkers, as the Winter Olympics. And believe me, that's not much...
Maybe it was because this "blizzard," wasn't a blizzard at all. According to the National Weather Service a blizzard requires winds of 35 miles per hour and a quarter mile or less of visibility for three straight hours, none of which occurred. So for all its intensity we just got a storm.
Not that it wasn't impressive. After all we had nearly 30 inches of snow; no mere feat. But it just didn't seem all that great. Call it Global Warming but in the last two or three years NYC has recorded some of the highest snowfall ever, and we're growing numb to anything less than "A Day After Tomorrow," type weather. When we get wolves prowling the streets then I think we'll get worried, but right now they all seem to be in Iraq.
Maybe that's why I'm sitting at work right now, instead of home drinking Irish Coffees and cavorting with my girlfriend while watching the never-ending parade of Law And Order reruns on TNT. In fact pretty much every one is in the City is sitting at work like its just another day, and this snow flows off our back like we were a friggin tribe of Eskimos. About 8 years ago we'd had a storm like this and everyone had like a week off of work, but I supposed our city government learned its lesson and as soon as the snow began to fall the plows were outside, making that scraping racket as it shoveled and sprayed salt all over the place, staining everything that sickly chalk white. We were well prepared for this and it shows. Thanks a lot Mayor Bloomberg.
I supposed Bush should have put him in charge of FEMA back in the days. Hell, he could have done better if he'd put Ronald McDonald in charge of the department. At least he might have gotten the refugees some Chicken McNuggets. Even after all these months, and a change of director, it appears that FEMA is still flunking the exam. According to the Daily News today, 4,500 families were forced out of their hotel rooms for not registering, and 12,000 will be evicted today as their FEMA subsidies elapse. All this during a time that FEMA has left 10,000 new mobile homes sit unused while the department argues over bureaucratic details. That's good, at least Michael Brown will have a place to live once people get done firebombing his mansion.
The glaring examples of inaptitude shown by the Feds, only make me realize the superb work done by my city. Sure enough New York isn't exactly some small town in the midwest, but the fact that we can have a record snowfall and have the luxury of barely noticing such an event only highlights what can be accomplished through sense and competence. It sucks that I had to get out of bed and go to work today, but when the other option, the FEMA option, is not to have a bed to come back to, then I think I'll take choice number 1.
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