Freezing cold ... a good day to ...

[Lance]

... stay in the warmth of your home or apartment or mansion and catch up on listening toyour many new (or old and forgotten) recordings! I cannot recall enduring such a cold, relatively snowless winter in many years. My heart goes out to New Yorkers, Bostonites, and all those in New England. Even the southern USA isn't to great now with record low temperatures in Georgia and Florida.

I trust you all had a happy Christmas, Hannukah, or whatever events you celebrate, and brought in the New Year with many new ideas, proposals, and resolutions!

[John F]

Unfortunately I have to go to work at the library today. I love the work, but it's 14° between here and there, and even colder coming home. <brrrr>

[lennygoran]

... stay in the warmth of your home or apartment or mansion and catch up on listening toyour many new (or old and forgotten) recordings! I cannot recall enduring such a cold, relatively snowless winter in many years.

Lance thanks-we spent nearly the whole day indoors-I went out briefly for the mail but the wind and cold is awful-the sun looked good but as soon as I stepped outside I realized how terrible it was-it is good that our snowplow guy came yesterday so our driveway at least is manageable. Regards, Len

[jbuck919]

Well I've scarcely seen above zero in two weeks, and today is no different. I think I'm adequately provisioned, but I'm afraid to look at my next power bill because the use I have to give my heating system is wreaking havoc with any reasonable budget. Like John F, I have a certain control over my work schedule, but tomorrow is Sunday and then the rector added a vigil for Epiphany this evening. At least I get fed at that because it is followed by a pot luck, but the last thing I want to do is go out today and then again tomorrow morning.

We three kings of orient are, freezing our arse off just getting to the car.

[lennygoran]

>afraid to look at my next power bill because the use I have to give my heating system is wreaking havoc with any reasonable budget.

We're using a lot of heating oil-the price of oil has risen. Regards, Len

[jbuck919]

It's a good thing I went to the vigil service. I have a cousin George in Corinth (unfortunately for him equidistant from me as Warrensburg but in the other direction and twice the travel time for him) and without any prompting from me, though like my whole family his background is Roman Catholic, he has let the parish adopt him. Among other things, he enjoys cooking for a crowd, which I don't. (My contribution was playing music outside the contractual obligation.) He always arrives at the last minute, but this time when I looked to where he always sits, there was also his mother, my 91-year-old Aunt Yvonne who is my father's older sister, George's sister and his wife (Aunt Yvonne had ten kids), and their two high-school-age boys. (George had his children late in life.) The boys are the closest things I will ever have to somebody corresponding to John F's nephews, but I'm still a new introduction to them, even though I substitute teach at their school, but I don't think they quite know what to do with another friendly but increasingly elderly relative. Although I initiate conversations with them, I don't think I've ever gotten a word in response, and that's not me. I haven't been in teaching all these years because school-age kids don't like me.

[maestrob]

We're just hunkered down living off supplies and food delivered from nearby restaurants. It's 6 degrees outside as I write, listening to Bach cantatas. We have several grocery delivery services available, but so far they haven't been necessary. Our apartment is toasty, but the windows are fogged with ice accumulation, and our lobby is freezing cold when we go get the mail. Thankfully, this will be over by Tuesday, and normal temperatures will return.

Bach reigns!

[barney]

I don't know that I've ever been in the sort of cold the East Coast of the US is going through. I have pictures of myself as a toddler in London building a snowman, but I haven't touched snow for nearly 40 years, since I was last in Europe in winter.
But in Sydney yesterday it got to 47 celsius, which is 116 Fahrenheit, and that is pretty extreme.

[Belle]

It was horrific, Barney, and almost as bad today. As I write this there's a raging lightning and thunder storm producing (as usual) NOT A DROP OF RAIN. I can only think of this at the moment while the lightning is frighteningly close to the house, cracking unimaginably loudly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvU9qgP8aA4

And to cheer myself up there's nothing better than watching 'the great man'!! Muti conducted this same piece and it wasn't a patch on Kleiber's high octane version (even with some intonation problems in the 'first desk' at 1:23) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNxFm7_XTyA

[lennygoran]

But in Sydney yesterday it got to 47 celsius, which is 116 Fahrenheit, and that is pretty extreme.

Barney that's just awful-do most people have air conditioning? Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

As I write this there's a raging lightning and thunder storm producing (as usual) NOT A DROP OF RAIN. I can only think of this at the moment while the lightning is frighteningly close to the house, cracking unimaginably loudly

Belle I couldn't even enjoy music, TV, computers, etc under conditions that bad-stay safe! Regards, Len

[Belle]

As I write this there's a raging lightning and thunder storm producing (as usual) NOT A DROP OF RAIN. I can only think of this at the moment while the lightning is frighteningly close to the house, cracking unimaginably loudly

Belle I couldn't even enjoy music, TV, computers, etc under conditions that bad-stay safe! Regards, Len

Thanks for your good wishes. This storm 'event' has now occurred 3 times tonight and without a single drop of rain. The shopping malls are filled with people milling about because they want to remain cool; obviously they don't have air-conditioning in some older homes and have to spend all day at 'the shops'. I feel sorry for the elderly who don't have AC and who live on pensions and cannot afford our very high energy costs. Some of them will die.

You will lose people in the cold. What do the homeless do under such circumstances? This piece is dedicated to you and your long suffering countrymen and women:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qaK3EvC6A8

[lennygoran]

What do the homeless do under such circumstances? This piece is dedicated to you and your long suffering countrymen and women

Belle thanks-the homeless situation in NYC is a problem. I wasn't familiar with the piece--sure appropriate for our weather situation. Regards, Len

What power art thou, who from below
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting, everlasting snow
See'st thou not how stiff, how stiff and wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold
I can scarcely move or draw my breath
I can scarcely move or draw my breath
Let me, let me freeze again
Let me, let me freeze again to death
Let me, let me freeze again to death

[maestrob]

Hi, Belle.

Our homeless who refuse to go to shelters linger in the subway system, where they can sleep in heated cars that run all 24hrs/day. It's a tough situation here in Manhattan, with rents for s studio apartment costing well over $3000/month, and 1 bedroom apartments, even in older buildings, costing $1 million or more. And let's not talk about rents for small businesses, which have to raise prices to pay exorbitant rents. There are more than 60,000 homeless in the city by official count: I imagine it's quite a few more than that. When one becomes homeless, it can take a year or more to find permanent subsidized lodgings (I know because this happened to an artist/musician friend of ours, before we knew him, who lived in the Port Authority for that length of time.).

[jbuck919]

Hi, Belle.

Our homeless who refuse to go to shelters linger in the subway system, where they can sleep in heated cars that run all 24hrs/day. It's a tough situation here in Manhattan, with rents for s studio apartment costing well over $3000/month, and 1 bedroom apartments, even in older buildings, costing $1 million or more. And let's not talk about rents for small businesses, which have to raise prices to pay exorbitant rents. There are more than 60,000 homeless in the city by official count: I imagine it's quite a few more than that. When one becomes homeless, it can take a year or more to find permanent subsidized lodgings (I know because this happened to an artist/musician friend of ours, before we knew him, who lived in the Port Authority for that length of time.).

For people like Belle who may not know, Port Authority refers to the largest bus terminal in probably the world, and I assume b. means the old one, where I saw things no one would believe short of people trying to sleep.

People who are homeless and won't go to shelters and aren't heroin junkies sleeping it off are invariably mentally ill. An estimate of 60,000 is not that great in a city of 8 or probably closer to 9 million (because of Republican-backed census undercounting). (Irrelevantly, if one extrapolates from the estimate of adult men who abuse boys, there are 40,000 of those in NYC.) In the distant past they would have been institutionalized. There is no good reason to encounter them sleeping on a subway bench or one in Grand Central Station, as I did many times in the past. The police only tolerate this up to a certain point. Modern NYC, like all cities including the local small ones, has adequate provisions for people being sheltered from severe cold so that they don't simply freeze to death. People who resist this for reasons of mental illness should simply be gently and expertly escorted to some place prepared for them.

[Belle]

One wonders why the homeless don't move to a cheaper city to live; presumably most don't have jobs, so cheaper accommodation could be found in other places. Same in Sydney; I always ask myself why they don't move to a small country town and at least the rent would be covered by their welfare payments. That has always remained enigmatic to me.

You obviously have a serious property crisis there in NYC. for people who don't earn the big bucks. I can't believe that $3,000 a month!!! Obviously, though, there are a great many people who can pay that!

[lennygoran]

For people like Belle who may not know, Port Authority refers to the largest bus terminal in probably the world, and I assume b. means the old one, where I saw things no one would believe short of people trying to sleep.

John now that we stay in Secaucus like we'll be doing again starting tomorrow we see some of that sleeping and hanging out-not a lot of it but definitely some of it. Regards, Len

[John F]

I haven't used the Port Authority terminal in years, but when I did, they cleared out the homeless etc. by playing classical music on the PA system. I'm not kidding, it's a fact. And that must be why Penn Station also plays CM continually. If they played conventional Muzak, that might attract the unwanted.

[lennygoran]

I haven't used the Port Authority terminal in years, but when I did, they cleared out the homeless etc. by playing classical music on the PA system. I'm not kidding, it's a fact.

Wow, amazing-I'll check this out over the next 5 days--hope they'll play some Donizetti! Regards, Len

[maestrob]

I haven't used the Port Authority terminal in years, but when I did, they cleared out the homeless etc. by playing classical music on the PA system. I'm not kidding, it's a fact.

Wow, amazing-I'll check this out over the next 5 days--hope they'll play some Donizetti! Regards, Len

Like it or not, it's been so for decades. Unfortunately, no opera, just Mostly Mozart.

[jbuck919]

I haven't used the Port Authority terminal in years, but when I did, they cleared out the homeless etc. by playing classical music on the PA system. I'm not kidding, it's a fact. And that must be why Penn Station also plays CM continually. If they played conventional Muzak, that might attract the unwanted.

It is a common way of getting rid of vagrants and loiterers. It is frequently used at kid hangouts like some stop and shop places where they play Frank Sinatra to send the kids away. The sad thing is what kids these days consider music, just like what they consider dancing. If you think it was bad in previous decades, trust me as a teacher who was forced to chaperone dances, it has reached a peak of what can only be called savagery.

No, what I was talking about with regard to the old Port Authority terminal, which I had to use frequently in the 70s to get home for a visit, is something quite different. For one thing, it was a hangout for teen male prostitutes, an extension of the Times Square situation at that time. (I often had to traverse the entirely labyrinthine path from the gigantic Times Square subway station to the bus terminal, all enclosed, and eventually got it memorized, but don't ask me to recall it now.) Once I saw, let's say, a "cool dude" strutting his stuff down the wide passageway inside of where the buses to Orange County were lined up. Not five minutes later, I saw the same young man throwing up on the floor outside my own gate. (Fortunately, even back then there were kind New Yorkers who knew how to come to someone's aid.) Another time I encountered two very young boys who were runaways whose parents had sent them bus fare to get back home. There were women dressed in obviously faux nun habits panhandling, and they were often on the same bus I caught back to Newburgh. I could go on and on. It was horror non-hotel.

[John F]

Goodness! I never saw any of that. What a scene.

[lennygoran]

I could go on and on. It was horror non-hotel.

Fortunately it's not as bad these days! Regards, Len

[barney]

I used the Port Authority 4 times a day in my month-long New York visit, because I was staying the other side of the river. I saw a lot of homeless people, but not usually sleeping. There were a lot of authorities, who possibly kept them moving. I never felt unsafe.

[Lance]

I cannot imagine such a situation even though I know it exists. It happens in all larger cities, and many smaller ones as well. When one thinks that these homeless were (hopefully) someone's very special children at one time, with thoughts of having them amount to something in the bigger world, and look how it turned out. Then, of course, some did not have good home lives and just continued a tradition. Seems to me that monies spent for other American projects (some that take advantage or are just plain wasteful) could be used to a greater extent to provide shelters, food, clothing and just the basic necessities of life, especially for children. Perhaps I am daydreaming.

Hi, Belle.

Our homeless who refuse to go to shelters linger in the subway system, where they can sleep in heated cars that run all 24hrs/day. It's a tough situation here in Manhattan, with rents for s studio apartment costing well over $3000/month, and 1 bedroom apartments, even in older buildings, costing $1 million or more. And let's not talk about rents for small businesses, which have to raise prices to pay exorbitant rents. There are more than 60,000 homeless in the city by official count: I imagine it's quite a few more than that. When one becomes homeless, it can take a year or more to find permanent subsidized lodgings (I know because this happened to an artist/musician friend of ours, before we knew him, who lived in the Port Authority for that length of time.).

[jbuck919]

Just in case anyone is interested, I got blocked from church this morning by a closed road. I had my cell phone and called in, but around here, no regular organist means no organist. I am paid to do this and don't even take my contractual four Sundays off per year (a way of returning something to a parish that has been very good to me), but now I'll feel guilty for at least a week.

[lennygoran]

Just in case anyone is interested, I got blocked from church this morning by a closed road.

Sorry to hear that-no detour was signified-how did others get to the church. Regards, Len [hater of winter]

[jbuck919]

Just in case anyone is interested, I got blocked from church this morning by a closed road.

Sorry to hear that-no detour was signified-how did others get to the church. Regards, Len [hater of winter]

I'm the only one (literally) who comes from Stony Creek. You've been on that road, BTW. It was blocked at Athol Road up into Thurman. Yes, I could figure out a back way, but given the fact that the road conditions were also pretty bad (zero degrees here), I just gave up and turned back home. I still don't know why the road was blocked, but it was not news to the lady who answered the phone at the church (who also writes my paycheck).

[lennygoran]

Yes, I could figure out a back way, but given the fact that the road conditions were also pretty bad (zero degrees here), I just gave up and turned back home.

You did right-safety first! Regards, Len

[jbuck919]

It may be only Len who knows the geography here, but what happened was that the ice backup on the Hudson consumed the road all around the vicinity of Thurman Station. I am told that it will not be open again until spring. This is a very big deal for me. No matter what alternative route I choose, it is going to take me at least half an hour longer to get to Warrensburg, and Warrensburg was my access to Queensbury. All of a sudden, life has become more complicated.

[lennygoran]

It may be only Len who knows the geography here, but what happened was that the ice backup on the Hudson consumed the road all around the vicinity of Thurman Station. I am told that it will not be open again until spring.

Wow, that's terrible-why so long--did a bridge go out anywhere along the road. Regards, Len