Cold In New York City

It has been VERY cold in New York the last few days, particularly when the wind chill index is used as an indicator of temperature. The wind chill was below zero for most of the day yesterday which made it difficult to go more than a few blocks at a time by foot. Of course, when it's that cold and when you need indoor warmth intermittently, you have to be careful where you go. Our big plans to traverse Central Park and migrate up 5th Avenue to drop in on the major museums there were canceled, because we were afraid we might not make it across the Park intact...you know, without being reduced to tears or getting frostbite or worse! We did have the courage to walk the nine blocks down to the fancy mall at Columbus Circle to visit the Border's Bookstore that is there on the second floor, which, with special coupons in hand, allowed us to get Malcolm Gladwell's book of essays for slightly more than the price of a cup of coffee, but even bookstores lose their appeal after a while and we finally ventured back out into the cold.

Walking home, we seemed to be directly confronting the wind blasting at us from due West, but it turned out relatively well. Only two of my fingers went numb and Karen's small toe on her left foot turned a strange shade of blue, but after dipping these digits in a warm container of water for 40 minutes, we were okay. The time passed pleasantly as we regaled each other with stories from Gladwell about Ron Popeil's Veg-O-Matic.

But we live in New York City and even when it's cold during the holidays, our penchant for being amused must be satisfied. So off we went to see Orson Welles' 1948 version of "Macbeth" at Lincoln Center (a mere three blocks away) before descending into the number one subway (one block from Lincoln Center) to head the 66 blocks to Film Forum (one block from the subway) to take in another Orson Welles' classic "The Third Man." All of this was grand fun, though it probably should be noted in this weather-oriented post that the subway is not heated (though the cars are - Ahh!), and waiting for a train more than 5 minutes can be life threatening. Fortunately for us, just as we could feel our hearts beginning to stop and our skin losing touch with our garments, the trains came in the nick of time.