Views from indoor living

The winter in NYC, which started early this season with a terrific snow blizzard on December 26th, continues to maintain subzero temperatures. Storms that follow their patterns from west to east show up alternatively every few days with additional snow falls that are not so heavy, but add more layers to the already frozen surfaces and do not allow better cleaning of streets and complete garbage pickup.

The vehicular traffic that is already impaired by ongoing large city projects that require digging the streets for maintenance of underground facilities, was brought to a stand still during these periods of bad weather condition. The vehemence of the December blizzard forced many people to abandon their cars in the middle of roads and that created havoc and impossible salt spreading and snow plowing.

Fortunately I don't have to go out since I can work indoors in my cozy and well heated apartment, where I can also enjoy the sunshine that shows up in between the storms......

Here, in NY, my apartment has a south-western exposure and is extremely quiet since it is positioned in the back of the building and overlooking a small garden area. In Tirana, instead, my lodging has a couple of balconies and can be noisy at times, but offers excellent open views (even during bad weather) of the city and its suburbs since it's on a much higher floor.



Through the small kitchen window that has allowed me to take the snow pictures above in NY, in the evening of the same day I could see an interesting rising moon beside the lit apartments in the high rise a block away.


As I am writing this I hear from my friends in Albania that today they had a real spring day of 63F and had to take their jackets off during midday, while our range in NY is between 30 to 20F, and a new storm is forthcoming by the middle of next week. Better stock up more food in the fridge!