Churchill apparently said, "When your going through hell, just keep going." so without further hyperbole I will say that the 2010 snows of Philadelphia, and the East Coast, have been trying so far. Today we will get another foot of snow on top of 28 inches we got five days ago. The federal government has been closed for 3 days without relief in sight. Here, I got up at my usual 7:30A and watched Morning Joe while brushing, shaving and showering. A ritual I have settled into. I put my parka on, walked out of the apartment, forgot some things as usual, so I went back, but finally got to the train at 15ht St. with my Starbucks, half-caff venti drip, and stopped at the Dunkin' Donuts for the usual two jelly donuts from the team of Indian women behind the counter. Walked past the cadre of street guys and buskers as well as a flock of sleeping pigeons. Got on the subway to the 34th St. stop and went to the third floor of the Science Center at 34th and Market where the Center for Bioethics has its command center. But today it was dark. The University closed, but there wasn't any snow yet. Should've checked my emails before leaving for the day.
Mona, the security officer at the Center's entrance said, "It's never going to stop". I said that I was locked out of my office and couldn't go home, so I was cast onto the street. Maybe I could recover some of the money I had given away over the last few days.
Slogged over to the Biomedical library at Penn realizing that every intersection was an event as it has been for days now. The walks are reasonably clean but at each intersection there are ponds of slush and snow that require acrobatic skill to navigate. I feel that I am in an eternal Dristan commercial...the kind where the poor sod is standing on a corner sniveling and sneezing only to have a car throw a wake of slush on him from the waste down.
I got into some kind of dance with a Penn snow plow. I moved from one unstragegic postion at the intersection to another while he seemed to move to plow exactly where I had moved. He was having fun with me. I was trapped. He plowed slush all over me. What kind of person...City of Brotherly Love?
Got some papers on the philosophy of humor at the library. My only refuge mentally and physically. But they were closing. Went to the Penn Book store, but they were closing. Got back on the train and went to Barnes and Noble to read, but, yes, they were closed. The blowing snow and slush and general miserableness wouldn't be so bad if things could just stay open, but no way. Grocery stores are closed but a shoe store is still open, what the...?
I am back in my 200 sq. ft. palace which is warm and open. The consolation is that people are talking to each other and still have a sense of humor. Nice! Tomorrow, will be different? Maybe.
More than any other time in history human kind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly. -Woody Allen
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