“Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty … ”
Remember how we longed for this just a few months back when we were firmly in the clutches of Old Man Winter?
We’re in the throes of a good old-fashioned summer — temps in the 80s and 90s, humidity turning crisp shirts and blouses into limp rags in the blink of an eye, a slower pace as people try gliding through their day rather than racing as they usually do.
At my abode up here on Weathering Heights the breezes blowing up from the Hudson River help. But an unexpected five-day period without air conditioning tossed us back into the Dark Ages, comfortwise. The HVAC technician who arrived this afternoon immediately was adorned with New Best Friend status. Funny how we can get so dependent on modern conveniences.
Sporadic power failures (I refuse to do National Grid’s public relations work by calling them “outages” unless we also call lack of failures “inages”) have put numerous Capital Region residents into discomfort, even danger, periodically this summer.
If you need proof, just take a drive around on such an evening. In downtown Albany, for example, you can’t help but notice how many front steps are heavily populated by brownstone apartment dwellers seeking respite from the heat. Same for Troy, particularly from Hedley Park Place all the way north into Lansingburgh — kids, moms, dads, young couples all lounging on steps, sitting on fire hydrants or car fenders, gossipping or kidding around, nobody moving in any particular hurry.
Since we have neither the political muscle nor the bucks to make National Grid do a better job than it has been doing this season, we better just try to relax and follow the advice of Simon & Garfunkle:
“Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.”
(Posted 07/16/07)
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