Showing posts with label Snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snow. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The First Snowfall

The first snow of the season fell lightly to the ground casting soft silhouettes in the halogen lights of the waiting cars as they descended from the clouds above. Footprints of different sizes littered the now white sidewalk going to and fro. The slick and shiny street played a direct contrast with the white covering on the surrounding sidewalks. The ebony asphalt shone like polished black leather against the seemingly pure white bookends of the powdered sidewalks. Light crunches of a passing pedestrian interrupted the imagined soft muted sounds of the flakes landing one on top of the other. The fate of these shiny little flakes lies in being crushed under the footsteps of those whose footprints would be littering the sidewalk in the hours to come thereby ending the first snow flakes to land during the first snow of the season.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

New Yorkers have become Snow Wimps

You know, I have to agree with my friend Dorie and her Facebook status update. Here it is:

Just because it is snowing does not mean this is a blizzard. Have we as New Yorkers been so pampered in these last years that one flake of snow sends us screaming and flailing in fright?? Come on!! I'm embarrassed to share a city with you. GIVE. ME. SNOW.

So the wife, the kids and I go to Pathmark yesterday to buy things in case the snow gets too bad and to be honest, our shelves were somewhat bare. And yes, the schools were already slated to be closed due to the impending snow but never did I expect to see what I saw. As I entered the supermarket, I see lines everywhere...and I mean everywhere. It seemed as if the "stout" and "strong" people of the Bronx were dealing with the end of the world. It was utter madness. I should have just turned around and gone back home. But since we were there, why not just go through with it. What a mistake.

The shelves were ransacked with merchandise and produce just thrown around all over the place. People were jockeying for positions on lines, yelling, cursing and it was getting rather brutal. I sent my wife and the kids to McDonalds to wait for me while I waited to use a self-service line. Here's where it gets "funny".

So it seems that instead of using a service entrance/aisle to bring merchandise in, the Pathmark employees chose to bring shopping cars full of stuff through the front of the store asking to cross through all of the aisles full of shoppers. And of course they chose right where I was standing to navigate. For those of you who know me I'm not a small person. I take up space and if someone is trying to get by, I just can't nudge myself over. I have to completely move out of the way. And I do so.

As I'm trying to get back, a woman starts to berate me. She says that everytime I move, people cut into her line and in front of her. I say what do you want me to do, the Pathmark people are coming through here where I'm standing. She says don't move. What am I an animal? I'm going to say I'm not moving? C'mon now. So as I try to explain myself to her, she's like don't raise your voice to me. Now I've already had a real bad week and the last thing I need is for someone to dance on this frayed last nerve I have. So as I usually do (and it won't happen too many times in the future) I take the high road and apologize (for nothing that I did wrong) just to shut this woman up before I do something that I would otherwise regret. In a smug tone she says "Good and have a good night" as the other people on the lines yell out "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" a-la The Jerry Springer show. Really, I can't make this up people. Now you see why I complain about the area where I live.

Yeah, in her ghetto donkey mentality she got one over on me. F$ck you and the high ghetto horse you rode in on. To make a situation worse, a few minutes later, another woman started yelling out to the people on the lines "Lets all just leave with our stuff. Pathmark can't stop all of us from taking what we want". Damn woman, that is how riots get started and people get trampled. Luckily no one was stupid enough to take her up on her offer though as I looked around, some people seriously contemplated it.

I have to tell you. I deal with @ssholes all day at work and for me to deal with it on my free time just pisses me off. I treat people with respect at all times (even when I throw them out of the bar or not let them in) so I expect the same. Last night was the last straw. Never again will I place myself in that predicament. Pathmark on Bruckner Boulevard will never get my money. Ever! I rather overpay at the Associated down by Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place and shlep it all the way home on the train burdened by shopping bags and know that I'll be treated with respect as I always have been there.

And all that was due to was to a little bit of snow that we have gotten today. F'n wimps.