So, like most of you I spent this morning dealing with the flood, (that picture was taken about halfway to La Guardia on the Grand Central). I left my apartment at 6am during the height of the heaviest rain for an 8am flight. I arrived at La Guardia at 9:30, but luckily the flights were delayed just as much as the traffic was so I was still able to fly out. A hearty thanks goes out to my taxi driver Paul. A taxi from my place to LGA usually costs me about $20. I had $40 in my wallet and I told Paul point blank when the meter hit $30 (and we hadn’t even crossed the Triborough yet) that if he expected to get paid he needed to stop the meter. That $30 plus the $4 toll from the bridge left him with a $6 tip… but only if he stopped the meter. After a quick chat with his dispatch he agreed, thankfully.

One of the interesting aspects of New York City is that it is the center of a lot of things, including the news media so events that are newsworthy here are often treated as newsworthy around the whole country. So as soon as people started reporting on the complete shut down of NYC, my mom called to make sure I was okay. Just like she did when the steam pipe blew. Just like she did when the plane hit the apartment building last year. Just like she always does. It’s funny really, she sometimes tells me what’s going on in the city before even I know about it (which happened with both the plane and the steam pipe) and it’s happening mere blocks from me. It’s also easy to be lazy about it, no need to call home and lament about my day, my mom will have already heard about it on the nightly news.