Snowy New York City is...well Messy New York City

[shadowkat]

This is the Manhattan Financial District - in front of my workplace, the Bowling Green subway station and park.

Snow was cleared from most of the streets, just not the lesser used side streets, and sidewalks in front of houses. Apartment complexes, yes. Small businesses and houses not so much. Also all the parked cars were snowed in.









Super called while I was talking to my mother (on the phone - mother lives over 13 hours away). Apparently there was a lot of snow on the roof and some leaks - the tenant on the fifth floor filed a potential leak complaint. Nothing serious. She was warning me. Since I was fighting off a sinus headache from hell at the time - I kind of over-reacted, but did calm down. (In my defense - Super's third language is English, so talking to her can be headache inducing as well? She's fluent in Polish and Russian - which are of the same family of languages. English is not. So I'm always fighting a language barrier - it's okay, I admire her ability to know and speak in more than one language. Wish I could.) There really is nothing visible, just a brown spot, very small, hardly noticeable on the edge of the wainscoting or crown molding around the top of the wall just beneath the ceiling. And a little puckering. If she hadn't told me to check - I'd not have seen it. It is in the section above the television and to the left of the outlet. The outlet is near the floor. I have 10-12 feet ceilings.

The guy upstairs said he didn't think it was a problem, and just moved the television a little ways from the wall and apparently kept things plugged in. If there was a leak from the roof - it would have to travel three floors to get to me. And that's never happened from the roof - just the fourth and fifth floor bathrooms. So I should be fine. But I did move my books and television away from the wall. Also covered the cables with plastic bags. And everything is plugged into a grounding unit. The grounding unit is plugged into the wall outlet.

And I found out what was causing the insane vibrating humming sound over the weekend, which was so bad on Sunday - I used noise cancelling headphones to block it out? Apparently it was an old AC unit in the apartment building next door - the fan belt had broken. The new maintenance superintendent next door didn't know how to fix it or turn it off. It had started being a problem on Thursday. Super was calling people, pestering the next door super, etc - since Friday, and finally on Sunday came out and screamed at them to fix it. (It was right next to her bedroom.) Keep in mind temperatures were in the single digits this weekend. I thought it was mine - but mine was off, and the super said - no, yours isn't old enough, it was a really old one.

Everyone is having issues with the snow. Also public transportation is a mess. The NY Ferries aren't running or with severe delays, because the Hudson and East River have frozen, and there are ice junks - making it difficult for them to navigate. Also I think the bay leading out to the Atlantic - which is around Liberty Island and Staten Island has frozen in places.

The Long Island Rail Road was having switch problems and issues with snow on the tracks. The buses are having issues navigating snow drifts as are their passengers. NJ Transit and Path trains were running with delays, due to snow removal. The subways had delays. The airports were struggling to re-open. And there were road closures due to stalled vehicles and accidents.

The Federal Government offered to send help, and the Governor of New York and Mayor of New York City said nope, we're fine. Go away. Shoo. New Jersey more or less said the same thing - we're fine, thanks, go away.

***

The internet is giving me writer's block? Apparently to publish a book now - you have to start marketing it from day one? I don't know about anyone else? But I don't buy or watch hyped or heavily marketed items? I buy, read, and watch items rec'd by you all or that I find randomly on say Smart Bitches. Under the wire.

I don't read the best-sellers. And I'm not on TikTock. And I don't read books heavily marketed on TickTok, Good Reads, Twitter, Facebook, Threads, or Bluesky. I ignore them. They tend to be mostly YA romanfantasy (not my genre) or New Adult Romance or M/M Romance - also not my genre. I was NOT a fan of Twilight. I find Colleen Hoover unreadable. James Patterson feels like it was written by a committee.

I've been in a reading slump. And I feel like content is being thrown in my face constantly - and so much of it...is pulp (the writer has nothing to say or nothing new to say? And I wonder why they are wasting my time?)

I read today a post on FB Writers Supporting Writers - and it was all about marketing books. I got overwhelmed and tired five minutes in - and only six comments down - there were over fifty. So many running their own marketing platforms, or how they did it. They created a web site. They hired someone to do the art for the site. They got on various platforms. Picked a brand and nitch or genre and targeted that audience. And I thought? I may never buy another book in my life. And why do I even bother writing? Just tell the story in my head - fuck the world. Or if I do - I'll do it for free and post it on Ao3 or my own blog.

I've no patience for marketing and promotion and less for others doing it. I like to discover things, not have them thrust down my throat via evil marketing people.

Damn. Internet. Some days I miss the 20th Century, when we just had email and a few list serves, or the early 00s with Voy. And I could blissfully ignore the evil marketing and advertising people.

Comments

[mtbc]

Yeah, I feel as if plenty of computer-related things went downhill over the past three decades or so! Some time ago I reached the conclusion that most bestsellers have, for me, few redeeming qualities; especially if the author already wrote a few books, this one's probably just more of the same with the names and places changed. It's not easy for me to find new books I'm pleased to have found, especially in, say, an airport bookstore. E.g., the latest novel I read that I actually much liked was Bragg's Credo from decades ago, which is hardly something I'd find in a popular outlet.

Glad the leak worked out fairly well for you. In our building, a roof leak seems to be able to run down vertically some ways somewhere inside before visiting lucky recipients; it can be the guy on the ground floor getting it the worst.

[kazzy_cee]

Totally agree with you about the hype with books. I don't belong to TikTok etc, but I find it difficult to find good new authors as there's so much chatter. I laughed out loud at your comment about James Patterson :D True!