The snow has mostly been cleared, RQS is home, and we finally Zoomed with our friends

 

As of this morning, the above car was still snowbound and will be blocked in even more when the next snowfall hits.  However, my spots are mostly clear (I didn't move my car until after the second visit of the snow removal people was over) and there were only a handful of spaces which evidenced people not moving their cars.  I just wonder what it will look like after this coming weekend's storm.

Shortly after 11 am, I drove RQS to the train station for the ride home.  For the most part, it was an uneventful drive for me, as the roads were mostly dry.  (That's what happens when the snow hasn't had a chance to thaw yet.)  It was also an uneventful trip home for RQS, save that she had to wait in the cold for a bus to take her home after getting out of the subway.   

I picked up my usual sausage and egg sandwich before going home, and made a trip to Target before going home for a much needed nap.  (I didn't sleep well last night.)  Around 6 pm, I realized that I had to start our Zoom meeting with our Texas friends.  So, I stayed at home, nuked some dinner, and got the Zoom going around 8 pm.  Our monthly Zoom went well, as we got one of our two Texas friends to talk more than she usually does.  

And then, the Zoom was over, and I had to catch up on things I've put off doing for a while - washing 2 of my 3 active wigs.  I figure that once they are clean and dry, I'll finish off wig cleaning by putting the 3rd wig in the sink.

Just another day in the life of a New York trans-gal.

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Shoveling snow the next day

 

This is the aftermath of this weekend's snowstorm.  One will notice what happens when someone leaves a car in the parking lot when the co-op board of directors and our managing company told our shareholders to vacate their spaces for the duration of the snowstorm.  Over a foot of snow fell on our cars, and took a lot of digging out for most of us who could do so.

My car was parked out on the street, where our town's DPW (Division of Public Works) plowed another foot of snow onto the driver's side of my car.  So, I had to clear out 2 feet of snow from one side of the car, plus the foot of snow on top of the car.  This meant that I likely cleared out 50+ cubic feet of snow.  But I had another 30-40 cubic feet to clear in front of my car to take care of, just to get my car free of the snow.  This took me about 45 minutes.  But there were others who couldn't do what I did.  One of our board members was in the hospital and couldn't move her car.  Another neighbor is disabled, and she had to hire out some help.  (I'm not sure how my body will be able to handle tasks like this in 10 years, so I'm starting to think of life without a car now.)  This meant that almost everyone would be busting their butts to get their cars free before the sun set.

Once I was done, I ended up chatting with my downstairs neighbors about the snow and things in general with the co-op.  When I went inside, I rested a bit before going out with RQS to take some photos at Croton Gorge Park.  Visiting the park today was a mistake - too many people were visiting the place, and there was not enough room for 2 cars to pass each other on their way to the parking lot or to the street.  We decided to get out of the park quickly and go to a hamburger joint for a bite to eat.

After we finished our burgers, we called TCL for a minute to see that she was OK, and then went home for the night.  Tomorrow will be the day RQS goes home for a couple of days.  But with another snowstorm coming up this coming weekend, we'll be ready for the next dump of the white stuff.

The snow is here!

 

As I write this, it is the last full weekend in January.  And the snowstorm hit as expected.  As one can see in the photo above, most residents found spaces to park on the road outside our complex, so that snowplows could clear our lot.  If  one looks carefully, the snowplow has cleared at least 8 inches of snow and pushed it to the rocks bordering our parking lot.  What bothers me is the one car in the photo has not moved in a couple of weeks, and I will ask management if they know whose car it is so that we can verify that it was not abandoned here.

I had originally intended to go outside to photograph the snow, the parking lot, and the road outside.  However, the sub-freezing cold made me reconsider this today.  I figured that I will need to shovel 12-18 inches of snow from my car, so that I can move it back to a plowed parking spot.  However, I won't do this too early, as the snow removal service will be using part of my parking spots as a place to dump snow.  (Yes, I have 2 spots.  But they are set up in a way that only one family unit can use them, as the car deepest in the 2 spots will be blocked by the other car associated with the apartment.)  

Being a co-op board member, I received messages from both shareholders and board members.  The following voicemail transcription (with minor edits by me) illustrates an issue that I discussed involving snow storm parking:

I saw your email about parking in the visitor spot. I see the plow. He's actually pushing so much snow into our spots, so we're not gonna be able to bring some of our cars back.

I'm parked way down (the road). I couldn't find anything closer. I don't know how I'm gonna get there and I'm stuck in the spot because I had to go over a curb. It's a little bit high and there was ice on the grass. This is the difference between what's happening this time and last time we did this a few years back. 

I really think we need the front loader to remove the snow. I don't know if we can afford it, but we're not gonna have our spots available to us because nothing's gonna melt and it's all gonna be ice. 

I'm stuck in the spot where I am on the road. I can't move forward or back. My car was stuck in the ice after I parked it there (last time).  

This woman is on our board.  However, a neighbor brought up similar concerns with a different attitude, as he's middle aged with a newborn son.  I'm grateful to have this man and his wife as neighbors, as they are some of the most considerate people who have lived here in years.  As you can see, we have a big problem dealing with heavy snowstorms because we do not have enough extra space for dealing with snow.

Sadly, the beauty of this snow will be lost within a day or two.  All we'll remember is shoveling out of our cars in sub-freezing weather.  Then, we'll see dirt accumulate on the road side snow.   Its beauty will be gone.   I miss those days where I could play in the snow all day.  But childhood must end for all of us.  I miss being a young adult, being able to go out cross-country skiing all day.  (I still have those skis, not having been used in 40 years.)  I miss being middle aged, where clearing my car off from a heavy snowstorm was not much of an effort.  For all things there is a time and place, and for me, I'm glad to still be able to dig my car out of the snow and move it back to its normal home.

Until I'm ready to go outside again, I'll stay in my jammies and relax.

The only reason I got dressed was to shovel out my car (a short post)

 

It is the last weekend of the year, and several inches of snow fell last night.  There was only one reason for me to get dressed - to move my car, so that the plow could clear the spot.  Luckily, I had parked my car in a visitor's spot the night before, so I only had to brush off the car, scrape the windshield a little, and move the car back to my already plowed packing space.

When I came back inside, RQS wondered whether I had even started the process of cleaning off the car.  And I was getting ready to get undressed to be able to relax for the rest of the day.  And rest we did, watching several movies and videos on the TV, making excuses not to do some laundry. Yet, we finally took care of that task around 3:30 pm.

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Snow days are common at this time of year, and I cherished the forced relaxation time we get on these days.  Yes, we will do laundry on these days when at my home.  But I can often stay in my jammies for much of the day.

One thing I've noticed is that I am slowing down.  Getting older is a drag, but the alternative would be far worse right now. For everything, there is a time and a season.  Right now it's winter outside, and I see that stage coming in my life.  And I'm comfortable with that.

A visit to the doctor - something I never like.

 

This is not a photo of my doctor.  Only when I started living full time as Marian and moving towards a medical transition, would I switch to a female doctor.  (As long as I  have my original equipment, I'd feel a little uncomfortable with a doctor who doesn't have my "plumbing configuration."  With that being said, this is not a discussion about doctors for transgender people.  We need to choose doctors with whom we are comfortable, and advocate for the best treatment we can get in our healthcare system.

Today, I visited my doctor.  I knew that he was going to be upset that I gained a couple more pounds since I last saw him.  But he was surprised to find out that the pharmacy was going to charge me $500/month for a Mounjaro (GLP-1) prescription.  There was no way I was going to pay that much for a drug, when there are others that Medicare has approved and is covered by my prescription insurance plan.  

What I forgot as well as my doctor did was that I was supposed to get my yearly physical.  So, after my visit was "done", I was asked to stay a while to get my blood drawn and for an EKG to be taken.  I again mentioned the problem with the GLP-1 drug that was prescribed, and he said that his assistant would look into this for me.  Guess what?  I got a text from his service that an Ozempic prescription was now on file, and also got a text from the pharmacy that the prescription was ready for pickup.  I'll have to call up the pharmacy to ask how much this prescription costs before I start with it.

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Unfortunately, there was 2 inches of snow on my car when I left for the doctor.  When I returned, I found that my parking space hadn't yet been plowed.  So, when I heard the plow a hour later, I was out of the house again to kill some time for the plow to do its job.  With the expected slop to be on the ground for tomorrow, I'll have to give up on the idea of wearing a fancy dress to Christmas Eve dinner and  to church, and simply wear a sweater dress over leggings for practicality.

This is the kind of problem many of us have to deal with during winter in New York.  It could be much worse.  But I'd rather have the problems I have in a TG accepting state, than to live in Florida where we are treated like dirt.  And some people wonder why I stay in my high tax state....

A snowy weekend - and I left my car at home.

 

I had planned to be with RQS this weekend, but this put me at risk of getting fined by my co-op.  By the time I would get home, I expected to clear off 7" of snow from my car and possibly get dinged with a fine from my co-op.

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Friday started with laundry - 3 loads of it.  By the time I was packed, out the door, and on my way to RQS's place, it was 2-3 hours later than expected.  I didn't make it to RQS's place until 7:30 pm.  Luckily, she had already started to cook dinner when I left the subway and transferred to the bus to her house. The rest of the evening wasn't that exciting.  We fell into our usual routine and watched a couple of movies before felling asleep.

Saturday came, and with it, the exterminator.  Each month, the exterminator is scheduled to take care of RQS's building, and today was the day.  Once his visit was over, it was off to the library to drop off some books, and then to one of our go-to restaurants for a bite to eat.  They were about to close, so we decided to get this food to-go and eat it at home.

Around 7 pm, the snow started to fall and I knew we were in for the night.  Although we weren't planning on doing anything this evening, it made me feel a little worried - if I didn't get home early enough on Sunday, I could have some problems with my co-op.  As they say, "the die is cast", and I would deal with things after getting home.

Sunday came, and there was less snow on the ground than expected.  Even with this, I figured that I should leave RQS's place a bit early, so that I could shovel out my car in daylight and move it back into my assigned spot.  This way, the co-op has less of an opportunity to ding me for not getting my car into the street so that the driveways could be cleared.  I left RQS around 1 pm, and made it to Grand Central in the nick of time to make the 1:50 train to Croton.  By 3:00 pm, I was home, and had a chance to finish this post before shoveling some snow....

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On other matters....

It looks like the Orange Snowflake is trying to put the LGBTIQ community back in the closet.  (Not that we didn't know this already.)  We've seen him give executive orders to (fr now) make it impossible to get a gender marker changed on federal documents, as well as erasing any statistics that refer to LGBTIQ's from federal websites.  This is the first step among many in which he intends to hurt us.

Why do I mention this?

Stalin made sure that no statistics were kept for his reign of terror.  It is estimated that 28 million people lost their lives in the gulags while he was in power.  We may not be able to stop the Snowflake from deleting our history for now.  But we can throw a wrench into his plans in regard to another at risk group - the illegal immigrants.  How, you may ask?  Get congress to act by requiring that accurate statistics be kept.  The public has a right to know how much the Snowflake's removal efforts are costing, as well as being able to know how many illegals of each category are being removed.  The more data we have, the more tools we can have to force congress to act when the time is right.

Right now, GOP members of the house and senate are afraid of losing power.  What they don't know is by surrendering their chambers' powers to the Snowflake and the SA Nazi (Musk), they are surrendering their own power and won't get it back.  We've seen this happen before.  But now, we can take a different path of activism.  Lawsuits can be filed in friendly federal courts, and slow down the march to tyranny.  I suggest that everyone buy copies of On Tyranny, and How Democracies Die to understand what is going on, and how we can cause the Snowflake some grief.