The Cold

今年のNYC冬は今まで僕の一番辛い寒さを我慢する経験になりました！

This has been the worst winter I've ever experienced. There was the snow, the ice, the wind, but worst of all was just, simply, the cold. 

The following are some pics I've snapped over the last few months.

It's finally getting nicer, but we still have a few days in the low-30s that keep sneaking in.

March has already come in like a lion. Here's hoping it really does go out like a lamb!

The only truly theft-proof bike lock. 盗難の心配はないでしょう！

大雪が降ったら、近所のアストリア公園で友達と雪板乗ってみて、少し滑れました！

One Sunday, my buddy jokingly texted me about snowboarding in Astoria Park, but when I responded "Let's do it!" be stepped up and an hour later we were carving out trails and dodging sledding toddlers!

バレンティン選手がこの場所で保釈されたため、急に暖かいフロリダ州の出張がありました。

The next week a baseball player for the Japan league was locked up on domestic violence charges, so I was suddenly flown down to Miami to cover it! It was great to be warm, and in a place where I had so many chances to practice my Spanish. The irony was I missed two of my Spanish classes and the news itself was barely a step above the level of "paparazzi", so I left feeling unsatisfied, despite over half-a-minute of footage I filmed myself airing multiple times on Japanese national TV!

フロリダ州まで他社３局も貴局から同じ便を乗りました！面白かったです。

The flight to Miami was relatively empty, and we ended up taking over the back-third of the plane along with 3 teams of our competitors (TV Asahi, NTV, NHK). Since we are all basically friends, that made for a fun flight!

寒い冬はとても辛くても、綺麗ときもありますね。

Back in New York, what had already been two solid months of freezing temperatures turned nastier still! While the cold was biting, the snow piling higher, and wind chill dropping the feeling to to the sub-double-digits, I have to admit it could be beautiful at times!

公園以外は２年ぶり本気でスノボしました！

Fast forward a couple weeks, a group of regional JET alums from several states, and Canada all met in Killington, Vermont for a weekend of snowboarding! I had such an awesome time, I forgot to take photos, but it felt great to be back on a board somewhere other than my little park!

３０人近くの日本在住経験（JETプログラム元参加者）がこの素敵なリゾートに泊まりました。

Somewhere between 25 and 28 of us all stayed at this cool lodge. It had a large, indoor, hot tub, outdoor, heat pool, library, bar, and the slowest damn staff and breakfast service you can imagine, but the food was still good, and we had to keep reminding each other: "We're on vacation, in Vermont."
I want to rename their state slogan to "Vermont - What's the rush?". Somewhere from Vermont, start the petition!

バーモント州のキリングトン市にあるこのリゾートはレスキューされたワンちゃんを長年世話してることが自慢です。

The quirkiest thing about the lodge was they had a long history of adopting rescue dogs and their restaurant place mats were a history of all the dogs which was morbid, since all the dogs on the list were the dead ones. The live ones were two St. Bernards, and a French bulldog, and they wandered around and paid us very little attention.

雪挑戦した写真がFBで次の絵と似てる？

Before leaving the lodge, while in the outdoor pool with a water-proof camera, I hopped out and posed for a picture. Here is how it appeared on my friend's Facebook wall. The juxtaposition is pretty wonderful. 

The weather in Vermont was of course cold also, but surprisingly mild! Back in New York the following Tuesday morning, I was greeted with another snow storm.

セントラルパークは最後の大雪の一週間後でもこんなに綺麗でした！

The last (so far) big snow, took weeks to melt away, because of the daily cold temperatures. I got to Central Park to see friends visiting from DC and it was still a winter wonderland, at least at first glance. The broad strokes were gorgeous, and we even walked out onto a lake (granted, never the smartest thing to do, but that puppy was rock solid). You didn't have to look hard however to spot all the yellow, sometimes brown, snow from the hundreds of dogs that are walked all over the famous park. Still, please enjoy the following and forget all the yucky details. That's what a photo-blog is for anyway, right?

ポーランドの王様。。。スゲィっす！

セントラルパークってお城があります。皆が驚きます。

マイナッツを探してるリスちゃん。私もナツを探しています。

This last photo, a squirrel shoving his head deep into the snow, is analogous to many treks outside, checking, waiting, searching for signs that the long winter has come to an end.
The current temperature is: 36 degrees (2 degrees Celsius).