Walking in the snow in Queens

Hee, hee I'm sooo glad my car lives in a garage.
Some moron just did a 180 and slammed into a couple of parked cars
outside my window. Then they backed up pointed the car the original
way they were going and left the scene of the crime. Schmuck. The day
started off with rain and then turned to snow. So, now there's a nice layer
of ice sheeting the streets. Waiting.

Walking along the street the wind is very strong and the snow is like tiny 
little needles blowing in my face and into my eyes. The streets are icy, 
but I'm able to walk easily, my boots crunching along. It's not that icy

I was walking back from grocery shopping and as I was crossing the
street, a woman slipped and fell right on her ass.
"Are you alright?", I asked, moving towards her to help.
"I'm alright", she said as she got up. I walked around where she fell and
almost fell down too, luckily I cought myself. I ended up in a sort of down
on one knee position, like I'm joining the huddle, or something.

I told myself not to rush the lights, because some idiot will try and beat
the red light, skid and I'll get runover. I was good. I didn't do it 
for all of the intersections I had to cross on my way to the P.O., store 
and back. Sure enough, I got impatient at the intersection in front of 
my house and ran across the street just before the red light. Sure enough,
some maniac comes tearing around the corner and narrowly misses hitting me,
skidding to a stop a foot or two away from me. We're both idiots. Thanks, God.

Thankfully I lived. It's really windy, I think the gusts are around
25-35 mph. I love winter, dressing for it is the key. I'd love to go 
skiing, or boarding. I was wearing polypropelene long johns tonight,
so I was pretty toasty even with the wind gusts.

I can hear the cars every now and then, their bald tires
making a high pitched squeal as they try and get up the hill in front
of my house.

All along the way to the post office, grocery store and back were
dead, blown out umbrellas. I must have seen about a dozen. Some
were just the metal shaft, no ribs. They were in the bushes, in
snowbanks, on the streets, sidewalks. Just dead wilted umbrellas.