Tis Bitter Cold and I Am Sick of January

(Originally published 1/15/18)

January has long been my least favorite month. It's thirty-one days, on the cold side, and sometimes snowy. It's also the month when the Christmas decorations come down and countless sorry-looking trees end up at the curbside. Returning to school after the New Year and Christmas vacation was, as I recall, psychologically grueling. It was a powerful one-two punch: the party's over locking arms with an extended stretch of nothingness. The school year's "mid-winter recess" or "winter vacation" wasn't until mid-February, and that always seemed like a long way away in early January. As a youth, the snow possibility was about the only thing that recommended this time of year. But now an adult long removed from even a second childhood, snowfall is the stake through the heart of January. 

Blizzard-like conditions still supply a great visual. But I make that statement on a conditional basis.

After their time has come and gone, Christmas decorations are sad sights indeed.

Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of  delivering Amazon Prime packages.

For more than a quarter of a century, my father worked at the mega-post office with the unofficial postal motto emblazoned on its facade. He, in fact, worked the four-to-midnight shift, coming home on the subway in the "gloom of night."

I can't think of anyone more deserving of being a canine chew toy.

If you don't demand the best and will settle for okay, this is the place for you...

On Manhattan's other Restaurant Row...

In the vicinity of Times Square on New Year's Day, the garbage cans were closed but the barbershops were open.

If you can't throw your trash in a can, a non-working, dinosaur telephone booth is the next best thing.

If you've ever wanted to visit a DVD, take down that address.

Price Harry's favorite place for a sandwich and a smoothie when he's in town.

Donald Trump has been wont to refer to 9-11 in speeches as "7-Eleven." This is perhaps why.

Yesterday I ate lunch at a place with this sign on the wall.

And here it is...

The January saga...a picture is worth a thousand words.

I wonder what the "souvenir" is?

An abandoned women's prison? No, a permanently locked subway bathroom.

As a kid I always associated New York City steam pipes with Christmastime and a good kind of cold. Times change.

(Photos from the personal collection of Nicholas Nigro)