Today is Friday, December 23, 2022. The big news today is the freaking weather, as a massive winter storm leaves more than a million people without power and bitter cold across much of the country. Thus this gargantuan storm battered most of the United States with frigid temperatures, high winds, and heavy snow, leaving at least nine people dead, knocking out power to over a million customers and wrecking holiday plans from coast to coast. This terrible storm certainly affected us as well as we canceled going to our friends in Easton, Pennsylvania, for the holiday weekend. What is really ironic is that we just found out that “Ralph” and “Sandy” lost power to their home a few hours ago and are camping out at one of their rental properties for the moment. What is even more bizarre is that our friends texted us to inform us that the power was restored in their area, which is very good. This ongoing story was reported in an online article for my smartphone by Aya Elamroussi, Ray Sanchez, and Eric Levenson for CNN entitled “At least 9 dead as massive winter storm leaves more than a million without power and bitter cold across much of US.”

The tempest is expected to intensify throughout Friday as it barrels through the Midwest and East, which is making for grim road conditions with poor visibility and ice-covered streets. Coastal flooding is also an issue, particularly along the shorelines of the Northeast.

All modes of travel – planes, trains, and automobiles – were being disrupted. There were hundreds of miles of road closures and flight cancellations were growing rapidly. In New York, flooding along the Long Island Rail Road forced part of the Long Branch branch to temporarily shut down.

Because of these terrible conditions, “Christmas is canceled,” according to Mick Saunders, a Buffalo, New York, resident who was two hours into blizzard conditions that are expected to last through Sunday morning. It would appear that this Buffalo resident’s view is a reasonable one, given the deadliness of this storm.

Life-threatening cold has pushed all the way to the Gulf Coast and the Mexican border, with below-zero wind chills reported as far south as Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia. Many locations in the eastern U.S. are in for their coldest Christmas Eve in decades as the Arctic blast reaches its peak.

According to the website PowerOutage.US, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania have the most outages. Like my friends who live in Easton, Pennsylvania, who have experienced such an outage.

Right here in our neck of the woods, New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned residents about the “epic, statewide hazard” of winter weather. At a press conference this afternoon, Hochul stated, “I called it a kitchen sink storm because it is throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink.” She added, “We’ve had ice, flooding, snow, freezing temperatures, and everything that Mother Nature could wallop at us this weekend.”

One resident of Hamburg, New York, mentioned that he and his family decided to cancel their Christmas plans because of the dangers from the storm. This man’s name is Brian Trzeciak, who has stated that his mother lives about 30 minutes away as well as his sister and her family. Explaining his decision, Trzeciak remarked, “We always get together for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but we’re all hunkering down in our houses until it all stops on Monday.”

In New York, it will be the coldest Christmas Eve since 1906. This is an unbelievable 116 years since the first record was observed.

The state which we had just visited will experience their peak of their cold on Christmas Day. It will be the coldest Christmas Day since 1983 for Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and West Palm Beach. Given the circumstances, I would still choose to stay in Florida over this weekend than staying here in New York.

Anyway, Elliot and I did elect to go out for breakfast at our very own Austin Street Diner, where the worst of the storm hadn’t impacted us just yet. However, when I crossed the street to the Kennedy House, the wind did begin picking up and began blowing quite strongly. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a woolen cap or earmuffs, so I did feel a little chilled.

When we entered the coffeeshop, we were surprised to see many customers having breakfast. We expected it to be deserted. So we had to sit in the back, which is rare.

The weather did worsen sometime later when we separated after my getting a haircut at the local barbershop where we both ran individual errands. I dropped into the neighborhood bagel store to get jelly donuts for the remainder of Chanukah. As I had expected, there were no sufganiyot left, so I reluctantly darted into the Dunkin’ Donuts up the block. For those who don’t know, we eat these fried pastries in commemoration of the miracle associated with the Temple oil. The jelly donuts recall the oil that burned miraculously for eight days in the second-century BCE Temple in Jerusalem.

I asked the lady behind the counter if they had any jelly donuts left, and the woman called for an employee in the back who came out and informed me that if I returned in about five minutes, she would produce more for me to purchase later. I said I only wanted three donuts and commented I could return in that length of time. So I went to the library and to Starbucks to look at their assortment of books on the bookshelf to kill some time. I went back to the store and – voila – there were more jelly donuts placed on the racks for customers to select. I asked for three and went out. That’s when all of a sudden, the skies opened and hail seemed to be smacking down me. That’s when the bag of donuts I was carrying disintegrated from the downpour, causing its contents to fall out of the bag and on the road below. I lost all of the goddamn donuts!

No worries! I did get better donuts from Andre’s Hungarian Bakery, on Queens Boulevard, after I came home and told Elliot about my misfortune. I drove to the bake shop after calling to ask if they had this Chanukah treat and the woman who answered the phone said, yes, they had. I asked if they could hold three donuts for me and she said she would.

Now I drove to “Mark”s apartment to spend some time with him and bring him his gift from our Florida vacation, two bars of scented soap from Tarpon Springs. I also wanted to share the donuts with him, which I did. I forgot to mention that Elliot had a 2 p.m. mani/pedicure appointment, so he was unavailable to go with me to Mark’s apartment.

Back to the weather, which is on everyone’s mind this weekend. The temperature right now is a frigid 10 degrees and tomorrow’s high is supposed to be only 18 degrees. It’s sauna weather for Sunday in which the high is supposed to be 27 degrees. We’re supposed to meet Elliot’s daughter and son-in-law tomorrow in Rockville Center at 12 for lunch, and so far, it’s still on.

So what I can say about this weekend only to tell you to be safe and warm, no matter what you do. Enjoy whatever you do, even if you can’t meet with friends or relatives because of the weather. I will probably not have a blog tomorrow because I could be out with friends for a frosty Christmas Eve dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Woodside, Queens.

Stay safe and be well.