The March Storm

It was a tough winter, lots of snow, and each storm was always forecasted in greatest detail for days ahead. So there was another forecast talking about rain and strong winds. How much attention does one pay after all? But there it was with incredibly strong winds that whined endlessly, turned over any umbrella and rain, rain, rain non-stop for two days. The damage was incredible — all around us  we saw the felling of huge old trees; they landed on roofs or cars or in middle of the streets, it resulted in lack of electricity for a few days and similar inconveniences; the Hudson was roaring with wildness and was topped by white caps; my neighbor's window on the 21st floor was pressed in and I sure enough had more than enough leaking damages from the ceiling. And then as always followed the  clean-up.

And like a miracle the weather turned around again and a few days later it was mild and sunny, yes, springlike! Nice. Heidi, my friend, called up to visit and both of us are nature lovers and we decided for a walk alongside the river on the Hudson Walkway. Surprisingly it was closed up with one of these yellow crime scene tapes.

We crossed through to look at the damage. The beautiful rust red brick stone walkway was partially gone, the water had risen all the way to the houses alongside the river, the huge rocks from the banks had moved, and cars in the shopping center parking lot were still sitting in the water! Not a nice scene. The walkway looked one hundred years  old now and dilapidated and sad. What damage! It will be weeks until this is all cleaned up again!

Awed by all of this we continued our walk and had a cup of coffee outside in the sun at the river in a restaurant not affected by the storm. This early spring day brought back this long poem that we had to learn by heart when we were kids:

Der Osterspaziergang

Vom Eise befreit sind Strom und Bäche

Durch des Frühlings holden, belebenden Blick,

Im Tale grünet Hoffnungsglück;

Der alte Winter, in seiner Schwäche,

Zog sich in rauhe Berge zurück .......

Von dort her sendet er, fliehend, nur

Ohnmächtige Schauer körnigen Eises

In Streifen über die grünende Flur.

(In short it talks about an Easter walk in Spring describing the wildness of the winter and the glory of a Spring day giving us an inkling of summer. This is a very poor translation, the poem is very dramatic and very beautiful, well ... it's by Goethe).