I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance..

...among the pines

This photo was taken exactly two years ago, while waiting to board a TLV bound flight from JFK. That day had been what had become the blizzard of the "century." I was working at a magazine across the bridge in jersey at the time, and the office had even been closed that day, though I didn't find out until after I got there (the message said there would be a two hour delay; it was changed ten minutes after I had already called and left to make my bus). My flight was later that evening, at around 11pm. Getting to the airport was more of a nightmare than the flight itself! The SuperShuttle people called me 20 minutes before they were supposed to pick me up and canceled! Meanwhile, I hadn't heard about an major delays on my flight. The SuperShuttle people suggested I go to the street and hail a yellow cab. They didn't seem to understand that north of 96th Street, they're pretty hard to come by even during the most perfect weather (I lived on 184th Street). The car services I called didn't have a car for at least another 24 hours. I told them that doesn't help me make a flight that is in 3 and half hours. So out I trudged, with my luggage, through the 29.5 inches of sleet and snow to Broadway and started walking up trying to hail down anything that resembled some sort of livery vehicle, when lo and behold, I see a yellow cab, with his medallion light on, he stops, my urban knight in shining armor, I throw my bags in, shut the door, and say "JFK, please." He looked at me as if I were kidding. Did my huge duffel bag make it look like I was joking? He was nice enough to oblige; and 2 and half hours and 1 huge tip later, I was at the airport, taking off my boots.
While waiting for the flight, no one would clue us in as to what the deal was. So there I was, sitting by the gate, waiting to board the flight. The food stands by the gate had closed, so I go back out past security to get a cup of coffee, and they wouldn't let us back in with our beverages. We were finally told that the wheels of the planes had frozen to the ground in the hangar, so they had to melt the ice off which had caused a back log. We finally took off at around 1:30am (not bad for a blizzard!) after a couple of Xanax and 10 hours, I was in sunny Tel Aviv!
I remember the date because it happened to be on Valentine's Day; then, like now, it is something I lack, so I wish all of you a Happy Valentine's Day and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for stopping by and "listening" to my rambling and I hope you come back again soon!