This morning (Friday February 17, 2012) I got a wake-up call from my dad at 4:30 am. Having just come back from a business trip in Ukraine his internal clock has not yet adjusted to New York time and he feels that if it’s not too early for him to work work, it’s not too early for me. By 4:55 I was turning on the car and heading towards my first destination: Staten Island. As I drove over the empty Verrazano under a dark, gloomy sky I wondered why it was that my dad couldn’t come back during the weekend and why I wasn’t in my bed enjoying a nice dream.
After concluding my business in Staten Island I began to drive back Brooklyn only to be caught in traffic as the rush of people heading from home in SI to work in Manhattan began. As I crossed the Verrazano once more, sunlight briefly broke through the clouds and light up the Manhattan skyline, with the 9/11 memorials quickly climbing into the sky to reclaim the space which has been vacant for over a decade. However the sight was short lived as the gap in the clouds closed and the day returned to its melancholy shade of grey. I drove on, and soon was at my dad’s shop. Now there’s only six hours of work left before I go pick my sister up from the bus stop in China town and drive over the Manhattan bridge to the BQE from which I may (if the weather complies) see the city awash in the rays of the setting sun.