Nano, shaking the snow off his ears in Sunset Park, Brooklyn

Nano and I went for a walk in the snow this morning, both of us bundled to maximum bundleage for 15 F (-10 C):

Human: full-length down coat over two layers of clothing (Uniqlo heat-tech long johns, sweater, pants), socks and knee-high snow boots, knit hat and gloves.

Canine: ridiculous tiny dog hoodie, ridiculous tiny dog snow booties (okay, you listen to him shriek with pain because of the ice-melt salt getting into his paw pads and then mock the booties)

I walked him to the long sloping hill at the western end of our park, which looks across south Brooklyn to the Hudson Bay, Buttermilk Channel, and the great Manahatta beyond the water. Sunset Park – the neighborhood and its eponymous park – is the highest residential point in Brooklyn, second only to Green-Wood Cemetery’s Battle Hill which is directly north of here. I’m proud of my neighborhood, even though it’s frequently overlooked in the commodified hysteria of “Brooklyn the Product”. Our Scandinavian working class roots, our connection to the waterfront and dock yards of the late nineteenth century, our growing Chinese population. I like it here; even as it gentrifies, it does so relatively slowly and respectfully.

Enough of history, though; this is “where are you now” and here’s where I am. On the western-facing slope, chasing after my silly little dog on a frigidly cold day, finding myself on surprisingly strong legs. Today is my first long walk through the park in quite a while, and this is exactly as far along as I have come in my recovery from July’s broken ankle. Far enough along that I can jog gently after the dog, through half a foot of snow, without a single twinge of pain. “Now” is a pretty good place to be.