Saturday 7 pm August 27 Well, aside from intermittent rain, nothing yet, but we'are under hurricane watch. I went down to the garden to put up "closed signs" in the garden because we got dead branches that could fall on people. Mayor Bloomberg closed the entire transit system at noon today ( all rides were free Friday through today) and Far Rockaway has been evacuated into shelters. The transit system closed at noon because it takes 8 hours to close it down and get all the train cars off the tracks and open air yards out in Queens and into tunnels for safe storage. Then they had to position work cars with pumps into place in the tunnels prone to flooding . I don't know why they had to stop all the busses. Maybe the buss drivers wanted off because the train operators got off. I took a bike ride downtown this afternoon to see what was going on after hearing on the radio that Times square was strangely deserterd. I started to ride down town on the new "bicycle highway" along the river that starts in Riverside park and goes all the way downtown.Riverside Drive was empty of car traffic and there were practiacaly no parked cars. It was more empty than Xmas. Down by the river the water was totally glatt- not a ripple, and but the air was filled with water- not raining, but every once in a while a drop of water would hit your face as you rode along. All the boat moorings were empty, and the house boats in the 79th street basin were tied up close to the docks and shuttered. I started out on the bike highway under the highway but a Parks Police guy shooed the bikers off saying it was closed, and told us we should use the pedestrian way along the river which is normally closed to bikers. The path along the river is pretty nice- better than that failure path along the bay in Sunnyvale. When i got to the part below 59th we were permitted back on the Bike high way along theWest Side Highway which was almost deserted. just a few taxis. Dump trucks were lined up prepared to pick up garbage left by the pending hurricane carnage, but near enough to the river to get caught by the water surge. I rode down to 42nd and decided to go over to Times square . There was almost no traffic on 42nd street, and only one car came out of the Lincoln Tunnel exit. (4pm Saturday). Four enormous Tree picker trucks capable of going up ten stories were parked towards midtown . Times square was devoid of almost all traffic other than Police, service trucks and taxis. A line of tourists were standing out side a Walgrens drugstore- i guess to use the toilets, because nothing else was open except a few bars. The big 42nd st Subway station was closed. Theaters, Movie Theaters, Restaurants, souvenier shops, even Starbucks- all closed. IN the pedestrian mall betweem 42nd and 50th there were about a hundred tourists milling around in the light rain- mostly Germans and other foreigners stranded by the closure of all the airports. train stations, and bus stations. When I looked up Broadway to 59th street from 50th street i counted 5 cars. I rode home up eighth avenue. Broadway and Amsterdam from 72nd up, riding much of the way in the middle of road because I could. There were cops at 72nd, 79th, 86th,.96th. They were mostly sitting in their cars eating. Almost all of the regular stores were closed, the restaurants were closed except for Chinese takeout and Kim's Used Fruit and vegetables at 104th. Stores that were not closed were going to be closed by 6 and stay closed until Monday. More stuff was closed than during the blizzard. The weather was fine- no wind, some rain, but not that much. When I got back the Condo Board guy said the mayor had asked all the buildngs to turn off their elevators tonight and tomorrow! They also plan to close down the power to downtown Manhattan and all other low laying areas tomorrow because flooding saltwater can damage "hot" wires. ( Powerlines in Manhattan are all underneath the street) 's Major highways out of the City are closed now-the thruway the Sawmill...I need to find my flashlight.