No More Flying!

I don't want to fly anymore. I don't mean flying on an airplane, I mean flying solo, just me, the wind and up I go!

One day I found myself flying through the streets of Manhattan. Seriously!

I worked across the street from Battery Park and as I was walking up to my building the wind picked me up and I flew about 30 feet down the street. Flew! I was actually flying! Yeah I'm a nut, but it happened and three men who thank goodness were standing in the doorway of the garage area watching me fly, ran out, they surrounded me and with their weight supporting me, were able to get me inside the garage to safety. I was never so afraid of the wind! Two women (also petite) who worked in my building were hurt bad that day. One woman got thrown under a car and broke her leg, the other crashed into the building and broke a couple of ribs. I'm telling you that wind was strong and scary. Since that day I always check the weather to see what the wind gusts are. Over 40mph, I'm not going anywhere near downtown Manhattan.

My family has made tons of jokes. They're going to give me weights to put in my pockets and wrap around my ankles. Yeah that'll work, I wont be able to move!

The day I flew, it took me over an hour to stop my heart from beating so fast. At first I stood in the lobby of my building by the elevator banks, but I could hear the wind going through the elevator shafts and the thought of getting on an elevator just made me more nervous. It sounded like the elevators were going to come crashing down. It took a while but I finally got on an elevator and made it upstairs, but since that day, windy days in the city made me over the top nervous.

Downtown Manhattan is windy. One New York Plaza, closer to the Staten Island Ferry, used to put ropes around the outside of the building so you could hold on to them because of the wind. I also used to work at the World Financial Center and on my way to work would walk through the outside concourse of the World Trade Center to get to the Financial Center where some days it was so windy I would see a small tornado of dust and debris. When it got too cold and windy, they closed the outside concourse because the wind was so dangerous, the Towers created a tremendous wind tunnel.

It took a while but I stopped thinking and worrying about the wind until one day it almost happened again. At this time my company had moved our offices from downtown to Times Square in midtown. I commuted via the Staten Island Ferry to downtown and then would walk up to the Bowling Green train station to catch a train to Times Square, which was about four or five blocks up from the Ferry. One day when I got off the ferry the skies started getting so dark and the winds were kicking up. My heart started beating faster. Walking up the street I noticed the street vendors' tables bouncing around because of the wind and most of them were trying to pack up their goods and shut down before the storm hit. There was a young man walking next to me, maybe about 19 or so, and I walked up to him for help. I'm sure he thought I was totally nuts, but I begged him to please let me hold on to him while walking up the street, told him I was so afraid of the wind. He looked at me like I was crazy but saw the fear in my face and kind of reluctantly agreed to help. Only a minute later the street vendors who didn't pack up were watching their tables fly across the street, the goods they were selling flying all over and this man and I were dodging tables and NYC souvenirs flying all over the street. The man helping me picked up the pace, I could tell he was nervous too and now understood my fear. I think I was gripping his arm so tightly I might have stopped the blood flow, even through his winter coat! We got to Bowling Green station and he said "RUN!" He had to walk farther up Broadway, but I could tell by the way he said "run" that it was really bad and he was now scared too. I ran down the stairs into the train station as fast as I could and made it to safety. Thank God that young man helped me, he saved me! When I got to Times Square I could tell from inside the train station that the winds didn't sound as bad, I would be able to get to my office safely.

Scared of the wind! Never thought I would be, but I am. Mother Nature is a powerful force, one I will not ignore.

No more flying for me!