the air up there

Robin's last post was fascinating. All these small things you never think about, about being so high above sea level! I think we have discussed in the past our shared childhood fascination with the high-altitude caveats on cake mixes.

I tried to think of a similar warning for people new to New York. The only thing I can think of is to be very careful about where you buy your milk in the summer. If you don't use it fast enough, it will go sour far sooner than you might expect. This is because of how groceries are delivered to stores here: sitting out on the hot pavement as they are unloaded from the truck is usually an essential part of the process. Hence, milk in the NY metro region has two "sell-by" dates on it: the New York City one being a few days earlier.

I always buy my milk now at the CVS around the corner. It seems weird, buying milk at a drugstore, but they have only a few dairy products for sale and I reason they can get them inside faster. So far it's worked fairly well. I have also become a big fan of the Parmalat shelf-stable milk since moving to New York. Just in case.