Autumnal Orange

This evening’s gusty and chilly November weather made for some rather spectacular views of The Windsor, Kennedy House and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church as the sun set on Forest Hills.

The Kennedy House of Kilimanjaro

The mission was a simple one: to bring back a Nick’s pizza, half meatball, half plain, accompanied by two pastries from Bonelle’s next door.

It may sound like an easy task, but first I had to defy one of nature’s greatest challenges: the hurricane-like gales emanating in all directions from The Kennedy House! After all, it was an overcast, rainy day — just the type of weather Kennedy House loves to turn into a wind storm that would make even Jim Cantore flee in fear.

There were times during this fateful journey that I was not quite sure I would make it. I was buffeted by winds that must have been gusting 50 to 60 miles per hour, threatening to take out yet another bargain umbrella from Century 21. Rain pellets stung my face. The pre-Great Recession era priced Nick’s pizza took a bruising, its premium cardboard box being lifted by the wind currents like the wings of a small jet, almost threatening to lift me off the ground with it.

But I finally accomplished the mission, making it back home with the pizza and pastries in hand, all in one soggy piece.

Yes, The Kennedy House of Kilimanjaro had done all it could to make Forest Hills as inhospitable as possible to this pedestrian once again. I could almost hear the voices of its elderly residents shouting out from their rooftop pool above me: “You should’ve drove the couple of blocks!” But I had persevered, and could consume my overpriced pizza with the satisfaction of knowing that I had once again conquered Kennedy House, and its architects, who had erected it where it would cause maximum hardship to the car-less of Forest Hills.