Heat Wave Drives Workers to Air Conditioned Workplace with a Smile

"I was happy to come to work today", Fiona, a Curves gym technician in Jersey City, told me Wednesday morning, "I haven't slept well last night, here I have central air conditioning."

She wasn't the only one to tell me that story. In the supermarket, a man, lets call him Jose, was ticketing prices with gusto, "I can not imagine having to work outside now", he said.

Office workers seemed to walk from the PATH station to the office with even more jest of urgency in their stride than usual. Most women were carrying something with sleeves with them, because those air conditioned cubicles can get chilly.

Hamilton Park in Downtown Jersey City was virtually empty that day at noon and the usual hot dog and ice-cream salesmen were nowhere to be found. A lone maintenance worker was trying to catch a break on a bench under a tree. I didn't ask him how it felt to work in the 100 degree heat - not to mention the 114 heat index, because he was holding something with a long wooden stick.

I did what Mayor Bloomberg suggested in his press conference yesterday afternoon: "If you see somebody working outside in this heat, give them a smile."

It might not have helped to ease the pain, but the storm last night, knocking 20 degrees of the thermometer, sure did.