BUSHWICK — While Thursday's blizzard shut down parks, public schools, city agencies and museums across the city, many New Yorkers had to work, trudging through the wind and the snow.
"I don't know why we're out here," said Richie Brito, 22, a deliveryman for Woolco Foods, as he tried to wheel an overloaded dolly across a snowy Bushwick sidewalk.
Save for a small opening for his eyes, Brito's entire body from head to toe was bundled. Everything from driving the truck, wheeling the cart through the snow and then lowering dollies into the basement take a lot longer than usual.
"It's crazy right now," he said.
U.S. Postal Service worker Mannie De La Cruz lugged his cart through the middle of Irving Avenue, which had been plowed, instead along on the sidewalk, where the powder still laid thick.
"Everything has to get delivered, we're not supposed to delay mail," De La Cruz said with a smile, explaining it was his first big snowstorm since starting as a mail carrier last May. "I'll see how I get through it."
To those anxiously awaiting a special package Thursday, he advised, "Be patient."
While Bushwick streets were mostly quiet Thursday with many hunkering down indoors, dog walkers flocked to Maria Hernandez Parks, where their pups jostled one another in the frigid powder.
"These guys love it," said Ania Lesniak, 33, a yoga teacher, and owner of a husky named Luna.
At St. John's Bread and Life soup kitchen in Bed-Stuy, the cooks showed up on time to start the hot meals for the day.
"My staff was great. They were here at 5:30 a.m., firing up the ovens, making soup. We had our regular breakfast and lunch," Tony Butler, the executive director, said. "It's a great day for soup."
Aside from the diehard workaholics, essential personnel and the folks whose bosses insist that they be present, most New Yorkers seemed to stay indoors waiting out the storm.
But when the worst of the blizzard let up in the afternoon, some kids and parents took to city parks to play in the powder.
In the Lower East Side, Charon Martinez took her clan of seven out for a snowball fight in Sara D. Roosevelt Park near their Eldridge Street home.
"It's been busy — busy and cold!" she laughed while the youngsters chucked snowballs at each other.
"The kids have been very active, enjoying their day off school — it's been a fun, busy day!"
