Random Photo: Death of the Queens Igloo!

It's not your typical day when you look out the window and see an igloo. 'Actually it's not an igloo,' its creator, Joe Gindoff, told me. 'It's a snow house. Igloos are made of ice.' Joe, my neighbor in Jackson Heights, Queens, told me he's never built one before, but the excess snow and time to wonder -- he recently lost his job -- gave him the opportunity. 'I sat and thought about it, then went out and did it.'

Local news picked up the story after Joe spent the night in the house -- or at least till 3am (I know the feeling; I gave up on Quebec City's Ice Hotel at 2:30am recently myself).

Alas, Sunday Gindoff took a pick-axe to his creation, knocking its roof in. With temperatures set to rise this week, so have concerns from neighbors over a potential hazard in the private garden area. He understood.

The 'igloo' -- or 'NYgloo' as he called it -- has already paid dividends for him. Gindoff has been contacted to help build a 'three ton snowman' at Bear Mountain upstate. Sometimes just doing stuff -- like building an 'igloo' -- beats polishing off a new resume.