more.

They said it would be very windy with some rain, but instead it was very snowy with some wind.

The train home last night took four and a half hours, and I consider myself  lucky - they shut down the whole system right after my train left the station, but let us go through to the end, eventually.  I had to go to a different station, where my fam generously came to pick me up.  Ellie and Nico used the waiting time productively.

The main thing is we still have power!  Never take your electricity for granted!

post-aftermath

Hello again!  I'm borderline-ecstatic to report that our power is back on, and we are back to mostly normal.  The little hard hats have done their work well.

My work building has been partially de-flooded and they are asking us to come in tomorrow.  My actual office happens to be in the highest part of the building, so maybe my stuff is safe?  Probably not.  But I'll find out tomorrow.  Ellie and Nico are still out of school, since many on LI still don't have power.

Overall we are so happy and relieved that the damage wasn't any worse for us.  (It should be noted that Ellie and Nico were never all that worried.  As several of us remember from our own childhoods, it's kind of a fun adventure for them.)  Ami and I were well prepared for an extended outage, but it clearly would have become more difficult over several days.  Plus we would have had to buy all the condiments in the fridge all over again.  /r/firstworldproblems

From what we hear, there were some major impacts throughout the region.  Still, it could have been far worse without some of the preparations that local leaders and individuals made.  I think some credit has to go to leaders like Mayor Bloomberg and Govs Christie and Cuomo, whose teams planned well for this kind of event long ago.  The storm could have hit even harder than it did, and they still would have had the ability to deal with it without anarchy setting in.  Pretty impressive.

We also got lucky where we were, compared to the rest of Long Island and elsewhere.  We are feeling pretty proud of ourselves for intentionally choosing a house on higher ground, but as jwad correctly points out, we also have to thank Fire Island for taking a big part of the hit for us.

I took a few pictures, but there really wasn't much of interest to see.  Trees blowing hard in the wind.  More trees blowing hard in the wind.  Etc.  Maybe if you're as interweb-savvy as James you've found some good pics, or you can check these out from the main Long Island paper.  You can see just how fortunate we were to have little of interest to post.  http://www.newsday.com/news/weather/long-island-destruction-from-sandy-1.4156975#1

Thanks to all for thinking of us...

aftermath

Hello to any who are interested - we rode out Sandy last night with no serious problems, and all is well for the time being.  We have no power, but it seems nobody on Long Island does right now.  Roads are shut down, my office is under 3' of water, and schools are closed until further notice, so we'll be hanging out here for the foreseeable future!

hurricane halloween

First of all, yes, Sandy is on her (his?) way.  This is the latest from Weather Underground:

I love how the hurricane is politely stepping out of the way of Patchogue.

We're making our usual hurricane preparations, but at this point it looks manageable.  We're concerned for our fellow-citizens to the south, of course.

In other news, it was pumpkin picking time last weekend.  After several years of trying different farms on eastern Long Island, we think we've found the best one.

Grandma was good enough to watch the Small Fry while we went, making the experience much more pleasant for all, including the Small Fry.

It was so great having her here, as always.  We went on a couple of outings, but mostly it was just living normal life, with her around.  Very pleasant indeed.

And in closing, I have to share one of the many remarkable sunsets we get here.  The skies are one of my very favorite aspects of life on Long Island.

This one stopped me in my tracks as I got off the train.  I had to stop by the harbor to take a few pictures, which as you can probably guess don't do it any justice.

Stay tuned for more updates on the hurricane, if there's anything to report.  Or maybe there will be lots to report, but no power to do it with.  We shall see!  All our best wishes to our compatriots in the storm's path.

phoeniz arixona

Hey, I just got back from Phoenix!  I was there for the annual ASLA conference, the Big Thing for landscape architects.

I stayed with Ami's sister Becki -- great to hang out a bit with my old pals the Specks.  I had loads of fun playing Labyrinth with Ben and Eli.

Hertz gave me a free upgrade to a brand new Mustang convertible.  So I had a good time blasting down those desert highways.  What a beautiful machine.

The conference was pretty good, although there wasn't much to take pictures of.  Fortunately I had a little extra time for some side trips.  First up was Sedona, with stunning red rocks and canyons.  I hear they also have some sort of Mystical Power Vortices there, but I didn't feel any different beyond being impressed by the landscape and realllly enjoying the Mustang on those canyon roads.  

Have to put this one in for Jane and any other hip hop fans out there.

On my other extra day I went south to Tucson.  I had long been interested in visiting Davis AFB after seeing the aircraft storage area known as the Boneyard on Google Earth.  Many (most?) of the military aircraft being taken out of service come here for storage, sometimes for decades.  You can take a bus tour through the Boneyard.  It was fascinating.  They also have a great museum nearby with other old and interesting aircraft.

I love the form of the B-52s.

I finished off the trip by visiting a mission established by the Spanish in the 17th century.  It's still in active service.  This was a nice contrast from the beauty of the aircraft, still remarkable.

 A great trip overall.  Many thanks to the Specks for their great hospitality.  And to my Mustang for the companionship on those long desert drives.

 

Next year the ASLA conference is in Boston -- it'll be quite a bit different!

2x2

Oof, we haven't posted for awhile.  Anders and Liam just turned two!

They haven't figured out what birthdays are yet, but they were happy to see their favorite banana bread show up as birthday cake.

They had some great presents.  Thanks grandparents!

 Anders' favorite present was from Ellie -- a scrap of cloth with lots of buttons sewn on.  She knows him well.


Happy birthday A+L!

Teach a Nico to fish...

...and it seems he will dine in style for the rest of his life.

Nico and the others are all visiting Utah, where I'm told he landed this impressive dinner:

I believe with that one catch he has exceeded the combined mass of all the fish I've ever caught.

The Fourth

I started out the celebration of our great nation by weeding a very small part of it.  The yard is finally looking decent, plants are generally happy and blooming.

Later on the Riches came over for some more traditional celebrations.

Let the BBQing begin!

Ellie and a perfectly grilled (if I do say so myself) tomato.

No tomatoes for Liam the carnivore.

I also cranked out a holiday jello.  Thanks to the Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn for the recipe.

Immediately after the Jello and Monica's excellent brownies (not pictured, but just imagine raspberries stuffed with chocolate chips) the small fry went up to bed and I took Ellie and Nico to find some fireworks.  We've been to this spot before, a large parking lot in Farmingville.  Last time we were here, Ellie and Nico sat on the roof of our Accord.  This time, we had the advantage of the truck bed -- much more comfortable.

Happy Independence!!

blast from the past

Here are some random pictures from days gone by.  Time is a rummy thing.

Ami and I with B. Ray in the Canary Islands.  No kids yet!

Ellie trying out the piano right after we moved to NYC.

And for comparison, here is Ellie playing that same piano quite well a few weeks ago.

Nico the Somber Skeleton, Halloween 2010.

Ellie the Phenomenal Phoenix.

The Cloisters, uptown.

Ellie at Skaneatlas, upstate.

Liam (left) and Anders, a few hours old.