Observations on Sandy 10.29

After this post I'm probably going to do like I did with Irene and just keep updating the same one or two posts unless something drastic comes up. I have no idea what would be drastic in this situation.

To catch up last night's last projections had sandy coming ashore just about on top of Stone Harbor, New Jersey, the beach house, and Fred's. Unlike Irene this storm is going to drive straight into the shore and not run parallel to it. I don't think Stone Harbor has ever received a direst hit. Some video I saw on Philly news yesterday already looked bad, I hope the house survives.

In the Village the first hard rain fell just after 1 AM last night. About an hour before that I went for a walk and the streets were just dead, empty, I know it was one in the morning but this is New York. The streets were nowhere near as dead before Irene. Also it was deathly quiet without the subways running. The only major event was what I swear was bird flying into the window while I sat chatting. Scared the crap out of me.

One thing I noticed during my first look today was the sky. So reminiscent of a blizzard and not at the churning nasty sky of a hurricane. Found a small coffee shop just inside Zone A that the owner said will remain open for the duration. Nice to know for later but I wont name it for obvious reasons. Not that anybody reads this but why take the chance? I may need a place to dry off later. For the record I live in Zone B, about a block from Zone A which was evacuated yesterday (375,000 people live in Zone A).

For the science geeks, that would be you Sean, Central Park already set a record for low pressure this morning. At 7 AM the pressure was at 946mb, the record low was 961mb on March 1, 1914. Sounds impressive but I have no idea what it means. Right now it's two hours away from high tide and the storm surge in the harbor is only one foot below Irene's worst. I know what that means and that isn't good at all. High tide tonight includes the full effects of the full moon.

The National Weather Service in New York just called Sandy "a worst case scenario" for the city. Going to be interesting to say the least.

Sunday Observations 10.28

Next year is the 100^th anniversary of the Armory Show and there are two big exhibitions to celebrate it. One, "The Armory Show At 100," opens in October at the New York Historical Society Museum. The other opens on February 17, 2013 at Montclair Art Museum and is a little more interesting. "The New Spirit" will put together fifty pieces of American art that were sold at the original Armory Show.

You can file this under a 'it's a small world' tag. From an article about the current natural gas boom in The New York Times last week;

"It is a great time to sell,” Mr. Eads recalled telling Terry Pegula, the founder of East Resources, who had built up his own operation in the Marcellus region of Pennsylvania from one well to 75 over the course of one year. “With all these new plays popping up, I had a real concern gas prices would weaken.” Mr. Eads then helped arrange what will go down as one of the great early paydays of the shale revolution: the 2010 sale of East Resources, which Mr. Pegula had started with $7,500 borrowed from family and friends, to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion."

You might wonder what that could possibly have to do with me, well here you go. Pegula, a graduate of Penn State, is huge ice hockey fan and he spent part of that fortune to buy the Buffalo Sabres. More importantly he donated $102 million to Penn State to launch its Division I men's and women's ice hockey programs and build the Pegula Ice Arena as there home. On the flip side Shell indirectly employs my brother, also a Penn State graduate, mapping wetlands in the wilds of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Donald Trump proved once again that he is just an ignorant self-important blowhard and I'm not talking about his big announcement on President Obama, I'm not even going to discuss that. Monday Trump spent a full day on Twitter talking about nothing but Diet Coke. A small sample; "@realDonaldTrump: People are going crazy with my comments on Diet Coke (soda). Let's face it--this stuff just doesn't work. It makes you hungry." Enough on that, the man just irritates me to no end and I don't even drink Diet Coke.

We got back from the mountains just in time to see the evacuation of Zone A in New York City as the storm otherwise known as Sandy ever so slowly approaches. I'm having flashbacks to Irene now and wonder if Anderson Cooper is going to be in Washington Square tomorrow morning. I may have to go check.

Observations from the Window 10.26

the calm before the storm on flickr

You can probably guess that the main topic of conversation around here today has been the impending frankenstorm, snor'eastercane, or just plane big ass storm otherwise known as Hurricane Sandy for short.



At the moment I really don't have much to say about Sandy other than it's supposed to hit somewhere in the vicinity of New York in a few days. Personally I think it's bad karma because there have been altogether too many blizzards and hurricanes hitting the Village since I moved here but my brother swears it's just climate change in action.

Earlier today we were reading what I wrote last year during Hurricane Irene. Taken together the Irene posts are one of my most read series of posts so I thought I would take a look back here too. This wasn't my first post about Irene but I like it because it contains a very serious list of items we stocked for the storm. As I write this tonight I think the VQs are probably out buying the very same items. If you want to read the full series just click the Irene tag.

Saturday, August 27, 2011
Observations on Irene 8.26

I thought maybe I would take some early morning photos so I rode an empty subway train down to the soon to be forbidden zone of Battery Park. Truth be told I didn't take much of anything because it was just a cloudy dreary humid morning and on top of that the Starbucks was closed. If this is the calm before the storm I think I'll pass.

Irene came ashore in North Carolina around 7AM as a category 1 storm. The weakening doesn't change the situation much here as the problem is how long the storm will batter the city and how much water will be pushed into the harbor, the rivers, and down the street. Later today ConEd will decide if it is going to shutdown the power to lower Manhattan. Because the cables are all underground they are vulnerable to saltwater if they are in use but not if they aren't in use. Now I understand why there are no batteries to be found in the Village.

Everybody says be prepared so we stocked up with the following ...

One case of Corona, one case of Corona Light, and two bags of ice in the freezer. Multiple bottles of red and white wine because Ash can't decide which is the right one for a hurricane and one must follow the wine rules at all times.   A bag of limes and one bottle of Jose Cuervo Black Medallion tequila because one shouldn't ride out a big storm with cheap tequila.   One carton of Misty Menthol Ultra Lights otherwise known as Misty Silver under the theory that people think ultra-light smoke is healthy and will think silver isn't.   One carton of Marlboro Menthol 100s because Chloe isn't a lite weight like me and smokes a real cigarette, or so I am told.   New lighter to light those above named cigarettes.   Two camera and two laptop batteries charged.   A camping lantern and flashlights along with a jumbo pack of priceless D size batteries. The latter I am tempted to sell on the street because, well, they really are priceless right now.   My older digital camera packed in a towel and zip-lock bag. Don't ask on this one because I'm not going to tell.   Shit I forgot to get food.

A bit of worthless hurricane trivia that doesn't seem so worthless now. If the storm is a category 1 at ground level it is a category 2 ten stories up. I can hear the glass raining down already.

No subways running down below and it just started raining in the Village. I suppose this really is the calm before the storm. Let the games begin.

update - Due to some concern I would like to add that we have cookies, coffee, and two cases of bottled water too.

Observations from the Bar 9.5

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everybody a Happy Labor Day, I hope it is or was a good one. If you don't live in the US or have no idea what I am talking about feel free to crack your favorite beverage and skip ahead to watch the vid. Keep in mind it's not arrogant, it's German.

Tropical monsoons permitting tonight the Phillies finally get to play Atlanta again and hopefully start to lock up the division. One of the amazing things of this totally amazing season is the fact that as good as the Phillies are the Braves have been right with them all season long. Maybe that starts to change tonight.

I want to add a small postscript to my writings on Hurricane Irene. The GOP's wingnut choirboy Eric Kantor says the Federal Government can pay for hurricane damage but only if we make cuts elsewhere in the budget. The total estimated damage from Hurricane Irene now stands at 40 to 60 billion dollars. Coincidentally the congressionally appointed Commission on Wartime Contracting has found that over the last three years we have wasted, you got it, $60 billion through fraud, waste, and payments to warlords in Iraq and Afghanistan. That breaks down to $12 million a day.

Rammstein - Amerika

Inspired by Irene

A friend of mine sent me this video. I just think this is totally cute and think we will prob see her on the Weather Channel one day soon. Remember I told you first.


Link

Inspired by Irene

I know I wasn't going to write about Irene anymore but I just have felt oddly drained for the past couple days. Almost like I'm going through some sort of adrenaline withdrawal so I was looking at videos people made during the storm and came across this one. I wish it was longer and showed more but I still think its awesome.

Irene NYC from Buffalo Picture House on Vimeo.

"Two young filmmakers went out during Hurricane Irene to document their Manhattan neighborhood."

One thing I have learned, I don't like the name Irene because I leave a space between the 'I' and the 'r' every time I type it. Sometimes I 'm just a dumbass.

Observations on Irene 8.29

I always seem to find funny moments in any situation and Irene was no different. Both involve my early morning wanderings as the storm reached its peak. The first I mentioned yesterday when I got the text from Ash calling me an idiot. When I got back to the apartment she scolded me like an errant child as Chloe tried not to laugh but failed terribly. The other was during that same walk near the forbidden zone while I was standing in a doorway trying to keep a cigarette dry. Two of New York's finest strolled by, stopped, and seemed ready to scold me like, well, an errant child. I only had on hiking boots but I was still taller than both. After a moment they walked away never having said a word.

Favorite tweet from the storm, this made me laugh. “@spicenyc: So that's it..my next girlfriend is going to be a hot weather chick..done + done!” I'll tell you what, after the past couple days I could write a post just on those weather girls and maybe I will sometime but not now.

To tie up some loose ends I should say that I heard from my friends to the south and all is well, just a power outage. I don't know anything first hand about the beach house and Stone Harbor but I did find this on their Facebook along with some photos that show little damage to the downtown area.

“Stone Harbor fared very well! We have retained much of the replenished beaches, and little damage around town is evident. We are so fortunate that we can all now return and get back to normal. Many thanks to all who helped keep us safe - our tireless public servants and volunteer fire company - and thanks to all of you who provided photos and information that we could pass on. We love our Stone Harbor - Sidewalk Sale, anyone?”

I have been hearing all over that the government, particularly New York City's, overreacted to Irene. Speaking for myself I don't think they did at all. Better to shut down and have it end the way it did than not shutdown and have a Category 3 storm plow into Coney Island Sunday morning because North Carolina didn't take the hit first. If this was somehow a failure of government I'd much have this Irene failure than the previous Katrina one. As for the complainers, I didn't see any of them out in the streets this morning during my walks.

I think I'll remember Irene more for how I felt than for any lasting damage it did. Not scared or worried at all, maybe a bit depressed about things, but I was wired. Excited at what was happening around me and what I was going to do with it. Saturday night was exhilarating, I can't think of any other word to describe it. I'm just not right in any way.

One last question, anybody need some 'D' size batteries? First come, first served, cash only please.

Observations on Irene

I'd like to take a moment and thank everybody that emailed, texted, called, tweeted, commented, and plurked their luck, wishes, thoughts, and just damn well wondered if I was still alive. Some of you know me all too well. Anyways it meant a lot even though I don't often say it.

Thank you.

One last Irene post in the morning than back to the regular bull shit.

Observations on Irene 8.28

2:00AM - After a bit of relaxation I just realized the wind is absolutely howling outside the window. Warnings be damned I grab a cigarette and sit in the window as sheets of rain blow down the street outside. Lights of some kind flashing down the block, police, fire, or ambulance, I have no idea. I just took a look at the ConEd map and there doesn't seem to be any major power outages yet but they are going to decide in the next hour whether or not to shut off power to lower Manhattan.

Best line on CNN, “the empty and ominous streets of New York.”

Guess I'm on my own here because the VQs seem to have grabbed their wine and gone to bed so I suppose it's time I try and get some sleep myself. Irene is just south of Stone Harbor.

8:00AM - Awake since six, alive, not hungover, and amazingly I have power. Over 75,000 in the city are without power but no one in Manhattan has lost it yet. That's just hard to believe but I better shutit because the lights are flickering and I don't want to jinx myself. As predicted Anderson Cooper isn't down at Battery Park but over in Washington Square Park which is just a couple blocks away from here. I guess if he was going to be up this early he wanted to be within walking distance of his apartment. Well, I don't care what the mayor said, I might need to go for a walk. For the record Jacqyi Jeras in a red dress isn't a bad thing to wake up to either.

Some friends to the south lost power last night and I have no word from them yet. I hope all is well with them but I just talked to my sis and she said that other than the rain it never got very bad at home. That was good to hear. No sign of the VQs yet which is strange because it's a perfect morning to be a VQ.

High tide along with the storm surge is happening right now, winds gusting close to hurricane force, and heavy rain falling. Forgetting food was a bad idea because I had too much to drink, not enough sleep, and I'm starving. Like I said it might be the perfect time for a walk.  I wonder if AC wants some coffee.

10:30AM - Not long after I posted that last part the wind kicked up dramatically and at the same time both rivers began to spill over their banks as now Tropical Storm Irene made landfall over Coney Island. Never did get AC his coffee because till I got over there they were moving out. His loss.

The VQs emerged from their hurricane and wine induced slumber. I was walking down the street when I got a text from Ash which, edited to be politically correct, pretty much said I was an idiot and I should get my ass back inside. I've decided that unless I can get to the water, or the water can get to me, hurricanes aren't very photogenic at all. Just a big nasty rain storm slapping you in the face.

Some water in our basement but other than that no big problems yet. Brooklyn and Staten Island are covered with power outages but so far there is just a small one in the West Village. That I do not understand but I'm an artist so what do I know.

Seems like the worst is passing now and AC finally made it back to Battery Park. The water is starting to recede already so maybe I'll try and get to one river or the other and see what I can find. I don't have a Weather Channel or CNN jacket so might have a problem but maybe the Penn State field hockey one will do the trick.

Than maybe it will be time to put a dent in these supplies we have.

Observations on Irene 8.27

12:00PM - We have the weirdest sky now, all dark and swirly, something I don't associate with a hurricane. More like a twister movie sky.

Electric shutdown, “If a shutdown of those substations did become necessary, the affected area would be the southeastern tip of Manhattan, bordered by the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Broadway on the west and the East River on the south and east, said Chris Olert, a spokesman for Con Ed.” Well that's bad for them but good for me.

1:00PM – The bar is open and the Phillies are going to try and play. I hope I didn't make a mistake leaving the alcohol with the VQs though. I could get back to a storm shelter for theatre types and that isn't how I want to spend my hurricane. Forget this as the Phillies game was called when the outer bands of Irene arrived over Citizens Bank Park. That means the Phillies now have no days off until the end of the season, 33 games in 33 days. Not good at all.

6:00PM - Made one last check on Foxy and did my usual weekly engine running routine while I called my dad to check-in. It's getting breezy there but not raining much yet which is good because they already had over a foot of rain this month. For the first time I'm glad my parking space is on the third floor, she should be fine.

I'm starting to get a slightly depressed feeling as the storm tracks up the coast. I love the shore, I always have, and one by one some of my favorite places are being trashed. Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks went first and will soon to be followed by Ocean City and Rehoboth. When Irene hits Stone Harbor later tonight I might just cry. Supposedly 95% of Cape May County, which includes Stone Harbor, has been evacuated. It will be days till I know how the house made out.

11:00PM - Heavy rain started falling not long ago and with it came the first sounds of thunder. The winds are gusting to about 30 mph now but should rise to 50 mph by midnight according to NY1. The latest predictions have us getting wind speeds up to 90 mph and a six to eight foot storm surge by early morning. When Anderson Cooper goes live at 6AM I don't think he will be standing in Battery Park where he was Friday night. The street below is pretty much deserted now, honestly I think I saw more activity out there during the blizzards this past winter.

More useless hurricane trivia. On October 16, 1955 Hurricane Katie was born with winds of 115 mph. It lasted three days, caused $250,000 damage (1955 dollars), and left seven deaths in its wake.

And now the first lightning. I have the feeling it's going to be a long night.

Observations on Irene 8.26

I thought maybe I would take some early morning photos so I rode an empty subway train down to the soon to be forbidden zone of Battery Park. Truth be told I didn't take much of anything because it was just a cloudy dreary humid morning and on top of that the Starbucks was closed. If this is the calm before the storm I think I'll pass.

Irene came ashore in North Carolina around 7AM as a category 1 storm. The weakening doesn't change the situation much here as the problem is how long the storm will batter the city and how much water will be pushed into the harbor, the rivers, and down the street. Later today ConEd will decide if it is going to shutdown the power to lower Manhattan. Because the cables are all underground they are vulnerable to saltwater if they are in use but not if they aren't in use. Now I understand why there are no batteries to be found in the Village.

Everybody says be prepared so we stocked up with the following....

One case of Corona, one case of Corona Light, and two bags of ice in the freezer. Multiple bottles of red and white wine because Ash can't decide which is the right one for a hurricane and one must follow the wine rules at all times.
A bag of limes and one bottle of Jose Cuervo Black Medallion tequila because one shouldn't ride out a big storm with cheap tequila.
One carton of Misty Menthol Ultra Lights otherwise known as Misty Silver under the theory that people think ultra-light smoke is healthy and will think silver isn't.
One carton of Marlboro Menthol 100s because Chloe isn't a lite weight like me and smokes a real cigarette, or so I am told.
New lighter to light those above named cigarettes.
Two camera and two laptop batteries charged. A camping lantern and flashlights along with a jumbo pack of priceless D size batteries. The latter I am tempted to sell on the street because, well, they really are priceless right now.
My older digital camera packed in a towel and zip-lock bag. Don't ask on this one because I'm not going to tell.

Shit I forgot to get food.

A bit of worthless hurricane trivia that doesn't seem so worthless now. If the storm is a category 1 at ground level it is a category 2 ten stories up. I can hear the glass raining down already.

No subways running down below and it just started raining in the Village. I suppose this really is the calm before the storm.

Let the games begin.

Neil Young - Like A Hurricane, Berlin 1982

update - Due to some concern I would like to add that we have cookies, coffee, and two cases of bottled water too.

Observations from the Window 8.26

At times it seems like I might be mellowing in my old age because I just don't feel like writing about politics like I had been. Maybe it's the reverse that is true and I haven't mellowed at all but just don't want to write about it because when I do I think and when I think I just get pissed off. I'll go with that because I know I haven't mellowed at all and never will. I'm just destined to be the bitchy old woman at the artists' home in Montreuil which is a future I don't find all that unappealing.

I know I have talked before about writing more on art and photography only to get sidetracked by one thing or another but I'm going to try to do that once again. Last week I took a photography seminar at the Tisch School of Arts at NYU and it, like the Armory Show earlier this year, has me wanting to get some things written. While I was there I was looking into the course offerings and saw two I would really like to take, the Advanced History Seminar (photography) and Business of Art (photography). The problem is I really don't have the time to do either.

As for now I'm about to be sidetracked yet again as hurricane Irene is heading in my direction. I'm not too worried because I'm in evacuation zone C which is well outside zone A, and a block away from zone B. This is from the NYC Office of Emergency Management website, “Residents in Zone C may experience storm surge flooding from a major hurricane making landfall just south of New York City. A major hurricane is unlikely in New York City, but not impossible.” Damn, reading that makes me feel better already.

One sad thought has crept into my head and that is the idea that by Sunday morning 'my' beach house may be gone forever. Sitting on the beach in Stone Harbor it now seems that there isn't much chance of it not being hit hard. I toyed with the idea of driving down and sitting at Fred's as the storm rolled by but Stone Harbor already has evacuated non-residents and as of 5PM today all liquor sales will be suspended till Monday. Worst of all Foxy would be parked in the open and that I will not do.

Is it wrong that I worry more about my car than myself?

Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary

Late afternoon update - Cape May County NJ ordered a mandatory evacuation of its barrier islands which include Stone Harbor, Fred's, and the beach house. Also New York City ordered the first mandatory evacuations in its history today. So far they just include zone A but that includes all of Battery Park City, Coney Island, and Rockaway Beach.