After Irene, mostly comical shots

Hurricane Irene rumbled her way into the tri-state area through the night and surprisingly we slept right through. We really thought we would have been woken by wind and crashing sounds outside but we would wake the next morning to see that little had changed on our block. Before bed I took a couple of shots of the block from our front stoop, ready to take the after shots the next morning showing all the downed limbs and chaos that ensued. But we were very lucky and sustained little to no damage. Even the dead wood that I was figuring would definitely fall was still there atop the trees the next morning, stubborn and rigid. All Cosmo had to do was go over to his garden patch across the street and restomp the roots of his six foot sunflowers back in the ground and they were back up and at 'em like nothing had happened. We decided to heed the over sensationalized media coverage and stay in until the afternoon when the winds finally calmed. We heard via facebook of friends and family losing power out east on Long Island and up in Connecticut. Vermont was probably just getting the wrath they were dealt as we were sipping our coffee and checking in with the world. My parents out in East Hampton would be without power and water for a week, some Connecticuters that long and then some. My high school dormhead and mentor Grim would post pictures of where he now lives in Vermont, complete with destruction like I have never seen up there before. The youtube footage of flooding down in Long Beach and other favorite coastal spots had us rapt.

Eventually we would take a walk through the hood to take care of a cat sitting gig that felis femina had and I brought my camera along. Quickly we realized that Astoria did not escape totally unscathed, though the scenes were mostly comical.
You got to love how well New Yorkers pay attention and observe safety precautions. The greatest city in the world, they never said anything about common sense.
Of course we had to have a celebratory post-Irene pint with the gang down at Dillinger's, our wonderfully reliable local haunt. The menu was limited because they had not gotten a few deliveries, but the taps were flowing just fine.
We stopped at the grocery store to grab a couple things we needed. Or rather, we stopped at the grocery store to find that the hysteria had them totally picked clean.
No hamburger buns for you!
Finally Sunday afternoon we got the first glimpses of blue sky in days and it was glorious. Is that a black cloud over the city or is it just me?
Before the Empire State Building put it's evening lights on....
Thanks Irene for another fabulous sunset here in Queens.

Puck and the Thunderstorm

We hadn't had rain in almost three full weeks. The plants were tired and stressed and so were we. I got off the train and was walking up the street when the sky began to change. The dark clouds were rolling in fast from the west and the wind was whipping the dry tree limbs in a way that demanded attention. Trees are comprised of two types of cellular tissue, lignin and cellulose. The lignin is what makes woody cells strong and rigid, able to support the trees weight and movement. Cellulose is what gives the tree that movement, a compound in the cellular structure of living plants that gives them their flexibility and amiability. If people are curious to know more about tree physiology comment and let me know and I will be happy to babble further in future posts. So, anyway, the wind is blowing like a mad thing and a major thunderstorm is only minutes away. Luckily I'm home in no time. I wonder what kind of storm we are in for as I lower the windows and turn to see Puck walking by. Puck is not a fan of thunderstorms, you see, so he turns out to be quite invaluable in instances such as these. When he makes a b-line for the center of the apartment and sits still as a stone in the shelter of the interior doorways you know you are in for some weather. I love that he looks like one of those old sepia tone photographs of your great, great grandparents from a century ago, so fixed in the pose. And the rain came, pouring buckets and rattling through the neighborhood like a freight train. You could hear the trees and plants breathing their sighs of relief. A necessary break from the dry heat the teeming water was instantly rejuvenating . ...and Puckus? God love him, not moving a muscle.


funny, now I guess we know the safest spot in the apartment if we ever have a major hurricane or earthquake - Ha!