Aftermath

Some images I found of New York City, post-Superstorm Sandy:

Pre-Dawn Blackout at the ConEdison Plant:

Morning Slowly Dawns:

from my kitchen window:

From Superstorm Sandy

86th St N Line:

Battery Tunnel:

East Village:

Pile-Up:

Battery Park, apparently:

Sitting Out the Storm

Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, USA

It's funny. Olga and I are usually content to sit at home in Bushwick for literally days at a time. Today, though, we woke up around noon, and by two in the afternoon we were going absolutely stir-crazy!

From Superstorm Sandy

From our windows, there doesn't seem to be anything going on in particular. Some wind, almost no rain, and eerily empty streets. Actually, not even that empty. The bodega across Wilson Street is open, and the Chinese restaurant, and the new coffee shop across Suydam Street, too. The coffee shop has only been open for a couple weeks, so they probably can't afford to close ... and they're still getting customers! As for the bodega and the Chinese restaurant, the families that own and run them also live on the second floor with an internal staircase to get home, so why wouldn't they stay open for as long as they have even a trickle of customers?

Meanwhile, I'm more than a little jealous of friends like Tiffany who are living close enough to the rivers to go for a short walk and see the storm sweeping in. I love storms, especially after all those years in the desert, but I love being safe and dry even more!

So we're sitting at home, watching it unfold on Facebook and TV (our electricity and Internet are just fine!), playing wild and vicious card games of Spit and Speed, and trying not to remember that we couldn't go anywhere even if we wanted to....

Friends and Foliage

Bear Mountain State Park, New York, USA

From Bear Mountain before the Hurricane

Across the Hudson and not too far upriver, the Appalachian Trail passes over Bear Mountain, and many other trails criss-cross the state park. I've been hearing about Bear Mountain since I first came to New York City, and all this time I've been keeping my eye out for opportunities to get out there and go hiking.

When the Twenties and Thirties Group at First Unitarian Brooklyn announced a hiking day there, I knew it was the right time. UUs are always fun people to spend time with, and I'd decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to get more involved with the young people at the Brooklyn church.

So I put on my sturdy shoes, filled my Camelbak, layered up and grabbed my camera. Not only was it nice to get out of the city, and great to spend time with a group of really wonderful young people, but it was also the peak of fall foliage season on Bear Mountain.

The colors were so brilliant and vibrant, and in a way that I haven't often had an opportunity to see in recent years. Frequently I found myself lagging behind as I stopped to take photos of vistas, popping yellows and deep reds.

With the first clouds driving ahead of the impending Frankenstorm Sandy, the sky was heavily overcast and the light was uninspiring, but the leaves and the company most definitely were inspiring. It was a great day.

From Bear Mountain before the Hurricane