Tuesday (06-November-2012) — New Jersey

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Day Eight and Election Day.

Power lines still down and roads in my neighborhood are still closed. I have power, but others still don’t. PSE&G folks are working, but still a lot to do.

Drobo update. The 3 TB drive that I added to the Drobo disk array completed the disk protection process. Unfortunately, and not clear in the documentation — I need to add another 3 TB drive and wait for the disk protection process (24+ hours) before the additional space is available. So the warning is that if you have a fully populated Drobo, you will need to add 2 new drives (one at a time) to get more space. In my case this will take 2-4 days. On the positive side, I have access to all my data — but on the negative side, data access during the upgrade is slow.

Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (05-November-2006) — New Jeresy

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey.

Moonlit night sky with the clouds rolling in.


Four images taken with a Nikon D2xs and 17-55 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 17 mm, f/2.8, 6 sec)

Sunday (04-November-2012) — New Jersey

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Day 6 — Power Restored.

I am happy! Power to the house was restored yesterday. When I woke up this morning, power was still on and the house was warm. With the time change, the sun was just coming up through my bedroom window rather than getting up in the dark. I’m thinking of having a Sunday roast chicken dinner with lots of garlic.

With the power restored, I restarted the backup of my server and image collection. I was finally able to start reviewing and process images from the New Mexico trip. One teaser image is of Noah’s Ark from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

The Drobo disk array where I store my images started beeping. The error message told me the storage space was nearly full and that I needed to add some bigger hard drives. We will see how long this takes, and hope that the power stays on for the upgrade to process. I followed the instructions and did a hot swap of the 2 TB drive with a yellow light with a 3 TB drive. After many, many minutes I finally got a message that the new hard drive was recognized — but that the Drobo disk array will require ~38 hours for the data protection process to complete. In the mean time I am making other backups. I am looking forward to the Seagate 4 TB hard drives becoming available at a reasonable cost. With these I could double the size of my image collection.

Noah's Ark. Albuquerque 2012 Balloon Fiesta Final Day. Nikonians ANPAT 12. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VRII lens (ISO 100, 155 mm, f/7.1, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Noah’s Ark. Albuquerque 2012 Balloon Fiesta Final Day. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VRII lens (ISO 100, 155 mm, f/7.1, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)

Friday (02-November-2012) — New Jersey

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Day 4 — Power Still Out.

Before the power can be restored, there is a lot of cleanup work that needs to be done. One of the transformers that went down has been leaking oil for several days. It is not known if the oil contained PCBs. A PSE&G truck was sent out to put absorbent down to clean up the oil. Unfortunately, at least one driver (in the last image) had been giving the PSE&G worker a hard time because he wasn’t being allowed to drive through the oil and under the downed power lines. The PSE&G folks are working 16 hour days to restore power and need to be acknowledged – not hassled.

Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Transformer Oil Cleanup. Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 4. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)

Thursday (01-November-2012) — New Jersey

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Day 3. Power Still Out.

Power went out again. PSE&G says it could be a week or more before everyone has power restored. I’ve moved back into my RV (White Ram). I should have enough diesel and propane for several days. I also have about 40 gallons of water. Before I retired, the Safeway stores in PA closed and I bought a lot of food for an emergency. Looks like I will get to use it.

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath in Skillman New Jersey Day 3. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)