Tag: New Jersey

Thursday (08-November-2012) — New Jersey

Autumn Weather in New Jersey: Nor’easter Athena.

An early winter. Not as much wind from Nor’easter Athena, but we did get 8-12 inches of snow last night. I didn’t know that nor’easters get names like hurricanes — social media or weather and news channels looking for ratings? Power was off for about 12 hours, so it was cold in the house this morning. Still not sure if the power was off due to ongoing power grid repairs, or new damage due to this storm.

PSE&G just sent an e-mail out that stated 70K users were still out due to hurricane Sandy, and another 90K users were out due to the nor’easter last night. The other comment was “Despite the snowstorm, the 4,000 out-of-state workers and 700 PSE&G linemen restored service to more than 120,000 customers affected by Hurricane Sandy in the past 24 hours. Many of our crews from the south have never worked in snow before, but have proven more than capable of handling this new challenge.”

Dawn after Nor'easter Athena, One+ Week Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Dawn after Nor’easter Athena, One+ Week Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Snow Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Snowy Dawn. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Snow Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Birch Tree Bent Over by Snow. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Snow Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Dawn after Nor’easter Athena, One+ Week Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Snow Post Hurricane Sandy. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)
Deer Tracks in the Snow. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (07-November-2012) — New Jersey

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Day Nine.

Some progress on power grid repairs, but a Nor’easter is coming. It is hard to believe that it was just a year ago that we had an early winter Nor’easter for Halloween. This year we get another early winter storm before all of the repairs post Hurricane Sandy are completed. The following images show that progress is being made. The last image shows that the light rain was converting to snow. My furnace and hot water heater were repaired, and I got a delivery of oil before the storm hit. Power went out again during the night. I was not sure if this was due to the power company switching over circuits to the newly repaired lines, or due to snow-covered branches taking down new lines.

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

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)

Monday (05-November-2012) — New Jersey

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Day Seven — Halloween and a Home Cooked Meal.

Last week the Gubernator canceled Halloween due to Hurricane Sandy. By Gubernator order Halloween was rescheduled for today in Montgomery Township. No one came by, even though I had my Habanero pepper surprises ready to give out. For several years the local trick-or-treat folks stopped by for my hot peppers.

Day 8: ANPAT 12 Day 1 - Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (David J Mathre)
Day 8: ANPAT 12 Day 1 – Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (David J Mathre)

I normally don’t do food reviews, but was intrigued by something that I saw at the local grocery store today. The fish department was pretty sparse with fresh fish post Hurricane Sandy, but I did see a Cedar Planked Atlantic Salmon in their frozen display. I took one home (orange & ginger flavored) to try it out. I’ve done salmon on cedar before and liked the taste that cedar smoke can add. I defrosted the salmon on the cedar plank and removed it from its shrink wrapped plastic packaging (image below). I cooked it in my oven per the directions (preheated oven at 425 °F for ~15 minutes). The house filled with the smell of the cedar burning — some smoke, but not enough to set the smoke detectors off. When I took the plank out of the oven, the cedar plank was noticeably burnt/black — but the salmon looked good (image below). The salmon did have a good smoked taste, but was a bit too sweet. When I went back to check the list of ingredients, sugar was #2 after Atlantic Salmon.

Cedar Bay Salmon (before cooking). Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Cedar Bay Salmon (before cooking). Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Cedar Bay Salmon (after cooking). Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera. (David J Mathre)
Cedar Bay Salmon (after cooking). 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)