it's getting close . . .

sandy!

we've been in the clouds all day

the low is over western pennsylvania at sundown today --- billions and billions in damages before it's all over --- and an example of exactly the sort of mega-storm science has been predicting we could expect with global warming ---

 the clouds will be back tomorrow, but right now it's purty nice

sandy!

hurricane sandy, cat. 1, is going ashore in new jersey about now --- 90 mph winds, 940 mb barometric pressure, which is the lowest ever recorded for any storm to hit the northeast ---in the 50s and 20-30 mph wind here, but no rain, which is sad ----

big weather watch

outer banks ferries are shut down, nc 12 has been overwashed at Rodanthe and elsewhere, ocracoke has a foot of water in the streets --- here it's been cloudy and around 50 degrees all day

a "stark" choice

the ny times endorses obama and provides an excellent summary of what he has accomplished even in the face of mindless republican opposition:

The economy is slowly recovering from the 2008 meltdown, and the country could suffer another recession if the wrong policies take hold. The United States is embroiled in unstable regions that could easily explode into full-blown disaster. An ideological assault from the right has started to undermine the vital health reform law passed in 2010. Those forces are eroding women’s access to health care, and their right to control their lives. Nearly 50 years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, all Americans’ rights are cheapened by the right wing’s determination to deny marriage benefits to a selected group of us. Astonishingly, even the very right to vote is being challenged.

everybody better go vote for him

possibility of record flooding in nyc, a foot or two of snow in west virginia ---

big weather

big weather on the east coast --- hurricane sandy --- and its outer bands are spiraling across georgia this evening ---  wish we could get same rain out of it, but we won't

fall in ansley park

actually this one is at metropolis porte cochere

flowers

always a damn blossom open somewhere in the house --- now that crazy tri-colored cattleya is starting up again, too --

dumb name, too

there are only a handful of the early twentieth century commercial buildings left in midtown --- gilbert's expansion has just ruined one of them --- 10th & piedmont? is that the best they could do?

little five points halloween parade

perhaps not as over the top as some of the parades in years past (robert blames it on the influx of children in the neighborhood) --- but a spectacle nonetheless

skyline update

 the new apartment building at 12th & midtown

the exterior of skyhouse at 12th and w. peachtree appears complete

the garden

almost all of the little oncidium blossoms opened while i was gone === they'll last for a while

pensacola beach

 three nights, fifth floor with balcony overlooking the gulf --- open door and ocean breeze --- kinda nice

fort pickens

fort pickens was built in the 1840s, partially destroyed by an explosion in the 1890s, but continued in use until the end of world war ii

the prolonged overwash from hurricane ivan killed many of the pine trees

and the fort pickens road out of pensacola beach is really wonderful, at points like driving through drifts of snow

 there was a series of large concrete batteries built for 12" guns during world war i, covered with earth during world war ii ---

barrancas

the scarp gallery runs the perimeter of the fort and is one of the most wonderful spaces i've entered in a while --- lined with gun ports, it faces the counterscarp gallery, also lined with gun ports, across the dry moat --- nothing but brick and light

fort barrancas de san carlos was built by the spanish in 1797, overlooking the mouth of pensacola bay --- it was altered when the united states built fort barrancas proper in the 1840s

the united states also built the so-called "advanced redoubt," which protected the peninsula on which the navy yard was located from assault by land