storm.1

storm.1, originally uploaded by ekissam.

we had a storm on tuesday. i was at work in potsdam and there was a lot of wind, rain, and lightning, but nothing that seemed over the top. it was my drive home that told a different story. the closer i got to colton the larger the debris. we only lost power till midnight that night. other people are still waiting. (oh, and what does one do in colton without power? well, dad and i skipped the survival stuff and drove into potsdam for dinner and then caught kung fu panda.) to the left of the fire house in this shot is the river, and another bent over power pole and wrecked tree.

storm.2

storm.2, originally uploaded by ekissam.

here's the view from the corner of my grandpa's yard. his tree, the ugliest one on the block. . . was untouched.

storm.3

storm.3, originally uploaded by ekissam.

these trees landed on and split the power lines, pulled some of the poles right down. the road was blocked off, but some of the neighbors came out with chain saws and freed up one lane.

storm.4, originally uploaded by ekissam.

tree split in two. a neighboring town had a tree that landed on and split a house. the house across the street from this had a tree on it as well, though i think it faired better. hard to see much with all the leaves.

storm.5

storm.5, originally uploaded by ekissam.

uprooted and pulled up the sidewalk too. this is my normal walking route. . . maybe i should find an alternative for a while.

storm.6

storm.6, originally uploaded by ekissam.

the graveyard was not spared.

storm.7, originally uploaded by ekissam.

a near miss. the whole tree is laid out in right along the front of the house. we're told that it wasn't a tornado, though we were in a tornado watch. some people saw the sky turn green, and dad said the wind and rain was so bad he couldn't see 20 feet in front of him let alone the sky. whatever it was, it seems to have left some tornado-like damage.

canadian.brass

canadian.brass, originally uploaded by ekissam.

this is from a little while back. it was dad's birthday present. the canadian brass played at crane. this is close to the end of their entrance (which dad called- walking through the audience playing dixieland). too bad it's a little fuzzy. such a great concert! highly recommend if you get the chance.

whoo hoo

after i showed my brother the instructable i made about the baby mobile, he said i should submit it to MAKE, or CRAFT. sounded good, but i couldn’t figure out how, and i honestly didn’t look that long. . . low and behold, someone submitted it for me!

it’s on the front page of craftzine.com right now, but probably not for long. think it’s in their blog section or something. . .

my mobile in CRAFT

besides that, i also got my second place prize from Tank Riot. . . most of was dairy swag. . . but there were definitely a couple of treasures.

marrow.2

marrow.2, originally uploaded by ekissam.

here's something neat. i'm kind of excited to have done this. i don't remember if the offer still exists, but for the first 10,000 people who signed up online, the bone marrow registry had free registry.

this is the cheek cell kit i got before i sent it back.

i kinda doubt i'd be a match for anyone, but the possibility is cool.

not much. . .

dan was up last weekend, a quick visit, but fun.

we took a partial day trip down to the wild center in tupper lake. on a side note, my t-mobile phone works just fine 45 minutes from where i am. grrrrrr. the wild center is nice, really well set up. it was nice to visit but not the most engaging museum i’ve been to. i did grow up in the area and just watched the adirondack special on public tv, so perhaps i’ve been overdosed with info on the area lately.

towards the end of the day we prepared for a nostalgic trip to the outdoor movie theatre. they happened to be doing a double showing of indiana jones and the crystal skulls, and iron man- excellent line up. (the outdoor movie theatre and bowling were two of our hot spots in high school. nearly every other weekend included ordering a take out pizza, filling a cooler, and packing up sleeping bags, bug dope and a radio for an evening at the outdoor theatre. in high school the tickets were $5 for two movies, it’s now $7. we don’t stay in the car, we sit outside.) it all started well, we shared our radio with the family next to us that shared their citronella candles. not a bad trade off. as i waited for some fries and iron man started, some rain also started. dan had to throw all our provisions into the car quickly, and we watched iron man from inside the car. too bad. . . but not so terrible.

the not so fun part was waking up the next morning. since the movie starts late (at dusk) and they weren’t exactly short movies, we got home pretty late. this isn’t usually a problem on the weekend, but dan needed to get to montreal to meet his friend who’d be giving him a ride back to boston. we were supposed to meet for a late breakfast. . . in montreal. in other words, a three hour drive plus border patrol. i’m glad i wasn’t driving. i just needed to wake up for the border patrol. -another side note, the t-mobile phone also works just fine in montreal. errrrr.

we had a great breakfast in montreal and walked around a bit, but i wasn’t upset to head back home.


the summer program is still ramping up. it should be an interesting change of pace, but i’ve gotta start thinking about what happens next? right?

oh! on a completely other note. . . the project for a friend that i was excited about. . . has completely. it will be mailed tomorrow (no small feat.) i took some process shots and such and posted them on instructables.com (a new favorite way of losing hours of my life to the internet). within a few hours of posting i received a note saying that my instructable was being featured on the homepage. it won’t be there for much longer, but it’s spent over a day there! whoo hoo!