Hello? Mom Nature?

[DonSchap]

Glad to see you are drying out.
Frank

Well, they've widened the street restrictions so that everything to the east of Rt. 45 through
Des Plaines is effectively local traffic only. All major East-West streets are effectively blocked
because of the river overflow. That's a good three miles or more long. The local economy suffers.

Basically the entire center of this map crop ...



The red circle is the location I took the 360 River-flood panorama.

Word has it that there are six-inches of river water in the local Community College (where I got
my Photography Certificate) and no one can get in to bail her out, because it is right next to the
river.

Here's an overhead shot of the campus area, a little further to the north, during drier times.

[sparkie1263]

I am sorry to here that. Hope they get it cleaned up soon.
Frank

[DonSchap]

Yeah, it kind of happened to me (personally) back in Aug, 2006 ... except, I couldn't get to the dry campus ...
the river water was high and it surrounded the college like an ad hoc moat. Now, with this year's flood
penetrating the building and its associated basement area, it'll be a real mess. That water is not very pleasant,
considering that the college is also next to one of the town's largest cemeteries.

I was actually thinking about going in, tomorrow, with my canoe and checking things out, personally, with the A100.
The campus really is inaccessible by conventional land vehicle, but their is also a problem that the water is so high ...
the road bridges actually block any boat traffic using the river, now. How weird is that?

Currently, there are like only three east-west roads that can get through the river crossings for about ten miles!
Traffic is completely screwed up, already, due to the year-long widening of I-294 tollway. All the overpasses had to
be widened, so they are in whatever condition, with lane restrictions, too. This is bad, but it beats being in Galveston,
Texas. Those people set a new level of destruction.

[seanhoxx]

Still with out power here in Ohio, The three blocks on the east end of town which is the middle of where I live is the only part still down, don't even have the trees cleared away yet!! lots of dark pockets all over the county and many adjacent counties, but we are dry and temps have been cool so I guess that is something.

[DonSchap]

These occasional and "unpredictable" power outages were things to just gauled me until I finally put a generator up
(isn't home ownership fun?). I took a 7500W portable power unit ($400 from Home Depot), built a three-foot
tall stand for it out of plywood and two-by-fours, put it in a plastic doghouse and have a fiberglass water-proof
storage cover for protection. You can easily see where the flood waters rode up it and washed away the build-up
on the legs. The upper portion of the dog house is removeable and is removed when the generator is operating.
The generator is protected by its own rather flat 5-gallon fuel tank (just out of sight, on top) I ran a aluminum-conduit
from it to the house (it's on that 4x4 post to the left) and had an electrician re-wire the main panel with a small AUX
panel to "critical power circuits" (sump, refrigerators, freezer, stove, microwave, some critical lighting and furnace
systems) I also dropped two grounding wires (the red wires on the right) to deep driven stakes to make sure
the entire generator installation was safe.

The generator is located easily 35-feet from the closest point of the house ... so as to be safe from carbon-monoxide
(CO), cardbon-dioxide (CO2) and other exhaust emissions.

The 'cut-over breaker' automatically disconnects the main power panel from the auxilliary power panel and immediately
connects it to the generator. When the regular power is restored, you simply throw it back and then go shut-down the generator.



I have to admit, it is a little rough opperating like this ... but, for the price of a high-end SONY lens, you can easily avoid the
alternative of a flooded basement, destroyed stores of food and perishables, and living like you are in the Stone-age, at night.
Uh, no thanks for that.

[DonSchap]

Okay, so I cleaned (pressure-washed) the backyard fence, after the simulated dolphin tank. But, I wanted to do something
with series photographs that I had never done before ... an HDR panorama. Yeah, no kidding. I wanted to post the image
proving that the concept is, indeed, workable with Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Here she is:



Each section ... triple exposure (-2 EV, EV, +2 EV).

You can pull up the vertical stripes in the brighter areas. The shadows, in direct sunlight are broadened out. The highlights
are reduced. You have to admit, it's all kind of awesome. I mean, it's my backyard, huge white reflective fence ... and you
can see stuff without squinting

Now, to get those darn woodchips back over the garden area.


Have fun playing with this idea, Frank. LOL

[seanhoxx]

Nice with HDR pan, man everytime I come on here there is something new I need to learn, and try, I can't keep up with you guys, I'm still just trying to use the camera lol!
Nice use of the dog box Don, I see so many people have to go and wheel out the generator, sit it in the garage with doors up or on the back deck run extension cords etc. really sucks in the winter! 7500 watts how does that work out for you, be just about min. to run essential items only, but enough to keep you warm, the basement dry, and the freezer cold. a 4500 watt is really nice for "portable" power but not running many thongs for very long! I keep looking at one of those guardian brand systems that run off propane tank or your natural gas line, auto on / off etc. neighbor has one, but they aint cheap. can run the house off it for only $4000.00, they do have smaller ones though. My power came back on Tuesday afternoon.

[DonSchap]

Nice use of the dog box Don, I see so many people have to go and wheel out the generator, sit it in the garage with
doors up or on the back deck run extension cords etc. really sucks in the winter! 7500 watts how does that work out
for you, be just about min. to run essential items only, but enough to keep you warm, the basement dry, and the
freezer cold.

Honestly, it operates about half of the house ... and for an emergency, we can live with that. If I need to, I can run
a few extension cords from the "up" circuits for temporary things.

It takes about ten years to build a nuclear power plant, so my plans for putting that in are NOT even close to complete,
yet. I still have to build the huge thermal retention pond (but, I am now considering just using the Des Plaines River, itself,
to draw off the heat). Then, there is that unfortunate nuclear waste disposal system, for the "spent" fuel rods.

The nextdoor neighbor is not too keen on the proposed cooling tower, either.

I saw this other guy's ... uh, "Generator Replacement" system, when I was out west. He uses it for his house and RV.

Cool, huh?

[seanhoxx]

In my spare time I try and do some work on my matter / antimatter energy deployment system, but it plays hell with the whole space / time continum thingy, and boy I tell you what go and suck one garage in to a spatial vortex and the neighbors never let you forget it!!

[DonSchap]

Okay ... after the "flood of 2008" (Or should I say: "Concerning this year's flood ..."), we took a look at some issues we'd had with the side yard,
where a great deal of the water had kind of messed up the gardening effort. The yard was a sopping, soggy mess and not much fun to have to
fill the bird feeders and such (You know who was complaining ).

Examining the south side of the house, a side that gets relatively little play due to it's utility aspect ... we decided to change its look, last week,
and it was completed, just before the storm rolled in, tonight.

These three crops kind of document the change.









The dirt areas of the walkway in the "final shot" will be lined with flowers, next Spring, as I suspect there will be snow, in short order.

Anyway ... a bit of a staging against the next tidal shift! LOL

BTW: Did you catch that color-shift in the tree, in the backyard? Wow. ... just seven days.