The Long Island Blog

I don’t mean to dwell on this subject, but lightning is a significant part of summer on Long Island and we’ve had a lot lately…

Last night I was blown out of bed by tremendous blast of thunder and lightning. The kind where you see the flash and hear the boom (BOOM!) at the same time.

I checked the house to make sure it wasn’t hit, then went back to bed. This morning I woke to find my cable, phone, and internet service nonfunctional, and a tree in the backyard blown to bits.

And that’s exactly what happens when lightning hits a tree, the water inside it boils and the tree explodes sending giant wooden spears everywhere. That’s very dangerous and a good reason to stay away from trees during thunderstorms.

This oak tree is split from top to bottom and will have to be cut down.

There are thunderstorms in the forecast for the next 4 days. Hopefully I won’t have anymore pictures to post here…

We had some serious lightning on Long Island’s south shore the other night. My daughter, through sheer will and determination, snapped this picture with her cell phone as we were heading east on Sunrise Highway in Oakdale.

It’s not a great shot, but it does convey the power of a lightning bolt. The odd looking thing on the left is the windshield wiper. In the lower left corner of the picture you can see ripples of rainwater running down the window.

Had we the time we would have watched this storm from the beach (staying in the car of course), which can be quite spectacular.

On Sunday afternoon I drove to my parent’s house in Southold on Long Island’s north fork for our traditional Father’s Day BBQ. Dad passed a few years ago, but I still look forward to spending Father’s Day with my mom and relaxing with my kids. My mom’s house is just a block from the beach and is the perfect place…

I’ve been making this short trip routinely since my folks moved from Massapequa ten years ago and you know how it is with things like this, the car knows the way and you really don’t pay much attention to landmarks anymore. You pull out of one driveway and next thing you know your pulling in to another.

Lately however, I’ve been noticing something strange. Something I’ve been looking at for years but never really saw: The Custer Institute and the Indian Museum are directly across the street from one another.

Heading west from Greenport on 25 you’ll see this sign. Looks like something from a Far Side cartoon doesn’t it?

Seems odd doesn’t it? Custer killed a lot of Indians and in the end was killed by them. But there you have it, the two of them side by side on Main Bayview Road in Southold.

Established in 1927, The Custer Institute is Long Island’s oldest public observatory and was founded by General George Custer’s grandniece, hence the name. The institute is still very active, perhaps more than ever, offering lectures, programs and workshops in astronomy, physics, geology, paleontology and archeology.

The Southold Indian Museum is small but important as it houses the largest collection of Algonquin ceramic pottery anywhere. The museum also owns a 63 acre flint mine in Coxsackie, NY that has been in use for over 7000 years. That’s pretty cool.

I’ll post more info when I actually stop in and visit instead of just driving by. The irony still gets me though…

The late springtime weather on Long Island can blow in some unusual looking clouds. I don’t know what kind of clouds these are, but I thought they were cool enough to take pictures of.

I had been admiring these while in my car on the way to work. When I finally parked the car they were almost gone, but you can still see the odd undulations that initially caught my eye. The clouds appear to be pushed down by some force above them and kind of look like what I imagine the surface of the sea looks like from below.

These I snapped over the Suffolk Community College campus in Brentwood during my lunch break a couple of weeks ago. The camera simply does not do justice to this majestic sight. The clouds were bright, puffy and I could see them expanding over the horizon like popcorn in slow motion.