The Long Island Blog

It’s that time of the year again on Long Island. The time when orb weavers make their presence known by building huge webs around porch lights, shrubs, garden paths, and anywhere else suitable for scaring the pants off unsuspecting passersby.

There are two of these spiders around my house this year. One directly under a porch light, and another in the dark near a sidewalk alongside my house. Both spiders are quite large, but their webs are different sizes. The web in the dark is about 5 feet tall (huge!), while the one under the porch light is only about 2 feet in diameter. I wonder if that’s because the light attracts so much food she doesn’t need a larger web.

I know these are females by their size. The males are much smaller and build smaller, less organized webs. The web below (click pic for full size image) is in almost complete darkness. It is illuminated here only by the flash of my camera.

This is a closeup of the spider under the porch light. I don’t know what exact species she is, but does it really matter? It’s big, ugly, and yet incredibly beautiful.

Ever see someone in an old pickup truck filled with junk picking through your trash? A few days ago that was me…

I’ve heard from more than one person about how they make money by cashing in scrap metal, especially aluminum, that they found in the trash. So, when I came upon what looked like a ton of the stuff, I couldn’t resist.

The metal was actually a swim deck from an old swimming pool. The pool had reached the end of it’s life and was discarded. The aluminum decking was in the trash waiting for the garbage men. luckily, I got there first. The 6′ x 8′ pieces were too heavy and too big for me to handle alone, so I had my son help me lift and tie them to the top of the truck.

At the recycling center there’s a giant scale that weighs your truck as you drive in and then again after you unload your scrap. The difference is the weight of your scrap. We had 180lbs of aluminum. The price that day was $0.64/lb, so we earned $115. Not bad for doing virtually nothing. Smaller amounts of metal can be carried in by hand and get weighed on a smaller scale.

Mountians of metal at Crestwood Metals will be melted down and turned into new products

So, if you have some old copper pipes, aluminum patio furniture, bike frames, whatever… why not haul it down to the nearest metal recycler and see what you get for it? You’ll put some change in your pocket and help keep stuff out of the landfills too.

Need help finding a place to bring your scrap? Try these for starters:

Gershow Recycling – Multiple Locations

Crestwood Metals – 1100 Lincoln Ave. Holbrook, NY / 631-567-2727

Its nice to be noticed…

My blog was mentioned on Sunday in the sidebar to an article about Diana Faria’s blog longislanddailyphoto.blogspot.com.

I don’t know Darren Sands and I didn’t know he was writing anything about me, but I’d like to thank him (Thank you, Darren) for including me in his article.

I don’t know Diana Faria either, but best of luck to you and keep up the good work.

As I’ve said here before one of the great things about Long Island is how close it is to New York City. An hour’s drive or train ride and you’re there…

On Friday we took a train in to see Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy. If you’re familiar with Cirque du Soleil you know this is a bunch of acrobats doing incredible things. And that’s an understatement. These guys and girls are truly amazing.

While I’m on the topic of amazing, let me tell you that there’s no better way to appreciate an acrobatic performance than to see the Bodies exhibit at South Street Seaport first.

This truly remarkable display of dissected human bodies will shock and awe you. Each dissection highlights a particular area of human function. The bodies are artistically posed and there’s no glass. You can get as close as you want.

We spent well over an hour in this exhibit and, strangely, we were all hungry when we left. BTW, we saw plenty of children in the museum and in my opinion (father of 3) the exhibit is safe for kids.

We enjoyed some good food and homemade beer and root beer at the Heartland Brewery directly across the street, then got some airbrush tattoos in the seaport.

At the appointed hour we hailed a cab to 53^rd and Broadway for the show, and then I lost my wallet. I either left it in the cab or it fell into the street. I’ve since canceled my credit cards and I’ll be at DMV tomorrow for a new license and registration.

Now, last summer I found a pocketbook bobbing in the water near Fire Island. I tracked down the owner and returned it. Could that be enough good karma to help my wallet find its way back home? I’ll let you know…

Cirque Dreams was very impressive and somewhat frightening at times. I really thought one of those acrobats was going to get hurt. They must be as crazy as they are talented. But they put on an excellent show that’s cute enough for kids yet stunning enough for adults.

After the show we walked from the theater through Times Square (a.k.a. The Crossroads of the World) back to Penn Station. Times Square is a stunning sight at night. Lights and people everywhere, the streets are packed so tight you can barely move.

Aside from the lost wallet, it was a great day in the city. BTW, that’s how Long Islanders refer to New York City. We just call it The City. What else could we be referring to?

I took a trip to Atlantique on Fire Island last Friday. Atlantique is one of my favorite spots for a Fire Island day trip because it has public restrooms, hot showers, and a nice little snack bar. It’s also very close to Ocean Beach which is where I like to go for dinner after a day on the beach.

The plan is simple: I take the Fire Island Ferry from Bay Shore to Atlantique. Spend the day swimming in the ocean then take a hot shower and change into some decent clothes. Hail the Fire Island Water Taxi for a short, but exhilarating ride to Ocean Beach. When the night is over I take the ferry back to Bay Shore.

But getting back to my trip to Atlantique. Long Island’s beaches are usually great for beachcombing, but every now and then you’ll come across an accumulation of shells and polished stones that’s just unbelievable.

On a very small section of beach the waves and currents were just right to pile up this mass of goodies. No one could help but bend over here and pick things up. One guy even found a shark’s tooth.

Hope everyone had a safe 4th of July… (Although I did read about a 6 year old girl who was burned when someone thew fireworks into a bonfire. What a @#%$ moron!)

Here are a couple of shots taken right in front of my house. Not my fireworks though. Someone on the next block was launching very large and very loud fireworks from his backyard.

Of course the camera, especially without a tripod, doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the display.

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.