Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why, You had to hide away For so long where did we go wrong.

Blue sky, a photo by martin_kalfatovic on Flickr.

Sun is shinin' in the sky,
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin'
Everybody's in a play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day.

Runnin' down the avenue,(Pant, Pant, Pant)
See how the sun shines brightly
In the city on the streets
Where once was pity,
Mr. Blue Sky is living here today.

Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why,
You had to hide away
For so long where did we go wrong.

Hey there Mr. Blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around see what you do,
Everybody smiles at you.

Hey you with the pretty face,
Welcome to the human race
A celebration Mr. Blue Sky's
Up there waitin' and today
Is the day we've waited for

Mr. Blue you did it right,
But soon comes Mr. Night,
Creepin' over, now his
Hand is on your shoulder,
Never mind I'll remember you this way.

- Jeff Lynne, E.L.O.

Minor storm damage, small branches down

Two Hurricanes: Irene and rum-based

Two Hurricanes, a photo by martin_kalfatovic on Flickr.

Though I should have a hurricane, since Hurricane Irene was approaching, here's my modified recipe:

1 oz Cruzon white rum
1 oz Pusser's British Navy dark rum
1 oz Old New Orleans Cajun spiced rum
1/2 oz Cointreau
3 oz orange juice
1 oz mango syrup
1/2 oz grenadine syrup

Stir and serve over ice with a small straw

Cat watching Hurricane Irene approach

Banjo isn't too happy with this situation

Hurricane Irene is a dairy free zone

Santa Fe Cafe, closed for Hurricane Irene

A look back at DC Quake 2011 before turning to Hurricane Irene ...

Evacuation on the Mall

Before we turn our full attention to Hurricane Irene, here's a quick recap of some of the adventures from DC Quake 2011.

Fallen top hat

First off, I missed the whole thing. I was walking back from Starbucks at lunch time and walked back into the Natural History Museum to see a crowd of people rushing out, my first thought was that they were rushing to catch the tour bus. Squeezed past them to run into a building managment person. He's normally a quite calm fellow, but he was hustling people out. I asked him what was up and he said "It's either an earthquake a a bomb." My thought was that it was a construction related explosion the NE Quad of the building.

Headed out with the rest and security officers were getting people away from the building. Saw no smoke or anything, so headed across Constitution Ave. by the Department of Justice and then back to 9th street and over to the Mall where our emergency gathering spot was.

Empty glass

Fallen books at home

No cell service, but the free Mall wi-fi was working, saw on the Twitterverse that it was an earthquake. Helos over the Mall and more people gathering (FBI, DOJ, etc. - clearly not Smithsonian staff). Hung around for about an hour, was able to complete two meetings (!).

After a while, we were told we could go back into the building and get our things, but the Smithsonian would be closed for the rest of the day. Headed into the building and walked up the four flights of stairs (thinking about the people who went back up the World Trade Center), got some stuff from my office (oddly the only damage was my top hat fell off the shelf). Headed with a group of staff to Poste to sit out the Metro crush. Traded stories of disasters past, and then zipped home on the slow moving Metro.

No damage at home (just a tumbled bit of bookcase and crooked pictures). Back at work, there was more damage thatn initially thought. The Smithsonian Castles was closed til August 29 while structural evaluations were done and some things were shored up. At the Museum Support Center in Maryland, there was more damage and he remained closed for a few days. At Natural History, there was some collections damage (Bats on the Floor!) and a mess in the Botany library where a number of ranges of shelves collapsed towards the windows (told later by engineering staff that they bounced off the blast proof windows! That makes me feel secure for the next disaster!).

  Slide show of DC Quake 2011:

Stretch Caddy Taxi in start of Hurricane Irene

Sandbagging Bean Good in prep for Hurricane Irene

Getting that pre-storm wind

Clouds before the storm

Waiting for Irene

I voted in Arlington, Virginia - after earthquake; did you?

Minor post DC quake damage

Easily fixed while waiting for Metro to clear...

Smithsonian evacuated during DC earthquake

5.8 or 5.9