(above: self portrait)

I have been so freaking busy this week. It has seriously been the longest “short week,” ever. I haven’t had time to write anything interesting, or even think anything interesting. I have shot some really good stuff this week, though. It has also been really nice to have such an uptick in movement at my real job. Tonight I finally had a bit of a break, to just do… whatever. Reagan cut my hair, then I watched the BP cam (again), while doing other less important things (like setting up the above shot [which, btw, totally reminds me of this shot]).

The engineers have been able to place the cap onto the severed riser, now. But from what I can see, there is still a ton of oil coming out of every direction, not just the opening at the top of the cap. Several little robot hands are still furiously working on things. Hopefully the degree of spillage will be mitigated to a degree, once it is all bolted on snugly? I’m not really getting my hopes up, anymore. In fact at this rate, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we find out in August that the relief wells have also failed. If you have the nerve for it, be sure to check out the June 3 “big picture.”

On a much, much lighter note, The New York Stock Exchange finally got their own Starbucks, right on the trading floor.

New York  , June 2, 2010 – Starbucks premier coffee, specialty beverages, and select food offerings are now available on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A first at the NYSE, the Starbucks kiosk will serve the Exchange’s trader and employee community from 8:00am through the 4:00pm NYSE market close.

Awesome. Now if they could just outfit all of the traders with colostomy bags, they would be totally set.

(above: Peter P. Costa, Empire Executions, Inc. visits the opening of Starbucks on NYSE trading floor [courtesy NYSE])

Apparently summer decided to show up, last night. Today was a scorcher. I almost rode my bike to work this morning. So glad that I opted out of that one. Against my better judgment, I ran 6 miles after work. I almost melted. In fact, I may actually have been melting. I also ran the reverse of a route that I normally run, which gave me some steep uphill sections. Dumb dumb dumb.

Anyway, Reagan had to go do some church stuff tonight, so I went up on the roof to enjoy the weather a bit, after the sun had set. Of course I brought the cam. Nothing like a little long-exposure action to help wind down. The image above is a plane that was taking off from LGA. I hit the shutter release when he was about half way across the frame. Tomorrow night is a full moon. So, of course, I had to grab one of these:

It just wouldn’t be right to take the camera on the roof, without snapping these apartments.

Also, fleet week started today. Of course I totally spaced it, and did not have my cam with me today. Otherwise, this post would probably be loaded up with photos of aircraft carriers and other ships cruising past my bldg, into the mouth of the Hudson.

I have been obsessively watching the BP leak cam, ever since the Fed’s gave the “top kill” solution a green light, this  morning. I have a multiple monitor setup, at work. So I have had one just dedicated to live “top kill” action. My urge to share what I have been observing has probably resulted in some of my Facebook “friends” hiding my status updates. It is similar to watching CSPAN, in that– it is really boring at times, but you can tell that important stuff is definitely happening on there. Hahaha. I’m praying like crazy that this procedure does the trick. From everything that I have read, the next plan on the list would take months to execute.

I’m already looking forward to the long weekend.