A jumble of things--Feb 17 2014

It is time to clean out the picture files, all those pictures that have accumulated for the past week or two and I have not fit in another posts.

On Sunday the sun melted away our early morning snow enough so that I could ride a bike. I rode out to the east end of the Lintner Industrial Park to see if anything had been done on the solar panel farm and was surprised to see that people had been at work despite the awful weather. Fencing was up and there were piles of what may be solar panels.

 I could not be sure but there may be a row of solar panels already up at the north end of the parcel.

The construction in one of the buildings downtown, mentioned here and identified in the comments as an office for Dr. Sheets, now has the paper off the window so you can peek inside. It does not appear to be completely ready, but it is getting close. And Dr Sheets name is now on the window.

It is hard to keep track of the medical field in Rensselaer--it keep changing. Late last year the hospital contracted with Indiana Emergency Care for emergency room services. Dr Pellicore left town last fall. Dr Wakefield left the Clinic of Family Medicine and set up his practice in the space that Dr C Louck had vacated for his new building. I think that there are now only two physicians at the Clinic of Family Medicine, Dr Chiganti and Dr Darnaby. Dr Louck had an associate, Dr Finley, for a few months who left. Dr Sheets is no longer associated with the Pinnacle Medical Group, which now has Roger Handtke DO on its sign along with a nurse practitioner. What have I missed?

The H&R Block office was open even though it was Sunday.  These are the busy times--they are open into the evening. Have you got your taxes done yet? I finally got the final 1099 statement so that I could do mine.

There is a new business downtown in the small office that formerly housed Ardent Papers Photography. (It is in the building that also has Cornerstone Realty and Manpower) Stearns Home Loans is a company headquartered in California that is expanding into the Midwest. It recruited D Leeper from one of the local banks and he has represented the company since October but only began working out of his present office in the past month. He says that in his line of work a small interior office works well for him.

The Building Trades house on Vine Street still has a lot of exterior work to do.

On Friday and Saturday a group of five actors from London performed Shakespeare's As You Like It. It was performed with a minimalist set and each actor played several roles, which was quite entertaining when the actor was playing two people who were interacting. A scarf or hat or coat identified which person the actor was playing, so there were constant changes of articles of clothing. No pictures were allowed during the performance, but they did not say anything about pictures before the performance began. The coat rack holds their costume props.

As You Like It is a romantic comedy that features misidentification of characters. 

I did not hear how the Valentine's night sponsored by eMbers went. Usually they post something on Facebook.

If you wandered down the hallway from the SJC theater, you could see a display of relics. They were assembled from the C.PP.S and from parishes in Chicago that had closed. For many centuries relics were a big deal. Now not so much.

Another display of mementos from the past is on display at the entrance to the SJC Library. In 1973 Neighbor Day was invented to help raise money after the Administration Building at SJC burned.

 

I did not get a good picture of the souvenir plate or bowl that commemorated the dedication of the Administration Building. I do remember the dishes on the right--some of them were still in use when I arrived at SJC, though I do not remember how widespread their use was.

Last week SJC had an open house for their Student Success Center, which is in the back of the library where at one time the vinyl record collection was kept.  The Student Success Center is funded by a large grant that SJC received a year or two ago. Its goal is to improve student retention.

Speaking of libraries, below is a picture of what used to be the conference room at the public library. Until the work areas are fixed, this is where much of the library staff hangs out doing their work.

The Monday snow is upon us and visibility is very limited. Most area schools closed early. Was it early enough?