White

We woke up to whiteness this morning, which meant that the snow plows would be out in force for the first time this winter.

Horses. And sheep

I was able to get downtown last night to see the Christmas parade. It had horses! (I complained about the lack of horses in some previous parades.) It is hard to get good pictures in the low light--can you tell which horse was standing still in the picture below?

Santa was there being pulled by his four tiny horses, just like in the Night Before Christmas poem.

The REMC float was full of light, so the picture came out. The theme of the parade was "Letters to Santa."

For a video of the parade, check out Little Indiana's post on the parade.

Also downtown was a living nativity put on by the United Methodists. They said that they got a lot more people to stop and look at their display by doing with the Christmas parade.

I was not the only one taking pictures of the three wise guys.

There were some angels and a shepherd. I do not think that the story came out as well this year as it did in the old location.

The sheep attracted more interest from the little kids than anything else there.

Slow progress

Progress on the Weston footbridge (maybe we should call it the Talbert footbridge) has slowed down. The process reminds me of my home improvement or repair projects. As I get going, I discover that there are problems that I did not anticipate and that I am not quite sure how to solve. So even simple things can take a long time.

In the picture below you can see the snow we had yesterday and also how the sections of the bridge are connected. There is a weld at the bottom that may not be visible.

The lifting of the main span to the piers has been delayed because someone decided that the entire structure would be less subject to warping if the floor boards were installed. So today the workers were putting on the flooring. The wood is the same wood used in truck trailer construction, and it is being firmly attached. I think it took them a while to figure out exactly what they wanted to do--building bridges is not something they do every day.

The color on the wood is from the chemicals that have been added to make it weather better. Once weathered, the wood will be gray. Also, they need to rip some of the planks to fill a small gap on the right, and the carpenter shop at SJC will do that. Putting up this bridge is a big job, but I think that people will really like it when it is in place.

The hospital shows slow progress. More fake windows have been put in place.

I could not figure out what this guy was doing, but it was probably a good job to have on a cold day.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It was cold, snowy, and windy today--winter has arrived. Tomorrow is the annual Christmas parade--I hope I will be able to get to it. In keeping with the feel of the season, I want to give you some free Christmas songs. You can get them here. (For more, see here.)

December 1

December 1 arrived with our first snow, which the wind distributed unevenly so that it does not cover the ground. It looks cold.

My Internet connection was repaired last night. I was impressed that the repair man arrived after supper. I thought that the problem would be in the box attached to the house, but it was a problem at the connection on the telephone pole. The people who do the maintenance have been busy with some project over in Winamac.

Did you see Dirty Jobs last night? Mike Rowe was at Purdue learning about forensic entomology. It was one of the funniest episodes ever. There is a SJC connection--the girl who helped him through the bugs is a SJC graduate.

Finally, the Fendig Gallery has an interesting show/sale of the work of an area artist, Patricia Jallo Smolen, who recently died. She had a lot of variety in her paintings, and also a lot of color. The proceeds from the sale will help the Prairie Art Council's programs. I would be tempted to buy one but I have more pictures than I can hang. You can get some idea of the variety and overall style from the pictures below.