A crane or two

This morning a large crane was unloading at least three large trucks with big loads for hospital construction.

My guess is that they were part of the air-handling system, but that is only a guess.

Today work was going very well on the footbridge--they really made a lot of progress.

Only some of the last of the three sections of the bridge is lacking boards.

A city worker told me this afternoon that the current plan was to lift this section into place late tomorrow morning. We will see if that happens--the schedule has changed constantly up to this point. Even if they get the main section in place, there will still be a lot of work to do before the bridge will be open to walkers.

Real snowmen

I have resisted the temptation to do posts on Christmas decorations because I have done so many in the past, but this year people have decorated with real snowmen that may last till Christmas. I like the red scarf on the one below.

Is this supposed to be Mr. and Mrs. Snowman?

Here is a family, with carrot noses and  pair of sunglasses.

We did not get enough snow to have really big snowmen. When my kids were at home, they wanted to see how big and how tall they could get their snow creations.  This one is from 2002, taken with my first digital camera, capable only of 640 by 480 pixels. (I think they had to use a ladder to get the tower as tall as it is. They quit when it seemed that more height might topple it.)

And the one below is from December 2005. It was over six feet tall and took a really long time to completely melt.

So if any of you want to make big snowmen, I will not be impressed unless you can get them bigger then these.

Also, I mentioned the early morning runners yesterday. Here is a report from one of them.

Snow progress on the bridge

After a lot of activity on bridge construction last week, this week has seen very little work. I took the picture below on Monday afternoon, and you can see that the snow from Saturday had not been disturbed. My guess is that the snow has diverted people to other, more pressing tasks.

This afternoon I checked again, and noticed some tracks on the north side of the river by the concrete pier. some metal plates had been welded onto the larger metal plates that were on top of the piers. I am not sure it the bridge will rest on them or between them.

The river itself it partially frozen over, which says a lot about the weather we have. Tomorrow morning it should have even more ice. It is 13 degrees now and the low tonight is forecast to be 7 degrees.

This morning I was up early and saw eight runners go past my house at 5:00 in the morning. It is probably smart not to run alone that early in the extreme cold. I was happy that I was not with them.

Facebook, a link to the outside world

I found this video via the Morocco Times Facebook page, who found it via the Lake Village Indiana Old Photo page.

The video is of the 1957 homecoming parade for the Morocco Beavers. Most of it is not in focus, and there is no sound. It looks like almost all the grades from the school marched. I remember marching in homecoming parades in the 1950s as a grade school kid in Morton, Minnesota--it must have been pretty much like this parade. I do not remember football games, and only vaguely remember the parade.

I look forward to seeing more of these old videos--it seems that whoever has these old home movies is digitizing them and putting them on youtube.

Other things from Facebook, my source of news for the area: Road construction has ceased for the season in Wolcott, where they had closed the highway for a while. And Little Indiana has a neat giveaway of a train set. But do not enter it, because I want to win it. ;-)

Single digit

The temperature this morning according to my computer was 9 degrees. I suppose we should get used to it--we will be having cold like this off and on for another three or possibly four months.

I got to play Santa Claus this weekend for a birthday party. I dressed up in a Santa outfit and even fooled a few of those gullible kids, even without the fake beard. However, I was something of a failure--I did not make a single kid cry, even when I told them that they were getting nothing for Christmas because Santa knew that they were bad. Ha, Ha, Ha, Merry Christmas.

On the way back from playing Santa, I noticed that the Mexican restaurant, Los Tres Garcias Restaurant, that had been in the old Pancake House by the Interstate was not open. I asked about it at Ayda's and was told that they had moved to Wheatfield. I hope they do well there--I enjoyed their food. Being near the interstate is great if you have brand recognition, which is why the franchises locate there, but is not a good place for the mom-and-pop shops. People want to eat fast at some place that they have heard of. I recall a burger place there when we came called, I think, Burger Chalet. It died quickly when McDonalds arrived.

A couple things I wonder about. Why has no restaurant ever gone up on the east side of town? With the hospital, the care center, and the schools, there is a lot of traffic and a lot of people who work there. Is the Remington I65/US24 exit now busier than Rensselaer's exit? They seem to have grown a lot over the years compared to what is west of town.