Noticeably higher

The water in the Babcock Quarry continues its slow rise, and is now noticeably higher than it was in early November, the last time I posted on the subject.

Christmas is still only two weeks away. Time flies.

Felling trees and other news from SJC

Practical Tree Service has been busy at SJC, cutting down and trimming dozens of trees.

 Some were dead and some were damaged.

 The campus will look different next spring. The administration says they will plant two trees for each one cut down.

Actually, SJC has planted a lot of trees in the past few years, but almost all of them are decorative crabs and similar trees, trees that only grow to about twenty feet. A few years ago most of the trees just to the south of the tennis court were removed and nothing was planted to replace them. We will see what they do.

The students will be leaving in the next two days, and the student art exhibit in the Core lobby will be removed. It is fun to see what kind of exercises the various classes had. Pottery 1 was supposed to make a pot in the style of the Greek amphoras. Some were quite good.

 Vanitas paintings date back at least to the glory days of Dutch painting. There were quite a few on display, not just from painting classes but also from drawing classes.

One annual event that was missing this year was the Christmas band concert. I hope it will be back next year.

SJC is searching for its next president. In the past week or two four candidates have been on campus for interviews. Sometime next semester there should be an announcement of who gets the job. In other personnel news, the head football coach has left to take a position in Florida. One of the assistant coaches has been hired to replace him.

City council meeting 12/8/2014

The City Council meeting on Monday evening was unusually short, lasting only twenty minutes. Only three of the five council members were present. Attendance of the public was also unusually light.

The gas tracker ordinance will raise gas prices two cents per hundred cubic feet, reversing the two cent decrease in November. The council passed a Federal Medical Leave request that was not explained to those of us not in the loop. The most significant bit of business was a request coming from many, but not all, of the city employees to switch the city holiday on December 24 to December 26, giving city workers a four day weekend. The manager of the utility office objected, saying that some of her people had already made plans based on the existing calendar, but the council passed the change on a 3-0 vote.

One of the council members wondered if anything was being done to add mention of the 2014 2A football championship to the welcoming signs at the four main roads into Rensselaer. He was told that the city is working on that. The representative for the police department said that the department had taken delivery of a new vehicle and had traded in the old one, The city project coordinator reported that bids for the extension of the Drexel Park road will be opened on January 12 and that he will be discussing with INDOT plans for the Washington Street Bridge.

Sheep, horses, and a camel

On Saturday Rensselaer had its annual Christmas parade. It began with a lot of noise from the firetrucks.

 The RCHS marching band was the only band in this year's parade.

 So that is what a trunk is for. (Riding in the back is Little Cousin Jasper royalty.)

 Some Christmas tree ornaments joined the parade.

 The United Methodists had brought sheep...

 and a camel. (Any parade with a camel is awesome.)

 The REMC truck was brightly decorated.

 I suspect the Strack & VanTil float goes to quite a few parades.

 I did not catch whose entry this was, but the snowman was rather creepy. It moved.

Visit Rensselaer has many more pictures on their Facebook page.

On Sunday SJC had it annual Service of Lessons and Carols. It was very nice but not something that photographed well. However, SJC has a short video on its Facebook page.

Inside St Henry's

Several years ago I was writing a bit about many of the area churches. In 2011 I visited St. Henry in Medaryville. A few weeks ago a funeral brought me back to this church and I was able to go inside. It is a small church, but very attractive.

 It has four stained glass windows on each side, and I like to post on stained glass. I even have a special tag for that.

 The windows on the north side did not show up as well as those on the south side, which had sunlight behind them.

For many years Fr. Paul White from St. Joseph's College was in charge of this parish and the one in Francesville. I am not sure who is the new pastor.

I have thought of updating the old posts on churches, but just have not had the time to do that.