The fixiest thing I saw today!

On a windy, snowy, nicely below freezing night recently I saw this dedicated Minnesotan and fixed gear enthusiast fixing a chain suck:

When you are riding at night in snow and ice, against the wind, who needs brakes?!?!

That green thing on the bike is a hockey stick. Awesome.

I will note that he DID have both front and rear lights turned on. Nice. Safety first....erm...visibility first!

Some call Minneapolis the #2 biking city in the nation. I have no clue who can decide these things, but there are plenty of bike commuters even in the bitter cold and snow. I am not sure how many of them also play hockey.

The Frostiest thing I saw today: Monster Challenge!

This is the first of 2 new contributions to the Monster Challenge! Hooray!

Sarah describes how here monster came to here:

Attached is a sketch of a monster that I saw the shape of in some frost on the inside of a car window. He's kind of messy since I had to draw quickly before the window defrosters melted him! Really, I saw this shape and I thought, that kind of looks like a face, a kind of creepy but cute monster face. He doesn't have much of a story beyond that, but maybe he will become a character in some future drawings or something.


And people wonder how we can live with the winter! There is so much beauty and inspiration in all of the seasons.

Great work Sarah! I encourage you to visit her blog to see how she is so creative in so many ways.

I have another entry to post tomorrow! Please come back to check that out. Also, if you have a Monster waiting for you to create and to contribute, I encourage you to do so!

The Steamiest thing I saw today!

It is super snowy outside! Whee!

I just took a half outside/half inside route to run an errand, and upon reaching my office building, this is a peek of what I saw:


A heated sidewalk getting things done- sizzling up those snowflakes!

Everything else was newly white and powdery. I felt a little sad for that slab of concrete, though I enjoyed the contrast.

The Team workiest thing I saw today

Today is the one year anniversary of the I-35W Bridge Collapsing here in Minneapolis.

I live and work near the bridge, so I have been watching how hard all the bridge builders have been working ever since that day one year ago.

There are people working on the bridge 24 hours a day. They worked through bitter cold in the winter and hot humid days in the summer. There are all kinds of cool trucks and cranes and barges getting things done.

You may not know this if you don't live here, but they have already made the bridge connect across the river:

It is scheduled to open in September.

I am very impressed at how fast all the legislators and what not worked to get organized and get the project going, I mean, if they had just decided to replace the bridge it probably would have taken a year just to narrow down a design and decide who would pay for the bridge. am I right?

Then of course the people working on the bridge are amazing. I have seriously driven by around 1am on cold winter night and seen people out working on the bridge. BRRR!


Oh and the people who survived the collapse! They are out of this world. For example, the kids that were on the school bus made this mural together:

The mural is right by my house, so I can go by and think of how brave they are all the time!

Lastly I am proud of the community-at-large for supporting the victims and for dealing with the lost bridge very patiently. If you do not live here, then you probably do not know that this bridge is a major freeway artery and also that a long stretch of freeway just south of the bridge had already been under major construction before the collapse (and still is today- FYI 35W will be closed this weekend between 494 and 94). I have not heard people complain about having to detour around the bridge...but they do complain about the "normal" construction!

Way to be a little patient, community-at-large!

The Plain Stupidest Thing I saw today.

This incident occurred whilst I was transferring buses downtown on a lighty snowy day last week.

It was a gorgeous morning, cold, light glittery snow falling with the sun peaking out around the skyline.

Ah.

It was also hella slippery because there is ice everywhere hiding under that glittery snowfall.

I stopped at the lightrail tracks over to my waiting bus because the lightrail train was already dinging away at the station, calling out "Look out, I am a big train and I am moving now."

A young man who apparently does not speak lightrail train came rushing up behind me:



I literally screamed! He ran out right in front of that train to get to a bus that was waiting at a stoplight for the train to pass. I am sorry, but what a self-centered idiot!

In his leap to beat the train, he could have slipped and fell and really been clobbered by that train...or the train might not have been able to stop..wait...one should just ALWAYS assume that the train will not be able to stop!

PLUS, the guy got on a bus to the University, and at that time of day those buses come about once every 3 minutes.

After the train passed, I crossed the tracks and got on the same bus the guy got on. I stood in front of him in the aisle fuming. I could not decide what to say to him. I could have just said, "Good thing you risked your life and the mental health of that train driver to get on this bus that is still stuck at the friggin' stoplight!" or "You are a f-in idiot for running in front of a MOVING TRAIN!".

Of course, being a Minnesotan (see #6 at this link), I did not drudge up the courage to directly confront him before he hopped off on the West Bank campus. I really need to shake off that part of my Minnesotan-ness.

The fashion over sense-siest thing I saw today

I have to give my excuses for the delay. I just ended my job and started a new one! It has been a crazy January, but now it is February and I already have a stockpile of things to share!

This week has been a prime week for Minnesota winter weather. It was 43 degrees above zero on Monday and 42 below on with the wind chill on Wednesday. Everything melted and then turned to ice, ice, ice.....

This was me during this time(I was half indoors, so I did not need my scarf):

(Good advice, by the by.)

Of course some people refuse to give up their sense of style for the weather:



Some of us are better at sacrificing than others.

And yes, that is what color ones skin might turn when exposed to the -43 wind chill!

PS: Thanks for asking me back! So nice of you.

The Make-it-work-iest thing I saw today.

My husband and I ventured out to the mall to see a movie the other week.

It was a Saturday night and it was lightly snowing. The snow sat maybe 5 flakes deep on the parking lot, so I guess people had trouble seeing the parking spot lines:

I am not even exaggerating. You could barely drive your car down the aisle....and I could still see the yellow lines through the snow!

People seem to think that even a little accumulation means we must all park like crazies!

Am I right, other people who live in places where it snows?

Anyway, as I wove through the lot looking for a place to park, I came upon this car, who's driver clearly got fed up with looking for a spot:

Frankly, I don't blame them.