Your Sunday Squirrel

Pardon the graininess, but this is from the zoo.  I had just asked where the ocelots were and here was this squirrel devouring the Halloween decorations,  That's what happens when you put real ears of corn out in the open.  Here's a not-much better photo of him after he jumped down from his perch:

Very fall-like - except for that large seashell right there is the center of the shot.  Today was the second day of the great pumpkin bash.  People bring their kids in costume and watch what happens when hippos get pumpkins.  Hint: there is much chomping.  I have pictures and will post soon. 

RIP Coterie Room

I've noticed the distinct lack of activity at the Coterie Room this week.  That's because the place is closed.  It's really too bad.  It was pretty good.  Although I never had it, their poutine was admired by many.  I went there for lunch (when they served it) and for drinks (which were very good).  But its solvency didn't depend on me; they wanted to attract the same crowd as Zoe did before.  I guess that didn't work out.  It was a class joint and I don't say that about every place, but they never really caught on.  And that's a true shame, because I think they were quite a bit better than Zoe.  Well, I sincerely hope the next restaurant to go in there will be both yummy and successful.

The Finished Product

OK, this is what it looks like now.  I'm pretty sure it would look better if they took the plastic off.  Or is that the way they're gonna leave it?

Your Sunday Squirrel

OK, this is the same squirrel from last week and the week before.  It's also the only squirrel I've got at the moment.  There just don't seem to be too many running around Denny Park at the moment.  I've gone there a bunch of times and they're all on vacation.  But it always seems that when I'm critically short of photos, there are like around ten squirrels running around the next time I visit.  I hope that's the case this week. 

Modular-ness, the Final Chapter

Well, they seem to have worked around the clock on Saturday, but they finished.  First, they blocked off 3rd and brought in a really big crane:

Then they lined up each component-unit thing:

And then they stacked them on top of each other:

The stack's bigger now, since I took this shot yesterday morning.  In fact, they're done.  It's a fairly ugly building, that's for sure, and it looks like it was designed by an adherent to some more tractable version of Marxist-Leninism, but it's mostly done now.  Enjoy your new home, modular people!

Your Sunday Squirrel

OK, this is the same guy from last week.  I went looking for squirrels twice this week, but there were none.  I'm told that there are a lot in Volunteer Park.  I may have to pay a visit to get some good shots, because I'm almost totally out of squirrels.  On a related note, I'll be editing the 2014 calendar soon, so prepare yourselves! 

Better Living though Modular-ness

There were things a-happening this weekend on 3rd between Blanchard and Bell.  It was kind of tough to miss, because the entire street was blocked off.  Why?  Well, they were stacking things.  I wrote about the construction a while ago and a helpful commenter wrote that the building next to Dan's was partially pre-fab in nature.  Very correct; in fact it's modular.  They start out with something that looks like this:

 Then they get a huge crane to start stacking them like so:

And this is as far as they had gotten by this morning:

Did they finish?  I'm guessing that they didn't, which means more traffic fun next weekend.  

As for the building itself, I don't know.  I'm not sure how I'd feel about living in a pimped-out shipping container.  And how does this whole thing work?  I mean, how do you get to your apartment - a system of pulleys or are they going to build an elevator?  At the moment, it has not infrastructure, just a base.  I'm interested in seeing how this turns out, but I don't think I'd want to live there. 

Your Sunday Squirrel

I ran into this fellow yesterday morning before heading out to my parents' place where I saw exactly zero squirrels.  When I was house-sitting for them, I also saw zero squirrels.  Maybe something's up; maybe it's not.  I didn't think to ask whether they'd had the squirrels "taken care of."  I mean, they have a special guy who comes around and traps moles.  My mom gets annoyed at the squirrels because they get into the bird feeders.  But honestly, the birds aren't starving.  In fact, I think the local finches and sparrows are getting pretty fat.  Squirrels just like to game the system.  Put out food and they'll find a way to get at it.  And despite various claims, there's no such thing as a squirrel-proof feeder.  Anyhow, I'm just assuming that the squirrels at my parents' house are merely preparing for winter and watching lots of football and they haven't been offed by some squirrel assassin.    

Bell Street Park - Lurching Toward Completion

I walked past the Bell Street Park construction on 4th yesterday and I'm a little surprised at how slowly it's going.  They've only finished one block and that isn't very impressive.  Like I've said in the past, it looks more like a traffic revision and less like a park.  And all this was supposed to be done in 2009.  Regardless of how disappointing it may turn out to be, it will be an improvement over this:

They've been working on this stretch between 3rd and 4th for over a month and it still looks like downtown Stalingrad. 

This block isn't much better.  

I feel pretty sorry for the people facing all this action.  Well, in time (probably a lot of time), it will be done.  And then there will be bums sleeping in the bushes.  Fun!