Today’s post is sort of a potpourri …
This post’s title and the preceding picture are all about the Cone Flower. This picture was taken last Sunday on the bike ramp that leads up to the McKinley Bridge. This bike ramp started life as part of a trolley line from Alton, Illinois to the near north side of Saint Louis. A small portion of this trolley line has been recycled as a bike path. Saint Louis grew larger through the late nineteenth century with the advent of the trolley. Remember Judy Garland in Meet Me in Saint Louis:
Clang, clang, clang went the trolley,
Ding, ding, ding went the bell,
Zing, zing, zing went my heart strings,
From the moment I saw him I fell.
Today’s header shows a tug pushing a single barge up river. It has just passed under the Eads Bridge, named for its designer and builder, James Eads. When completed in 1874, the Eads Bridge was the longest arched bridge in the world. The ribbed steel arched spans were considered daring at the time. The Eads Bridge was also the first bridge to be built using cantilever support methods exclusively, and one of the first to make use of pneumatic caissons. The Eads Bridge caissons are still among the deepest ever sunk. They were responsible for one of the first major outbreaks of “caisson disease”, later known as the bends.
Nine weeks after the boy’s basketball team won the state championship, the MRH boys track and field team captured the Class 2 state championship and set several state records! The 10-member team earned seven first places (100m, 200m, 400m, 300 hurdles, 4×100, 4×200, and 4×400), including three state records – Fred Taylor’s 200m (21.87 seconds), Bryant Allen’s 300 hurdles (38.23), and Bryant Allen, Nick Coulter, Derrick Johnson and Fred Taylor’s 4×100 (42.72).
Go Blue Devils!
We had some severe weather on Tuesday afternoon. At work part of the roof was torn off and a few offices were then soaked. Anne and Joanie were out driving in it. At least Anne wasn’t out riding in it as I feared.
After work I biked in the Park. There more than a few downed trees and quite a few downed limbs. The Tuesday night concert in front of the history museum was setting up. Tonight’s radar map makes completing the concert look problematic. I got fifteen miles.
Pictured below are Anne’s May socks. She finished them on time and after Sunday’s bike ride went off to show them off in public at Knitty Couture. I believe that this pair is slated to go to someone in Seattle. 😉
Does that mean they will be “used”??
The wet northwest reports hot and dry weather, almost feeling humid at times, but NO RAIN. It has been about 10 days I think. I will dry up and blow away if it keeps up much longer.
I was at on one time thinkin’ of playn’ ya, but since I knew that your goody-two-shoes sister (my wife) wouldn’t be playn’ too, I gave up on the idea. Too bad Jane …
PS – I know my English is correct, because the sometime English teacher in the house, speaks like that.
They were on my feet long enough to show them off and to be photographed. They’ve been on my feet several times during construction, to check the fit. They will be washed and blocked before being sent to you, Jay. I’m working on something to go with them, so you’ll have to be patient a little longer.
–Knitwit