Thursday Arch Series

Haven't had one of these in a while. It felt like I had exhausted the possibilities. Now there are new ones. This is the glass awning over the new entrance I've mentioned the last couple of days.

Had the steroid shot in my back yesterday morning. It takes a few days to kick in. Hope that's by the weekend because there are a couple of big events for me to shoot. First, our off-the-wall alternative arts festival, Artica, (photos from last year here), with its Sunday night Burning Man-ish conflagration of the wooden Our Lady of Artica. Then, on Saturday night, I promised I'd shoot the final evening of the annual three-day Compass Improv Festival. (Locals should go! It's a hoot!) Whew. And I'm on the road again next week (sans infection) to someplace that is, shall we say, picturesque.                     

Long Way Down

630 feet or 192 meters, to be exact. Taken from one of the narrow slit windows in the observation deck on top. Before the new work, the area in the center used to be open to the highway below (which wasn't the best idea in the first place). Now there is a continuous plaza from downtown into the Arch grounds. 

We saw some of the circle at bottom center in yesterday's post. It slopes downward as you get closer to the new entrance. There are a few inches of water in the middle where kids can splash. You can see the half-circle of glass awning also mentioned yesterday. The entrance to the visitors' center and the tram to the top is at the bottom center.        

New Way In

I've occasionally mentioned that there has been a large amount of work around and under the Arch for the last three years. Everything is done now. People used to enter underneath the legs; there was a puny museum between them. Now there is a fancy new entrance west of the monument, closer to the city itself. Outside is a circle depressed into the ground, lower as you approach the Arch. Half of the circle is covered by a glass awning. Inside, an arc of glass looks back to downtown. This lobby leads to a far larger and very well done museum.

Maybe we will have a look from above tomorrow.        

Madeleine Monday

Getting better bit by bit, except for the &^@(* back arthritis. Still not out that much but I needed a Monday picture. I chose Ellie in front of the house on a warm (too warm) autumn afternoon.      

Ellie wanted to ride to the top of the Arch on Sunday. Fun for her but not such a good idea for me. Still long lines waiting for the tram (which an employee described as a combination of an elevator, a tram and a ferris wheel-spot on) and a fair amount of walking.

The ground is strewn with crab apples from a tree beside our house.

Stir Crazy

Tired of laying around this house. Saturday was a step better - got out in the car twice for errands in the neighborhood without difficulty. Not sleeping so much and appetite better. It got to the point where I had to take a picture of something or I'd lose it. There is always a subject to photograph if your eyes are open. This is our front porch with Ellie's sidewalk chalk, a bubble wand and the jar she uses to catch fireflies.

On the other hand, my SI joint arthritis has flared up. I'll get a steroid shot Wednesday but you can't have them very often. I want one of those computerized exoskeletons I've been reading about.