Drill, Baby, Drill

I always admire the craft of ice sculptors. We see them working freehand with precision. Do they have some kind of template when they start the process? Where do you get an ice template? 

About out of material so may have to go archive diving. We are expecting a fair amount of snow from Friday afternoon into Saturday and that should provide plenty.  I may not like it so much but Ellie will.        

The Piasa Bird

Just upstream from the center of Alton, Illinois, there is a limestone bluff with the image of a fearsome creature. It is known as the Piasa Bird (pronounced PIE-a-saw). Its history and meaning is too long to set out here but if you are interested click this link.         

After Elvis Left The Building . . .

. . . in Las Vegas, presumably, it appears he ended up at a bar and restaurant in Grafton, Illinois. It's a nice little river town with some marine services and attractions for people driving on the Great River Road along the Mississippi. You quickly notice that most of the buildings below the bluff are built on pillars. The river sometimes floods big time.

We were looking for a lunch place with something Ellie would eat. (Classic chicken nuggets and and fries were fine.) You walk up stairs from the parking lot and are greeted by the host.  Tips are neither expected or accepted.           

It's The Itchy and Scratchy Show

Does anyone remember the Itchy and Scratchy segment on The Simpsons? They were the extremely violent cat and mouse (mostly the mouse) cartoon characters whose bloody antics made Bart and Lisa howl with laughter. Lots of us laughed along, ashamed of ourselves.

One demonstration at the eagle festival featured carving wooden sculpture with chainsaws. The sculptors called themselves Itchy Brothers Chainsaw Art. The odd name MUST be a reference to Itchy and Scratchy. This wooden eagle has amazing detail. But, unlike the cartoon characters, these guys were very conscious of safety. They were enclosed in a wire dome to keep chips from flying out. That's why the picture is a bit fuzzy.      

The Only &@*

There is a flyway along the Mississippi River for bald eagles, running from Minnesota to Louisiana.  From late December to early March, they hang out a bit upstream from STL, around Alton, Illinois, (birthplace of Miles Davis) and then further up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. We went a long way up and down the river and didb't see any except this semi-domesticated one in the Alton Visitor's Center. The bird was named Liberty, apt enough for current American culture.

Sorry for no post yesterday, I've been dragging. I've hardly been able to talk for more than a week, Since Tuesday I've had a deep, mid-chest cough hacking up mucus. I thought I had bronchitis and it would go away. Carolyn Crowe, RN, my personal guardian angel, reminded me that at my age it could be pneumonia and I should get checked. "But it's your body," she concluded. I have to take such statements seriously. If I didn't and something bad happened, she'd  would have to clean up the mess.

So I went to what in this country we call an urgent care office. Son of a gun, I do have pneumonia. They prescribed an antibiotic, an expectorant and an antibiotic. As the prez says, we'll see.