Fire on the canal
So this morning I got moving into work a little earlier than usual. On the way in, I noticed a small difference in the skyline, but nothing to make me think twice. When I rolled up to the building, the local traffic update on NPR came up and recommended different routes of travel to IUPUI / the canal area thanks to a fire.
I looked up and sure enough, there was that fire. The difference that I kind of noticed on the way in was the large plume of smoke that didn’t really catch on because it was still pretty dark. The only think I can think of was that I thought it was just exhaust from the power plant…
But anyway, I went up to the office and grabbed my camera, another lens, and my tripod before beginning the walk down.
I was not dressed for the cold.
It was a 3-Alarm fire in an apartment building that was under construction… Yeah… It sounds like there the possibility of fishiness, but who knows just yet.
I saw at least three ladder trucks and another 6+ fire trucks. Lots of EMS… I could walk right up to the fire trucks, but not within 200 yards of the actual fire.
On the long, cold walk back I got to thinking about it. Are fires like this a little bit of an economic stimulus in themselves? Sure, the insurance companies have to pay out… But it keeps attention and funding to emergency services… Demo / cleaning crews… Repair crews… Construction crews… All faster than a shovel ready project looking for stimulus money.
Of course I’m not advocating arson, because last thing I’d do is advocate setting fires to stimulate the economy and stick it to the insurance companies… It’s just sad that my mind takes that kind of track these days.
sunday, pre-midland
So last Sunday, we had some spare time and wanted to get out of the house on the cheap. After some pondering, we turned to a tried and true method of wasting a few hours… Rummaging through stuff at Midland – an antique mall in Indianapolis.
We got there just after 11, and they didn’t open until 12, so we drive around the surrounding area with cameras. Right around there is Arsenal Tech, Cottage Home, and a lot of commercial buildings. In driving around, we caught a glimpse of the old Coke factory that neither of us had really seen. So we drove around to the only part of the complex on a public right of way and took a few pictures. this was the best one I got that gives a little context. I’d love to get permission to shoot inside the gates sometime…
It’s no longer a bottling facility, but now it’s a depot for Indianapolis Public School Buses. There’s a desire from IPS to trade land and possible redevelop the site. It’s got a prime location, and I just hope that if it is redeveloped that the buildings are preserved. If not, I’ll be sad and quite pissed.
keeping an eye on the south
We went on a spur of the moment photography outing last night. On a school night nonetheless…
A lot of things didn’t turn out as I’d hoped, but oh well. I did get some fun images here and there. This is the first one that I’ve posted to Flickr…
Indianapolis Walkabout
Mass Transit is kinda a joke here in Indianapolis. While we used to have a surface rail system among the best in the country (thanks Big 3 for changing that), we’re now home to a bus system that sucks beyond belief. There is a point to point monorail between hospitals downtown, but it’s more window dressing than anything else.
There’s roumors of a commuter rail line going between Noblesville and Indianapolis, but I won’t believe it until it gets built.
In the meantime, this wonderful city continues to get too big for its britches with things like the 2012 Super Bowl and other major events. Sure we can handle the Super Bowl and NCAA Final 4, but the fact is we’re never going to get any more important on the national and international level that until we have a viable public transit system.
Then I read that Indianapolis is the 4th least walkable city in the country. This is according to “Walk Score” (TreeHugger via WalkScore).
Am I surprised? No. Are there any signs of change? No.
Neither our mayor or governor seem to give attention to the notion of proper planning or mass transit despite the fact that it’s a common denominator of all the major cities domestically, or even minor ones internationally speaking.
We’re behind the times.
Post-Memorial Day / Indy 500
It’s been a different year in Indy over the weekend than the past many. Sure, there was that race thing… But it was much more of an event around here because of the reunification of open-wheel racing.
But it’s not as big of a deal unless you’re here or part of the regional beer distribution system.
I didn’t go to the race, but I did enjoy its re-broad cast from 8 to midnight later that day (it’s blacked out locally). Otherwise, it was the usual new home / homeowner stuff and the fact that I got to enjoy a visit from my mother for a few days over the weekend.
Now as I’m at work doing my usual waiting for specific content from others, my mind is racing about the number of things I could waste time blogging on. I could write many pages on the election… Recent POV’s in the environment / fuel debate here in the US… How disappointing Indiana Jones 4 was… Some recent pondering on past friends because of running into them, seeing them online, or not being able to find them no matter what I did… Basically over thinking things on my spare time in manners that wouldn’t constitute a blog that anyone would read or care about anyway. Yeah! let the pessimism shine through…
But oh well. It’s just a Tuesday that feels much worse than any Monday.
the alarm clock
I was woken up a little early today. Descending from the fog, something was off… My wife whispered something.
My mind was still waking up and trying to decode the weirdness at the same time. “Huh?”
She whispered it again. I’m still not catching it. Why is she whispering anyway? I hear the noises all around us, but I’m not putting things together. I repeat my last one syllable question.
“The house is shaking.” I knew it before she said it, but we were both still quite in the fog. And like that it was over.
I was hoping both of us would go back to sleep, but a few moments later she finally declared that it was an earthquake.
It was 5:37 (5:41 according to the oversized and intentionally 3 minutes fast clock) and it has been given a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 and lasted for only about 5 seconds. I stared at the shadows for a few minutes of waiting for an aftershock, sirens, or the neighbor’s dog barking. Nothing came, we went back to sleep.
Upon waking up and turning on the news, ALL local media was completely and utterly in love with the fact that there was this “natural disaster” for them to sensationalize. All the anchors, remote teams, weathermen, and the traffic people were more than happy to share their stories of where they were when it went down. They were preempting the national news broadcasts for this.
Isn’t it interesting that truckers at a truck stop in their cabs with the engine idling didn’t feel the quake? Or that there’s no damage reported 2-hours later except to one building in Louisville… The traffic guy was working on graphics and wondering why his desk was shaking… The weather man just wondered why there was a sudden influx of emails and calls to the station… One of the anchor’s husband and kids didn’t even know anything happened! Riveting…
I couldn’t make this up if I tried… Oh wait. I could – because it’s too boring to be called news.
Maybe that’s why they call us Naptown… I know that all news is sensationalized, but local news seems to be so bad anymore. I’ll go further – local news is a joke. But Helio Castroneves is joining the team during the month of May!
Intersection
There’s this little corner of Indianapolis that I’ve come to love quite a bit. It’s the intersection of 49th and Pennsylvania. There are a lot of services there that are well positioned for those that live in the immediate vicinity. There’s a hardware store, a filling station, an auto-repair shop, a few restaurants, a dry cleaner, an art gallery, and my favorite coffee shop in Indianapolis (Hubbard & Cravens rocks).
The worst part is the auto-shop on the NW corner. It’s like its run by the evil Click & Clack. The hardware store is small-ish, but generally has anything you’d need for most home projects. For some odd reason, this filling station (a Shell) is usually better than average on fuel prices. The restaurants are good to have there, but not something we do regularly because of the price they have come to charge.
One of the restaurants (Patachou) and at the coffee shop (the aforementioned Hubbard & Cravens) do a nice thing and make wall space available to local artists to for display and sales of their art. It’s a wonderful thing to do, because I like to support the arts whenever possible.
Occasionally, there are very nice pieces… However, more the vast majority of the time the art is complete caca. I realize that’s a judgment call, but I’m gonna make it nonetheless. Not only is the art usually pretty bad, but it’s also pretty expensive.
What prompted this post and long set up is an artist currently on display at the coffee shop who goes by the name “Sir Realism”. Not only is the name this person has chosen to go by completely lame, but the art is much more so. Only one piece even comes close to his self-imposed moniker, and it’s not that surrealist. And for the same price I could buy a print from a well-respected surrealist… Maybe his name should be changed to “Sir Charge”.
Second Amendment
So a Scottish crowd rolled in yesterday. They are all in attendance of a wedding this weekend a few hours south. What does that mean?
Usually the presence of Scots means a lot more laughing, a lot of late nights, and a lot more drinking. None of which I mind, because it so damn fun.
This time it was a little different. There are 5 Scots staying around this week, and I’ve only previously met one. So there’s a lot of getting to know one another. The other thing is that since most have never been here to Indy or to the US, there is some of the tourist thing – but not much.
I was convinced to take the day off and join in on some shenanigans based on a list of things a few wanted to do while over here, so guess what the main activity of the day was?
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynCsFZ3AS3E&e]
That’s right, we went to Don’s Guns. Because of some pretty strict laws on fire arms across the pond, two gents were itching to experience anything different than the standard firearms that they were restricted to in the UK. Supposedly this is a popular activity for foreign travelers to Indy (I found that pretty interesting).
I would have taken a camera inside to document the occasion, but I was not allowed to. They fired four different guns.
- M1 Rifle
- A generic handgun
- M-16
- AK-47
They had a blast – and it was more than the $10 Don was touting. For two guys renting those four guns with ammo and range rental cost about $200.
I personally didn’t take part. Not from lack of interest per se, but I just didn’t feel like it was the time or place to have my first experience firing a gun. I’m pretty sure I will at some point, just not now. I have a healthy fear of guns (seeing someone get shot in the head for no reason will do that). But it’s a discussion for another time and place I guess.
But anyway, it made for an interesting experience that I wanted to blog about.
I can’t drive… At all, let alone 55…
To all you California, Texas, or anyone not in the path of the weather system that just moved through Indy, consider yourself lucky as I wish I was in any location than this.
I love snow as someone who grew up skiing and sledding, and I’m pretty confident in my ability to drive in it regardless of vehicle. But this is the first time my vehicle has ever been confined due to snow. But I have to take some of the credit away from mother nature for this and give it to the dim-wits at the City of Indianapolis DOT for plowing me in and nicking my rearview mirror (a neighbor had theirs taken clear off).
Later today I’m going to bear down and dig out. I’ve already done so once in the beginning stages of the system that later buried my car which was further buried by the mindless plows. I spent over 30 minutes trying to dig around my car last night without any visible improvement whatsoever. One to three on Saturday as well… But that’s according to the wonderfully bright people predicting the weather… Wait a second…
Do weather people go to Vegas? If they gamble as good as they predict weather, then they must be the reason for the success of that town (and probably the unsolved murders on CSI as well). In my book they are closing in on the public likability of ambulance chasers.
The Monday After
Quite a weekend to be in Indianapolis, and it was an interesting night to say the least. After the Colts prevailed, the city celebrated. And while I only saw it on TV (it was below zero wind-chill), I’ve never seen anything like it. A traffic jam at 11 pm over a mile long leading to downtown… People climbing in the circle monument… Stores opening for a few hours to sell shirts (some waited 2 hours in line just to pay for the shirts)… Schools delaying the start or even closing… Businesses closing… The reactions to this football game are much more drastic than the announcements of armed conflict / war that I’ve been alive for.
I’m still processing it all. There’s a parade this afternoon and a rally in the dome, but I’m not going for a few reasons… One is that it’s before I get off work… and then because the parade will be players inside buses due to the frigid conditions (My car said -2 this morning when I arrived at work)… If Indianapolis had better parking facilities, I’d go… I’m more interested in taking pictures of the fanatical nature of my fellow citizens than cheer on the Colts. Sure, I’ve really enjoyed the past month and am very glad they won… But it’s just a game. They won… The season is over… Celebrate some, but I’m starting to be more interested to see the proposed national budget at this point. $2.9 trillion and a fistful of CO2?
