Squirrel

One of my sisters has a thing for squirrels. Nutty. For Christmas last year she received this antique squirrel cookie jar with evil eyes. Because large ceramic cookie jars don't travel well on planes we somehow took custodianship of the thing. It gives the dog nightmares...

Safety Is No Accident

So if I refer to the passages between buildings and above ground as hamster tunnels, how should I refer to the underground corridors? The subterranean tunnels on the Wash U medical campus are as you would expect. They are long, sparse, hot and have plenty of exposed wiring and plumbing. Mostly, they are used maintenance personnel, hence this lovely safety tryptic, but I did find a room down there that is used to store euthanized research frogs. It smells how you would expect. 

Hamster Tunnels

The main thing that I dislike about St. Louis is the weather. I realize we are in the middle of a particularly cold winter but, in general, the summers are wretched hot, the winters dreary and the nice days of autumn and spring are too few and far between. 

The people that designed the Wash U medical campus must feel the same way. The medical campus has a high density of architecturally mismatched buildings spread over 17-city blocks. If you know the way you can get from one building to another without ever stepping foot outside. Unfortunately, because of the interconnectedness of the buildings, it can be difficult to know which building you are in at a given time. So good luck following or giving directions within this complex.

These photos are a sample of the hamster tunnels that connect many of the buildings at Wash U. There are many more not shown. 

Red Shirts on Beach

If I have one photography goal this year it is to get over my hangups about asking people if I can take their picture. 

I saw these two on the west bank of the icy Mississippi River the other day. They were young and healthy romantics with good hair and were wearing red. They were gorgeous. All I wanted to do was say, "hey, you're gorgeous, give us a pose eh" then pop off a few shots. Instead, I let them be, because who wants to be complimented? 

I did take one creeper photo for the blog. I like it, but it could have been so much better if I had decided to bother the couple. 

Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge

The brand new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge for I-70 was open today for pedestrian traffic. Secretly, I was concerned about the event because Katie mentioned there was supposed to be something like 20,000 people in attendance and the guy planning the event had only rented 15 porta potties as of a couple of weeks ago. According to the United Services Porta Pottie Calculator you should have 128 porta potties for an event this size. I ran out of fingers to do an official count of porta potties but I'm confident there were more than 15 but less than 128 today. Whatever the number, it seemed sufficient for the crowd. Really, it was too cold to pee. 

St. Louis Fab.

There is an episode of the Simpsons where Homer takes Bart to a steel mill to teach him how to be manly. Much to Homer's dismay it out to be a gay steel mill where they work hard and they play hard. I would like to think that St. Louis Fab is really St. Louis FABULOUS but I'm guessing this fabricator doesn't turn into a disco after hours.  

Crates!

What are these crates used for? 

They are colorful buggers, and small as far as crates go. I've never seen anything like them. If you zoom in a few have the words 'Ford' and 'automotive' written on them but also 'tare weight'. So what do you need to weigh accurately, in the crate, that goes with cars? 

Another clue. The crates have a stated maximum capacity of 6,000 pounds. If I'm being generous and estimate their dimensions at 1 meter x 1 meter x 2 meters, for a volume of two-cubic meters, that means each crate could hold about 2000 kilograms (~4,500 lbs) of  water. So, the crates aren't likely holding water (duh) or any organic fluids which are less dense than water. That is, they are not holding bulk motor oil. Of course, these crates are not barrels, so I probably could have figured that out without the maths. Er derr. 

But 6,000 lbs? Most whole cars weigh less than 6,000 lbs. So this is overkill no matter what they are used for. 

My guess? These crates are for precision engine parts that need the extra protection of a sturdy crate. Or cup holders, these crates could be for cup holders.