…and this is the Grand River as of 9:00am.
Looking south from the boat launch on the Sixth Street Bridge dam.
Looking west across the river at the fish ladder.
Looking north.
Month: January 2008
The River is Thickening
These photos were taken roughly 26 hours apart. The first, yesterday at around 3:00pm. The second, today just after 5:00pm. In the intervening time the lower river has risen approximately six feet and a large ice jam has begun to form.
Normally there is a drop of six to eight feet over the dam. Last time an ice jam formed there was no difference between upper and lower river for about two weeks, and then the ice lasted in some places into April.
The packed ice is still moving slowly, but I expect the frigid temperatures, which hit Grand Rapids last night, will freeze everything solid before daybreak tomorrow.
Impermanence Again
I just posted 46 photos from a Sand Mandala ceremony I attended back in April of 2006. I originally blogged about it here, but I thought it warranted uploading the full set of photos at high resolution. Click the photo to see the rest, or click here for the slide show.
Update Update
Updates and Upgrades
I just added a new entry to the Crime Map – an Armed Assault. Some dude got shot down on the SouthWest side. I also changed the status of one of the crimes. This is the first time I have needed to do such a thing, and it upset me a little. There was a kid got beat up outside of a bar back on the 10th of this month. Well, a few days ago, he died of his injuries. So now the Crime Map has its first homicide of the year. My sympathies go out to the family of Jonathan Krystiniak.
This bothered me more than it might have, because of the similarities to an incident that nearly took the life of a good friend. Long time readers of this blog may remember this particularly stressful month, back in 2004.
I have to say that WOOD TV is doing a very good job of covering the Krystiniak story. Of the few local news websites that actually cover local news, theirs is the only one where information is easily accessible, and regularly archived.
Sigh.
In other news, I have begun the process of re-designing and upgrading this website. Hopefully things will go smoothly and (for readers) invisibly, but there is the possibility that es.o could be down for a little while. I am going to upgrade the blogging software – TextPattern – to the newest build, which is 4.something. I am currently using 1.something. The new design should be ready to go in a few more weeks. I have some other things to get off my plate before I can attend to my own desires.
[EDIT: 6:15pm]
Turns out that I just had to upgrade last night’s shooting to a homicide. So now we are up to two murders in Grand Rapids in the month of January, 2008. January 2007 also had 2 murders. With four days left in the month we still have a chance to beat that record!
Follow-up to the Hot Sauce Post
I just had some of the cayenne sauce on a simple salad consisting of an avocado and two small tomatoes, along with a little olive oil.
Two words:
HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!
O God It Burns: Freezer Burn
The above photo is of the remnants of my hot pepper harvest from this past summer. It is somewhat depleted, what with the fact that I use them in practically EVERYTHING that I cook. Including:
…Hot Sauce! The dish on the left is Jalapeno, and the one on the right is Cayenne. They both use essentially the same recipe – just different peppers. I made the Jalapeno version a few days ago and have been using it on almost everything. The cayenne (well, kung pao, to be precise) version will have its first trial tomorrow.
Interference Globe
I’m not sure precisely what I was going for with this one, but I really like how it turned out. In the longer view, I am playing around with making some generative art, things which I can print out and frame…and maybe offer up to the community at large.
But right now, I am going to turn this thing off and look outside at the first thunderstorm of the year. January 7. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thunderstorm. It was almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon.
A Duck
2008 Already?
The above photo was taken at the Wege/Wittenbach Agri-Science Center in Lowell. Cynthia and I took a walk out there on December 30. I just posted the photos, which can be seen here.
So: 2008. I had a total of eleven days off over the holidays. I spent some time back on the family farm around Christmas, and I had friends from the tai chi class over for a New Year’s Eve party.
Everything about the holidays seemed much more relaxed than in the past. Much less drama, fewer reports of whackiness in the stores, and no emotional hangover. I took advantage of this to take care of a few outstanding projects, including maintenance on my house, working on the new version of the From the Heart Yoga website, and updating the Crime Statistics page to make it as current as possible. So now I can dive into the new year with nothing hanging over my head.
This afternoon, after practice, I spent a couple of hours at work moving the office around. Now that we are People Design, we are working on making our space a little more comfortable, including a cafe area and a library room. So now, after hours of moving around heavy filing cabinets, my grip muscles are sore.
The only New Years’ resolution-type decision I made was as follows: take care of things as they come up. Don’t let issues linger. And I am going to write more.
Maybe.