Lucidia

I’m testing a wordpress feature called PressThis that is supposed to make it easier for me to share things on my blog.  Follow the link below to see a picture of a giant Lego Jesus.

AFP: Swedish church unveils Lego Jesus statue for Easter.

As I pray for my friends in the Red River Valley, I’m remembering the 1997 Fargo Flood. I was living in Moorhead then. After 116″ of snow, we knew what was coming . . . and had a few weeks to prepare. This year they didn’t have as much snow . . . but apparently the ground was saturated from rains last fall . . .

Here are some pictures from 1997. First the snow piles, then the melting . . .

Above and below are pictures of one of the bridges connecting Moorhead & Fargo
Under other conditions, you can drive (or bike) under this bridge.

Below a park turned lake . . .

Total White Out Blizzard Conditions here in Minnesota. Forecast is for 4-8″ by the end of the day. Currently coming down about 1 inch/hour.

Meanwhile, out where it is Spring . . . I noticed that on 2/22/09 MLB reported that Lou was leaning towards a lineup of: “Alfonso Soriano, Aaron Miles, Derrek Lee, MIlton Bradley, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome, Geovany Soto and Ryan Theriot” [plus the pitcher of course]. So, I’m wondering, in what percentage of games do you think he will use this particular starting lineup? I’m guessing “less than 20%” . . . and will check back periodically throughout the season on the results.

Time to go enjoy watching the snow fall!

Okay, so last year I avoided writing much about baseball because I was afraid of jinxing the Cubbies during their “magic 100th year”. So much for that.

My initial thoughts as the players begin to report for Spring Training?

• Milton Bradley is not Cubbie material. When will they get back to putting together a TEAM instead of a bunch of numbers?
• Joe Crede as a Twin is a great idea. Hope it happens.
• Today’s headline “Cubs manager Piniella has been mulling a change to lineup” Gee, wasn’t that his plan for every game last year? Guess he didn’t learn anything from all those coaching books he said he was reading in the off-season

Well that’s enough warmup swings for the first workout of the season.

Getting ready to head off to vote.  Drinking my coffee and waiting for my oatmeal to cook (so I’ll have a full tummy in case there’s a long line at the polls).

The day did not begin well.  The morons at Minneapolis Public Works picked today to start digging up the street in front of my house (which happens to be half a block from the local polling place).  At 6 am they arrived with their big truck and back hoe.  Since then they’ve added more heavy equipment.  They’ve just finished sawing the pavement and are now using jackhammers to break up the asphalt.

Some of you know that I have a bit of a bad history with jackhammers.  I worked in an office where they decided to jackhammer cinderblocks in the basement beneath my office at the same time they were tuckpointing bricks on the exterior of the building.  For a month I couldn’t hear myself think or talk on the phone because of the noise.  I lost a filling from the vibrations.  And I still have ringing in my ears.  Needless to say the sound and vibration of a jackhammer sets my nerves quite on edge.

I’m trying to re-vision the road work as part the revolutionary changes that I hope begin today . . . but it’s a stretch!

More after I return from the polls.