Pictures better than pain

This has been a serious, sucky day.  Most of you know why.  So I'm going to basically ignore the carnage, ignore the brain-addled comments of David Letterman and the spanking-new CBS News exec who is now a spanking-new unemployed person, and just try to brighten things with some pictures.


So we start off Thursday, I believe, when we noticed a heron trying to pass as a goose at the alumni pond...

I asked myself, "So is this a water cooler thing, or just a 'brilliant' disguise for gigging frogs?"  Assuming the latter, I came up with this...

Next up, the last few days, I have had a new "pet" hanging around my machine at work...

...a cricket.  I've named him Rover.  Rover likes to surprise me, and he did so quite well Saturday.  The yellow and black object you see him on from today is a cable guard that sits between my machine and my computers.  Saturday Rover was chilling near the spot at the computer end where the cables go in (and I didn't know it) when I noticed one of my cough-drop wrappers had eluded the trash and was on the floor- apparently about three inches away from Rover's hiding spot du jour.  And me being me, I had to cuss out the wrapper as I reached for it- and Rover being Rover, he had to bust ass like the apocalypse was approaching, so had you been there with me, you would have heard:

"What the hell are you doing down theAAAAAHHHHH!"

Today, thank fully, I just had to keep nudging him out of places I might step on him while he kibbitzed for an hour or so before retiring to the underside of the computer stand.



Backtracking to Friday, I have but one shot- taken when after going halfway up the canal trail, I finally noticed...

WOW... they finally got all the work gates taken down!  Well, all but one, but that's coming up in a bit.  Anyway, we move on now to...

Sunday and a peaceful pregame walk

Nearing the back loop, Scrappy decided something in the woods was worth sniffing...

Deeper and deeper...

"no...that's not it..."

You want me to climb UNDER that.  Really?  Really?

Uh... guess it's better than over the top...

At last... a little bitty water puddle???

"Yup.  Let's go."

And here were are, re-entering the trail some 300 feet back from where we left

And now, a little bit more about today and the trail's last gate.  This gate sits at the "construction entrance" (AKA "until we put the other yellow posts back in") off Washington Ctr.

So until about three weeks ago, this was just like the other 10,000 gates on the trail, a simple chain looped into the groove you see second rung from the top.  Also, the last section of orange plastic fence wasn't there, so it was easy to go around.  Then, with the time it would actually be needed draining away, they moved the fence closer (I know it doesn't look like it, but it WAS a tight squeeze), and put a padlock on the chain.  Problem was, they had chain and lock on that same second rung- and as we discovered, it was no trick at all to lift it to the top of the section, ease the chain over the yellow post, and go on in.  Today, we see that someone got smart and lowered the chain and lock a rung- and someone else went all Hulk and bent the fencepost back.


They have managed to flatten things out pretty good, and just have some touch ups to finish- unless you are a biker, and would like to see them put in a layer of rideable gravel over the many patchs of fist-size rocks that now adorn this north half.

That one above was pretty funny.  Coming up on one of the new poles, where they had to rebuild the canal bank and put down straw, netting, and grass seed, I saw this big group of minnows in the water around the pole.  They were basically just floating there, with an occasional jumper.  I took one step onto the rebuilt bank and they went POOF.  Like flipping a switch, all gone.  So I stood still and waited- and in a matter of seconds, the group you see here returned.  After about a minute, they were all back- and when I took my first step to leave, POOF.  Guessing they don't find the new bank all that solid.  Or else maybe I should have laid off the donuts after two- or even three.

The most inexplicable thing is, they took out the guard fence where the river bank was eroding- which they didn't touch the whole time they were working- and disappeared it!  My first thought was, they prolly rammed into it removing the piers and the boardwalk, and didn't wanna tell anyone.  Because everyone knows Ft Wayne Trails is just loaded with $$$ and poor AEP is needing a 20% increase in the works just to scrape by.   But with further and kinder thought, makes me wonder if the failed attempts to secure the north end weren't caused by scrap raiders who added the fence to the stuff they pilfered from AEP.

Didn't quite get the bridge rail they f'ed up early on fixed, I see...

And this is one of the two areas they stripped to use as a staging area.  I believe they were working on the south one today.