Got a preview of Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival later this month in an industrial area of St. Paul. Over the years, more than 80 murals have been painted on industrial buildings in the neighborhood, and it’s surprisingly free of graffiti. This year’s festival includes this new mural, “Pitzik’ Q’ij: Court of the Sun” by local artist Cadex Herrera. His mural depicting George Floyd against a massive sunflower is recognized worldwide.
Category: Living
Beyond the pretty path
Cycled with a friend visiting from the UK. Decided the route didn’t need to be pretty all the way, so we included some industrial areas. This GAF roofing shingle plant fit the bill, especially since the asphalt fumes seemed… robust.
Smoky Sunday Stroll
On our Sunday morning walk, an overnight multi-alarm fire had done a number on the air quality. Here we’re standing on the 10th Avenue Bridge looking across the river towards the East Bank Campus of the University. Normally we’d cross by the truss bridge, Northern Pacific Bridge Number 9, but it’s closed for repairs.
My science project: optimizing a vent fan
Built a dashboard to compare humidity and temperature in the closet beside our front door to another room. It also displays outside conditions and the status of the closet’s vent fan, providing the data needed to optimize its run times.
I tip well
A flock of scooters had completely taken over the racks outside Whole Foods. I shooed one away to make room for my old hoss, and it promptly succumbed to gravity.
The disappearing cake
It was time for more slices of the cake Dwight had baked for my birthday to disappear. Not just any cake, but a French dessert called gâteau invisible, so named because of the way layers of thinly sliced Granny Smith apples disappear into a vanilla-bean flavored batter. Here it’s served with a dollop of cream whipped with brown sugar and flecks of cinnamon.
Planning on a bunch more birthdays
Cycled over to the U for treatment and scans, taking care not to collide with half-awake students. On the way back, the students streaming out of lectures seemed more animated.
A “de-colonized” meal at Owamni
Walked over to Owamni by the Sioux Chef where Dwight had reserved this window table for an excellent “de-colonized” meal with ingredients restricted to those available to pre-colonial indigenous Americans. The chef has won several James Beard awards at this nationally recognized restaurant.
LEGO machine to align plates stud-side up
Lined up recently introduced large LEGO worm gears as a conveyer for 1×1 plates, much like an Archimedes (water) screw. An unexpected bonus was that the plates were consistently flipped stud-side up. This replaces all my work in recent weeks on pneumatic devices to flip 1×1 plates. Click through for a short video I made today.
A bunch of happy
Dwight brought dahlias home from the Farmers Market, signalling an early start to my birthday season.