Driving to Minot yesterday and at Coleharbor the Soo line train was loaded with big rocks. Driving around on the top of the boxcars and rocks was a backhoe that was scooping them out. He was actually able to drive from car to car scooping rocks. I did not see a ramp or anything to get up on top.
I was especially interested in this sale, which I caught on TV by accident, because I edited a promotional video for this car late last year. The video was produced to run on a flat panel display next to the car while potential bidders inspected the cars prior to auction. It detailed Dave’s history, his passion for Corvettes, hiscollection, and the work put into this particular car. I don’t know if it had any impact on the auction, but it sure helped show that Dave’s not just some schmuck with a car to sell…he’s a true Corvette enthusiast.
Now if I can just get a pic of that mid-80s Cadillac Fleetwood with the 4×4 conversion performed, I’ll have the trifecta!
(I wonder how many hits I’ll get on this Mercedes Hybrid?)
And thank God for that! Just because the temps are below freezing doesn’t mean it’s not a good time for racing. Well, there’s ice racing, but we haven’t gone out to do that so far this year. I’m talking about the indoor kind, like the electric cars they’re running at Wheels, Wings and Hobbies today.
These cars are VERY high-tech, with carbon fiber chassis parts and intricate suspensions. There are workbenches in this room where the racers work on their cars, charge their batteries, that kind of thing. Spectators are welcome, and the racers are friendly about answering questions in between races.
This is a composite of North Dakota as photographed from space between July 1999 and September 2002. It is enormous — 577MB file size, roughly 16,000 pixels wide by 14,000 tall. You’d better have broadband if you want a copy of this file.
This isn’t as high of resolution as imagery on Google Earth or places like that, in that you can’t zoom into cities or that sort of thing. But it’s a carefully prepared image of North Dakota from space, with lots of color and shadow correction.
You can find this and other neat files at The North Dakota GIS image download page.
Many of these files are in MrSID format, highly compressed yet accurate image files. You can download a free viewer plugin from LizardTech by clicking here.
A quick email to my friend Kevin Lawrence over at KFYR got this picture on the news at 10pm. Mighty gracious of him. I guess that makes me a Sky Spy™! I know he likes cool cloud formations so if you get some neat weather-related photos, send them to him. They have an updated website at kfyrtv.com with a section where you can upload your photos.
One disappointment about going to the top of the capitol building these days is that the elevators have been “updated.” You see, in each elevator there used to be an actual guy with a little bench who operated the elevator with a big brass handle. Then they “modernized.” For a while there was one elevator left with an actual human who operated it, but I guess those days are gone for good. I’m guessing the fella who did it retired, then they got rid of those controls altogether. It’s really too bad. That was a neat part of visiting this building.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to hang around and talk to the owner/creator of this beast. I think the conversation would have been insightful. I recognize the S-10 running gear because of the skidplates (I have a set on my truck, they’re standard) and the tastefully applied “Vortec” sticker on the front quarter.
What I’d really like to know is: is this the same fella who has a 4×4 Cadillac Fleetwood, presumably on a Chevy Suburban chassis, complete with nerf bars? Or the 4×4 Mercedes SL sedan? Inquiring minds want to know. They’d also probably like to know what possesses a man to do such a thing…wrong or right, these vehicles sure do stand out. Especially during a winter snow emergency.
In the 1980s I worked in this building, the Pinehurst office building at 1424 West Century Avenue. Who cares, right? Well, the oddity about this building is that it wasn’t even near Century Avenue at the time. West Century Avenue continued straight westward from Washington, eventually intersecting with Tyler Parkway. Clydesdale Drive, the street that the Pinehurst building actually sat on, continued due south to intersect behind Country West Conoco (at that time the Truck Plaza 35 truck stop).
A call to the City of Bismarck’s engineering department confirmed that the plan for Century Avenue was to divert it south around the water tower hill; yet it followed the section line to the north of the hill until such time as city growth warranted the new road, which now curves south of the water tower hill. It turns out their planning was very wise, because that’s where the bulk of the new “big box” stores have popped up recently. Can you imagine if all that traffic had to go up that hill and back around through the neighborhoods in the Tyler Parkway area? What a mess!