Monthly Archives: November 2012

How they get that enormous Christmas tree into the Capitol each year

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Each Christmas one can see a beautifully adorned and rather huge Christmas tree standing in the Great Hall of the state capitol building. It’s lit at night so that people driving past the front of the building can see it, and the display is readily available for you to visit from around 7:30 am until 5:30 pm each weekday. One can’t help but wonder: how does such a large tree find its way into the capitol building in the first place?

Of course, the direct approach is the most effective. Rather than trying to thread any hallways or turn any corners with the cumbersome tree, it comes right up the front steps and through the revolving doors. Conveniently, the panels these doors are able to collapse and slide out of the way to allow a wide berth for anyone wishing to wrestle a formidably sized conifer through the doorway.

These doors were actually designed to do this; while bringing anything larger than a briefcase through the revolving doors might pose a challenge, these doors are designed to pivot completely out of the way and provide an even wider opening than most conventional doorways.

The tree arrives on a flatbed trailer in the morning. There are some preparations that need to be done before it enters the building: a slice needs to be trimmed from the bottom of the trunk, so that it can take on water; and branches need to be trimmed from the bottom to provide around sixteen inches of clear trunk to fit the stand. After that it’s a question of manpower.

Dudes from the facilities crew grab an armful of tree and march it up the steps, wrangling through the doorway with plenty of clearance. After that it’s simply a short left turn and a matter of bolting the tree stand to the bottom of the tree’s trunk.

A rope is used to move the tree into position, first by tugging the top into line while the adjusters in the stand are tightened or loosened to make sure that the tree is standing straight. Once that is completed, the rope is pulled down from the top of the tree and wrapped around the stand’s base, which is then pulled into position at the center of the windows of the Great Hall.

After a bit of sweeping and other cleanup, the binding wrapped around the tree is removed and the branches allowed to relax. The stand’s remote water tank is filled to provide the tree with ample hydration. Later in the week, the tree will be decorated with items made and/or donated by North Dakotans, through the ND Council on the Arts. I hope to submit one for next year, because i ran out of time this year. The tree now sits as you see it above until it gets decorated on Thursday and Friday. The official Tree Lighting Ceremony is next Monday.

So, there you go…one more geeky question answered by yours truly, a geek who chases down the answers to queetions which haunt the most neurotic among us.

I wonder if their aware of this embarassing error in they’re TV commercial

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When it comes to local television commercial production, you often get what you pay for. I say this because often the production is simply a giveaway in order to secure the airtime buy. Purchase a rotation from station X, and they’ll produce your ad for nothing. Perhaps that’s what happened here (thanks to my friend Mike for the catch and the photo). In any case, I’d be pretty ticked if I was Fleck’s Furniture and my television ad made it look like I had a limited grasp of the English language. In case you’re wondering, I don’t know which TV station aired this ad.

One reason posting has been light this week is that I’ve been pretty tied up with a 3D animation job that requires what little spare time I’ve had available. Modeling, lighting, and animating are fun challenges but very time consuming. Even now, at 2:44am, I’m typing this as I watch the animation build frame by frame. Good thing I took a combat nap earlier in the evening.

One more thought on the subject of grammar: when consoling a grammar freak, say “There, their, they’re…”

These are a few of my favorite things (with map)

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You probably knew this already, but two of Bismarck-Mandan’s favorite Christmas attractions are up and running as of Thanksgiving weekend: Northview Lane and Chmielewski’s Christmas Corner.

The display at the corner of Kennedy Avenue, as elaborate as it is, still is a work in progress. The abominable snowmen aren’t up yet, for instance. There is, however, an amazing miniature ski lift hauling your favorite holiday characters up to the roof and back! Yes, photos are forthcoming as time allows.

My little guys and I absolutely love driving around looking at these displays with the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack playing in the truck. This time of year passes very quickly, so make sure you take a few laps!

I’ve resurrected last year’s Google Map of Bismarck-Mandan Christmas Lights for this year, and hope to make some additions or corrections once my little guys and I go out exploring. Highlights include:

– The aforementioned Chmielewski’s Christmas Corner on Kennedy & 23rd Street;
– Northview Lane;
– Acres of musical lights with a Wilz’s Light-O-Rama show on Chestnut Lane;
– Dykshoorn Park in Mandan;
– Christmas in the Park in Bismarck;
– and a wooden cartoon menagerie on west Avenue C.

Notably absent are displays on 4th and Divide, Ridgeview lane, West View Place. They weren’t on display last year, but I see that Ridgeview is back. Hopefully some of the others return as well.

The link is easy to remember:
www.tinyurl.com/bismarck-mandanchristmaslights.

Meme Monday

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I didn’t go out with the camera this weekend as I was busy with Daddy duties, but I do have one contribution to the blog. This is one of my favorite memes: Success Kid. While he most often appears in front of a colored pinwheel background, I opted for the original this morning.

This little guy is now five years old, just like my two little fellas. One reason why I don’t put photos of them on the web is so they don’t end up as memes! 🙂

The graphic is true, though. I forgot to set my alarm last night. Thankfully I woke up one minute before it would have gone off if properly set…thus my feeling of victory. Have a great week!

Wire and ice

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Thanks to Pat Benatar for a musical reference upon which to base the title of this post. I’ve shared a few images of ice-encrusted trees over the past few days, collected on my venture east of town Sunday afternoon. These fence photos are actually some of the first photos I grabbed on my way out.

The fences east of town looked downright globby in places, with the barbs completely encased in ice at times. As you can see, there was a lot of ice on everything; some of the barbs looked to have a half-inch of ice on them.

Those are an entirely different phenomenon than this, one of my favorite barbed wire photos from 2009. In this case the frost spikes were enormous too, but not nearly as encasing as the ice of last Friday.

Crystal chandeliers

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Great…now I have the Charley Pride song stuck in my head after titling this post. I almost came home empty-handed in my search for cool photos of iced-up trees on Sunday; just as I got out the clouds rolled in and obscured the sun. I did see that frozen mitt from my previous post, but didn’t really see anything overwhelming in the trees. But then, on my way home, I spotted this.

As you can see, the sun wasn’t giving up so easily. It managed to burn its way through the haze and clouds intermittently, which required some near-frostbitten patience from yours truly. It was absolutely critical to wait until the sun was shining behind this ice in order to highlight it, and I was willing to wait.

I tell my little boys that a sunny day does not always equal a warm one. It did, however, equal a great photo opportunity for a fleeting moment…one in which I was poised and ready to capture a few shots.

The ice that adorned these branches is gone now, so I am glad I was able to sneak out and catch a glimpse. Of course, the best part of seeing such a sight is sharing it with others; that’s the reason I got my cameras in the first place. I’m naturally curious to begin with, and the nature of my work so often puts me in places where I get to see things most people don’t get to see. I think that’s why so many people in law enforcement pick up photography as a hobby, by the way.

I have one more set of icy photos from the day, and I think I’ll post them pretty soon. This storm really provided ample opportunity!

I found your glove

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After receiving a tip about icy tree branches from my pastor I decided to venture out briefly on Sunday. Normally I stay within the city limits on deer opener, but I figured the outskirts might be slightly less dangerous due to weather. I don’t feel like either catching a stray bullet or being mistaken for wildlife and shot by some overzealous idiot with an opening-weekend trigger finger. Thankfully the deer and hunters were hunkered down by the ice, snow, and wind, giving us crazy photographers a little room.

As I cruised down a road east of Lincoln I spotted something that would otherwise be unremarkable in rural North Dakota: a glove (mitten, actually) atop a fence post. What made this one more interesting, of course, was the half-inch of ice encrusted thereupon.

As you can see, everything out there was iced up pretty well; the mitten, the fence post, and even the barbed wire all have a thick coat of ice on their east side. This is the same ice that made driving so treacherous over the weekend, especially with a bed of fresh snow over the top of it.

Anyway, if you are missing a mitten, email me. I’ll let you know where to find it. Some chiseling and thawing may be required.

Don’t worry folks – the sand is safe

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On Friday, a long-anticipated storm began to roll across North Dakota from the west. By mid-day no travel was advised in the west as freezing rain and icy conditions made travel very treacherous. It’s not as if we couldn’t see last night’s ice-fest coming.

Imagine my surprise at 5 o’clock when the city’s streets, rapidly turning into an ice skating rink as the temperature dropped, were completely devoid of sand. I drove carefully across town via some of the city’s busiest intersections, but didn’t see any sand spread around.

That’s ironic, because during the summer the city of Bismarck has no problem spreading acres of chip-seal gravel, much of it unmarked, to coat the roads while simultaneously maiming motorcyclists caught unaware. While they’re quite liberal with the pea gravel, each year we end up with a day or so of fender benders that could have been avoided before someone snaps to and orders out the spreader trucks.

This year is no different. In what was perhaps one of the most easily foreseeable freezing rain and ice events, Bismarck residents were forced to tip-toe and white-knuckle their way home on streets that could have been sanded in advance. Once the rain began to fall early in the day, with cold weather approaching and hundreds of miles of iced-up roads in its wake, the city of Bismarck apparently did NOTHING.

By the way, you may have noticed from all the out of state license plates that many drivers on North Dakota roads this year are not North Dakotans. Many come from southern states where they apparently can’t even drive in RAIN, much less snow or glare ice. Now they’re getting a taste of winter and we’re out there playing bumper cars with ’em. I wonder if anyone considered that before opting to wait with winter road preparations?

Where’s the sand? Well, don’t worry, folks – it’s sitting safe and sound at the Public Works building. On an errand today I drove past and grabbed the camera to illustrate that as far as sand goes, we’ve got plenty. Unfortunately, even as they begin to load trucks today, it’s going to be spread on Bismarck’s roads at least a day late.

If the city put as much effort into sanding and plowing winter roads in a timely manner as they did trying to soak us for a $90 million Civic Center addition, perhaps we wouldn’t have such dangerous conditions when we’re simply trying to get to/from work and home safely.

This isn’t how I want to get close-up shots of large raptors

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I got some of my closest photos of an enormous hawk a couple of weekends ago while on a roving photo trip. I was able to slowly approach within several feet of this big guy, although that’s not how he would have preferred it. He even stayed uncharacteristically still for me, and there wasn’t even a fresh kill nearby that he was trying to protect. In fact, he was trying to protect himself.

Sadly, this bird has a broken wing. I noticed him standing beside the road as I drove by and, since that sort of behavior is peculiar and I love trying to get close-ups of hawks, I stopped and got out to investigate. That’s when I realized why this predator wasn’t flying away like dozens of others who’ve seen me approach with my camera: it couldn’t. This would be an amazing pose if it didn’t mean he was wounded and trying to look intimidating so I’d go away.

Many of you know that I’m particularly sympathetic to birds, even lean, mean, killin’ machine birds, but I was unable to do something for this one. I was out in the absolute middle of nowhere, totally unequipped to try to catch him and take him to the zoo or somewhere, and nobody to call. I took a few pictures while talking to him for a bit, and then he vanished into the tall grass behind him.

I originally thought this bird had been shot, but didn’t see any sign of a GSW. The wing simply looks broken. At first it was really exciting to be able to get so close to such a large and elusive critter, but in the end I just ended up feeling sad at its plight and my own inability to assist.

Where nature keeps its stuff

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Walking along the Lewis & Clark recreational trail this fall I came upon a fallen log with a very large crack down its length. As luck would have it, this made a perfect shelf for leaves and other detritus to accumulate. The log was even oriented in such a way as to make it perfectly aligned. Hopefully within a few days it’ll be full of snow!