Some old photos again

Saturday is often predominately a tennis day for me, but today was more so than usual. As usual, I played with the older gentlemen this morning at Marie Park. It was the second tennis day in a row, but it was pretty social and I played well enough to split sets. The US Open men's semifinals and the women's finals were played today and were televised on CBS. Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer won their matches in straight sets and will meet for the championship tomorrow after the Vikings play their opening season game. Justine Henin won her seventh major championship pretty easily over Kuznetsova. She's a very good player and has a better serve than most men.

And I bought some tennis balls and a tennis shirt at a local sporting goods store to load up for next week's matches.

Adam is still in Chicago, but I used his scanner again to move these photos to digital format. They are both from 1990 - 17 years ago when times were much different. This is Kelsey with a fish she caught in Wisconsin at Fred Prouse's cabin that summer. It's the only fish that I know she caught - ever - and she was pretty excited, and cute. I used to have the picture on my desk at work.


This is also from 1990. Adam and his buddy, Andy (Mr. Excitement, we called him), were making movies with the video camera. I think they did some sound dubbing and maybe some story boarding for their mini-classic, "The Package." The footage is still in existence and can be made available for a modest fee. This film making was fitted in between the video gaming sessions that went on quite a bit in those years.


I tried to do some digging today to find out why that Friedrich Schiller guy has a statue in Como Park. There was some googling to do and a pass through Wikipedia. It seems that Schiller made Carver's Cave in St Paul popular in some of his writings and thus may have encouraged some of his compatriots to emigrate to Minnesota. Carver's Cave used to exist in Dayton's Bluff in St Paul, but was destroyed many years ago in an orgy of railroad building. It had been a sacred site for the Indians when they owned the land and was reputed to be quite lovely. Another example of unplanned urban development.

Some Rain to Rest On

The weather wizard wins, Wilson waits. There are storms in the area and so the bike and the racket rest. Tomorrow promises better weather and more opportunities for photo madness. It will be Independence Day and Canterbury Downs has free hot dogs for its patrons, and who can pass up heated, ground pig parts and preservatives in casings, slathered in mustard.

From the recent archives comes this photo of the reflecting pool just outside the Como Park Conservatory. The good taxpayers of St Paul have been financing improvements to the grounds at Como the last few years and the pool has been repaired and filled with water. The ducks have joined in the fun and now the people come and take pictures. I rode the Trek by and took this picture from the top of the hill so as not to disturb the woman on the shore photographing the ducks off to the left.


And some scanner fun. Why is the cow in this picture? Minda has a firm grip on the cow's ear to keep it in place, while Hansine and Richard show off the new baby. Baby Lillie, I presume, and the year is likely 1914. The photographer's large shadow in the foreground indicates a man, but is it Jake or a man friend of Minda? Maybe Grandpa Nils? The field in the background was likely freshly stripped of its trees in the not too distant past to facilitate crops. There was farming going on.


Mostly rain at Wimby, but Mauresmo is gone.

Ugly, But Functional

A nice day in June. I remained somewhat knackered and since my biking goal for the month has been attained (no bad falls), I took a rest day to water the crunchy lawn, wash my dirty laundry, and indulge in some photo scanning. I made a trip to the Friday Farmer's Market at St. Luke's and bought locally grown, aggresively priced veggies - tomatoes, cukes, and broccoli from farmers of a variety of ethnicities. There will be tennis tomorrow in the morning with the gang of geezers.

This is another ugly building that I'm entering in my own contest. It's ugly but functional. It's the route from Pierce Butler Road over the railroad tracks to St. Paul's Energy Park. One can ride across the bridge and take the back and forth switch-back to get down to ground level and continue on to Como Park. It fits the stereotype for structures near the railroad - rundown and rusty. I've used this route many times in the last few years. One's speed on the structure is severely limited by the sudden and extreme turns, but it keeps one off Lexington Parkway.


I scanned this old photo from 1961, partly as a gift to MM who commented on the Tousan's blog (and who is in the photo), and partly to try to figure out who was in it and where it was taken. I think I know almost everyone, and I'm pretty sure where it was shot. Suggestions of identities and location -> comment box.


Wimby update. Milagros Sequers is eliminated by Queen Serena 6-1, 6-0. Serena has too much power for the youngster from Venezuela. Matina Hingis also was eliminated today. Roger Federer took down Marat Safin in three sets. See ESPN for scores.

KG is still a T'Wolf.

Ninety Three

It was hot and humid in the great outdoors, and I needed a rest day from all the tennis yesterday. The heat index was reputed to be over a hundred, and it rained in a squally sort of way this afternoon. Today's photo is an attempt to assuage the heat gods with a vision of falling snow. I hope that it works. It's the tousan trying to get into his garage while the Herbster snaps off a photo, and not that long ago.


I filled some of my time at the scanner, loaded ancient images into modern computer memory to be stored off on disk surfaces in internet land, and on my own hard disk. This one is from about 1925, I'd guess, maybe taken at Ricardo's Ranchero, although the location is not in my memory. I messed with the image with my friend iPhoto and I think that it is better, but still imperfect (see Marvin's nose.) There are no dogs in the shot, but a nice looking home made doll is sitting on the bench.


Wimbledon continues. Milagros Sequera won her first round match, 6-2, 6-3, and was not interviewed for television. She next plays Aussie Samantha Stosur in the second round. The biggest upset of the day was Tim Henman over the 25 seed, Carlos Moya in five sets.

Tennis All Day

After being a sloth for a couple of days, today in the heat I played 5 sets of tennis, and was on the winning side twice. I played at 9 am at Visitation High School and again at 5 at Marie Park. I consider that to be enough exercise for today. I may get on the bike again tomorrow, if I feel up to it.

This photo is left over from the Mpls. rose garden trip. The sentiment engraved on the stone is a good one and it appears that most days in the last week counted. That old Trek that I got from Mr. Moohoo several years ago, just before the first of our family TRAMs, is a real trooper. I'm thinking about having him bronzed.


More scanner magic. I scanned this old photo into the computer today. The original is about 2X3 inches and the people in the photo are hard to see without magnification. It was taken in the early 1950's I think. The scanner and iPhoto got me to this enhanced version of the photo. The question for logicians out there: who was the photographer? I think I know, but there is no guarantee that my logic is correct.

I know the names of everyone in the photo except for the puppy in the foreground and I'm guessing that his name is Tippy.

I received via email some very nice old black and white photos from Santini. The wedding shot from 1940 was especially nice and I expect to see it sometime on her blog. The couple were obviously happy and seemed overjoyed with their selection of life partners. Tom and Lillie.

Wimby started today. Both Serena and Roger advanced to the second round.

Spurs sweep

I heard the forecast calling for the 5th straight day of 90's, so I, too, took a morning ride. I finished at 11:58 am. It was fairly pleasant and I haven't been to Fort Snelling on the bike for a long time. I went over the 35E bridge on the way, and, on the bridge, took the picture of a rock-filled barge as it passed in front of the Lilydale Yacht Club. My camera battery gave up the ghost there, so the remainder of the ride was pretty much photo free. The path down into Fort Snelling Park, where the entrance to Pike Island exists, was closed, the sign said, so I took the alternate path along the highway to Minnehaha Falls and the Ford bridge and then up Jefferson towards home. I ran into a pipe smoking biker on the way, a rare breed in these parts, and almost guffawed. He had his own ozone advisory area that he was carrying around with him. An odd piece of behavior for someone biking to stay healthy. I finished the ride with 15.75 miles.


The farmer's market was open by St Luke's Chuch at 1:15, so I stopped to see what they were selling this early in the season. Some guy had tomatoes. He said that he planted them in the ground in February. "They looked fabulous." And there was zucchini and cukes, and snap peas. And lots of onions. I bought tomatoes and zukes.

More scanner fun. You have to love this technology. This is the 1959 issue of GHS tennis team. They don't look much like tennis players except they wield tennis rackets and most are wearing tennis shoes of the day. Name the players and win a "brand new car." (just a match box car, sorry.) If you get the racket makes, there is an old Wilson racket here I'll let you have. There are no Bouchards in the picture, but maybe a Sobczak.


I discovered through google that only gray squirrels are considered vermin in many areas of the country. The red ones are the nice squirrels. This smacks of racism and should be stamped out. Do this google command "squirrels are vermin" for the definitive proof.

San Antonio wins NBA crown in four straight games over Lebron James.

Digital Scanner for Photos

Too windy to bike or smack tennis balls. There were tornado warnings in various parts of the state, too. I took another day off.

With all this talk about scanners, I decided to try the scanner, too. Mine is a HP PSC 1610 attached to Herb's Mac. This scanner is also a copier and a printer. It worked pretty well and was user friendly enough to get the job done. The image is smaller than what comes from my digital camera, but the software has done some automatic cropping because the photo was 4x6 on a 8 and 1/2 by 11 scanner bed. The photo is the giant "Spoonbridge and Cherry" at the Walker Art Center's Sculpture Garden taken about 4 years ago, a favorite subject of mine on Father's Day. It also seems to have assumed the position of Minneapolis city symbol.


It was a decent enough day to search for Minnesota Rocks sculptures. This one is in Mounds Park which overlooks the Mississippi Valley on the east side of St Paul. The park contains burial mounds of the Indian tribes that lived in this area for centuries and also this new sculpture (it is still surrounded by yellow tape). It is called "Sacred Bowl" by Duane Goodwin of Bemidji, Minnesota. The other Minnesota Rock sculpture which was supposed to be in the area escaped my search and may not actually be installed yet.



Ana Ivanovic of Serbia beat Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 and is in the finals against Justine Henin at Roland Garros on Saturday.

Crab sushi for lunch today. Yum.