Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Sorry it’s been a long time
since I’ve blogged. We seem to have
plenty to keep us busy.
The current big project is
new windows in the pool. The windows
that were there were original to the 1960s – aluminum jalousies. Not exactly energy efficient. But the sliding glass door actually
precipitated this project. We believe it
was installed in the 80’s and had a wood frame.
It was rotting away and was not repairable.
So, energy efficient windows
and doors are being installed. We are
also finishing replacing the aluminum siding on the house with vinyl. When we added the front porch on in 1997, we
replaced the aluminum on the front of the house with vinyl due to cost. Now the whole house will have the same
siding. By the time we get around to
selling this place, we’ll have it in good shape!
Last week was a busy week
for us. There were several things going
on in Indianapolis, so we kenneled Obi (poor boy!) and headed there for a few
days. Our first stop was at our hotel,
the Springhill Suites, where Betsy had helped us get a reservation. She’s got good taste. The hotel was within walking distance of two
of our destinations and we had a GREAT view of the White River State Park.
Reflections from the JW onto Springhill Suites.
Views from our hotel. Thanks, Betsy!
The Eiteljorg Museum was
across the street and we headed there to see an exhibit of Ansel Adams
photographs. He was a master photographer, but also a
master developer and printer of photographs.
I have always wondered how great pictures were captured, as I don’t take
great pictures. I once read an interview with a National Geographic
photographer who said it was not unusual for him to take 25 rolls (36 exposure)
of film to get one publishable picture.
In this exhibit, I found that Ansel Adams manipulated his photos during
development and printing. He
photoshopped! There is actually a short
film of him printing a picture and manipulating how much light reaches various
parts of the negative for exposure.
(And for those of you who don’t remember anything but digital photos,
count your blessings!)
He did have an amazing eye
and saw pictures that others didn’t.
His pictures of Yosemite National Park are iconic. I hope to see the park next spring.
Leigh joined us for dinner
and stayed for the rest of our trip. The
next day, we walked over the White River to the Indianapolis Zoo. The zoo opened a new orangutan exhibit this
spring and I was interested in seeing it.
Unfortunately the orangutans were not making the most of their new
environment. But a lot of the other
animals were active, as the weather was near perfect. We fed a giraffe, watched the cheetahs get
fed and the penguins get fed. The polar
bear came out of his den and posed nicely for us and the brown bears were
playing in their pool. The lions were
awake and active, too. It really is a
nice zoo.
Momma and baby wart hogs. 
Since we had all been on our
feet most of the day, we just headed next door to the JW for dinner in their
sports bar and crashed early.
The Children’s Museum was on
the list for our last day in Indy. They
are hosting an exhibit of the terracotta warriors from China.
“The
Terracotta Army or the "Terracotta Warriors and Horses" is a
collection of terracotta
sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a
form of funerary art
buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE and whose purpose was to protect the
emperor in his afterlife.” – Wikipedia
As expected, The Children’s
Museum did a terrific job with the exhibit.
Along with many artifacts from the excavations, there were numerous
hands on exhibits. There are 8000 life
size warriors in China, each with a unique face. The bodies were molded in pieces and
assembled and the museum has several places where you can “build” a warrior
with rubbery replicas of the molded pieces.
They have found the fingerprints of some of the sculptors inside some of
the figures. 
One of the things that
amazed me was the armor. If you look at
some of the soldiers, you can see armor made of connected rectangles. I assumed that for a real soldier (not a clay
one) these would have been squares of metal joined in a manner allowing some
flexibility. In fact, they would have
been squares of stone. In the
excavations they found piles of these flat square stones drilled for connecting. Metal was available, as many metal objects
have been uncovered there, but the armor was made of stone.
The warriors were originally
painted in bright colors, but the paint started to disintegrate upon exposure
to air. They had to develop a technique
to preserve what was left of the paint and spray each uncovered warrior with a special
concoction within 15 seconds of exposure to air.
The Chihuly Ceiling is under a large hanging Chihuly sculpture and they were cleaning it. That's not a job I'd like to have! He was using a swiffer.
Our final activity of the
week was back in West Lafayette on Friday night. We went to a performance of a Beatles tribute
band, 1964 the Tribute. They were formed
in 1984, hoping to perform a few shows and are now into their 30th
year. I was never a great Beatles fan,
but it was fun to hear the music from my junior high years and reminisce. The Bains and the Davis’ joined us and the
weather was perfect.
On the bad news front, we
have recently found out that Obi is diabetic.
We are in the process of changing his diet and he is usually ok with the
shots. Doesn’t like them, but usually
accepts them. He is much perkier, but
still isn’t much interested in walks. So
we have some new routines.
I'll close with two of Steve's flower pictures from the Zoo and White River Gardens.
And I promise to try and update more frequently!
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