Roof Project - Day 2

We've completed day number two of the roof project. It's coming along very well so far. The front side of my home is completely shingled, the backside of my home, plus my porch will be finished up tomorrow afternoon. I'm dead tired, no surprise there.

Roof Project - Day 1

Today I'm posting a "before" photo of the roof of my home. It was in dire need of replacement. Sadly, the shingles are only 15 years old, but they were a "organic" shingle and didn't really last like they claimed. These shingles were on when I purchased my home, so it was out of my hands what was up there. Needless to say, the roof is being replace prematurely.

Today was all about demolition. I took the day off from work to remove the shingles, by myself. I'm sore, I ache, I am tired and my body hurts. I needed to have the shingles removed before all of my help arrives Saturday morning. Everything is coming along fairly well. I have the main part of the house completely removed. All that is left are the shingles on the porch, which is around 280 square feet.

Street Art #2

Sights Of The Skyway

A different take on a skyway walkway in downtown Minneapolis.

AT&T Building

The 464 foot tall AT&T Building was completed in 1991 in downtown Minneapolis. It is the 14th tallest building in the city. It's personally one of my favorites to photograph because of the unusual top and all of that reflective glass.

Lines, Angles, Reflections

Growth In The City

To me, it was an unusual site to see this ivy plant growing on the top level of this parking garage in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. In reality, the spring growing season at the time time of this photo was about four weeks. I'm curious who this will look come the end of summer....

Find The Squirrels

It's not the best of photos, and my camera zoom was at the limits before things really get out of focus, so I did the best I could. As I was walking around downtown Minneapolis, I spotted two squirrels running and chasing each other. One of the squirrels and a big red apple in it's mouth as it ran. It was quite comical to see. I was thankful the pair finally made their way up a tree and posed for me. Seriously, it honestly looks like they are posing for the camera shot, almost as if they knew I wanted to take their photo. Though I suppose they could have stopped to see if I was a predator or not.

Ladies And Gentleman....

The Tubes!

These tubes can be found outside of Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. And yes, that is me in the reflection.

There Was A Time

There was a time, when the 607 foot tall, Foshay Tower, now called "W Minneapolis - The Foshay" was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Today, it stands as the second tallest concrete structure, only to the Empire State Building is taller. Though, from this angle down on the street, to me, it appears as the tallest. If you look closely, the last stepping ring around the top, then it drops straight down, there is an observation deck that remains open. There have been some outstanding photos taken from the observation deck recently by some of the local bloggers. If you get a chance, stop by some of the daily photo blogs featured here on this site and do a search.

Graffiti Or Street Art

I'm conflicted with this one. It's certainly is a painting, it's framed, there is structure to it, it's even signed....and on a wall of a building with a sidewalk, yet I'm tempted to call it graffiti....weird of me eh?

Decisions, Decisions

Oh the places you'll go, when your, downtown....

El Camino

I spotting this El Camino in Cottage Grove. It'd been a while since I had seen one, or at least one that wasn't in a car show. So to see it sitting in a parking lot after a local sporting event was surprising.

And Now, For Something Completely Different

Another photo from the same park next to Orchestra Hall. In a different part of the park. These long tubes growing out of the waters below, with water pouring out of the top of the pipe. You really have to strain to see the water on the copper tubing.

Orchestra Hall Park

Just outside the door of Orchestra Hall, located in downtown Minneapolis is a park with plenty of water, pools, waterfalls, and artwork with water flowing out of them. It's quite the scene. Unfortunately, not everything was operational as the weather is a tad on the cool side this spring. There was however, a few things that had water running, this small, man made falls was one of them. I used a manual setting, shutter speed of 1/8, f2.8, no additional lenses. The best part was, I did not have my tripod with me and used my hand as the tripod hoping for the best. I was pleased with the result.

Site Of The Day: Big Ding Dong

Covington Inn

I stumbled across the Covington Inn while looking for an old restaurant from a long time ago. The restaurant had changed names, but was still there and had an expanded menu. Right across from the restaurant is the Covington Inn, which is a floating Bed and Breakfast on the Mississippi River. It's docked up on the river in St Paul within Harriot Island [across from downtown St Paul]. I looked around their website for their rooms and rates. From what I see is they have four different rooms [I couldn't tell if they had four rooms only, or if it was four different themed rooms]. Each suite offered a unique view of the city with the Pilot's Room being the favorite. If anyone who stumbles across this and has stayed there, I would love to hear some feedback from you.

April Showes Bring May Flowers

Or so the rhyme goes. No, the flowers in the photo are not recent. They were taken at the end of last summer. Currently, the leaves are almost full on the tress. Lilacs are starting to turn blue and purple. Tulips have it their prime and nearly all of the perennials have poked out from their winter long slumber.

Spring Clean Up Day

Once per year in the spring, Cottage Grove has it's annual Spring Clean Up Day. You are welcome to bring your unwanted items, have it unloaded from your vehicle by the Public Works Employees and be on your way. There is usually a very long line on this day to drop off your junk as I've seen from experience. It's well worth the wait to get rid of items you cannot throw into your regular garbage. There is of course a small fee for most items, but nothing that wont set you back too much.

From Bad To Worser

Yesterday, I showed you the half eaten semi. Today's redneck photo is a trailer on blocks and wood. Yes, it is from the same location and equally of it's own photo. Pay close attention to the skill used to put this trailer above ground. What else can be said?

Don't Ask Me, I Don't Know

Ummm, yeah....this is photogenic right? A half eaten semi cab. It was just screaming at me to take it's picture. I had to oblige with at least one photo for you. I found this creative semi cab on a very unbeaten path in Cottage Grove. The road was so untraveled, there was no tar, only gravel. Finding a gravel road in Cottage Grove is fairly tough these days.

Dual Bridges

Jumping back south into Hastings for today's photo. It features two of the bridges that cross the Mississippi River, The Milwaukee Road [rail road] bridge, and the Hastings Bridge. The Hastings Bridge is slated to be replaced starting the the fall of 2010. The project will take 3-4 years to complete. I have posted about construction of this bridge in May of 2008. There was some major bridge maintenance work being done to it that essentially prolonged the life of the bridge until State funding was available. Before last years maintenance work, it had one of the lowest bridge ratings scores in the state.

Green, Green, Green

When I look at this photo, I see parsley in the front and a row of head lettuce or cabbage. Neither of which is correct, but that's what it reminds me of.

Gopher Liquors Sign

This is an interesting signs that I'd be interested in finding out about that is located on 7th Street in downtown St Paul. What I can tell you, really only based on my visual detective work, though I'm sure there is a lot more history involved with this location. The sign is a mix of a few different ownerships or partners. The Gopher Liqours sign looks like it was added to the Coney Islands sign with your Hosts: George-Cheri-Keith. Though there is a sign added under it reading: Andy-Phyllis-George. Are these new hosts? Is this the same George from the original grouping of names? Or are there now six different hosts [or owners]. What is the most current name of this business as there are several signs saying there could be many: Gopher Bar, Gopher Liquor, Coney Islands? Or is it several business in the same location? Too many questions right?

Incidentally, a couple blocks and around the corner sits a vacated restaurant called Original Coney Island Cafe which I featured a photo of back in January 2008, are these two locations owned by the same group?

Como Conservatory

We are at the point of the spring season where everything in the Twin Cities will bloom at once. This in turn will send allergy sufferers to medication and combat the pollen. The photo is an outside view of the Como Conservatory in St Paul. The tax payer/local business funded Conservatory is a crowd favorite with hundreds of plants from around the world growing in an ideal area.

All That Remains

Yesterday's photo was of the Xcel Energy smoke stack that has since been destroyed. The power plant has been converted to a greener form of energy, I'm still not sure what exactly. I drove by the old plant last week and snapped a photo between the trees during the tear down phase. I apologize for the crappy photo, but I didn't have time to stop for this one.

Smoke Stack Archive

From my archive folder, originally the NSP smoke stack in St Paul. Which then became the Xcel Energy Center smoke stack. But has since been torn down to make way for a cleaner form of energy of some kind. I honestly do not know what they are using to make energy these days, but it is part of the over hyped "green" technology.

Theme Day: Shadow

With today being Theme Day in the City Daily Photo community, I'm taking a different approach to the theme of 'shadows'. I've decided to post a self portrait photo I took in the fall of last year as the sun was setting. It turned out quite pleasant and better than I was hoping the shot would turn out. So ummmm, hi! It's me!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants of the 'shadow' theme.