Bear-able

I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas, and is gearing up for a Happy New Year. Da Bears have been a very pleasant surprise this year, as the "z- clinched division" in the graphic above can attest. I was surprised with some bears tix for my birthday, so for 2010's last post, enjoy some photos from Soldier Field! The 38-34 victory over the N.Y. Jets was a great game to catch... here's to a few more leading into February!

Sec. 434, Row 24...

Not a bad view... and the sun came out between lake-effect snow showers

The colonnade beneath the new stands; note the floodlights!

Lunapics

The best I could manage in 2003- shots with anything else in the sky washed out the moon!

This year the winter solstice will get a bonus- a total lunar eclipse visible in the entire continental US [@ 1:40 AM Central Tuesday morning]. While the Chicago forecast is cloudy/snowy, I can't say I was planning on staying up for it. It did force me to track down some photos I took while in Rome during a total lunar eclipse in 2003. I had many blurry shots of a reddening moon, but the better pictures that evening were from the quiet streets of Roma. Enjoy, and hope you have a good Christmas Week!

The Spanish Steps- minus the typical crowds

Above Piazza del Popolo- with San Pietro distant

From Piazza del Popolo looking down the main-drag Via del Corso

Windfarming

Christmas is getting closer by the minute- which means so are a few trips driving between Chicago and Cincinnati. The ~5 hour drive [always losing an hour going east, and gaining 1 west] through practically all of Indiana has few highlights. Indianapolis, while having a couple trivia-worthy facts [most-centrally-located state capital in the USA, and the second-most populous behind Phoenix], is usually bypassed via I-465. A slew of odd, often quasi-religious billboards [probably worthy of another post sometime] make an appearance.

A windfarm worthy of Funkenschlag

The undisputed highlight of the drive is when the tall, silent wind turbines of the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm begin to creep over the horizon. I-65 cuts right through the heart of the farm, so line after line of the windmills twirl slowly by. Twice I've driven past people who have parked on the shoulder and brave the highway traffic to get some photographs. The ones gracing this page are courtesy of Cassie's passenger-seat photography.


At night the turbines continue to spin, but each tower is topped with a synchronized, flashing red light so that the entire wind farm lights up from horizon to horizon at the same time. Very, very creepy. Webcomic xkcd.com got it right. The speed that they rotate [WHOOSH... WHOOSH... WHOOSH...] is hypnotizing. Can't wait to see 'em again!

Rockin' Around

Light it up!

With yours truly's holiday-birthday, Christmas has always been kind of a big deal in the Matteson homestead. Aside from the seasonal decorations on every wall/ledge/handrail, there're usually two trees: a real pine in the family room for Santa to drop some gifts under, and an artificial tree in the front living room. The latter has our 'town'.

As any real boy should have an electric train set, I was no exception. Around my 5th birthday I got a traditional Lionel Trains starter set, and every year the collection has grown. Nowadays my younger brother is in on it as well, so the layout surrounding the tree has slowly annexed more and more living room floorspace... perhaps slightly encroaching on the dining room's capabilities to host Christmas Day Dinner.


These photos are from the past 2 years; those with keen eyes will spot the differing track layouts. Lionel puts out a new seasonal boxcar every year, and the Christmas Trains usually replace the typical freight cars after Santa drops off a new addition. Department 56-esque buildings provide a small town center, North Pole, and farm/countryside to fill in the gaps between tracks.

Long-exposure + trains running = Cool