It really isn’t a good name.
Actually, this is the breakwater on the upstream point of Herr’s Island in the Allegheny River, just a couple miles upstream from downtown Pittsburgh.
While visiting family in North Carolina back in March, we visited a park downstream from a hydroelectric plant. This huge rock sat at the edge of the river and had been smoothed by the water.
This is the view I have from my desk. It isn’t the most glorious skyline of Pittsburgh, but I can see Duquesne University, the Monongahela River and Mount Washington.
The Knilram family went to see the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Houston Astros at PNC Park Saturday night. It was a good game that finally ended after midnight when Pittsburgh scored in the bottom of the 18th inning to win the game 8-7. Due to little young children and church the next day, we left after the 13th and so didn’t get to see the end of the game.
The game was very interesting, with a lot of scoring and a few lead changes, and the game was surprisingly well attended with over 30,000 fans at the stadium. So I was amazed when in the seventh or eighth inning, the fans started doing the wave. It went around the stadium several times as the play continued. During an exciting, tied game, the people in attendance are more interested in doing the wave than in watching the play on the field. It is easy to tell that Pittsburgh is a football town, not a baseball town.
Shadrack’s snowy chair, originally uploaded by Knilram.
Remember Shadrack’s chair? Well, it got caught in a snow storm….
A tree, a lake and a beautiful fall day
A tree, a lake and a beautiful fall day, originally uploaded by Knilram.
Burrell Lake on a beautiful fall afternoon. I’ve been using this picture as my desktop.
What’s hot? Grass, not politics
This past Tuesday, Pennsylvania held their primary elections. It was a quiet election. In my area, most positions were uncontested, so there wasn’t much to vote on. But still, I was surprised there wasn’t much talk about the election. I didn’t hear anyone talk about the election before it was held, and the day after, I only heard one person bring up the topic. For some reason, people weren’t interested in this primary.
What were they interested in? What did they talk about all week?
We’ve had rain every day since last Thursday. Not a lot of rain most days, but some each day. Although rain was a regular topic, what people really wanted to talk about was their grass. Because of the rain, the grass has been growing profusely, and people haven’t been able to mow. Everyone’s lawns are getting long. People were speculating about the rain holding off long enough to mow their lawns after work. Will the rain let up over the weekend so we can cut the grass? People couldn’t get enough of the topic.
I went to a local restaurant for lunch today. The hostess escorted us to a table and then said the most amazing thing: “April will be here in a few minutes to wait on you.”
If time were flowing normally, April wouldn’t arrive for about three weeks.
I haven’t posted in a while. Even though this is a little late, I wanted to write something about the Pittsburgh Steeler’s Super Bowl victory.
I was in high school the last time the Steelers won the Super Bowl. At that point, I don’t think anyone in this area would have guessed it would take twenty-six years for the Steelers to win another. They were so used to the way the Steelers dominated football in the 70’s, people quickly adopted the phrase, “One for the thumb!” to talk about their expectation of the Steelers to win their fifth Super Bowl ring.
Well, today people around Pittsburgh are just as expectant of the continued success of the Steelers. The other day our local newspaper had the headline: “Dynasty?” The article was about how the Steelers have a lot of young players, and they have the potential to win several more Super Bowls with this core team. Talk about presumption! They’ve just won their first in twenty-six years, and now people expect them to win again the next few years.
But this now begs the question: What phrase will people use for their expectation of the Steelers winning their next Super Bowl? “One for the little finger on the other hand” just doesn’t sound quite right. How about “One for Count Rugen’s thumb”?
