Roadside Mysteries

Had time on Sunday to check this out:

I decided to go as extra lame evil DC villain Kirt Filpots, AKA Mr. Banjo

And we may have seen from a distance the following celebrities that I have actually heard of (the numbers after their names equate price of an autograph / price of a photo op):

Levar Burton ($40/$40)  Micheal Dorn ($40/$40)  Jonathan Frakes ($40/$40)  Walter Koenig ($40/$30)

Bruce Campbel ($40/$50) Gates McFadden ($40/$40) Julie Newmar ($40/$50) William Shatner ($80/$80)

Denise Crosby ($40/$40) Mirina Sirtis ($40$40) Burt Ward ($50/$60) Adam West ($80/$65)

So the campy Batman and James Kirk ask for and get double the amount for an autograph. Needless to say we only saw these people and didn’t get any autographs. Also, Lou Ferrigno was seen at the show as well.

In a Fort Collins garage:

Some big project going down!

Is it in my garage? Can’t tell for sure (it’s a secret) but results will be revealed sometime in July before the great feast of the Ragbrai. Stay tuned.

Chicago, 2004

Jim and Jeanne with the Giant Panda

This was the year we traveled to China. Later that year we had a typical Chicago snowfall that would give us plenty of material to make something in the front yard.  A Giant Panda seemed like a good subject so here it is! It was our first show sculpture and you could actually identify what it was.

The Big Bear was maybe 7 feet tall

The base was made using blocks of snow that packed real well and then some shaping was done with our hands to make the feet and head. The font legs are supported using a couple of 1×2 wooden ‘bones’ .

Panda Side View

With just a bit of color added and a nice red bow, the finished work photo was used for our Christmas card the following year. I don’t think we had another ‘family’ holiday picture made until we had Duncan Madog.

2005: same winter as the panda but the next big snow

Some kind of dragon with a funny rooster head and a typical Chicago style bungalow behind it. A few days later some teenagers tried to run off with the big rooster head. They carried it about a block and a half and finally dropped it.

The same old dragon– New Head

…and another addition– some human bones added (the pile to the left of the picture) perhaps the bones of teenagers?

Lots of teeth on this guy!

The teens couldn’t get this one– all those sharp points on the head melted within hours after this picture was taken and then the head fell off by the end of the day.

The Base

If there’s a Duncan then we must be in Colorado. Here he is goofing around the base of snow that will soon be a work of art! Really !

Getting higher in Colorado

The forecast indicates that we might actually have 5 or 6 consecutive days where the high temperatures might hang on the freezing side.  Actually it was more like 16 degrees.  Unlike Chicago however, the temperatures could change quickly so making a snow sculpture in the foothills is risky because the 7th day could begin a stretch of 60 degree weather and said sculpture would turn to slush. (Note that Duncan likes to pee on the monument of snow)

Jeanne and Jim with the Creature

Well, it might have been another giant panda, or maybe a big raccoon. The feet are are rather large (Big Foot?) and it’s a taller snow sculpture than anything we have ever done before.

Some final touches and we’re done!

We had to wrap this up soon because the temperatures were starting to rise. I don’t expect this snow will be around in another week. That’s Snow Business!

Yet to be installed glass fixture

Dare I say compare with the octagon I made for Mindy almost a year ago. This piece should fit correctly into Mindy’s upper entryway window frame (I hope!)