I took Clementine and Arlo out today, on a walk around Ypsi. It felt good. We dropped books off an the library, bought candy at the Rocket, did some science experiments at the park, raced rafts made out of bark and twigs down the river, broke up the last bits of ice that we could find, and otherwise just bummed around, talking with people, and enjoying the fact that, for the first time in weeks, we could actually see the sun… Anyway, on this two hour journey of ours, a few questions were raised, and I thought that I’d bring them up here, in hopes that one of you might have an answer.
• Why is there an office chair on the little island that’s formed beneath the tridge? Does someone work there? I think it’s beautiful, and wouldn’t want anyone to remove it, but I thought that I’d ask. If I weren’t so old and out of shape, I think it would great to either repel down from the tridge, or wade out from the riverbank, and work there. (I wonder if this is where we were making our interim City Manager work, and if maybe that’s why he put in his notice after just a few days on the job.)
• Speaking of working in the park, did I just hear somewhere that Solar Ypsi has been working with Wireless Ypsi to deploy solar-powered internet access nodes throughout the park? If so, that’s incredibly cool. (Maybe we’ll start seeing more office furniture scattered around the park this spring.)
• As Arlo just turned two months old yesterday, I haven’t been getting out much, so I don’t know how long this picnic table (pictured right) has been sitting on the bottom of the river. Assuming it didn’t just go in today, I’m wondering if there have been attempts to get it out. Do we still have city employees to do that kind of thing, or is park maintenance now the domain of the Jaycees? (I can’t remember where we left things.) Anyway, if no one else is going to get it out, should we line up some volunteers to do it, or do folks like having an underwater option when it comes to picnicking in the park?
• And what’s going on in the space that VG Kids used to inhabit on Michigan Avenue (that was later known, for a short while, as the XVG Gallery)? It looks like someone is conducting a talk show in the front window. (Speaking of talk shows, there’s talk of bring Dreamland Tonight back to life in the not too distant future. Stay tuned.)
