Robert Pence

Beautiful photos! I can't imagine anyone jumping into that water; I'd think fresh meltwater would be maybe around 40 degrees F (or colder)!

Great-looking city, excellent photos!

There are several fascinating places in Southern Indiana; if you haven't visited New Harmony, I recommend it strongly. There's lots of history going back to the early 1800s, with beautifully restored and reconstructed buildings, and the historic settlement and houses are interspersed to some degree with private residences and a charming small town that still lives and works.

Around 1970 the Wapa Theater was owned by a flaming young queen who I think inherited it. One night I was in Piqua at the aptly-named Water Main, a fun-trashy gay dive at the corner of Water and Main Streets, when someone was handing out flyers for a midnight showing of Staircase and The Gay Deceivers at the Wapa. A friend and I drove over, and there in the late-night, otherwise-deserted streets of Wapakoneta was the Wapa, fully lit with the films on the marquee and a steady stream of gay men going through the doors. In addition to the feature films, they showed some cheesy sixties 16mm porn-theater thing involving some guy and his search for fulfillment finally satisfied in an encounter with a dominatrix. Racy by that era's standards, I suppose, but now it probably wouldn't even merit and R rating. I believe the theatre was full to capacity. It would have been interesting to know how far some people traveled; I know there were some there from Toledo. Considering the small-town morality standards of the time and what I heard went on in dark corners and the bathrooms of the theater, I'm surprised the place didn't get raided and make headlines in the area's newspapers. Perhaps the owner's family was too well connected in the town, or maybe he had the goods on someone of influence. Probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened in Wapa.

Nice! I hope you continue with the people shots; you have a good eye for them. Mix them in with your very excellent architecture threads for some variety and street-level flavor.

Excellent tour of a handsome downtown. The cathedral is a stunning landmark when approaching the city.

Excellent tour and beautiful photos. I really like the contrasting styles.

Thanks, all! As resident geezer-curmudgeon and pedant, though, I must point out that my birthday was right on schedule, on July 1 as it has been every year for the past 70 years. The birthday was not belated; the greetings were. Consequently, it should not be "Happy Belated Birthday," but "Belated Happy Birthday." A heartfelt thanks for all the good wishes, just the same. It's the thought that counts! :wink: :-)

I believe fixies were popular among racers and bike messengers at least as far back as the late seventies. I knew a few racers around here who rode them full-time. Part of the attraction for pro riders in urban traffic was that when forced to stop for a traffic signal or cross traffic at an intersection, they didn't have to un-clip and get a foot on the ground; they could use back-and-forth motion on the pedals to stay upright at a stop, and stay clipped into the pedals. Some fixies don't have any brakes at all. The Raleigh Detour Deluxe (~$750) is a good example of the modern-featured but retro-looking commuter bikes you're talking about. Really classy outfit, with disc brakes, etc. If it had a geared hub instead of a derailleur, the look would be almost complete. I have a bunch of parts including a Peugeot frame and a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub with Dynohub built in, that I'd like to use to build a custom city bike. Connected to an LED light the Dynohub might kick out a pretty good beam.

I was wandering around and not paying much attention to where I went, but I think the alleyway photos were north of Lake Street, between Dearborn and State. I know that I ended up on lower-level South Water Street at the entrance to the Metra Electric platforms at Randolph/Millennium Station. I've never had any problems with security at Metra facilities; their photography policy is pretty much the same as CTA's. I have checked in with the security or information desk at stations where one exists, just so they'll know who I am and what I'm doing in case a customer reports suspicious activity. South Shore uses Metra Electric stations, and they seldom have anyone on duty except for ticket agents at Millennium. I've taken lots of photos on the platforms there, in plain view of South Shore crews, and never been challenged. When Millennium first opened after reconstruction, some guy came up to me and told me photography was prohibited there. He was in plain clothes, and never showed any ID, so I just waited until he was out of sight and continued. Uniformed cops in plain sight didn't challenge me. Only once have I been challenged on CTA, when I was taking photos from the overhead bridge between platforms at Belmont, shortly after 9/11. I saw a uniformed employee headed down the platform in my direction, and he yelled, "No Photos on CTA!" I scrambled down the other steps and onto a waiting train just before the doors closed, and was outta there.

Beautiful photos! The damage to the courthouse is much worse than I thought. From what I read, I thought the damage mostly had been confined to the dome; from the photo, it appears that the entire roof structure is gone.

Chicago, Illinois June 16 & 17, 2009 All Photos Copyright © 2009 by Robert E Pence 4th-5th-6th Floor Atrium DCAM Building (Center for Advanced Medicine), University of Chicago Medical Center: Green Line Station, E63rd/Cottage Grove: Randolph/Wabash Coming & Going: Skulking around alleys: Entering the Metra Electric station through the lower-level South Water Street entrance: Millennium (Randolph Street) Station: Train 211, on the right, comprised of some of the 14 recently-acquired new bi-level cars, departs at 4:10pm and stops for boarding only at Van Buren, 11th Street, 57th Street, and 63rd Street (flag stop). Train 211 discharges or boards passengers at Hegewisch, Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary/Chicago Airport and terminates at Gary Metro Center at a scheduled time of 5:11pm. Hurry! Hurry! Always somebody runnin' at the very last minute. Run! Gonna' miss your train! Bet you were still in Starbucks when they announced last call for boarding!

The Raleigh DL-1 Roadster. I need to give it a good cleaning-up and fix the dents in the chain guard and reinstall it. Looking at the photo, I just realized that I need to tighten the chain, too. Looks pretty nasty, right now: My best traveling bike. This one hasn't been out of the basement in quite a while, and I owe it some attention. I built it up in 1977 using a then-new Eisentraut Limited frame bought from Steve's Cyclery in Dayton, Ohio and components salvaged from a vintage-1969 Peugeot PX-10 that had suffered an encounter with a suddenly-opened car door. Crankset is Stronglight, headset is Campagnolo, rear derailleur is Shimano Crane, shifters are Suntour SunRace, center-pull brakes are Mafac Racer, high-flange hubs are Normandy, mudguards are Bleumels. All old-school. I gave up the drop bars a few years ago to humor my arthritis. I had bar-tip shifters that I liked on those. My dad's bike. I bought it for him for his birthday in the mid-1970s, when he was in his sixties. Even when he was a kid, he had never owned a nice, new bike. Mom wouldn't let him ride it, though. He was somewhat accident-prone, and she was afraid he'd get hurt. This bike has been ridden very little; the last time I took it out, a couple of years ago, it rode like new. I need to pump up the tires and put it to work more often. It has a 23-inch seatpost; 21-inch is standard. There are a couple more rideable/near-rideable in the basement; a pretty turquoise AMF coaster-brake bike, and a vintage Birmingham Hercules 3-speed, dark green with chrome fenders. In addition, there are about three that mostly need tires and grease and putting back together. One is a pretty nice, tall-framed Nishiki that was given to me by a homeowner in Cleveland who found it in the attic of a garage at a home she bought. It had been up there in summer heat for so many years that the tires had nearly melted.

I was thinking the same thing, but if they did that, they'd have to put up an eight-foot-high aluminum grid railing first to obstruct the view and make sure people couldn't get decent photos. :wink:

I've experience the bullying often when driving a small vehicle, formerly a Chevy S-10 and now a Focus wagon. I can be driving the speed limit where it's 5mph higher for cars than for trucks, and truckers will get right on my back bumper and ride there when there's nothing to keep them from passing. That never happened when I drove my 8,000 pound camper, even if I was running on the low side of the limit. Probably the camper being tall enough they couldn't see over it had something to do with it. Yesterday I was on I-69 (love that designation) around Fort Wayne, where the posted limit is 65/60. I was running a steady 65, and every truck I saw was passing me. Most were going quite a lot faster than I was, I'd guess close to 75mph. That's on an urban interstate with interchanges sometimes less than a mile apart, and it makes for some interesting weaving across lanes by both cars and trucks. Mostly I avoid interstates and other highways that carry fast long-distance traffic. I just don't enjoy traveling that way, and unless I have to do it because of time constraints or because there's no other simple, safe way to transit some urban areas (Chicago/NW Indiana, for instance) I stay on local roads and take a break for sightseeing whenever I feel like it. I agree. The extension of I-69 from Indianapolis to the Southwestern US is an ill-conceived notion whose time has passed, and even though Indiana's governor is pushing ahead with it, rising fuel prices and other economic factors may leave it dead at the state line, with a trail of environmental destruction and wasted money and no payback. Most, if not all, of the proposed route already is duplicated by freight railroads, and capacity investment there would yield a better return over the long run.

Delightful downtown, excellent photos!

Dillin seeks control of Marina District Developer says it's time for city to step aside, let him run East Toledo project By IGNAZIO MESSINA BLADE STAFF WRITER The planned Marina District development in East Toledo has cost taxpayers more than $43 million over the past decade or so - which includes costly cleanup of the once heavily polluted land - and developer Larry Dillin urged council Monday to finally step aside and give him control. MORE: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090707/NEWS16/907070366

Gorgeous work!

Just what you need. You could move your parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, and the rest of your entourage in there and make it a family compound. They'd all be right where you could keep an eye on 'em!

I don't know about other states, but Indiana won't even administer a driving test in bad weather, darkness, or dense, fast arterial or interstate traffic. Examiners direct subjects around some side-street blocks and maybe through the CBD outside rush-hour traffic, and in the small towns, there's nothing in the test more challenging than being able to make a left turn at a signal without an arrow or dedicated lane and parallel park. Driving tests should include a simulator that puts drivers in challenging situations, like cruising along on a good highway on a sunny winter day with dry pavement, and then coming around a curve and encountering a sheet of ice in the shadow of a woodlot. The test should include a dose of fast, dense interstate highway traffic and night driving in an unfamiliar place. Licenses should convey graduated levels of permission based on test performance; some drivers are capable of driving to and from work or the supermarket or dropping off/picking up the kids at day care or school, but should never venture onto the expressway.

What photo editing software do you have? I'm only familiar with Photoshop, but whatever you're using, there's likely to be someone here who can guide you through the process. As richNcincy said, 900x700 works well for most people's screens. JPG format at 72dpi is adequate for on-screen display; higher resolution than 72dpi doesn't yield any better image on most monitors. Typically, a good image for on-screen viewing can be in the range of 200-300KB, maximum.

Excellent photo sets, and a fine-looking neighborhood. It seems to have held its quality and value well, and there are relatively few window-and-siding architectural travesties. Nice!

Very beautiful, elegant, grand, inspiring ... Excellent photos, too!

Neat additions. First United Methodist is certainly atypical, but it's a handsome design.

Nice bikes! You fix 'em up good! A friend has a Collegiate with a Sturmey-Archer AW 3-speed. I think the date stamp on his hub is 1969. His bike is filthy but free of rust and dents and mechanically sound. My DL-1 doesn't have the full chain case; of the ones shipped to the US, I think only the early ones had those. I jumped through all kinds of hoops to get a full chain case shipped from England, and then when it arrived I couldn't install it. Turns out the full chain case models have a different crank arm assembly on that side, with more clearance between the crank arm and the chainring. Mine has an ordinary chain guard, and I've removed that until I can straighten it; it got bent and now either rubs the chain or hits the crank. Here's my first bike. I was eleven, maybe twelve years old: Edit:The front hub was an internal-expanding drum brake, and there was an electric horn inside the tank, powered by two D-cells. The taillight built into the rear carrier worked as a brake light when the coaster brake was applied. I was going full-bore on the county road near our house, when the neighbor's big bike-chasing farm dog ran in front of me. I ran completely over him. I got some awful road rash, but the bike was unscathed aside from minor scratches. The dog didn't fare so well; they had to have him put down.