Today, we were about as scattered as the seagulls we saw over the water by Library Park. (OK, fine, they’re only flying because I ran toward them to scare them skyward for a photo.)
We ended up starting out from my house four times, each time going a different direction. We had one dead camera and then two additional cameras, each, as it turned out, with no batteries. Finally, I just bought a big pack of batteries at Pamida, where I asked the checkout guy if he could cut the package open (I hate those horrible packages).
“No,” he joked. “I can’t do that.”
“They don’t trust you with scissors?” Bethany said.
“Maybe he has to watch a training video first,” I suggested.
So finally we were on our way, after having also learned we needed to look for a photo for tomorrow’s paper. It’s a rather wet, drippy day today, so we seemed to be the only ones outside doing anything interesting, but then we ran across Pam Papp and Joann Gardner walking through Library Park.
They work at Bemidji State University and walk every day during their lunch breaks. So they’re way more consistent than we are.
We had no notebooks with us, so I texted their names to Bethany. At first thought, that seems not very professional, but journalists often have to think on their feet, so let’s go with resourceful.

We were dumbfounded by this tree sweater on Third Street. What a fun idea! We are really curious who did this and how the idea came about, so if you know, send us a message!
I thought maybe it was a Master Gardener who has a crafty thumb as well as a green one. The Master Gardeners take care of the downtown planters every year.
We were also curious about how the sweater was placed on the tree, so we circled around and found a back seam, which we are guessing was closed after putting the sweater over the tree.
In any case, the sweater is in nice fall colors.
I thought this spine outside Explore Chiropractic was cute, but I really had to stop and take a photo when I saw the giraffe, since I collect giraffes and this is a nice one!
“Do you have a giraffe neck or a banana neck?” the sign in the window reads.
I imagine I have a giraffe neck. First, because giraffes and humans have the same number of vertebrae (seven, which I remember being very surprised by when I heard that years ago.
And second, because like the song says, bananas have no bones.
Here’s a Halloween window display for you …
Have a great rest of the week!
The sweater tree was done by the girls at Yellow Umbrella. If you haven’t been in there yet you HAVE to stop in. Cool store.
Almost all mammals have seven cervicals; I’d have to dig to recall the few who don’t. It’s a peculiarity of the class. In other land vertebrates, such as those ring-billed gulls, species with shorter necks generally have fewer cervicals than those with long necks. Fishes don’t have necks; their shoulder bones are part of the skull. There will be a short quiz next time.
“Dumbfounded”–that’s the exact way I felt when I came across my first ‘yarn bomb’. What the heck is this? I thought. Who would do such a thing and why?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing
Now I’m regretting, a little, that I posted that link to Wiki. Because it takes some of the magic away, sort of like a magician revealing the trick…know what I mean?
SF Fan, at least you saw the yarn bomb first.
I did do a story on it, which was really interesting:
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100032412/
And the Yellow Umbrella is awesome.