Thank you, friends!
Thanks to everyone who sent kind words and supportive thoughts to me, my brother and our community. It really has been such a surreal experience.
I had my first experience finding a new route around the bridge on Thursday night. The Fringe Festival has started and Thursday I was going from one theater in South Minneapolis to another one in North Minneapolis. The easiest and fastest way between those two points is 35W, but now you can't get over the river that way. Weird! so, I drove through downtown and took backstreets.
On the way home from the theater, I had to drive down University Avenue to get to 94 so I saw the bridge. What a sad, horrendous sight! Coming up to the bridge, there were several huge satellite trucks. That's not something you usually see in Minneapolis. Everything was heavily guarded - there are tons of police officers guarding the area to make sure no idiots try to climb down there. The first thing you see as you look at the entrance ramp to the highway is nothing. The road isn't there any more. Really, really weird. The you notice that the road is still there, it's just way, down below and at a steep upward then downward angle. They haven't done anything on the bridge yet - everything's been concentrated on recovery efforts in the river. So, it still looks the same as it did when it fell. All the cars are still sitting there. So scary and spooky looking. It was just really hard to see that.
Yesterday I was driving back to my office one of my usual routes, up 35W, but getting on 94 heading east right before the bridge. That's now the detour route, so of course traffic isn't moving all that quickly in that area. Gives you plenty of time to look over toward the bridge area. You can't see the actual bridge from there, but you definitely see the activity. I think I saw 6 helicopters coming and going around there. Again, these are sights we don't see in our nice little metro area. Life is very surreal, as I said.
I found out one of the women who died on the bridge is Native and her mother works for the tribe I work as a GAL for. A guy at Brugger's told me his father in law was one of the workers on the bridge and happened to be taking a cigarette break when it collapsed, so he wasn't on the bridge. He joked, "who says cigarettes kill?" Anyway, that's the end of my bridge talk, at least for now.
As I mentioned, the Fringe has started, so no movie reviews for a couple of weeks and very little knitting. I get an ultra pass and try to see as many shows as possible. It's so much fun! In the past, I've reviewed the Fringe shows I've seen, but I'm not sure any of my regular readers (that huge crowd of people!) are all that interested in that, so I'm going to skip it this year. But if you're interested in my thoughts on any of the shows or want a recommendation for something to see, drop me a line. I will say this - I'm pretty sure I've seen my favorite show already. Macbeth's Awesome Scottish Castle Party written by and starring the fabulously talented Joseph Scrimshaw. As you can probably suss out, it's a hilarious version of Macbeth, poking fun at theater snobs and rubes who enjoy interactive theater at the same time. I laughed almost the entire hour. It's playing every night at 7:00 and 8:30 at the Black Forest Inn on Nicollet. I'd like to see it every night. If you see one show this Fringe, make it this one. If you want someone to go with, let me know and I'd be happy to meet you down there. If you want to see something else or just want a personal introduction to Fringing, let me know and I'd be happy to do that too.
I had my first experience finding a new route around the bridge on Thursday night. The Fringe Festival has started and Thursday I was going from one theater in South Minneapolis to another one in North Minneapolis. The easiest and fastest way between those two points is 35W, but now you can't get over the river that way. Weird! so, I drove through downtown and took backstreets.
On the way home from the theater, I had to drive down University Avenue to get to 94 so I saw the bridge. What a sad, horrendous sight! Coming up to the bridge, there were several huge satellite trucks. That's not something you usually see in Minneapolis. Everything was heavily guarded - there are tons of police officers guarding the area to make sure no idiots try to climb down there. The first thing you see as you look at the entrance ramp to the highway is nothing. The road isn't there any more. Really, really weird. The you notice that the road is still there, it's just way, down below and at a steep upward then downward angle. They haven't done anything on the bridge yet - everything's been concentrated on recovery efforts in the river. So, it still looks the same as it did when it fell. All the cars are still sitting there. So scary and spooky looking. It was just really hard to see that.
Yesterday I was driving back to my office one of my usual routes, up 35W, but getting on 94 heading east right before the bridge. That's now the detour route, so of course traffic isn't moving all that quickly in that area. Gives you plenty of time to look over toward the bridge area. You can't see the actual bridge from there, but you definitely see the activity. I think I saw 6 helicopters coming and going around there. Again, these are sights we don't see in our nice little metro area. Life is very surreal, as I said.
I found out one of the women who died on the bridge is Native and her mother works for the tribe I work as a GAL for. A guy at Brugger's told me his father in law was one of the workers on the bridge and happened to be taking a cigarette break when it collapsed, so he wasn't on the bridge. He joked, "who says cigarettes kill?" Anyway, that's the end of my bridge talk, at least for now.
As I mentioned, the Fringe has started, so no movie reviews for a couple of weeks and very little knitting. I get an ultra pass and try to see as many shows as possible. It's so much fun! In the past, I've reviewed the Fringe shows I've seen, but I'm not sure any of my regular readers (that huge crowd of people!) are all that interested in that, so I'm going to skip it this year. But if you're interested in my thoughts on any of the shows or want a recommendation for something to see, drop me a line. I will say this - I'm pretty sure I've seen my favorite show already. Macbeth's Awesome Scottish Castle Party written by and starring the fabulously talented Joseph Scrimshaw. As you can probably suss out, it's a hilarious version of Macbeth, poking fun at theater snobs and rubes who enjoy interactive theater at the same time. I laughed almost the entire hour. It's playing every night at 7:00 and 8:30 at the Black Forest Inn on Nicollet. I'd like to see it every night. If you see one show this Fringe, make it this one. If you want someone to go with, let me know and I'd be happy to meet you down there. If you want to see something else or just want a personal introduction to Fringing, let me know and I'd be happy to do that too.
Labels: Fringe Festival
rdladd@arnan.com
