Eastern Michigan at Toledo Basketball

So I went down to Toledo tonight to catch the Eastern Michigan basketball game.  The game itself had implications for where Eastern would be playing its first MAC Tournament game on Monday.  If they beat Toledo, they would be playing at home otherwise, they would have to travel somewhere.  My drive down there wasn't too bad.  As always, I will be posting my favorite game shot and other shots from the game.  If you want more shots from the game, go to Eagle Totem.

 The campus itself is pretty nice.  I wish I would have had more time to wander around because it looks like there were some pretty cool buildings.

 Apparently tonight's game was sponsored by Corning Fiberglass and so they had the Pink Panther there.

 Jordan Nobles during the warmups.

 Tim Bond during the warmups.

 Just another face in the crowd.

 The Toledo coach in a not so animated moment.

 These guys are part of what is called the Blue Crew.  They are students at University of Toledo and show up to many of the Toledo games.  I've seen them travel to Ypsilanti, I'm not sure if they go elsewhere.  I would have to say that these guys are pretty cool (even if they do root for Toledo).

 For the most part, the refs were pretty competent tonight but that didn't mean that Murphy didn't have any arguments with them.

And my favorite shot of the game.

So I will have one more game this season on Monday night as I don't think I will be traveling to Cleveland for the tournament.

The Starlight Snowverine

After walking at the gym, I saw that I had an opportunity to catch the evening Wolverine as it passed Ypsilanti.  It was snowing and I was losing my light rapidly, so I wasn't sure I would catch it.  As I was about ready to give up, I heard its horn.

 I wish it were a little brighter because I think this picture would look even cooler in the light.  Not that I don't mind this picture.

 As it got a little closer, it got a little lighter.  This might have more to do with the train lights not shining into my camera.

 The snow was coming down quite a bit at this point.

 A shot as it started to pass.

And one more after it passed and it was kicking up quite a bit of snow.

The Opening of the Lakes Can't Come Soon Enough

The Soo Locks open March 25th and the Welland Canal opens sooner than that.  There are a few ships that will make deliveries between ports that don't require the use of either of those canals.  That should be happening in a couple of weeks.  However, none of that can happen soon enough.

 I was able to get pictures of the barge over the weekend, but that doesn't seem like enough.  Fortunately, I have some models on my desk.  I can't really call the above boat a model though.  It was one of those stress things that someone gave me.  It's kind of cool.  Part of me wonders if it floats.  I'll call it the MV Squeezee Ball.

 And this is the paper model that I built of the Walter McCarthy.  I was able to get a model of the Roger Blough over the weekend.  I'll have to figure out a time to built that.

This is a ship I made out of balsa wood.  Since it's patterned after an American Steamship Vessel, I will call it the SS American Nondescript.

It seems pretty bad when I'm reduced to taking pictures of my ship models though.

Spring Can't Come Soon Enough

So over the weekend we had temperatures reach in the upper 60's around home.  I think they hit the low 70's in Fostoria.  Monday was still in the upper 50's and then yesterday we get hit with a snow/ice storm and today was back down in the upper 20's/low 30's.  It's supposed to get into the high 30's/40's over the weekend, so I am hoping that we had our last bit of snow for the season.

 So I was hoping to get some winter shots as I was driving into work today but things didn't quite cooperate with that.  As I was heading into the office, I saw a bunch of robins in the trees in front of the office, so I decided to put the big lens on.

 Normally the first robins you see are ones that probably stayed behind for the winter.  Not all robins migrate to the south.   It seems like those are in small groups though.  This seemed to be too large of a group to have stayed here.

 I think they were eating the berries that are in our cherry maple trees.

 At any rate, it was pretty nice to see some robins.  Even if they are robins that stayed behind, this is normally a sign that spring is around the corner.

 And the trees make for a pretty background for the robins.

 Some of them weren't as shy as the others.

 And I think that these made for better pictures.

I'm pretty sure that this one is hoping that spring comes much sooner.

Some Shots of the Chessie Cat

I was going to go to the basketball game tonight but after the fun drive home, I decided to just stay home.  So instead of basketball pictures, you get Chessie pictures.

 she was looking at me like I was crazy or something.

 She yawned as I was taking the pictures.

One more of her.

The U.S. Flag at Sunset

As I was putting gas in my car after work, I looked at the Belle Tire across the street and saw the flag flying.  I liked the way the sun was hitting it, so I took a picture.

Enjoy the rest of your Leap Day.

Watching the Trains Go By

It was a pretty nice day, so I decided to head to Ohio to do some trainwatching.

 First  I headed down to Bellevue.  When I arrived there was a train rounding one of the curves and a train was leaving the area.    It wasn't too long before this group of engines appeared.  The one is front is a high hood style.

 It was actually pretty busy as it wasn't too long for this train to appear.

 As it heads towards the eat.

 I saw this train on the way into town. 

 A nice headshot.

 And the train winds it way through the track.

 Then I decided to head over to Fostoria.  This train was waiting there.  I guess there was a problem with the switch and it took them a while to figure it out.

 That gave me the opportunity to get different angles of the train.

 I kind of like the lines in this one.

 I kind of wanted to give the overall view.

 another angle.

 The light was hitting it just right.

 A shot of the cab.

 And then it started to move.  At this point the sun was starting to set and as much as I wanted to stay in Fostoria, I wanted to try and find a place near Toledo.

 As I was leaving Fostoria, I was tempted to turn around because I saw three trains stacked up.  I kind of liked the looks of this one, so I stopped.

This was about as close as I was going to get to a headshot.