Sinclair Lewis Days Parade - Webcam, Weather, and All That

"Sinclair Lewis Days Parade: July 18, 2009"
A Sauk Centre Journal Realreel
video, 3:44

This is blatant self-promotion by the Lemming. And, possibly, your best bet for seeing at least part of a Sinclair Lewis Days parade this year, in comfort. Even if you live in Sauk Centre, or are visiting for the festivities.

As an alternative to that short video of the 2009 parade, you could check out this eye-on-the street webcam in Sauk Centre, right on this year's parade route, provided by - you guessed it - the Lemming:

Small Town America: Minnesota

Just one downside about Small Town America: Minnesota - there isn't any sound.

Dropping the Editorial 'We' -

My video feed supports audio - but I haven't figured out how to get a microphone outside the window - and keep the thing in working order. I may use the inside mike, and give a sort of 'color commentary,' in the tradition of those televised Macy's Thanksgiving Day parades.

Or, I may think better of it.

When? Sauk Centre's Sinclair Lewis Days parade is scheduled for "7pm on Saturday July 16th," on the Sauk Centre Chamber of Commerce website.

I'm lucky, in a way - the parade route was moved away from this end of town a few years ago. Which was, for most folks, an improvement. The reason it's back in its old path is the Minnesota government shutdown. I understand that, since the state services are gone - temporarily, I trust - we "can't" close Highway 71 for the parade.

I'm pretty sure local law enforcement could handle the situation: My guess is that it's more a case of we aren't allowed to close Highway 71.

The Weather - Good News, Bad News

First, the good news.

Right now, it looks like we probably won't have another storm tomorrow evening. Not even rain.

Now, the bad news.

There's a heat advisory out for this part of the state - effective through Wednesday Evening. Todd county, just north of us, is one of the few counties around here that's not in the advisory - so we may get away with merely oppressive heat.

That's not good news for folks in the parade - or watching it. Oh, well: It could be worse.

Part of the Advisory

"Statement as of 3:46 PM CDT on July 15, 2011

"... Excessive heat watch remains in effect from Saturday afternoon
through Wednesday evening...

"An excessive heat watch remains in effect from Saturday afternoon
through Wednesday evening.

"* Temperature... afternoon highs in the low to mid 90s with low
temperatures in the mid to upper 70s

"* heat index... 105 to 110 degrees in the afternoon and early
evening...."
(via wunderground.com)

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Sauk Centre Storm and the Lemming"
  (July 13, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming Gets Transparent"
  (April 18, 2011)
• "New York City Blizzard, New Jersey Common Sense, and Central Minnesota Routines"
  (December 28, 2010)
• "Repairing Violins in Small Town America: This One's Personal"
  (December 21, 2010)
• "Another Tornado Warning: Second This Week"
  (July 17, 2010)

Eagles' Nest in Decorah, Iowa: A Webcam

"Decorah Eagles"
raptorresource, Ustream.TV (live feed)


Streaming live video by Ustream
"The Raptor Resource Project brings you the Decorah Eagles from atop their tree at the fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa. Please visit our web site...."

The streaming video from this webcam is live 24/7 - with infrared 'night vision' when the sun is down. Eagles can't see infrared any better than humans can - so they're not bothered by the light.

The nest that the webcam is monitoring is about 80 feet up in a cottonwood tree. The tree is on private property, the fish hatchery is run by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and the eagles are a wild pair that's been together since the winter of 2007-2008.

The Ustream.TV page has links to YouTube videos of this year's eggs being laid.

Decorah Eagles streaming video starts after a 15-second commercial - and is interrupted now and then by other ads. This doesn't bother the Lemming, but your experience may vary.

Watching this webcam doesn't have quite the same sort of drama as reality shows - not that the Lemming is an expert on that television genre. On the other hand, it's real.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Lyre Bird: An Accomplished Mimic"
  (November 14, 2010)
  
• 
  
• "And Now, for Something Completely Different: Feeding Baby Birds"
  (October 2, 2010)
  
• 
  
• "San Diego Zoo on Birds, Some of Which are - What Else? - Endangered"
  (September 2, 2010)
  
• 
  
• "Frantic Mother Duck, Ducklings, and a Duck Story to Start the Day"
  (May 26, 2010)
  
• 
  
• "Don't Mess With This Chick"
  (April 25, 2010)
  

Lemming Tracks: New Computer!

My son-in-law got my wife a climbing wall for Christmas - and a new computer for me.

Whee! My wife's in the basement right now - from the sounds of it, probably skittering across the wall. There's a lot of laughter coming up the stairs.

Climbing wall? Basement?? With seven-foot ceilings, it's more of a horizontal than a vertical climb.

The new computer is - a whole lot better than what I was working with. Which was a custom-made job, and quite powerful. Five years ago. When it comes to information technology, a whole lot happens in five years.

The big deal, at the moment, is that the old computer is awaiting a new assignment: and the new one is now on speaking terms with my webcam.

The video feed of which is displayed at Small Town America: Minnesota, "Sauk Centre, Minnesota: near the corner of Ash Street and South 9th."

If you follow that link and don't find live video: remember, I'm in the Central time zone, near the middle of the North American continent. And it's winter.

Under normal conditions, I have the webcam offline for a few hours each evening.

Right now, with a new computer, it's not 'normal conditions,' so I may have run into another, ah, situation.

A Webcam's View of a Small Town Street

"Small Town America: Central Minnesota"
"From the heart of darkest Minnesota: my view of small town America."
Webcam, updated twice a second

This photo was taken inches from the webcam, one morning this week.

This is my contribution - if you can call it that - to the world of webcams. This particular one shows what I see, looking in a generally north-northwesterly direction out my window. The idea, when I set it up, was to give my neighbors something to look at when they were online - and give anyone who cared to look a glimpse at a real small town in America.

It's not, I'll grant, filled with wild action: but you will see lawns, part of an intersection, cars, trucks, cyclists, pedestrians and intermittent hummingbirds.

Unhappily, it's not always online: I make an effort to have it broadcasting during most daylight hours, but need to reboot my computer from time to time. And, at night there really isn't all that much to see.

This particular webcam has its own blog, also called Small Town America: Minnesota. My view of what's happening here in Sauk Centre, in the heart of Darkest Minnesota, is in the "Sauk Centre Journal."

And that, I think, is quite enough self-promotion for one day.

Mount Redoubt: It Was Only a Small Explosion

"7th Mount Redoubt explosion is small one"
United Press International (March 25, 2009)

"ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 25 (UPI) -- A small explosion at Mount Redoubt in Alaska early Wednesday sent up an ash cloud 15,000 feet that dissipated over the volcano, scientists say...."

I can't help remembering a line from some movie, where an accident-prone undergrad said something like "it was only a small fire."

Related posts:

• "Mount Redoubt Webcams: Watching Eruptions on the Web"
  (March 24, 2009)
• "Mount Redoubt: Thar She Blows! (Eruptions Started Last Sunday)"
  (March 24, 2009)
• "Volcanoes, a Governor, Science, and the Next Yellowstone Caldera Blowout"
  (February 25, 2009)
• "Mount Redoubt Steaming, Anchorage Waiting, Webcams Watching"
  (February 1, 2009)

Mount Redoubt Webcams: Watching Eruptions on the Web

This is an excerpt from an earlier post.

Mount Redoubt, in Alaska, began erupting last Sunday (March 22, 2009). People in Anchorage, Alaska, about a hundred miles away, are uncomfortably up close and personal with the eruptions.

The rest of us can watch, through several webcams:

"Live webcam images of various Alaskan volcanoes"
Alaska Volcano Observatory
Including two for Mount Redoubt:

• Hut
  "This camera provides a view of the north flank of Redoubt."
• CI
  "The camera is located on Unocal Platform Anna, approximately 38 miles SE of Mt. Spurr, it was originally pointed at Mt. Spurr."

The Alaska Volcano Observatory looks like a pretty good resource for information about Alaska's volcanoes.

And, on Mount Redoubt: "Redoubt Activity"

Mount Redoubt is roughly a hundred miles away from Anchorage, near the east edge of the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, west of that long island across Cook Inlet from Clam Gultch.


View Larger Map

Mount Redoubt Steaming, Anchorage Waiting, Webcams Watching

Places like Anchorage, Alaska, and Mount Redoubt don't get in the news much, unless there's something like a volcanic eruption. Which may happen any time, now:

• "Scientist see holes in glacier at Alaska volcano"
  The Associated Press (February 1, 2009)
  • "ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Geologists monitoring Mount Redoubt for signs of a possible eruption noticed that a hole in the glacier clinging to the north side of the volcano had doubled in size overnight — and now spans the length of two football fields.
  • "Scientists with the Alaska Volcano Observatory on Friday flew close to Drift Glacier and spotted...."
• "Alaska volcano 'more energetic,' scientists say"
  CNN (January 30, 2009)
  • "(CNN) -- Mount Redoubt, the Alaskan volcano expected to erupt at any time, is getting a bit more edgy...."
• "Inside Alaska's Explosive Redoubt Volcano"
  LiveScience (January 30, 2009)
  • "Mount Redoubt volcano in Alaska could erupt within days to weeks, say scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, amazing the rest of us with their certainty...."

One of my favorite headlines is:

• "Travelers volcano eruption survival guide"
  Alaska Transportation Examiner (January 30, 2009)
  • "In case you had not heard, Mt. Redoubt is set to do another big blow. The last time was about twenty years ago and the spewing of ash disrupted air travel for weeks.""
    (January 30, 2009)

The article's tone is light:"...The problem is that as you can imagine, volcanic ash and jet turbines do not mix very well...." You'll get a pretty good background on why it isn't a good idea to fly through a volcanic ash cloud. And, more to the point, a sensible-sounding list of ways to prepare, if you're traveling past an active volcano.

The University of Alaska has a couple of webcams pointed at Mount Redoubt. One of them was watching another volcano, but they turned it for this occasion. At this moment (about a quarter after 10 in the morning, here in central Minnesota), there's not much to see. Anchorage is west and north of us - so it's still night there.

"Live webcam images of various Alaskan volcanoes"
Alaska Volcano Observatory
Including two for Mount Redoubt:

• Hut
  "This camera provides a view of the north flank of Redoubt."
• CI
  "The camera is located on Unocal Platform Anna, approximately 38 miles SE of Mt. Spurr, it was originally pointed at Mt. Spurr."

The Alaska Volcano Observatory looks like a pretty good resource for information about Alaska's volcanoes.

And, on Mount Redoubt: "Redoubt Activity"

Mount Redoubt is roughly a hundred miles away from Anchorage, near the east edge of the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, west of that long island across Cook Inlet from Clam Gultch.


View Larger Map

A Blog About a Webcam: What Next?

"Keeping an Eye on Ash Street"
Small Town America: Minnesota (May 2, 2008)

"From the heart of darkest Minnesota: my view of small town America.
"And, the first view-on-the-street webcam in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.
"At the corner of Ash and South 9th in Sauk Centre, sometimes this webcam catches more than two cars at a time!"

I created this blog today (May 2, 2008), to give people who visit the webcam a chance to make comments. Creating a blog like this seemed easier than setting up another commenting service.

Well, That's Interesting

"liveMap"

A map of webcams, apparently.

Free WebCam Software

"FREEWARE Windows Webcams Software"

I'm using Fwink webcam software now, and am quite satisfied with it.

I'm also using another bit of webcam software, and am looking for something better. This looks like a pretty good resource, so I thought I'd share it.

A Small Town's First WebCam: Maybe

WebCam: Sauk Centre"

"From the heart of darkest Minnesota: my view of small town America."

"This may be the first 'on-the-street' webcam in Sauk Centre. (The closest one I found was in Sartel.)"

(I'm promoting one of my own pages today.)

WebCams - Video Views of Europe, With Maps

"WebViews Bringing Europe to You"

"Europe webcam directory featuring streaming cameras and live aerial map views"