Indoor door

I took this inside of CoCo in downtown St. Paul.  CoCo is a collaborative that I joined while back.  It is kind of like a coffee shop but kind of like an office too.  I want to bring my equipment and practice my indoor photography . . it is on my to do list.   The Minneapolis location is spectacular and it is also on my list of places I gotta shoot.  Go list?

The winter machine

Beautiful sculpture and this years first place winner.  My guess is with the warm up yesterday it doesn’t look the same today.

Happy ground hogs day.

Coffee Shop

I do not remember the name of this coffee shop.   It is near Como park in St. Paul, MN so I if you know the name leave it in the comments.  I spend a fair amount of time in coffee shops but not in this one.

Calvary cemetery - St. Paul, MN

Sometimes people get the wrong idea when I start photographing cemeteries.  I just want to say that some times a picture of a tombstone is a picture of a tombstone and this is one of those times.  Calvary cemetery like the Oakland cemetery that I wrote about last week is a wonderful place to photograph.  There is a lot of history buried there and plenty of those fine old oak trees and even a creepy bush.

Oakland Cemetery

It has been awhile since I stopped by the old cemetery.  I love the ancient oak trees with or without leaves on them.

MOJO Monkey - Donut shop

I took this at 11:30 on a Saturday morning.  There is a long line outside the MOJO Monkey in West 7th every weekend.  The shop has only been around a few months.   I don’t like lines so I was there when they opened up at 6:30 in the morning last Sunday.  I was second in line.  The donuts really are very good but it was too early to get an apple fritter.  Service was slow.  I am assuming they have more than one person behind the counter later in the day, if not I know why there is always a line.

TCF Stadium

I usually don’t post two photographs of the same thing but why not?   The TCF stadium is located on the University of Minnesota campus.

Peace

I took this photo at the occupyMN protest on the people’s plaza, which was the Hennepin county government plaza until it was taken over by protesters ten days ago.   They are the 99%.   I am the 99% too. The protest started on Wall Street in New York and is spreading around the country.   Some of what they call corporate greed I call capitalism. Yet there is corp0rate corruption and it gets spread to congress through the dollars that they use to buy the votes.

I support the protest because it represents freedom of speech and while our leaders are pointing fingers these people are on both feet walking with signs.   They are doing something. We have been at war for a decade and in an economic depression since 2007.  I have watched people lose jobs and homes and health insurance after spending their life savings and exhausting their retirement accounts.  It seems like something is wrong with our economy.

Companies do not want to hire people who do not have jobs.  People without health insurance can not get health insurance unless they can get a job because people with job. Companies don’t want to  hire people who are over 45 or those who are just starting out either.  Those who have jobs think that they have them because they work hard and because they are some how better than those who do not have jobs.

The Democrats blame the Republicans, who blame the democrats.   I see propaganda on both sides and people who are like sheep.  They believe in the party line because it is the party line and they won’t even listen to another opinion and they can not think for themselves they read their opinions.

I could write about the vacant homes in the neighborhood and the foreclosures and more.   It isn’t at all hard for me to identify with the 99% and I will be stopping by the people’s plaza when I can.  I know that I am lucky because for now I have a roof over my head and some work. I feel especially fortunate that my children have reached adulthood.

Front door

Yard Sale

There is a lot going on in this picture you just need to look at it.