I've written about our awesome view of the Mississippi River from my office before.
Normally when we look out our window, we see lots of ducks, people fishing in boats or the occasional eagle swooping down to grab lunch. But as of last weekend, we now have a strange new object to look at.
A coworker has one of those super-duper digital SLR mega zoom cameras and was able to capture this close up shot.
click for cellular view
I called the DNR so they can deal with it, but my question to you is...
What the hell is that thing?
Here are some of my guesses:
- parts from a misguided Quantas jet
- clockworks from Paul Bunyan's watch
- what's left of my last car (that I thought would stay submerged)
I'll let you know when I find out. But in the meantime - care to take a shot?
43 comments:
To this sinker of metal items it looks like part of a derailed train. Or a pulley system for a giant with a broken leg. At least it's not this
Lochness Monster? :D
I'm glad my office isn't that close to the Mississippi down here. We would have been underwater last month.
I was just thinking of you this morning while I was showering. NOOOO, get your mind out of the...river. Thinking of your blog, that is. I thought of a few others, so don't get any weird ideas.
I thought I needed to come by your blog and comment, cause I've been very bad in commenting..but I READ the feed, so not all is lost.
I have no clue what that is in the river. Very curious. But isn't DNR, Do Not Resuscitate? I watch ER, I know these things.
Finally someone has found part of a spaceship. Just swim out, tie a rope on it, and you will get untold millions! Lucky you! Bill
Methinks it is a part of the lesser known "Little Ben" of St. Paul, how it made it there, by going against the current shows that it is still functioning...
You must swim out and rescue it.
We're talking hundreds here Jeff - HUNDREDS!!
or it could just be an old piece of machinery that some inconsiderate slug threw into the river, hoping that it would never surface again...
Maybe DNR can get some finger prints and nab the bastard!
or...
really ugly birdfeeder!
I'll stop now.
I think it, whatever it is, was placed there by your company's competition to decrease productivity in your office.
Have you spotted any Kennedys in the area recently?
That's my filanjy . . . I've been looking all over for it. I can't use it now, though, because it's all rusted.
sornie - Ok, that thing you linked to was weird. I'm going with the sea turtle without a shell answer.
ajooja - We're just sending you our extra water. Sorry.
bee - Always nice to see you around my dear. And yes, I called the paramedics as soon as I saw that dead... engine thing... in the water.
bill - That's it... a steam powered spaceship engine!
roger - Thank you. For stopping ;-)
jennine - So you're saying we've wasted enough time on this thing? Well you're wrong... we only obsess about it on breaks.
diesel - Funny. There actually IS a bridge just a few yards down the river - so you may be on to something!
mom thumb - You need to be careful where you leave those things Linda.
Maybe it's part of a killer robot that's come to Earth to make humans their slaves?
Nuclear bomb.
Don't go to work tomorrow.
Or visit Arizona.
That would be a round tuit. Now that you have one you should be able to get a lot done.
I hate to interrupt your regularly scheduled comments--BUT, I read your comment on Diesels periodic table post, and CAN NOT STOP LAUGHING!!!!!
Good lord, you nailed it.
..back to regular commenting already in progress.
As long as it's not part of a bridge... we are coming down there in a few weeks.
Gah.
elizabeth - If that's true, he's gonna need a good robot mechanic.
sinister dan - Good advice. I was looking for a reason to take a few days off anyway.
heather - Cute. Very clever :-)
damon - Thanks. It was just kind of sitting there. I had to take it.
maureen - If you're coming thru St. Cloud you MUST let me know because we'll have to hook up for coffee. Plus, I know the detours around here since they closed our main bridge through town due to faulty supports. I'm not making that up.
Are you sure it isn't part of *the* bridge?
Oooo, and I hadn't even seen your comment about a bridge being closed for faulty repairs. Spooky!
Some kinda gear, a 2 by 4 ... I say some table saw accident ... yep.
The water is still pretty high, meaning it must be at least ten feet deep there. The object is like an ice berg, you only see the top. It's made of steel, so it must weigh at least half a ton. I don't think it floats, so did it just drift in on the current? My guess, old dairy farm equipment.
michelle - Not *that* bridge. That one is about 80 miles downstream.
drowsey monkey - Could be. There is a paper processing plant across the river so maybe they've started tossing their old equipment into the river. That wouldn't be a problem would it?
rick - Maybe it's what's left of an old paddleboat from the 19th century that finally broke free from the bottom somewhere upstream and washed down here.
i'm too lame to guess,
just don't forget to tell us what it is when you find out.
-Sarah
Sorry, Jeff. I don't know what that is. But I do know I want your coworker's camera.
I think it's a squeaky wheel on a thingy. You see, the squeaky wheel doesn't always get the grease. Sometimes it gets tossed into the river and replaced!
I think it's part of jet from Lost.
sarah - I wouldn't dream of not writing about it. What do you think... I have an unlimited amount of topics to blog about? ;-)
kathy - I was thinking I should hold a "name the date that thing is removed from the water" contest. Inspired of course by your famous plastic bag.
teri - Good point... I've wanted to toss a few squeaky wheels into the river myself.
noble pig - Yeah, REALLY lost!
Looks like a piece of lock-winding mechanism or something, not that I know anything about it.
Now I have to go visit Diesel to read the Periodic Table post.
Oh, and by the way, I wasn't thinking of you in the shower this morning - but don't feel hurt, I wasn't thinking of any of you. I'm an equal-opportunities non-thinker.
Well, I'll just have to email you there, blogging buddy. We definitely are coming your way in about three weeks... :)
It's the printing press I used to run. We were right on the river, and many days I threatened to push it in. Who ever is doing my job now, must have better follow through than I did.
It's weird that it floated North though. hmmm
If you look at from the right angle, it looks like one of those pig masks from the Twilight Zone, but then again, I'm on extra meds for a wicked (and I do mean, wicked, right out of the Wizard of Oz) allergy headache that's been hanging on for two straight days. Cue music: doo doo doo doo...which not surprisingly, sounds like what I'm talking.
And um...no, Jeff, I've never done anything like that, with the produce that you mentioned on my blog. The only things I buy at the store are the essentials: bread, milk and Southwestern chicken salad with Ken's chipotle ranch sauce that you can't buy retail.
You know, I live up the river from you, and it looks like part of our winch from the boat lift we lost last spring. What are the chances...?
Do you really think the DNR will care? Maybe try the NTSB. I am guessing pulley from a lift bridge...that was only half the size it needed to be to lift the bridge...attached to a gusset plate.
jay - No offense taken. *I* don't even think about me in the shower.
maureen - Woo-hoo. I get to meet another blog-buddy! That's very high on my list of favorite things. :-)
caron - Maybe the spawning fish brought it up. They know how to press on.
unfinishedrambling - Ya... I'll have what you're having.
stephanie m - You know, that's actually the most plausible explanation I've heard so far. It kind of does look like a gear mechanism from a boat winch. If that's true, and you really did lose a winch, that would be an amazing coincidence.
sexy housewife - Those guys have already shut down our main bridge here in St. Cloud. We don't need them shutting down our river too. ;-)
We really do live up river, and our lake really does feed into the Mississippi river, but we haven't lost a boat winch in real life - it was just a guess :)
A motor missing the shaft???
Uh, I have no idea what that is, but it's ugly.
I was going to suggest a contest like Kathy's plastic bag contest, but I see you beat me to it.
ALIEN SPACESHIP?
JD at I Do Things
Haven't got a clue...but I'd love to think it was a part of some ship that sailed down the river during the Civil War period.
OMG...it's one of those creatures from the movie The Abyss...you know, those creatures that live way under the oceans and can control water. Either that or its a strange place for a hitchin' post...
I vote for a pulley for some kind of a runoff sluice. We had those out west in Colorado, but usually they were near the shore.
It's nice to meet you! Thanks for stopping by my little corner at Drowsey's soiree'. Any friend of Drowsey's is a friend of mine!
I agree with most of your points, however a few need to be discussed further, I will hold a small conversation with my partners and maybe I will ask you some opinion later.
- Henry
Post a Comment