Fairfield 9 & 10

This post combines two visits to Fairfield, in November 2014 and March 2015.

November 2014
Usually I arrive in Fairfield in early November, but this time I decided to stay at home until after my birthday, so I was a good week later than usual -- just in time for the first "polar vortex" cold snap of the winter. Here, snow lingers on the men's dome.

Two days later parts of the snow had given way. If you're inside the dome when this happens, there's a whooshing sound.

What's changed since November 2013?!

Last summer, downtown, the roof collapsed into the printing shop at the corner of Main and Briggs, and that end of the building had to be torn down. The adjacent restaurant, Ila, had closed for a few days until structural inspections could be made, but opened again soon.

The tea house now offers wine as well. Haven't made it back in yet.

Walker's office supply store was having a going out of business sale.

The Top of the Rock grill and the tavern on the first floor were for sale.

A new Italian restaurant had opened.

The newly renovated theater, the Orpheum, was having SF special events, including our favorite classic that barely was, Firefly.

A new arts and crafts store, to me at least, was also on the edge of downtown.

New grain elevators are being built on the east side of town. Just on the other side of the road from the city limits, it turns out, very convenient for avoiding all sorts of regulations. Behind the trees in the center of this photo is the house of the Leahy family, which owns Overland Sheepskin Co, located just outside the photo. Despite opposition, lawsuits, and the loss of some tax incentives, the construction goes on.

Back on campus, there were signs discouraging the parking of bicycles in the patios of the Argiro student center. The number of bikes has been reduced but they still persist.

Among the bikes properly parked, outside the vastu fence, is an electric-assist model. The black boxes are batteries.

Here is a glimpse of the open interior of the student center, facing east from the second floor.

Towards the end of my visit the weather relented enough for me to take a short walk to Pleasant Lake, which was crowded with geese.

Some of the geese are swimming in water, and some are standing on ice.

March 2015
In March I returned, and one of the first events was a visit to Steve Nolle's new house just outside town. It's a sthapatya vedic house built by Vessey Vastu Builders on a 36'x36' square plan. (I first met Steve over a decade ago in Fairfield and discovered that we both had worked for Bell Labs, he in the Chicago area and me in Columbus.)

I took this panoramic shot, facing west and encompassing both the south windows of the dining area (left) and the north door (right). The open space can hold lots of folks at once without feeling crowded.

The home was built with a full basement, mostly finished, with lots of available space. Steve is standing in front of the door to the walled-off equipment area.

Back on campus, another somewhat futile exercise in signage.

I was spending a lot of time at the Raj, taking seven days of Ayurvedic treatments, an experience I've described before. This limited my roaming-about opportunities, but one day Cary Davis and I visited several spots. First, we swung by an art exhibit in the arts building (old student center). These objects are all made with cardboard, except for Cary, who is standing next to the telescope.

In the Unity Gallery, a room in the library, was a collection of Lovey Town displays (click on the image to enlarge).

People send in small artworks, or photos of themselves in artwork-admiring positions.

I took a picture of the sustainable living building from the north side of the library. Look at all those solar panels!

Next we visited downtown, where I didn't take any photos. Sad to say, the newly reopened Orpheum theater closed after only a couple months of operation. Either the audience wasn't there, or the financial reserves to buttress the startup period were insufficient, or ??

A meditation hall has been opened downtown to supplement the activities of the men's and women's domes on campus.

One night I saw the moon and Venus side by side.

As I left Fairfield, I took another picture of the grain elevators mentioned earlier. There are now eight metal silos looming over the Leahy family residence, in addition to the central concrete towers.

That makes ten visits documented. Perhaps this November I'll make pilgrimage #11.