I Wanna Be Sedated

Thursday was a busy day. Laika got spayed. We went to the last of five presentations from solar companies seeking to do a group installation in our neighborhood. And we attended the opening ceremony for Mueller's solar Sunflowers, public art over a year in the making.

"Sunflowers: An Electric Garden" is a scattered line of 16-22' tall blue flowers with 30 kilowatts of solar-panel petals. The panels are grid-tied, but a small part of the power they produce lights electric blue stamen at night. They are very eye-catching from Interstate-35 and provide illumination for the hiking trail of the Northwest Greenway.

The dedication was attended by Brewster McCracken, former city councilman and mayoral candidate, and head of the Pecan Street Project; Councilwoman Laura Morrison; artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder; and many of our neighbors. The sunflowers slowly light of their own accord, without timers. When we left, only three were illuminated. We need to go back later in the evening with a tripod for some better photographs.





Laika feels fine after her surgery; in fact, she's painfully bored. We've been feeding her sedatives, but this is going to be a long week. Her favorite outside toy is a piece of wood she dug out from under the neighbor's fence. Look at those big dog teeth!



More to come on solar once we've gotten our first quote.