Curiouser and Curiouser

I've decided to begin with this flower, because my day got much more complicated after I took this picture. 

Not always, but most of the time I start my walk at the northeast corner, where University Avenue and Center Street intersect.  Today, when my camera looked over the fence, he saw two new concrete blocks.  The plans show there will be a round sidewalk at this corner, and this concrete will be part of that. The new missionary box location is along Center Street, on the left side of this photo.

After walking along Center Street, I took this picture at the northwest corner of the temple lot.  The entire north lot is one huge sand box, with men, machines, sticks and rocks.

This is the new planter in the north lot and was one of the last pictures I took after walking around the block.  The machine behind the planter is scooping up dirt and taking it to the driveway at the end of the south lot.

At this point, drivers on University Avenue are used to seeing all kinds of machines on the road.

Men working at the apex of the north gable caught my eye.

Because the men were working hard, it took me several attempts to get a picture of what they were doing.  And while I have the pictures, I still don't know what's up.  I can see cables.  I can see a new piece of wood.  I decided the wood will hold the new gablet.  I could not imagine what the cables had to do with the new gablet.  And this is coming from someone who has a good imagination.

I studied the pictures when I returned home.  I fortuitously captured a photo of the copper trim which will go along the roof line.  You can barely see the new slate over the copper flashing on the right, which will be the pattern across all the roof ridges.

I think the cables hold the men working on the slate.  I'm still not sure about the wooden peg, but I hope it's for a gablet.  I promise to keep an eye on this.

My camera zoomed in at the apex of the south gable and caught this prism.  I know what it is, but I don't know why it's there.

This picture from over a year ago shows sensors on the walls of the tabernacle.  At this time, the tabernacle was on piers.  Someone took daily measurements, checking to see if the piers were holding the building steady.  That was then.  Why is there a prism in the south gable apex today?
This is a good picture of the watercourse.  It was originally stucco, although the water table course is sandstone.

Trim on the fascia and soffit along the northeast face appears to be complete.  This is beautiful.

Men are working on the soffit on the northwest face.  You can admire the brick and stone if you want.

Trim is being placed along the soffit on the northwest tower roof.  The frieze board is going up, too.  Notice that the board on the left has molding.  

When the frieze board was placed on the northeast tower, it went up with its molding in place.  Maybe that turned out to not be an efficient step.

The crane is dumping dirt down the south driveway.  The dirt is coming from a big bucket, barely visible, behind the gate.  The machine bringing the dirt has just turned the corner from University Avenue onto Second South and is in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

The entrance to the garage is on the far left.  The red ladder marks the place between where vehicles will go in and come out.  There is plenty of room.

This keyway, my newest word, identifies where the driveway will connect with the wall of the garage.

It's amazing to me, totally amazing, that the south lot is almost covered.

This was the state of the things one year ago.

Perhaps you have noticed the work on the steeple base from the construction cam.

New scaffolding is obvious.  I was curious about the short black candles with white frosting on top.

My camera was not very helpful today, although it wasn't his fault.  Why is geofoam on the posts?

Mr. Engineer-husband, racing between meetings, suggested the foam keeps stuff from falling down the center of the posts.  Oh.  And then he was out the door again.

This is five-layer scaffolding.

The artist's rendition might be giving us clues about the posts.
Information from the South Stake's fireside this past July indicated that the art glass windows could be placed in the temple as early as this fall.

There are a lot of windows in the new temple.  Only the openings in the steeple base, which are new, will be the same size.  The rest of the openings were made by pioneers and the architects chose to leave them the way they were originally built.

I'm showing you a photo of the southwest tower doorway taken on Christmas Eve, 2012.  At that time, I had just realized the wood in the entrance was not an open door, but a large jamb.

Today I was trying to see if the sixteenth niche had been completed, just to the right of the doorway.  Dust was in the way and I couldn't get a good view.  The niche hasn't been completed yet, but I missed something big.

This is the northeast tower doorway from from 20 months ago.

By the time I got to this tower today, I was almost at the end of my walk, and I had noticed.  Where are the jambs?

This is the southeast doorway last week.

The same doorway today.  I hope someone knows they are missing.

I checked on the watercourse on the north side.

My camera, trying to prove his worth, looked over the fence and caught sight of these stones. Only when I got home did I realize that this is probably sandstone for the watercourse.

I honestly looked for the watercourse on the south side.

A big surprise was in store for me when I got to the west side.  My camera, bless his heart, really messes with perspective.  The length of the wall running through the center of this picture probably extends half a city block.  For about a year, a seven or eight foot-high fence has stood on top of this wall, not that I've ever walked along it and reached up to take pictures.

This picture from last March shows the construction barrier.  It runs from the post office lot, in the center, almost to the right of the photo.

And now it's gone.  My feet were standing on Terra firma when I took this picture.  You can see the new wall around the front of the mechanical building which was poured earlier this week.

Don't get any ideas, because there is still a fence.

The geofoam is still being maneuvered around the west lot.  Some of the big rectangles weigh 350 pounds.

I took a few more pictures.  The fountain is always interesting.

The new west side windows are surrounded with beautiful brick.

The south gable arch has lost its wooden template, finally.

And the east arch is as stunning as ever.