Frozen stiff

COEUR d’ALENE — As a finishing touch, Pat O’Neill adjusted a flag in the pocket of the figure standing still outside the Laundry and Cleaning Village, stepped back, and surveyed his creation.

“Red, white and blue, baby,” he said emphatically with a big smile Friday.

This particular character, while very patriotic, was a bit different in that he seemed to have no expression, no arms and no feet, for that matter. And yet, he stood strong and tall, almost as if he was frozen in that position.

Which he was.

“I think he needs a beanie,” a customer said as he left the Fourth Street business owned by O’Neill. “He’s kind of cold.”

O’Neill laughed.

“He’s got his mask on,” he answered.

O’Neill demonstrated that it was cold enough — about 15 degrees by noon — to pull a pair of blue jeans and a short-sleeved shirt straight from the washer, do a little work to shape them together just so using a hangar and plastic bags, set them outside, and within 15 minutes or so, have them standing solid as stone.

It was an ice-age mannequin, if you will.

“I was bored,” he said when asked for his motivation.

A dry run Thursday proved it could be done, and the pants even stayed in place, on their own throughout the night.

“The pants were so frozen, they just stand there,” he said.

Come morning, an employee brought them inside, but O’Neill decided they looked better outside, so he put them back and planned to leave them there.

“I’ll leave it here all day. I mean, I’ve got lots of pants,” he said.

O’Neill added new touches on Friday with the flag and masked balloon head. He decided against a hat for fear the head might go flat.

“My helium tank just ran out, too,” he said.

As O’Neill made final adjustments, his frozen man didn’t flinch against a breeze. 
O'Neill again stepped back and nodded his approval.

“Got it,” he said.

O’Neill even had an idea for the story and picture to be published in The Press.

“Use the caption, ‘Cold, but still open.’”