a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
Wednesday was a tough day for me, and I was very glad to get out of the office. We are pushing hard to get our methods and tools in place for the SAP ‘house’ (system) that we have to build next year. Here and there a ‘window’ is still in the wrong place, and a ‘door’ may have to be moved (adjustments to the design). We also have to finalize the reviews of the project plan.
It’s warming up here in Denver from the deep freeze, but by Tuesday the day highs still had not reached up to freezing point (32 °F/ 0°C). The streets and sidewalks are free of snow and ice, for the most part .. but I still watch carefully for ice as I walk to around. Ice is very, very slippery, and the table of ‘coefficients of friction’ shows exactly that. (The coefficient of friction is an indicator of what horizontal force is needed to move one object over another, or one object resting on the surface of another).
I made it in to Denver on the very early morning flight. My colleagues from Dallas had to wait until Monday night to travel out, due to iced-up roads and runways.
From flydenver.com : Cloudscape has been recognized by the Public Art Network as one of the top sculptures installed in 2010. The clouds, which are hollow structures made of corrugated metal and cellular plastic, range in size from 16 to 40 feet, and are mounted on a steel base along the western side of outbound Peña Boulevard to greet people arriving in the Mile High City. Lavery took his inspiration for the sculpture from Colorado’s vivid sky and sunsets.
I bundled up for my Sunday afternoon walk, but it was just too cold to stay out for too long. So I turned around after just 6 or 7 blocks, and walked back along 15th Avenue. The frosty ice crystals in the shadows on the lawns was still there late afternoon, despite a sunny day. But the days are short : the sun disappears soon after 4 pm already.
There has been no snow or sleet or rain here in Seattle this weekend, but it is ice-box cold outside. (Not nearly as cold as say, Denver, but below freezing).
Better grab the scarf and gloves to leave your warmed-up winter cocoon (the house). You’re about to step into a giant refrigerator! The city has opened more emergency shelters for homeless people, and Seattle Police are operating a ‘cold-weather van’ this weekend to help them find places to warm up.
What a remarkable life, and to live to be 95 after all he had been through, I thought when I saw the news on about Nelson Mandela’s passing away on CNN in the lobby of our building yesterday. The taxi driver last night told me the entire day on National Public Radio (NPR) was dedicated to Mr Mandela.
I remember being a student in Stellenbosch in 1985 with the country in really bad shape : violent protests in cities and towns were going on across the country. In then-president minister PW Botha’s famous Rubicon speech, he refused to release Mandela from prison. (That happened five years later, in 1990 under pres.FW de Klerk. The ruling National Party had tried to create designated homelands inside South Africa where black South Africans were expected to exercise their political rights, but that had failed). The political activists on campus told us we would have a democratic election in seven years. They were not off by much, since that happened 9 years later in April 1994. As the election took place, I watched the long lines of people waiting to vote. I was not upset or angry, but emotional and entirely not sure what to think. It was a pivotal and watershed moment in the country’s history. For me, looking back now, apartheid was not only about oppressing black people. It was about brainwashing the privileged (me) into not questioning authority, and about doing one’s duty and serving one’s country.
But how far to other people, very different from oneself, does that duty extend, and what is the concept of country in one’s head? To this day here in the USA there are people that have a very hard time accepting Mr Obama as president, and accepting the concept of a rainbow nation where people of all colors live together in peace and harmony.
We get to go home on Thursday nights instead of on Fridays the next few weeks : a welcome change in the travel schedule. The snow had stopped here in Denver by Thursday morning. It was difficult to get around, though, and took an hour’s drive out to the airport (normally under 30 mins). The roads are not completely clear of snow and ice, and we left later in the afternoon. Our driver is from Casablanca in Morocco, and speaks his English with a French accent. (French and Arabic are the major languages in Morocco).
Late Thursday night update : We thought we were settled in and ready to go, but no. The captain announced that there’s a slight amount of smoke in the cockpit, from some electrical fault. We’re going to leave the airplane and fine another one. So we boarded the second plane, but then it still had to be de-iced, which took another 20 minutes (I’m not complaining, I’m just saying!). It was midnight by the time I made it in.
The snow plows were out in the wee hours of Wednesday morning already to clear the streets. Our hotel had a shuttle for us in to work, which was really nice. But on the way back my colleague and I had to strike out on foot back to the hotel with our winter wear (scarf, gloves, woolen skull cap) and tread carefully on the icy streets and sidewalks. It is really, really cold if one is not used to these temperatures (that would be me). I think I should go out and buy a few pairs of long johns.
We were ogling a fire across the street today from the 18th floor where we are working, but the Denver Fire Dept quickly got it under control. Meanwhile, the temperature outside has dropped into the teens°F tonight (almost -10°C) with snow sifting down. We made it back to the hotel after work, and have a shuttle lined up for the morning to take us to the office. Yes, we are wimps, would the locals say, or the hardy residents from Montana or Canada.
We flew away from a large winter storm system that is going to trek across the country from the Pacific Northwest from Monday night onwards.. but we won’t escape it even here in Denver. The weather service predicts the temperature is going to go from 41°F/ 5°C today to 4°F/-16°C on Wednesday, and to -12°F/-24°C on Thursday. I don’t think we can walk even the 7 blocks to work in -12°F/-24°C weather. Time will tell what happens !
Bertha, Seattle’s tunnel boring machine, is making some progress. Check out the Washington State Dept of Transportation’s web page here.
My friends Dave and Michael and I were at the Coastal Kitchen here on 15th Avenue on Saturday night. The ‘special’ menu item is ono, said the waitress. Ono? Is that a white fish? I wanted to know. (Yes). And so I ordered it, but had to look up the fish at home. Ono is its Hawaiian name; it is also called a wahoo. (Not to be confused with Yahoo, of course).