This weekend I took a walk with my wife over Manhattan Bridge. Taking pictures from it is rather hard because of the moving trains that produce a lot of vibration.
I wonder if I could sell this to Verizon folks for a calendar or something.
Meanwhile in the Dreamspace…
I’ve had a dream tonight. On my way to work I typed it up on my Blackberry.
I learn that my grandfather, for his work on the Manhattan project, was given a castle in England. I go there to take a look.
From the outside the castle looks like a bigger version of some of those cute Tudor style houses in Brooklyn. When I go inside, I meet a housekeeper, who tells me that she is very happy, because she was able to rent an apartment in a castle across the street.
Thinking about why she would want to rent an apartment in another castle, I proceed. Now I see why she wanted another apartment: even though it seemed to be made of brick on the outside, on the inside my grandfather’s castle is made of wooden boards. I’ve seen boards like that on the New Yankee Workshop: they are huge, very old and not produced anymore. Furniture makers pay a fortune for them.
I start going up to the second floor when I notice a weird thing: even though every floor is solid, there are no ceilings.
I reach the last floor (third) and enter a room. Surprisingly it has a ceiling. I meet my dad there. I tell him about my doubts about the structural integrity of the castle.
In order to demonstrate me how strong the castle is, he shakes the entire structure. It feels kind of how the Manhattan Bridge sways when huge trucks cross over it, but stronger. Meanwhile, I turn out to be standing over a void in the boards of the floor and almost fall down.
After this demonstration dad tells me that there are ropes connected to the walls of the castle that are tied to a ring in the middle of the house. That ring nexus is what reinforces the building.
Then I had a secondary dream about typing this up in my LiveJournal.
Manhattan Bridge Workers
This morning I have seen a guy actually _working_ on the Manhattan Bridge. Not eating donuts, not drinking coffee; not standing around looking at stuff or walking to or from the truck. Actually doing something. There were many others doing the things I described, but one was working! Amazing.
The dude is working on Manhattan Bridge Rehabilitation Program. Manhattan bridge is the youngest and crappiest of the four bridges. There are more trains running on one side of it then on the other, and because of that it twists and cracks. It also rusts horribly. The Rehabilitation program is sucking money like crazy and is scheduled to last from 2002 to 2004, meanwhile making my long commute even longer. Come on dude, hurry up!
Another thing that I noticed today was that they’ve got the biggest port-a-potty I’ve ever seen. Taking a crap on Manhattan Bridge is a rather unique experience I assume.