Oh, what curves! - A Picture A Day # 22

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in the blog before but, when I was a kid I wanted to be an architect when I grew up. Weird, huh? I had a neighbor who was an architect and I knew he had designed his own house (of a 'modern' style, for the time), and I thought that was cool. But what does a little kid know about being an architect?

Because my family runs a used book store we always had a small but interesting library at home. I remember spending a lot of time just flipping through books.

We had a decent encyclopedia set, books from some of those TIME/LIFE sets, and so many coffee table and kids' books about other places, animals, space exploration, and you name it, that I'll never remember them all. The point is, sure I loved dinosaurs as much as any other child but I was endlessly intrigued by man-made things.

My fascination with building and design is what spurred hours of play with Lego sets and, perhaps more important, designing and re-designing what, to me, were the ultimate Hot Wheels tracks.

Hot Wheels should be required play for small children. Not just the cars, but the building of tracks. You can't just string together anything you can imagine. Hot Wheels track design requires a kid to obey the most basic laws of everyday physics and learn how to command them, and this includes an introduction to algebraic concepts. If this track is X pieces long and begins at height Y (the back of a dining room chair?) the loop/jump/curve must be positioned at Z for the car to successfully transit the obstacle. Oh no! We then learn that the weight and speed of the car will cause the track to slip if not properly supported... and the exercises in design, engineering, and physical theories begin anew with every fresh track design.

So, the point is, I like design, architecture, and engineering. And curvy stuff always catches my eye (wink wink). So, this is the first building I encountered at the Cleveland Clinic and I was pleasantly surprised to find an architectural model of the whole campus inside the main building, then lucky to have an opportunity to photograph the building in daylight and again at dusk.

By the way, if you haven't noticed, you can click the images to see larger versions of almost all of them.

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Oh, what curves!

Bus Lanes & Bike Lanes - A Picture A Day # 21

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Bus Lanes & Bike Lanes

Public transportation has a rather nice face in Cleveland. These bus stops sit on islands down the middle of the street. The buses have their own "BUS ONLY" lanes, more lanes for regular traffic, and, along the outer edges are bike lanes. These bus stops protect riders from most precipitation but not from wind. Inside the shelters are vending machines so riders may purchase tickets prior to boarding. The 'Healthline' route, sponsored by the Cleveland Clinic runs 24/7/365 from every 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the time of day. Naturally, the more frequent runs are during business hours and the 15 minute waits are in the middle of the night. I purchased a day pass on my first day in C-land and it worked out quite well. I rode 4 times for $4.50, something that would have cost me $8.00 had I paid per individual ride.

This view, from my hotel room, shows the central bus lanes in a block without a stop. I had no worries, there were stations on each of the blocks adjacent to this one, so there was no trouble catching the buses. Oh, I just noticed that the bike lanes are absent here too, but that may be due to the fact that this is a city block rather than a sprawl block.

It's worth noting that all of this work was recently completed sometime in 2008. At the time of this post, if you look at Euclid Avenue in Google Earth or Google Maps you will see the streets dug up as construction of the new bus line was still underway. BTW, this hotel, The Wyndham, was in an area called the Theater District near something called Playhouse Square. I didn't have much time for tourism, nor was the weather cooperating with such endeavors but, I noticed what appeared to be a centralized ticketing house, which I presume permits visitors an easy way to find information about and pick up tix to any show in the district. If you're a fan of theater this place is certainly worth a long weekend, should you have one to spare. I'd love to go back, but honestly, such things aren't in my budget right now. It's going on my "hope to do" list.

Ice Hole Abstract - A Picture A Day # 20

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Ice Hole Abstract

A small glacier formed behind the book store. The ice was at least 4 inches thick in some places. I nearly broke a sturdy wooden shovel handle trying to break the ice away from the ground on Saturday (1/31/09). I managed to clear this patch (about 3' wide x 5' long) before I had to call it quits.

I took this photo when I was leaving work. It was dark and the lone street light cast too few lumens for a good photograph. I took the junk shot, cranked up the fill light, and treated it to a number of effects to wind up with this nebulous, Star Trek-ian, void. The ground in the center of this hole was dry and I had set my pack in the middle to try and provide some sense of scale. Alas, the bag remained invisible, so we're stuck with this.

The Snow Melt Begins - A Picture A Day # 19

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The Snow Melt Begins

A Kitten's First Winter - A Picture A Day # 18

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A Kitten's First Winter

Snowy Day - A Picture A Day # 17

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... on the crest of the new fallen snow...

Snow Day - A Picture A Day #16

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