Libraries and rainbows and pools, oh my!
Riding my bike to the train station this morning, I St was being repaved. Very fine white sand is somehow involved in the process; the sun behind me cast a circular rainbow in the sand. In thick patches of sand, the colors became more vivid, but the rainbow stayed with me for blocks. I think that giving every rider her own rainbow is a very good use of my property taxes.
posted by Megan at 10:56 AM
5 Comments:
That fine white sand is retro-reflective stuff. When they put down the "paint" which is more like a colored hot plastic, they then throw the sand on it to make it reflective. If they don't add the sand, it wouldn't reflect headlights the way it's supposed to. For a while after spreading the sand, the extra will shine up at you from the gutters and road surfaces until it blows or is rinsed away.
They recently redid all the crosswalks at work with this process.
Cheers,
Tim.
"Libraries and rainbows and pools"
On the other hand: laser light shows on the spillway of the Grand Coulee Dam.
A4
I think that giving every rider her own rainbow is a very good use of my property taxes.
A much better use of property taxes than found on the typical street-reconstruction project, on which you find one or two workers actually doing something and ten other workers standing around doing nothing.
I generally don't agree with you on what makes a good use of tax dollars. But I think I would pay slightly higher property taxes for more rainbows. And daisies, too. Definitely more for daisies.
"A much better use of property taxes than found on the typical street-reconstruction project, on which you find one or two workers actually doing something and ten other workers standing around doing nothing."
Having worked construction two summers in college (blasting crew one summer, interior demolition the other), I can say that it is the hardest physical activity I have ever done. The frequent downtime provided by the operation of the machinery is absolutely necessary for the workers' muscles to rest and gather strength for the next round of hard labor.
On my projects, at least, the company was subject to considerable fines for falling behind schedule, so the human labor was worked as hard as possible. Despite that, I think most passersby probably thought we were doing nothing most of the day--but that 1/3-1/4 of the day engaged in actually working went to the limits of human endurance.
As an experiment, try digging dirt or swinging a sledgehammer for 15 minutes and see how much recovery time you require.
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