Unbuilding the Grace and Pearman Bridges
For Sparky and myself, curiosity drives passion which in turn fuels our life's engine. Our passion was capturing the story of both unbuilding the Grace (1929 - 2007) and Pearman (1966 - 2007) Bridges and discovering the unbuilders. It takes a lot of passion to track a project from July 2005 until April 2007 - rain, shine, hurricanes or moving to Singapore. We discovered the joy of discovery learning. Ken Canty opened the front door for us - then Steve Testa, Ponch Billingsley and Mickey Rogers opened many side doors. Below are the highlights of what we discovered, who we met and what we learned.
And a reminder from T.S. Eliot (East Coker from the Four Quartets)
Home is where one starts from. As we grow older The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living. Not the intense moment Isolated, with no before and after, But a lifetime burning in every moment And not the lifetime of one man only But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
Saturday March 10 Remembering Basel
Basel is a very interesting place. 25 years ago I worked on a clinical trials system as a consultant - and met Rainer Hochkoeppler, an artist and problem solver. We became fast friends. I have not seen Rainer in 20 years but we maintained contect. I cam to Basel for a Computational Biology meeting and to renew our friendship. No disappointments here.
The Rhine river passes through the middle of Basel - and Basel is in the corner of Germany, France and Switzerland.
The Markplatz - with the beautiful red government building
and the frowning guy that guards Basel
Here is one of my favorite places - walking along the Rhine - with the boat ferry
and barge traffic.
A street
The back of Roche - where I used to visit the Solitude garden filled with statues. They have disappeared.
Spring is early - some flowers
Shadows within a flower
And shadows along a tree-lined lane
And fountains everywhere
Sunday March 11
It started with the moon
And it is the end of Carnival - with a band that marches around the city.
and a very interesting drum set
Ski time - without snow
Rainer and I took the tram to a park - and passed this building of reflections
Then off to the countryside and this interesting concrete home - built around the 1920s.
Shadows<,p>
There is a mathematical astronomy lab -
That apparently cultivates bee colonies by day
A closer view
and a much closer view
We ended the day with a concert - two Bach cantatas
The rear organ
The choir and chamber orchestra
March 12, 2007
The up early this morning and the moon and perhaps Mars or Venus above
and a closer view of the moon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer