Monorail Beam and the Exterior of the EMP Museum
OMG, I forgot all about Engineers Week last week. I should have been dancing in the streets! The one week out of the year, when me and my kind of people are honored. By my kind of people I mean, engineers. Yes, we are a subtype. If you ever had any doubts about this, come by the plant at quitting time and watch my folk as they exit the building. It is a geek show. When I say honored, I mean we recognized ourselves. This is pretty much like what Hollywood did with their Academy Awards last weekend, except in our case, no one else was watching.
“We built it”, was a campaign slogan last year. It is a tautology among the engineering community, because we really do build it all. Be it planes, trains or automobiles, or water, power and light, America could not function one day without its engineers.
Oh, when the engineers go marching in
Oh, when the engineers go marching in
I want to be in that number
when the engineers go marching in
I’ve worked thirty-three years as an engineer. I’ve done automotive and aerospace engineering. I’ve even dabbled in civil engineering, but all that please and thank you manners, was too much for me. I much prefer a technical conversation peppered with cuss words. Especially, when it is with the modern female engineer, like some of the people I work with now. They are as ably competent cussing you out over a slipped schedule, as any manager that I have known.
I am a third generation engineer, like my father before and like his father before him. My son, Dave, is now a fourth generation engineer and a Boiler Maker to boot. I wonder how long this line can go unbroken?
The photograph with this post is the perfect blend of art and engineering. Seattle’s monorail line, with its clear, crisp lines runs like a slash across the photo. Contrasting nicely, is the wavering exterior of the EMP Museum. Together they combine to become a metaphor for the complementary nature of art and science. My two sons, Dave the engineer and Dan the artist also complement each other well. They are almost like yin and yang to each other, in so many ways.
