No matter what I do in the future, nothing will be as stressful as driving the monorail crane in the Kohler foundry. Below the crane swung a ladle filled with four and a half tons of molten iron. I transported it from the melt furnaces to the holding furnaces, lowering it, raising it, keeping it from swinging. At five thirty in the morning, there is nothing more mesmerizing than the arc of molten iron burning through four feet of space from the lip of my ladle into the trough of the furnace. But, after an especially mesmerizing pour, when, transfixed so thoroughly that I missed the signal to stop, I overflowed the holding furnace risking the lives of a few co-workers, I stopped appreciating the arc so carefully.
Places to Sit for a Day
May 17, 2009
January 31, 2008
Taj Mahal, March 2001
I was doing some camera research (white balance, iso, etc.) this morning when I remembered my one photography connection. When I was in India in 2001, I met this guy, Philip Greenspun at the Taj Mahal. He was from MIT ad he was lugging around this HUGE camera and we got to talking. Turns out he started Photo.net, and he was in India doing some lecturing. We spent a long time sitting on the steps overlooking the reflecting pool waiting for the crowds to thin and the sun to set. We stayed until we couldn't, until the guards with machine guns happily escorted us out. Then Phil took me and Beth Ann and a bunch of other tourists out to dinner. My pictures never turned out so nice, and I always liked knowing that I was here, with Philip, sitting on the steps at the Taj Mahal, checking another item off my list of "Places to Sit for a Day."
