My Great Grandfather

Today (yesterday, I suppose, at this hour of the morning), my Aunt posted the below on Facebook. I thought it was worth sharing.

115 years ago today my grandfather was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was a brilliant chemical engineer who's research into the durability of cement in construction is still being used and referenced today. If you Google his name, Hubert K. Woods, along with "cement" a surprising number of references come up considering that he has been deceased since before the internet became publicly available. He was a fascinating man and I wish I had known him better.

I reshared, and added:

About my great grandfather, who was head or the research department of Portland Cement. I own his copy of one of his monographs on cement chemistry that my grandfather gave me. It's marked up with my great grandpa's notes and correction. Looking at it and thinking about the way he used language and what it says about him makes me feel connected to him even though I never met him.

Someday I'll have a chance to scan a few photos of him, notes on operating his amateur radio station in Guadalajara, and other things.

Lights Again!

My favorite parts of buildings are the places that few people see, but that fulfill critical functions. Such entirely utilitarian spaces have their own elegant simplicity, unconstrained by aesthetic design considerations. I also love love climbing stairs, ladders, and anything else I can use to get high up off the ground; that's been true since as far back as I can remember.

I was at the high school doing some more work on lights today and shot a few photos from the front-of-house position, a catwalk that spans the width of the auditorium about forty feet above the seats.





I was a little happier to be working by myself. When a student was with me last time, I was pretty nervous. It's no reflection on him; it's just really hard for me to watch someone muscle twenty-pound, multi-hundred-dollar lighting instruments around over open air. I feel more in control when I'm the one handling the equipment, though I still made sure that no one was sitting in the seats directly under me. The thought of breaking expensive things is a little worrying, but the thought of accidentally killing someone is terrifying.