Seminar in structural engineering

Today was my departmental seminar.  I spoke about the raingarden project that just finished, my radio show (past tense), and UMKC's senior design class.  There were spirited discussions about engineering liability and a joke I made:  cranes should be the national bird of Israel (because there are construction cranes everywhere).  I was arguing with someone just like me that's just too d--- literal about jokes.  So here's the first photo of me on the blog (I guess I'm getting tan).

And some of you wanted to see my BGU office:

And (see what happens when I take my camera with me?) here's a photo of my apartment building, with a lovely blue sky.  The rain washed the dust out of the air.  And, BTW, I did get to use my umbrella on Sunday evening!

15 Jacob Cohen St is the bldg on the right

Actual rain

Today was an actual umbrella-carrying (but did I have mine??), puddle-dodging (this I did do) day in Beer Sheva.  It started raining after I had left the house, and I had thought, "sure, it'll rain - hmff" so it didn't even occur to me to take my umbrella.  It might have been the only chance to use it!!  But I did have to take off my sweater to dry when I got home.  And I've got big, Texas-kinda hair from the humidity.  Keep up your prayers for rain in the land -- it's five weeks to Pesach (Passover) that mark the end of the rainy season.

Thunder

Yesterday, I heard thunder.  Yes, meteorological thunder.  Atmospheric thunder.  Not just the low frequency rumble of IDF fighter planes.  It resulted in a shower that ended quickly.  But it's sort of a rainy day today.  I hope it washes the dust out of the air, so that the sky is blue again.

Visit senior design partners

I met my colleague Igal this morning in Tel Aviv, after my first train ride.  As one might expect, it was very smooooooth.  And you would be proud because the automated announcements and readouts were off by one stop.  I realized that, so I wasn't fooled by the temporary lack of synchronization.  There actually was an announcement by a human explaining that the automated announcements were wrong, but I was already on top of it!  The train was about 90% full, largely of IDF soldiers.

Tel Aviv HaShalom Station

Our first stop was an active construction site (fairly close to Independence Hall in the White City neighborhood).  After the usual urban difficulties in finding a parking space, we met with the student and practitioner in the construction trailer office.  Hard hat was worn, and my steps were carefully chosen since I had on running shoes.  This site was highly-constrained because of historic buildings close (!) by.  They are building a high-rise office/apartment building, with underground parking.

Stop two was at another active construction site in Tel Aviv.  The existing 10-story, cylindrical office building is being expanded vertically to 40 floors (mostly apartments in the new section).  They took us up to the 31st floor which has a spectacular view (but it's still dusty and visibility precluded a decent photo), and we went to the 27th floor where they were preparing a concrete pour later today.  Very interesting.  This time, I had to really watch my steps because there were lots of discarded nails from the formwork on the floors.  But I escaped the site without stepping on a nail!  You would have been proud and surprised to see me on the 31st floor, in a hard hard, with the project manager (and the student and colleague), discussing the safety nets for debris, etc.  There were witnesses, if you don't believe me.

The third visit was in Rehovot, to a construction firm that specializes in laboratories and hospitals.  We only met in their office, but they made espresso for us.  The student is helping with the construction plan for a new building of the Weizmann Institute, that has to have an isolated foundation to prevent vibration.  There are very high-powered physicists, etc. at Weizmann that need those special accommodations.

Then Igal took me to a bus station in Rehovot so I could catch a bus back to Beer Sheva.  I knew it was a super-local, and it was.  As we left Rehovot, I saw orange trees bordering the street (with oranges) and a big orange at the city border.  Of course, we have olive trees and date palms bordering the big streets in Beer Sheva, but they're not bearing fruit right now.  I was surprised (why?) to see the orange trees.  But I arrived at home in time for a conference call at 7:00, so it's all good.

Women researchers' workshop at BGU

I had signed up for a session to encourage women researchers that occurred this morning.  I was able to meet the President of BGU, and she was just charming.  She was disappointed that I wasn't utilizing the university housing, and, just before the event started, she found me and was concerned I wouldn't understand the lecture.  It was very kind, and I assured her that I wasn't worried.

President Rivka Carmi, M.D.

The featured speaker was Prof. Inet Galzar, who was a-maz-ing.  You would have thought that she was shot out of a cannon.  She started out fast, kept up an incredible pace, was funny - often, and total engaging for an hour.  Wow.  A real speaker role model.  And a professor.

The screen reads "International Women's Day"

Then, as a grand finish to the event, they had Mati Caspi's band play.  Apparantly, he's wildly popular in Israel, because many (of various ages) women in the audience sang along.  In fact, the band accompanied the audience for a verse of one song.  It was terrific. (Can you tell that I used a real camera, not my cell phone??)

And although I'll be leaving about when this rolls out, it is an interesting and useful smartphone app for those of us in the south of the country.

Plans to meet construction professionals

Prof. Shochat and I will go to Tel Aviv/Rishon LeTzion/Rehovot to meet with the professionals that are sponsoring BGU students on the senior design projects.  I will take the train for the first time and meet him at the Tel Aviv Hagana station.  And drop me off at a train or bus station at the end of the day for me to return to Beer Sheva, while he heads home to Haifa.  I borrowed a hard hat from the engineering technician in case there's a construction site visit, but I don't have safety shoes (and frankly, I'm not buying a pair for two days of maybe site visits), so if we go to a site, I'll observe from the sidelines.

Dusty day

It looked like a foggy day, but it was dust.  Visibility was probably down to 1 km, so it was warm and sort of dark.  Weather like that in Kansas City usually precedes a thunderstorm, but I'm not sure about the forecast.