Alpine
townsfolk in Rattenberg, Austria figured out
one way to promote "psychological well-being" despite resting in the shadow
of sun-blocking mountain (Statberg Mtn.). To deny the ominous rock-face one consequence of its presence, a redirect, a mirror-refraction from nearby Kramsach. (via)
Dr. Peter Erhard: "Erecting mirrors to shine a bit of light on our village is
a great idea." Redirect.
Here in Syracuse, we don’t live at the foot of the Alps, but Thornden Hill
obscures sunrays in the neighborhood. Well, the hill and the clouds, and
the standpipe. On overcast, frigid winter days, I’ve started thinking about ways
to bring such a device to Westcott (E. Syracuse). But even more than an
application for lifting the shadows with eight-foot mirrors, I dig this setup
for its figurative applications. Redirect. Shine a bit of….
If all of this is unusually off-balance, the break I deserve is that I’ve been in
just more than seven hours worth of class time devoted to prefigurative tropes, blog issues, RSS
feeds, Bloglines, OPML imports with 205ers, Hayden White, transclusion. To
relax this evening: a quick game of Operation. Guess the part
nobody could get. Yeah. Wrenched ankle. Gets me all the way from
naive metaphor to self-critical irony.
Michael has often proffered two scientific solutions to the Syracuse weather: 1) Cap the lakes and thus cap the occurrence of lake effect snow and cloud cover due to precipitation; 2) install large hair dryers or heat blowers of some kind pointed up so that they not only stop the snow but melt it on contact. Both (dubious) solutions that possibly could be put in the large mirror category of how in the heck did they do that!
I don’t have these grand solutions, but I do own a lightbox, which I dutifully sit in front of every morning. Okay, okay, I use it to justify my morning computer time, but it definitely helps me!
Gather together a bunch of lesser hair blowers and we’d have a greater heat blower, I think (which could also dry folks’ hair, as needed). We’d need bungy cords, though, and lots of electricity. Warmth might just be worth it.
I’d like to know more about your lightbox, Susan. My rays come from this laptop’s screen, which means bright days and dim days in no particular sequence.