high school springtime bloom of college declarations

At this rural mid-Michigan high school the visible, public statement of one's college intentions or confirmations of admission acceptance helps to motivate others who are ambivalent about applying, aspiring, or altogether unsure which way to proceed in their life's journey; not just the younger students who look up to the high school seniors, but among the graduating class itself.

springtime scene - student lockers in one high school; click image for full view

Art Festival each spring in East Lansing

The view north on Abbot Road near Albert Street in East Lansing, Michigan

The city and neighboring campus of Michigan State University has hosted a cultural festival each August since the turn of this century, having taken a 3 year turn as home of the National Folk Festival and then carrying on the same weekend in August under the auspices of Great Lakes Folk Festival. But the middle May festival is for artists to sell and demonstrate their work, with many coming from out of state. Exhibit booth numbers hover around 300 at least. The crush of lookers when the weather is fine, as often it seems to be, can be a little oppressive. But the live music dispersed at several venues on or near the streets, as well as the smells and tastes of the food on offer, above and beyond the brick-and-mortar food fixtures at this intersection of campus and community make the experience of browsing and/or buying pleasant; at least many of the vendors are repeaters for several years.

     Seen from the point of view of material culture and also of aesthetic pleasures, the event is curious, though. While people come to examine the works or art, or to participate under the tents set up for children's crafts and creative work. At springtime the trees, flowering bushes, and variety of flowers are at least as wondrous. And event the diversity of human forms presented for people watching can be a pleasing spectacle. There is abundant color, media, theme, and mix of indoor and outdoor works of art, but one result of making more and more of something is the accumulated results and the need to distribute to willing buyers. In other words, since the beginning of time an artisan, crafts worker, or maker of beautiful decorative (and/or functional) pieces has needed also to be a business person, promoter, trader, and traveler to fairs very often. And for recreational buyers, the articles of wood, metal, fabric, crockery or glass all have durability which means they ultimately end up in an estate sale, bequeathed to heirs, given away, broken or stolen in the course of events, or maybe even be discarded by another generation not enamored of the piece. The joy of the hunter gatherer discovering a delightful thing, the pleasure of purchasing, then owning a piece, the many delights in the days of gazing or passing by the article all are worthy enrichments to one's everyday existence. But what is it exactly that attracts, then motivates a person to acquire a thing beautiful in the sight of their eyes? For some it is gleaming metal, or the natural tones of rude pottery formed from the earth, and for others a clever play of words or imagistic concepts is what tickles the heart. Perhaps as with music, poetry, humor, emotion, religion, politics: to each his or her own.

Long-distance highways are one of the man-made wonders

Shortly after the morning surge of commuters had gone, the traffic moved along at 65-75 mph in complete calm, quiet, and ease. As the mild May sunlight shone just north of the eastbound in the photo, the many elements and types of expertise brought together to make the system run came into mind, one by one. The process seldom starts from scratch, since there are existing population centers to connect and probably some sort of roadway is in place. So then the expansion into a limited-access (on ramp, off ramp) multi-lane, single direction highway designed for sustained heavy traffic in all weather and built from the experience in minimizing risks of collision, or in the event of accident, the minimizing the destruction that may follow; for example by separating the opposing directions of traffic by wide medians with good visibility and restrictions on crossing over.

dashboard view on Michigan highway in springtime sun; click full aption

Once a route is chosen, then widening the path requires (compulsory) property purchase and preparing the construction side by clearing all structures and vegetation. Decisions about the road bed have been researched, raw materials need to be sourced according to quality, distance, and contractor's bid price. Accounting and accountability for quality samples need inspectors and lab workers, too. Stone of various dimension, possibly recycled (old road surfaces crushed; glass, rubber) materials, steel reinforcing rods, teams of road graders, cement mixing and pouring into forms, curing, all take specifications established by experiences with other roads and with lab experiments. Blue prints encode so much knowledge, wisdom and experiences coded in visual form: angles for ramps and for road bends, rate of slope up or down, choice of paint schemes to indicate safe passing spots (for 2­-way secondary roads) as well as unsafe points, signage size and verbiage least prone to ambiguity, color rules (signs for information, for commercial or cultural interest, emergency, construction ahead, electronic road conditions or traffic information. And so from concept to construction to all-weather usage by the traveling and commercial public comes together. Maintenance includes salting, plowing, recovery of wrecks, repair of minor road surface damage as well as period bridge replacement, repainting, and mowing during the growing season.



There is the driver education, monitoring/enforcement of traffic safety codes, licensing and fees, sales and repair and routine maintenance of vehicles for business, emergency health or public safety or road service, private use, or recreation. There is car insurance (or its absence of one's coverage). All together so many things come together to make the modern wonder of personal transportation in all weather.

creating slopes for crossing the street

During the months of April to November or December the city government repairs roads, sidewalks, painting, clearing street drains, flushing the fire hydrant system and so one. On this occasion the matching money from state and/or federal sources allowed the city to establish sidewalks on the lots of homeowners that previously grew only grass where the public right-of-way exists. In addition the sloped path from street surface to sidewalk was created. In past years this "curb cut" was accomplished more piece-meal by using concrete saw to remove the old section and then create the angled incline, pour the cement and lay a durable and textured ADA compliant (Americans with Disabilities Act circa 1990) rectangle on the slope so that visually impaired people can know by slope and texture that a street crossing point is imminent.

(The camera audio was switched off, due to wind noise)