Category: Miscellaneous babble

4 days before Christmas and it reached 23°C today.
Forecast calls for rain through the weekend but it’s still going to be in the 20s for Christmas. While the warm weather is nice, it’s just so un-Christmas-y. It’s weird and unnatural. Unnatural I say!

This is the tree they decorated. Not quite as big or tall as last year’s but it’s a nice tree.

I was just reading that demolition has started on the physics building I pretty much called home for my undergrad career. It’s all to make room for the new CCIS building. Judging from the webcam perched on top of the BioSci building, it looks like about half the building is gone already.

It’s nice to hear that the Physics department will finally be getting some nice new modern facilities to work in, but it does make me a little bit sad to hear the building I practically lived in for 5 years is going away. There are a lot of memories in that building.

The demolition method being used to take the building down sounds kind of cool though. Take the insides out by plowing through all the interior walls with a Bobcat, then perch a backhoe on the roof to take the rest of the building down level by level. I’m sure there are more than a few former residents/students that wouldn’t have minded being the bobcat or backhoe operator.

For five weeks, bobcats were driven on each floor, taking down walls and leaving only the basic concrete and steel supports in place.

Then, to take down the exterior, a single backhoe was hoisted onto the roof with a crane. Armed with a hydraulic “cruncher” — basically a big pair of scissors capable of cutting through solid materials — the backhoe began ripping up the roof.

Piece by piece, the top was dismantled until the backhoe was sitting on a tiny “island.” The operator then used some of the debris to build a ramp down to the next floor. Once safely down, the backhoe pulled down the island.

Crews now plan to repeat this process, floor by floor, until nothing remains. The job is expected to be complete in early February. Some observers might think a wrecking ball would be a faster approach, but Ferguson said it can actually take longer because it is less precise that the backhoes.

It was definitely a busy weekend for us. Friday was the wife’s final exam for the semester and the annual department holiday party. She skipped the party, but I went. Then it was back home to assemble the mac and cheese, prepare the turkey and clean house for the dinner party the wife was having for her classmates.
Saturday the in-laws arrived for the weekend, we went out to cut down the Christmas tree we picked out a couple of weeks ago and then back home for more cleaning and cooking. There was a pretty good diverse and entertaining crowd of students for the party. The wife made everybody earn their supper again this year by putting them to work decorating the tree. Last year we bought a bunch of crafty-type things, took pictures of everybody and let them make their own ornaments to put on the tree. Some of those people came again this year and seemed pleased to be able to put their ornaments back on the tree again this year.
Then Sunday it was up early to tidy up the house, head off to the dog park and finish off some more cooking because we were hosting the board meeting and Christmas party for the CSCLRC. It was a pretty small turnout this year, with a couple of members having family or work commitments, and one other helping to deliver puppies. That made the gift exchange a little less wild than last year but it was a nice social gathering.
So after that whirlwind of weekend activity, I need another weekend to recover. If it wasn’t for all the catch up stuff I have to do a work, I’d probably take a couple of days off this week. Bleh.