I have been playing instead of writing. Playing in the garage making something pretty cool. This is a 1/10 scale model of the highest platform of the bridge. The bridge that I have been doing some design work on. On the elevation it is labeled “L”.
For the last year I have been working, very sporadically, on designing and resiteing the bridge. It took 8 trips to the camp, and about 100 hours of design work. Now, finally, the plans are sitting on the desk of our engineer. And the model is sitting on my workbench. For me, it is a capstone of sorts for the designing I was able to do for the camp.
Numbers are brutally hard for me. So for practice, I decided to count the pieces of the model.
1 piece for the base, 12 pieces x 4 for the poles and braces, 12 pieces for the floor framing, 25 pieces for the decking, 21 pieces for the railing, 5 pieces x 8 for the roof plus the middle piece, so 41, 20 x 8 for the decking for the roofing sheeting, which are actually just lines on the plywood.
So here it goes. I’m trying it in my mind 12 x 4 is 48. 48, 48, 48, 48 plus 12, 48, 48, 48 plus 12 = 60. 60, 60, 60 plus 25. 60, 60, 60 plus 25 = 85. 85, 85, 85 + 21, 21, 21 plus 85, 85, 85 = 106. 106, 106, 106 + (5×8 = 40) plus 1 = 41, 41, 41, plus 106, 106, 106 = 147. 147, 147, 147, plus (20 x 8 = 160) 160, 160, 160 plus, plus, plus, man, I lost it , 100 something, maybe 130 something, plus 160 = 300 pieces give or take. Not that it matters any more, plus 1 for the base.
I don’t know, did that work? I was trying to give you a peek into my mind.
What doesn’t work in my brain is something called working memory. It is a type of memory that is shorter than short term memory. And it allows us to work on things like numbers. Or in my case, not. I am so thankful what was lost through the stroke wasn’t my short term memory or the long term memory. That all works fine. Although it is a nuisance to not be able to do basic math in my head, it isn’t a deal breaker. A short pencil is better than a long memory, and way better than a memory that doesn’t work at all. Numbers can be written down.
307 pieces for the model. I guess I can’t count the lines drawn on the plywood, so actually 147 pieces, milled from scrap lumber in my garage. Pretty sorta cool to me, that I can still do that. Creating something with a couple of sticks of wood.
Since I am talking about numbers, let me tell you about the last trip I took to camp. I was double checking my measurements and my elevations. We had checked elevations at the very beginning to make sure that everything would fit. But it was pretty perfunctory. Where we wanted to build the highest platform, the ground elevation was too low to read with my 25’ story pole, so rather than resetting the level, we had someone put the story pole as high as they could, trying to steady it way above their head. When I looked through the viewfinder of the level, I could just see the very top of the story pole. Waving around. I couldn’t read the elevation because it was waving about, so I decided to add 6 ft. to the measurement. I figured it was within a foot or two of the actual grade.
I said I was checking my measurements, but really I was checking that one elevation. Because I knew it was not precise, and because it was important. How that elevation actually ends up might change the design of the bridge.
The engineer had told us that 24 feet above the ground was the most we could do using the system we were using. The top elevation of the platform was set by the ADA ramps that were used (1 inch a foot of fall was all that was allowed). All the ramps between the octagons gave us an elevation of the top of the platform of minus 94”. We were there to check the elevation at the bottom. The difference between the two elevations needed to be equal or less than 24 ft.
So we checked the elevation by redoing the level a couple of times. And we came up with a long list of numbers. All of them in feet and inches. 4 ft 6 in, 9 ft 6 in, 12 ft 10 in, 112 in, -94 in. Talk about a nightmare for a man without working memory. But I had help, so the guy who was helping me converted everything to inches as we added and subtracted and we came to about 28 ft. What, 28’, that wasn’t doable. I was bummed. The place we had decided upon was ideal, kinda nestled in the trees with a great view overlooking the forest and the zipline. But there was a plan b, which is to locate the platform somewhere else, somewhere not too tall, somewhere easier to build, somewhere safe and boring. Such is life.
Back at my office, I looked at the list of numbers. The grade between the middle of the tallest platform and the middle of the spider web platform was 9 ft 6 in and between the spider web platform and the slab for the TeePee was 12 ft 10 in and between the teepee slab and the beginning of the bridge was 112 inches. And then I minused 94 in for the fall of the ramps. Fortunately I had a calculator which could add feet and inches. And when all the numbers were entered in, this came out. 23 ft 10 in. 23 ft 10 in above the ground. With 2 inches to spare. Numbers matter.
The kid who was helping, whose name I can’t recall, his working memory actually worked great. The numbers added up to 28 feet. I realize now what happened: the 4 ft 6 in dimension was added inadvertently. The perfunctory survey turned out to be spot on. All measurements and the elevations are confirmed. So we’re building by the numbers.
Anyways, I decided to make a model. A 1/10 scale model of the 24 ft platform. Yeah, a 1/10 scale, 24 ft to the floor plus 13 ft 10 in for the top divided by 10 equals, man, I’m done with numbers. You can do the math if you want.
