barry burton

the Building

Yesterday, I planned to write, but I was too tired. It all started this weekend. Well, on Friday, really. Some people consider Friday to be part of the weekend. I needed to finish some work then, but I didn’t. So I planned to finish on Saturday, but I went all Forrest Gump and couldn’t stop running, so work fell in between the cracks. The work had to be done by Monday morning, so I passed the torch on to Sunday. All day I intended to get started in an hour but other stuff repeatedly appeared. Finally, I started on the work around midnight.

I finished at 4AM so that is when I went to sleep. I had an appointment downtown the next morning, so the alarm clock (aka my cell phone) went off at 6AM. So that is the story of how I slept 2 hours. I added 10 hours to my lifetime cumulative total last night, so today I feel less tired. After several cups of coffee and an hour of reading (Which, by the way, is a good task to wake up with. It is important to avoid making decisions or writing or any other actions which either have lasting consequences or document the present mental capacity of the brain.) I made the drive downtown. I tried to split the rush hour and be on the road around 8AM, missing both the in the office by 8AM crowd, as well as the 9AM arrivers. I think I was largely successful. The Rocky Ridge / Green Valley intersection was bad, but is it ever good? Otherwise, smooth sailing. I stopped by Brett’s place and worked for a while, then we headed over to the City Federal building at 10AM. It is 27 stories, and very skinny with a steel frame, and originally built in 1913. The front 2 sides are covered in very pretty terra cotta, but the back 2 sides are boring brick. The lady showing us the building was very nice. We had to wear hard hats, which was exciting. The construction company has recently finished the asbestos removal process, I am hoping they were thorough. The lobby still has the enormous bank vault in it. Brett walked inside the vault to look, but unfortunately the big round door was sort of rusted open. The other floors had been completely stripped, so that the entire floor was open, dotted by structural columns. Only one of the elevators is still safe, and I am unsure how unequivocally the term may be applied to even that elevator. It had physical push buttons that remained recessed instead of lighting up. It lacked a roof, so I watched the inside of the elevator shaft as we travelled. When going up, it would only stop at floor 23, so we had to go all the way up there, and then go down to whatever particular floor we really meant. I think the 25th floor is the highest. Why is it that the number of stories never matches with the value of the highest floor? I’m sure there is an easy answer. The view from 23 was spectacular: Vulcan, Red Mountain, and the Heaviest Corner to the south; Sloss Furnance and First Presbyterian to the east; the financial district to the north. City Federal could be said to face east. The west wall is covered with the elevators and stairs so there are few windows in this direction. We stopped at the 16th floor, which on the interior looked mostly identical to 23. The view from here was fabulous as well. Finally, we stopped down on the 9th floor. Here it felt like one was below the buildings in the financial district as well as the buildings to the south, so the view was not nearly as cool. After leaving City Federal, Brett and I stopped by Bob’s Bikes and Birmingham Bicycle Company. I am at the sort of vague idea stage of buying a bicycle. Looking around, seeing what is out there, trying to get a more specific idea. I think this stage is the bane of salespeople everywhere. They first ask if I am looking to buy a bicycle, to which I have to reply, “yes”. Then they ask what I am looking for, to which I can only reply, “I don’t know”. This usually incites the recitation of a litany of sales and specials, which of course means nothing to me because if I don’t even know what I want, then why do I care if something is on sale? Is that really supposed to change my mind? As far as the formation of a specific idea goes, while I was previously leaning toward a full on road bike, I think Brett has now convinced me to go with a cyclocross bike, so that I can ride the slop if need be. (His father was a mudder. His mother was a mudder. What did I just say? He was born to slop.) This is somewhat unfortunate, as from all initial observations, no shops in Birmingham actually sell cyclocross bikes. I do, however, feel that it is important to plan for all contingencies, and should I ever live somewhere with snow I want my bike to be able to handle snow tires. Since we went to Birmingham Bicycle Company, we of course also had to drop in Urban Outpost. I’m not sure why I have never shopped there more often. Probably because it is in the middle of a neighborhood, making it difficult to stumble across, but I feel that I have failed myself to have not looked it up sooner. I now distinguish it as Birmingham’s coolest and best outdoor gear shop. The shop is small but filled efficiently with a broad inventory that isn’t watered down with “casual” apparel that could be purchased anywhere. It has enough outdoorsey decoration to establish a credible ambiance and best of all, the employees actually seem to be very intelligent and knowledgeable. I just like people that know what the heck they are talking about. It has been said before, but if the people parking in front of 5bucks are any indication of general state of Birmingham’s population, then people in this city are terrible parallel parkers. Please, if there is only space for a single car, do not try to go in head first. It is not going to work. No amount of cyclically pulling forward followed by reversing will get the car close to the curb. Speaking of which, if the first 5 cycles failed to narrow the gap between the tires and the curb, do you really think 5 more cycles will help matters? Lastly, if backing into a space, be careful to avoid jumping the curb. I know it is probably very exciting to be parallel parking and actually not have your car sticking out in traffic, but refrain from over-doing it. Particularly if there are many people sitting at tables on the sidewalk and you come within inches of hitting them. Finally, if you do even come close to nailing innocent pedestrians, bystanders, or dogs, please apologize. It is really the only nice thing to do. :) Apparently, CNN now features a “Paste Picks” segment, on which a Paste Magazine editor highlights new, mostly independent music. I know Athens is geographically close to Atlanta, but is Paste ideologically even remotely proximate to CNN? I doubt it, but maybe the spot is good for them nonetheless?