V. Lakshman is an electrical engineer who wishes his ideas were taken more seriously.There is a lot that can be said about the new buildings cropping on North Base. As far as I am concerned, the best thing about them is that I get to sit by a window. Unfortunately, though, nothing much seems to happen outside.
The most prominent landmark visible from my window is the heap of dirt that lies north of Robinson Street on the interstate. The most significant activity happens when it has just rained - some water flows down a nearby ditch. Forgive me for not jumping up and down with excitement.
The lack of things happening is surprising because you are supposed to be able to see 30 miles on a clear day in Oklahoma. With my admittedly rusty high-school math, that comes to 1,400 square miles that I can theoretically see from my window. Surely, one would think, something or the other must be happening.
To a point, yes. There are the cars that seem to crawl by on Robinson. Some three-seater planes periodically take off and land on the airstrip located here. But nothing really interesting. Sure, the wide open spaces and the calm,peaceful prairies sound great in the ads, but come on, don't you yearn for something more interesting to happen 'round here?
A tornado, a hail storm, some wrecked cars, a devastated beach. Now we are talking. Instead, what do we get? Cars and planes and water flowing down a ditch.
There should be something we as a community can do to liven things around here. Even assuming that wimpy folk won't agree to being shot by gangsters just so the rest of us can get some entertainment, we should be able to do something.
After giving the problem much thought, I have come up with three easy ways to make Norman a more exciting and wonderful place.
If we follow this three-step program, we will have wonderful sunsets, an aviary to rival the best in the world and a perpetual exhibition of modern society in action. The best thing about this program is that it is so easy!
The easiest thing to do is the first -creating gorgeous sunsets. Since the more polluted the air is, the redder the sunset, we just have to convince teen-agers to cruise around even more and to leave their cars idling much longer. We could tell our companies to release all their fumes untreated into the atmosphere. Voila! We have gorgeous sunsets.
One of the most interesting things to watch is something getting built. The problem with building something, though, is that it usually gets built and all we'd have left is an eyesore. But we in Norman don't have to worry about that. We'd just have to hire the folk who are working on the the intersection of Porter and Robinson and we wouldn't have to worry about the project ever getting completed. Instead, there will be perpetual construction to feast our eyes on.
Birds and power lines go together. Since we don't need the electricity, how about just putting up worthless cables and poles all over town? Birds will flock to Norman, making the city a bird-watcher's paradise. We can even get some school kids to make bird nests and pepper the poles with them. Besides, if we don't root the poles firmly, we can also watch them getting uprooted by the gentle breezes that blow through our state. It seems like a terrific way to provide local interest.
With this three-step program, Norman will become a bystander's paradise.
Call the number on the screen for a free brochure on how to get started.
V. Lakshman is an electrical engineer who wishes his ideas were taken more seriously.