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Hello, friends, and welcome to Sleep Tight Stories.
Each week, we share a few shout-outs and birthday wishes for listeners who help support the show.
It's a small way we say thank you.
And it always makes us smile.
We're sending a big shout out to Yukina, who recently turned six and started first grade.
We are so proud of your amazing growth, from showing great discipline by catching the early school bus every morning to demonstrating incredible perseverance as you train in the advanced classes for tennis and swimming.
Keep tackling those tough goals, sweetie.
Your hard work inspires us every day.
Shout out to Emily in Kensington, California.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful art, beautiful music, and beautiful self with us.
We're so happy you're in our family.
Happy birthday to Elmarie, who turned nine on October 4th, from Mom, Dad, and Lucien.
We love you and are so proud of you.
Happy sixth birthday to Xander in Ottawa.
Mommy and Daddy love you forever.
We're so proud of the kind, creative boy you've become and we know you'll have an amazing year in grade one.
Happy belated ninth birthday, Mr. Sweet Face.
We hope you had a super fun birthday party and a special day on Sunday.
Mom, Dad, and Sam love you very much.
And Lucas, Mom loves you more than you love her.
Now snuggle in.
It's story time.
Happy 8th birthday to Piper from Melbourne, Australia.
You are so sweet, loving, and kind.
We all love you so much and we are so proud of you.
Love Mommy, Daddy, Jack, Emmy, Harry, Billy, Pebbles, and Mac.
A decade of cash.
We are so proud of the young man you've become.
Can't wait to see what's next for you.
Love, Mom, Dad, and Maverick.
Happy 10th birthday to Rowan from Singapore.
We love to hear how brave you are at school and taekwondo and we are all very proud of the effort you are making.
Keep up the great work.
We adore you.
From Mommy, Daddy, and Sadie.
Happy 6th birthday to our silly, creative, and adventurous Harper.
We love watching you grow and becoming more amazing every day.
Love, Mom, Dad, and Felix.
Happy birthday to Paul, who is turning six on October 9th.
We love watching you play all of your sports and are so proud of how well you are doing in kindergarten.
We love you so much.
Love, Mommy, Daddy, Emmy, and Cannoli.
And Penelope Jane, we are so impressed by the smart, strong, and kind nine-year-old girl before us.
Happy birthday.
Love, Papa, Mama, and Stella.
Happy birthday to you all, and thank you for supporting the show.
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Now, on to our story.
Tina is back in school and she is not finding her relaxing downtime very relaxing.
She is missing the excitement of trying to fix problems and build things until she arrives at school and Chip has something to tell her.
Tina Tortoise and the Bridge.
That Shouldn't Work.
Tina's alarm went off at 647 am, which was weird because school didn't start until 830.
But ever since racing season ended three weeks ago, her internal clock was all messed up.
During the season, she'd been up before dawn checking tire pressures and fuel mixtures.
Now?
Now she'd just lay in bed staring at her ceiling, at the racing posters that suddenly felt like they belonged to a different version of herself.
The off-season was supposed to be relaxing.
That's what Miles kept telling her.
Take a break, Tina.
Recharge.
We'll be back at it in spring.
But Tina didn't want to recharge.
She wanted to build something.
Fix something.
Solve something.
Anything, really.
School was fine.
She liked learning, obviously.
But after the intensity of race weekends, regular homework felt kind of... blacked.
Like going from driving a race car to riding a tricycle.
She got dressed in her regular school clothes, which felt wrong after spending months in her oversized Team Jack Flash crew shirt.
That shirt was still hanging on her desk chair and she caught herself reaching for it before remembering.
Right.
School.
Not the track.
Morning, sleepyhead, her dad said when she shuffled into the kitchen.
He was reading his newspaper, which still mystified Tina, because who reads actual paper when you could get news instantly online?
Big day today?
Assembly, Tina mumbled, pouring herself some cereal.
Principal Hedgehog's supposed to make some kind of announcement.
Sounds exciting.
Probably about fundraising for some new textbooks or something.
Tina crunched her cereal without much enthusiasm.
Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion lately.
Or...
Maybe she was just more aware of how slowly she actually moved now that she wasn't surrounded by race cars all the time.
Her mom came in already dressed for work.
You okay, honey?
You've seemed a bit, I don't know, restless?
I'm fine.
She misses racing, her dad said, not looking up from his paper.
I don't miss it, Hina protested.
But that wasn't quite true.
She missed the problems, the challenges, the feeling of figuring something out that nobody else could figure out.
It's just weird, you know, going from fixing cars and calculating fuel loads to writing essays about what I did on summer vacation.
Her mom sat down across from her.
Well, the off-season won't last forever and maybe you'll find something else to keep that brain of yours busy.
Tina doubted it, but she nodded anyway.
By the time Tina got to school, the hallways were buzzing.
Chip spotted her near his locker.
You haven't heard?
They're finally doing something about the creek bridge.
The bridge?
Tina vaguely remembered people talking about this last year.
Something about connecting East Meadow and Westwood's neighborhoods.
Pepper's super excited.
She lives on the other side.
Has to take this huge detour just to get to school every day.
Tina's engineering brain perked up.
How big's the creek?
20 feet?
25?
It's not huge, but it's too far to jump.
That was a decent span.
You'd need proper support structures, consideration for water flow, probably some kind of suspension or truss design.
At assembly, Principal Hedgehog looked pleased.
As many of you know, our community has been working on a solution to connect East Meadows and Westwood neighborhoods with a bridge across Willow Creek.
I'm happy to report that we have secured funding to move forward."
Applause broke out.
Pepper, sitting a few rows ahead, was practically bouncing.
But Principal Hedgehog held up a paw.
However, the engineering firm's assessment includes the project will cost significantly more than anticipated.
The creek presents complications.
Soil stability. water flow, span width.
The recommended design requires materials and expertise that are quite expensive.
This may take longer than we hoped.
Possibly much longer.
The energy deflated.
Tina watched Pepper's expression crumble.
Maybe the off-season wouldn't be boring after all.
That afternoon, Tina stood at Willow Creek's edge with her dad's old tackle box full of tools.
25 feet, maybe 27.
Trees on both sides that could serve as anchor points for a suspension design.
A bit young to be surveying, aren't you?
Horace the beaver was watching from a flat rock.
He'd lived by this creek forever and was said to have built over a million dams.
Just looking, Tina said.
The principal said this bridge is too expensive.
I wanted to see why.
Horace laughed.
Fancy engineering firm came out last month.
Started talking about concrete pylons, steel L-beams, and soil compaction tests.
By the time they finished, the price tag had more zeros than the council's entire budget.
But it's just 25 feet.
27.
And it ain't the distance.
It's everything else.
Soil's soft on the east meadow side.
Water flow varies by season.
Plus regulations, permits, insurance.
He shook his head.
Can't be done cheap, little one.
That's just reality.
Tina pressed her palm against the bank.
Softer, definitely.
What if you didn't fight the soft soil?
What if you worked with it?
Used flexibility instead of rigid supports?
What are you on about?
Suspension bridges don't fight movement.
They expect it.
Tina was already sketching.
The cable handles tension.
The deck handles compression.
Everything works together.
Suspension bridges need towers.
Not if you use the trees as anchor points.
Her pencil moved faster.
That big oak on the westwood side, these two pines on East Meadow?
Run cables between them, angled down to creek level.
No pylons needed.
Horace moved closer.
And materials?
Steel cable ain't cheap.
Recycled cable from behind the old telephone company and reclaimed lumber from the sawmill.
They have tons of warped boards they can't sell.
She was really into it now, her mind making connections like when she worked on Jack's race car.
This design actually gets stronger underweight.
When people walk on it, the tension increases, pulls everything tighter like a guitar string.
Horace studied her drawings.
You know, this ain't half bad.
Reminds me of how we beavers build dams.
Work with water instead of against it.
He tapped the drawing.
Question is, who's gonna listen to you?
What do you mean?
You're a kid.
A tortoise kid.
The council ain't known for taking chances on unconventional ideas from unconventional sources.
Tina looked down at her drawings.
Maybe Horace was right.
But she had to try anyway.
What was the alternative?
Watch Pepper walk that long detour all winter?
Let a solvable problem go unsolved just because nobody expected a tortoise to solve it?
Over the next three days, she refined her plans.
She calculated load distributions, researched cable tension ratios, looked up building codes.
On Thursday, she knocked on Principal Hedgehog's office door.
I have a solution for the bridge.
Tina opened her notebook using salvaged materials and a suspension design that works with the terrain.
The principal studied the drawings for maybe 30 seconds.
This is very creative, but we're talking about a real bridge, something people will walk on every day.
We can't just experiment.
It's not an experiment.
The math is solid.
I'm sure your calculations are thorough for a school project.
But this is community infrastructure.
We need real engineers, proper permits, insurance.
What if someone got hurt?
They won't if it's built correctly.
And how do we know it will be built correctly?
Tina, you did amazing work with the racing team.
But designing a race car and designing a bridge are completely different.
The principles are the same.
Load distribution, material stress.
I think it's best if you focus on schoolwork. and let adults handle the bridge.
We'll figure something out eventually.
Eventually, which meant never.
The Woodland Council met Tuesday evenings.
Tina showed up with her notebook and was determined to be heard.
She stood on a stepstool to reach the microphone.
My name is Tina Tortoise and I have a proposal for the Willow Creek Bridge Project.
A badger with gray fur leaned forward.
You're the girl who works on race cars.
Yes, sir.
I'm the engineer for Team Jack Flash.
How old are you?
Twelve.
But I don't think age matters when the design is twelve.
Go ahead.
Tina's hands shook as she explained everything.
The suspension design, salvaged materials, how cables would distribute weight, why soft soil wasn't a problem with flexible design.
She talked about safety factors and building codes.
Silence.
Do you have any engineering credentials?
The badger asked.
A degree?
Professional certification?
No, but... Experience building actual bridges?
No, but I've studied...
Any reason we should risk people's lives on a child's science project?
It's not a science project.
It's a real solution.
The math works.
Very impressive for a school assignment.
Another council member said but we need professional engineers.
Lives are at stake.
My design would save lives.
Kids like Pepper walk an extra mile every day.
In winter, that's dangerous.
Thank you for your input.
We appreciate your enthusiasm.
Next item.
Outside, Tina sat on the steps, letting herself feel frustrated.
She wanted to prove them wrong.
That went well, I take it?
Horace appeared.
They didn't even look at the plans.
Adults are real good at finding reasons not to try new things.
Horace stood firm.
You can wait around for permission to be smart, or you can prove you already are.
Your choice.
The next afternoon, Tina was back at the creek with her toolbox.
There was a narrower section downstream, maybe eight feet across.
If she could build a small-scale proof of concept there, she could test whether her calculations actually worked in practice.
You're building a model?
Chip appeared looking curious.
Just a small demonstration to see if the design holds up.
Tina opened her notebook.
The council needs to see it working, not just on paper.
That's actually pretty smart, Chip said.
Like a science experiment.
Exactly.
Engineers test prototypes all the time before building the real thing.
By week's end she'd assembled a crew Chip Pepper and Jack Rabbit who said heard, you were building stuff again.
Can't let you have all the fun.
They scavenged materials like during racing season cable from the telephone company, warped lumber from the sawmill, metal brackets from a dismantled playground.
The first attempt was a disaster.
When Jack tested it, the whole thing twisted and dumped him in the creek.
Well, Jack said, dripping and laughing, that's one way to take a bath.
Tina recalculated.
The anchor points needed to be higher.
The deck needed crossbeams for lateral stability.
Two weeks and three iterations later, they had something that worked.
When Jack and Chip and Pepper all walked on it together, it held steady.
Holy cow!
Chip said, bouncing.
This actually works!
By Monday morning, half the school had heard about the secret bridge project.
Monday afternoon, Tina got called to Principal Hedgehog's office.
She found the principal, two council members, including the badger, and both her parents.
I understand you've been building unauthorized structures.
Principal Hedgehog's voice was serious.
I built a demonstration bridge to prove my design work.
Without permits, without supervision, with plenty of safety considerations.
I calculated every load, tested everything a dozen times.
The badger leaned forward.
You're twelve years old and you built a bridge.
A small one?
Do you understand how dangerous that is?
No one got hurt because the design is safe.
That's the whole point.
You were trying to prove you're smarter than the adults who told you no.
The badger said sharply.
I think, came Horace's gravelly voice from the doorway.
Before you yell at these youngsters, maybe you should come look at what they actually made.
Horace, this is private.
I've been watching them build for two weeks.
Most impressive engineering I've seen in 40 years.
So before you punish them, maybe come see if they earned it.
Margaret, the Doe council member, spoke up.
I'd like to see it.
Twenty minutes later, they stood at Tina's bridge.
Up close, it looked ramshackle.
Mismatched cables, warped boards, hand-tied knots.
The badger examined everything.
He tugged cables, tested boards, studied anchor points and finally said Walk me through the design.
Tina explained the cable angles, weight distribution, how tension increased under load.
She showed calculations, safety factors, considerations for water flow and seasonal changes.
This is sophisticated work, the badger said finally.
The principles are sound, but this is still small scale.
Scaling up introduces complications.
Like what?
Permits, insurance, building codes, safety inspections, legal obligations.
Margaret spoke up.
What if we found a compromise?
Let Tina lead the design with proper oversight.
You want to put a 12-year-old in charge of public infrastructure?
I want to let someone who clearly knows what they're doing have a chance to prove it with safety measures.
They argued about liability and regulations.
Finally, the badger sighed.
Fine.
Tina can lead the project, but she works with a structural engineer who verifies all calculations.
She follows every code and regulation.
Weekly progress reports.
And if the engineer says something won't work, she listens.
Agreed?
Tina nodded so hard her neck hurt.
Agreed.
And, her mother added, she keeps her grades up.
Fine, yes, I agree to everything.
The badger almost smiled.
Let's see if you can handle building permits as well as you handle engineering.
That night, Tina sat with permit applications and building codes.
Boring, tedious work.
Nothing like the exciting part of design.
But as she filled out forms, she felt something she hadn't felt since racing season ended.
Purpose.
The next six weeks became a blur of paperwork consultations with Dr Chen via video call, material deliveries and actual construction.
Tina's small crew expanded as more volunteers joined.
They worked through October's rain and into November's chill, racing against the weather.
Dr. Chen approved every calculation.
The bridge took shape exactly as Tina had designed it.
The morning of the bridge opening arrived cold and clear, one of those crisp late November days where your breath makes clouds and the sun feels thin but bright.
Tina stood at the east meadow side of Willow Creek, watching the crowd gather.
The whole woodland community had shown up.
The bridge looked better than she'd imagined.
The cables gleamed in the sunlight, still recycled, still mismatched in color, but properly tensioned and secured.
The deck boards salvaged from the sawmill had been sanded smooth and treated with weatherproofing.
It wasn't fancy, but it was solid, safe, and it worked.
Dr Chen, the structural engineer who mentored her through the build, stood beside Tina with a satisfied expression.
You should be proud.
This exceeds safety requirements in every category.
Principal Hedgehog approached with a ceremonial ribbon stretched across the bridge entrance.
Tina, would you like to do the honors?
But Tina had a different idea.
She looked around until she spotted Pepper near the back of the crowd.
Actually, I think Pepper should cut it.
She's the one who's been walking the long way all this time.
Pepper's eyes went wide.
She made her way forward, taking the scissors with shaking paws.
I can't believe this is real, she whispered to Tina.
You actually did it.
We did it.
Tina corrected gesturing to Chip Zach and the dozen other volunteers who'd helped with the builds.
The ribbon fell away, and Pepper took the first steps onto the bridge.
The crowd held its breath.
Even though the bridge had been inspected and approved, there was still something magical about that first crossing.
Pepper walked steadily across the bridge, holding firm beneath her feet, and when she reached the other side, everyone erupted in cheers.
Soon the bridge was full of woodland creatures crossing back and forth, testing it out, marveling at how sturdy it felt.
Kids ran across it.
Parents walked it cautiously at first, then with growing confidence.
Horace ambled over to where Tina stood watching.
Not bad for a tortoise who's supposed to be too slow and too young.
Turns out being slow gives you time to think things through properly, Tina said with a grin.
The Badger Council member approached, actually smiling this time.
The Council wanted me to tell you.
We've got three other infrastructure projects that could use creative solutions.
Interested?
Tina's mind was already racing with possibilities.
A community greenhouse using recycled materials?
A rainwater collection system?
Maybe.
Her phone buzzed.
Miles, spring racing season will be kicking off in four months.
Ready to get back to work?
Tina looked at her bridge, at the people crossing it at the creek.
That didn't seem like such an impossible gap anymore.
She thought about race cars and bridges, about problems waiting to be solved, about how engineering wasn't just one thing.
It was seeing what could be and figuring out how to make it real.
She texted back, yeah, but I might have a few other projects going too.
Because it turned out, whether you were fixing race cars or building bridges, The principle was the same.
Find the problem, understand it completely, and don't let anyone tell you something's impossible just because they can't see the solution yet.
Tina watched as Pepper crossed the bridge again, this time running.
Her face lit up with the kind of joy that comes from something as simple as a shortcut home.
Worth Every permit application, every council meeting, every moment of doubt.
Definitely worth it.
And that is the end of our story.
Good night.
Sleep tight.
