January, 2012


9
Jan 12

Steamy January Monday

Went downtown to take pictures of a building today. It was a darkly overcast and muggy 69 degrees.

There was a rumor that the name of a restaurant was changing. It would have been one of those generational, epochal turning moments. One crowd would understand the now 40-year-old reference, but it didn’t stick with the younger set in quiet the same way. Institutions can only be institutions until the paying crowd asks for an explanation. And that’s a chilling moment for a merchant. If you have a clever spelling but it is misinterpreted, people may start going across the street.

Or that would have been the thinking. And thinking like that in a college town is important, especially when you’re dealing with timely cultural references. But this particular restaurant was not changing their name. They were just painting their facade. And, also, they’d hung a new sign referencing another, newer cultural touchstone. But they were not renaming the place.

You could see the confusion, however. New paint, new temporary sign, updated context.

“We may,” the guy said “name the porch that though.”

No you won’t, because that makes even less sense.

So there was that.

Got to play with a friend’s two daughters. The youngest is just a smile machine. She also likes her jumper contraption, the lowest setting of which she has outgrown as of today. His oldest daughter is in elementary school and is a budding entrepreneur. She planned out a lemonade standing, a hot chocolate stand and a petting sitting service all in on conversation. Meanwhile her younger sister was chattering and banging plastic things together and always bouncing. The older girl never missed a beat. It was remarkable, and just a little bit exhausting.

Otherwise just computer things and housework, which interrupted the computer things. Did some laundry. Discovered a hazard.

It seems the vent from the dryer had come disconnected. It was a little too hot and dryer-like standing in the laundry room. Look behind the thing and, yep, there’s a great big silver hose going nowhere while the dryer is happily spinning away.

So I turn it off. Pull out the washer and dryer. Unplug it. The outlet is covered in condensation.

If there’s one place you don’t want condensation it is on your fine wood furniture. But if there are two places you don’t want condensation it is on your fine wood furniture and glass tabletops. And if there are three places you don’t want condensation it your fine wood furniture, glass tabletops and electrical outlets.

Dry that off, clean the floor, connect the vent and count my blessings. Only thing could I get back to the laundry.

And the rest of the day was tinkering on the computer, Chinese food and the big game, which was only slightly riveting. But, hey, that’s a Monday for ya.


8
Jan 12

Catching up

Sunday is usually the day where I throw a lot of extra pictures from the week on the blog, hoping to feel the space with images of things that didn’t otherwise get used.

Only I didn’t take a great many pictures this week. It won’t happen again.

We did receive a fine box of oranges from The Yankees grandparents:

oranges

Lovely people.

HenryandDee"

You can hear some of their stories.


7
Jan 12

Gotta wear shades

Cats — at least some cats, at least our cat — are creatures of habit. Without a watch I could wake up at random and generally figure out what part of the day we’re in based on what the black cat is doing.

But today I was concerned for a moment because this is an unusual for Allie to catch her tan:

Allie

Or so I thought.

I happened to look through some pictures a little later in the year and found this, a LOMO picture of her I took in January of last year:

Allie

So she is on a schedule. But she’s a little early. The picture I took last year will be a year old next week.


6
Jan 12

An ode to some pickles

Updated and edited my vita, which was a job that was past due.

Rode 25 miles on my bike, enjoying the beautiful January afternoon. The afternoon was the best part about it. It’s going to take three or five good long rides to start getting my form back. My only complaint about riding is that just when I hit my stride events overcome me. Something will come up to preoccupy me for too long and all that hard work is undone.

Around finals I had a nice 45 mile ride and just started to get back into a good pace and comfort level. Then I got sick for a week and change, and then there were 10 days of holiday travels.

So this week has been a return to square one. (I’m not a very good cyclist.)

Visited the library this evening. Thought I’d do a little historical research. This is an issue of the 1914 Orange and Blue, Auburn’s student paper that preceded The Plainsman:

Orange and Blue

Note the championship-wining football team’s headline. The story included this argument for facemasks:

Babe Taylor, Auburn warrior, and by the way, Birmingham-bred, displayed a vast amount of gameness yesterday afternoon. In the early part of the first quarter someone, unthoughtedly of course, kicked in the upper section of Babe’s face, in the neighborhood of the left eye. Babe’s face wore an expression of agony and the blood trickled down his features in doublequick time, but he stood by the fort and played a grand game of football.

Sixty percent of the front page is devoted to football, which happened pretty regularly, even in 1914. Note, also, that the band played Touchdown Auburn, which was a tune that pre-dated Jim Fyffe’s famous call by many decades. There’s a note that students from Alabama telegraphed their congratulations on the championship — you have to wonder what their angle was.

There’s a poem on the right hand side, a dream of a beautiful young woman, and “An Ode to some Pickles.”

Upon a night long ago
Three fellows sat at ease
And tried to soothe their inner man
With pickles and with cheese.

The cheese, by nature yellow,
Met quick and sure defeat;
But the unassuming pickles
Were very green and sweet.

The eats were good and everything
Seemed lovely for a while —
Till a feaster’s flesh, turned wan and pale
In the middle of a smile.

His face began to shudder,
A twitch and then a jerk;
We looked at him and realized
The pickles were at work!

A private, and not especially good, joke 97 years ago was published in a newspaper. And you’re reading it today. None of this would have been conceivable to the poet who wrote those lines.

Didn’t find what I was looking for — though I have a feeling I’m getting close — so I’ll have to go back. No problem there, the old microfilms are great fun.


5
Jan 12

My grandfather’s textbooks

This is the continuation of a mini-section on the site that highlights, and pokes fun at, the illustrations found in some of my grandfather’s old tomes.

Sciencebook

Here are the first three pages concerning a 1940 elementary school text on science. Go here to see selections from his literature book.