May « 2013 « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

May, 2013

photo / weekend — Comments Off
26
May 13

Catching up

The weekly post that puts pictures over content, that helps me delete photos from my camera and phone, that documents everything and nothing. Let us get to it, then.

We had a cupcake from Gigi’s recently. And they are delicious:

My breakfast on Friday. Love Price’s Barbecue House:

I forget. What is the proper dive joint ratio of neon-to-exhortations-that-funky-music-must-be-played-but-also-must-be-played-right? There was a 50th birthday dance party going on in the next room. I had the fajitas. They were perfectly acceptable.

This is going to be one of those dry boat storage buildings, the kind where they just stack boats on top of one another:

The skeleton, however, looks flimsy. Note the pieces that are already bending and sagging:

The new sign at my aunt’s place. Best catfish and shrimp around. It is in a town of 282 people:

baseball / family / photo / weekend — Comments Off
25
May 13

Yeeeeeeeep

He did not hit the ball today …

But the ball hit him …

That means the same thing: baserunners. And so it was that we found ourselves in the last inning, whatever inning it was, with the bases loaded and let’s say the tying run at the plate in the first round of the playoffs. This is a league casual enough that they run the scoreboard some of the time. And it is a league with enough sensitive feelings that the players aren’t allowed to say “Hey batter batter batter.” Instead they say “Yeeeeeeeep” each pitch and this is OK.

I saw my first little league parent today, not the cheering, “Pay attention” parent, but the “Don’t throw it to the cutoff man, throw it in!” parent. The “I want to see you dive and catch it” parent. Looked like a biker. He was mildly mortified when his boy overran a ball in center. I’m sure it’ll effect his work all next week.

There is no need to discuss the relative merits of the play of your teammate, the second baseman. These kids are nine. But the demonstrative, chain smoker, ponytail guy felt he had to get his money’s worth.

I’d like to think, if I had a child in a sports league, that I’d let the coach coach and I’d quietly cheer and not do much more than that. My post-game interview — the sort of thing I used to do professionally — would consist of two questions. Did you play hard? Did you have fun? Well, then, pizza!

I would, however, roll my eyes at the rule about squelching batter chatter. That, too, is part of the game.

I did not heckle like a champion today. It was widely acknowledged that the other team was cheating. They were juicing. They had a 32-year-old pitcher. The coach was recruiting not just from his little league fields, but the greater tri-county area. How could he have otherwise fielded a team that could defeat these wholesome young men who played pepper games with pure joie de vivre, who are looking forward to church tomorrow and the end-of-the-season party sometime next week?

When my second cousin was on first base he would have been the tying run. Perhaps. The scoreboard did not say. But there was a pop up and that ended the game. The season came to a sad conclusion, because the boys would play through droughts and rain and all through Christmas if they’d let them. There was a dusty mound and green grass and a long strand of black irrigation pipe topping the outfield fence. They had lights for darkness and a concession stand for hunger. They had gloves and balls and an umpire who couldn’t find the first strike zone on any of the three adjoining fields. What else did they need?

Fans had two sets of aluminum bleachers in the sun and an outfield lined with beautiful oaks for shade. They had the weather the national chamber of commerce orders when holding the chamber of commerce convention. It was a beautiful day for everyone.

Also, we saw the rare 1-3-2 double play. Ground ball to the pitcher, he threw out the baserunner at first. The first baseman noticed the runner at third sneaking home. He fed the catcher who chased the runner back up the line until he stumbled and was tagged out. That is a rally-killing double play, friends.

Friday / iPhone / photo — Comments Off
24
May 13

Travel day

It was a beautiful day for it. Nice clear skies and mild temperatures. Beautiful scenery:

But there was a lot of windshield time today. On the other hand I got the car washed, too. And saw things like this:

As I rode along on the interstate, I learned that there were five accidents at one time. Four of them were ahead of me. Plus holiday weekend travel. Plus rush hour. Plus staring into the western sun for awhile — which isn’t so bad this time of year. It has a lovely hue.

I also saw two tow trucks being towed. How random. They look like this:

Have a lovely weekend. Stay safe.

errands / Thursday — Comments Off
23
May 13

The age game lives

I noticed a short time back there was a tire on my car that was going out of round. I managed to drag this out and limp around as long as possible. Last week I was on an errand and noticed the thump-thump-THUMP-thump was even worse. I stopped between here and there and added air. When I got back home I noticed the front tire was contorted to an alarming state. Heat some plastic and torque it between your hands. My tire looked like that, which is, to say the least, troubling.

So I went to the tire place today. I put a little air in hoping that it would at least help get me close to the shop, which is about four miles from our home. Just before I arrived there the thump-thump-THUMP-thump returned to pre-front-tire-deformity levels. When I got out the front tire looked fine.

The guy at the counter, the kind of guy who speaks low and fast and is hard to understand over the noise of a room and has an odd beard and gives you a general uneasy feeling to start with, assures me that tire is probably fine because there are two pieces of rubber and they blah blah blah.

I don’t know that much about tires, but I have seen round rubber on vehicles my entire life and I can say these two things: 1. round is the optimal shape and 2. a bad tire doesn’t become good. With this wisdom in mind what he said didn’t carry that much weight, but, he said, they’d put the car on the rack and do their thing and so on. It was agreed that I would return this afternoon for the car.

So we went to Montgomery. We returned. We had lunch at Byron’s with a friend. I told the story about how, when Byron’s used to be a Dairy Queen they one day found themselves out of ice cream. I told the lady that day she should lock up and go home. No one goes to Dairy Queen for the chicken fingers, after all. Today Byron’s was out of chicken. Always something. (I had a vegetable plate and it was good.)

The Yankee isn’t feeling so well, so we went to pick up her bike which now features a shiny new derailleur and, presumably, no more shifting problems. (Which would be a change for her.) We stopped at the house for a bit and then headed out to fetch my car.

It had been moved, but the two guys working, earnest, confident men who gave you the impression of knowing what they were doing, said they had no idea what was going on with my car.

I’ll just skip ahead here to the point where I closed my eyes and was mentally, actually, really, counting to 10. I pointed out they seemed to have some sort of communications breakdown between the morning crew and the afternoon crew. They pointed out how much the tires were going to cost me and I was going to get my car fixed. I would be the last one of the day. I apologized for that, hoping it wouldn’t keep them there late, but also making the joke that I hope they did it right because, you know, the guy has PTA or a softball game or what have you.

And then this man decides to play the age game. I was just thinking to myself the other day, You know, no one has played the age game in a long time. Maybe you’ve outgrown that sort of thing.

This guy who, and I get it, took a bit of exception to my do it right joke, says “I bet I’m older than you. How old are you?”

Really?

So I told him. And he told me how old he was, which was meant to be some sort of prima facie evidence that he does his work right. The general utility of his morning colleagues aside, I had no reason to doubt this. The urge to play the age game notwithstanding, I am not qualified to comment on this man’s dedication and pride in his work. I couldn’t bring myself to point out that plenty of people who have a decade or so on me are perfectly capable of doing a lousy job, but I’d already counted to 10 and this guy wanted to put two tires on my car and go home. What’s more, he looked great for his age. So I apologized for my joke and we laughed about it.

Half an hour later I got my car back — I wandered around the store and tried to not look bored — and the tires feel great. That gentleman knows his craft, and I hope he hit a triple or really proved a great point in his parent-teacher meeting.

And that he told them he was 47 while he did it.

cycling / iPhone / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
22
May 13

Just a bicycle post

Yesterday we pedaled the loop around town. I was riding behind The Yankee and watching her work down into the drops as she got into a hill. I pass her on the climbs, trying my hardest to make it look nonchalant when really my lungs are falling out of my feet. She usually catches me later and all will be grand.

Until, about halfway through, her front derailleur failed. I was caught by a red light and she wasn’t behind me. So I waited through the cycle and still no bicycle. Another turn of the lights and finally she topped the hill. She’d been in her worst gearset for two hills because a rivet popped out and forced her into the wrong chainring. We tinkered with it under a brilliant sky and earnest sun and finally pedaled the rest of the way slowly. As in, this is easy and I have good legs and could take on the world, slowly. I topped one of the larger hills in my biggest gear at this pace and didn’t even feel it. Great legs!

So, today, with her bike in the shop and a cold coming on, she stayed inside and I decided to ride the loop again. If I did it comfortably and easily yesterday, I figured, this will be great to do it at pace.

Only it didn’t work that way. It was warm. My legs weren’t good. I hadn’t eaten enough. I was a bit tired. And my mind was busy making excuses for what was going on. I found some shade at a vacant grocery store:

It is funny, but I’ve noticed that the days that feel the worst — I could complain about the heat and how I feel and all that — allow me to look at the computer and find a new personal best for that route.

Even progress is humbling.

Also, I need to get back into the long rides. The ones I really want to do, the ones in my Map My Ride account are a lot longer than around town. I mapped out a route that would let me hit Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, three states in an afternoon. I just found another one for the Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga trails, which cover Georgia and Alabama and is the longest paved trail in the country. Somewhere out there is the big one, the state tour. Sitting in the shade of a dead Kroger isn’t going to make any of those happen.

So I did a few more miles and marveled at the heat and the various ways I feel on the bicycle right now.

Yesterday we went to James Brothers and Danny asked how my recovery was going. Right after I crashed they were all very concerned, which is nice. The answer, though, depends on when you ask. At that moment I felt great. As I write this … well, I’ve felt better. Nothing a 400-mile week wouldn’t cure, I’m sure.

But these things are what they are. He’s bouncing back from some difficulties that have hampered his training. We talked of triathlons and marathons and various things. I’m hanging out with people who say things like “I can run 10 miles, but I can’t run 12 because … ” and wonder what I’m doing in that conversation.

So naturally tonight we had a healthy dinner and I treated myself to the foam roller. Later I had ice cream.

There’s not a lot to this, because today was today. Tomorrow will be full of errands, however, and so that’ll be something to write about. Just you wait and see.

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