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adventures

Now officially on summertime

I’ve been casually watching this for many years now, and I have noted, in that time, several days where I’ve experienced a 30 degree swing in temperatures. I know there are plenty of places where that happens a lot more regularly. It’s rare enough in the places where I’ve lived, I guess, to be remarkable when you see the forecasts. I am remarking on it now. On the days it has happened and anyone is within earshot I have bored them with my mastery of basic arithmetic. That’s a remark. It’s remarkable.

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that a 30-degree temperature swing seems to be about the extent of it. At least around here. (Here meaning wherever I was at the time.)

Today, the forecast called for a 40-degree swing. The high was forecast at 96 and the low was 56.

So we’ve ruined the weather, or we’ve ruined forecasting. Or both. Either way, this is bad.

We had our year-end faculty meeting today, a four-hour chat in a classroom. There was an agenda. We ended up having to rush through parts of it. I made three comments, two of them substantive, and that was more than enough. (I reminded people of a deadline that is now set for April 2027, and I suggested we see about getting some AEDs installed in the building. I am in the minutes as having participated in the meeting.) Much ground was covered, applause and good cheer was shared. Lunch was university-catered chicken-salad sliders.

And sometime soon after we got home the new weather system blew in. You could almost see it bearing down on us, coming out of the southwest.

We got a bit of rain — good, we needed it, and probably some more, we’re already in a severe drought — even as most of the system went to the north. Looked impressive.

Cooled thinks right off. After three days of 90+ temperatures we’ll be in the 50s through the weekend.

I might have mentioned this, but one of my university colleagues is an atmospheric scientist and she’s been doing some work in this area. Apparently the inconsistent spring is a signal of climate change problems. We broke the weather. Or the climate. Or the forecasting. Perhaps all three.

I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation and sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. Enjoy. I still am!

This is the last week of this feature. (For now, anyway.) We are spending it looking at the majesty of Malin Head, the northernmost part of Ireland.

adventures / cycling / Ireland / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
18
May 26

Suddenly summer

Grades submitted. Held a Zoom meeting this morning for a student employee. We talked for about 35 minutes, which was four more than I wanted to keep the student on the call. That was my fault. It usually is. Now I’m trying to get my email under control. Inbox Zero isn’t happening anytime soon, but I’m hoping to get to Inbox 30 or 40 before this time next week.

It’s a whole thing.

Anyway, one more meeting this week, a long one, on Wednesday. And then on to other things.

We went out for a ride, Saturday. This was the 25 mile time trial. I’d like to think I was going fast on this road. I never go fast on this road.

That’s seven miles and change into the route. By then we’d gone … lessee … roughly all four of the cardinal directions and we’re getting buffeted my breezes and gusts from three of them. About eight miles from there we finally got a tailwind, and for a good long while it felt like a real bike ride, like I knew what I was doing, like I could make the bike, and maybe the road, do anything I wanted. I bunny hopped both rails of a railroad crossing without trying hard. The wheels were humming in a most satisfying way. I was hitting false flats and was still able to accelerate. It was an immensely satisfying feeling, one of the reasons you go out and do this, a feeling I’d have more if I was in just a bit better shape.

And then, suddenly, it was all gone. I didn’t even notice the moment it changed, for it wasn’t even a moment, it was just a different thing. Well, then, as I turned back into the headwind, I resigned to trying to at least pedal smoothly over the last few miles. My lovely bride was up the road and gone. Fueling gone wrong once again, I figured. At mile 22 or so, I saw her taillight ahead of me. About two miles later, I caught up to her, which shouldn’t be happening, considering. She’d bonked. Fueling gone wrong.

It was her second intense workout of the day.

Later in the day, the sky turned into these odd colors.

Then, today, I went out for a ride at around 11 a.m., because it was still mild. Mild meaning mid-80s. One of my apps blipped and thinks that, for a quarter of a mile, I was doing 230+ mph. I was not riding 230+ mph. I did, later, record a third of a mile at 27 miles per hour, which I haven’t done in a while, and, sometime after that, a 20 mph mile, notable only because much of it was up a slight incline and that’s where I decided it was too hot to keep going. Eventually, you’ll get too hot and mess up somehow.

It was 92 degrees when I got back to the house. Calling it was probably the right idea.

We’re going to have three days of 90s in the row here in the middle of May. The seasons mean nothing anymore.

I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation and sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. Enjoy. I still am!

This is the last week of this feature. (For now, anyway.) We are going to spend it all looking at the majesty of Malin Head, the northernmost part of Ireland.

adventures / cycling / Ireland / memories / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
11
May 26

Line and pole rod

How was your weekend? Here it was … variable. Coolish on Saturday morning. It felt almost damp. (That’s a meteorological observation where I’m from, and it differs from humidity.) The mercury struggled to get to 67 degrees. The temperature peaked before noon and started falling away soon after. Sunday it was 81 degrees and it finally rained.

Recently a read a paper from a colleague who is an atmospheric scientist. She and her co-authors were discussing how highly variable springs are just the new normal around here now. Climate change in daily life. It’s hurting the crops. Because the agricultural sector needs more challenges right now.

Today we topped out at 69 degrees. Tomorrow we’ll have variable skies and be in the mid-70s. One of these things is late spring. They can’t all be late spring.

Saturday morning we went out for a ride with the neighbors. The guy up front lives just behind us. The woman closest to me in the photo lives about a mile away. There’s at least two other cyclists in between these houses. We could start a little roadie gang.

We should start a little roadie gang. Only, I, being neither fast enough or talented enough, am not the biggest fan of group rides. Three or four people is probably my comfort limit, and I like them to be spread a bit, rather like that photo. Some people are crowders, should bumping, handlebar rubbing riders, and I’m too frail for all of that.

Today, I woke up, sent a reminder note to my online class about their adjusted deadlines, and then went out to the creek. The purpose was to pretend to do a little fly fishing. But, really, I could just sit next to that, walk along the bank, or put on those waders and just go out there and stand in it for the better part of a day and be happy. And hey, that’s what i did.

I caught one good fish, a beautiful 16-inch rainbow trout. Slipped him right back in the water, and he went and told all of his friends to take a good look before trying to eat anything else. His messaging worked. I got a lot of nibbles, a few on the line, but couldn’t bring anything else in the rest of the day.

Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter at all. I’d probably rather not hook them if I’m not going to keep them, and these are catch-and-release. Some people like the gear — and there sure is a lot of it in fly fishing. Some people like the puzzle and the challenge. I could stand right here and listen to the woods and unwind until my toes grow cold from the water and I’ll get everything I need out of the experience.

It’s funny. I’ve been on this little body of water twice and our host is keen to coach me up. I think he thinks I’ve never been fishing before or something. I have now been fly fishing three times. Twice with him. But I grew up with a Zebco and spent a lot of time with bobbers and worms and liver bait and bass lures. Even then, I enjoyed the peacefulness and the company, most of all. But my guy here on this river — they call it a river, I’m not sure it rises to that level — was taking it personal that I wasn’t getting more fish. He’s a big technique guy. He feels the real thrill of bringing them in. I think he’s trying to appreciate every little part of his sport. And he’s a pretty good teacher, even if he has a lousy student. He’s got my casting and line management techniques down to an almost manageable level. There’s a real satisfaction in placing it where you want it to go, as opposed to in a tree. It’s satisfying when the cast feels just right. Just being under those trees is more so.

I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation. So, I’m sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. It was a great vacation. I have a lot of footage. This will go on for some time. Enjoy it with me, won’t you?

This is part of the view at Island Roy.

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7
May 26

Score one for edtech

Today was finals day. Two classes had their finals due this afternoon. These were done remotely and submitted online. To celebrate we, of course, went for a bike ride. It was a fast 20-miler, and then I got right back to it. I started the day knowing I had 144 papers to read, and knowing that 48 of those were going to come in today.

And for that hour, just a bit more than an hour, my empty mind drifted over to the questions I’d asked on the two finals. One class had four simple questions. Two hypotheticals I was asking the students to work through, and then two questions that were a tiny bit subjective. In the other class I had the students watch a program and answer a bunch of questions about it. You can run through all of those questions quite a few times while you’re not thinking about anything else.

I hope I caught all of my typos. I hope the students did well. I hope it was all clever enough to let them show what they’ve learned, how they’re thinking, what they’ve possibly gained from their time in my class.

Not too long after we got in, Canvas, the platform the university uses for online classwork, crashed and died.

One class had finished their allotted final window. The other was mid-final. About four people hadn’t submitted their final yet. Well.

Also, my online students have their submissions due on Monday. Who knows how long Canvas will be down? And some of those students manage very regimented schedules. Well.

There was nothing more from the university than that. During finals. Well.

(Update: It came back overnight, in fact, not too long after I shared my contingency plans with all of those students with work still outstanding. Problem solved. Can kicked down the road. Everything is now due next Tuesday.)

But I can start grading that one final right now. (Mini-update: They’re doing well.)

That is the view at Ballymastocker Strand.

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1
May 26

Rounding spring’s corner

We went back to campus today. The student athletes were doing a fund raiser. They were taking shifts, sitting in chairs, wearing plastic ponchos. Pretty soon they were wearing whipped cream pies.

That’s an All-American. She’s been in both of our classes. She’s a lovely human being and, somehow, that meant she got more pies to the face than any of her peers did during her half-hour shift. I don’t know how much money you raise doing a bit like that, but it was a lovely spring day and they’d set this up in a quiet little corner of campus and people came by in dribs and drabs for an hour or so. The overhead seemed to be a few ponchos, a couple of cans of whipped cream and some paper plates.

Nearby, there’s this piece of public art.

It’s titled Knowledge is Power.

Knowledge is Power is inspired by a quote by Francis Bacon. In creating a visual representation of the verbal statement, Artist Zenos Frudakis thought a book would make an appropriate metaphor, as it has been the traditional form of preserving and transmitting knowledge through the ages.

Always interested in philosophy and the love of wisdom, Mr. Frudakis wanted this sculpture to embody those who are good examples of having powerful ideas. As a compositional element, he has faces and quotes organized around two central figures he considers two giants of thought. On the left page is Charles Darwin, and those around him are of an earlier period. On the right page is Albert Einstein, surrounded by more contemporary figures.

There’s a lot of art around campus, it turns out. I need to see more of it. Maybe something will rub off.

We had lunch at Chick-fil-A. For the first time in a good while, it seemed, we had lunch together and didn’t have to rush off somewhere. It was pleasant, it felt a bit like unwinding.

Something I wrote:

I’ve been developing and teaching a class we call Criticism in Sports Media for the last two semesters. Students are learning to consume and interpret media critically, place it within broader contexts, and examine the structure and meaning of the material. This, I say, gives one an appreciation of sport media’s role in contemporary life, because sports reflect the values of a culture.

It’s a good course, and helpful. Students know there’s a lot going on, and they’re trying to understand the media landscape that surrounds and inundates us all. They are coming to understand that there are some things they don’t understand, and they’d like to try to make some sense of it.

The class spends a lot of time on the printed word and on documentaries, and we discuss social media and, lately, AI content.

Now, at the end of the term, I wanted to leave them with a lasting impression about recognizing and addressing AI.

I’ve got a few more things I want to write soon. But, first, back to the grading. Just 144 papers and exams to go!

That video is from Mullaghmore Head, where we both fell down, separately and hilariously. You’ll just have to read about it.