adventures

adventures / cycling / Friday / ICR / IU / photo / Twitter — Comments Off on Showing off, but just a little
28
May 21

Showing off, but just a little

Quite day at the office. Most everyone had taken the day off for the long weekend — or they were working from home. I talked with one person face-to-face. So, really, it was perhaps an almost-average day.

Here’s a new thing from work. We’re going to be rolling out a lot of this sort of thing before long, just trying to show off the work of colleagues. (Somebody oughta do it.)

I got 10 or 11 cuts from her on that study and her recently published NCAA book, and we’re going to show those off a lot, of course.

Speaking of showing off, she got on her time trial bike this afternoon. Working through the geometry shakedown rides, so still getting everything finely tuned after the latest round of adjustments. It was windy, she was getting acquainted and wearing this rain jacket — because it is cold and stupid here. That jacket parachutes and adds unnecessary wind drag. And she was still cooking.

I jumped ahead of here in a little bit of a road that suits me better than her. I figured I should get ahead and stay ahead because, when she got all of this figured out she’d go right by me. So for the next 10 miles.

She did not catch me. Today. She won’t do it tomorrow, because I will have a great ride tomorrow, but that bike is so fast and she’s so powerful on it that it’s only a matter of time. We rode the last two miles together, because it is a fun little chase. I was holding her wheel and glanced down to see was doing 31 mph (for context: that’s respectably fast) on that last little strip. I’ve ridden thousands of miles with her, so trust me here: she wasn’t even trying.

I need to install rockets on my pedals in the next week or two.

adventures / bespoke / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on When everything is too valuable, there’s no value
25
May 21

When everything is too valuable, there’s no value

“I’m going for a walk,” she said just as I came in and sat down. “You’re welcome to go, too, of course.”

Of course I am. Because it’s a free country and all of the outdoors is pretty big and because she likes my company.

Only I’d just gotten in, set my things down, emptied my books and took off my shoes and I was in that first 20 seconds of re-enjoying a comfortable chair experience.

“There’s a house a few neighborhoods over that went on the market, and I want to see it. They listed it at $700,000.”

Which was intriguing enough.

So we walked a few neighborhoods over. It’s similar to ours, but thankfully not ours. It’s a five bedroom house. There’s a small pool. Two-car garage. Brick and siding exterior. Quiet neighborhood. Trees and sidewalks and a driveway and all of that. Newly updated most everything, according to the listing.

It is not a $700,000 house, at least in any rational world.

Let’s look at the pricing history of the house.

In the early spring of 2012 it went on the market for $359,500. In June of that same year it came off the market. It went back up again in April of 2015, now at $399,900. The price was lowered several times, until it finally sold in July or August of 2015 at $379,900.

In March of 2017, it went back up again, listed this time at $409,900. Less than three weeks later, they lowered the price. Three more weeks, another reduction. And they removed the listing, now at $389,900, in July of that same year.

Now, a word about this market. It’s wacky, even in the best of times. Purchases are often seasonal, based on academic schedules, and you apparently have to act fast, even when there isn’t a crunch. When we came up to shop for houses the majority of what we picked out in the days and a week or two before were off the market by the time we got here. Ultimately, we got perhaps our top realistic choice — everyone has that one they’d try to rationalize over-extending for, right? — and only then because the timing was just, just so precisely right. Another day, either side, it might not have worked out.

Also, and this is important, we don’t have a $700,000 house.

And if I was somehow interested in buying a house for $700,000, I would want a little more space in the yard and privacy as opposed to what this little quaint neighborhood domicile will provide. Also, this is a college town. There are two substantial industries here, and not that many folks, I would imagine, are looking in that range. Good luck to them, but given that locale’s history, and the comps around them, it just doesn’t seem plausible. That price is substantially above the tax assessment, as well. So I’m sure their neighbors are all pleased at this development.

Nice house. No way in the world, in a rational world anyway, it is a $700,000 house. But what even is rational in the housing game at this point?

Low interest rates and market exuberance will keep prices up for a year, maybe two or three. And then there will be some pain. That’s my economic prediction.

My other prediction is that the price on that particular house is going to be lowered.

Last Thursday I mentioned a little project I was working on. Here are the fancy fruits of my minimal labor.

These are homemade cufflinks, in a chain style. There’s a little chain and a non-distinct button on the back to hold a French cuff sleeve together.

So my wrists will look dapper.

And I have quite a few more to make with more cool fabric I have. When you’re making your own, I learned right away, they are terribly inexpensive to make in big batches. So, after I finish another long-running project or two, I’ll have to make a fancy drawer for storage for all of them, eventually.

That ought to raise the property values around here by four or five bucks, right?

adventures / Friday / photo — Comments Off on Friday in the garage
7
May 21

Friday in the garage

Slept in, enjoying a day off. Fiddled around catching up on the day’s reading until lunch. Had a sandwich and then went to the garage.

I have been trying to get into the garage all week. But events, and timing and desire and other things, so events, have conspired against me. Today, though. Nothing on the calendar, so to the garage!

Moved the car out so I could get to a saw. I had some wood scraps that needed to get trimmed down. Do away with the pointy bits and save the better stuff on the end.

Ahh, the smell of sawdust! Smells like progress!

And then I straightened things up along that wall of the garage. It needed it. It needed cleaning more than I realized.

Doing that I found a piece of lumber that would work for something my beautiful bride asked me to make for her. So I cut that down to size. And then cut it again. And then tried to square it up. And cut it a 1/16th of an inch off the desired dimensions. Fortunately that’s not integral to the project. Nor is the squareness of all the ages. Somewhere there’s a 1/32 inch of a wave in the thing and we don’t care.

And then I sanded and sanded: 100, 150, 220, 400, 600. It’s almost furniture quality.

It’s just a rectangle of pine. It took no time, but the grain is clean and has some nice character when you can see it up close. Most importantly, she’s pleased. Next The Yankee will stain it — she likes the staining part, everyone does. Then we’ll put some legs on it to make a nice monitor riser on her desk.

This evening we went for a nice walk in between the rain drops. Standing on the cement garage floor and then walking three miles or so. I was starting to feel that. Thanks, old sneakers!

Ribs and re-runs for dinner this evening, and then an early morning for a bike ride. All of this makes for a nice way to start a weekend. Still didn’t get to some of the projects I’d imagined for myself last weekend. But it’ll keep.

And this will have to, as well. I’m taking a few days off from here. So this may hold us over until May 17th. There will be plenty of things to see here then.

Until then, though, you can keep up with things on Twitter and check me out on Instagram, too. And did you know that Phoebe and Poseidon have an Instagram account? Phoebe and Poe have an Instagram account. Follow the cats.

adventures / food / Monday / photo — Comments Off on And, finally, in mid-April
12
Apr 21

And, finally, in mid-April

Well happy spring to you, too! I saw this guy at a red light on the drive back from campus last week, but didn’t share it here for whatever reason. But, since the front page went full bloom, it seems like a good time for this one.

It just appeared. One day it was all sticks, and then, this. By tomorrow it’ll be leaves. That’s what’s happening to the blooms in our yard, anyway.

One of the weather services is talking about long range freeze potential.

We had some rain and gray this weekend, but it’s all easily ignorable because, long range potential notwithstanding, it’s obvious and apparent that we’ve finally, finally shifted into a new season. We’ve made it once more.

It rained on us Saturday when we got our customary weekend takeout. It rained during parts of that afternoon, as well, and into the evening. All of this came after Friday evening sprinkles. So we worked in the exercise room.

The previous owners of this house had added on a little exterior kitchen on the back so that they could make their traditional Vietnamese fare. They were going to have it torn down as part of the sell, but we asked them to keep it up, thinking we could use it, and we’ve made a great use of the space after finishing the walls and doing some general cleaning. The upside is we got a little bonus room and a basically brand new kitchen, since the regular one was seldom used.

Anyway, we’ve been using a light industrial throw carpet over plywood in there for a good long while. But some friends put down some new flooring in their pain cave and had very nice things to say about it, and so we are keeping up with the Joneses!

Now, the first thing you have to know about flooring is that it is a virtual certainty that no room is perfectly square, and your walls aren’t likely to be perfectly straight. No difference here. And the second thing is we decided we’ll just make peace with the notion that this is where we store things and, when the weather is bad, where we sweat. So if something is a little off, so be it. We aren’t making the floor of the Sistine Chapel, after all.

(We count ourselves fortunate to have seen the Sistine Chapel. It’s beautiful. The floor is a mess.)

Anyway, the flooring came in this week and we started installing it Saturday. We did the easy parts, building out two walls and leaving the tricky sections until yesterday afternoon. Yesterday there was a lot of sliding around on the floor and measuring odd angles and cutting and insisting on making things fit. And, to be honest, I am more satisfied with the outcome than, perhaps, I should be.

Here’s the tricky part, the non-corner corner. There’s a lot of stuff going on here, two angles, a threshold overhang, door trim, inserting an extra piece because of the way I put all this down. And, without too much consternation — which is how I’ve come to define progress in most any project — it just all clicked together nicely.

Because that dismay never arrived I wondered, and am still curious, about what I’ve done wrong with this stuff — and when I’ll realize it. But, for now this means we can happily put all of the things back in that room.

So, reviewing last week: we dug up a tree (and The Yankee did a lot of other things in yard, besides) and I replaced a faucet and we did that floor. This feels industrious.

The cats like the new floors, because it meant a weekend of access to a room they’re seldom allowed into. And that meant new windows to sit in, where they can see the exact same view of the yard and the woods they can from … seven or eight other windows in the house. Maybe it smells different from there, I don’t really know.

Phoebe took advantage of the clutter to try out the outdoor cushions.

We don’t leave them outside, and so they get stored in the exercise room, generally. So they are kind of new to her, and she was happy to enjoy them all weekend. If a cat can sit in a box, that’s great. If a cat can sit on a half-dozen cushions in a box, that’s better.

A few nights ago we had some potatoes for dinner and Poseidon was very interested.

He never touches the food, I’m sure because he knows we’re standing there waiting to give him grief about it. But he will reach out from time to time. I liked his toes were spread out there, ready to give it a try, if only we weren’t standing right next to him.

Tonight we got takeout Chipotle. First observation, takeout Chipotle is a smaller serving than if you’re dining in. Nice. Second, both cats were very interested in the bag of chips.

adventures / IU / television / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Almost everything but
6
Apr 21

Almost everything but

I have two blisters on my hand and one less tree in the yard. These two things are related.

The tree was an Eastern black walnut, and some really thoughtful person planted it right next to the house. Well, this tree grew, as trees do, and it was crowded to the edge of the house and the porch and, after we spent the evening wrenching it from the earth, perhaps growing directly into the foundation.

Also some of the hedges got trimmed. Not all of them, because of that tree. It took longer than it should have, that tree. And now a flowering shrubbery of some sort will eventually go in its place.

You know the joke we’ve all shared this year about hand sanitizer finding all the new cuts on your hands? I remembered that when I made it to the office this morning.

That shovel was mean to me, is what I’m saying.

I sat in my little office and worked and then I went to the television studio. Speaking of the studio, here are two recent shows students produced that I haven’t shared with you. First, the evening show, from the growing-familiar-to-us-now bar set.

The drinks are stage props, and most definitely not for people in that establishment.

And here’s the morning show produced a new episode in the other studio, because that’s what morning shows do.

Tonight I watched crews do anchor practice in the same space. A lot of freshmen and sophomores came in for a few reads and, most importantly, feedback. The news directors, graduating seniors, ran the thing and they gave all the younger students great notes. That was a lot of fun to see. It wasn’t the changing of the guard, but it was a rehearsal. We’re getting ready to send more great young graduates into the world, and they are getting the underclassmen ready to start running the joint. It’s a great moment, if almost bittersweet.

I could tell you everything else about the day, but I know you really want to hear about the kitchen sink. And you’re going to hear all about that. You’re going to hear all about it tomorrow, because I got a reprieve tonight. So be sure you come back for that.

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