Friday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Friday

My Google+ page is at the bottom of this post

Broke my bike. Or at least the tire.

Aww. My first flat.

Changing tires isn’t hard. There’s roughly 48,000 videos on YouTube of varying quality that can walk you through the process. The thing none of them discuss is thumb strength. You need it.

So I wrestle with the tire, forfeiting my opportunity to ride this morning. Theres was a time crunch. Finally get everything situated and discover a chain rub. Well, good. Can’t figure that out on my own and the solution is the bike shop. I was taking it in next week for a tune up anyway, but now I’ll lose the weekend.

And I had such great rides planned for the weekend.

Took the Yankee to the airport and, afterward, found myself very hungry. My Chinese last night wasn’t the tastiest, never settled well and didn’t stick around long. So, where to go?

My friend and noted foodie Chadd Scott suggested I try Sprayberry’s Barbecue. One of the young members of that family is a student of The Yankee’s and we’ve been trying to visit, but every time we pass through they are closed. (Why can a barbecue joint be open at 2 a.m., anyway?)

The timing worked. It got a recommendation. Had to be done.

Here’s my lunch:

As I said on Twitter, I grew up in the center of the BBQ universe. I’ve had BBQ in restaurants, gas stations, shacks and off the back of pickup trucks. I’ve had Thai barbecue, smart casual barbecue, in environments where the 1950s decor that never evolved and on more grills than you could count. Sprayberry is good y’all.

I met one of the other young men from the Sprayberry family. He told me that part of the ceiling was original. This is from the 1926 gas station:

center> Ceiling

Calvin Coolidge was president when Mr. Sprayberry had that ceiling installed. Consider that for a second.

So I drove through tiny Newnan to get back to the interstate. Found this little factory will missing windowpanes, burning lights and the distant sound of production inside:

center> factory

What a great look that building had. No sign, though. Maybe, I discovered later, because I was standing at the back of the property. Google Maps was no help in trying to figure out the name of the place.

The banner across the bottom of the blog is also from that building. I love the guy walking. Makes it look very dynamic. The banner across the top, meanwhile, is from just a few blocks away. Do you remember those books from childhood that spread an entire city panorama before you? Everything was moving, everyone in town was there and things were going on everywhere. (Similar to this.) I always loved those settings. So much to see! So many expressions to study!

That’s what that corner, where I shot the top banner, looked like. Utility workers were busy on both sides of the intersection. The roads were humming along. People were working on one side of the street and there were people standing and talking intently across from them. Busy little moment in a sleepy Southern town.

Made it home and to the bike shop. Described the problem. Was assured, by the third person I’ve seen working there (I’ve been there three times) that they’d get it figured out.

And then he asked how you changed gears on my bike. Promising.

Came home. Read for a while. Had dinner, wiping out the remaining chicken tortilla soup, a recipe from Henry’s Puffy Tacos in San Antonio, Texas as found in the Off the Eaten Path book. Stuff is even better after you let it sit for two days.

Sorry. Dozed off during a Fraiser marathon. I was icing my shoulder and woke up to the interminable Golden Girls theme song. The ice pack was still mostly ice, so the nap wasn’t long, but that’s enough to chase me to bed. I must now wrap up my evening’s festivities, put everything away, including this.

Find me on Google+. Finally got one of my invites to work today. I spent part of the evening tinkering with the site, getting used to the interface and wondering “How many platforms does one need, anyway? Fatigue sets in. Time to feed the monster is finite. Something has to yield. Which will it be?

cycling / Friday / iPhone / site / video — Comments Off
1
Jul 11

The monthly movie returns — July? Already?

I spent 23 miles — or 27, our maps are at odds — on the bike today. Lot’s of bike lately. More cycling in the future. And that inspired the movie, which has been on a several months long hiatus.

Usually because I forget about the thing until the third or so. Anyway. For those newcomers, the idea is that this little video, just 30 seconds, sets the stage for the month, on the first day of the month. Usually there is a theme. And here we are.

Which reminds me, I should also update the video section of the site.

This, if you were wondering, was all shot on the iPhone. Now stop wondering and go enjoy your weekend.

cycling / errands / Friday / iPhone / photo / Pie Day — Comments Off
24
Jun 11

What’s worse than the post office?

Who’s giving this balloon to their kid?

I suppose one balloon of the moody sun wouldn’t be too bad. A manic three-star system … that would just be bad for more than just gravitational reasons.

This was at the Publix recently, in the produce section. They have little sprinkler systems with piped in thunder when it is time to spray the greenery, probably as a “STAND BACK!” feature, but surely they aren’t expecting these mylar stars to deliver any great photosynthetic processes.

There, there’s your band name and first album title in one sentence.

Just a quick ride today. The Yankee says there are these things called Recovery Rides. The purpose, I’ve just discovered “is to stimulate the metabolism to remove waste products and to loosen stiff muscles, not to train hard.” That page has a sub-barf quotient on it, so you know it is for legitimate athletes.

So I did a quick recovery, about seven miles at an easy pace — easy being relative as I am already not the most brisk, talented sprinter on the road at any given time.

Hit the post office to return something from e-bay. The post office here has always been one of the least fortunate places to visit. I’ve only been to the DMV here once, but I’ll take it over the Auburn post office anytime. Thought I’d timed it well, too, there were no cars in the parking lot. Filled out the envelope, sealed it up and I’m second in line. There are four postal workers at the front and two of them were working.

One of them was. The third one was busy talking cell phones with a guy who’d just shipped things.

There’s a design flaw in the building, too. While you stand in line you’re standing under a skylight. So you bake. And that’s enough to make you want the DMV any day.

Hit the sporting goods store after that, found nothing useful, and then the Sam’s Club. Picked up a forklift-full of toilet paper, an industrial sized box of gum and a box of snacks for bike rides.

Barbecue for dinner, I had the chicken at Moe’s, and the red beans and rice and the Moe’s pie, which is more like a crumbled oreo-fudge combination in a tiny styrofoam bowl rather than a piece of pie. But we tried.

And so the day has ended quietly, just as it began and held that attitude throughout. Too hot to move. Mid-90s? No one and no thing is willing to cause much of a fuss. May the weekend bring us more of the same, without searing temperatures.

Friday / history / iPhone / photo / video — Comments Off
17
Jun 11

The ballad of fried okra

We stood out in the garage and swayed with the wind this afternoon. When we began comparing radar, because that’s romance to us apparently, we found a dark red blob bearing down on us from the west and another coming down from the north.

Web stuff today. Working on a site for someone, which is coming along nicely, thank you for asking, and on my own stuff. I added four pages to the War Eagle Moments blog. Just click the little buttons at the bottom, there, and you can see all the neat Auburn stories from our many recent adventures.

Then the cat said stop.

And so I did, for a while.

Grilled steaks tonight. We had some New York Strips just dying to be eaten, so we obliged them. We’d picked them up from the meat lab some time back for $13. We also had okra, fresh from yesterday’s farmers’ market on campus and right off the farm.

I did not take a picture of the okra, because okra is shy. But the eggplant, now that’s a vegetable that loves the camera:

The eggplant, I’ve just learned, was once thought to be a love potion. In Europe it was once believed to cause insanity.

Okra, for its part, is thought to originate in Ethiopia, and came to the Caribbean and the U.S. in the 1700s, probably brought by slaves from West Africa, and was introduced to Western Europe soon after.

If anyone ever tells you that you don’t know where that food came from, now you can set them straight.

But I digress. There was a lot of pressure on this meal. The Yankee said if she botched the okra again — she’s just learning to make it, and it is a delicate thing — that she was retiring. No one wants this; okra is awesome. The first time she made it was quite good. And then there was too much salt. The next time far too much pepper. And then back to too much salt again.

Tonight the okra was fresh and crisp and just right.

Our veggies will live to be eaten another day.

adventures / Friday / history / photo — Comments Off
10
Jun 11

Diving day and departing Bermuda

Woke up this morning early — for me, for a cruise — and met the people we would be diving with. Three white guys singing reggae and a local making fun of them. They picked up six people from the cruise ships, five from ours and one from the vessel docked next to it, and told us the waters where we were originally going to dive was too choppy.

So we would dive elsewhere. And, boy, would it be a treat. This is all relative, of course. We didn’t know where we were going and we’re in Bermuda. This is a cruise dive and, thus, all a treat.

Our hosts took us out to the Mari Celeste, a Confederate paddle boat that had completed at least five successful trips running the Union blockade to the southern states.

One day in the late summer of 1864 …

On September 13, 1864, under the command of Captain Sinclair and piloted by Bermudian, John Virgin, with a cargo of “classified merchandise” which included beef, bacon, ammunition and much needed rifles for the war effort, she left port enroute to Wilmington, North Carolina. The Mari Celeste made an unusually fast run through the east end channel and up the south side of the island. First officer Stuart announced some breakers he had spotted ahead, but the local pilot who was steering the vessel replied ” I know every rock here as well as I know my own house.” Within moments, the vessel had slammed hard into the reef. She sank bow first within eight minutes. The ship’s cook, who was the only casualty, had returned to his cabin against orders for some personal belongings and never made it out of the sinking ship.

It is a nice wreck to dive, both paddles are still in good shape. Recent storms have uncovered even more artifacts that the local authorities are inspecting and recovering.

This is in 55 feet of water, and the reefs are nice, with some nice fish inhabitants.

Our second dive was on the reef upon which the Mari Celeste found her fate. There were caves in there, big ones by the way the guides talked, but The Yankee and I just swam over them. (She’s not big on caves.)

Nice dives, but not as good as a dive resort. One of the guys on our boat was the one you have to watch out for — brand new gear and he didn’t yet know how to use it. He kept bumping into everybody. And he was diving while seasick, which is probably as fun as it sounds.

Even still, how lucky to be here, to take those dives, and be able to consider where your next trip might be, one day, even as you’re still in Bermuda.

What a blessed life.

Of course our cruise ship pushed off from Bermuda this evening, so there’s that particular difficulty to consider. We hit a few shops for gifts and baubles and then got back on board in time to point and giggle at the stragglers.

So we are sad. Bermuda is behind us. The ocean is before us. And then New Jersey — which is a fine enough place, but talk about your come-downs.

And now, to cheer us all, pictures of a child celebrating a first birthday on the beach yesterday.