Friday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Friday

cycling / Friday / memories / photo — Comments Off
6
Jan 23

My Bob Barker line was my third-funniest joke of the day

At the end of the day, as I was walking out of the office, I ran into the guy who locks the doors. He’s a fine fellow and we always have a good laugh. He was doing his last task of the day, slamming that bolt home, as I was leaving the building.

Did you just lock me in?

“Yep, you’re stuck.”

I will take that personally, then, for two days.

He laughed, and I instructed him to have a good weekend. Just, you know, in case that was somehow helpful, as if the man hadn’t yet thought of that possibility.

But the best part, aside from sending him home with a chuckle, was that I got to use the sincere expression, Have a good weekend, pal.

I once had a friend who used that pal to great effect. Sometimes I use it, and it makes me smile, thinking of him. You never heard the comma, because you were so busy being touched by the sincerity that came with that “pal.” He is a park ranger these days. I bet he’s great at that.

Anyway, there was a lot of bright sunlight to enjoy today. I am cold, but happy.

This was the second time this week I’d seen the actual sunlight and blue skies. It did not disappoint. I will accept the cold — this being January and all — but I will need some sun in exchange. That’s not asking too much. Otherwise it is just the usual, relentless, gray.

As if I needed to see it again, and from another perspective, to verify it, here’s the mid-afternoon view up through the giant skylight in the commons.

It’s gray 165 days a year here, and we have this giant window set up. This time of year I’m always amazed people don’t just sit there and stare up in wonder when the skies are blue.

Part of that is because there’s no one here right now. No students, anyway. Some of the professional types were in the office, getting ready. Classes start on Monday. This, then, is the last deep breath in. The normal rhythms will return. And, sometime in mid- or late-April, spring will finally show up. May it get here soon.

Got back on the bike this evening, and had a nice 27.7 mile ride. Should have gone longer, but there are dinner considerations to consider.

I considered I normally like dinner.

But, after the semi-impressive bonk on Wednesday, sitting up after 80 minutes and feeling as if I could ride all night was an encouraging sign.

Also, I was underwater at one point. Look to the left of that graphic. Biggest ray I’ve ever seen.

So I made a spreadsheet to chart my bike riding progress this year. I wanted to create a graphic that would illustrate how I did against specific daily averages over the year. One line will represent improving last year’s totals by 21 percent. The other will be a line that, if I can keep up with it, would mean a 42 percent increase over my record-setting 2022.

It’s ambitious, but it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Right now, at least, I am well ahead of the blue and green trend lines, as you can see by that purple line. I’m wondering if/when the more ambitious goal will slip away from me.

Oh look, this mountain has its own weather system.

I’ve probably shared a version of that before, but it amuses me, which is the point.

Don’t worry, though, I won’t share that chart again for quite some time.

cycling / Friday / photo — Comments Off
30
Dec 22

A new thing to sit on, and then sitting in the saddle

Our new sofa arrived today. We purchased it on July 1st.

The ottoman was ready almost right away. Apparently the sofa, which is common enough to have floor models, is built on a case-by-inspired-case basis. It was supposed to come while we were traveling all over the wide world for the holidays, but they were kind enough to hold on to it until we returned. They called yesterday and said our furniture would be delivered between 9:30 and 12:30 today. They showed up at about 9 a.m., in and out with a careful professionalism.

I’m typing this from the sofa. It is firm. Has that new-furniture are-the-chemicals-in-this-deadly-in-California smell.

Humorously, the crew chief has to take a photograph of the sofa for proof of delivery. If the signature and initials on the form aren’t enough, who is to say he didn’t take that sofa and shoot a photograph in my neighbor’s house? Or his neighbor’s house? So I’m surprised he didn’t ask us to sit on the sofa, but AI is doing amazing things these days, and so maybe that’s not proof enough either.

Hang on.

…

I just stood up to go fetch something from elsewhere in the house. This sofa is both firm and actually easy to get out of. The old one, which had 20-some great years of use, involved a rolling, pushing motion, and you always came out low, owing to where your hips wound up. With this sofa you just … stand up?

My knees approve.

Climbed on the bike this afternoon. Climbed off in the early evening. I spent so much time on the bike that I started playing around with the camera angles on Zwift. This is usually the sign that I’m ready to be off the trainer, and on the road. But, it rained all day, and it was 54 degrees at best, and once the bike is on the trainer, it tends to stay there until the weather is tolerable. And it rained all day.

Anyway, I clicked off 60 miles. I was intently concentrating on distance, because of this silly mileage goal, rather than times. But I still did my 3rd fastest time on the circuit, and my second fastest time on two loops of the circuit.

I hope my avatar has something left in the legs for tomorrow. Tomorrow we break the personal record.

Tomorrow, it won’t be weird to ride my bike into the new year.

adventures / family / Friday / photo — Comments Off
23
Dec 22

Brick Christmas

Today we’re in New Jersey. Us and the cold — and I know no one shivering wants to read about that. We’ve been lucky with the weather all the way around. Oh, it’s cold, but it’s as cold or colder everywhere else. And we’ve only seen flurries. And where we are, in New Jersey, everyone has power.

Christmas in New Jersey is with my lovely bride’s god parents. My god parents-in-law, if you will. There were only 10 of us there today, where there are usually 15. But the day, which is always great fun, goes like this.

You go inside and up the stairs, hugs and handshakes, and then you look for the pickle. The Christmas pickle is a lesser known tradition. Seems to stem from some Germanic origin, or late 19th century marketing. (And if I had a nickel for every time something without a clear provenance was possibly attributed to those two things … )

This tree has two pickles on it, and if you find them, you are due a year of good fortune. Everyone always finds both pickles. That’s family for you.

I also spend a few minutes studying all of the other ornaments. The godparents-in-law have an interesting collection.

There are hor’dourves. After your first experience with this particular party’s habits, you know precisely where to sit. And, of course, they changed up which end of the table would have the shrimp. I was out of position. There are presents, one person at a time, youngest to oldest. I’m sixth of the 10 present today, so I’m above the mean and the median. Yikes.

(When all 15 people are here, I sit 10th.)

Later there’s a lasagna dinner, which is one of the highlights of the Christmas season. My godfather-in-law is a third generation Italian immigrant, and he knows what he’s doing. And we all love him for it. My mother-in-law always brings the Christmas Crackers, a thing which I’d never known about until my first Brick Christmas in the oughts. This year’s Crackers had some bad puns and good trivia. We all took turn reading those.

After dessert one of the kids suggested the board game Blank Slate. Never heard of it. Had a blast. Everyone did, old and young.

And that’s Brick Christmas, it’s always great fun for everyone.

We’re staying in New Jersey tonight. Pull out bed in the downstairs den. I fear that my back will never be the same.

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16
Dec 22

And so it begins, travel day

An easy morning at the office, then back to the house to rapidly finish packing things up. And then into the car. We got out late in the mid-day, which means we only drove all afternoon and into the evening. And the evening part was, mostly, on interstates and roads I’ve ridden and driven on my whole, entire, life.

So there was a lot of this today.

And some of this.

The darkness caught up to us in Nashville, or so. Later, you turn right off that interstate then wind through some four lane roads of questionable purpose, and then into the hills and hollers on a two lane county road. Eventually you hit the state line, and then it’s a straight shot on those stretches of asphalt that are more than familiar. You keep going until you hit the “big” intersection that marks a small town’s crossroads, just up the street from the historic ferry spot that made the small town possible. You take a right, cross two more creeks and then hang a right in the darkness.

A moment later, in a finely lit and well-manicured neighborhood, this seven-hour drive is over. Hugs for Mom. Dinner, and the holidays are now underway.

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9
Dec 22

The local version of the Japanese show, ‘Tigers of Money’

We did a live production today, the annual Shark Tank game that I can only presume NBC or Mark Burnett haven’t heard of. This is a streaming program for the game design students, and it is is a key moment in their curriculum. Their showing their work to game design professionals. Getting challenged on their choices, and feedback on their efforts. The judges will ultimately vote — we don’t see that part, or the outcome — and some of these games will continue on. This is an even more part of the curriculum, as they eventually form LLCs, bring these games to market, and so on.

It seems like every year we change something about this show. And every year I have a different task. That part is fine. I spend a lot of time in our studios, and I’d much rather let everyone else call their shots — especially when we have students on the production crew. Last year I ran a manual camera for the interviews. This year, I was just the guy getting participants in the right order and doing whatever other little thing I could to help things run smoothly.

And, thankfully, the program ran smoothly. The game design students seemed to enjoy themselves, the little bumps that you encounter in a live production were merely little bumps, and, presumably, the faculty liked it a little.

Now watch these six presentations, and pick your winner.

(If it won’t play here for you, for whatever reason, you can join the dozens of other viewers on Facebook.)

The best part of it was, each time I went to the green room to call up the next set of presenters, everyone else was cheering them on. They’ve got a lot of camaraderie in that program. It is always nice to see that whole group pulling for each other.