Friday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Friday

Friday / IU / photo / site — Comments Off
7
Oct 16

Have a look at my Friday

Right away you can tell this is a beautiful campus. I’ve seen my fair of attractive ones, but Indiana’s is one handsome place. It is hard to pick the best spot because there are many strong candidates. Today, however, this is my favorite spot on campus:

That’s a little stand of trees right next to our building, in Dunn Meadow. The picture itself is also presently the emergency backup version of the front page of my site.

Oh yes, my site. Have I told you about the page? This week I’ve redesigned it entirely. Give it a look, won’t you?

If you’re on a real browser you’ll see a video. If you’re viewing it on your phone or pad, you’ll see the above picture as the background. What I like most about it is that I can change it easily and regularly. So, more visual, more video.

This evening, the work continues in my home office. This project will never get done. I have a good helper, though:

She might also be why the work goes slowly.

Friday / memories / photo / Pie Day / site — Comments Off
30
Sep 16

On the road

Saw this flier today. Well sure, I thought to myself:

I must say this: there are no lame cat fliers full of typos all over the bulletin boards here. That, in its own way, is just another small relief.

We are traveling this weekend, to Georgia. For a wedding. A wedding in the Deep South in the fall on a Saturday. Georgia and Tennessee are playing in a rivalry game. I don’t care about either team, of course, but given the locale of the wedding, it might come up among the many lovely guests.

Here’s my rule: If you think enough of me to invite me to your wedding, and it is on a fall Saturday, I will attend if I can. No football game would get in the way of that. I will also make fun of you about it throughout your wedded bliss.

So that’s what we’ll be doing tomorrow, which meant traveling today. Which meant the road, which meant dinner on the road which meant, in Nashville, Tennessee:

And today is Friday which means Friday is Pie Day:

Interesting tidbit, meanwhile, about Bloomington: You can’t get pie anywhere.

Friday / photo — Comments Off
23
Sep 16

I did it! I fixed a thing and made it work!

I could tell you about a class I taught yesterday, but you’re really here for the puppy pictures:

Is he driving that car? I think he’s driving that car.

Also, he dog caught me sneaking a peek at the red light:

Eyes on the road, pal!

I saw that dog while was coming home from the hardware store because today was the day I was going to finally fix our water heater issue. The problem had to do with the ignitor switch here.

One morning recently we woke up with cold water. (This being the second problem we’ve had in the otherwise in-great-shape house.) And then the water heater worked. And then it didn’t. So naturally we moved to call the home warranty people. They send out a repairman of their choice and the guy that we got was working at peak rudeness, so I invited him to never come to our house.

So I researched the problem and studied the device. Then one weekend morning I took the entire heating unit of the thing apart and cleaned it. It worked! I fixed the problem.

Only, I had not. Because through more observation and consideration I realized that the problem wasn’t the tank or the heating unit, but just the one cable right. There was a short in it. The sort of intermittent problem you only discover every fourth morning in the shower. The cable and the electrical unit that powers it are installed at knee high and the thing had taken some damage. It only worked, and started the flame that heated the water, when it was sitting just so.

I knew I didn’t need to replace the whole thing. How it worked some of the time proved the point: this was just an electrical issue. And, finally, I found the part I needed. Only the local hardware store didn’t keep it in stock. Because why would you do that at a big box hardware store?

But I found a guy who worked there that knew things about these sorts of things and I put my little reporter cap on and I asked all of the right questions. I mean all of the questions. All of the “Get away from me, you’re bothering me” questions.

And then I bought six bucks of parts, made the leap of faith, trusted what I knew of electricity and gave it a try.

And it works! So for a few bucks, and too much time pouring over diagrams and refusing inane repairman quotes, I was able to fix the problem.

A considerable improvement over our last house, which was built on a cursed burial ground when it came to home repairs. I’d search for references to them on the site, but I fear that might impact the new owners and cause them harm.

Friday / IU / photo — Comments Off
16
Sep 16

Say cheese … and complimentary things about the major

Today, we recorded some promotional videos in the new studio:

The studio is still just a box backdrop. But next week, next week, we’re going to get to use it as a proper television production facility.

adventures / Friday / music / photo / running — Comments Off
9
Sep 16

We ran a race, watched balloons and saw Lee Greenwood

There was a 5K for a local hospital. We ran it. We didn’t win, but we didn’t come in last. I actually placed second in my age group. Most importantly, we finished with smiles, so who cares, otherwise?

This race was at the local fairgrounds, and I have photos to prove my alibi, should the need arise:

After the fun run the trucks came in and dumped out piles and piles of nylon and dacron. The bigger purpose of the night was bringing people out for hot air balloon rides:

And this is what I learned: Depending on how you frame or crop your shot, Yoda’s expression really changes a great deal.

Also, feel free to grab one of the above three shots if you need a new social media avatar, I guess.

There was only one Yoda balloon, but he was clearly the star of the evening for kids young and old:

I bet you could do a Star Wars hot air balloon theme. It’d be great fun, until the blasters and light sabers came out.

Also Lee Greenwood appeared. He did a three song set, by himself. No band, so karaoke, basically. Well, we think it was actually Lee Greenwood. You had to stand so far away that you couldn’t tell. And it wasn’t the crowd, which was sparse, that dictated the distance from the stage, but the drop zone. A parachutist descended with a flag to set the night off right. They mis-timed this. Greenwood hit that last “AAAAAAAAA-” said thank you and was back in his trailer and maybe on his way to tonight’s steak dinner before this guy got to the ground:

On the way home, we wondered how many times in his career Greenwood has sang that song and if that is annoying for him. So I looked up his booking rates. Let’s say the site was accurate and there is no bargaining. Let’s say his aunt isn’t the marketing agent for the county fair. Or that he didn’t lose a bet to a county commissioner. Let’s say he didn’t have to be in a nearby town the next day and that this was a just another convenient stop. (Judging by his published tour dates, he was here special.) They might have paid $25,000, for a three-song set.

You’d think that for that kinda dough he might run the chorus one more time to help the skydiver, but no.

He was already off stage, counting his money, pleased that he’s been singing that song for more than three decades now.