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adventures / cycling / friends / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
25
May 16

More outdoorsy pictures

The Yankee and Matt. He threw a flat right there, and that was basically the end of our ride.

And this was the next-to-the-last ride here. But we’re not going to make a big deal about that. I’m kind of tired of it, and … some other thing … about it. I started riding bikes as stress relief and … some other thing. And then it became about exercise and then, finally, I discovered that there was a freedom thing to it. But I only noticed that because I really started noticing the sites. Here are some sites:

adventures / cycling / food / friends / Monday / photo — Comments Off
23
May 16

Stuff we’ve been doing

Two roads diverged on a paved path and I — I took the one that went up.

Well it went up a little.

We were riding bikes, obviously:

This is in Columbus, on the Chattahoochee Riverwalk:

You are standing here on a bridge across the river. On your left is Alabama. On your right is Georgia. Not pictured are two guys, one on a kayak and another on a paddle board. I just assume they were the Georgia Coast Guard:

My biscuit and gravy from Plucked Up Chicken. I miss it already:

Now, as I’ve said here before, go get yourself some lightly breaded chicken and some spicy pineapple marmalade. Put it on a fresh biscuit:

There was a Game of Thrones party last night. There were costumes. Those are staying in the private collection — but the group managed a great beheading shot. Also, there were snacks:

A little more detail on Ned Stark’s head:

Baked goods are coming. Inside, he was a cupcake:

We went back to Columbus today for another bike ride (that’s about 150 miles in the last week) with Matt the former grad student. He’s getting married in the fall and continuing his studies in South Carolina.

We’ll get maybe another ride or two in with him before he goes, but no more Plucked Up, sadly.

adventures / Auburn / Friday / friends / history / photo / video — Comments Off
22
Apr 16

Sitting stage left

American holly, Ilex opaca, in Auburn, Alabama.

That’s outside Telfair Peet, the theatre building. We were there for a show tonight. If you’re in or near Auburn you need to come see this show this weekend.

Dr. Tessa Carr, who wrote and directed the show, is a friend of ours. We’ve been talking about this performance for months. It sounded great and played even better. Go see “The Integration of Tuskegee High School.”

What Tessa wrote about this show gets right to the point of the performance:

All of the players are college students. And in every show I’ve seen they always do a great job, especially when you consider the demands on their time. And even moreso in this case, some of the actors and actresses aren’t theater majors or have never been on stage before.

Also, I know some of the people being portrayed in the play, and know most of the names of the rest. A few of them were in the audience. That must be wild, to see yourself portrayed on stage.

They’re doing a Q&A after the show, and that’s worth hearing, particularly when the people who lived in those moments are there to take part. But the show itself, the show is powerful and terrific.

UPDATE: They’ve uploaded the full show. It is full of important history lesson that we should remember, lest we forget:

adventures / Alabama / Auburn / baseball / friends / photo / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
29
Mar 16

Capital City Classic

Auburn and Alabama play one game of baseball in the state capital each spring. It is a non-conference thing, meant to allow people that don’t normally see the two teams face off on the diamond. Auburn has won all but one of these, and they won this year, 10-1.

This is the ticket:

And that same gaudy graphic is adorning the walls at Riverwalk Stadium (home of the Montgomery Biscuits). It is worth keeping around, I think.

The game was fun, the ribs before it were good, as ever. But the highlight, and the point of all of this, is the people. Here’s the @AUSection111 Glee and Chess Club and Live Bait Shop, class of 2016:

(Daniel, C.J., Beck, Emily, Josh, Thomas, Chandler, Clint and Autumn.)

I heard a speech one time years ago where the speaker said, “Look around. Take a moment and look around this room. This is the last time we’ll all be here together.” And I think about that often. These are good folks. It is a shame we won’t all be together again, very often if at all.

Well, the people and the fireworks. The fireworks are the other point. And if it is possible to say such a thing seriously, these fireworks lacked nuance:

friends / memories / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
10
Mar 16

A 3-year-old’s life

We got to see Liam today. In a word, he’s healthy.

We were going to dinner with friends one night when The Yankee saw on Facebook that he’d just been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. His parents had found bruises that they couldn’t explain and so they went to the pediatrician and that doctor wisely sent them to Birmingham and they caught it in a hurry. I walked from the table at the restaurant that night to the restroom and looked up this form of leukemia, marveling at Google’s knowing what I meant, but also at the prognosis. If it was caught quickly, and with the proper care, it was a scary, hard thing, but easily survivable. And Liam’s parents are marvelous, and they’re fortunate to have good health care and he has had some scare times, and some hard years, and he’s spent too much of his early childhood in a car driving to hospitals, getting poked and prodded, wearing masks and helmets and having his social life limited. But the kid is doing great. He’s amazing. He walked in, sat on our sofa and pronounced it “Quite comfortable.” And then he just plays at that high speed that kids continually run in. Liam is healthy.

So this is a good reminder about how easy it is to register for blood marrow donations. You can do the entire effortless, painless registration in less time than it is taking you to read this. Send off for the forms. When they arrive, swab your cheeks, put them in the envelope and drop them in the mail. You’ve joined the national registry; maybe you’ll get the chance to help somebody one day. Find out more here.

In another word, he’s adorable. That kid has style. Completely holds a room with his charm. Though you wish he’d come out of his shell and be a bit more precocious.