I do not know what is happening. « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

I do not know what is happening.

Scene chewing

Today I changed a doorknob. Four screws out, the new hardware in place and four more screws to install it.

I was listening to Pandora at the time. It took less than two songs, and that was because one of the screws was stripped.

But that wasn’t even the height of my industriousness today. I also built one of those shoe racks that you hang over a closet door and immediately regret having purchased! There’s just no end to my usefulness, it seems.

The door knob was on one of the houses that my great-grandfather built, let’s say, 60 years ago.

Here he is, the older gentleman:

He built three on some of his property for rental income. They’ve all stayed in the family over the years. A few years ago I sanded down door frames in one of the houses and went through all those decades of paint. It was a smooth glimpse of archeology.

At the time I wrote:

And suddenly I’ve found myself kneeling in the dust of the place, sanding smooth at least six layers of paint, peeling away the canvas of perhaps a dozen lives or more, letting that old lumber breathe again for the first time since the Eisenhower administration.

Sometimes I overwrite.

I walked around the side of that little rental and saw this, and wondered much the same thing as I did about the paint: Did he hang this?

That’s a small question that’ll never be answered. Who would remember? Who is left to know? Who would pay attention to the details of when a screen door went in? And is that the original, or something put up during the Reagan years?

I noodled up and down the road for five miles and then jogged one, the last effort before the Sunday race. We’ll see how much I come to regret that.

Usually, by this time, I am very much aware of how unprepared I am for the thing. This time I am choosing to not consciously acknowledge how unprepared I am.

Because, you know, I am.

Played with my grandparents’ dog:

She’s a smart one.

Things to read … so you can be smart, too.

There’s a super moon tomorrow night. Pretty large tonight, too.

US GIVEN HEADS UP ABOUT NEWSPAPER DATA DESTRUCTION:

In a statement to the AP, the Guardian said it was disappointed to learn that “cross-Atlantic conversations were taking place at the very highest levels of government ahead of the bizarre destruction of journalistic material that took place in the Guardian’s basement last July.”

“What’s perhaps most concerning is that the disclosure of these emails appears to contradict the White House’s comments about these events last year, when they questioned the appropriateness of the U.K. government’s intervention,” the newspaper said.

The White House said Thursday that the British government had acted on its own in destroying the Guardian drives.

Digital advertising will pass 25% of total ad spending this year:

Global spending on advertising will hit $545.4 billion this year, according to a report from eMarketer, and digital ads will make up more than a quarter of that spending.
Digital ad spending is likely to hit $140.15 billion this year, with $32.71 billion spent on ads for smartphones and tablets.
Growth in total media ad spending should be 5.7 percent this year, eMarketer said, more than twice the growth rate a year ago, which was 2.6 percent.

A properly sanitized report, from ESPN. Pete Carroll headed to Trojans HOF

And when ESPN disappoints you like that, they redeem themselves like this. Marcus Lattimore doesn’t walk alone

The Widespread Effects of Facebook’s Latest Outage:

The lesson, therefore, is a poignant one: When utilizing any third-party tags, particularly ones that have such a big effect on your end users interaction with your site, it’s imperative that you make sure the code is asynchronous with your own to prevent it from affecting your entire site’s performance.

Whoops. Anthrax investigation turns up ‘distressing’ issues at CDC

Stuff on my Tumblr: The mysteries of modern shipping, an examination of modern currency, an old Scout and an older swing.

On Twitter:

Maybe I should just start using this as a sarcasm face … pic.twitter.com/TuOzfR6NO4

— kenny smith (@kennysmith) July 12, 2014

Leonard Nimoy had just stolen all of William Shatner’s scene chewing.

I made fun of the Horta episode, with plenty of photos. Check it out.

cycling / I do not know what is happening. / iPhone / photo / running — Comments Off
8
Jul 14

A quick summation

Tour de France, World Cup, laundry and work. It was a day of watching little people go very fast over flat terrain, German going fast over Brazil, things drying fast in the dryer and composing emails slowly.

I rode a bit of the time trial course today. Thought I was taking it easy, but the computer was impressed. We’ll credit the new shoes, which still require some tinkering in fixing the cleats.

I almost passed a car and I didn’t feel like I was working especially hard. The point today, for me, was just to stretch out my legs, work out the last of the stiffness from my Sunday run and get in a little run at the end. It wasn’t a brick workout — combining two elements of a triathlon, and probably so named because of what it feels like in your legs — but I wanted to do something like a mini-brick. So I got in 13 miles of easy pedaling on the bike and one mile of jogging in the neighborhood, just to get moving, to keep moving, but not overtax myself.

I do not know what is happening.

And, now, a picture from last night of The Yankee and our friends’ dog, Trixie:

There’s a fine line between patience and stubbornness in a dog. Trixie lives there. Her trainers, apparently, called her a stump, because when she doesn’t want to go, you won’t move her. So she’s easy to take pictures of, even with a phone in low light.

I do not know what is happening. / running / weekend — Comments Off
6
Jul 14

Tight in the middle

This afternoon, since it was only 90 degrees, it seemed a good time to catch up on some overdue yard work.

It was either that or ride my bike. I should have ridden my bike.

So I spent three-and-a-half hours trimming hedges, pulling weeds out of the shrubs and then raking up the annoying leaves and stalks and sticky, thorny, scratching weeds and vines.

And somewhere, on my third wind, I decided “Since I am already sweating, and my heart rate is up, this would be a good time for a run.”

Because the day was getting long, and I was ready for some exercise, and I equate sweat with exercise, this all seemed like a good idea. So I got finished with the stupid bags of trimmings and then decided to trim some trees. Now I’m covered in sweat and sawdust. I changed shoes and shorts and said “I’m going out for a quick run,” which is always a vague description. If you feel good, feel good and extend yourself, I say. And I felt pretty good.

I found and returned a miniature schnauzer to her owners. Called the number on her collar and stayed with the pup until they showed up. She is 13, they said, and know how it goes, but she was a good piece away from home. The pause gave me some more rest, so I felt good. And I kept running.

When I got to 3.1 miles I had a choice to make: continuing around the circle means a route of about eight miles, retracing my steps means I’d have a nice 10K. This felt like the best idea, until about mile four. The last two miles, to get home and to get to the 10K, or 6.2 mile mark, was something of a struggle.

I do not know what is happening.

But I picked a wildflower for my lovely bride! And I’m sure I looked a sweaty sight, shuffling down the road side with a bright yellow flower in my left hand, huffing and puffing for all I was worth.

When I got home she said that we define “quick” differently. This is true. There’s nothing quick about a six mile run for me.

I wrote all of this on Facebook. A buddy asked “How’s that spandex fitting Superman?”

Hence the title, above.

cycling / history / I do not know what is happening. / journalism / links / things to read / video / weekend — Comments Off
5
Jul 14

This car makes jumps

The world around you is one of the things a bicycle teaches you about. Things look different. Terrain is different. You come to understand that those aren’t two hills, but really one hill you approach from multiple directions.

The most important thing I have learned, so far, is that it has taught me not to judge. You never know what someone is going through, which is the personification of the “Walk a mile in my shoes” concept, which is writ large in my head every time I’m struggling to top a hill. Those people driving those cars don’t know, I tell myself.

Some of them probably do, but the point is that it can be hard.

Another important thing the bike teaches you is about more roads. Eventually you start looking for new routes, new challenges, new approaches to that same hill. I found some of those today, in part because I saw a neat road name on a map. The road is about four miles from our house and I’ve passed it dozens of times on my bike alone. But playing with cycling routes on a map led me to answering the question “What’s down there?” The answer was a private driveway.

And this:

Had a difficult with the new shoes. They, surprise, didn’t feel right for most of the ride today, but I figured it out as soon as I got home and took them off. And it was an easy fix. Hopefully that will be taken care of today.

I went through three new neighborhoods today, though, and two of them I’ll return to again. The third featured a bad stretch of road that overruled the two extra rides up that same hill mentioned above. In just over half of the distance I climbed more than I will in next weekend’s triathlon. And, with that and the time trialing I did yesterday, I will begin to taper off the workouts.

Tapering, like I have a training plan. Like I’m an athlete.

Aside from the pretending, I do not know what is happening.

Things to read … so you’ll know what is happening.

The best thing you’ll read today: A Janitor’s Ten Lessons in Leadership

Rare, Remarkable Maps Trace America’s Path to Independence

Roger Simon: America’s glorious failures

‘Flying Farmer’ recalls WWII service

Total US Ad Spending to See Largest Increase Since 2004

Guardian Australia: lessons in online-only publications

Have I mentioned I need a drone? I need a drone.

Fireworks may be the most temporal of celebrations, and you’ve already moved on, I know, but that’s just awesome.

I can’t adequately describe this video, but I’d suppose the individual reaction to it is informative.

Now go back to your three-day weekend!

Auburn / cycling / I do not know what is happening. / running / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
2
Jul 14

Phil, princes, pictures

They gathered in the stadium of the 2,000 student school in the town of 56,000, which is a suburb of Atlanta. His coaches talked and his college coaches talked and his father talked and the sun set a remarkable shade of orange and blue and people thought, “Oh, Phil is a painter.”

And they lit candles and laughed and hugged and shared tears for what they’ve lost, what we’ve lost, and tried to imagine what his family has lost. And none of it was enough, but a lot of it was just right. There are eulogies and then there are eulogies. And this video played:

And it wasn’t at all about football. His sister tells you what it is about.

I rode one of the regular routes today. I did it in new cycling shoes. I couldn’t decide if trying new shoes less than two weeks before a triathlon was a good idea, and I still can’t decide, but here we are. It will take me a while to figure them out and how to avoid mishaps with them, but they are lighter.

Why all of that matters, in as much as it does. You’re familiar with the fairy tale of the princess and the pea? I’m a lot like that on the bike, which is to say I’m an elite athlete in tune with myself and the machinery I’m using. Of course that’s not the case, but I notice things that make The Yankee roll her eyes.

When I swapped from Continental tires to kevlar trainers, I noticed a big drop off in performance. When I swapped from the kevlar tires to Gatorskins, I noticed an improvement. When I changed water bottles, I could tell the new ones were heavier. I didn’t notice that in my hand, mind you, but I filled them up, put them in their cages and pedaled away and felt it within just a few strokes.

So these shoes are lighter. And, in cycling, lighter is better. I feel like they pull up better, too. These are clipless shoes, of course, which bolt you onto the pedals. They have two advantages, allowing you to pull up on your pedal stroke as well as push down. This exercises some different leg muscles. Also, the pros use them and you want to look like them despite the different sensations and the possibility of disaster that comes with them.

Falling in clipless shoes is something of a rite of passage. I’ve done it a few times. Once in front of a police officer and once in front of fire fighters. Both were embarrassing and only slightly painful. It takes a bit of time to train your foot to come out of the pedals and to do it in time. Hence the falling and the rite of passage and the skinned elbows and things.

With these new shoes, they feel like I’m starting over with the whole thing. That’s odd since the cleats are exactly the same. The pedals are exactly the same. The shoe feels different, and the sole is different, and I am the prince with the pea.

So I rode 18 miles and ran a 5K today. It was very warm out, both times. Also, I’ve been dragging the last few days and am in one of the inexplicable phases of not eating very much. It felt pretty good, though.

I do not know what is happening.

Nice picture and all .. You don’t often expect great lines from Instagram, but this one has it.