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

I do not know what is happening.

Cleaning the leaves that never go away

The weather is beautiful. Tomorrow it will change. And so I was sent outside to do yard work.

And by sent, I mean it was overdue and it was a wonderful day to be outside for a few hours. The sky was high and sharply blue. The few clouds were thin scraps of paste in the sky. The temperature was intent on redefining room temperature. And overhead, things are showing the full promise of the season.

Blink fast and everything turns green.

And so it was that I had to mow the lawn. Some parts are greener than others. And some are just dusty. Other parts have still more leaves. I’m pretty sure we’ve raked “for the last time” twice during the winter, but here I am doing it again today. No matter. There is stuff to see.

Managed to fill about four big lawn bags, mostly of willow oak leaves. Once again I say unto you: No person that has ever raked willow oak leaves has ever later planted willow oak trees. That’s one of the two things I know about raking. The other is that I’m going to make my money by developing an efficient way to get leaves off the ground and into bags.

How do you do it? I’ve tried about every possible way to get leaves from here to there. I’m using a giant rake and shoveling the leaves from the pile into a bag held somewhat open by a giant garbage bag. We cut the bottom out of that can, probably because we read it online or someone told us too, but I think would work just as well using this technique in the conventional

Maybe I could invent a vacuum system for next fall.

But that’s for later. I’ve done enough of this today, two hours of yard work and two minutes of brushing by one bush that seems to have a unique nest alliance of wasps and bees inside. Glad that one doesn’t belong to me. I hope the owner notices it soon.

There’s this beautiful tree nearby:

In putting away the lawn mower and the lawn bags and the giant garbage/leaf can and the gas can and all of that I learned we had a new neighbor. I wonder how he feels about leaves. He was a shy one. Good thing I got this safety shot. He offered me no other photos:

About that time The Yankee came home and we went for a run.

So there we are on the trail. She takes off, I catch her. At precisely a mile I realized I’d had exactly one bowl of Cheerios all day. And so far the next three miles I suffered. I’m not sure if it was the sudden lack of energy or the knowledge of the sudden lack of energy. It was not a good run. But there will be other, less not-good running efforts. (The flatter the better.)

At home I ate two pieces of leftover frozen pizza. And they were the best two pieces of mushy thin crust and stretchy cheese you can imagine. And then we went out for Chinese, and it was the best Chinese you can imagine. Pretty much the best day you can imagine.

Except for the leaves.

I do not know what is happening. / journalism / links / photo / running / swimming / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
12
Mar 15

I’m slower at a lot of things

Slipped into a pool lane today just as my sports editor was leaving the pool. He’s coming back from a little injury and is racing in his first track meet in some time this weekend. He’s naturally very excited. So today, of course, he was just knocking out 2,250 yards in the pool.

“Hey,” I said, knowing I was going to run later and that he’s run at the same place before and that he’s a lot faster than me, “I’m going to do a few laps after this if you want to wait around.”

He was planning to run too. Because he’s young and he can do that.

“Where are you going to eat later? I’ll stop by and eat slower than you, too.”

He laughed and disappeared. I swam my 2,000 yards, feeling nauseous for the second half, thinking so that’s what that feels like.

Then I went and ran three miles, feeling better and sprinting through about 15 percent of the thing, pretending I knew about intervals. After I got cleaned up I looked up the sports editor’s best times 5K. He’s very fast. Good thing he turned me down.

Here’s the view from the track. Three black cinder walls and then one side with three of these:

I saw a great pick on the basketball court below, and then I ran my last three laps as the lacrosse team warmed up running laps below. They must have not been trying too hard, I stayed with them. But, hey, that’s two bricks in a week, and that feels great.

Things to read … because reading is always great.

I think this is the first Twitter video I’ve embedded here. This is a great video:

Watch this. Go home. Your day can't possibly get any better. https://t.co/cz1TtpDW00

— kenny smith (@kennysmith) March 12, 2015

Here’s a newsroom with some spunk. Turns out someone set fire to the building, but the publisher is unimpressed. Fiery journalism:

We know there is a portion of the population that doesn’t like what we do here. A nice quiet chamber of commerce cheerleader that runs press releases, without asking questions, is more to their liking. Those readers don’t want to know how badly the schools are doing, lack of city services, problems in police departments and county job bids that are illegal and padded.

That would be so easy to do. We could operate on half the reporters and they’d require no news writing education, training or experience.

But that’s not what we do. We do what journalists everywhere used to do, before bowing to advertisers, money, pressure and threats and the easy road. When a newspaper informs readers in such a manner, whether they wish to be informed or not, certain risks come with that, including bullet holes in windows, occasional paint-balling and the ever-so-popular rocks.

But to start a fire? Understanding the anger or the arsonist’s lack of ability to cope with a problem is just beyond all of us here at the Rio Grande SUN. Richard Beaudoin states it very well in his letter on page A7: write a letter, come talk to us or start your own cheerleader and print what you want.

Better yet, don’t do the stupid, immature, irresponsible things that lead to your actions or words being reported in your local newspaper. The community would be better for it.

I wonder what they write when the arsonist is caught.

I like most everything about this:

Climb Mt. Everest? Nah. I saw it on Google Maps:

Monasteries, lodges and schools have all been captured and Apa says you might even see some yaks along the way.

“My hope is that when people see this imagery online, they’ll have a deeper understanding of the region and the Sherpa people that live there,” says Apa.

Previously Google has mapped other renowned locations, including the Amazon forest, Greenland’s ice fjords and wedding chapels in Las Vegas.

Don’t you wish they hadn’t grouped Las Vegas with those other places?

The kids are alright: Basketball players stop game to stand up for cheerleader.

Anyone know what this is? It is an old three-ring binder. This was a high school book that belonged to my grandfather.

Seventy-some years ago he was writing in that book. I’ve been looking through it. Some of it is worth seeing, and I’ll share it soon.

baseball / I do not know what is happening. / memories / music / running / Samford / swimming / Tuesday / video / Vine — Comments Off
10
Mar 15

You’re here for the music, I don’t blame you

This evening I did a 1,800 yard swim, toweled off and then had a 5K run. Finished at 75 percent target heart rate. The swim was about at my normal slow and sloppy pace and style. The run was probably at the lower end of my pace. But that’s a brick to start the season of exercise, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m feeling pretty good after, too.

You know, there’s a time when you don’t think about doing those sorts of things. And it doesn’t take all that long to look at those numbers and think to yourself, “That’s all you did?”

The mind is a weird place, is what I’m saying. I do not know what is happening.

So I swam in the indoor pool, naturally. I had the far left lane all to myself, hitting neither the wall or the room any at all. I did these in 50 yard increments, because I’m still trying to find some form of breathing that works. And having completed the mile I staggered out of the pool, into my flip flops, up the stairs, into the locker room, into some dry clothes and my running shoes and then out and over to one of the old gyms on campus. The gym was closed for a boy’s lacrosse practice, but the track above it was open, and I jogged and sprinted along on that, listening to the sounds of my footfalls and wondering just how long that track has been in place. This is what it looks like from underneath it.

And so to the parents that were there, sitting on the bench, watching their sons play lacrosse and listening to me trample 15 feet above you and wondering “Is this going to be the lap? Will this be the time? Are all of my affairs really in order?” I apologize. But you should have seen me in the pool.

I have this mental image that my swim looks really good for about 1,000 yards. Really it probably only looks really good for 15 yards, which is most of the push off the wall and that first stroke. But I can really make a nice streamline shape, boy, and I’m proud of that.

I got through some portion of the run by wondering what I would have for dinner. I can just look at a body of water and my appetite gets out of control, so, to have actually burned some calories, this could be a real meal. But I didn’t want this, and that would never seem filling and … for some reason there were two big burritos wrapped up and sitting on the floor of the track. So I somehow talked myself into Moe’s, because I guess I was getting hungry by then. Moe’s, I said aloud tonight, making it real, seems like a better idea in theory than in execution.

Please remind me of that as necessary. But, at Moe’s, there was this:

So now it is back to the newsroom, where the award-winning staff of The Samford Crimson is working on what will surely be another fine edition of their august publication. They’re celebrating their 100th anniversary this spring, ya know. We should have a party.

Things to read … because reading is always a party.

This one doesn’t surprise anyone, but it is nice to see: Huntsville ranked among top cities for STEM jobs

Turns out there is going to be a lot of stuff going in this summer: Redevelopment of Toomer’s Corner set to start after A-Day.

This is written in a sports talk context, but you get the sense that the anecdote might carry over to other programming: Is Sports Radio Ready For Its Future?:

Two discussions in particular stuck with me and have had my mind racing for the past few days. First, I was in Dallas for the Radio Ink Sports Conference and during my time there I had the chance to moderate a panel which focused on the mind of millennial listeners. I was on stage with three college students. Two were 21-years old and the other was 26.

Over the course of 45 minutes, I hit all three students with a barrage of questions on their perceptions and interest in sports radio and I along with the rest of the room learned that they live in a different world where content is only king if it can be consumed quickly. If it requires sifting through your podcast to find it, waiting through a commercial break or needing to wait for a host to finish rambling off-topic, they’re gone. Even the big name guest means little if it doesn’t include a hook worth sticking around for.

And that whole essay is a pretty nice read.

They got that right. Rickwood Field ranked among best baseball destinations

Really, I just mention that to dust off this Rickwood piece I did some years back. The oldest continually operational baseball park in America, in 20 minutes:

The place is 105 this year. This is a painstakingly recreated manual scoreboard you’ll see in the outfield:

And, over on Facebook, I’ve started The Best Single of the Last 45 Years game. So far there are eight great choices, including mine, which I heard tonight, and whose intro inspired the entire thing:

If you can’t get in a good mood with those horns the very reverend Al Green is right behind them, ready to work everything out.

He’s still doing it, too.

Yep, that’s all you want.

I do not know what is happening. / links / Samford / swimming / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off
3
Mar 15

Remembering to breathe

Here’s a fine feature I found will skimming through some archives in an office filing cabinet. Unfortunately the web isn’t so helpful in finding Shorty Harrison or his wife.

The reporter works in academia. The photographer is with a modeling agency in Florida. People doing the real work on campus, I always tell young writers, always offer the best, and usually overlooked, stories on campus.

Got a swim in this evening, the first in far too long. So I guess it is back to training then, which is where I’ve been having the problem of late: starting.

I got in 1,350 yards, which is little more than a trifle, but it was my first swim in a while. About 1,200 in my shoulders complained, “Enough.” Also, I figured out that I don’t actually breathe in the breathing part of my freestyle stroke. There’s a swimming coach that works at the pool, but he’s teaching kids to be competitive swimmers, not me. We talk now and then and I’ve complained about my arms filling up with lactic acid. He has told me a few times I’m not breathing right. Either that’s an observation or just the obvious conclusion. He hasn’t told me how to fix it. Maybe because he’s not my coach. Or maybe because it should be obvious. It makes sense though, I tend to hold my breath when I concentrate or in exercise.

If I can get that fixed, I chuckled to myself, I could progress from being a sadly incompetent swimmer to a merely bad one.

Things to read … because reading always makes us better.

This would be huge on the farm, With Google Glass app developed at UCLA, scientists can analyze plants’ health in seconds:

Scientists from UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute have developed a Google Glass app that, when paired with a handheld device, enables the wearer to quickly analyze the health of a plant without damaging it.

The app analyzes the concentration of chlorophyll — the substance in plants responsible for converting sunlight into energy. Reduced chlorophyll production in plants can indicate degradation of water, soil or air quality.

Social media use of student athletes: 2015 survey results:

Over the last few weeks we’ve been compiling data on our third annual survey looking at the social media use of collegiate student-athletes (can see the results from our 2013 survey here and 2014 here). This isn’t a perfect science but it does allow us a good look into how college athletes use social media. This helps us be more effective in our social media education and training sessions, and also provides valuable insight as we help athletics departments craft social media strategies.

This year we had nearly 1000 student-athletes participate.

An unfortunate tale out of Oregon, Raped on Campus? Don’t Trust Your College to Do the Right Thing.

This doesn’t apply to me, yet. Training for Triathlons at an Older Age.

I’m going to say “No,” while waiting for the courts to say “Of course.” You’ll notice in the story this isn’t about you, the client, but rather the proprietor. Should Hotel Owners Be Forced To Hand Over Guest Records To Police?:

At issue was a Los Angeles ordinance that requires hotel and motel owners to record various pieces of information about their guests — drivers license, credit card and automobile tags, for instance. The hotel owners don’t dispute they have to do that; what they do dispute is the part of the law that requires proprietors to make this information available to any member of the Los Angeles Police Department upon demand.

The city contends the law is a necessary and important tool for fighting prostitution, drug trafficking and other crimes. The hotel and motel owners, some of them mom and pop operations, contend they are harassed by police, who sometimes show up for inspections of their records in the middle of the night. They contend that police should at least have a subpoena in hand, allowing the proprietors to challenge the inspection in court if they think they are being harassed.

You could make tea party jokes, but I suppose you’d have to deal with various interest groups and obtain an EPA release. There’s no limit to the jokes, really, but this is serious. Obama “Very Interested” In Raising Taxes Through Executive Action:

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is “very interested” in the idea of raising taxes through unilateral executive action.

“The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans,” Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.

“Now I don’t want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know of,” Earnest continued. “But the president has asked his team to examine the array of executive authorities that are available to him to try to make progress on his goals. So I am not in a position to talk in any detail at this point, but the president is very interested in this avenue generally,” Earnest finished.

Here at home, some things never change.

Alabama Supreme Court orders halt to same-sex marriages

Gov. Robert Bentley on state budget problems: ‘We cannot cut our way out of this’

This is a really neat, unsurprising and seldom told type of sports story. Beauty of sport: Texas A&M’s compassionate act in Auburn’s time of need:

On Saturday morning, former NBA forward Anthony Mason, father of Auburn guard Antoine Mason, died in Manhattan following complications from an earlier heart attack. Antoine already was with his loved ones, but Auburn rightfully felt compelled to somehow honor the Mason family in a game nationally televised on the SEC Network (or even if it wasn’t).

Problem was, Auburn already was in College Station, and the Tigers’ jerseys were laid out in the Reed Arena visitors locker room, hours before a 7:30 p.m. tip against the Aggies. That’s when Auburn head equipment manager Dana Marquez reached out from Auburn to his friend and counterpart at A&M, Matt Watson.

Watson has served as A&M’s head equipment manager since 2000, but is only 43 – a testament to how diligent and good he is at his gig. This is one more example. Watson received the call from Marquez at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, only four hours prior to tip.

Marquez asked if the Aggies could do anything at all to help the Tigers honor Mason. The result was an example of the oft-untold good in sports.

“It was the right thing to do,” Watson said. “Life happens, and it doesn’t always happen in a timely manner.”

And time was of the essence.

From the depths of history, and the deep of the Pacific, Microsoft co-founder says he’s discovered long-lost Japanese battleship:

Paul Allen says he has found the wreck of a long-lost World War II Japanese battleship near the Philippines.

The philanthropist posted images on Twitter that appeared to show the Musashi, once one of the two largest warships in the world. The discovery was made aboard his superyacht, the MY Octopus, as part of an expedition that Allen launched.

The search has taken Allen and his team of researchers more than eight years.

The images and video were taken by an unmanned submersible deployed from the vessel.

It is simultaneously amazing that we are capable of making discoveries like this and surprising that it often takes so long to make discoveries like this.

I do not know what is happening. / maps / photo / running / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
4
Feb 15

Don’t trust the map

Here is a map my phone recorded:

That’s off of a fitness app. A company has a run app and a walk app and a walk-your-dog app (no kidding) and a cycling app. Naturally, that’s the one I got first. Why they don’t simply integrate these into one utility escapes me, but we do know that dog lobby is a powerful one. Anyway, I share that map with you because, on Monday, I tried out one of the gyms on campus I’d never been in before. It was built in the 1960s and has a track running around the outer ring.

Something about the building, though, interferes with the signal getting to the phone and the app. That’s two laps around a circular track floating above a standard gymnasium. The website tells you the distance, but the app was very much in disagreement. So I just turned it off and thought about downloading the walk-your-dog app.

Which probably would have been better than the run, or the way I’ve felt for the past two days. I still have grapefruits in my calves from the exertion, an easy five-mile run. (I knew the lap count and my general time.) Apparently I didn’t stretch enough and I’m reminded of this every time I walk down stairs right now.

Also, we have interesting little maintenance vehicles on campus. They are probably nicer than the older golf carts with plastic screens. And they have racing stripes:

I just thought you’d like to know that.