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Monday

cycling / food / friends / Monday / Philadelphia / photo — Comments Off
18
Nov 24

We tried Malaysian, that was delicious

This weekend I improved my bike hipster cred with this new-to-me vintage belt buckle. I’d prefer that it was blue or orange or red, but the green will, I’m sure, grow on me.

I haven’t spent a lot of time looking, but I hadn’t run across a buckle like that before, rear derailleur looking all abstract, looking ready to climb. And when you know, you know, you know? So I bought it, and now it’s daily wear.

I have three daily wear belt buckles, which means I’m dangerously close to starting a collection. If I add three or four more I’d have a complete biographical collection. But I probably shouldn’t do that.

We went over the river on Friday night. A friend of almost 20 years from back home was in town. He used to live up here, too. And he was back for a conference, and heading up to New York to see his family. So we ventured over to pick him up for dinner.

And before we got there, we saw this sign.

Hmmmm …

We drove right beneath city hall. Built using brick, white marble and limestone, it is the world’s largest free-standing masonry building and was the world’s tallest habitable building when it opened in 1894.

Designed to be the world’s tallest building, it was surpassed during the phase of construction by the Washington Monument, the Eiffel Tower, and Turin, Italy’s Mole Antonelliana. The Mole Antonelliana, a few feet taller, suffered a spire collapse in a storm, and so this building stands a bit taller.

I’m sure we’ll discover more about it at some point in the future.

Our friend, Andre, suggested we try a Malaysian restaurant, Kampar, which has been shortlisted for a James Beard Award. While we waited the hostess gave me a new way to ask restaurant staff about their favorite dishes. She said the rendang daging was the reason she worked there. So we ordered that, and several other family-style dishes. And I’d work there for the rendang daging, too. It was a sweet, tender, slow-cooked meat. It offset the pickled vegetables well. Then, opposite that was a fried chicken done in a style that, by rights, I should not have enjoyed as much as I did. (But I want some more, even now, just thinking about it.)

So everything was great. We had about three bites before my lovely bride and I looked at each other and said, almost simultaneously, that my mother would like to try this place. So we’ll bring her when she comes up.

The weather is holding up. I got in 65 miles of riding this weekend, all of it just around the familiar neighborhoods. I’m trying to squeeze in every mile possible. You know the feeling, I’m sure, chasing the thing to forestall the thing.

That made sense right about here.

Now if this mild weather will just last until spring …

adventures / cycling / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
11
Nov 24

It rained!

I had to document this, because no one would believe it. It rained last night. This is the first rain since September 27th. I have read that we are in the worst drought in 130 years of record local meteorological observations.

It didn’t rain long enough to break the drought. Probably it couldn’t rain that much at one time. In fact, you don’t want it to do that, because it invites other problems. We need several good soakings, but none are in the forecast at the moment. Standing out in the rain last night, though, was a delight.

The farmers have been out in their fields just moving dust around. We saw some examples of that on our Friday afternoon ride.

This guy’s just playing around, just getting outside. I’m sure of it. What could he possibly be accomplishing over there?

My lovely bride and I did one part of one of our regular routes on Friday, only we did it backward. And then we took a different road which was not the best idea. But we had a nice day out, it was bright and warm and lovely and that was the beginning of the second week of November.

We went right by this guy on Friday, and I couldn’t have timed that much better if I’d asked that guy to coordinate his laps around the field.

It was colder on Sunday, and then nice and mild for today’s ride, when I saw a combine out of it’s natural environment. Look at the treads on this guy.

And here’s my shadow, riding off to the side as the sun started to dip in the west.

Two-hour bike rides in November? They’re a gift.

Monday / New Jersey / photo — Comments Off
4
Nov 24

Did a democracy

We voted on Friday. Our polling place is in the annex of a small Methodist church four miles away. But we did early voting, because you can do that here. You can do that here for almost 10 days, something like 96 additional hours. Each county is required to put up and staff, I think, at least three early voting locations. The more populous counties, of course, have many more.

All of the early voting precincts we could use were almost equidistant, so we drove the 10 miles down to a rural fire department.

The town blocked off roads to minimize traffic for voters convenience. There is a sign out front offering you assistance in 10 languages, as required by law.

There is a row of three or four folding tables with the polling staffers doing their job. “What is your name?” and such. Lists are consulted, signatures compared. They give you an oversized hotel key card. Behind you are four voting machines, arranged in such a way that, at first, you don’t think you’ll have any privacy. When you get there, though, you realize that someone would have to come over to be awfully neighborly to see your votes.

You plug in that card, you work through the touch screen — vote, vote, vote — you verify your votes on the screen, and again on a printed receipt. You take the card back to the desk, and that is when they give you your sticker.

They also have mail-in voting here. They have drop box voting with each county again required to prominently locate three of those bins.

It’s a wonderful feeling to vote. It’s a refreshing thing to do it in a place where the state actually makes it easy for their residents, all of them, to vote. Though I do miss filling in those bubbles. And, just once, I want to vote somewhere behind a current, where you pull a lever. Touching one more touch screen doesn’t feel especially empowering, but that’s the least of it.

I’ve been telling my students for weeks about the several processes available for them to record their vote. Trying to encourage them to do so because politics, we know, are interested in them. And because, we know that they are now a part of one of the two largest voting demographics in the country. I’ve been giving them info on how to do so to cover three states, because we could easily have people from just over the border in these classes. Some of them will vote. Hopefully all who are eligible. Some of them are probably voting for the first time, and we are all tasked with being mindful of encouraging that process. It should be a powerful thing, using your voice, weighing in on the national conversation, and it’s nice to encourage people to use their voice so I’ll do it one more time.

Go vote!

Monday / Philadelphia / photo / video — Comments Off
28
Oct 24

Across the cold, watery expanse

We were supposed to go over the river three times this weekend. But I only went two times. And it was still a lovely weekend, despite my coming up short.

On Friday we went over to watch a field hockey game. The team we were cheering on won, 1-0 or 2-0, it was difficult to see the tabletop scoreboard from across the field. They are on the verge of going undefeated for the season, and I finally got to see them ply their trade across a bumpy, lumpy field on a beautifully warm and sunny fall afternoon.

Our favorite player was a defender and that is most certainly a big part of why they pitched a shutout today.

On the way back over, I managed to get this shot on the bridge.

And in the driveway, I could hear the geese before I could see them. I’m not sure if I really saw them, even as I was trying to take a photo. They can make for a beautiful photo, in better light.

There’s a slew from the river back that way. Maybe that’s where they were headed.

I’d been fighting a sore throat and woke up feeling like I was losing the battle on Saturday morning, so I did not make the second trip over the river. There was a 5K that my lovely bride ran, and she was kind enough to tell me to stay in bed. I still got my t-shirt, though.

I went outside that morning to do outside chore and was rewarded with a few minutes of beautiful light.

You could probably write a poem or two about scenes like that. They might come off maudlin, or Irish, or both. That would not make them bad.

Some of the bushes are still doing some amazing work, here at the end of October. They have to be confused. Cool yesterday, outrageously warm tomorrow.

I found this tree on a Sunday afternoon walk at just the right time. What a lovely tie dye moment. If you’re going to go maple, go maple with flair.

Another shot from that walk.

And then we went back across the river again, meaning we went over the bridge, which gave me this shot.

We went to the Flyers game. Hockey! People sliding on frozen stuff. And, at times, the ice was a part of the display. Makes for a nice canvas, really.

The Flyers have an impressive graphics package. The LED ribbons are everywhere in the venue, and they make an impression. Then they shoot pyrotechnics out of the screens that are raised and lowered around the central scoring display. There’s a lot to see, and it’s not all on the ice.

On the ice, the good guys got off to a bad start, and then it got worse. Starting the third period it was 4-1. The home team battled back, putting two pucks in the net in the last two minutes, but the clock ran out, and so they have started the season 2-6-1. They’ll get it figured out soon. I’m sure we’ll be back to see it happen.

cycling / Monday / New Jersey / photo — Comments Off
21
Oct 24

Beautiful days

This was a beautiful weekend, and we had another glorious day, today. I spent too much time inside. But anytime you spent inside was too much, that’s how amazing it has been. There should be poems written about these days.

I’m no poet.

But I did take these photographs. Just scroll through them, enjoy, and make a promise to yourself to go out and enjoy the next picture-perfect day that comes to your neighborhood.