One of the good and, at the same time, one of the bad things about the variability of the weather is that it dictates whether I go for a ride. And, today, it was just nice enough to take my second outdoor ride of the year.
Also, it was new glove day.
And when it takes more than one hand of fingerless gloves to count my outdoor rides, I’ll stop counting them. Maybe in another week or so. Because the weather forecasts are all over the place.
Anyway, I bought those gloves at a bike shop in Chicago. I went looking for helmets. While the store’s site had what I was interested in seeing, they did not have it on the floor. The shop was small enough that it would look awkward to go in, buy nothing and leave. So I walked around looking for that helmet and trying to think of what else I needed. What I needed was a new pair of gloves.
I don’t even remember when I bought my old ones, but they are old and crusty, even after washing them. The padding in the palms have lost their effectiveness. So it was time, I was at a bike shop, and the price at that bike shop was the same price I found online.
(I took out six paragraphs of observations and complaints about bike shops here. You’re welcome.)
And so I had a nice ride today, just 25 miles around the local roads.
It’s scenic and pastoral. Most of the roads are peaceful enough. But this is going to be the year where I go longer and seek out new roads routes. Gonna have to be.
Today, though, I got in just in time to see the sunset across the way.
Timing, they say, is … something.
photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on Signs of spring 18 Mar 25
This is not the first thing budding, but it is the first photographic evidence I’ve produced of the budding of spring.
Charlotte Brontë wrote of spring, “a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”
She wrote that at a higher latitude where I’m writing this, so she must have been thinking of a bit later in the season than this. It’s not even true here yet, the part about the greenness. It could be the want, or the heart, but the freshening daily part has come to pass. Maybe it’s the Hope.
It was 60 and cloudy most of yesterday. It was sunny and made it to 66 degrees today. Tomorrow the forecast calls for the mid 60s and 70 degrees on Thursday.
We are back from Chicago. Our plane left a bit late because they had to de-ice the wings. It was 70-something degrees on Saturday there, and snowing on Sunday. The Midwest, man.
We arrived to messages from both of our mothers, who noted from various trackers that the flight had apparently been delayed for some reason. I hadn’t really noticed sitting there for an extra hour or so, though. i was busy reading, which is one of the two best things to do on a plane. If you’re not flying it, that is.
Anyway, it was a successful trip. The Yankee also presented some research. I took roughly 45 photos and concluded in retrospect that her presentations would be even better if she opened her eyes when she talked to crowds. She was blinking in every one of my photos, except this one.
This is an international conference. People came from six continents to take part. She did not want to pronounce the title in front of them, potentially insulting our French colleagues.
Also, if I didn’t mention it, she is the executive director of this conference. I’m married to a rock star.
On Saturday we met with one of our former professors for lunch. And we also saw the river, which reminds me of the classic throwaway line from The Fugitive, “If they can dye this river green today, why can’t they dye it blue the other 364 days of the year?”
Also, there were a lot of people out there enjoying the warm weather and the complete bastardization of Saint Patrick’s Day.
Also, also, the International Association for Communication and Sport’s conference will next year be held in Dublin It also coincides with our spring break. Guess where I’ll be going.
And now it is spring break, which means I can catch up on some things, and get ahead of some other things. Also, house projects.
Yes, we are in Chicago. Spring has arrived here with us. (It will snow here this weekend.) But today is beautiful, and if there’s one thing I learned in the Midwest, it is that you live for the day, because tomorrow could be an entirely different kind of problem.
But this trip is great, because we are with friends and colleagues, most of whom we haven’t seen in a year. Sadly, some aren’t here for international travel reasons, but maybe in a few years more reunions will be had.
We had lunch with friends from South Florida and UNC-Chapel Hill today. Lovely, lovely people. The sort you should see more than once a year. Two, maybe three times would be much better — and still keep me at low risk of being found out. We walked down to an Irish pub, where everyone working there was Irish, or at least had worked out a good accent. I had the shepherd’s pie, because I’m a sucker for the stuff. In the back of the joint, near the restroom, was this sign.
I glanced at that, thought, They oughta know and took a good picture.
Down the street was a bike shop. My lovely bride had a meeting and I had nothing to do, so I walked down there. Look! Bikes!
The application of that bike lane warning was hasty, and there’s probably an end-of-the-work-week story that isn’t that good, but I had a two block walk, which gave me plenty of time to invent a better story.
I went to the bike shop to look for helmets. I’m due a new helmet this year. Past due, in fact. And they have one I like. And since it’s not at my local store, and I had a few minutes I figured, why not? Except while this store had it on their website, they didn’t have it in the shop. Now, it’s a small enough place that everyone sees you come and go, and so I felt a bit silly about being in there and walking out without buying anything. I need new fingerless gloves, so I bought some. They made a sale, I didn’t leave empty handed, everyone was happy.
And I saw Didi the Devil! He’s a German superfan. A car mechanic by trade, holder of 17 world records for bike inventions and he’s been on the side of the road for all the big races in Europe for 30-some years now. The story goes that in German broadcasts, the old 1 km to go flag, a red triangle hanging above the race, was called “The devil’s flag,” and that inspired the costume. The riders say it’s good luck to see him in the race.
I’ll never see him in a race, of course, but I do see him when I watch the races. And since I’m talking about bikes tomorrow, maybe he’ll bring me some good luck.
The photo was taped to the customer-facing side of the receipt dispenser, so if I had not gotten new gloves I wouldn’t have seen him today. The guy that made the sale flipped that photo up and showed me another one taped beneath it. Double good luck to all their customers who know what they’re looking at.
After the day’s pre-conference work, we went out for dinner with a friend from St. Bonaventure. We headed to another pizza place, but it was a two hour wait for some mysterious reason. Looked dead, sounded quiet. No one wanted a wait like that, so we went to Billy Goat’s Tavern.
It was legendary before it became a bit on SNL.
The place is steeped in Chicago history. This is beneath the old newspapers, and so all of the reporters and the people that wanted to be seen came here. The walls are covered in the city’s history. The picture frames jammed next to one another like a wood and glass wallpaper.
We first visited in 2008, when we were there for another conference. We stopped by at lunch time, when the line wraps around the restaurant and the old man was doing his cheezborger shtick for his guests. That guy is, or was, the life of the party, and he knew it and reveled in it. He could also take one look at you and guess what you were eating. It doesn’t hurt that it was a relatively small menu, but he could just tell. It was great. Also, the borgers are pretty good burgers.
At the time of night we visited, it was quieter, the night crew didn’t need to do the gimmick. And there was plenty of room to sit and have a quiet meal. Also, the borgers are still pretty good burgers.
Now I’m going to go finish my presentation. I have to deliver a concise 12 minutes on this research tomorrow. It’d be better if they would allow me 14.
We are traveling. This required us to pack up suitcases, which we did last night. An old pro at this by now, it took me about 15 minutes, and only that long because I needed to be sure to leave room for an extra sports coat. We then drove to an airport. We went through the procedure required of you at the airport. I walked through a quick security line. Though the sign said you were five to seven minutes away from the front, it was more like two, and this is a pleasant bit of social engineering.
Through security, no problem. The hardest part was recombobulating.
Then to the plane, and on the plane and off. Here’s proof.
So where did we go. It was a domestic flight. It took a few hours. And when we got here we had chamber of commerce weather. That’s not much of a hint. This is a better hint.
Does everyone know now? Well, we walked around a bit today and I found one more fiendishly difficult hint I can share with you.
Needs more Ditka.
We are here for a conference. My lovely bride is presenting some of her Olympic research. I am presenting our recent cycling research. There will be rooms of sports scholars everywhere. The person that runs the conference is a person you might now.
When she’s not upside down in a swing, she’s the executive director of the only stand-alone association geared to communication researchers interested in exploring sport from diverse critical, methodological, theoretical, and multi-disciplinary perspectives.
And this is important, that swing had an age limit.
There were three of those swings, and they were all in use when I shot that. Not a single person was under the age limit. I bet that happens a lot.
Anyway, the conference starts tomorrow. She’ll have to climb out of that swing to present her research that morning. I’ll give another talk on Friday afternoon, and then I’ll run a session on Saturday. Great fun! Many pizzas!
(We had deep dish tonight. I’m not sure how many more I’ll want.)
