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Cozumel / cycling / Monday / photo / SCUBA / video — Comments Off
5
Feb 24

For a brief moment, I was ahead, and now I’m behind

On Saturday, a finer day was never made, I tried the Cascadian Farms blueberry granola with a box of store brand raisins. Once again, the raisins were undefeated in augmenting the flavor profile of what I put in the blue breakfast bowl.

This morning, I tried mixing the first two varieties, Bob’s Red Mill Honey Oat and Bob’s Maple Sea Salt. I added raisins, of course. And, so far, the mix of these two have been my favorite. But I have also learned something uninteresting today.

Basically, photos of granola in a bowl all look the same. So my breakfast experiment will continue — this week I have to try other mixes and then soon I’ll perhaps go pick up some other brands and flavors to try.

You’re broken up by this decision, I know, but the kennysmith.org visual editor has sent out memos. Memos.

Another memo has just come down, in fact, reminding me to get on with the most popular weekly feature on the site. So let’s check in with the kitties.

It’s so cute when Phoebe covers up her eyes to go to sleep. She’s very serious about her relaxation.

Poseidon does it, too. Though, lately, he’s been interested in balancing on legs and feet.

We have a joke about the two of them, siblings. My lovely bride notes when they’re doing the same thing.

Come play with us. Come play with us.

Then I say, “You’re freaking me out!” Because it’s weird when they do the same things together. And she laughs. The cats are unimpressed, because they’re cats.

But, as you can see, they’re doing just fine.

We’d all be doing better if we were diving, I’m sure. Today’s feature from our recent trip to Cozumel is a video. There’s some great footage here, including a closeup of a turtle.

And, of course, we’ve many more photos and videos to enjoy in the days to come.

I’m now on a nice little streak of consecutive days in a row on the bike. This weekend I set a personal best in that regard. Today, unrelated to that entirely useless notation, I received the monthly email from Strava. I always love this part.

That’s about right.

On Saturday I had a big ride. A long climb from virtual sea level up beyond the virtual snow line. This, Zwift calls the Epic KOM. It’s 5.9 virtual miles up hill. None of it is particularly steep, but it does not relent. About five miles in, you get above the virtual hot air balloons.

And then you reach the top of the climb. After that, there’s a bonus climb, a .68 mile ascent averaging 13.6 degrees. If i am not mistaken, that’s still the steepest climb on Zwift. Strava tells me I’ve done it seven times now, and regret each visit. Saturday was my second time up that climb in a week, and perhaps my third best effort up the thing. (In January of 2021 I was minutes faster, according to my ride notes.) Also, the view at the top is pretty nice. If you can still see straight when you get there.

So that was 30 miles Saturday. I got in 28 miles late last night. And I did 22 miles this afternoon. Somehow, this is how the day got away from me. So, now, I must return to campus.

If you’ll excuse me …

Cozumel / Friday / photo / SCUBA — Comments Off
2
Feb 24

Let’s get you to the weekend

Today I started the last test group of the first granola experiment. I began with four brands, have tried three and, after two rounds of this one I’ll start combining varieties. But, first, we’ll try Cascadian Farms. It started in Washington, was acquired by General Mills and now is managed by Rodale, a legacy organic research and production concern based in Pennsylvania.

I wonder where the blueberries came from.

These aren’t bad, though the blueberry is a fruit that I don’t automatically think of as a breakfast offering. Or, really much at all. But they work pretty well here.

Tomorrow, we’ll see how blueberries and raisins mix. I suspect it’ll be just fine, but I am looking forward to mixing these different brands and flavors. And then, in a week or so, trying some new versions of granola.

Yes, my skin is positively growing from all of these healthy breakfasts.

It’s probably the raisins.

I had to do some writing today. This writing had to be similar to something I wrote last week, but different. Also, I had to answer student questions. Similar, but different. And I also began prep for a Monday night class, where we’ll be talking, among other things, about Marshall McLuhan. You know the one, the scholar famous for “the media is the message.” Different, but similar.

Also a bit different, I’ll do a late night bike ride this evening because I just couldn’t muster up the energy to do it this afternoon.

Besides, I had to find a few new SCUBA diving photos to share from our recent trip to Cozumel.

Dosing these out was the best idea I had, I think. There could have been a post with dozens of photos and videos. But, instead, I’m getting weeks and weeks of material, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the videos.

I’ll add another one Monday, but, first.

I’d mentioned the coral restoration projects that are underway. That’s happening in a lot of places, including in Mexico’s beautiful waters. Here’s a staghorn coral site, now.

And there’s my dive buddy! I’m pretty sure this was after her ascent on the conclusion of a dive.

She probably still has about 1,500 PSI in her tank there.

Who doesn’t like a nice wide shot, now and again? This one is definitely going on the front page of the site, which is a project I’ll get around to updating in a week or so.

Sometimes I get lucky and almost get the colors just right. I’m sure this was at a shallow spot and the sun was at precisely the right angle because I never get this right. It’s a lot more colorful than my point-and-shoot photography oftentimes suggests.

And, here, I’m not sure which parts are healthy and which parts are in trouble. But, usually, when you see two different colors on the corals or sponges, one of them is less desirable.

All three of those might show up on the front page. But you should really see what we have for this space next Monday. It’s almost enough to make you want to skip ahead into the next work week.

Almost.

But not quite.

But close.

Cozumel / cycling / photo / SCUBA / Thursday — Comments Off
1
Feb 24

There are only 29 days, so let’s get through February quickly

Here’s that three berry granola — “sweet strawberries” and “bold blueberries” and plain ol’ no modifier needed “cranberries” — that I tried yesterday. It was maybe almost too sweet. So, today, I added raisins. The raisins helped.

So now I’m wondering if raisins should be added to the list of highly versatile foods that make most anything better. Should they?

Right now the list is bacon, honey and … maybe raisins? Their universality is probably ranked in that order, too.

Anyway, tomorrow’s new granola is the fourth in the series, the final new variety in this first round of the experiment. The key ingredient is the humble, yet exotic, blueberry.

Today, I did the first-of-the-month computer chores. The Desktop needs to be cleaned. And so does the Download folder. I updated the website’s spreadsheet, which I only get around to doing every four or five months or so. It’s more satisfying that way, watching the hits climb more quickly.

The original version of this spreadsheet was just one column of monthly data points, but this is a column recording almost 20 years of numbers, and has become unwieldy. So I broke this up into years. It’s easier to do pointless comparisons that way.

For instance, now I can easily see that 689,000+ visits rolled into the site last year. (For reasons that will always escape me.) Last year was my best year yet! And my third consecutive years of a half-million plus. I can quickly see that 2021 was better than 2022. I guess everyone got busy again when they stopped pretending Covid was behind them. I can also see that I’ve been over a quarter-million every year of the last decade. And my three best months all took place last year, October, July and November, respectively.

Would you like to know which January was the best January of all time around here? Last January, of course. January 2024 was the third best January. And now I can determine all of that at a glance because I spent a few moments formatting the cells of the spreadsheet to include commas.

All of those things I learned in a class somewhere along the way in high school or college are coming right back to me.

Speaking of statistics, spreadsheets and numbers that don’t matter to anyone but me — and to me, only barely — it’s time to tabulate what I did on the bike for January. This chart represents simple mileage accumulation.

That red line shows what I did in January of last year. Last year was my most prolific year in terms of miles. And January 2023, the output ever so humble, was my second most prolific month ever. (Bested only by November, of last year …) The green line represents a simple projection: the mileage I’d accrue if I rode 10 miles a day.

The blue line is reality. As you can tell, I’m well above the 10 miles per day average, and charging toward the 2023 trend line.

I wonder what this ridiculous little chart will look like at the end of the year.

I don’t have 11 more months of photos from our recent trip to Cozumel. But I still have quite a few that we’ll see together. And, then, I suppose we’ll just have to go diving again. Maybe she’ll breathe on the next dive.

But, before that, another filefish on the Palancar Reef.

Here’s some coral that is, sadly, dying.

Staghorn coral is some of the fastest growing coral in the western Atlantic, up to eight inches a year, and there have been some encouraging restoration projects underway. While we’ve lost a great deal of their population in the last 40 years, there is some encouragement that they can repopulate, with careful attention.

Here’s another great stoplight parrotfish, or, as I like to think of them, the inspiration for 1990s sneakers.

If I knew anything, anything at all, about that industry, I would absolutely start a line of shoes that were reproductions of reef fish color schemes.

I call this one “Sand.”

I’m not sure why I took that, but it’s near the end of a shallow dive, and there was nothing there. So, you see, it was a profound statement on a day without diving.

Is it time to go diving yet?

Cozumel / markers / photo / SCUBA / video / We Learn Wednesdays / Wednesday — Comments Off
31
Jan 24

And so long to January

This is today’s granola selection. Humorously titled, or scandalously titled, depending on the mood you are in when walking down aisle number ~~four~~ one of the local grocery store. This was the third variety I’ve tried since this little experiment began last week. My skin is positively glowing from all of this healthy eating.

The label promises a triple berry crunch. “Take that, Mostly Naked granola! We’ve got THREE berries!”

It’s not my favorite. It tastes like an imitation of the Captain Crunch berry flavor, or perhaps the opposite is true. It’s a bit of a sickly sweet flavor. It might have been one berry too far. The back of the package tells you that “sweet strawberries” and “bold blueberries” and “cranberries” are inside.

First of all, the cranberry lobby has to work on this. They’re falling behind on the branding. Also, there are toasted pumpkin seeds, I’m sure that’s meant to counter the berries which, again, the label promises to be “UNAPOLOGETICALLY AMAZING.”

What if my taste buds are changing? What if the too sweet thing is now too sweet for me? This is quite existential.

Tomorrow, I’ll add raisins to that variety. When three dried fruits are too many, four may be just right.

This is the 23rd installment of We Learn Wednesdays, where I ride my bike across the county to find the local historical markers. This is the 42nd and 43rd marker we’ve seen in this series. Both have to do where this modern county office building resides.

Prior to being a place where important government bureaucracy takes place, it was a jail. This very building. And before that, an older building was the town’s slammer.

And prior to all of that, the first jail was just down the street. The first jail was established in 1692. Tough on crime since the 17th century. But that was just down the road, which was, I’m sure, a sandy, dusty path.

Before it was the jail, this lot was the old market. Indeed, this is where the stret name comes from. And it might be hard, from this distance, to determine which precipitated the other. The old store, or the now historic building that sprung up around it. It’s a weary little area, weary but proud.

Between that, the late night of this search, the centuries-ago timeline, and the incredible ubiquity of the term “Market House” I’ve come up empty here.

That’s no way to end the month, but if you’ve missed any markers so far, you can find them all right here.

Let’s wrap up January this way. Here’s my dive buddy in Cozumel, and some great shots of some yellow grunts, an angelfish if you look in the right spot, a terrific flounder specimen and much more.

Don’t worry, at this rate I’ve still got days and days of underwater material to share. February is going to be colorful around here, too.

Cozumel / cycling / photo / Rowan / SCUBA / Tuesday — Comments Off
30
Jan 24

That was some sunny day

It got up to 42 degrees here today. And, for the best part of the day, it was sunny. This, I think, is why I have the unshakeable and mistaken feeling that spring is just around the corner. It’s the sun. I’m in recovery from years of the midwest’s monotonous gray skies. Right or wrong, early or on time, I look outside and think, it’s coming.

“It” being spring.

But it’s not. Not yet. We could be two months out from spring, somehow, but I see green grass and blue skies and shadows and I smile. I smile and I wait and wonder.

Where I park on campus I have to go through a little security checkpoint. There’s a guy in a hut and he’s looking for a sticker on my car. The guy that works the evening shift is an older gentleman. Quick with a smile and full of good patter. Every time I see him my goal is to make him laugh. I don’t think he gets a lot of that in his work role, because he’s always the one delivering the cheery spiel and the interactions may be plentiful, but they’re necessarily brief. So I try to bring a joke, or an unexpected reply to a gregarious man who has one-liners down to an art. But when you get him, he’s got a fantastic laugh. I asked him if he, too, thought it felt like spring. Two more months, he said.

I was afraid of that. But I smile and I wait and wonder.

Tonight in class we talked about some of the work of Lev Manovich and Jurgen Habermas. The students get Habermas pretty well. Manovich is a bit of a mystery, but they come around. We also talked about Photoshop, because that’s coming up in class.

I start this spiel like this. You don’t have to know everything about Photoshop for this class. You do need to some things, and we’ll touch on many of those. We have terrific tutorials available to you online, and I’ll try to one-on-one with you, if it might help you. I tell them they can follow along on the incredible tutorials and spend 19 hours and be well-versed. I tell them the way you learn this program is by doing, and that there are several ways to do the same thing, which comes down to preference and your efficiency. I tell them I have been using Photoshop for a quarter of a century, now, often on a daily basis, and I don’t know how to do everything. Don’t sweat it. You learn as you go.

I say, if I were a gambling person I would bet you a dollar that I will learn something about Photoshop, this program I’ve used for 25-or-so years, in the course of this class. And so then we do a few things on the big screen — which the students tolerate, I’m pretty sure.

In the new version of Photoshop there are mini-tutorial videos built in. You mouseover a tool or a panel and this little box pops up. You can play a short video that gives you an overview. It’s well done. I point out a few of those. And then, on the third one, I actually play the video. It runs 52 seconds. Tutorial demonstrated.

And then I say to the class, “Remember how, about 10 minutes ago I said I would learn something about Photoshop? Just did.”

Big laugh. Human element of the class instructor established. Another thing crossed off the To Do List.

Back underwater. It is a mild winter here, but I’m still in Cozumel in my mind.

Check out this anemone, which the divemaster is helpfully pointing out.

Look who is strong!

In an upcoming post, I have a great and impressive anecdote to share about strength underwater. So keep coming back to look for that.

But, for now, here’s another mysterious brown bowl sponge.

Or, if fish are more of your thing, here’s a closeup of a sergeant major.

And this is the saddest site you can see on a good dive. You’re tank is running low, and you’re having to ascend on an afternoon dive.

I’ve got another good six, eight minutes of air there, guys.

(For some reason, I suck down the first third of a tank like I’m never going to breathe again, but I can stretch out that last 1,000 or 1,200 for longer than anyone would think possible.)

It probably has to do with heart rate. So let’s talk about cardio. Since I last talked about riding my bike, last Wednesday, I’ve covered 164 miles, and am on a nice little streak of six consecutive days with a ride. My legs are starting to notice, too.

One of those rides was in virtual Scotland. I saw the virtual aurora borealis.

A friend of a friend has a wife who seems … I only met her briefly, once, several years ago. She leaves an impression and it might be the wrong one altogether. Anyway, we were talking about Alaska and she was talking about the shopping there and what there is to do and what isn’t there, and all of those sorts of conversations are insightful about a place, because you can learn new things, and a person, because you can learn what they value.

She found the aurora borealis to be utterly boring. And the malls, too.

I have never seen the aurora borealis in person, but whenever there are photos, videos, when a news story pops up, or when I see them in virtual Scotland, I get a good laugh.

So boring.

Anyway, with any luck, in a few days I’ll set a new personal mark for most consecutive days riding. This is the sort of thing that means nothing to anyone, but the person doing it. Eventually, it won’t mean much to that person, because there will be other goals to achieve.

If my legs keep working.

Tomorrow, we’ll see how January worked out, mileage-wise. The cycling spreadsheet returns for 2024.