Thursday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Thursday

I’m grading, so you get the simple version of the day

I made a Christmas present today. Can’t be talked about. You never know who reads this stuff. And another present arrived. Ssssh, don’t tell anyone.

Christmas? I am in no way prepared for the Christmas season. I never really am. But it doesn’t seem like that time of the year should be sneaking up on us. It never really should. But all of this happens every year.

If I wrote about that today, what would I do in the next six weeks? I should get back to grading, anyway.

I started the week with 148 items to grade, and I’ll finish those up tonight. It’ll be a fury. Or a flurry. It’ll probably be fuzzy.

Let’s return to the Re-Listening project. In the car, I am playing all of my old CDs in the order of their acquisition. And I’m writing about them here, occasionally, to pad out days like today. These aren’t music reviews, because who needs that. But they are sometimes a good excuse to dredge up a memory or two. They’re always an excuse to put some good music here.

And this good music is from Will Hoge. He’s from Nashville, and he fits the overlapping areas of Americana and country these days, but his debut was pure blue bar rock ‘n’ roll. He had a band that almost made it, then toured the South as a solo act with a supporting band. Dan Baird stood there and played guitar next to him, so it was basically a coronation. Carousel came out in 2001, and this song broke speakers all over alt rock stations.

I loved it immediately, it was the frenetic pace, the driving rhythm section, the desperate way he was screaming out the lyrics. Hey, it was 2001, but it was five or six years before I picked up this record.

It’s a debut album, which is great, but also limited. He was still growing into his craft. And I’ve yet to see him live, but it looks like a good time.

Here’s the title track.

Somehow, this was one of those CD mixes, one with a provenance I’ve forgotten. But whoever made this did me a real solid, or maybe I knew what I was doing, because there are five live Will Hoge tracks tacked onto the back, including this phenomenal Bill Withers cover.

He’s got a peppy little version of “Mess Around” that apparently no one has ever uploaded to the web. I’m not saying this version of the song being online would solve the web’s problems, but we can’t disprove it, either.

And there’s a sweaty bar version of one of the other key songs from this record, one I didn’t share earlier because I wanted to put it right here, in a live version worth hearing, in all of its clangy, brassy, Telecaster glory.

Since then Will Hoge has put out 13 more records, and I’m going to introduce his music to a relative soon, because some things just need to be passed down.

One day I’ll even get to see him play. He is doing some touring right now, just not close by. (Update: Turns out he was here about three weeks ago, and I had no idea. Come back, Will!)

The next time we return to the Re-Listening Project, we’ll go all the way back to 1992. This was a CD I picked up to finally replace an old cassette and I guarantee you that every time I’ve listened to it, I’ve wondered why I waited so long to do that. It’s going to be a great listen.

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31
Oct 24

The bow on October

Today’s bike ride became an important and record-breaking bit of effort. Somewhere right in here …

… or probably just before it … October became my second-biggest month of all time, in terms of mileage on the bike. The top month was this last February, and it was all indoors and I’m not sure how I did that other than it was February, and what else was there to do? Also, that was a, for me, ridiculous number and it’s hard to imagine getting back to it again. The gap between my most prolific month and the second month was substantial, but it’s a little more narrow now because of today’s bike ride, a 50-miler, and this lovely, dry, incredibly mild weather we’ve enjoyed all month.

So it was about three hours in the saddle today, enjoying the sun and the warmth and the trees.

And I spent a bit of that time thinking I need to find all of the roads that look like this, and ride up and down them all the livelong day.

I also, as is customary, spent some time wondering about the authenticity of this personal mileage achievement. It is the curse of the foreknowledge, and the spreadsheets. Sure, I rode every mile, turned every pedal crank. But without seeing where the numbers were last night, I wouldn’t have taken the ride I did today. If it is that purposeful, is it still organic? Is it more so?

The things you think about when your mind goes away from the world and comes back to you.

Not too long after that I ran across a woman who was trying to wrangle a dog into her car, which she’d parked in the middle of that road. I asked her if she needed any help. She asked if I had a leash. I did not have a leash. I carry a lot of things on the bike with me — three tubes, a pump, some set of lights, fuel, my phone, a tire lever, a few bucks, two water bottles and one or two other things depending — but never a leash.

So I found myself wondering Should I carry a leash? On the off chance that that, which has never happened in all of the years of riding a bicycle, happens again? And if it doesn’t, what else could I use the leash for, if necessary?

Not all of the things that you find yourself thinking about are particularly deep or useful. But I decided against it. For now, anyway.

So this older lady was struggling with this sickly looking dog. I opened the back door of her car for her, and went on my way and she went the opposite direction to get it some care. Hopefully it is a quick bounce back for the dog, and the lady will be pleased to have helped. I will imagine them being reunited and each loving the other in selfless devotion.

I did a little under half the ride on my own, but circled back to the house to pick up my lovely bride, fresh in from her day of doing things, and she joined me for the rest of the ride. I pulled into the driveway as she was topping off her bottles. I might be getting pretty good at timing these things.

By the time we got back to the road in that video, the same one you see here …

I was ready to be done. On the one hand, I want to do these longer rides, and longer one still. On the other hand, my bike fit isn’t great, and my fitness might be worse.

There’s only one cure for the latter, so I’ll just keep riding.

But not right now. Right now, I have to go write something about riding bikes.

While the miles counted today, this doesn’t count as the writing.

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24
Oct 24

A period of time short and marked

It was a lovely day. Was it a lovely day for you? It was a lovely day here. We’re in a nice long stretch of them, and it’s worth soaking up a little part of them whenever you can. I went out for a little run today, and before I started I stood under this beautiful old tree and watched the wind toss the limbs and leaves back and forth.

And then I ran two miles. I did not think of that tree again, which is a shame. It probably would have made the time pass more quickly, which would have been good, since I run slow. And it would have been less painful, since that’s a thing when you haven’t been running, and i haven’t been running. I should have thought of that tree.

We’re in this beautiful phase of things — and I suppose all of phases have their beauty — where the aging, shifting, changing seasons still have these beautiful colors we’re used to, but take on new hues.

The bees are unbothered, still going about their work with no additional hurry. Just the same amount of hurry they’ve always known. The same degree of purpose.

The still bright vibrant colors, the weathered, weary look. It captures a mood. Feeling it, but still here, still with our own purpose, still glorious. Still.

We all feel like that from time to time, I suppose. It can be beautiful.

Or maybe it was just the day. The angle of the sun this time of year, while we’re now so aware of being cheated, is simply stunning. This photo means nothing the rest of the year, maybe it means little now, but it’s playful, isn’t it? It’s full of expectation. It’s waiting for something.

I decided to try a little ride in the late afternoon, to see if I could pedal the run out of my legs. I went out seven miles into a headwind, the slowest, ploddingest ride I can muster. It was going so poorly I was able to compose this photo.

But then I turned around, and I put up perhaps some of the fastest splits I’ve done in … a while. Maybe that’s what makes the season, and days like today. It’s a sense from somewhere deep, deep enough you can’t ignore. So we try to absorb it through our eyes and skin and all of our senses because … we know. We know it’s only for the short while.

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17
Oct 24

An unremarkable day, remarkably

Is it possible to forget a day before it is over? I don’t mean that I want to, but that today just didn’t stand out in any prominent way. You wake up, eat food, do things, do some other things, and then the day moves on and you do, too.

One of the favorite parts of my day was sending an email to students to wrap up the week. I was trying to point out the value of thinking of the last two assignments together. And I was illustrating that with some real world context beyond the theoretical. The students will, I’m sure, roll their eyes. But then I ended the email with a short list of things going on campus. And that’s become my favorite part of the week: hey gang, the planetarium is having an open house, there’s laser tag, a beach clean up project, an important Buddhist celebration and so on.

There’s a lot going on, because that’s part of campus life. It’s not for me — the group running it didn’t invite me to laser tag, after all — but there’s always a group of students that might not know about something going on around them. Or, more critically, there might be a student or two stressed by a class or other things. It’s nice for them to know there’s more out there than just this assignment or that grade. So it’s one of the favorite part of my work week, finding those things, and sharing them. And if a few of the students come to think that I’m a prof that knows there’s more to college than classes, all the better.

I need to figure out a system for the plants on days like this. I moved them indoors last week, because the weather is variable enough. I have some grow lights in the basement and water them one day and spray them the next, but which day is which? And why am I bad with houseplants? Why am I trying? They aren’t even ours.

I sprayed them tonight.

Anyway, it was cool today. It will be warmer tomorrow. Work and play will be mixed and I’ll have to water the plants tomorrow night.

I went out for another late afternoon bike ride. I rode into town, setting two Strava PRs on the way. Then I doubled back and my legs disappeared. It was the headwind, I tell ya. And it hit me in the face as I rode in three different directions.

Because it is cool, my shadow was wearing a wind breaker.

It wasn’t necessary at first, so the first 10 or 15 miles it was just holding heat in, but then the sun got low, and I cooled off fairly quickly. By then, at least, the wind was at my back.

And somewhere right in here, I dropped some fuel. I’ll go out and try to find it tomorrow.

It’ll be a bit warmer, and even more remarkable than today.

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10
Oct 24

Up in the sky!

If you’re here for the day’s bike ride, and evidence of Halloween, that’s below. But, first, a first.

My first aurora borealis. Solar radiation and the magnetosphere in the night sky made for a lovely light show. Electrons collide with atoms and molecules of the upper atmosphere and isn’t this lovely? Ten photos below, poetry in essay form is not required.

I got in a late 15-mile ride today, a route I’ve come to think of as the neighborhood route. In truth, it includes at least three neighborhoods and several miles of farmland besides.

People around here love Halloween decorations. And, apparently, Halloween isn’t something you can do a little. To welcome the ghouls and goblins, one must go all out.

Believe me when I say, this is one of the more subdued displays.

I bet they give great candy though. How could they not?