Wednesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Wednesday

adventures / friends / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
2
Apr 25

Conferencing

After I did the monthly cleaning of the computer — updating some spreadsheets and other documents, deleting stuff from the desktop and the downloads folder, and so on — I returned to the equally exciting task of packing for this afternoon’s road trip.

But before we left I got a stern talking to. Poseidon pointed out I was behind on the site’s most popular weekly feature, the check-in on the kitties. And he was also upset that, last week, Phoebe got a closeup and he did not.

They are jealous cats. So here you go, Poe, a recent closeup, to keep things equal between the two of you.

Phoebe also noticed we were two days behind. She was gearing up to tell me all about it, you can tell.

Next week he’ll probably want a photo in a bag or box, too. They are very jealous of one another. Him more so, but only because they haven’t yet realized that jealous is a thing they can compete for, too.

And, so you see, the are doing just great. Now they’re hanging out with a sitter, because we are just under five hours away, in beautiful and scenic Norfolk. Here’s a blurry shot from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel route. See if you can guess which this part is, bridge or tunnel.

We’re in Norfolk for the 95th convention of the Southern States Communication Association. This is our 10th time to this conference, and then second time we’ve attended it in Norfolk. The first time, my lovely bride won an award there. We’ve won two others, too. These days, we go back to point that out a little, but mostly to see our friends.

This is our first time at SSCA since 2017, though, because of other obligations, travel budget reasons and Covid.

Most everyone got in in time for dinner tonight, so we had some catching up today. We had blueberry french toast at this restaurant near the hotel.

And it was great, but seeing our friends was even better. You can text people and have group chats and do all of that, but when youget to see them in person you realize keenly what’s been lacking. These are sweet, sassy, incredibly smart people, people we have worked with and presented with and laughed with and so on since grad school. We get to spend a long weekend hanging out with them, and call it work.

cycling / friends / memories / photo / Rowan / Wednesday — Comments Off
26
Mar 25

We saw Adam via Zoom

My old friend Adam joined our class via Zoom. He’s recently stepped down from a command of American Forces Network Europe, where he managed dozens of stations on two continents. It seemed a good perspective to add to our international media class. And he had a lot to offer, so I’m glad he took the time.

I was trying to remember, but we met in 2011. I wrote a piece about a distant cousin of his, a World War 2 hero, one of the Doolittle Raiders. Soon after we met in person, and became fast friends. He took a master’s degree and became one of my lovely bride’s students. We’ve toured Alaska and Ireland together.

We are close in age. His hometown is just one or two towns over from my grandparents. Once, we tried to decide if we’d ever been to some event as kids. We decided the most likely place would have been a steakhouse. My grandparents’ church dismissed earlier than his church, so it’s possible that he had to wait on us to leave so he could eat lunch.

I wrote a little bio of him for my students. It’s been an impressive, long career. Multiple deployments, some great experiences and some less than great. He’s now just a few months from retiring from the Army, an exceedingly happy family man, and studying to become a commercial pilot. We’re trying to talk him and his wife into moving close to us. I’m not sure if I’ve sold him on it yet, but you’ve seen the pictures around here. One of my angles is that it is a lot like home.

(Speaking of home … He knew where his ancestor who immigrated from England came from. Adam and I once visited that road in London.)

Speaking of pictures, I took these the other day and I’m cleaning up my phone.

As the weather warms up and the bikes go back on the roads, it is good to see these signs still out there reminding people about the rules of the road.

That one is relatively new. At least I don’t remember seeing it last year.

And here’s a man out there discing that dirt. That field, if it is all his, goes back some ways. He was probably doing that all afternoon.

That was Saturday, because you work every day on a farm. I wonder what they were doing there today. A lot more than me, I’m sure of it.

cycling / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
19
Mar 25

The miles ahead

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.

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12
Mar 25

The traveling academics

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.)

photo / Rowan / Wednesday — Comments Off
5
Mar 25

Just work

Last night, and again earlier today, I finished putting together the last of my notes for the day’s lecture. We talked about journalism in places like Europe, Kazakhstan, China, and Russia. You might think that’s too much to do in 75 minutes, and you’d be right! But we touched on some things. They asked some questions. Shared some thoughts.

The sun was out. The sky is getting warmer. Spring Break is beginning in 10 days. Touching on some things, asking questions and sharing thoughts is a great goal. So mission accomplished, I guess.

Immediately after class was over I sat down in a committee meeting, which ended soon after it began. So I went to a group function and met some new students and had a pretzel.

My primary mission this evening was in finishing this packet I’ve been working on, off-and-on, for weeks and weeks. It’s done. I have written about this stuff all I care to, which is how I know I’m finished with it. All I have to do now is agonize over it some more. And convert the whole thing to PDFs.

Tomorrow I’ll go to campus and submit the thing. I’ll spend the next several days wondering how this managed to take up so much time. It was mostly my fault, which is why I’m glad to have finished the thing, and with a full two days to spare.