Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Friday / photo / site — Comments Off
21
Mar 25

The Friday random

This week flew by, somehow, and now it’s time to get back into class mode. So I’m starting to work on next wee’s classes. And wondering where this week went. And wondering how the next two or three weeks will go. There’s a lot to work through. So I must get to it.

But, first, there’s this.

I dropped a piece of paper in our Chicago hotel room and it just … disappeared. I’m glad there was nothing vital or embarrassing on the note, because it’s gone. My best guess is that it fell and slid under this improbably heavy and immovable bed frame. While I was looking for it, I somehow accidentally took this photo. For an accident it is a pretty decent composition.

I like how it blurs in the foreground but becomes clear as it goes forward. I’m looking for a metaphor there.

I updated the front page of the website. Go check it out. It looks something like this right now.

As we were waiting to take off from Chicago, I made the mistake of looking at the flight monitor screen on the back of seat in front of me. Despite the snow we drove through to get to the airport, conditions must have been radically different on the tarmac.

So it was a good time to leave, I guess. But that was last Sunday and this is Friday and next, for us, is Monday. I’ll see you then!

adventures / cycling / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
20
Mar 25

My PR pursuit

Helped clean the garage. We have a too-small garage. But, then I think that every garage should have about 20 more square feet. And laundry room. Almost every laundry room needs to be larger, but I digress.

We have a little punch out in our garage, allowing basement access. And in that area we also have two 7-foot-tall shelving units. But it was all in the way, according to my lovely bride. I’m not the best with conceptualizing spatial arrangements, but I didn’t think it would provide the space she thought. But it is spring break and it was her idea so that’s what she started and I joined her for that and, wouldn’t you know it she might be right.

We’ll find out in a few days of using the new configuration, I guess, but the first impression looks promising.

I gave it the first test today. The bikes are now parked where the shelves were. And I went on a little ride this evening, just to spin my legs. It was down the chipseal road past the winery, onto the little cut through that has some of the newest asphalt around, a downhill stretch of two-tenths of a mile of pure ribbon, and then back up by the local park and into town, where I let the traffic decide my route. I was going to turn around once, but had to take a right because of what was behind me. And I was going to turn left later, but had to go straight because of what was ahead of me.

The last five miles were about getting out of town and through two neighborhoods and back home.

There is a nearby Strava segment, and I have the second fastest time on it. I should have the fastest time on it. This year, I’m breaking the record, which was set in 2020.

In my first try of the year I was one second off my PR and 11 seconds off the record.

I left maybe three seconds out there from a wobble, not taking the left-hander perfectly and sitting up a little too soon.

Felt good, until the end.

Even if that’s close to right, I need to improve by a lot. But there will be plenty of opportunities to improve. There always are.

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.

photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
18
Mar 25

Signs of spring

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.

Hope traverses us all at night.

adventures / Monday / photo / Rowan — Comments Off
17
Mar 25

We’re back, and now it is spring break

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.