{"id":573892858,"date":"2020-12-21T21:55:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T02:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573892858"},"modified":"2020-12-23T10:24:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T15:24:36","slug":"look-up-in-the-air-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2020\/12\/21\/look-up-in-the-air-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Look! Up in the air!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I got setup on <a TARGET=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zwift.com\/feed\">Zwift<\/a> and a new indoor trainer this weekend, a gift from my lovely bride. Let&#8217;s see how bad this can hurt me. <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/photo\/dec20\/graphic01.jpg\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Quite a bit, it turns out. That was a Saturday afternoon introduction ride, and for the next several rides, I&#8217;m sure, I&#8217;ll try to formulate the way that this style of riding is similar, and completely different, to being on the road.  And I can&#8217;t wait to try to get better next week!<\/p>\n<p>We had a nice walk on Sunday. The park nearest us was closed for surfacing repairs, said the sign. But the swings were open. And she is excellent at flying through the air. <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/photo\/dec20\/dec25.jpg\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>She got that high because I helped push a little. We agreed that the days of high-altitude ejections was behind us. Knees and age and all that. But you&#8217;re always a kid again on a proper swing set.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CJCf9tTJwt3\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"13\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CJCf9tTJwt3\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <\/p>\n<div style=\" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\"> View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\">\n<div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: auto;\">\n<div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CJCf9tTJwt3\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A post shared by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of flying through the air, I finished up the David McCullough book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wright-Brothers-David-McCullough\/dp\/1476728755\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&#038;keywords=McCullough+Wright+Brothers&#038;qid=1608667437&#038;sr=8-1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The Wright Brothers<\/a>, last night. This was certainly one way to end a chapter on a down note.<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/photo\/dec20\/dec26.jpg\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I enjoy McCullough&#8217;s work, and have read about half of his immensely well-regarded catalog. This book seemed a bit rushed in the back-half, however. Having worked through the significant achievement of flight, the book glosses over training of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.encyclopediaofalabama.org\/article\/h-1364\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Walter Brookins in Montgomery, Alabama<\/a> and others elsewhere, the barnstorming and so on. It&#8217;s not the authoritative text, and is hardly extant, but it&#8217;s a good opening read on the Wright family.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of up in the sky, saw this cloud on this evening&#8217;s walk. I guess I was thinking about antique flight because, in the few moments before I could to a clear view of it, the shape reminded me of a dirigible. <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/photo\/dec20\/dec27.jpg\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Clouds being some of the most ephemeral and over-observed items available to us, it probably looked like a dozen things to a dozen different sets of eyes while it was lazing about today&#8217;s calm sky. What was your bunny was someone else&#8217;s turtle and my steampunk airship.<\/p>\n<p>Planetary movement being predictable in ways that clouds are not, we all knew to go outside and look this evening. And, here, we had a good glimpse of the mislabeled Christmas Star.<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/photo\/dec20\/graphic02.jpg\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I was sure, when I first read of the Great Conjuction a month or so ago, that we wouldn&#8217;t be able to see it because of the season&#8217;s regular dose of cloud cover &#8212; almost as predictable as the planets! &#8212; but we had a brilliantly clear and cool night. <\/p>\n<p>And if you, like me, wondered if this or a similar planetary conjunction might have been central to the Christmas story, some astronomers who know how to calculate those things did the math and said, <a TARGET=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/amp\/star-of-bethlehem\">maybe, possibly,<\/a> but also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/was-christmas-star-really-jupiter-saturn.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">perhaps not<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got setup on Zwift and a new indoor trainer this weekend, a gift from my lovely bride. Let&#8217;s see how bad this can hurt me. Quite a bit, it turns out. That was a Saturday afternoon introduction ride, and for the next several rides, I&#8217;m sure, I&#8217;ll try to formulate the way that this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27,40,32,65,3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573892858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-books","category-cycling","category-history","category-instagram","category-monday","category-photo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573892858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573892858"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573892858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573892862,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573892858\/revisions\/573892862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573892858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573892858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573892858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}