{"id":573899426,"date":"2026-10-05T20:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T00:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573899426"},"modified":"2026-10-07T03:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T07:47:16","slug":"a-lovely-full-productive-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2026\/10\/05\/a-lovely-full-productive-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A lovely, full, productive day"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was just a little weekend of everything, meteorologically speaking. Saturday offered us some sun, and a bit of chill. Sunday was dreary and cool, the autumn really sinking its hooks all of us, the summer growing weary, the leaves on some of the trees growing bored with just hanging there. Two of the pear trees are all but bare. Saturday we rested and watched football. Sunday I spent the afternoon doing a lot of schoolwork. It seemed like a lot then, anyway. Right this second, I wonder if it was enough. It’s an unusual feeling. <\/p>\n

It was a good day, though. Two lectures prepped to start the week. I graded some things — and more of that to go in just a bit. I reviewed four research papers for a conference. I wrote a social media post for work. I wrote my online class. It’s been a productive day.<\/p>\n

But there’s also Friday.<\/p>\n

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The weekend before this one, while I was out of town, we had a nor’easter. I guess I’d always associated nor’easters, large-scale extratropical cyclones, with winter weather. Maybe because they usually happen between the months of November and March. But, late September weather has to do its thing, I guess. Wind and rain were in the forecast. And here, on the inner coastal plain where the heavy land and the green sands meet, we got a little rain, but a lot of wind. <\/p>\n

My lovely bride told me Saturday morning that we had a limb fall. I’m guessing it was the 50+ mph gusts we got overnight. I’d planned to deal with it on Monday, but I had a flight on the country’s third largest airline, who is field testing a new slogan: Never On Time. <\/p>\n

The plan was to cut it up for the fire pit. Tuesday, after work, I dragged the whole limb to the back. I’ve done this a few times now, cutting up limbs at the front of the property and then taking several trips back to the wood pile, when I’m already tired and out of patience. This time, because I finally got smart, I dragged the whole limb to the backyard and just one time. This was the right strategy. <\/p>\n

Friday I cut it up. I realized I’d forgotten the hedge trimmer and left it outside for a week or more, so I cleaned up the rust with a proprietary mixture of rust removal products that have been maturing for years under the kitchen sink. Then I set about cutting back all the twigs and small branches and leafy bits, which has made the pile of stuff to burn in the pit impossibly tall. (The next time we get a night with no wind, we’re roasting marshmallows.) The limb, once denuded, didn’t look like all that much. <\/p>\n

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So the next question was which way should I deal with that. I could break out the chainsaw. I’d have to oil it up, run some extension cords, remember how to use the thing, and so on. That limb doesn’t hardly seem substantial enough for that. I’ve also got a great pruning saw. I finally decided the pruning saw would be better. And 15 minutes and 11 cuts later, the job was done. I don’t think I could have gotten the chainsaw out in that amount of time, certainly couldn’t get it, set it up, do the sawing, drain the oil, and put it all away in 15 minutes. <\/p>\n

I need a chart that helps me determine which one to use in the future. I need fewer limbs to fall. I need the chainsaw manufacturers to explain to me why saws leak oil as a known feature. <\/p>\n

Also this weekend, we spent a little time in the gazebo. <\/p>\n

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We need to spend more time out there. It is a nice setup. I always seem to rediscover the idea late in the season. <\/p>\n

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The work I did Sunday, when the weather was bad, freed up some time today, and this was the best idea I had all weekend. It was a beautiful day, and I haven’t been on my bike in a while, and aside from the 15 mph headwinds, it was a perfect day to make my feet turn in little circles. <\/p>\n

Here are a few of the things I saw on my 65 kilometer ride. <\/p>\n

There aren’t enough tree-covered roads like this around here. Then again, if all of the roads here looked like this, if that would feel like enough. <\/p>\n

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Having gone through town twice, and then another little crossroads town, and back out into the pastureland, I found this view about 30 kilometers into the ride. <\/p>\n

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Then I saw this tractor, pulling a mower, very soon after. <\/p>\n

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At about 53K into the ride, I finally had the chance to take a shadow selfie. <\/p>\n

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After that, it was back into town a third time, just to add on the distance. I passed one of the sheep herds attended to their evening graze. <\/p>\n

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Not pictured today were the three deer, four dogs, five chickens or six cars that seemed intent on killing me. <\/p>\n

But you do get the sunset over my shoulder. This is just two miles from home, and about 60 seconds before everything on me made the case for wrapping up the ride. <\/p>\n

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So I did, having timed the ride perfectly. A glorious day, a slow, windy ride, 65 kilometers ending just before the sun disappeared. Got cleaned up, took a 20 minute power nap, had dinner, and put on the compression boots. <\/p>\n

Now, I’m about to grade tonight’s homework, and pull together a few more things for tomorrow. <\/p>\n

This was a great Monday. I hope yours was, as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was just a little weekend of everything, meteorologically speaking. Saturday offered us some sun, and a bit of chill. Sunday was dreary and cool, the autumn really sinking its hooks all of us, the summer growing weary, the leaves on some of the trees growing bored with just hanging there. Two of the pear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573899426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","category-monday","category-photo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899426","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=573899426"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573899429,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899426\/revisions\/573899429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573899426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573899426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573899426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}