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adventures / cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
27
Oct 25

The You Have To Live Your Life rides

Over the course of three easy rides Saturday, Sunday and today, I got in 60 miles. These, and whatever else I can sneak in for the next two weeks, will be dubbed the You Have To Live Your Life Rides. I’m calling them that because of what the doctor said, now, two weeks ago. I wasn’t supposed to ride at all, for fear of bothering an incision. But when you have a little back surgery and you feel good you want to go out and say you rode the day after you had back surgery no matter how silly all of this is.

The doctor and I discussed this. I wasn’t supposed to do anything for two weeks, so I went on three easy rides in those two weeks. They were concerned about stretching the incision and tearing stitches. Not as much as me! I respected the doctor’s orders. But I couldn’t just sit still for two, maybe four weeks. But the point, on a road bike, is to keep your upper body still anyway. So I figured I could do that, and I had a few easy rides, just around the neighborhood stuff, not even trying to tax my legs. The weather, work, and my little procedure meant I only had three rides of 41 total miles in those two weeks. And, still, I felt like a blob.

In that discussion with the doctor I said I would not get in the drops. And I did not. I tried, briefly and only out of curiosity. It felt uncomfortable. So I rode on the hoods and at the stem. He said that the actual recommendation was three-to-four weeks, but you have to live your life. And so here I am, the beginning of week three, out enjoying the beautiful fall weather.

That’s a little branch off a creek off the river. Water comes up onto the road. The reflections are always nice. The traffic is light, and usually respectful.

I’ve gone through this little town, well, about 100 times or so now, let’s say. I’ve never noticed this little library before. I may have to donate some books to it.

I think I will wait, however, until after next week. The wolfman is lurking just a block or two away.

On Sunday afternoon we went out for an easy ride. It was not easy, because whatever I had that passed for fitness is gone, and we road into the wind at the beginning and I had to chase this one.

Sometimes you time these things just right.

And sometimes you just get lucky.

There are times when you can understand the moment, appreciate the perfection of it, the strain of what you’re doing, the purity of what you’re after, and how a perfect day can’t last. I should spend more time enjoying that than fearing the fleeting.

Anyway, yesterday was a beautiful day. I should have been out to enjoy more of it, because they don’t last forever. But responsibilities do.

I got out just a little bit earlier for an easy hour today, in between work chores, of course. You have to live your life.

adventures / photo / Rowan / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
22
Oct 25

What if the trees talked back?

We spent the afternoon campus, because campus called for us to be there. My lovely bride had to take a few photos. And I had the chance to sit outside and enjoy the trees and the leaves and the breeze for about a half hour. Probably it wasn’t that long, but it was quiet and slow enough to feel that way, and that probably means something.

And after that I did some grading in the office, in between the casual meetings that are held in the doorways of the office.

The bulk of the afternoon was devoted to a faculty meeting. It was said that it should be a seven-hour meeting. It was two-and-a-half. I am not sure it needed to be seven. But I did learn something important about curriculum creation. And I was able to talk about our department’s social media progress — views up 174 percent, followers up 22 percent! — which is now something I oversee.

I also wrote a bunch of email today, but I think I’ve done that most every day for the last quarter of a century and it might not be that notable anymore.

I remember being so excited when I got my first email account, in college. How often I checked it. How important it felt to check frequently. How I spent way too much time coming up with absurd sig files. How I instinctively understood to avoid FWDs. I remember my first spam. Now, I’m just trying to figure out how many times I should peer into an inbox in a day. And also wondering why there’s so much in my inboxes, which I treat as To Do lists. The bigger the inbox, the more to do. And so you see the loss of appeal.

In the front yard the Acer nigrum, the black maple, is turning. This is such an interesting tree. So steady in its coloration, until this week, when the leaves begin to turn green.

It’s a large tree, fully developed and mature. Maybe 70 feet tall, and it sits right next to the road. It looks like a sentinel as you drive through. And the best part is that most of the leaves just … disappear.

We’ll gather some, but not nearly as many as have been showing off all year. Maybe they all go into the neighbor’s yard, across the street. They have one of these same trees. Who can tell where the leaves come from?

OK, back to work. I must finish preparing for class. There’s a midterm in one tomorrow, and a strategic planning exercise in the other. So there’s only the one slide deck to prepare, but, still, information must be conveyed, and I am the one that must do it.

Listening to the trees would be a better use of the evening, though.

adventures / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
20
Oct 25

There be whales here!

Today was pretty lousy. Just a bad feeling day all the way around. Body weary, incision … incised and sore. I enjoyed that delightful disoriented feeling of painkillers, without the benefit of painkillers. Just the worst day since the day after my little surgery. And odd that it comes 10 days after the thing.

So it was a delightful evening to go speak to a bunch of students, trying to keep my thoughts in order and my acronyms in line. Just a marvelous impression I left them with.

And then we went out and sat in the cold. I intended to take off my sports coat and put on a jacket I had in the backseat of the car, but it was taken out of the car. I did enjoy these portable little seats we got recently. They have chair backs, and they were material, rather than a cold plank of aluminum.

It was a first round game of the field hockey playoffs. My god-niece-in-law (just go with it) is a senior on the team. And she got a penalty shot in the game.

Her team won 7-0.

On Saturday, a day when the weather was much warmer and I felt much better. We went to the beach, and to a boat. But not this boat.

Same goal, though. We were out looking for whales, which are passing through on their seasonal migration. And what do you know, there’s a humpback now.

We saw two of them, from a safe and non-threatening distance. (There are laws about this. And the company that does the tour is very keen on following the laws, and telling you about them. And, also, keep your feet on the deck at all times. And please, for the love of the salty seas, stop trying to lean over the rails to pet the whales. They are 50 yards and more away.)

Thar she blows!

Or he. I’m not one to assign gender to our ocean-going neighbors. That may have been fine for Mellville, but we live in different times. Also, as far as I know, I’m no Melville.

(I’m no Melville.)

So we saw the one whale, and watched it dance and swim around for a while, and then quietly we moved off. And we found this whale.

It turns out that humpback whales have distinguishing patterns on the underside of their tails. Our vessel had several naturalists and some interns aboard, and while we were oohing and aaahing as tourists, they were doing the important work of studying the beasties. And they knew this one, and realized it, just from these quick glances at the tail marking.

We saw a handful of bottlenose dolphins on the way back in. But you’ll have to take my word for it. No pictures of them, but here’s the rock line that marks the return back into the little port.

And here’s a row of fishing vessels that were safely tied up. Maybe it’s a seasonal thing, or a Saturday thing.

It was a lovely little visit. Two whales, lots of birds, some dolphins and a nice day on the water. A three-hour tour. Not a single Gilligan reference was made.

We drove by this place on our way out, but did not stop.

It seems pretty bold to say you have the world’s best coffee. And at this particular store? They have 24 locations. To say nothing of every other shop that sells coffee. What are the odds?

At home, we had a flyover by a few Canada geese.

They’ll go back and forth from fields to ponds for weeks, always that direction in the evening, and the opposite direction in the midmorning, honking all the while.

I enjoy their song. For us, it is temporary.

adventures / cycling / photo — Comments Off
17
Oct 25

Scenes from a bike ride

It was work work work. And at the end of the day, we took a bike ride.

There she goes, trying to get away from me.

And there I am, trying to keep up with her.

And there’s my lovely bride trying to pull away again.

We passed another guy on the road. He was on the wrong side of the road at the time. We passed him again as we headed back. Happily he was pointed the correct way that time.

Cruising by some corn stalks.

And some lovely silhouettes.

That’s where the weekend begins. And with some more grading tonight. So I’ll get to that, and you can pass the time enjoying the latest entries in Catober.

adventures / photo / Rowan / Thursday / video — Comments Off
16
Oct 25

Theory, and zooming in

It was another afternoon in class today, which meant it was another night of doing slide deck prep and a morning of getting the final details in and then the afternoon in class. At least it was warm and sunny out, and so it didn’t feel like I should be somewhere else while sitting under florescent lights.

I’m kidding. There are giant windows in the classroom I’m in right now and the natural light is plenty. We don’t even turn on the lights some afternoons.

In my criticism class we talked about this episode of Bomani Jones’ podcast. If, for no other reason that everyone loves Deion Sanders and, Jones is right, Spencer Hall is one of the best writers going today. I’ve been reading him for decades. Had him on a podcast in 2006 or so. And look at him now.

So we’ve now heard two different styles of podcasts in the last week, a narrative-documentary hybrid and now an interview show. We’ll have another variation for their midterm next week. I will be asking them questions they should be used to by now. After that, it will be back to video products. We’re going to spend a day on short form packages. I’m waffling on what I want to use for that day.

In org comm I followed up the Tuesday conversation about social identity theory with a talk about Role Identity Theory. These two approaches complement one another, and they cover a lot of ground about

Social identity theory gives us the in-group and out-group concepts, and tries to explain how we define ourselves based on their group memberships, like religion, nationality, or, in our case, fandom. In SIT identities come from difference based on the activities in which we partake. Role identity theory concerns itself with the meanings and expectations associated with various roles we play in our lives. This is all shaped by social and contextual factors and, interestingly, acknowledges the conflict that comes within our many roles, because of those expectations. These two ideas, SIT and RIT, work nicely together, but it’s all about cognitiion; they don’t get to emotion.

Which allowed me to talk about identity fusion theory. It has become an important psychological theory in the last few decades, and tries to explain how we develop these profound senses of alignment and unity with a group. It’s an interesting area because it gets into the extreme pro-group behaviors, including self-sacrifice that people make. The theory goes through the deep emotional investments that motivate action, while allowing people to maintain their personal agency. The general idea, in a sports context, is that we see these personal connections and interactions in shared spaces.

It’s an interesting approach, because what is fandom but a huge expression of emotion?

Identity fusion is currently the leader for a class I’m teaching in the spring, too.

The view from our office. If you look closely enough, you’ll see my lovely bride, who is walking back from a class in another building.

And now the rest of the week will just be computer work. There will be plenty. I have a great deal of grading to do. I am already plotting out how the next three days will go, based on meetings and batches of grading. I think I can get it all in over the wekend, without going too crazy, and just in time to start the cycle over again next week.

Sometimes it is difficult to see how you can get all of your work done when so much of your time is spent on part of your work.

I took this photo of the honeysuckle last week and never got around to sharing it. Safe to say that the radical pruning we did on the thing in the spring has been overcome. It has grown a bunch over the summer and fall, and is still flowering a great deal.

This variety has no nectar in it, however, and that’s a shortcoming. It’s a disappointing under-performing, over-performing, bush vine. But it has covered much of the new garden trellis in just six months, so there’s that.

Are you all caught up on Catober? It always over-performs. Click the link, and see them all. And come back tomorrow for more.