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cycling / family / food / Monday / photo — Comments Off
11
Jul 16

We built stuff, but I didn’t take pictures of that

My folks came to town to see the new place this weekend. My step-father helped us build out our attic. We added about 100 square feet of storage space, which will be great for storing decorations and clothes and whatnot. Took us a part of one afternoon and, before long, we had the traditional ceremony of passing the first item, a pair of exterior Christmas trees, through the doorway and into a corner.

We also took them sight-seeing, and lingered in places like this:

For lunch on Sunday we went to Dat’s, a local Cajun-esque place. It is a delightful mixture of rundown and homey and the food is pretty good. The company is better. How often do you get to eat with Dean Martin?

There’s also this little cookie store in town, one of those things you probably couldn’t do anywhere but a college town. It is in an old house with uneven floors and a desperate need of dusting and a coat of paint. But! You can get cookies! Delicious, custom-ordered cookies. And they have a flowchart to help you out:

What we ordered:

Anyway, the folks were great. Lovely to have them visit. We made them to promise to come back when we knew more about the place ourselves, so we could give a proper tour. And, also, the next time they are here, we won’t build things. But my step-father loves to build things.

The Yankee and I had a nice short little ride this evening. Around the curve and down the hill we go:

There she is, ahead of me as always:

And this was right before we literally ran out of road. It became a strange ride, really. Usually you just go out and have a nice time and then come home. This time we got lost, the paved road turned into gravel. Another road turned into a closed road. Riding your bike isn’t usually frustrating, but it can be bemusing. And also, terribly attractive:

Allie stayed home while we were on our ride:

cycling / history / IU / music / Thursday — Comments Off
7
Jul 16

Stardust is a good song, y’all

I spent a bit of time in the Radio and Television Building today. In there we have a recently renovated 2,800-square-foot teaching studio, and the WTIU public television studios. WTIU is said to be one of the few high definition teaching facilities in the entire country. The WFIU public radio facilities are in there too. There are classes, labs, offices and the coolest poster ever:

Ordinarily I would try to avoid taking pictures of pictures, but that one, Curious George and curious kid, was too cool not to share.

I keep wandering by this statue of Hoagy Carmichael. He was from here. He went to school at IU and became a lawyer, but he always wanted to be a musician and so he composed “Stardust,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “Heart and Soul,” “The Nearness of You” and more.

And in the sculpture he is really laboring over that piano. But in a cool, jazzy way.

Stardust:

More Hoagy:

This is the Monroe Lake Dam, on Salt Creek, which was the turnaround point for our bike ride this evening:

It was built from 1960-1964. It is 1,350 feet long and 93 feet tall. The lake itself is the largest in the state. Well, the largest that is entirely in one state, I’ve read. If you’re really into the master plans of dams, I have one for you.

I’m more into empty road pictures, myself:

Not seen, everyone in our little riding group.

I also made a video of the ride:

cycling / Indiana / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off
4
Jul 16

Happy Fourth

On Saturday we took a long ride. We went through downtown, alongside a creek, through a park, on roads that start with the word “Old” and to a town in the next county above us. Also, we went directly by the local driving school which seemed a dodgy proposition after you thought about it a bit. This was a 56-mile ride where we climbed 2,600 feet or 1,800, depending on which app you like.

I’ve grown skeptical of all of them, though. I think I’m going much faster than their speeds would suggest, he said, while elevating his chin and using a sidelong stare to indicate he’s joking and he’s actually quite slow on a bicycle.

We went by this on our ride. You wonder what all has been stored in there over the years, and how many kids climbed over all that stuff, and what they thought about it:

I always loved places like that as a kid. Oh, I could go climb over it now. But I’d hurt myself. And I’d be “trespassing.”

Whatever, lawman.

I think about the most random things when I am riding or running. I tell stories to myself and make up great jokes to write down and I forget all most all of them soon after. Most of them were brilliant, though. Except for my forgetfulness, which is probably just brought on by being out of breath as I ride.

Like this, I took a picture of this sign and car lot for some reason. It was hilarious in my mind. And if I could tell you the joke you’d think it was mildly amusing, too. But that was Saturday and this is Monday and I have forgotten it already:

Just look at all of those bargains!

What do you figure the point of that one part of the fire department is:

If you built that just to have the longest fireman pole slide in three counties … well, that would seem odd. And I didn’t notice it as I pedaled by — it was uphill, mind you — but that looks sort of like a watch platform or a diving board or something on the top. or perhaps it is the world’s most optimistic rain break.

Nothing fancy for the Fourth this year. It just felt like a good day to stay in. We celebrated with a patriotic and colorful dessert:

So that’ll go in the archive, which has grown quite historic. And large:

Bloomington / cycling / Indiana / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
30
Jun 16

Corn! Beautiful corn!

And how was your day? Mine was just fine, thanks. I spent the afternoon yoyoing off and on the back of the front pack of the slow group ride. That sounds like about the right station in life for a couple of hours.

Here we were hammering it by a cornfield. Keeping up is hard!

I love this. A John Deere tractor sitting out on the corner nearest the road. That’s a tool and a display piece. And it is a welcome site.

If I rode more I’d see more.

Bloomington / cycling / Indiana / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
28
Jun 16

My app says I rode my bike 90 mph today (I didn’t)

We found a spooky barn on our bike ride today. How often do you see a barn like this?

That’s probably a little over halfway along in today’s 30-mile route. It was at the top of a long slow climb. You get up there and before you can catch your breath you are wondering about the people that lived there. House on one side of the road, two little barns on this side, all right at the top of a round hill.

Which is better than being at the bottom of the hill, but you go through there thinking, Man, mechanized automobiles are great. Isn’t it great we didn’t have to haul these materials up here by hand?

Or that’s what I’d think, anyway.

Coneflowers we found somewhere else along the way:

We stopped four times on our ride today. And that’s OK. Great day for it. Everything is growing and in the full splendor of summer. It is a sight. You want to see it all, and hold it, and then find a way to keep it for forever, because you know the season and the beauty won’t last forever. But it should. Even when it shouldn’t, it should, even when you know why it can’t.

It’s not yet July, you shouldn’t be thinking about the winter.

I thought I would take a picture of my bicycle tire:

Seemed like a good idea at the time. I’d just mounted the thing, after all. Now I need to swap the other one, so the wheel doesn’t feel bad.