Monday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Monday

adventures / cycling / Monday / photo / swimming — Comments Off
9
Sep 24

Buncha peektures

And how was your weekend? Mine was lovely. (I hope yours was even better!) Let me show you.

On Friday, I swam a mile, a nice cool 1,650 yards.

Somewhere around 500 yards or so my arms finally decide they want to make the many revolutions required to complete the swim. I say arms because there’s precious little for my feet to do. Oh, I try to kick, but it doesn’t come automatically. I have to tell my feet to do the fluttering, splashing thing. And then, soon after, they stop. I’m probably a few thousand miles away from them doing their one job in the pool without conscious thought. Maybe I should do kick drills.

I think about that, but somewhere around that 500 yard mark my mind goes away and it’s just breathing and counting and turning, and 500 yards turns into 1,300 or so.

It’s satisfying, to count up those lap numbers — if I can keep count while I try, in vain, to remind myself to kick.

I had a nice ride Friday afternoon, too. I turned right out of the neighborhood, rode on down to the stop sign and, instead of going straight or turning left, as I normally do, I turned right. Because, somewhere down that road about five miles, there is a four-exit roundabout and I suddenly wondered, Where does the other exit go?

So I went down there to see where that road went. Part of the way down I thought I knew where it would take me, but I was wrong. Also, I wasn’t too wild about the road. I probably won’t use it too often. Five miles later it dropped me off in town, and I spent the next 10 or so miles just noodling around through the countryside. I took this one near the end of my bike ride.

I got back in just before it got dark, making my lovely bride happy, because that meant we could eat dinner at a reasonable hour, and not dictated by pedaling away in the quiet of a late summer evening.

On Saturday, we were enjoying a nice early evening outside, and when we looked to the east, we saw …

I don’t think phone cameras do a good job of capturing rainbows, but this was a spectacular rainbow. And then it became a double rainbow.

It hung there for more than 20 minutes, long enough for two planes to fly toward it, or through it. I wondered if they could see it up there. Rainbows are a question of timing and positioning, perspective, then.

We know they saw it in the city. On what was, I suppose, a slow news weekend, this was a big doing in the paper and noted on local TV.

Also, we got a double rainbow out of the deal. This is a panorama.

(Click to embiggen.)

This was, I am sure, one of the best, if not the best, rainbow experiences I can recall. It looked like it touched down just on the other side of the neighborhood. I haven’t heard about anyone finding the gold, though maybe they’re wisely keeping that quiet.

The Yankee and I enjoyed a nice ride yesterday. We did a variant of one of her favorite local routes, and then tired from some big workouts, I dropped her off at home and pedaled on.

Around 30 miles into the ride, I saw this masterpiece of modern art.

For the next 10 miles, so all the way home, I wondered how you fix that. Surely, there must be enough slack in the lines to allow them to move the busted pole out of the way while they installed another one right next to the old stump. You can think of a lot of ways that the linemen might address that problem in that half hour or so. I bet they do it with good cheer. After all, you finally must assume they’ve handled something like this before, probably many times. There is surely a procedure. No doubt they have a contingency. And I’m sure it will be repaired this week, if it isn’t already back up to spec today.

And while I was thinking of all of that, my shadow had a pretty good ride.

Sure, he looks like he has good form, my shadow, but he never has to pull any actual weight on these rides.

cycling / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
2
Sep 24

Happy Labor Day

Happy September, happy Labor Day, happy Monday. There’s a lot going on, clearly. And so this will be brief. And though brief it be, it has all of the important things. Including the site’s most important weekly feature, our check in with the kitties.

Phoebe continues to enjoy spending sunny summer afternoons in this window. She can keep an eye on the comings and goings of the neighborhood and enjoy the warmest part of the sun.

A little kid lives across the street and plays in the yard quite a bit. I wonder if Phoebe sneaks a few peaks in between naps.

I mean, if you had to be a cat, this is the way to do it, right?

Poseidon, as I write this, is complaining that I’m not holding him. It’s one of his three speeds. So you’ll have to give me a few minutes to placate him.

So the cats are doing just fine.

The site’s least important monthly feature is checking in on my cycling progress. The mileage took a dip in August, as you can see from the flat bits on the right side of the blue line. I’m still well ahead of last year’s pace, when you compare the blue line to the red line. I’ll get my real mileage over the green projection line here again soon.

So it continues to be a good year, a personal best year. September should become a new personal best compared to all the other Septembers. I’m predicting a good autumn, in terms of bike rides and the miles I can keep adding to the spreadsheet.

And, this weekend, we had an 30-mile ride. Except it wasn’t really easy, because I had to keep up with my lovely bride, who is fast.

Today a member of the family is stopping by to visit. Tomorrow, the fall semester begins. So I’m going to go get some work done.

cycling / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
26
Aug 24

I did the pedaling thing, it was just like riding a bike

Since we didn’t do it last week, and shame on me, let us immediately get to the most popular weekly feature on the site. No one demands the weekly feature on the cats as much as the kitties. This is an important part of the schedule around here. We are quite regimented and, believe me, they know. They spend enough time hovering over computers; they can tell.

Here’s Phoebe, giving me a little judgement for the oversight.

She loves boxes, of course. It’s just baked in to cats. She has a west-facing afternoon window seat, and a while back we put one of the cat caves — it’s a small sleeping bag, basically — on it. She sleeps on that. Recently, we put the cat cave in a box and she is very pleased with this development. Almost as if she’s relieved we finally picked up her signals.

Here’s Poseidon, working on his aerodynamic position.

You can’t get more low drag than that cat. Gotta work on those ears, though.

So the cats, as you can see, are doing great, and thanks for asking.

I got out for a bike ride this evening. First one in almost two weeks, and just the second ride in three weeks. I blame my ear — which is very much improved by the way! — and the vagaries of life. Both have been getting in the way of the more important things, like this.

We have several standard routes. Two of them we have combined into a slightly longer route. Today I did that, but I did it in reverse. Really shook up the horses, who were busy frolicking around when I went by.

Later, I was buzzed by a CH-47 Chinook, probably on maneuvers from the base an hour or so away.

Of course, earlier in the day the house was buzzed by a C130 that belonged to the Egyptian air force. I wonder what it’s doing around these parts.

Around these parts began to look like this on the last bit of my ride.

I timed this just right. It got dark right as I got back in the neighborhood. Didn’t even have to turn on my headlight. It was a slow, quiet, peaceful 34 miles. Felt great!

I wonder where I’ll ride tomorrow.

adventures / food / Monday / photo / triathlon / video — Comments Off
19
Aug 24

#GoRenGo

Some many years ago I had a brief passing thought about a photograph project. What would it be like to shoot all of the rust? It has a certain beauty. It says, well, a few different things, if you contemplate it long enough. It’s also everywhere.

And sometimes, I find myself staring at a bit of rust.

When I do, I think of that passing thought. How long would that take? And who are you kidding? How many things would rust away by the time you got back to the starting point? Saturday, when I was looking at that bridge, I wondered, wWhat does all of the rust in the world weigh?

I was staring at that bridge while my lovely bride was checking in for her triathlon. She did a half iron this weekend.

The half iron includes a 1.2 mile swim, in a river, this time. Here, she is exiting the water right on schedule.

Immediately after that, there’s a 56 mile bike ride.

She dropped her chain, and said someone swung out in front of her and ran her off the road. She was OK. At least two different people were less fortunate, and had accidents involving cars. Excellent job securing those semi-controlled roads by the race organizers and local authorities.

And after that 1.2 mile run, and well-paced 56 mile ride, she had a half marathon to wrap up the event. Here she is setting out for the run.

She had a great swim, and she was pleased with her bike ride. But she did not care for her run. Aches and pain and no shade and so on and so forth. Nevertheless, when she made it to the line, she finished with a smile.

And that’s her fifth 70.3, to go alongside her three Ironmen triathlons. And wraps up the best part of the season. I think she has one or two more runs scheduled, just for fun, but everything is for fun from here. (It should all be fun, I say. Finish with a smile, that’s what I say.)

On the way back home today, we stopped at this place. ‘

Because, look, when you tell a trusted friend you are driving through her native neck of the woods and she simply replies that you have to go eat at this place, you take the advice.

Our trusted friend was spot on with that recommendation.

Today was a long day in the car; there was a lot of reading Wikipedia to pass the time. Tomorrow, it’ll be back to work.

cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
12
Aug 24

The chocolate was a bust — how often do you say that?

I tried a new smoothie today. Because we have a lot of peaches, you see. The go-to has been a simple peach, ice, dash of milk and honey. And, recently, I swapped out the honey for a bit of brown sugar. That’s been a hit.

Just to experiment, though, because when you have bushels of peaches and a powerful blender everything seems viable, I decided to take out the brown sugar and add a chunk of chocolate. It did not turn into a nice brown color, because it was a chunk that just turned into bits. Thousands of tiny little bits. I guess I was hoping I’d wind up with a peach flavored Frosty … which the people from Wendy’s should call me about … but that’s not what happened here.

It wasn’t the best smoothie ever, but it was a worthy experiment. That little chocolate bunny gave its chocolate life for me to find that out.

I think we have some jelly beans somewhere … maybe I should try those next …

I will not try those next. Why tamper with what works?

Let’s get right to the site’s most popular weekly feature. I know it is, because they tell me it is. They, of course, being the kitties.

I’m a sucker for whenever Phoebe sleeps on her paw. Not sure what it is, other than just about the cutest thing she can do while she’s napping.

I was telling a story on Poseidon the other day. It was a common tale around here. One where I get to blame him for whatever is going on. It’s a high percentage play because he’s usually very much the cause of things. And just as I told that story I had to go down to the basement to fetch this or that.

The basement is a wondrous place to the cats, because we don’t allow them down there. I know, for a fact, that if we let them come and go they wouldn’t be interested at all. But, while the basement is cat friendly, it isn’t cat proof. So they don’t get to go. And just as I was heading to the basement he made a run. He’s good at timing these things, but he didn’t win out this time. He covered it well, though. He wasn’t darting for the basement, you see, he just needed to rub his chin on the door.

Poseidon has also recently discovered an interest in corn husks, but they aren’t a good treat for cats. So the corn, even the fresh picked stuff, goes directly into the refrigerator. Which means he must try to also go into the refrigerator.

If we get too much corn, we are keeping it in the laundry room, because we have cats and when you have cats you put your corn in the laundry room. He, of course, needs to be in there constantly.

So the cats, you can see, are doing very well, thank you.

I’m getting pretty good at timing out evening rides. This is why I did not get in a ride this evening. I waited too late, doing other things. (Two of those things had to do with peaches.) On Saturday, however, I set out at 6:35 for a 25 mile ride.

That still left a lot of time to enjoy the views through the corn fields.

Oh, I had lights a plenty. There’s a blinkie on my seat post all the time. In my back pocket, in the evenings, I carry a little four buck triangle light that I got for Christmas last year. It shines right through the material so well I’m going to pick up some more the next time I’m at the hardware store.

For the front I have my trusty One80 bike light. I saw their head lamps on Instagram, a runner I follow swore by them. I bought the Yankee one, she loved it. I bought myself one. And then they pushed those bike lights. I got one for both of us. She doesn’t particularly care for night riding, but I do, and I think those lamps are so great I bought two more of them, just to keep on a shelf in the basement — where the cats aren’t allowed.

I passed one stunning barn on the way back — I took a different road, for the different views, and it turns out to have worked very well for that time of day.

So I was well stocked in illumination products, but it turns out I didn’t need them. Oh, I turned on my blinkie and the one I carry in my jersey pocket, a bit more visibility for the distracted drivers behind you never hurt anyone, but I figured I would get all the way back home before I needed to use much of my front light. If anything, I figured, there is one dark patch where it might be necessary.

A strange thing happened on the back half of my ride. I didn’t realize it until I was almost all the way back home, but my legs came back. I don’t know where they’ve been since roughly mid May, but everything else felt a little sluggish and even slower than normal since then. Saturday night, however, there was plenty of power and energy.

This is all relative, of course. Relative to this point in life, and all of that. But compared to the rest of the summer, the second half of this ride was great. And kinda almost approaching a reasonable speed.

I don’t want to say I was a super man, or anything. Maybe I was just inspired by this view. Because, as I looked to my left and saw that gravel drive and that farm and that sunset I thought, If a kid grew up there, he had a great chance to play Clark Kent.

And so I made it home with daylight to spare. Not much. But still.

Maybe my legs are returning. I bet its the peaches.