Monday
10
Nov 25
A rare feeling, indeed
As of this writing, I am dangerously close to being caught up. This is a sentence I haven’t been able to say since late September or early October. Yesterday and today I did a bit of class prep. Today I graded. This evening I built slide decks for tomorrow. I even got one of my inboxes under control.
I dislike the weight of being behind. I thought of putting about 400 words into that, but everyone knows the feeling, and everyone registers it differently. Besides, that’d just slow me down. What I’ll do is enjoy this feeling for a day, maybe 36 hours. And then I’ll be behind again.
Also, I have a document to write about a future class, start building that class, this, and some things to read for tomorrow.
Since I’ve been on a roll, at least some of that gets done tonight.
Let’s look at the last few days in photographs, shall we?
What is it to go up a road? Or are you going down a road? And what distinguishes between the two? For instance, was I going up or down this road on Saturday?
I had timed up my ride to get out and about and back in time for football. From that spot I was about 13 or 14 miles from home. And I almost made it back for kickoff. Didn’t miss much, but there’s something to be said for knowing how slow you are, so you can set up and pace your whole day around a ride. Also, it was beautiful. Just gorgeous. Shorts and short sleeves and it will be much too long before I get another ride like that.
This is a park I ride by pretty regularly. There are a couple of baseball and softball fields back there, a few soccer fields, too. I’ve never seen it this empty, and on what might be the last perfect fall Saturday of the season.
Great job, everyone!
I had a great shadow selfie. I must have been headed east at the time.
And here I am riding south, with the sun over my right shoulder.
Sometimes these roadside trees look like sculptures. Also, I didn’t notice it at the time, but there’s a bird flying through the background. Sometimes art is serendipitous.
At all times, my photos are pretending to be artistic.
I went for a run. OK, it was a short run. It was a nice foggy midnight run.
It was 5:50 p.m.
And this evening, we had a lovely sunset. I enjoyed it for about 20 seconds.
Because, of course, there are things to do.
3
Nov 25
Stealing daylight
Did you enjoy Catober? I have a great time with that daily feature. A cat a day really makes the month go by faster, content-wise. Somehow. You might think it puts a lot of pressure on the process. A photo a day of cats doing cute things! You’d be wrong. The only hard part is catching them in various places among their routines. And then keeping all of that straight. Capturing the moments is the easy part. Choosing which ones to use, that’s the impossible part. There are only 31 days in Catober, after all.
It started like this.
And it ended like this.
You can see the full collection on the Catober, just scroll back to see the whole month.
Except it hasn’t ended yet. I still have some great shots to share, and I’ll put them up tomorrow.
But today there are other photos. We, too, are experiencing the time change, which means a lot of seasonal changes. Which means the sun went down at 4:52 yesterday. Which means that, for the next few months, it will really feel like we’re stealing daylight.
That’s what yesterday’s bike ride was like. Soft colors and blurry textures and stealing daylight. And also reed grass.
Quite a bit of reed grass. That just comes with being a little close to the water, I guess.
The cover crops in this field are shockingly green just now. I’m used to seeing corn in there, but the season has, of course passed.
And in its place things are turning a delightful series of yellows and browns. Oh, it is nice for a time. Even the vibrance and vigor of that soon will fade. It’s just around the corner, or the curve, if you will.
Now it may look like it is getting dark here, but that’s just the trees. Besides, I still have about 14 miles to go from here. I didn’t know that at the time.
At the time I was just starting to figure out where I was going to go from here. First up the king’s highway, then Main Street, and then the old road, back into town. From there, it was a four-and-a-half-mile tempo ride home. No longer stealing daylight, but racing it.
Stupid seasonal change. Why can’t it be light until 8 or 9 p.m.? And also warmer. Not much, just five or 10 degrees, for outdoor purposes.
It was a productive night. Watched a football game. Got most of Tuesday’s class prep done, got some things graded and so on. And it continued on into today. I wrote some things that needed to be written, including a job ad for a student employee role. And I was on a roll. My big to do list for the week is already down to just four things.
Two or three more days like this will feel like momentum.
That’s the opposite of what I had on the bike today. I set out to ride my 40 km time trial, but I simultaneously realized that I didn’t have the legs I wanted for that, or the time I needed for that. So I changed my route, mid-route to make it back before dark. Instead, I did 35 km.
I could have totally made it.
And, then after dinner I finished up tomorrow’s work. We’ll see how that goes.
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.
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.
