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Monday

adventures / cycling / Monday / photo / Rowan — Comments Off
18
Dec 23

I have five spreadsheets running for some reason

We attended a birthday party for a 3-year-old on Saturday. The theme was pink and purple. And also mermaids and unicorns. I don’t have any mermaids or unicorns, so I wore a pink shirt and a purple tie, and a purple pocket square. The 3-year-old was still better dressed.

The parents got some balloons with giant bits of confetti in them. Sadly I was in another part of the party when this happened, but it was decided to pop the balloons and record the pop in slow motion. Confetti was everywhere. They’ll be discovering it for weeks. The cake was a unicorn. Our present was a dress that was reminiscent of a mermaid, but also included about four layers of multicolored tulle.

The birthday girl is the cutest thing. Every present is just the greatest present that was ever presented. I could have gone outside and found her some pine cones and put those in a gift bag and she would be thrilled. But when she gets mermaid stuff, it’s a different level of joy, entirely. It was all very cute.

Elsewhere, just grading and emails and watching final exams come in. And, also, verifying that my spreadsheets and my formulas are all accurate. The sun, you could say, is setting on the term.

I have the last class meeting of my semester tonight: more video projects to screen. After that, there’s only a small handful of things to score. I’ll submit grades later this week and, finally, all of those long-suffering students will be done with me.

I hope they have all learned as much as I did. I always hope that.

It’s time for the site’s most popular weekly feature. Let’s check in with the kitties.

Phoebe has been enjoying this little box on one of the cat trees. The other archway gives her great views of the flowerbed. They like that for all of the birds, but there aren’t a lot of birds around right now. I’m not sure if she believed me when I told her they would be back.

What does a cat know of patience, anyway? Just put your head between your paws, the birds will reappear.

Poseidon likes boxes. This time of year, Poseidon loves the space heater. So I put a box near a space heater, thinking he would love this arrangement. Now he’s taking naps beside the box.

Last weekend I got a strangely shaped box. Poe likes that one, too.

Such a goof.

My closet has some wire rack thing and it was not conducive to my closet system. But I found a solution that did not involve redesigning the whole space. It just required a quick order from Amazon. I thought it would take the better part of a day to implement the new closet setup. It took about 20 minutes. And now we have to watch out for a cat in this long, slender, box.

I officially gave up on outdoor bike rides for the year. The remaining forecast does not look promising and more days in the 30s didn’t seem exciting and I rode outside until mid-December anyway. Time, then, to set up the smart trainer and update Zwift.

It’s flat here, so of course I chose a route that features 2,700 feet of climbing.

The first trainer ride of the year always feels like a first. It’s easier, but more demanding, than riding on the open road. Putting some simulated 10-14 percent gradients in your legs right away is the smart move. Right?

Let’s see if I can move around in a classroom after 90 minutes of that.

cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
11
Dec 23

Bring on finals

This is the last week of classes and, near the end of the week, the beginning of finals. The pace of things will simultaneously slow, and also speed up. It’s a fun time!

The highlight of the weekend was right … here. Or somewhere in this mile.

This was mile 20,000 on a bike for me. It took two bikes, two bike computers, three helmets, three pairs of cycling shoes and probably five or six chains, but I made it to 20,000 miles right there, on that 35 mile ride. The cycling spreadsheet — yes, I have one of those — told me it was coming. It’s a round number, sure, but arbitrary enough. So I’ve been eyeing it for a good while now. And then, suddenly, it seemed like I might hit it this year. And then it was inevitable. And now, here we are.

What that means is … nothing really. It’s just a number, right? It isn’t even a big number, not really. What means something is the quality of the rides. And they’re good. And this one was delightful. When I wasn’t huffing and puffing I was smiling at the opportunity. It was December and I was out in shorts and a short sleeve jersey. An early Christmas gift, really.

It also means I’m going to start shopping for a new bike. OK, it means I’ll start looking in the spring. Getting a new ride and watching it sit inside for two or three months seems a little cruel. Hitting 20,000 miles was the goal, though. And even though I could see it coming on the spreadsheet, now I have to make bike decisions.

That’ll be difficult. Maybe I should have set the goal at 25,000 or 30,000.

Time, once again, for the site’s most popular weekly feature. Let’s check in with the kitties. I say that every week, but everyone agrees, and the stats prove the point: this is the most popular thing on the site. The cats think so, most of all.

Phoebe, in a cabinet, surveying all of the lands and fields within her dominion. It is full of abundant resources and majestic views. All of her subjects are at peace, and all of her needs are meet. It is a bountiful realm, and she is pleased.

Poseidon, meanwhile, the court jester, is staying warm with the radiant hit from the oven.

You could stop that, but his neediness will exceed your patience, every time.

It is definitely snuggle season. If they’re together, it is too cold.

In the 20s at night. It is too cold.

I saw this combine on Sunday. There are still a few cornfields around that the farmers have to get to — fields where dent corn is drying I assume — but they are still out there doing the weekend work.

And I just wanted to remind myself, once more, that I saw a nice concert Friday night.

We’re still singing about it today.

cycling / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
4
Dec 23

Cat character analyses

As we start the week off with the site’s most popular weekly feature, I offer you something of a character analysis.

First, we’ll take a glimpse at Phoebe, in one her mid-day favorites, the stairs, enjoying the sun that comes in from the northern windows.

On a different day this week, at a similar time of day according to the photo’s time stamp, Phoebe takes a turn at modeling.

Not to be outdone, on still a different day, Poseidon gives it a try.

Note how they each use their tail in those last two photos.

And on a fourth different day, in the same part of the day, and in the same spot.

The kitties are doing just fine.

Something else that’s doing well is this little rose bush, which I moved into the basement a while back. I have seven plants down there now, and the rose is the best performer.

This is a plant the previous owners left. They had it sitting on the back stairs. We hadn’t moved it from there prior to sliding it indoors for the weather. It never did as well on the stairs, as it is doing in the basement. It might be getting a bit more water now, go figure.

Some of the other plants had the traditional outdoors-indoors struggle. I’ve got lighting for them, but the humidity and temperature transitions can cause some small problems. Most are now beginning to bounce back, though. Now I just have to remember to not forget the basement nursery.

Which reminds me.

We had a bike ride with a friend on Saturday morning. Did the usual route as a trio. Then, my lovely bride went off to do something else and our friend had to head elsewhere for her afternoon plans, so I road some more. I turned a 21-mile ride into a 42 mile ride. Part of that was discovering this new road. It was so quiet. So still. So … odd. The fog didn’t hurt that mood. (And, now, neither does this lossy format compression.)

When I got in I realized that our friend has one of the fastest times on that segment on Strava. It’s a road she took on three years ago, long before she knew we existed. A road she’s probably forgotten.

Today, I returned to that road and raced her. I patterned my tempo over the rest of the route to be ready for that 2.77 mile stretch. I timed it so I could hit the segment with good momentum. I did not waste time fiddling with my phone. I did not sit up for water. I did not take in the sights, creepy as they may be.

I beat her by time by 21 seconds.

I choose to see that as an omen for a good week of bike riding.

adventures / Monday / photo — Comments Off
27
Nov 23

That was a lovely weekend

All of our company has gone home. My lovely bride’s uncle headed back on Friday. Her parents on Saturday. We had company over for dinner Saturday night. The house is quite again. The cats have noticed.

And so now we are into the holiday season and, with it, in the midst of all of the blah blah blah. The stuff that takes too long to arrive, moves too fast or too slow, or both. All of it in a dizzying blur. All of it in a hold on as you can mentality. All of it with the end of the semester on the front end, as well, which brings it’s own frenetic pace, three weeks worth, which starts now.

The kitties, as you can tell, are not impressed. There is the afternoon sun, and there is no need to rush through that.

Saw more geese moving around this weekend. Or the same geese, I dunno. I’m not tagging these things. In the afternoon these were going toward the southwest.

But, in the evening, they were going northeast. Or some other geese, I dunno. I’m not tagging these things.

This was the only football game I’ve watched this year. If you’re going to watch, this is how.

Wild game, ridiculous finish, a ridiculousness of the most resolute fashion. At least the ridiculousness was kept to a minimum. All of which was better than 60 minutes of it. The view was the best part of it.

We had a different sort of view last night. A cold and rainy night, a short parade. A few fire trucks, a few Corvettes, for some reason, and three loosely grouped people we might call bands. We also saw the big guy, the ho-ho-hoer in chief. Apparently his sled is going into the shop. Or maybe the reindeer take off November. Maybe it’s a union thing. Perhaps they’re just carbo-loading.

Come to think of it, those sleighs aren’t very aerodynamic, are they? There’s a lot to answer about all of this. Fortunately, you have several weeks to explain it all to me.

cycling / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off
20
Nov 23

Don’t let this fool you, it was a full, productive, day

I saw a lot of birds on Saturday. They are flying southwest here. So cliché.

It’s like they know something I do not. (There’s a lot I don’t know, so this is likely.) These geese are going a little more to the south, but only by a matter of a few degrees. It probably works out in the wind. One good breeze, one turn of a shoulder and they probably all landed in the same pond at the end of the day.

I once had a philosophical assignment about the dynamics of bird flight. Some of the people in the group were in biology-minded people and approached the question from that direction. Others looked at it more akin to a leadership, inter-personal question. There was also the issue of rotation. No bird stays at the front the whole way, right? Now, I look at the geese in the flying V and think …

That’s a lot of trust.

After Friday’s 27-mile bike ride, I had a quick 15-miler on that bright, beautiful Saturday you saw in the bird photos above. On Sunday afternoon, just before it got dark, I got out for a 21-mile ride. There is, of course, another photo of another barn. But this one also features a shadow selfie.

On my cycling spreadsheet — because of course there’s a spreadsheet for that sort of thing — I this weekend compiled a list of the most prolific bike riding month of each calendar year. Which January had the most miles, what February was the most productive, one March or another I spent more time in the saddle, and so on. So far, six of the months of 2023 are the highest volume. Makes sense: I’ve ridden more this year than any other. And in another ride, perhaps two, November 2023 will make it on that list.

There’s also a list of the best months of riding, in terms of mileage, overall. This month is about to sneak into 12th place. There’s every reason to think this month could become a top five month, overall, if the weather holds. But there will likely be no ride tomorrow, because of the weather. And there was no ride today because of real life.

This morning I had to iron. And also, there was the cleaning up of things. And then this guy arrived. Something we didn’t have the opportunity to do before we moved in, and neglected to do since then.

Talk about your flashbacks. Every so often I get the carpet cleaned, and it’s always like this. I worked at Stanley Steemer … too many decades ago, I am startled to say. It was a decent job in high school. Meet a lot of interesting people, do some useful work. And while the job was the job, no two days were ever the same. And the stories you heard …

When the bright yellow truck shows up, I’m ready to talk shop and haggle. They sent out a solo guy, which was perfect. I just ordered the two-room minimum. He gets commission, and I’d rather the cleaner get that than someone in the office. My conversation went like this.

Do you still get a commission if you upsell me?

“Yes sir.”

Great, upsell me.

“Well — ”

I’m sold.

The prices are a bit high — but what ain’t? — and part of that, I think is so that the guy can cut something off, allowing you to think you’ve struck a good deal. But I did get a good deal, relatively speaking, because I tried to make all of this easier on him. Moved all of the furniture, kept the pets away, stayed out of his way and watched his hoses for him.

He was still relatively new to working solo, I get the impression that it happens more in his shop than it did way back when. He knew what he was doing, and you could tell, or at least I could tell, that he was right on the cusp of becoming incredibly proficient with the whole thing. It isn’t rocket science, of course, but mastering anything to your maximum ability takes time, figuring out the ruthless efficiency of your every move is an art of a sort in a largely repetitive process. And he was close.

We were his fifth job of the day, and he’d worked six days straight. Everyone needs their carpet looking good for the holidays.

We kept the cats in separate bathrooms during all of this. They didn’t seem to be bothered by all of this, which surprises me. Cats can be nervous, and here was a strange dude with all of these noises and smells and … they could not be bothered to care, not really. Damp carpet underfoot was an experience, but they adapted to that quicker than people will. Maybe it’s the two extra sensory inputs.

Anyway, Poseidon, last night, celebrated the beginning of space heater season.

He’s hanging out on furniture and the other floors today, though. Who wants to relax on wet, fresh smelling carpet?

Phoebe, meanwhile, has taken a different approach to the day.

We keep a couple of small boxes for them to sit in. Sometimes a box with an unconventional shape comes through and we’ll let them try that for a time, too, to see if it takes. But, in general, they don’t have big boxes, except for around the move we did this summer. You wonder if that lodges in the cat mind somewhere: this larger shape may have a meaning, I’ll sit on it, to prevent whatever they are thinking.

Sound strategy.