The other day I mentioned that Allie now seems to enjoy our brown blanket. When it gets cold, as it was Saturday, a damp, bitter chill was inescapably everywhere, throughout the day, she decided it’d be OK if I put her under the blanket.
The Black Cat has a hard life, is what we’re saying here.
I managed to tear myself away from other things on Sunday afternoon just as the clouds cleared out and the sun was exposed and the light shift caught the trees. This is a tricky, timed business, particularly this time of year. We don’t have a clear view of sunsets from the yard, but there are a few beautiful moments in the golden hour. So I sit and look out our southern-facing windows and enjoy the dance in the tree line behind us.
Of course I missed the magical moment by about two minutes yesterday.
We went to a soccer game on Saturday night. It was the last game of the regular season for the Hoosiers, who are looking to make a postseason run to their ninth national championship. And on this last night Indiana and the Spartans played shutout soccer for 90 minutes.
And then they played 10 minutes of a tense overtime.
And then they played nine more minutes of a second overtime. In the final moment, IU looked to capitalize on another set piece with the freshman Mason Toye lined up a direct kick:
I knew he was going to put the game-winner in and run right to my camera. It’s a skill.
We went for a run on Saturday, this was The Yankee’s first run since her Ironman. (She’s ahead of a mere mortal’s schedule.) It was short, but it was fast. She’s passing me and blurry!
So I mentioned fall is here. Just in case it disappears in 15 mintues, here are a few photographs:
You can never really capture autumn:
It never keeps us from trying. It’s a vain attempt to forestall winter, a desperate ego, that wants more sunshine and warmth.
Or is that just me?
Today, it was raining, and this evening was a perfect time for a 2.65 mile neighborhood run. I’m documenting this because it won’t be long, now, before I’ll be missing days like this:
Saturday in Louisville. Sunday in Louisville. Today in Louisville and then back in the car. But yesterday, let me tell you about yesterday.
A person doesn’t enter into endurance racing lightly. Well, sure, we were at an Italian restaurant several years ago and decided we’d try some triathlons. But there are different lengths. And you train differently for all of them. Some of them require more time. And you don’t enter into that kind of commitment lightly.
The Yankee ran under a banner last night that she’s been working for for over six months.
Along the way, there has been a marathon and a national championship in the Olympic distance and some smaller tuneup races and hours and hours and hours and hours of training. You don’t enter into these things lightly.
These events, these long, physically and mentally grueling events are achievable, but they take a person doing the work. And then doing some more. They take time to figure out. How will your body react in the heat? How will your guy feel with this fuel or that fuel? You have to learn about what your body is really telling you, how to listen to it and when to ignore it. You put some things on hold and you hit some benchmarks that you wouldn’t have previously considered. You keep doing that until some of those achievements almost become a matter of course. And then you wind down in preparation of the big day.
And on the big day you wake up very early. You’ve lugged all of your stuff down to the starting area, you wiggle into your swimsuit and put your cap on and you wait for your part of the race to start. And when that happens, you swim. At this distance that’s a 2.4-mile swim, this time in the Ohio River. You climb out of the river and run up the ramp and get peeled out of your swimsuit. You throw on your helmet, your bike shoes and set out on a 112-mile ride. There’s wind and rain and dogs and hills and you come in off that ride, which is no small thing on a bike, and then you take off your helmet and change shoes. And then you set out for a 26.2-mile run.
And you smile a lot.
That’s The Yankee’s experience. She had a great race. I saw her all of those times and jogged alongside her for a few moments. I caught up to her again halfway through the run and gave her a great big hug and a kiss. She was in great shape, so it was just down to wait at the finish line, for her and two of her friends.
And speaking of the finish line, this is what some people did when they got there:
Even if you aren’t interested in doing these yourself, you should go and watch the finish line sometime. The energy is palpable, and incredible. And you’ll see there a lot of friends and family looking like this:
None of them entered into this lightly, but many of them felt light on their feet when they finished. It was later, and today, and for the next several days, when they’ll feel the extent of such an impressive accomplishment.
IU / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on I worked this weekend 9 Oct 17
Some video from the events this weekend. There were several panels and mini-reunions held around the festivities and we put this one out for public viewing. I suppose you could say I produced this show:
And then we stuck one camera in the back of a big event room and shot some more of the festivities.
I even took a selfie:
So you can pretty much check all of the important things off the weekend To Do list.
We had a beautiful day on Saturday and so The Yankee and I spent the afternoon pedaling around the countryside.
Lately, I’m having to work to keep up with her. She’s fast! Still, I managed to get some nice lines in the composition, though.
We had a nice dinner that night, too:
Today, I walked off campus just in time to see the sun say goodnight:
I seldom manage to be in a place that gives a great western view this time of day, but this time of day, this time of year, gives off some nice light:
The gates were built in the 1980s. And it only took 80 years or so to get them built. Students had raised money for them at the turn of the century. But the board was going to do the same thing so the students’ money went to another project. The university put the gates on hold while nearby buildings got built. They wanted to match the plan to the aesthetic, you see. So a few generations go by, a few different plans for the gates come and go. And then in the 1960s there was a new move to build those gates. But there was also criticism; people deemed it a wasteful expenditure when the money could go to scholarships and financial aid. The gates were put on hold again. And then, in the 1980s, the man who ran financial aid for the university donated the money and had them named in honor of his parents. And now we have the Sample Gates.
