Monday « Kenny Smith | Omnes hic sumus discere.

Monday

adventures / family / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off
20
Nov 17

And now, another installment of Storytime

The Yankee was out of town visiting with friends and family this weekend. It goes like this: her godparents have known her parents, individually for years. Her godfather and father grew up together. Her godmother and mother met in nursing school.

Now the two of them met at their friends’ wedding. They got married. Along came The Yankee and they became her godparents. The godparents had two daughters and The Yankee’s parents are their godparents. Now those young ladies are of course grown and have beautiful families of their own. They all got together this weekend.

The oldest of those kids was up for a story. So I found myself digging through, and passing along, photos last night.

Here are two now.

This first one is from the Cayman Islands. It was a graduation trip. We were off diving for a week and the locals helped us find a dolphin. He’d just turned up one day, they said, and was very social. They figured he might have been a part of a Central American dolphin venue, where customers likely interacted with him, but a hurricane had damaged where he lived and so he was back in the wild. But he enjoyed people. He didn’t like SCUBA divers, but he’d swim with you. And if you tried to out-swim him, he’d let you know who was boss.

But to swim with a dolphin, to pet and play with a dolphin in the wild, that was a terrific experience, just one small part of a great trip.

And here’s one of The Yankee and me:

It was one of our first family trips. My bunch went to Belize, where we did a lot of diving and horseback riding and exploring Mayan ruins. We didn’t see any dolphins this time, but I did get to catch a bunch of reef sharks by hand while SCUBA diving. (I’ll have to find those pictures.) That was another great trip. Even the snorkeling selfies were great.

IU / Monday / photo — Comments Off
13
Nov 17

The beautiful trouble of autumn, Part VII

A few weeks back I began the annual autumn lament, that you can’t make them stay, or even show off the season properly. But we try anyway. I’m still trying. I wonder if I can get another week out of this gimmick.

So anyway, here’s two more pictures from Dunn Meadow. It is a lovely time of year on campus.

history / IU / Monday / photo — Comments Off
6
Nov 17

The beautiful trouble of autumn, Part II

About two weeks ago I wrote:

It seems like that time of year where you try to catalog the changing of the leaves, because they’re pretty, but because you want them to stay.

Well, this is most definitely that week. So let’s do that this week, let’s document autumn. These are all on campus, and in the Old Crescent:

Franklin Hall, where I work:

The Rose Well House:

Used to be the big thing, you’d take your date to the Well House and get a kiss at midnight. The fronts and ornamental stone fixtures from the Old College Building were built into this structure in 1907 and 1908. It’s named after Theodore F. Rose, class of 1875, who chaired the project and paid for it in honor of his graduating class. He was a lawyer, but made his money in natural gas, after which he became one of those people who sits on the board of this and is the president of that, including the university’s board of trustees, over which he presided. He died in 1919, while working toward the university’s centennial. I’ve been reading about him in an alumni magazine of that year, an almost-100-year-old magazine. We’re going to celebrate the bicentennial soon, and I have the good fortune to work with some of the people in that office in a very small way. From the other side of the Well House:

In the background, you can see Maxwell Hall, which is an administration building.

The Richardsonian Romanesque-style building was built in 1890 and later named after Dr. David Maxwell, who is considered the father of the university. He was a physician and a lawmaker, and another president of the university board. We’re surrounded by history in the Old Crescent. And beautiful trees, too.

Monday / photo — Comments Off
30
Oct 17

I sat inside and shivered

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.

And how was your weekend?

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23
Oct 17

And how was your weekend?

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: