photo

food / Monday / photo — Comments Off on The photos improve as you scroll
25
Jan 21

The photos improve as you scroll

It was this kind of weekend. Cold and damp and it could work almost to the bone. It was 32 at best, and that didn’t last long, either day. It left us with lovely views, like this:

Timing is everything in meteorological events. All that fog would be a great mood-setter around Halloween. But here, near the end of January, I’m close to over it. The good news is have 10 more weeks to get good and bored with views like this:

“But we’ll have sunny skies on Friday!” he said, exasperated.

We punctuated the evening with ribs, of the fall-off-the-bone variety. They were quite tasty. We should have had more. We should have them more.

A friend said on Instagram that he wants to have abs, but he likes ribs too much. I don’t see what the problem is. Abdominal musculature and ribs are located closely to one another. Why not have both?

I didn’t mention he’s getting to that age where that idea is a vanishing proposition. Let him figure that out on his own. And then he can enjoy his ribs in peace. If he’s lucky, they’ll be in pieces, not unlike the ones we had last night.

It’s Monday, so, to the cats! The cats are grand. Just had a nice little play session with one of them, in fact.

Poseidon, as ever, likes being under the cover. It’s a morning and nighttime ritual at this point. It might be too cold for him here:

Phoebe also likes cover, but she takes her cozy naps in the evening.

Poseidon got himself stuck in a box.

He was nosing around it, the top and the bottom had been opened up, so the cardboard wanted to fall over on itself. But if you stood on either side it would stack up nicely and he shimmied in, grateful for the help, until he realized his predicament.

As ever, he is an embarrassment to his sister.

adventures / photo / Thursday / Twitter — Comments Off on Leave it
21
Jan 21

Leave it

On our walk late this afternoon, when it was unseasonably warm, you could hear it before you could see it. There was a breeze blowing and cars whirring by and it was all punctuated by our conversation but there was a crinkling, crunchy dispute of it all.

We’d already seen one driver, breaking the state’s hands free law, almost rear-end a pickup. We were making our turns based on maximizing the weak winter sun. We were talking about trips we couldn’t take when the dry parchment sound set upon the ears. Those dry, plaintive leaves, still hanging on in defiance, rustling in the wind.

It’s funny, the idea of trips. We had three scheduled last year that were canceled, plus probably three holiday visits. I don’t think I’ve been anywhere since Christmas of 2019. I mean anywhere farther than I’ve pedaled my bicycle. The Yankee has made a few trips to make appointments in Indianapolis, and that’s it for both of us. The curiosity of a staycation has been satisfied, and continues on. We, like the leaves, are still hanging on. But, lately, I’ve spent idle time planning other interesting trips that one might do. These don’t rise to the level of let’s make plans, but, rather ‘Wouldn’t that be neat?’ My favorite one was a four or five day bike-riding trip through New York … or a vacation home that’s both far away from everywhere, and yet easy to reach, and warm … or a B&B somewhere quiet. Crinkly, crunchy leaves would be required.

There’s another cold snap coming this weekend, and maybe some snow and ice, so a few more of those leaves may fall away before we find ourselves there again sometime next week. And while it is too early to think this way, in just 11 long weeks or so, those proud leaves will be replaced by a new generation of green sunlight collectors, and we can pretend like some of this never happened. But only some of it.

cycling / photo / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Snow video and cats, what the web was made for
19
Jan 21

Snow video and cats, what the web was made for

I said it would snow, because the meteorologists said it would snow. And so it snowed, light flurries pretty much all weekend. We got maybe two inches out of the deal. Here’s some video proof:

And here’s some slow-mo snow, ponderous precipitation, facile flurries:

It was melting away in the early afternoon, yesterday, but more flakes fell, amounting to little of nothing and that will be the last of it for a while. Sun and clouds for the next few days. And Thursday we might hit 46 degrees! A delightfully mild week seems like just the thing, doesn’t it?

Let’s check in with the cats, who are a handful and just fine, thanks.

Phoebe is checking out something on that first sunny day we enjoyed after a long stretch of bleh.

Fortunately she was able to work in a bit of sunbathing into her busy schedule.

Poseidon spends a lot of his mornings contemplating the deeper things in life, like ‘What is spotted ball?’

He, too, enjoys the sun. Sitting on the cat tree lets him be taller than you, and he can really fill the frame.

Sometimes I think he understands the idea behind camera sense. Sometimes I think he’s a philosopher cat. Usually, he’s just … we call him high spirited.

Had a great bike ride, going up the Alpe du Zwift. I am so very slow, and it takes me forever. But I did hold off a couple of people the whole way up the mountain. They were the other slow climbers, like me.

Scroll around and look at this climb:

The map looks reminiscent of my Alpe D’Huez shirt, which I am wearing this evening in honor of my massive video game accomplishment. I found the photo function on Zwift, because on a long slow climb, you can discover new things. This is right after the summit:

This was on the descent:

That’s my second hors categorie, or beyond categorization, climb. I am so slow. It actually snowed on the climb. The app showed little drifts of snow scurrying across the road as I huffed and puffed. It has a lot of detail to it.

Twelve mile climb, 3,753 feet of elevation, and an average gradient of 8.5 percent yesterday, and a punchy little workout today, means I will feel them both tomorrow, too.

adventures / Covid-19 / Friday / IU / photo — Comments Off on Heading into a snowy weekend
15
Jan 21

Heading into a snowy weekend

The snow arrived during our afternoon walk. I’d spent the day watching demo reels and trying to offer feedback to students — I’m averaging just over 900 words per review this week. So it was a nice break to take a walk. We ran into a colleague who is a public relations professor. She gave us air hugs, which was cute.

A bit later on our walk the first flurries ran into us. They gave us a stinging face sensation, which was less cute.

Late into the evening it tried and tried and, eventually, the snow began to gain some traction. The ground was cooling, the snow kept falling and so now we have a wet version of snow. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go any farther than the yard today. But, for the first time this season, I found myself saying “If the weather and roads aren’t nasty tomorrow.”

Just before I said that we were discussing Covid vaccinations, because it’s nice to have a new thing to discuss. There’s an economist here who’s been modeling the efficacy of all things Covid, and it seems the state administered almost 25,000 doses yesterday, and about 80 percent of those were first doses. The economist figures that if the state can get up to 26,000 doses per day and hold that rate you’ll see 70 percent of Indiana vaccinated by early July.

This, of course, assumes things about supply. And about distribution. And human error. And whether some of those humans will even want the thing that might keep them from getting sick or saving the lives of others.

It seems a fool’s errand to try to understand which states are doing vaccine distribution better than others, for all of those reasons, but mostly because this has been utterly left to the states. But it’s hard, today, to not feel like we’re finally, finally in that motion that leans the body forward in a vigorous walk.

Our employer is looking to become another distribution point. That’d make three in the county. And it would make it even easier for them to mandate vaccination for everyone returning to campus past some certain point. I have no knowledge of the dates that we’re looking at there, but it seems logical. They required flu shots starting December 1st after all. And if you you vaccinate everyone on campus — students and professionals — then it will be interesting to see what will return to “normal,” and how. There’s an expectation that we’ll be there, or trending there by the fall.

Fall. Hard to fathom. And the battle isn’t even over. Far from it, in fact.

But we’re in that first lean. Some of our family members are scheduled for their first dose next week. Oh, happy day. And, in another state, another important person will be eligible to get scheduled next week. These are all great feelings.

So now it’s time to build some momentum, and to redouble our efforts of being safety conscious.

So we’re staying home, and watching the snow. Some of our shrubs are putting on a nice little show this evening.

And you? Are you staying safe? And looking forward to a big, relaxing, productive, busy weekend?

adventures / photo / Thursday — Comments Off on I rewrote the last sentence three times
14
Jan 21

I rewrote the last sentence three times

By the third try I’d cleaned up the tone, made it more concise and got to the heart of a truism.

It was sunny today. Sunny and cold. We’ll take it.

We celebrated with a walk. We have a nice three-mile circle we’ve developed where we lately figure out the solutions to life’s mysteries, make plans, figure out some research thing or run into a colleague.

Snow is in the forecast through the long weekend. Maybe we’ll see this big beautiful glowing orb by the middle of next week.

Also got in a quick 20-mile training ride this evening. I feel so very trained, having learned all about heart rate and cadence, which is odd since I wasn’t wearing a heart rate monitor and I don’t have a cadence sensor on my bike right now. Basically, I learned about cadence on a flat course. So I didn’t learn much of anything. But I got in a nice hour on the bike out of the deal. Take advantage of doing things you enjoy.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →