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Friday / photo / running — Comments Off
9
Oct 20

This is about a slow run

Slow day, highlighted by a slow run. Everything else felt quiet, sleepy, uneventful in every way. This leaf pile, my first leaf pile find of the season, had more charisma (and color!) than anything else I saw in the wide world today. Maybe everyone and everything is taking a deep breath and so the leaves think they’re going to take this moment and take advantage.

It was just getting started. An ambitious little collection of decaying matter. And naturally occurring, too, gathering, as it was, behind a car in a parking lot.

Most likely it got scattered when the driver backed over them a few minutes later.

It brings back memories of racks and blisters. Everyone is having a little moment right now, I’m sure. Go ahead and work your way through that. We’ll wait.

…

Better? Ready? Good.

Hey, could be worse. You could have to rake these leaves:

I saw that on my evening run. It was almost precisely at my turnaround point. And, after that, on one of the neighborhood trails:

And then these berries, just at the 5K point.

It was my first run in two weeks. My first 5K since May. But it was too nice and warm this afternoon and I’ve been too sedentary the last few days and anything worth doing is worth overdoing, right? It will probably feel like it tomorrow morning, too.

Catober / photo — Comments Off
9
Oct 20

Catober, Day 9

IU / photo / television / Thursday / video — Comments Off
8
Oct 20

A long night

Are you enjoying Catober? Phoebe is very serious about her naps. I don’t know how any creature can look that intense, if I can mis-anthropomorphize, while relaxing, but that’s how she does it. Click that link to catch up, if you’re somehow behind. Tomorrow’s Catober entry will feature Poseidon. There will probably be hijinks.

Didn’t get all of the things done today, but a few more items are off the list. The rest will, no doubt, get at some later date. More phone calls and forms to fill out and an oil change for the car. All of that will happen next week, I suppose. Or tomorrow. But probably next week. Because tomorrow is fully about email.

I spent a lot of time on the phone today, and then the evening in the television studio, watching the sports gang do their thing. After that, a late meeting with some students before I could leave. It looked like this:

The building next to ours has a chime in the tower and that’s how I knew the time: 8:45.

At least I don’t have an early morning meeting tomorrow.

Here’s some programming the television people produced this week. The late night show brings you some funnies:

And here are the two shows from the news team:

We had soup for dinner, and around here we say “Hooray soup!” Mostly, I think, because it’s good. Now, with the dishes done, I’ll put another armful of laundry through its paces and then get ready to start tomorrow, and, then, the weekend. Thursdays in the fall are just a preface.

Catober / photo — Comments Off
8
Oct 20

Catober, Day 8

cycling / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
7
Oct 20

And just like that, the last color of the year fills the air

The least nature can do before turning to monochromatic grays and whites is to give us this. And you have to be perfectly fair here: this turn of color is impressive.

Saw that tree on the walk to the car after work. It was a quiet day on campus, a lot of them are just now, and it’s a shame that we aren’t able to have large outdoor activities because the backdrop would be … something:

Went for the Wednesday afternoon bike ride, and fell behind pretty quickly. Which gave me an empty road in front of me to shoot from the hip:

Not to long after this I had another flat. I was taking a turn and the back of the bike slid out from underneath me, which was the first sign. It was low. So I pumped it with my hand pump enough to get over the next hill, by which time the tube was flat again. I pumped it once more and when I got back on the tube said, and I quote, “You’re kidding, right?”

We were moving on toward dusk by then. And while I wasn’t far from the house, taking the time to put in another tube and limping home would have meant darkness, so I texted The Yankee to come pick me up, which she kindly did.

And now I’m throwing out that tire. I bought some more tonight, I’ll put an old one the back wheel until they arrive. Begging the question: what was wrong with that old tire, to keep it from being on my bike?

I took the offending Gatorskin — which has served me for a good long while, but has been a part of flat after flat after flat this year — out with the garbage tonight. I told it that no longer sparked joy, it was the weakest link. And I have a big stack of ruined inner tubes, and another truncated ride, to prove it.