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Alone in the woods, with sunglasses and soup

Each day I make use of at least one weather app, the smart thermostat which is still patiently trying to convenience me it somehow knows what is going on outside and a variety of windows which display both front and back yards. I do all of this at night and again in the morning, before I put a single thing in my pockets to leave. And then I put the things I carry in my pockets, so many things. And then I go to the garage, because that is where I park my car.

I open the garage door, because that is easier than driving through it and replacing it every week. And then I settle into my car, crank it and undertake the normal procedures one uses. I put my foot on the brake, select reverse and then throw my arm over the other seat and look backward because that’s how everyone did it when I was growing up and that’s still the coolest move in a car. I snicker at the idea of a backup camera. No, seriously, every day, that makes me chuckle. And then I move the car, each time I am amazed by my good fortune of avoiding hitting things with the passenger-side mirror. And then I am in the driveway, and I back up about 15 more feet and I’m in the road.

Only, today, I was confronted by this thing that I knew from both ancient DNA and my own dim, distant memory.

That’s actually overselling it. Of course it was the sun. I was pleased to see the sun. “This is,” I thought to myself, “a sign of things to come.” That thought was immediately followed by “My, but that’s bright!”

Don’t I own some device that was designed to aid in the filtering of the bright and magical UV rays which are now descending on me for the first time since, oh, November? However long ago it was I had to really struggle to remember — and this part is legitimate — where I store my sunglasses in my car. But I used them today. So pleased was I that, in the parking lot at work I had to find a sunny spot for this picture:

I used to use this article in writing classes. It is about a man who stayed a true hermit, in the woods of Maine, for 27 years before police picked him up on a series of cabin break-ins. One reporter, the author of that piece, was the only person the guy talked to. (Turns out, I just learned, that story has become one of GQ’s most-read pieces ever. I’d give students that article on a Monday and would ask them to discuss it the following Monday. The few that would actually talk about it thought it creepy. At 20 pages of intriguing brilliance, most just thought it too long and admitted they gave up on it. Their loss.)

Anyway, the story appears again, by the same talented reporter, Michael Finkel, who has now written about it in The Guardian. And now he’s got a book on the story, released earlier this month. Read the GQ version, it is worth the time.

Tonight I learned that Allie likes minestrone:

She likes it a lot. Licked the bowl clean. Worked hard at getting the edges. I’ll have to leave her a bit of the broth next time.

photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
14
Mar 17

The nose doesn’t know

Wrapped up some studio work today, and spent a bit amount of time wandering around the building.

This isn’t far from my office. The door is usually closed, so that catches the eye first. And then you don’t often see arrow signs. It was worth exploring:

And then, a bit further back, another sign:

You wonder about the sign reader. If you keep putting up signs as you go farther back into the work area — and I only went this far — you wonder what you expect the reader to find.

Multiple signs? This must really merit investigation. But would the investigator not smell the smell themselves? I didn’t smell it, but then, my nose isn’t very good at this sort of thing.

Too much time near the grindstone, I’m sure.

Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
13
Mar 17

Feeling the flurries

I’ve posted three or four photos this month which suggest that spring is on the way. Meteorologically, it is. But then today, this:

That is the same tree I shot in one of the early spring pictures. The second one, I believe. That feeling of seasonal goodwill has been delayed just a bit. Today, this:

But it doesn’t hurt the morale. The little bit of damp snow, I mean. It gives a nice juxtaposing on the landscaping:

Though, I’ll grant you this sort of thing would have looked better in December or January:

Friday / friends / photo — Comments Off
10
Mar 17

“It’s hella late, but don’t sleep”

Here’s my plan: I’m going to keep talking about Rob and taking pictures of him on set in preparation for the day he becomes a wildly successful comedian:

That’s the host of the late night show around here. I’ve mentioned him. He’s actually studying standup comedy. That’s his major. Funny guy, a kind personality, he’s thoughtful and has an air of a worldly wisdom to him already. There is a pretty big handful of people I get to work with each week that you could file under “We knew them when.”

That’s pretty cool. You think about that sort of thing from time to time. And if you went back and counted, how many folks do you suppose you would have categorized that way? Quite a few, I’d bet. And more than a few prove themselves worthy of it, over time.

You don’t have to stand under klieg lights for this. Rising to some level of celebrity isn’t the measure of success here. I know a few talented veterinarians, medical professionals, lawyers, jazz musicians and hustling entrepreneurs and business executives and so on. “I knew them when.” Every now and again, you run into someone and find out about their lives and realize that makes the most sense in the world, because you knew them when. And then you find out you went to school with the one guy who became a rocket scientist, well, who would you have thought it then?

But Rob up there, I’ve got him pretty well pegged. He’s going to be doing a Holo 3D show or some such in my living room one day. And we knew him when.

I went across town for dinner tonight. I got barbecue. I listened to WIUX, the college radio station, on the way. Two undergrads, one of them I know, were calling the Big Ten basketball tournament. Undergrads calling the big men’s basketball game. I remember when my college radio station couldn’t get a real meeting to even pitch broadcasting softball. Such a great experience for the students, and a great opportunity for it provided by the athletic department here.

Also, this is going on here:

We're going inside batting practice with @Spectacles. #IUBase

👻: OurIndiana pic.twitter.com/86kkQeGByP

— Indiana Baseball (@HoosierBaseball) March 10, 2017

Finally, Don’t forget, time to change your clocks! And, no, no one cares to hear the complaints:

The traditional grumbles about falling back come from morning people. They complain because it’s dimmer out when they stir. They have a point, but here’s something important to remember: I don’t care, because I like longer evenings, and my side won. (Sticking out tongue.)

But I am not without compassion. We can reach an accommodation. We abandon the biannual switch; we never fall back again — except once, and then by 30 minutes. We split the difference, in other words. This will require the participation of the entire world, but we could stop all our clocks for 30 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, say, and then make sure that everyone gets paid for an extra half-hour of work.

Downside: Well, I’ve read enough sci-fi to know that any babies born during that 30-minute period probably would be immortal mutants with strange powers and vast intellects, and they probably would rule the world after three decades.

Only to be thwarted by a sentient collection of ovens blinking 12:00 …

IU / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
9
Mar 17

Still looking for today’s first clever thing

Oh, look! More spring!

Snow is in next week’s forecast.

Today I worked my way through a third edit of this big document I’ve been working on this week. It describes the entire building, and part of another, and it is going to come in around six or seven pages. Also, I started writing my next paper, which will describe in just the tiniest bit of detail, one of the rooms in that building. (Clearly I’m tapped out for the evening.) That paper is currently at four pages. I hope will finish at six before I pare it down to five.

This reminds me of listening to friends in college complain about these huge four and five page papers they had to write by Monday. They had to go get to work on it, they’d say, on a Thursday night. And we journalism majors would laugh. We’d crank that out Sunday night or Monday morning.

Turned out, as you learned to write concisely, you also found that writing long was not a problem. But, then, writing long has never been a challenge for me.

Next week is Spring Break. And, as you might recall, Spring Break begins for many people early. So while the break begins next Monday, a bunch of people have already split or at the very least have that look in their eyes. Now, tonight, the basketball team is playing in a conference tournament game and Spring Break officially begins in hours. I still had a full sports crew in the studio tonight. They did a practice session.

A full crew to do a practice sports show while a big sporting event was going on and warmer environments or home cooked meals on the horizon. That’s dedication.