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8
Aug 16

Pictures from the weekend

Allie and I spent part of the weekend watching the bike races:

But later she found a cable on the ground and curled up inside of it:

So now I have to leave circles everywhere, apparently.

Also, we hung out with The Mayor and her parents for a dinner party:

And I saw this at the office this morning. No idea, yet, what it is. Any guesses?

Probably some sort of drying air circulator or something like that. But I like the handles. Has a very Sean Connery-era James Bond feel to it.


5
Aug 16

Melts in your mouth, not in your … yeah right

Why is it that when I eat M&Ms it always looks like I just slapped The Joker?

That company has been lying to me all of my life.

Now, of course, I’m just a fully grown person trying to figure this out. I’m sure it was much funnier and more charming when I was a child.


4
Aug 16

In the yard

There’s a paved walking path that divides our yard from the neighbors’. And over on that side for some random reason a few flowers are growing out of a grassy part of the ground.

I don’t mind it. I’ll mow around them. They’re only weeds if they are undesirable and I can see no philosophical problem with extra flowers.

The early evening view out of my home office window:

That is not so bad, eh?


3
Aug 16

Hanging out with Ernie Pyle

You can never read enough Ernie Pyle. And now I get to see him anytime.

I see his desk every day. It is only strange if he starts talking back, right?

Read Pyle’s wartime work here.


2
Aug 16

Revolutionary canvas and defying physics

On the loading dock today was this large canvas roller. These things intrigue me to no end, even as I know I will likely never have a real use for them myself. But that’s the way of it. Great logo, too:

Dandux is a product of C.R. Daniels, Inc. That company started out in New York City, but was purchased by the Trumpbour brothers soon after, in 1920. They moved to New Jersey, and now also have two custom facilities in Tennessee and Maryland, where this particular roller was produced. The second generation Trumpbour men at Daniels have passed away in recent years and you can find their obits online. They both had military service, which continues a long tradition in their family. Apparently eight of their Trumpbour ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War.

Favorite tidbit, Edward Trumpbour Jr. did not suffer mediocrity, “or as he would say ‘Meatballs.'”

Let’s find out about those 18th century Trumpbours … seems they were of Dutch descent. And at least some of them were enlisted in New York’s Ulster regiments as Tories. Two of the men from that era died in Canada in the 1800s, which is where a lot of Loyalists found themselves during and after the Revolution. Maybe we’re too far removed, in the sense of family history, to talk about the brother-against-brother aspect of that war, but here, it seems, we might have an example of it.

Anyway, their great-great-great-and-so-on grandchildren are still here.

We rode our bikes, where I thought nothing of Trumpbours or ducks or canvas or any other thing. If you chase fast people like The Yankee you don’t have time to think:

I took a bunch of pictures of her on this stretch of the bike ride, one of the few places I could pull alongside. But she kept outrunning my focus, which was weird. She wasn’t approaching the speed of light, but she was somehow defeating it nevertheless.

I did improve on a half-mile climb by four seconds. The cycling app says I presently have the third-fastest time up that climb for the year, which can only mean that most people don’t ride all the way down to the boat ramp and then back up. There’s no way my pitifully slow time should be on a leaderboard.