photo « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

photo

adventures / cycling / photo / weekend — Comments Off
26
Jan 14

Out for a Sunday ride

Worked in a fun little 26 mile route this afternoon. It was a crisp, sunny and beautiful day for a ride. These are base miles or reacquainting myself with the saddle miles. Probably more of the latter, sadly. But great fun anyway!

(I should take more photos while I’m riding. I see other people’s shots — a guy who works for Apple and a newspaper editor I know are big culprits — and wonder how they do this, ride for as long and as hard as they want to, and then stop and take some incredible shots. Those are from Angelo Calilap, the guy who works for Apple, who is also a bike racer. And then he finds someone else’s beautiful cycling shots and says inspires him “to want to bring another camera other than my iPhone during a bike ride.” Like I’m carrying a real camera on my bike. Like I’m going to actually build up some momentum approaching respectable, see some nice view and then stop. I need my momentum! But I see those pictures and I want to go ride again. How’s right now for you?)

We worked our way through the back of the neighborhood, down one half of the time trial route and then past the city limit sign. We went by all of the shopping, through a sleepy little stretch of road that really lets you work out your legs and then down, down to a creek bed.

Which only means you have to come back up. And it feels like a long way up. It isn’t, really, numerically speaking. But I’m not a climber. And so when you crack on the first hill, know you have to still turn right and go up another one … well … I should be a better climber.

Thing I learned on the bike today: A few doughnuts and a banana are not good fuel.

I knew this already, but it is good to reinforce the basics.

Other thing I reinforced on the bike today: I enjoy riding my bike with her, especially on days when I can actually keep up. I even passed her a few times today, hence the pictures.

We were almost home and she said she had a craving for broccoli and brussel sprouts. She also remembered the rule about doughnuts and a banana. So we had vegetables for dinner. Is that something else worth learning? Eat what you crave on the bike?

May have to test that idea.

Friday / friends / photo — Comments Off
24
Jan 14

Photo week – Friday

The sign at Price’s Barbecue House, where we enjoy breakfast on Fridays:

We just beat the rush today, because that’s the kind of charmed little thing that happens sometimes. It seems to happen more often if you notice them. Think about that for awhile.

Swam this afternoon. Got in 1.22 miles, or 2,150 yards before they kicked me out. The pool closes at 1 p.m., apparently. The sweet little lifeguard didn’t have the heart to tell me, but some guy behind me, unseen and unknown with a little too much bass in his voice, gave me the news. So I got out.

Next week I’m getting over the 2,650 block.

We attended a dinner party tonight. A room full of academics. Everyone had a speciality. And almost all of them were widely different than anything I know about. This is good, you can learn something at a very broad level from people who know things from excruciatingly precise points of view. So I asked appropriately broad questions and let people go on a bit about their passions. People are fascinating, if you ask questions. You learn all sorts of things.

Tonight it was comic books, coat hangars, building demolition and a lot of art. The party was a welcome party. A friend is having a friend stay for a while, so she must be introduced to people. The new lady focuses on 19th century Russian art. I know so very much about 19th century Russian art, let me tell you.

So we discussed artists, external factors like the technology — which she is really interested in, I learned — and things like varying cultures, infrastructure, religion, the Mongolians and Bolshevism.

We went to a dinner party and discussed art. That’s life.

Auburn / photo / Thursday / video — Comments Off
23
Jan 14

Photo week – Thursday

Justin Bieber! Richard Sherman! Super Bowl!

Let’s talk about a real hero.

Celebrate him for a while; he deserves it.

Allie says hello:

So maybe you saw the Kick Bama Kick video. Perhaps you saw the one that emerged last week, of the Auburn University Marching Band. That floated back to the surface of the social media streams today and so I watched it again. Love that video. It is great fun watching some of those people lose their minds, but then watching them recover and do their job. (Not that you could hear the band in the stadium just then. We didn’t.)

I decided to synch the videos. Watch the drum major in the center. She was great, calling for the fight song just before Chris Davis scored. That’s attention to her craft.

Happy accident, they’re all looking at the giant HD screen in the end zone, but it looks like they are watching the insert box I’ve dropped in the shot. But watch how they all wig out and then get their job down. Just awesome. As is Rod Bramblett, my friend and former boss, who has the immortal radio call.

photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
22
Jan 14

Photo week – Wednesday

This was a window from the flight back home from the holidays.

If you’ll allow me the indulgence of creating a silly metaphor on a poor cell phone photo, this is the way the day has felt: a bit dreary and streaky and indistinct.

But I got some things done. And shivered a lot. The high was 37. The low is 18. Think I stayed inside all day. I’m fine with that.

photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
21
Jan 14

Photo week – Tuesday

Went to give blood today. Ran up three flights of stairs, read the required blood literature and so on. Answered all of the donation questions. Some are now done orally, some were done on a computer.

The woman who walked me through the process and drew my blood was thoroughly disinterested at the end of her day. The organizer said they had a slow morning, but things had really picked up later in the day.

I learned that, among the things they are doing when you give blood is to time the donation. I was told this is for health reasons. If it takes you more than 20 minutes, that is problematic. If you are done in under four minutes, that is a different kind of problem. I was finished in four minutes and 17 seconds.

The problem being they give you that little sponge ball and tell you to squeeze often. So I just absentmindedly squeezed constantly.

Accepted the juice and cookies. Decline the t-shirt, though it was a pretty good one.

I did get some stickers:

The young lady that signed us in said they were old. They look it. A lot of people are jealous of them, but all they have to do is go give a bit of blood. It only takes 4:17.