Tuesday


29
Oct 24

It’s a grading day, so here’s a brief story

Yesterday, before the week’s grading began in earnest, I surprisingly went for a bike ride. I spent a few minutes noodling around town, waiting to meet the owner of the local bike shop. On my way, I passed this cornfield, which looked like something that van Gogh might have noticed.

The bike shop guy, Mike, rode with me over to a road planning meeting. He took me on a few roads I’ve not been on before, waving and nodding at everyone between here and there. He might be one of those guys who knows everyone. He also taught me a thing or two about riding bikes along the way.

The meeting was for a county-wide project. They had four posters and a few slides. The idea is that this group is going out looking for grants. They’ve identified, over a five-year period, a series of priorities for intersections and roads around the county.

A few of the county commissioners were there, and they want to know more, and would have preferred to be a part of this planning earlier. They’ll apparently hear about it next month. The plan seems sensible, at least to a lay person like me, but it was concerned more with motorists than cyclists. But that makes sense, too, considering the data in their basic five-year study. This was the last poster.

I hope I didn’t volunteer myself for work on this, but I might have volunteered myself for this. If you talk about awareness and perspectives and all of those things to planners and commissioners, they might think you’re interested.

Using the late hour as an excuse, we ducked out of there, Mike the bike shop owner and I, and pedaled away, talking about what we’d heard, and what we’re doing and how we have to work to make moments like this one more widely available.

This moment in particular. I took this shot right after he said that, because it was beautiful, and he was right. And this was where I realized something else.

You should find someone who knows more about a thing you love, a person who has done it for longer than you have, and do that thing with them. No matter how much you enjoy it, or for how long you’ve been passionate about it. You’ll be energized by an enthusiasm that equals or bests your own.

And then, when you part ways in the semi-darkness, you’ll have something to think about as you make your way home.

There might be something more than a metaphor to that.


22
Oct 24

Finally got the photo I wanted

Halloween yard decor is a big thing around here. A really big thing. A where-do-you-store-all-this-stuff-year-round thing. But this little yard is my favorite this year. This sits beside a modest house of weathered wood cladding and freshly painted trim, the house’s footprint was cut out of a tree line and farmland. It sits right up on the road, at once out of place and perfectly expected.

Beyond the over-dependence on plastic tchotchkes, this scene has one unique feature. You see it right in front of that standing skeleton.

That human-sized wrapped garbage bag. Wrapped in duct tape.

Each time I pass by, that bag is in a different spot. Cracks me up, every time.

The view from office is not bad.

A little kid plays under those trees. What a magical set of memories are getting made under those big full canopies.

(Update: I took that photo at precisely the right time. Two days later, one of those trees has dropped half of its leaves already.)

I went to campus to give a very brief presentation last night. On the way back home I think I saw the comet.

I was driving, on the phone and it was pure timing, which explains the quality of that photo.

It could be a plane, or a smear on the car’s glass for all you know. (I know it isn’t the latter.)

We went for a nice bike ride this afternoon. Well, the first few miles were nice. I swallowed a bug at about eight miles in, enjoyed a coughing and choking fit, got dropped and never really recovered.

Before that, though, I took this photo. This is the one my lovely bride usually takes, but she’s much better at the composition than I am.

Here’s my question. We’re poking along at 20, 21 miles per hour here. That’s not nothing. How does she look so casual there.

After I got dropped, I enjoyed the scenery.

Have you ever wondered what half a million dollars looks like on a farm? It looks like this combine.

Since I had a nice ride today, and it’s now a record-breaking October, and I’m ahead of my mileage projections, and we went to a cycling safety meeting tonight, I wore this shirt.

I made this a few years ago and it’s sat in my closet since then, because I oddly don’t want to wear the things I like, I guess? Worrying about wear-and-tear and stains probably means something. Anyway, it’s a cool shirt. I thought you should see it. I’m thinking maybe I should design all of my own t-shirts.

Like I have more hangars in the closet.


15
Oct 24

I wonder if I could grade while on my bike …

I spent all day grading things. Well, until about 4 p.m. Then I had lunch. And then I went out for a bike ride, because there was about two hours of light left, and I didn’t want to spend all of the day inside.

It was a day that required a wind jacket and full fingered gloves. But the roads were quiet, and so were my tires. Past a certain point, at a certain speed, the hum of the Continentals takes on a different pitch. It can feel effortless, for a moment, and sound pro. It’s neither of those things, but you’re willing to fool yourself.

Only I didn’t do that today. It was just nice to be out. I did two laps of one of my regular circuits, a route designed to allow me to be within about six or seven miles or so of the house at all times. Just in case the sun set more quickly than anticipated. Because, websites and Farmer’s Almanacs notwithstanding, that great ball of hydrogen may have a mind all it’s own.

But you know what? I got in 25 miles when I somehow thought I’d have to go in after just getting 15 or so, but my lovely bride had a Zoom call, so I wasn’t worried about holding us up for dinner, and so I finished that second lap. It was 25 miles, and still technically daylight when I got back in.

Technically, I say, because I never mounted or turned on my headlight.

I was wearing light clothes, and we’re now suddenly in that time of year where the temperatures change quickly when the sun disappears, and I might not yet be mentally prepared for chilly weather, so I came in with no complaints.

Plus, I still had things to grade.

Still do. So I should get back to that now.


8
Oct 24

Things that are constant

I am deep back into the grading of things which must be graded. Students were reading a piece written by a colleague and new friend in our department on privacy issues around social media platforms. Some of of the student commentary is thoughtful to profound. They’re taking it to heart, which is gratifying.

I started working on this after midnight last night and should wrap this up late Wednesday. Maybe Thursday, if I must.

I did step outside for a break, and found some lovely flowers brightening the backyard.

It is warm and sunny and beautiful in the second week of October, and this can’t last forever.

But it should.

Let’s return to the Re-Listening project. I am listening to all of my old CDs in the car, in the order in which I acquired them. This silly little feature here, then, is where I write about it, to pad out the site. These aren’t reviews, but it does make for a good excuse to put up some good music here. And the Re-Listening project will do both this week, with a 2001 release that I picked up around 2006 or so.

It’s a tribute album, and a solid one at that, honoring the great Hank Williams. I think of this almost exclusively as an in-my-car CD, which is where I listened to it, but that also makes it a bit eerie, given that its Hank Williams. But each track is inspired by greatness by the same man.

It’s an interesting mix, some of these efforts pay direct homage to the original artist, and some are done in the contemporary performer’s style. Just take a look at the track list, it’s a who’s who.

I Can’t Get You Off Of My Mind – Bob Dylan
Long Gone Lonesome Blues – Sheryl Crow
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – Keb’ Mo’
Your Cheatin’ Heart – Beck
Lost On The River – Mark Knopfler
You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave) – Tom Petty
You Win Again – Keith Richards
Alone And Forsaken – Emmylou Harris
I’m A Long Gone Daddy – Hank Williams III
Lovesick Blues – Ryan Adams
Cold, Cold Heart – Lucinda Williams
I Dreamed About Mama Last Night – Johnny Cash

Dylan, who rarely does covers, leads the thing off. Sheryl Crow yodels. Keb’ Mo’ is Keb’ Mo.

Beck is returning to his roots, and it’s beautiful and haunting. Particularly if you’re driving a lonesome highway. And that’s before you remember, “Your Cheating Heart” was the first posthumous release.

I am not a Tom Petty fan, in particular, but his cover of “You’re Gonna Change” is a standout. The Songbird took over “Alone and Forsaken.”

Hank Williams III, for the first 10 years or so of his musical career, did anything he could to distance himself from his father and grandfather. It makes sense, I suppose. When you see him, and you hear him, it’s obvious why he was initially hesitant to go that direction. He is the spitting image of sound and likeness.

Trey is back to doing metal and punk, with some country tinge, I think.

That’s one of the songs I’m always looking forward to when this CD is playing. That, and “Lovesick Blues.”

This record came out some 48 years after Williams died, of hard living, at just 29. The tribute genre was certainly a bit tired by then, but it’s difficult to imagine who could have done this better, or who got left off the playlist. It’s a fine thing, “Timeless,” and if it turned on another generation to The Hillbilly Shakespeare, then it was a project well undertaken.

It’s a record worth having for passive Hank Williams fans, and a good way in for people unfamiliar with his incredible, and unfortunately abbreviated catalog.

What’s next in the Re-Listening project? We’ll find out together, next week!


1
Oct 24

Welcome to Catober!

Welcome to Catober, where we daily highlight the kitties, because once a week isn’t enough. They also get their own posts in October, because they slipped that into their contract when we weren’t looking. So, I’ll take turns highlighting each cat. Tomorrow we’ll have some amazing Phoebe cuteness. You can see the full collection of lovely cat poses right here.

I’m mid-thigh in grading things. Fortunately not hip deep, and only that deep because I stayed up far too late — even for me — grading stuff. And so today I graded stuff. Tonight, I will grade other things.

At this rate I’ll be grading things all day and night tomorrow. I believe I have it paced out so I can finish grading on Thursday. Just in time for this weekend’s stuff to start rolling in for grading next week …

Whoever set this schedule up deserves a talking to. Me, it was me. I deserve a talking to.

Here’s a video I shot on yesterday’s bike ride. There are a lot of fields turning a beautiful, bright yellow just now. I might have caught these just a few minutes too late in the evening for the color to really pop. Still lovely in their own way.

  

Since it is the beginning of the month, we should check in on the mileage. September was a good month, my best September ever, and it turned into the fourth most miles in any one month, be they ever so humble. And we can see the progression through the first nine months of the year on this neat little chart.

The blue line is this year, the red one is last year, and the steady green one is a simple what if projection of doing 10 miles per day. I’ve been trailing behind that, sadly, since mid July. Now I’m making progress and I’ll be back over the green line before you read this.

And there are some humble, yet cool-to-me milestones coming up on the bike. You’ll be underwhelmed.

I’ll be whelmed.

That’ll be the extent of it.

Let’s get back to the Re-Listening project for a brief update. This is the one where I’m listening to all of my old CDs in the car, in the order in which I acquired them. At some point, I figured I could write about it to pad out the site with a bit of content — share some videos and the like, but these aren’t reviews, because no one cares. So let’s get to it, so I can get caught up. (I’m only behind by three albums, I think.)

We’ll return to 2006 or so, when I picked up a copy of Live’s 1999 record, “The Distance to Here.” It was the band’s fifth studio album, it went platinum in a month, debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart, topped the charts in three other countries, and settled into the top 10 in a half dozen more. They promoted three singles from the record, all which became at least moderately successful on the Alternative Airplay chart. But it never really worked for me. This is the last Live album I bought, and by the time Ed Kowalczyk left the band a decade later, I had no idea.

But I have two things here. This works a whole lot better now, for me, than it did back then. It could be a small doses record at the very least. And one or two of these tunes could be sticky — which is sometimes good and sometimes “get out of my head.”

The other thought was centered around this show at a concert. I saw the band at a festival when they were touring on this record. They closed their set with this song, and they were working out the instrumentation so that, one-by-one, the band slipped away off the darkened stage. Then there was only Kowalczyk, and the whole sweaty crowd was singing along and he stopped strumming his guitar, they kept singing, and he waved and walked off. It was better than this version, which came about some years later, but similar.

Kowalczyk rejoined the band after a few years away. And then he fired the band. They were all, as I recall, southeastern Pennsylvania high school classmates who got their break soon after, and became a 10-years-later overnight success. And now, they’re taking turns suing each other or some such. Kowalczyk is touring with the name, but all new band mates. They just came off the road from a midwestern swing last week.

In the next installation of the Re-Listening project, we’ll try out a pretty decent tribute album I’d entirely forgotten about — which is entirely the point.

And now, back to grading. And next for you, more Catober!