Tuesday

iPhone / photo / Tuesday / windshield time — Comments Off on Stuff from the road
15
Apr 14

Stuff from the road

On the way to work I drive under an under-construction spaghetti nest of overpasses. Ultimately it will join this and that. The ramps up are built. The overpass superstructure is complete. I thought they might be almost finished — it has been a few year.

And then I looked through the sunroof:

overpass

Nope, not quite ready to drive on that yet.

The famous lakeside sign pointing out to the freeway. You actually have to stop to get at a good shot of it. I never seem to be going by it on a day when the skies cooperate and I am not running behind on my way from there to here, or, worse, here to there.

sign

Maybe I should make a category called windshield time. It would be well populated.

photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on My advice: Don’t
8
Apr 14

My advice: Don’t

Sitting at lunch I ran my thumb over the inside of my ring finger. There was nothing there. This is a good way to ruin a reasonably decent barbecue chicken lunch.

So I looked through the napkins on my plate. I looked on the floor. I looked all around my seat. I did all of this several times. I took my plate up to the magic belt that transports the dirty dishes into the kitchen in the back of the cafeteria. I searched my dining area again.

There was no ring anywhere.

So I began to retrace my steps. That meant two restrooms, my office, my desk, my car and multiple bags, backpacks and garbage cans.

But the ring was gone.

So there’s desperation and misery and nausea. And that was all before I texted The Yankee to tell her the bad news. I started searching several of these places for a second and third and fourth time. I was wondering how far I should go into thinking about diving through the garbage coming out of the cafeteria. I had looked in my napkins, but had I looked enough? Vigorous napkin use because of barbecue sauce seems a good a way to lose a ring as any. Did I look in those napkins enough?

Meanwhile, I’m in this text conversation. Looked here, looked there. Did you look there? Yes. How about in –?. Yep. I walked over to the locker room I use at the pool. That was the last place I knew I had it because I’d taken it off to swim last night. Maybe it was still on the top of that locker, but that seemed unlikely and it was not to be.

Finally, The Yankee said What about in the trunk of your car? Clothes go there after you swim. I had not looked in the trunk. And in tearing that apart I found my ring, just sitting on top of a pair of blue jeans. Waiting. Apparently it had slipped off last night when I was putting things away after my swim.

ring

Took hours to unwind from that anxiety. But, hey, the good news is my fingers must be getting skinny. On the other hand, I’m checking my ring finger every few minutes now.

adventures / history / music / photo / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Travel day
1
Apr 14

Travel day

In New Orleans, this is the Cathedral of St. Louis King of France (a minor basilica).

StLouisCathedral

The first church on this site was built in 1727. In the 60 years that church stood, parishioners saw colonial children and the children of slaves baptized inside. At least a dozen people were buried inside. Change came after a fire ravaged the neighborhood in 1788. The “new” church was finally finished in 1794, and a quarter of a century later the central spire and the clock face went in. The bell still rings today. Restored in 1844 at the order of the Baroness Pontalba, the church had already seen two presidents, Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor. It was restored and rededicated in April of 1976 for the bicentennial. The church still considers “the greatest moment in the history of the St. Louis Cathedral was the visit of Pope John Paul II in September, 1987.” He celebrated an outdoor Mass for over 200,000 on the New Orleans lakefront.

I think the night shot was better:

StLouisCathedral

The building next to the Cathedral is the Cabildo. It was the seat of colonial government and is now a museum. The original building was destroyed in the same fire, of course, and this one was built just before the down of the 19th century. Among other things, the Cabildo was the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer ceremonies in 1803. It was also the home of the state’s Supreme Court during much of Reconstruction.

Across the square, in our foreground, is a statue of Andrew Jackson, who looks wild and crazed on his horse. It fits.

Here’s a shot from the Tremé Brass Band.

TremeBrassBand

But you really need a video of the Tremé Brass Band:

We walked five miles. We had gumbo and red beans and rice and a po’boy. We met some people from Atlanta. We saw amazing musicians on almost every street corner. It was a fine evening.

photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on Moooo
25
Mar 14

Moooo

Essentially, this was my day:

Cows

So wrapped up in my mild sickness, and so bored with it, too, I volunteered to go get groceries. Anything to get out of the cough factory and sniff assembly plant that the house has become. Somewhere in between alternating bouts of cold chills and full-on flop sweats it seemed a good idea to go get the groceries.

Then, I figured, I could walk to the side of the grocery store and take a picture of the cattle in the adjacent pasture.

Of course there was another arctic blast moving in as I did this, but that’s never dissuaded anyone from doing sensible springtime things in the spring.

Everything is blooming. All of the flowers and flowering trees are trending toward gorgeous. Any moment now every other tree will achoo out their beautiful spring greenery. It’ll dip below freezing tonight. And I can’t breathe.

But I got a cart full of groceries and a photo of some grazing cattle!

Auburn / links / photo / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off on I need more Pearl puns
18
Mar 14

I need more Pearl puns

Hey, if you drive a high end car, the rules just don’t apply. Ask this guy, who has a sweet little Jaguar, which he parks wherever the heck he wants.

Jaguar

So that’s a Tuesday for you, then. My righteous indignation must be saved until the end of the day and finally expelled upon a guy who doesn’t understand the standard parking lot conventions by which the rest of the peasantry must abide.

On Bruce Pearl, the Auburn mood:

In one day Bruce Pearl brought more enthusiasm about basketball (Basketball? Basketball.) to Auburn than anyone since Chris Porter terrorized everyone. In one day Pearl stirred pretty much everyone, even if you didn’t have an emotional investment in basketball. It is really rather remarkable.

I wrote this for The War Eagle Reader:

He said “I’m baaaaaaaack.”

Jay Jacobs said “I just wish he had some personality.”

It took Bruce Pearl less than two minutes to point out Gus Malzahn at Tuesday night’s press conference in Auburn Arena introducing him as Auburn’s new basketball coach . It took him 17 minutes to get around to his wife. In between he talked about his son, his assistants and the need to have your family with you in life.

“Chances are you’re going to see me with my clothes on most of the time,” Pearl said, but that wasn’t the highlight of the night for a man seemingly full of highlights.

People keep asking — Is this real? Because right now, everything seems like a highlight from someone else’s dream. When you listened to the gathered crowd sing him

Happy Birthday, it was easy to wonder. Is this real? You could wonder, when he feigned a bit of “Aww shucks” and then directed the singalong before saying “How about if we make a deal? How about if we celebrate my birthday at the tournament next year?” It was easy to wonder. Is this real?

And when Jay Jacobs, caught up in the spirit of the thing, took a shot at the media, it was easy to wonder. When the crowd chanted for Gus, and you realized: these might be high water times in the athletic department, you could wonder, is this real?

Pearl vowed his team would work hard. He said they wouldn’t be fun to play against. He reveled in the crowd’s adoration. He glowed when he mentioned his contract. He made a joke about whether he could teach a class on ethics. The high-energy pizza provider, the salesman, so pleased to step back into the game he loved said, yep, this is real. And real, now, not next year. Pearl made a point of that: “The players will not hear me say ‘When we get our own players.’ Those are my players, right there, and I’m their coach.”

The highlight of the night was perhaps when he said to the crowd and cameras that he is mindful, “as a coach and even as a father … I let a lot of people down … and so that’s why I still walk around with pain.”

As he talked about how he has found “this part of the country to be a part of the country that offers grace,” you might have found a different side to the high-energy, enthusiastic, Personality of Pearl.

It is hard to imagine Sonny Smith or Tommy Joe Eagles or Cliff Ellis running into a thundering mass of students and fans on the airport tarmac. But Bruce Pearl is saying to anyone who will listen that he is grateful and that he has been humbled. To Auburn folks, that seems real.

And you remember: Auburn loves a comeback. And they’ve got their next feature performer. That’s real.

And then I wrote this:

Things to read … are just quick links this time. Just because I didn’t write 1,600 words on them (like yesterday) doesn’t mean they aren’t worth your while. Do check some of them out:

This Is The Most Plausible Theory For The Plane’s Disappearance We’ve Heard Yet …

Handing Over the Keys to the Internet

NSA surveillance program reaches ‘into the past’ to retrieve, replay phone calls

24 to receive Medal of Honor today at the White House

Ukrainian soldier killed as troops storm Simferopol base

Alabama’s sales tax rates among highest nationwide

Physicist rejoices as he learns his Big Bang theory is correct

For some retail brands, lifetime guarantees never went out of fashion

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