Tuesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Tuesday

cycling / iPhone / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
28
Jun 11

Too much time in the saddle

I set out to ride 51 miles today, but cut it short out of fatigue and a threatening storm. I finished at 42 miles, though, which is now the place the mental wall is going up. Three times I’ve been to 42 miles now, and each has felt just about the most I could possibly do.

We discussed this at the bike shop this afternoon. Seems I should eat more.

Pictures from the trip? I took a few.

This is before I bottomed out:

And this is about the spot where my endurance betrayed me:

So I plodded on through much of my pre-planned course. Stopped to refill the drink bottles across the street from the old Bottle. (Wikipedia calls it a community, but that’s overstating the case.) The landmark has been gone for years, but it is still on state maps. Here’s the scene today:

adventures / cycling / iPhone / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
21
Jun 11

Operation Lack of Ramb

Rode 29 miles on the bike this morning. It was no longer morning when I got back in, but rather the beginning of a full summer day. I parked, checked the thermometer and it said 88 and going strong.

New route today, heading down the dangerous hill on which we live, out through a rural area where I was passed three separate times by the same FedEx truck, through construction, slicing through a rural light industrial area and then onto the hilly, curve fun of Wire Road.

That was the first road I ever drove on in Auburn. The road I hit a deer on (not the same day) and the route back to campus I preferred as a student. I lived just off it for two years. And now I am struggling up its hills.

Walked my bike into a gas station where the cashier observed it was becoming warm outside. Not sure how she jumped to this conclusion, perhaps it was my generally disheveled condition. Picked up a Gatorade and pressed on for the final five miles. It was a good ride, especially since I’m taking tomorrow off.

Just about caught up on the site after two weeks away. The WEM blog is up to date and the tea blog still makes me question why it exists. (When I was experimenting with the multiuser interface in WordPress last year I needed multiple blogs to do it. Otherwise, I haven’t touched the thing, clearly. The LOMO blog has plenty of catching up to do, which may be next week. This blog is just about back in shape, though. Later this week I’ll get the photo galleries a little more current. Hard to believe it has been four months since I built one of those here.

Edited video today for various things, worked on that non-profit site I’ve been nursing along. It should be done tomorrow.

And then, this evening we enjoyed our anniversary dinner. While yesterday was the big day, Monday seems to be a trendy evening for restaurants to close. So we had barbecue last night and got dressed up a bit tonight.

We visited The Warehouse Bistro which is, apparently, one of those open secrets. Never been there. Had only heard of it a few times, though it has been around for ages. It is set in the middle of an old industrial park that otherwise only vaguely looks used.

The exterior is humble enough to miss altogether, but inside, once you pass the obligatory autographs and well wishes is a nice little casual fine dining place. We were sat in the corner and met a guy a half-step too smart to be working in a restaurant, but he had the patter and did a great job. Everything was wonderful — though we skipped the $7 desserts.

I had the rack of lamb:

Quite tasty.

We came home for cookies, which should be a mandatory part of most any meal.

It was a fine start to year three. (We’re, clearly, still zeroing in on the clever name we’ll give this one. Let ya know.)

iPhone / links / photo / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
14
Jun 11

On campus today

Spent the day at Samford. Well, spent lunch here:

I had been craving Whataburger since somewhere midway through the cruise. Odd, really, to be on a floating buffet of extravaganza institutionalized with a dual lack of dietary restraint and judgment and want a burger, but there it was.

So we stopped for lunch at Whataburger, where I had the cheesed variety and fries. And I admired the famous Whataburger print. I love that shot. Ideally I’d have 95 percent of the things hanging in my house to be photographs that we’ve taken, places we’ve been and the people we love. And then I’d have two or three other things that were gifts, a few posters and that print. I can’t say why, but it is about as Americana as you can get, from the air vent to the faux-stone wall, in one frame.

That 1950s little league team reunited last year. Whataburger is the title sponsor of a minor league ballpark and they rounded up the guys, now in the 60s or so, and had them through out the first pitch. Four of them did the honors in Corpus Christi, Texas, home of the first Whataburger. The restaurant conducted a nationwide search and found those guys, some lost to time, at least one lost to war, but others, still enjoying a good french fry from time to time.

Anyway. Back to campus today. Phone calls to return. Emails to Email. Things to print. Heavy things to move from here to there. Stopped in a few offices. Conducted an inventory of video equipment.

Discovered I had a “bad duplexer connection” in my printer. Great, I guess this means no going back in time to play Johnny B. Goode at the high school dance.

The whole thing was a four-hour party. (The inventory, not the Johnny B. Goode. That would be one great drum solo, though.)

I’ll only be on campus once or twice more this summer, so counting lens caps and XLR cables in a hot room is a small tradeoff.

Dodged traffic, got home just as the sun was going down. Enjoyed the evening at home and set about catching up here. There’s a lot to do.

adventures / iPhone / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
7
Jun 11

Another Sea Day

You could never get tired of this (on a cruise ship at least).

We arrive in Bermuda tomorrow. We’ll have three days on the island, which will interrupt my lazy reading, gym time and food with big doses of sun and fun. Life is so tough.

adventures / friends / iPhone / memories / photo / site / Tuesday / video — 1 Comment
31
May 11

New York, Day 1, Part 1

So here’s the plan. We’re spending two days in New York City, so I’m breaking this up for the site. This post is about today, the first day. Tomorrow’s will, obviously, be about tomorrow.

While we’re spending Tuesday and Wednesday in New York City, I’m rationing out the rest of the pictures and details to get the site to the weekend. Everybody got that? Can someone explain it to me?

The sign at the train station. The Yankee’s dad dropped us off. We were running behind, but not so much as other people, apparently.

We made it into the city with no trouble. Got off at Grand Central, showed Wendy around the station, remember, she’s never been to New York. We walk outside and … these are the first four pictures I took of her and sent home to her mother. The top picture is the first thing she saw in Manhattan. Go figure.

If you’re curious, I created that little image with a handy little free app called Diptic. I enjoy it very much.

Anyway, one of the things Wendy had on her list was to see the Statue of Liberty, of course. So we hopped a bus and walked up to the Circle Line to take the tour.

This was my fourth trip in front of the statue, now, and each time I (still) have this little feeling of surprise at the thought of being there. There are a lot of places and things in the world that I admire from afar without having ever seriously considered the opportunity to see, but here’s one, and here we are.

The Yankee takes a picture. I bought those rings from Wendy’s father. Small world, gemologically speaking.

Some nice stranger took this picture for us. We gave them great shots in return. Do you ever wonder if those people wonder about you? How is that guy that took my photo just after the first of the year? But I digress.

From the East River, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in one picture. Also, a lot of other buildings thrown in for scale.

Still looks a little odd at the World Trade Center, but there’s a distinct change taking place here. The new construction is slated to be open in time for the 10th anniversary later this year — 10 years, difficult to believe. The first time I took the Circle Line (five years ago!) the guide spoke at great length, and with poignant eloquence, about September 11th and the loss and the first responders and about St. Peter’s, a local church with pews now scarred where those rescuers took breaks from their horrible task. Today the guide talks about what is coming to the site, and what has been gained in that part of the city and that was nice to hear.

She’s breaking the law.

And there was a lot more to the day. You’ll see more pictures of it on Thursday. (Tomorrow will be about tomorrow, naturally.) We caught one of the new trains out and headed back to Connecticut for the evening. The new trains are nice. They’ll feel out-dated before the end of the year, but still better than the brown on brown aesthetic of the old trains.

Here’s a brief interview I conducted with Wendy on the small town girl’s first day in the big city.