Tuesday


7
Nov 17

The beautiful trouble of autumn, Part III

About two weeks ago I wrote:

It seems like that time of year where you try to catalog the changing of the leaves, because they’re pretty, but because you want them to stay.

Well, this is most definitely that week. So let’s do that this week, let’s document autumn. These are all on campus, in the Dunn’s Woods, which was a 20-acre tract of land the university purchased in 1883 from Moses Fell Dunn, a local lawyer and landowner:

As the university shifted from its seminary roots to a liberal arts college, it was important to keep the original atmosphere. So campus officials were intent on keeping much of the woods. They used the phrase “preserving the sylvan nature” a lot in their campus plans. Because of that, a walk on campus shows a great abundance of native flora.

That was a good choice.


31
Oct 17

Happy Halloween

I was outside from the car to the building this morning, obviously. And I walked back outside from the building to the car at about 8:30 tonight. And in between I think I only even looked out one window, at one point, late in the afternoon. This is the little slice you see if you’re standing in our television studio:

It is a fancy space. You’re looking east there, so you have a great opportunity at about 9:30 to see some nice early sunlight and then at about 5:20, this time of year, you get this view in the evening. But that was the only view I had today. It was a fairly hectic day.

And I didn’t even see any kids begging for candy. Our neighborhood pretty much shuts down at 8 p.m., it seems. I saw one little clutch as I drove back into the top of the neighborhood, their bags bulging, their makeup running and their blood sugars already soaring, I think they were calling it a night.

So these were the costumes I saw today:

Another crew did our humble little news show this evening, as well:

So Halloween is over. I’m hiding the kids’ candy, you say. Bring on November, you say.

Give me April, I say.


24
Oct 17

Our domestic hierarchy of cold temperatures

We keep three blankets in the living room. Since there are two of us, two of them, the shaggy brown one and the shaggy white one, get used. Used to be that the cat wouldn’t touch them. We’d cover up, and she’d walk or stretch out on whatever parts of you that weren’t covered up. When it got cold last winter she found it in her heart to tolerate the brown blanket. And now she lays on it frequently. But she wouldn’t tolerate the white one in any way. And I think she came to ultimately like the brown blanket a bit.

As this winter draws near, I think she’s rethinking the white blanket:

But when it is cold, you get under any blanket you can and watch YouTube videos. Here are some now. These are shows my students shot tonight, the talk show:

And the news:


17
Oct 17

Enjoy some pictures

Back to work today, but we’re kind of dragging after a long weekend. So there’s not a lot going on today, or maybe for much of the week, who knows. So here are some pictures of pictures.

We were out at this hipster restaurant in Louisville on Saturday evening. In the hallway there were several quality prints of old country music acts. Here’s one now:

Merle Haggard knew hard times. He was in and out of jails as a teen and finally a series of prison circumstances convinced him to turn his life around. And then he heard Johnny Cash perform at San Quentin. Haggard returned to music and launched a career that included more than three dozen number one hits. The Working Man passed away just last year.

The restaurant, I’m guessing, was named after him, too.

And here’s Ramona and Grandpa Jones:

They met at WLW, Cincinnati, in the 1940s and were married for 52 years. She was an acclaimed fiddler. He became a legend. They both starred on Hee Haw. Born Ramona Riggins, in Indiana, she remarried after Grandpa died in 1998. She played professionally for more than half a century and passed away in 2015, at 91.

And this is Johnny Cash:

That photo was taken in January 1968, the day he recorded his live record at Folsom Prison. The record was released that May and “At Folsom Prison” was, of course, a huge success and revitalized Cash’s career. It hit number one on the country charts and landed in the top 15 of the national album chart. It climbed to number seven on charts in both Norway and the U.K.


10
Oct 17

Travel day

I’m on the road. I’m in a rental car. The university gave me a Ford Focus, which is fine enough for a rental car.

I was on the flat, open country to the north. And now I’m in a hotel room after a perfectly anonymous dinner where I read magazine articles while a server absentmindedly sang while she swept and did her cut work. She had a lovely voice.

I’ve been to this city one time before, but The Yankee made that trip six years ago and I’m on the road on my own this time.

Six years ago today, in fact. Weird.

Where am I? Tell you tomorrow.