Wednesday

cycling / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off on And just like that, the last color of the year fills the air
7
Oct 20

And just like that, the last color of the year fills the air

The least nature can do before turning to monochromatic grays and whites is to give us this. And you have to be perfectly fair here: this turn of color is impressive.

Saw that tree on the walk to the car after work. It was a quiet day on campus, a lot of them are just now, and it’s a shame that we aren’t able to have large outdoor activities because the backdrop would be … something:

Went for the Wednesday afternoon bike ride, and fell behind pretty quickly. Which gave me an empty road in front of me to shoot from the hip:

Not to long after this I had another flat. I was taking a turn and the back of the bike slid out from underneath me, which was the first sign. It was low. So I pumped it with my hand pump enough to get over the next hill, by which time the tube was flat again. I pumped it once more and when I got back on the tube said, and I quote, “You’re kidding, right?”

We were moving on toward dusk by then. And while I wasn’t far from the house, taking the time to put in another tube and limping home would have meant darkness, so I texted The Yankee to come pick me up, which she kindly did.

And now I’m throwing out that tire. I bought some more tonight, I’ll put an old one the back wheel until they arrive. Begging the question: what was wrong with that old tire, to keep it from being on my bike?

I took the offending Gatorskin — which has served me for a good long while, but has been a part of flat after flat after flat this year — out with the garbage tonight. I told it that no longer sparked joy, it was the weakest link. And I have a big stack of ruined inner tubes, and another truncated ride, to prove it.

adventures / cycling / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off on Always agree to the ‘Let’s go ride bikes!’ sentiment*
30
Sep 20

Always agree to the ‘Let’s go ride bikes!’ sentiment*

Well that debate was something, wasn’t it? About 70 million people watched it last night. And if you watched the debate that’d be enough. But more people caught up to bits and pieces of it today. That, in this case, might have actually been more deflating.

So we went for a bike ride. I thought it would be too dark, because even the sky had become gloomy and overcast this afternoon. I saw a cyclist just before I turned into the neighborhood and thought about how he didn’t really stand out from the background. But I was wrong about the light, because about the time we got out for a quick and easy hour ride we enjoyed the best light of the day.

It was brilliant, in the sense that has to do with golden light.

The legs felt good, the lungs felt good and the weather was suddenly lovely and maybe it was all the perfect distraction.

*This is always a Note To Self.

IU / memories / podcast / Thursday / Wednesday — Comments Off on A political campaign ‘listen to this’
24
Sep 20

A political campaign ‘listen to this’

When I was in graduate school I took a class on political communication. The professor was a famous and renowned pollster. And after a day or two the professor would ask the class a question and the class just looked at me.

I was conscientious of that. I didn’t want to be that guy, but they were pretty clear that I should be that guy. The professor would later become my committee chair, did me a few solid favors in the program and later took credit for introducing me to my wife.

He was only slightly wrong about that, but he’d earned the literacy license with me.

So esteemed was Dr. Powell in our eyes that, despite him asking us for years to address him by his first name, “Because we are colleagues,” we all still refer to him as Dr. Powell. He’s a good man.

And I was thinking of him while I was interviewing Dr. Gerald Wright, who is in the political science department at IU. We talked about the upcoming presidential debates. So I was very happy for the opportunity, because this is the part of politic campaigns that I like: the message construction, the real body work.

The debates, probably not as much. They’re important, but they’re not. You know what you know about the candidates. You like who you like. And not much that can happen at a debate, or even a series of them, will move people who have made up their minds.

They’re debates, but they’re not. The formats aren’t really debates anymore. We don’t know all of the details about this debate cycle, yet, but there’s little to suggest the previous sentence will be wrong. It has been written that they’re basically press conferences in their current form, and that’s not exactly wrong.

They’re entertaining and informative, but they’re not. You have to follow and know politics to be entertained by them. If that describes you, you won’t learn much that’s continually informative for you. If you’re apathetic to the process in general — and far, far too many are — then you’re probably not watching, or paying only scant attention anyway.

They’re a part of the process, but they’re mostly just a tradition at this point. It’d be terrific, from the perspective of civics, if they were more than an academic study. I’m sure Dr. Powell will have a great deal to discuss with his classes during and after the debates. And I bet Dr. Wright will, as well. You get the impression, from the interview above, that he’ll have a lot to say to his students’ benefit.

He asked, before I could remind him, if I wanted the soundbite answers or the professorial answers. You’ve no idea how much I wanted to insist on the really in-depth stuff.

photo / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Hey wait a minute
23
Sep 20

Hey wait a minute

More and more of these signs are popping up around here. Which, I suppose, makes sense as the big date grows closer. Yard signs are all about name recognition so, obviously, people running this would want you to have them top-of-mind.

And, yet …

That seems like that might not be legal.

Have some television. These were shows the news team produced last night. There’s a nice little feature interview in this one:

Breaking news, weather and sports … really, if we had traffic and could do some side-by-side banter it’d be a complete show.

The news team has two episodes under their belts, now, and things are going pretty well. I look forward to seeing how they challenge themselves now that they’re back in their groove.

Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off on Being quick about it
16
Sep 20

Being quick about it

Have you ever gotten to the end of a day and thought the aggravation wasn’t worth the minimal mental effort? Ever screen capped conversations and come back to them later, just to make sure you weren’t imagining them?

I’ve got about a half-dozen followup rhetorical questions, and the answer to all of them, of course, is “Yes. So what?”

Which, dear reader, is a profoundly on-point answer today.

Great column here:

This stuff is aggravating:

I think I started really riding bikes again 10-or-so years ago just as a release. Sometimes I remember that and today was one of those days.

I’ve been saving this story to share for just such a day. No! Really! I have a bunch of tabs open and this was one of them and I’ve been hanging on to it because the numbers are oddly inspiring. You’ll like this.

And, now, back to the bike race.

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