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adventures / Friday / music / photo / running — Comments Off
9
Sep 16

We ran a race, watched balloons and saw Lee Greenwood

There was a 5K for a local hospital. We ran it. We didn’t win, but we didn’t come in last. I actually placed second in my age group. Most importantly, we finished with smiles, so who cares, otherwise?

This race was at the local fairgrounds, and I have photos to prove my alibi, should the need arise:

After the fun run the trucks came in and dumped out piles and piles of nylon and dacron. The bigger purpose of the night was bringing people out for hot air balloon rides:

And this is what I learned: Depending on how you frame or crop your shot, Yoda’s expression really changes a great deal.

Also, feel free to grab one of the above three shots if you need a new social media avatar, I guess.

There was only one Yoda balloon, but he was clearly the star of the evening for kids young and old:

I bet you could do a Star Wars hot air balloon theme. It’d be great fun, until the blasters and light sabers came out.

Also Lee Greenwood appeared. He did a three song set, by himself. No band, so karaoke, basically. Well, we think it was actually Lee Greenwood. You had to stand so far away that you couldn’t tell. And it wasn’t the crowd, which was sparse, that dictated the distance from the stage, but the drop zone. A parachutist descended with a flag to set the night off right. They mis-timed this. Greenwood hit that last “AAAAAAAAA-” said thank you and was back in his trailer and maybe on his way to tonight’s steak dinner before this guy got to the ground:

On the way home, we wondered how many times in his career Greenwood has sang that song and if that is annoying for him. So I looked up his booking rates. Let’s say the site was accurate and there is no bargaining. Let’s say his aunt isn’t the marketing agent for the county fair. Or that he didn’t lose a bet to a county commissioner. Let’s say he didn’t have to be in a nearby town the next day and that this was a just another convenient stop. (Judging by his published tour dates, he was here special.) They might have paid $25,000, for a three-song set.

You’d think that for that kinda dough he might run the chorus one more time to help the skydiver, but no.

He was already off stage, counting his money, pleased that he’s been singing that song for more than three decades now.

memories / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
8
Sep 16

Remember this

If ever you should feel homesick, remember this: look around.

Before long, you’ll find something that is familiar and right. Take this water valve. I saw this walking back to the office from lunch today:

Albertville, the “Fire Hydrant Capital of the World” is just 100 miles northeast of where I grew up. (I remember the first time I saw that slogan on a sign outside of Albertville. Now I’m going to smile about it every time I pass by that Mueller.

Also, I mentioned I found Milo’s Tea, right? That’s brewed in the town where I lived as a kid. Same water supply.

You just have to seek it out.

IU / photo / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
7
Sep 16

On campus, in the building

And now a bit of landscaped fauna meditation to help you through Wednesday:

Here’s another picture of some of the hand-planted things:

Inside: though the control room is dark today, the engineers are down to the last bit of their build. We should be in the new studio in the next few weeks:

Very exciting indeed.

cycling / history / maps / photo / weekend — Comments Off
4
Sep 16

Where the people are moving

As ever, this barn was at or near the top of a hill on today’s bike ride. It was but a 22-mile ride, and another piece of mounting evidence, impossible to ignore, that I don’t know how to ride on hills. But a nice little piece of farmland, somewhere, I think, around a place called Unionville.

Or maybe it was around New Unionville. Hard to tell at this point. They are both unincorporated areas — One has a recycling center, the other has a post office — and appear to be perfectly lovely and sleepy places to pass through.

Wikipedia tells me that Unionville was the center of the U.S. population in 1911. According to the 2010 Census the center is in a place called Plato, Missouri. As the crow flies that’s a 337 mile shift to the southwest in a century. That’s just migratory patterns. (And air conditioning.)

Furthermore, Wikipedia tells me “The 20.7-mile shift projected for the 2010–2020 period would be the shortest centroid movement since the Great Depression intercensal period of 1930–1940.”

Historically … If you looked at the mean center in 1810, the spot was in Loudon County, Virginia, 470 miles east of here. Short of a trend, let’s split the difference. I’m guessing, if you give it another 100 years, the mean center might be somewhere near Woodward, Oklahoma, which is 400 miles from Plato. Someone print this out and keep it for your great-great-grandchildren to verify.

But, anyway, hills or no, I averaged 20 miles per hour or more over the course of four different miles today. So there’s that. A quick glance at a map of Woodward suggests it might be flat. Maybe I should ride there.

cycling / Friday / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
1
Sep 16

As seen on my bicycle

The barn on my bike ride home from the office:

This is on a bike path. The route is just under five miles, much of it on quiet neighborhood roads. Near the end I can enjoy a stretch of a seven-tenths of a mile stretch on this path with only the odd walker or occasional jogger. On one end is a round about, on another is a playground with a punchy little climb up to another playground and park and then the easy downhill home. In between is that barn, sitting there like a forgotten toy, out of place tucked into the suburban carpet.