Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Monday / photo — Comments Off
25
Aug 25

Relax, my back

I wrenched my back out of whack. Exercised it out of whack, to be more precise. Doing planks on Thursday night something didn’t feel perfect. And doing planks on Friday it got my attention. Well, this weekend my back decided it liked the attention and so now here I am.

It’s fine. I can move. I can carry things. I just can’t bend over and straighten up cleanly at the moment. But I am developing this technique where I move my hips forward and press up beneath them. That seems to work. Still, last night I said, Would you mind filling the cats’ water bowl? because, really, why get down there if you don’t have to.

Tonight I’ll try a bit of a painkiller and maybe I’ll sleep the whole thing away!

But, hey, I can sit comfortably in most any position, which is great, since I devoted just about the entire weekend, it seemed, to class prep.

I am working on my last class now, which is great since the semester begins in eight days. But now I have a secret weapon. This class is a class my lovely bride teaches, and she is, of course, coming through in a big way. We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Anyway, I am working on populating the Canvas shell now. I understand the structure of the class. I know all but the most specialized of the material. I’ll gain proficiency in that in the days to come.

The other thing I did this weekend was hear from the cats. They wanted their regular Monday slot back, and who am I to argue the point, especially when I have no real reason to delay them. So we’ll move right into the site’s most popular feature, our weekly check in with the kitties.

There is no cat in the world that relaxes harder than Phoebe, and you can’t convince me otherwise.

And when she’s not relaxing, or giving you the opportunity to pet her, or demanding that you pet her, she has a wonderfully playful streak. It doesn’t really come across here, but she’s studying and playing with the light beams and or the dust motes in the afternoon sun.

Poseidon, god of the TPS reports, has been dutifully checking in on my work progress. Things are moving along at their best possible speed, Poe.

I’m sure he’s done this before. And probably I’ve seen it and don’t recall, but the other night he slipped under the ottoman. And it wasn’t just that he got there, but how quickly and easily he got in there.

So that’s a new hiding place to look for him, I guess.

If he had opposable thumbs we’d really be in trouble.

OK, now to take a tip from Phoebe and go relax.

adventures / cycling / Friday / photo — Comments Off
22
Aug 25

Then don’t go that direction

Just work today. Sorta, anyway. I’m now pulling together my final class of the term — and just in time! The good news is all the material is there. Today I worked out the syllabus and started the Canvas shell. I’ll finish the former this weekend and the latter in December, when the class ends.

All of the material is in hand, except for perhaps one reading. I just need to sort it all out, and get myself sorted out. But that’s what the next eight or nine days are for — he told himself, confidently.

Also there are something like three meetings next week, so it isn’t that many days.

But it is a beautful, seasonally mild-to-appropriate Friday, and you don’t let details get in the way of appreciating seasonally mild-to-appropriate Fridays.

Also, I’m tired. And possibly ready for a nap.

We had a nice bike ride today. We went “back that way,” which is a 20-mile out and bike from our neighborhood, through the next one, down and up a hill, before turning left at the church and then pedaling like mad for two miles, all of which was the preface to what I now think of as Always Bad That Direction.

Every time I go this way, it’s a poor quality performance on my part.

This one, though, she was cooking. I only caught back up to her wheel because she was kind.

I set a Strava PR on the last uphill. It was one of those things which I hadn’t previously realized was a segment, but now I do, and so today I tried a bit harder. Only I wasn’t sure exactly where the segment began, so as soon as I took the left turn, I was determined to make it to the top of the hill, a little over a mile a way. Turns out the segment was that whole stretch of road. I took 32 seconds off my previous fastest time of the year and 38 off of last year’s best.

I’ve ridden that hill 16 times, and only now noticed it was a segment. (The fastest time recorded on it is a full 1:31 better than me. That’s not reachable.)

Also, I marked my second and third best times on two other segments, but, still, the whole ride felt slow, and my legs heavy, right until the very end. (It should not take 70 minutes for my legs to warm up. Especially since I won’t stay at top condition for more than 12 minutes anyway.)

When I turned off the tracker, Strava gave me this happy news.

And I was a super late adopter to that app. My first tracker has me at almost 2,000 and 2.2 months of exercise. That seems like a lot, until you remember how long it takes to get there. The first thing I recorded there was a short little bike ride in May of 2011.

I remember it like it was 14 (!!!) years ago.

photo / Thursday — Comments Off
21
Aug 25

Nothing to it, really

I woke up precisely when the alarm went off. Ready to go. Awake. There are sometimes differences in how you wake up. Sometimes you’re awake, alert to the hum of the universe. Sometimes you can go right back to some deep stage of nocturnal coma without an effort.

Lately I’ve discovered a manner of waking up, fully aware of all of the works of poetry and physics man has devised and deciphered, my brain alert with the knowledge of all of it — at least that it exists, not that I have the capacity to retain it or understand it all, mind you. But, then, I turn over and go right back to sleep. All of that heft and conscious living going on in my brain and then, suddenly, it’s two hours later. Two hours later than you’d intended.

Nothing to it. You just roll over and close your eyes, but not too tightly.

Saw the neighbors. Feed the deer. Talked with a sweet old lady who is about to move. Her house goes on the market tomorrow. She has mixed feelings about it all. The neighborhood will miss her dearly. She’s one of the pillars, one of the stalwarts, a founding member of the officially unofficial neighborhood watch.

She told me today that when she started working they were so hard-pressed for teachers that they were putting people with two years of classroom experience into schools. She had colleagues that taught all day and then went to night school to complete their degree. This was the 1970s, and a decade or so into a population boom. There are a lot of stories in there, you can just tell.

Anyway, there’s not much else here, because I spent most of the day just staring at a screen, willing things to come into existence. Not a lot of luck on that front, unfortunately.

Nothing to that, either. You just sit there and wait, again, with your eyes not too tightly closed.

Here’s a little clump of weedy grass that found its way through the cement, and is enjoying some rain drops.

Mild gray day. Breezy. The sort of day that comes with its own charms, and as such deserves our attention. The sort we all need to be able to take in at the drop of a hat.

And instead of doing that, I spent it getting not enough work done.

Well, that’s why we have tomorrow. There will be something to that, surely.

photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
20
Aug 25

Can’t spell corporate speak without C-A-T

Committee meeting today. Subcommittee, let’s say. Did we solve all of the problems of the world? No. Did we pave the way for a perfectly efficient year ahead? No. Did we identify critical areas to once again address? You bet we did. Are there just as many questions at the end of the day as there were at the beginning? No, for in our intense efforts to create the glide path for a perfectly efficient year flexing our synergistic cross-departmental assets and maximizing our efforts to minimize discomfiture, we project a high ceiling for the year, where we will leverage corporate buzzwords and digital assets to … something or other.

I asked the cats about it, but they refused to take the meeting. Some fussy excuse about needing to be on the site. So let’s get to them, as they are, after all, the most popular feature here.

The return of Super Phoebe!

She hasn’t done that in a while, so it was a real afternoon treat to have her sit with me like this. It’s great for belly rubs, which may as well be my raison d’etre from her perspective. The best part is when she’s done, she does this twisting corkscrew thing and heads back to the floor, front feet-first. It is quite graceful, as cats often are.

Poseidon does not have superhero poses. But he will cuddle any part of you he can reach.

That’s my raison d’etre from his point of view.

It’s a living.

So the cats are doing great. And we all hope you are, too.

cycling / photo / Rowan / Tuesday — Comments Off
19
Aug 25

Making you wonder about the efficacy of bungee straps

I finished the last big lecture in my newly designed course. The course is finished. Now I have to only assign groups, write prompts for the midterm and final, make two other small decisions, and do daily prep throughout the term. So that I might, you know, actually run the course.

That’s the other thing about creating a new class. You’re not done until the final is in sight. But anyway, foundation, framing, walls, roof, shingles and all of that are now in place. Its a class we can live in for three-and-a-half months.

Anyway, I can put that behind me for a while, and focus on the other class. And also tomorrow afternoon’s committee meeting.

I forgot to add this poor quality video to yesterday’s post. The video isn’t great, but DailyMotion makes it worse. (I need a better video hosting option.) Anyway, these deer were out in this big field that’s sandwiched between a state highway and this little side street I took. They ran along side me for much of the thing, which was charming. Eventually I thought, I should pull out my phone and that was just before the deer thought, “We should turn left!” They didn’t come close to me, of course, they were trying to get away from me. But here’s me shooting a video and getting a firm grip on the front brake at the same time.

I had an even better encounter on today’s ride. Though I might have messed up her stride.

I did the thing today where I had a slight idea of the route I wanted to take, but then I changed it all up, mid-ride. This is maybe my second favorite kind of ride. The only thing better than spontaneity over known roads is deliberately setting out to find new and unknown roads. But, anyway, I went to town, doubled back through some heavy sprint zones and then turned left at one of the crossroads that also has a name that also ends in town. In about six pedal strokes I was outside of that town, and pretty soon saw two cyclists ahead of me. Or was it one? No, two. Maybe actually just the one. Nope, two. Definitely two. That’s what a couple of hills and blurry glasses will do to things way down the road.

I caught them on the second hill, a man and a woman. Both riding with blinkies and brightly colored shirts. The guy looked perfectly comfortable, like he was just riding alongside his companion, and she was having a little tougher time of it. I called out to them as I pulled alongside. The usual stuff. Great day for a ride! Except for this hill, right? Well, gotta go, have a safe one!

Then I pushed on, and they did not follow. I took a right, and the road opened for another big high-intensity push, and this view.

So I’m cruising along at 22 miles per hour and trying to remember if I remember this road. There are two — or is it four? — roads that cut across in this area and some of this looks familiar, but maybe I missed the landmarks I’m thinking of because I had my head down, or I was hypoxic.

Anyway, the road ended as expected, I turned to the right, as planned, and then set off on a three-hour adventure to the red light that was up ahead, visible for the duration, and still three, make that six hours away. Took forever. So much for those two big sprinty roads I’d just enjoyed.

Basically I’m doing parts of other routes in reverse, so all of the sensations are backward. What should be a slight descent to a riverbed is now the most interminable false flat road engineers have ever devised. And then this red light, which never changes. And then some more time with my nose in the wind. And so on.

The advantages of being in the wind is that you go slow. And also, it is demoralizing. But, occasionally, you see something that’s fallen off a car or truck or tractor, which means you might stop, or turn around and investigate. And today’s roadside find is curious, and maybe useful?

What even is that hook? It is sort of like an U-hook, but not. Sort of like a closed face, but not. You can see how it might have fallen off a truck bed. I don’t know what it can be used for, but fortunately I have an entire shelf in the garage dedicated to “Tie downs and other stuff I don’t know what it can be used for.”

Most of that shelf is bungee straps. You find a lot of bungee straps on the side of the road.