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May 19
May 19
Two of the things here are reaching their potential
One of our friends and former students came back to town:
Dominick and I had lunch at the new pizza joint. We spent the afternoon catching up and telling tales out of … well … school. He’s been gone for a year, studying out west and doing great things in the universe.
I beat him, once again, at foosball in a not too demanding best-of-seven series. The last three series have gone to, well, me.
Not that I’d remember something that happened a year ago:
Today I won four games to two.
For me, the game of foosball may never be the same again. pic.twitter.com/Lx51mkT3lB
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) July 20, 2018
Goaaal! The streak…is…ovah!
After eight days of close calls and futility on the foosball table, I've finally beaten @Domino_Jean again. pic.twitter.com/st4sCG22eh
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) July 17, 2018
I have been bested after 8 days of foosball stardom and non-stop victory by @kennysmith. I will now retreat for a year-long hiatus to train and pray for my eventual return to glory.
— Dominick Jean (@Domino_Jean) July 17, 2018
Speaking of remembering, if you’ll recall last Friday I mentioned a flower that’s flowering in the backyard. It has now reached its potential and it’s lovely:
One day I might too!
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May 19
May 19
Happy Memorial Day
Below there’s a bit of a video from the end of a Saturday morning ride. I got in a good 34-miles before the day really warmed up.
I forgot to shoot video on the good part of this morning’s ride, the part with snappy pace and wide-open views, so you’re treated to the back-in-the-burbs “I’m ready to stop moving” part of the effort.
I spent the rest of Saturday just sitting in the recliner reading. It was great. This will make you think: nothing is probably ever as new as we think it is. This was a part of the state of things turning into the 20th century.
That’s from my office desk book. (As opposed to my bedstand book, my Kindle books, my car book or my office desk books, or the entire, and stuffed full, bookcase of Books-To-Read.) This is the one I read sections of when I need to take a break to read something in short installments. It’s a good book. Check it out.
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May 19
May 19
We’re going to have a flower!
Off the back deck …
Enjoy it while you can, I said to myself, and then I did, and then I went back inside. It was dinnertime, after all.
22
May 19
May 19
On water on the ground and in the river
Mid-late May is far, faaaaar too early for the first fallen Maple leaf of the year. It hasn’t even been warm yet!
It’s been damp a lot, though. You can tell because the creek is threatening the banks. Of course it could do that if there’s an abundance of humidity.
The maple leaf was in our driveway this morning. The little stream is on campus, winding through the beech and maple. They call it the River Jordan, named after a 19th century university president. He said, when he left IU for Stanford, that he didn’t want a building named after him, but he liked that waterway. It was a hugely prominent geographical feature, especially before the continued campus development. And so it was, but the River Jordan returned to the old name, Spanker’s Branch, when it left campus. (No, really, Spanker’s Branch. There’s a plaque and everything.)
Jordan got a building named after him later, anyway, and the whole waterway now bears his name, as well. That’s our loss. Spanker’s Branch is a great name, but I haven’t yet found the historical origins of the ancient name. My best guess, though, is that it was a name, rather than a verb. But! I have found a 1922 book of local stories that includes an anecdote by an octogenarian about her father playing at Spanker’s Branch as a child. If she was 80, that name would have good way back.
So the search will continue.
