30
Sep 19
Sep 19
The exercise of the weekend
We did the Outrun Cancer fundraiser Saturday. It was a beautiful, warm, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky, late summer, early autumn day. The sort you can’t take for granted. The kind you do. It’s more apogee than perigee, but definitely neither. It could go on forever, but you know it won’t. You wouldn’t mind if it did, though. You’re not that lucky and so don’t take it for granted, this warm sun, the sting of sunblock in your eyes, the sweat everywhere.
This run on Saturday was the third run on my current rehab tour. I taped up my foot that morning, added another layer and then considered what I’d done previously. On my first run, earlier this week, I did two miles on a 1:1 run-to-walk ratio. On the second run I did three miles, with a bit more running than walking. And easing back into this is important. So naturally I started this 5K with a solid one-mile run. OK, fine, a good jog. After that I walked about a third of the rest. Probably should have had another walk interval, but I was as bored as the rest of this paragraph.
On this particular 5K course around campus you take the last left, go down a little hill and then right back the other side of the next hill. You hang one more left and there’s probably a block or so to the finish line. On that last hill I saw The Yankee working her way up the left side of the road. So I found myself sprinting up the right side of the road and hanging that last, blissful left, to hit the finish line before she did so I could do this:
No matter the distance, finishing with a smile is a big deal in our house.
We walked back to the car in front of this going on in one giant parking lot:
I counted 25 air fans supporting the front of the bounce house, which is billed as the largest in the world. You wonder if there’s serious competition. And if the other guy has surreptitiously come to one of these events and measured the thing, and found it lacking. You wonder if that’s just a trademark, or if there’s something in China or Indiana or Washington state that is just as big or bigger.
You also wonder about why there were security guards in security t-shirts stationed inside the thing. You wonder about how much those people must hate their boss who made them wear the black one today. It was warm.
Now, ordinarily, I’d be especially excited about a bounce house. But the amount of perspiration would only create even more flesh-on-plastic stickiness.
There was a ball pit, and I missed out on it. I had my fill working at Chuck’s in high school, but this ball pit wasn’t like that. The bounce house was so large that for scale the ball pit was filled with beach balls.
They’d be even more demanding to clean after the inevitable accident, I’m sure.
On Sunday we went for a bike ride in the afternoon. It was a nice 20-miler on another Chamber of Commerce day. I got out front early, because I figured if I could hang on through at least two of the pre-planned turnarounds first she’d give me a big smile when we met one another. (She’d do this if she was in front of me, too, but that somehow didn’t occur to me when I was breathing hard.) At one point I probably had about a minute on her and three guys from one of the Little 500 teams picked me up. I stayed on their wheel for a few miles until their route differed from ours, but mostly answered my lingering question: yes, they are faster than me. And younger, too, what’s more.
So through the first turnaround I had the lead, down by the house with the big drive just before the side road rejoined the bigger state road. And then, at the second turnaround, on the quiet little neighborhood road that feels like a private drive, I saw her again. Closer this time. So now I have to pedal harder and faster, because the next section of road favored The Yankee’s strengths, but after that was the one sorta-hill, which favors me a little bit more, somehow. And after that big hill was the third turnaround. And if I got there then that’d mean three smiles!
And that’s how you trick yourself to going a little harder than you think you could. After that it’s hang a left, two rollers, then a right and down to the second of the big hills. Two more quick turns and then you’re back in the neighborhood and through that area I know there’s not going to be an opportunity for her to catch me. Great! I can do the gentlemanly thing and open the door for her.
As I got back to the house I remembered: She had the key.
27
Sep 19
Sep 19
Sounds like a productive production day
Three different trips into the television studio today. One for a simple Q&A recording, then students had their morning show, of course. That episode will come out … sometime between now and then. I think they’re still honing in on their editing system. Somewhere right in there I had to duck into an audio booth, because sometimes you’re asked to deliver all of the finer points of audio production in under half-an-hour.
(You can’t deliver all of the finer points of audio production in under half-an-hour. But I can give you some of them. So you get some, and I will hope they are the right ones and enough.)
After that, Jonathan Banks — of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and Airplane! among others — stopped by to talk about acting. It’s a program they call “Expert Workshop” and it does get great experts. I’m assuming this one will wind up online at some point. Most of them do. Aside from the famous name, this one was special in that it was entirely student produced, which is something I first suggested three years ago, and we’ve been working slowly toward ever since.
I see students produce programs every week as a part of the student television station, for example. There’s no reason other students couldn’t be producing for classroom projects or special events such as the Banks visit.
Here are the two shows the sports side of the student television station produced last night, in fact. First, the show with all the highlights and updates you need:
The Award-WinningTM sports crew also put together this talk show. New host, new hijinks, same fun:
An interesting thing happens every year. They start off and they build a little momentum, and then there’s an episode or two where they struggle with this or that, or a key piece of gear goes on the blip, throwing a wrench into things. Then they bounce back and find a groove they’ll hold all year. That might have been last night. And despite that sort of thing, they still put together two nice little shows. which means that in a week or two they’ll really be rolling.
And you? How are you? Are you rolling into your weekend yet? You should be. Get to it.
26
Sep 19
Sep 19
Idle browsing
On Wednesday nights, you can have plenty of grand plans. Oh, this morning I was going to get up, get a workout in, go run two errands and then go to the office, because I have a late morning because of a late evening.
I woke up, saw that the sky was still gray and re-invested in the warming properties of the many covers on the bed.
At least I ironed every single wrinkle out of the day’s clothes and got to work on time.
I did receive 55 spam emails today. And I got one email about a package that is on its way, while I was tracking that same package via a previous email. That wasn’t spooky at all. It wasn’t spooky because the tracking page said, simply “Your package is on the way!” Anyone with that attention to detail to the finer points of supply delivery logistics isn’t terribly concerned with putting read receipt bugs in their email script.
But who knows what is in the actual package, right? Completely different ball game.
I returned some items to the same store a few weeks ago. I walked in, an impeccably dressed older gentleman said “Can I help you?” I told him I would like to return these two things and there was nothing wrong with them, no sir, they just didn’t fit through most of the parts they were meant to fit. About that same time his phone rang and he took the call and talked to whomever was on the other end through the entirety of the return and credit process. I signed a receipt and received a copy and, through the magic of technology the money was returned to my account via this piece of plastic in my pocket and then I walked out, the impeccably dressed man having not said another word to me, because of his phone call.
Now you might think this poor customer service, but you’d be mistaken. No time was wasted.
I’ve taken one other thing back to that company before. Similar problem. It was no muss, no fuss and just a little Oh, that’s what you bought from the website, judgement and a quick Won’t you see what’s on sale over on the clearance rack up-sell.
I glanced at it. And that was the moment I realized I’ve completely converted to online shopping. The brick and mortar operation has its uses, but none of those uses are idle browsing.
Words to live by:
No matter what you do, no matter where you are in life, making a slinkity sound is good advice. https://t.co/2czd3Be0oC
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) September 27, 2019
25
Sep 19
Sep 19
Hey! News!
I went for another run this evening, and soon enough, perhaps, it will become something between habit and de rigueur once again.
Today I got in 3.1 miles, a full 5K, if you will. And I didn’t run-walk it 50-50. I’m told that, given my particular foot issue the run-walk interval is the ideal way to ease back into things. Take it easy is the strategy, and I’m fine with that. But I did run more than I walked today. It’s a no particular-goal-progression I’m after here.
While still stretching, taping, doing exercises and icing if necessary. So if you see my feet going weird directions, it is probably deliberate.
Probably.
Here are the shows the news crews produced on Tuesday night. First the newsier news show, now with a new intro:
And then there’s the pop culture news show:
Hopefully that show will get a new intro soon, as well.
But, right now, I need an outro.
…. Bye!
