off to...

Open Water Season

The summer open water season ends today.  I still have the Burrito Union 10-hour triathlon race in September, but that one's just for fun.  Here are my results; next year I go faster and I finally break that 2-hour mark in the 5-mile swim. 

Lake Harriet Two Mile (first time)
51:24
First in age group, 7th overall (guessing this was longer than two miles)

Minnetonka Challenge (third time; race shortened from 5 to ~4 miles; escorted by Paul and Kyle)
1:34.07
Tied for second in age group (Under 49) in an exciting sprint finish; and 5th overall

Perch Lake Two Mil (first time)
41:53
First in age group, second overall (guessing this was shorter than two miles)

Today's race (the Perch Lake Swim) was gorgeous, and as I rounded the 4th of 6 buoys on my final lap, I had to remind myself to enjoy it.  It's going to be a long winter in the pool.

Questions for Grass

Minnesota is about 4" short of its annual rainfall, so we're sort of in a drought.  But tonight we had a beautiful storm come through, with crisp cracking lightening and a great big drops.  I opened my window, put my feet against the wall, and watched the storm blow by.  This gave me time to finally sit and think about something that's been bothering me for the last five years.  No matter what happens, we've never had an "ideal" amount of rain, not for the landscapers or for the farmers. So: How much rain must fall so that we would *never* have to water our lawns?  In other words, what are the ideal conditions for a perfect, natural summer lawn and are they actually achievable?  Is it a bit every week?  Every two days? What natural amount of rain will keep the grass green and bright?  Also:  What impact has concrete and asphalt had on lawn water retention?  Are grass strips (the area between the sidewalk and the curb) always going to have a harder time finding water than larger swaths of grass?  What are the most ecologically friendly grass alternatives?  What is the cultural history of grass? 

Now is not the time for these questions...

Stepping down

Proof

The boy floats:

Not my signature

"My ethics?  I'd like to shed the strictures of adulthood and make maturity an optional result of a freely lived human life, not the necessary path to power and success, lorded over by depressed, overweight, unimaginative corpses." Ben Marcus "On Not Growing Up", Harpers 2008.

However, I'm not sure the sentiment characterizes me in the least.  It's more of a value I know I don't attend to, and the utter lack of it in my life makes a passage like this really stand out. 

For some reason...

I'm really drawn to read Sometimes a Great Notion again.

Local Changes

Local man's car dies; he rides bike, changes life, pens op-ed.

oh geez

Where have I been?  Even TypePad has changed.  List!

• baking breads from scratch
• playing video games
• writing my dissertation
• writing articles
• swimming yards
• baking pies
• biking miles
• smiling and laughing
• going to parties
• throwing parties
• winning swim races (in my age group)
• taking vitamins
• starting a research wiki
• saving water
• swimming in triathlons
• planning a new class
• juggling balls
• growing my hair
• cutting my hair
• planning a trip to Vegas
• flying kites
• reading reading reading

It's been a fantastic summer so far.  Can it just not end this time?  Do I really have to go back to school?

From the train

From Borges's A New Refutation of Time:

"Each moment is autonomous.  Neither vengeance nor pardon nor prisons nor even oblivion can modify the invulnerable past.  To me, hope and fear seem no less vain, for they always refer to future events: that is, to events that will not happen to us, who are the minutely detailed present."

May 12-16: National Bike to Work Week

Give it a go!  You'll never get to work o home from work happier.  I guarantee it.  But wear a helmet, take the lane, and make eye contact with all drivers.

Twin Cities Bike Walk Week

Bike Month

Afternoon Diversion

Tom: Not Coming

2008 Tour Dates

Road trip to St. Louis anyone?

Anniversary

I sold my car a year ago today.  It was a clean break, and, sadly, I don't even have any pictures of the white '95 Ford Escort Wagon Sport that carried me from Madison and back many times and that rode like a hero when I strapped a small red paint trailer on her one stressful summer.  I've not regretted it.   

Glower

Today was beautiful, and a trip to the zoo (and a ride on the carousel) was not, I repeat, not a waste of time.  There, we met a gorilla who was determined not to cross the threshold from the inner to the the outer cage.  He seemed wary and leery of spring.  Surely, he's been duped like the rest of us.  So he sat there, glowering, obstinately defying the crowd's encouragement.   Eventually, we moved on.  But because I've been told recently that I excel at glowering (It's sorta how I think and listen, which means that at school it's my usual countenance), this picture reminds me of me: on the verge of writing, ready to cross the threshold, I sit, glowering, dubious of the next step.  I know that if I just cross over I'll be swinging in the sun soon enough.  But it's that first step: it's too easy to sit and glower, thinking about it but never making it.  After all, this is Saint Paul and it might snow.

   

Carousel

First ride on a carousel since I was five.  My reaction was somewhere between these two:

Pensive

Not-so-Pensive

Was this ever a love song?

Make good choices.

Photomission: Nightshooting Stone Arch Bridge

Published!

Tooting your own horn is a necessity when it is for something as wonderfully absurd as the publication of a chapter in The Office and Philosophy: scenes from the unexamined life

My co-author Dr. Matthew P. Meyer and I are very proud of our efforts.  Procrastination pays off, people.  That's the lesson here.  Also, be brave with those CFPs: You never know what people will buy.

Coming to getchya!

Clown Cake

Brave as Traffic

Biking makes me happier than should be possible.  Seriously.  I never thought I would look forward to my push down University Ave. at the end of the day as much as I do, even after a hard 3000 yards in the pool (that's right, I'm back in the friggin' pool).  This video captures some of the fun I have: yes, I do weave through three lanes of empty traffic and around cars and I sure as hell show up smiling (yes, mom, I wear my helmet); but no, no one tosses confetti. 

I hope it doesn't capture you're commute at all.  Cheers, and happy riding.

Culture Weekend Recap

Ah, culture weekend: what a brilliant idea. 

Saturday Night
First up, August Wilson's The Piano Lesson at Penumbra Theater. This play is worth it simply for the impromptu kitchen table work song "Bird Up." Overall, I agreed with one reviewer that this interpretation was a bit "yelly".  Boy Willie is a disruption, but here he was raucus and distracting.  And everyone was yelling by the end, even at parts that didn't seem to warrant it.  Berniece was great, Lymon was a little off for me, and Doaker and Wining Boy were both fantastic.

Next: Decisions.  The Jazz.Warehouse.Party was in full swing by the time the play got out, and after a little waffling we finally ended up in Northeast drinking some stouts listening to The Atlantis Quartet and the always excellent The Nick Haas Trio.  This was the right decision.  "Good" jazz in a warehouse with cheap beer and friends turned out to be the highlight of the weekend for me.  Sadly, this might have been the last one: Say it ain't so, Peter!

Sunday Afternoon
Kathleen Battle at Orchestra Hall in stolen seats second row center.   So, honestly, I didn't get most of the program, even after being informed about "art songs" (Purcell, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Faure, etc.) and their historical importance, but when she opened up her traditional set with "Were you there when they crucified my lord?" I, along with the entire hall was awestruck, and we immediately leaped to our feet when she finished.   

Sunday Night
What would culture weekend be without the Shakespeare?  And so we found ourselves on some uncomfortable chairs at the Old Arizona taking in a nice minimalist production of King Lear.  I had read the play a week earlier, which helped, but I couldn't keep from comparing it with Hamlet, which seems a richer, tighter, and more satisfying narrative.  Lear makes leaps that don't seem very well developed or presaged (Edmond's suit for Regan and Goneril, for instance, seems to come out of nowhere).  And as expected, the Fool/Lear interactions are much more rewarding performed than read.  I'd like to see this one again.

A snowy Monday morning came much too quickly.  Spring is slow in arriving.

Dyeing

Leaf with Granite

VW Day

What you're viewing is the crack in winter's front, a front that has held strong since November. As this photo attests, the "Alley of Ice," a backdrop for many an early morning battle, is in retreat. Soon the alley will be free of ice and puddles, and it will be rideable again. Complete victory over the 2007-08 Winter is near. But it could not have been achieved without the help of a number of people: Matt and Jill, Kyle and Laura, Krista, Paul and Leah, Paul A., Jessica, Salma, Chris and Lydia, and Liz all helped me get to where I needed to go. They made sure that no social event or trip to visit family was missed. Thank you all.

But much of the real credit must go to the bike, which carried me faithfully through snow, across ice, and against zero below wind chills. In the process, it has endured one fall, numerous flat tires, three dropped chains, and has acquired a serious rear wheel wobble. Heroic is the only word for it. It'll get washed and tuned up soon.

How many passes...

Take this test.

Yum

Crepes by Greg and blueberry compote by Krista.

Are you referring to my bike or your general appearance?

Scene: Lacing up mittens, unlocking bike, bobbing to some Daft Punk...

Me: [Glances up at man approaching]
Him: Who're you?
Me: huh?
Him: Who're you?
Me: A biker.
Him: Do you know someone who lives here?
Me: Yeah. Is there a problem?
Him: Just wondering who's parking their bike here. 
Me: Would you like me to lock it somewhere else?
Him: Well, it looks like shit.
Me: [Stares dumbfounded]
Him: But I guess it's safe.
Me: [Points to pole on the other side of sidewalk] Would you rather I lock it to that parking sign?
Him: [Glances at pole on the other side of sidewalk] Do you know someone who lives here?
Me: Yeah.  I do.

Icicles: Winter won't let go...

The implications of this photo: one day it was warm enough to melt the ice on the roof, water dripped down onto these branches, and it promptly froze again.  That's the story of this winter.  I know that one day soon this tree will have green leaves.  But right now that potential seems very much locked away.