Train Track Trek Training

Today, we took Sam to see the dinosaurs. We got to the train crossing RIGHT as a long car-carrier train was going by. What great art!

I don't think Sam was very enthusiastic at first.  But the train gave us a fun jolt after the first half-mile of walking.

Cross-training for trek on train tracks amuses me.

Sam liked the dinosaurs.

We are getting ready to walk in the pioneer trek in June. 

Suzanna at the Dinosaurs

These are from a week ago, but I wanted to show Suzanna making friends with our graffiti dinosaurs.





Here are some close-ups of the tags that are on the opposite of the tunnel from the prehistoric creatures.



These both say Bless (with only one "S" I guess)



Insane (minus the first "I")




I think this is supposed to be Krips, with a super stylized "I" man.



Jenni's favorite, Wish with an upside-down "I".



"Shout out 2 BMW".  I guess somebody like Bavarian Motorworks cars?

Be Active in Your Civic Duty!

 

Suzanna has been walking with us in the morning. The street light to her right has been out ever since we started walking in December. But Jennilyn told me about a friend who reported a street light being burned out to the utility company, so I decided to see how long it took to repair. 

I found the webpage for reporting an outage, and filled it out on Wednesday afternoon. By Monday morning, the light was fixed! Yay for being a squeaky wheel. With an internet connection.

Do You Ever Stop and Listen to Buskers?

In 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning article, Gene Weingarten wrote about how Joshua Bell, a world-famous violinist (and Grammy/Oscar winner), played for the DC rush hour crowd for 45 minutes, and was not recognized.

That article has since been forwarded, discussed, considered.  What amazing beauty do we miss in our rush to get places?

I do not frequent big cities, but the few times I have, Weingarten's article has given me reason to slow down and listen to the musicians who populate the public spaces with music and energy.  I really like this piece from a pair of Boston Buskers.

Finally, Something More Boring than Paint Drying

Let the drop of pitch fall!  For Science!

It's the world's longest running experiment.

If you go watch the video, YOU could be the first person to ever see a drop actually fall!

Every Day is Like This at my House!

 It's a forest of color and love!  These are better than Christmas lights for making it festive!  I hope they stay up all month.

I knew I was in for a treat when I saw the evidence of art-at-work on the kitchen island.

Don't Anthropomorphize Things ...

 ... they hate that.

This is an important commercial.  Not just because it's funny, but watch it now, then read the rest of this blog.







I'm sort of responding to my own blog post from a few weeks back; I admit and fully recognize that my reactions to an unmatched sock is, as the Ikea spokesman so succinctly puts it, because I am, "Cray-see. It *haz* no feelings!"

A running joke in our marriage has been the issue of what I call orphan furniture. When Jennilyn finds a piece of furniture (or even pieces of a piece) that's been set out on the curb, she often recognizes that it still has great value and use; and she feels a pang of sorrow for it!

This value might be in structure (it still works!) or aesthetic (it's a beautiful color!) or even as a raw material (what can we make out of it?).  I will occasionally (and I hope with great humor) point out that technically, it is garbage.  That's why it got thrown out.  But I'm happily married, so I often fetch the van and retrieve the thing.

It is tempting to view instilling moral or emotional value in "stuff" as sentimentality, or worse, as hoarding.  Often, that's all it is, and it can be a serious problem.  Jennilyn has a great response to circumstances were an item holds no value other than sentimentality; take a picture of it, write the sentimental caption, and throw it out!  She is actually a great advocate for just wearing two socks that *almost* match.

Where is the boundary between thrift and hoarding?  Between seeing the infinite value still residing in an old violin (a la "A Touch of the Master's Hand") and just hanging onto junk?

I have a garage that I gleefully fill up with art material for Jennilyn.  I have my favorite front corner sidewalk where I put furniture out for other people to take.  I don't know the formula for perfectly balancing these two important principles.

But I giggle whenever I hear the Ikea dude's accent at the end of that commercial.

This Is What *I* See When I Go Walking

Jennilyn posted some photos from our walk a couple of weeks ago.  I couldn't resist the meta composition of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of Art.

Weekdays, we walk a set route, a prescribed path of exactly 2.2 miles.  When we walk briskly, it's 40 minutes, but we usually make it in about 45.

But on Saturdays we explore, looking for art.  Discovering Aberdeen.  Here is the coolest backyard swing we've seen in a while.

Here's one of Max's fire hydrants.

And a couple of pictures of a tree/installation; a new way to recycle bottles.

It's fun finding out where all those roads lead to.

One More Thing on the List

In the past, I've dismissed people who make a bucket list (things they want to happen before they die); my to-do list is already long enough.  But then there are moments that are so unique, that it occurs to me as I seize them, "I don't have a list, but if I did, THIS would be on it.

As I left work on May 18th, last year, I saw a car coming over the horizon ahead of me, with the strangest looking bike rack.  It had a weird red ball on top.  As the rest of the car came into view, I realized, that's no bike rack.

 

"It's no moon either!"

That's the Google streetview mapping car camera assembly! The google mapping car pulled to the stop sign across from me, and I realized this was one of those moments.  Like when I got the email asking if any parents wanted to go see a shuttle launch with one of our high school students.  Or when I had the chance to go sky diving.

I knew if I did have a list, one of the things on it would be "Appear in a Google Map's Streeview photo."

I've been checking the google streetview images for that intersection every couple of months since then, and yesterday they showed up!  Look, I'm anonymously famous on the internet!

OK, that's not a REALLY good picture, but you can see me, way far away in the distance.  Here is the same shot, with my car in the red circle, close up.  See me?

But I played around and found a much better picture of me.  You can even see the shadow of the camera assembly on the side of the car.

Look, I still have that Census window decal on the side window!

Yay for the silly things that make us happy!

Here is the actual google streetview map of that spot.  You can actually pan around the photo, or click the "View Larger Map" tag to open it in another window.

View Larger Map

And here's a final photo I got of the camera car on the highway a little later.

Life is Good!

Comet of the Century!

Late November 2013, come to my house any morning at about 4:30, and watch this comet.

I'll make the hot chocolate.

Articles on Language Make Me Happy.

I'm going to double down on my scrambling...