Monthly Archives: August 2011

Thursday Potpourri

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We are almost through with this work week, the first work week since summer vacation. Usually, by this post of the week, my thoughts and blog material has begun to run pretty thin, but this week is a bit different, since I’ve all that summer vacation material to continue to mine. I went back to work on Monday and Anne started back, from an even longer hiatus on Tuesday. Until Dan returns the Prius to Saint Louis, we are a one car family, so Anne and I have been carpooling. I drop her off at school and then turn around and go to work. I work later than she does, so she has to walk home from school. Normally, this one to two-mile walk is no problem, but it has been rather hot this week.

This week we are reduced to the Prizm, our oldest and least desirable vehicle. The Prizm doesn’t have a working radio anymore, so I have not been able to listen to NPR during my commute. Instead, I have been listening to various Slate podcasts. These podcasts come in various flavors; there is an Audio Book Club, a Movie Spoiler Special, Political and Cultural Gabfests. These podcasts feature a rotating and seemingly inbred set of erudite commentators. They are very liberal, so liberal that they make me realize just how conservative NPR has become. With these podcast in my iPhone, I shall no longer fear NPR’s pledge drives. Here is a Slate factoid that I would like to pass along: Animated version of the Bayeux Tapestry – It starts halfway through the original work at the appearance of Halley’s Comet and concludes at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Anne has been working in the elementary schools this week. Tuesday, she was in kindergarten. Did you know that the first US kindergarten was in Saint Louis? I’ve biked past the building in south Saint Louis. Wednesday, she was the Seeds to Table Coordinator. When I first heard this, I was rather excited. I had visions of Berkley’s Alice Waters and the Edible School. I envisioned that Anne would lead the kids out into the school’s garden, first to gather the free range chicken’s eggs and then to gather fresh vegetables. Then she would march the children to the kitchen and she, the kids and the school’s chef would prepare the noon meal. Boy was I wrong! The temperature that day was over a hundred and Anne doesn’t like to do that kind of heat anymore, she goes to the U.P. instead. Second the cafeteria is undergoing renovation and the school is doing a sort of internal meals on wheels in the interim, so there was no table there. She ended up reading to the children and interacting with them in a sort of Q&A forum. This morning, on our commute to school, we passed some parents and students that Anne thought were participating in the Walking Bus. I offered to drop her off, so she could “catch” the bus too, but she declined, saying that she was expected to be there earlier than the students.

OK Go is a rock band that made the viral music video, Here It Goes Again, the so-called treadmill music video. Here they go again with another music video of their song, All Is Not Lost. This video was produced with the modern dance group, Pilobolus. The use of a glass floor makes for a great visual effect in this video. I love the way that they spell out words with their feet. If you have the Chrome browser, you can watch an interactive version of it. I did find this second song less tuneful. Thanks, Dave from work!

Lakeboat

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Today’s post is for all of those boat nerds out there. This collection of 15 photographs comprise the majority of nameable lake boats that I saw and photographed in the about a week’s time that I had at the cabin. All those boats that passed by, while I was without a camera (few), I muffed the shot and could not read its name or it was simply too dark to see a name, I’ll look for you next year. The title of this post is also a hat tip to David Mamet’s play and movie by the same title. I was going to include a link to a YouTube video of the movie, but Mammet’s language is too salty for the Great Lakes and this blog.

Vultures, Prosecutors & Jackasses

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The pictures with this post are from our last walk down the beach on Saturday. While we were walking, six large black birds circled lazily overhead of us. I’m calling them vultures, but I don’t really know what kind of raptor they really are. Sibley’s doesn’t show that either the turkey or black vulture ranges as far north as the U.P., but I don’t believe that eagles congregate like these birds did. There was one exception, years ago, in Missouri. It was a very cold winter’s day and all the open water had iced over, all except below the locks, which were left partially open to keep the gates from freezing up. On that day we saw fifty bald eagles congregated around the only open water for miles around. It was quite the sight.

I’ve written about my friend and co-worker Steven Pogue before here. He got his fifteen minutes of fame last month, when he was cited for giving another motorist the finger. He was supposed to go to trial tonight, but the City of Baldwin’s prosecutor called up Steve’s ACLU lawyer and offered to drop the charges in exchange for Steve’s promise not to sue. This arrangement was quite agreeable to Steve. He was ready to put this incident behind him. His planned defense was to be a first amendment argument; he was simply exercising his freedom of speech. I guess you could say that this makes Steve a bit of a freedom fighter? Coincidently, Anne and I watched “My Cousin Vinny” on Netflix, last night. It has a great courtroom scene that culminates with the prosecutor saying, “Your honor, the prosecution would like to dismiss all charges.”

I spoke with Dave at work today. Dave is always a great source of blog fodder and today was no different. He had a book on his desk called, “It’s a Book” by Lane Smith. It looks like a children’s book, but is so much more. It wouldn’t be too surprising if Dave did have a children’s book on his desk, he has the best at work Lego collection. It fundamentally violates the premise of “It’s a Book”, but since it was uploaded by the publisher and adequately captures the feel of the book, I offer this link to a YouTube version of “It’s a Book”.  In the book, the last time “It’s a Book” is spoken, it is embellished, “It’s a Book, Jackass!” I got grief over vacation, because while everyone else had their noses buried in a book, mine was in my iPhone. I guess that maybe at the cabin, I was the Jackass?

Back to Work

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Today, Monday, I returned to work. It wasn’t really all that traumatic though. The boss was on travel, everyone seemed to want to hear about my vacation and before I left on vacation I had finished up a major project, so I was a little bit in-between jobs, but that was soon remedied. By the end of the day, I had successfully rejoined the workforce as a productive member thereof. Anne however had Monday off. She did call the sub-scheduler last night and was given some days, just not today. Oh well, what’s one more day of vacation?

Someone “broke-in” while we were gone. These people, left the sink full of dirty dishes, the cans full of trash, and the living room full of stuff, but they also left beer in the fridge, so I decided not to call the cops on them. One of these unnamed individuals broke our quite venerable coffee grinder. This came as a rude surprise Monday morning, but in retrospect, was clearly foreshadowed by the scattering of whole beans found strewed across the countertop. At least there were no cherry fingerprints to be found on the cabinetry that would have made me really grumpy. While the absence of coffee at home was an inconvenience for me, it proved more influential on Anne. I could and did easily drive to the nearby Starbucks store where whether because of my tell-tale tan, or maybe they really did miss me, like they exclaimed, the Latté Ladies quickly purveyed hot, frothy caffeine. I eventually came to Anne’s rescue, when I bought her lunch, with coffee.

The picture with this post is of an iron mailbox that can be found at Ox-Bow. The triple entendres of male/mail and the periodic symbol for iron/female made this one of my favorite permanently installed artworks in Saugatuck, when we visited Dan there. The utilitarian nature of this art piece is somewhat dispelled by the cobwebs in the box. Maybe they just use email now?

On the way to work, in between Starbucks and home, I had an awkward, but still interesting male/female encounter. I had stopped at the local Mobil station first to gas up, but to also add a quart of oil to the Prizm. It burns oil and the oil light was starting to flicker on and off. After pumping my gas via credit card, I entered the kiosk sized convenience store to buy oil.  Inside this tiny space the following tableau unfolded. Scene, for three men and one woman: starring the store’s clerk, weighing in at easily four bills, the other guy and me, but featuring a nattily attired and quite attractive young woman. She checked-out with her purchase of a shot can of Starbucks, while three pairs of eyes kept watch. All of this attention must have been too much, because she fumbled picking up the can. After she left the clerk rang up my quart of oil. The other guy exclaimed “$4.50” in surprise at the price and the previous tension was dispelled. I eventually made it to work at my boys club.

Home Again

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We, being both Anne and I, are back home in Saint Louis tonight. It has been a long two days of driving, all the way back down from the Soo. I have been away for 18 days, while Anne has been out-of-town for 37 days. I definitely have work tomorrow and Anne may too, since school is already back in session. The first picture with this post is of Harry, Bubs, Anne and I, on the beach, Saturday morning. This photograph is courtesy of Paulette. The second photo is of Anne’s cousin Anne, also-known-as Kayak Women. We met her, Bill and Jane for breakfast, Sunday morning. It was sort of a reprise of Saturday night. Finally, Anne and Dave, who we met for lunch at Purdue. We switched cars with him, the Corolla for the Prizum. He definitely got the better deal. He is sharing an apartment with two Indian graduate students, Arun and Tarun. Tarun likes to cook and Dave likes what he cooks. Dave’s classes start on Monday. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed again.

Planetfall

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“The Marriage of Figaro” made for a late night. We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. I’ve never been a big fan of opera, but the Soo Theater Company’s production seemed quite professional and Mozart’s music was great. The Soo Theater itself, is still a reconstruction project in progress. There is new seating now, but the ceiling is still a mess. There is one more matinee production of Figaro, on Sunday.

Late nights make for late risings, on the morning after. Breakfast, packing and one last walk down the beach, equated to a noon launch. On the walk, we saw six vultures circling overhead. I’m sure they were just looking dying gulls and not us, right? Everyone grab a stick and form a circle facing outward.

We chose to fly down the backside of the front, skirting green, yellow and red blobs all the way down M127 to Jackson. By the time we turned east, the storms had moved on. Dinner at Anne and Bill’s was FABULOUS! Jane appeared too, we all had a good time. Tonight, we rest at Chez Harry’s, even if Harry is not here, his spirit persists.