Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Pretty peony

It is time to check in on the peony. It looks pretty good to me. I wonder if it will hold up under the rain.

Isn’t that typical? I’ve been talking about the weather. Noting its variation. Observing that we need the rain. I’ve been watching the drought monitor for a long while and, hey, we’ve been in a drought since last fall, and we’ll still be in one after this weekend’s weather passes by, I’m sure. And, yet, I’m complaining about the raindrops bending over a peony.

I’ll lament even more when some summer storm bends over the crape myrtle. Isn’t that typical?

Anyway, cool today. Cold, perhaps. We made it to 53 degrees. I’m starting to regret putting my winter clothes away two months ago. No, I will not go and fetch something out of the basement wardrobe, just for seasonal spite.

There is nothing exciting today. Well, nothing more exciting than this: I have gotten my work and my personal inboxes down to 30 items. I’ve also been arranging the order of the next few books I’m going to read. I’m going to read a lot this summer. That’s my gift to me. The only question is how many books I’ll keep going at one time — I used to read four at a time for reasons of convenience — or if that’s even a thing I need to do. It’s going to be a great summer.

The temperature has been falling from an abberrational 71 at midnight to the upper 50s, all day. Tomorrow we might hit 60. Saturday we’ll do well to stay in the mid-50s. Summertime!

I wonder how the peonies feel about this.

I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation. So, I’m sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. It was a great vacation. I have a lot of footage. This will go on for some time. Enjoy it with me, won’t you?

This is the last week of this feature. (For now, anyway.) We are going to spend it all looking at the majesty of Malin Head, the northernmost part of Ireland.

adventures / Ireland / memories / photo / video / Wednesday — No comments
20
May 26

Now officially on summertime

I’ve been casually watching this for many years now, and I have noted, in that time, several days where I’ve experienced a 30 degree swing in temperatures. I know there are plenty of places where that happens a lot more regularly. It’s rare enough in the places where I’ve lived, I guess, to be remarkable when you see the forecasts. I am remarking on it now. On the days it has happened and anyone is within earshot I have bored them with my mastery of basic arithmetic. That’s a remark. It’s remarkable.

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that a 30-degree temperature swing seems to be about the extent of it. At least around here. (Here meaning wherever I was at the time.)

Today, the forecast called for a 40-degree swing. The high was forecast at 96 and the low was 56.

So we’ve ruined the weather, or we’ve ruined forecasting. Or both. Either way, this is bad.

We had our year-end faculty meeting today, a four-hour chat in a classroom. There was an agenda. We ended up having to rush through parts of it. I made three comments, two of them substantive, and that was more than enough. (I reminded people of a deadline that is now set for April 2027, and I suggested we see about getting some AEDs installed in the building. I am in the minutes as having participated in the meeting.) Much ground was covered, applause and good cheer was shared. Lunch was university-catered chicken-salad sliders.

And sometime soon after we got home the new weather system blew in. You could almost see it bearing down on us, coming out of the southwest.

We got a bit of rain — good, we needed it, and probably some more, we’re already in a severe drought — even as most of the system went to the north. Looked impressive.

Cooled thinks right off. After three days of 90+ temperatures we’ll be in the 50s through the weekend.

I might have mentioned this, but one of my university colleagues is an atmospheric scientist and she’s been doing some work in this area. Apparently the inconsistent spring is a signal of climate change problems. We broke the weather. Or the climate. Or the forecasting. Perhaps all three.

This is the last week of this feature. (For now, anyway.) We are spending it looking at the majesty of Malin Head, the northernmost part of Ireland.

Ireland / memories / photo / Tuesday / video — No comments
19
May 26

This should be the year’s best-performing post, considering

It’s time, once again, for our weekly check in with the kitties. They’ve been quite helpful these past few days. Poseidon, for instance, was instrumental in the grading. He read final papers with great interest.

The final exam question for my online class was a yes or no sort of thing. You have to take a stance. Then you have to use some of our class readings to back up your position. It is one last opportunity to demonstrate you can take the conceptual and make it operational. There’s no wrong answer, really … well … there is. Poe couldn’t believe it that a few people decided to argue the wrong side of the thing.

Just covered his face and sighed a lot.

I think he thinks I grade too many things. I know Phoebe thinks that. She would come in for a while to visit and help, and then she’d leave.

Sometimes she just waits, patiently, by that door for me to get it for her. There is sun, after all, to soak up elsewhere. All things considered, I think she’d rather be in her box than in my gradebook.

It’s a good box, and probably the right choice.

So the kitties, as you can see, are doing just fine, and they thank you for asking. They would also appreciate some pets, and every ounce of attention you can muster.

This is the last week of this feature. (For now, anyway.) We are going to spend it all looking at the majesty of Malin Head, the northernmost part of Ireland.

adventures / cycling / Ireland / Monday / photo / video — No comments
18
May 26

Suddenly summer

Grades submitted. Held a Zoom meeting this morning for a student employee. We talked for about 35 minutes, which was four more than I wanted to keep the student on the call. That was my fault. It usually is. Now I’m trying to get my email under control. Inbox Zero isn’t happening anytime soon, but I’m hoping to get to Inbox 30 or 40 before this time next week.

It’s a whole thing.

Anyway, one more meeting this week, a long one, on Wednesday. And then on to other things.

We went out for a ride, Saturday. This was the 25 mile time trial. I’d like to think I was going fast on this road. I never go fast on this road.

That’s seven miles and change into the route. By then we’d gone … lessee … roughly all four of the cardinal directions and we’re getting buffeted my breezes and gusts from three of them. About eight miles from there we finally got a tailwind, and for a good long while it felt like a real bike ride, like I knew what I was doing, like I could make the bike, and maybe the road, do anything I wanted. I bunny hopped both rails of a railroad crossing without trying hard. The wheels were humming in a most satisfying way. I was hitting false flats and was still able to accelerate. It was an immensely satisfying feeling, one of the reasons you go out and do this, a feeling I’d have more if I was in just a bit better shape.

And then, suddenly, it was all gone. I didn’t even notice the moment it changed, for it wasn’t even a moment, it was just a different thing. Well, then, as I turned back into the headwind, I resigned to trying to at least pedal smoothly over the last few miles. My lovely bride was up the road and gone. Fueling gone wrong once again, I figured. At mile 22 or so, I saw her taillight ahead of me. About two miles later, I caught up to her, which shouldn’t be happening, considering. She’d bonked. Fueling gone wrong.

It was her second intense workout of the day.

Later in the day, the sky turned into these odd colors.

Then, today, I went out for a ride at around 11 a.m., because it was still mild. Mild meaning mid-80s. One of my apps blipped and thinks that, for a quarter of a mile, I was doing 230+ mph. I was not riding 230+ mph. I did, later, record a third of a mile at 27 miles per hour, which I haven’t done in a while, and, sometime after that, a 20 mph mile, notable only because much of it was up a slight incline and that’s where I decided it was too hot to keep going. Eventually, you’ll get too hot and mess up somehow.

It was 92 degrees when I got back to the house. Calling it was probably the right idea.

We’re going to have three days of 90s in the row here in the middle of May. The seasons mean nothing anymore.

This is the last week of this feature. (For now, anyway.) We are going to spend it all looking at the majesty of Malin Head, the northernmost part of Ireland.

Friday / Ireland / memories / photo / video — Comments Off
15
May 26

I spun around the ‘Hello Summer” sign on the front porch today

In the backyard we have a few irises that are showing off. I shot this from the hip as we were between hither and thither … or was it after the yon? Who can keep it straight? Who needs to keep it straight? It’s Friday!

My grading is complete. The semester is complete. Well, I must still submit my grades, which I’ll do this weekend. And I have a meeting Monday. And another one Wednesday. And at least three others to be determined. Some of those, at least will be a part of the mental shift from this term to the fall term, with a lot of summer in between.

I am looking forward to the summer in between. I am going to read a lot. I am going to finish some projects. I’m going to not think about work for a long while. That might be the hardest part. It will also be valuable. And that begins at the conclusion of the two meetings next week.

I wonder when it actually start to mentally feel like summer this year. I’ll let you know.

This is Malin Head — and it is absolutely worth seeing.