So, the above is a written confession of what I have suspected for some time. It is written–ironically–on a package notification slip. My mailperson apparently does not deliver mail when it is inconvenient to do so. I live in a kind of cul-de-sac with several mailboxes, in groups of 3 or 4, placed around the periphery. When I got home yesterday, there was one car parked with its nose toward my mailbox group. No other cars. The postal employee, in order to fulfill his or her sacred mail duties, would have had to actually get out of the vehicle and walk eight to ten feet.Neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from swift completion of their appointed rounds. But don’t make them get out of the car. That’s not in the contract.I’m not sure how loudly I want to complain, though, because… you know… postal worker.
US vs. Canada postal service comparison (to date):
Delivery on Saturday: Advantage –> U.S.A.
General Delivery Speed: Advantage –> U.S.A. (small margin)
Hot Older Lady at Post Office: Advantage –> Canada
Post Offices Open Late: Advantage –> Canada
Any Little Thing Makes Them Not Deliver the Mail: Advantage –> Canada.
In Other News, Lore Sjöberg’s Luddite blog on Wired.com has some interesting, little-known facts about dinosaurs. Consider the following:
There Were No Tyrannosaurus Rexes Named ‘Rex’
These huge predators may have been designed by nature to be unstoppable eating machines, but they also knew a trite name when they heard one. Thorough investigation of late Cretaceous wedding registries indicates that the most common name for male T. rexes was “Jayden,” followed by “Palmer.” The three most popular female T. rex names were “Ashley,” “Ashlee” and “Ashlie,” in that order. There was one T. rex named “Dex,” but he had no friends.
See? You learn new things every time you open up the ol’ webs. Things about dinosaurs. Things about postal workers.
So, cool bike on campus, eh? I just happened to be out with my new camera, shooting all kinds of terrible pictures, when I saw it. First fixed-gear bike I’ve seen here. Kinda neat. I especially like the strapless MTB clips (I’ve seen those for sale, and they looked interesting) and the clearly homemade aluminum-from-Home-Depot rack (I should have taken close-ups of the welds; they look neat).
So, I went to a couple of Rio Grande Valley Icehole games this week. Interesting experience. I don’t think I’ll be joining up, after all. [warning: rationalization and excuses ahead]. It wasn’t just the deafeningly loud music blasting for the entire 60-minute game. It wasn’t just the hecklers in the crowd (after all, they didn’t heckle *me*). It wasn’t the increased pushing and shoving on the ice (I can get used to that, and shove back). It wasn’t the run-down arena with dripping ceilings and mounds and pits on the ice (actually, the arena is pretty endearing and cool in that way).
So I am taking bike for spin around block, and he is roll very nice. ::eyebrow wiggle::
I pumped up the front tire, and it held 80 psi. Miracle for those cracked, crumbling, barely-there tires. Cross fingers. The rear was a mess, but I patched it twice, then removed the (not working) patches and did it again. It held air, too. I adjusted the brakes, put a little lube here and there, and went for a ride. Also I put some lubricant on the bike.
A 3 mile ride went off without a hitch, as they say. Enjoyable. The rear tire went flat a few minutes after the ride, though. Screw it. New tube. The old one was flaking away in hunks anyway, when I was roughening the patch area.
The bike fit is not bad (I raised the seat an inch or so), but the drop stem may have to go, and the drop bars will definitely be finding their way into the spare parts collection soon. Also these 6-inch-wide handlebars. It’s weird to feel my chest actually constricted while riding, from keeping my arms in far enough to rest on the hoods or the drops. Ugh.
Turns out the seatpost diameter is 27.2mm, so I think the old seatpost from Mr. Bikey will work. The one on there kind of suxxorz, even though it’s pretty light.
I’m doing this to take my mind off Alex. She left a few hours ago, and must be in the air even while I write. I had a rude shock a moment ago, when I realized that she will not be blogging in the other room when she reads this.
I live in three different worlds, it seems. There’s Canada world (which includes Alex), Texas-with-Alex world, and Texas-without-Alex world. More than Alex leaving, it seems like I just slid from one world into the other.
But first, a gratuitous picture of my sweetie at Garden of the Gods:
So Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams got together in a dark bar one night…
First Excellent Thing:BLDGBLOG has a wonderful, wonderful, delicious article about Michael Cook, a guy in Toronto who is an urban explorer, with an emphasis on subterranean exploring (especially Toronto and Hamilton). This means drains and sewers, largely. There are some sa-weet photos here, which you simply must see to appreciate. The article links to his blog (which has apparently crashed from the newfound publicity), and to sites of other underground urban explorers. Seriously, if I didn’t suddenly have a heightened sense of my own mortality (since, say, June 3 of last year), this is the kind of thing I’d be really, really tempted to do. It tickles my fancy in particular ways. Actually, I’m not saying I won’t do a little of it. The not-very-dangerous kind. Here’s a sample photo (click for larger size, as usual):
Second Excellent Thing: Berkeley Breathed, author of the original Bloom County strip, has continued (with much less fanfare) to create Opus. Recent strips about Lola Granola jumping on the “Radical Islamist” bandwagon in her peripatetic spiritual journeying were immediately pulled from many national newspapers for fear of offending people. Pfft. I love Berk Breathed. He’s been shooting sacred cows on a regular basis since I was too young to understand political sarcasm. And we need to people like him to continue to help us see the absurdity inherent in the world around us. [click for the full comic]
(note: I found out about this by way of boing boing, and also through Salon.com, who has not pulled the strip).
Plan:
Buffalo to Charlotte.
Charlotte to Houston. Meet Alex.
Houston to McAllen. Arrive 7:00 pm.
Pick up car in parking lot (left by good friend Amy, who has been babysitting it all summer)
8:30 am EST Tried to leave Hamilton. Lost wallet.
8:45 am EST Left Hamilton.
9:35 am EST Arrived at border crossing. Despite my best efforts, I picked the slowest line. That’s always a bad sign.
9:50 am EST Got to the front of the line. Tense moments while no-nonsense border guard asked questions.
9:55 am EST Woo hoo! On our way. Dodged the bullet once more. Continue reading →
So, here I am in Charlotte. I couldn’t help noticing that it’s 4:00 pm and I’m still here. My new itinerary has me flying a US Airways flight to Dallas, but it doesn’t leave until 6:15 pm Eastern time. Then I have only 30 minutes for connection (I smell more trouble) and I fly on American to McAllen, arriving at 9:45 pm.Alex, if you’re reading this, I’m very, very sorry. First, I’m sorry that you have to wait almost 3 hours before I arrive. Second, I’m sorry I still have your Texas keys in my bag. However, if you find the car (Amy said it’s on the right as you leave the airport, in the first row, but kind of far back), there’s a car key and probably not a house key under the rear bumper, on the left. You have to kind of get down on the ground and reach your hand waaaaay up under the bumper and over a steel support piece to feel the magnetic box stuck there.
Well. I guess being on two trips together in one summer was probably too much to ask.
I’m leaving now. I’m ambivalent about it, because there are pluses and minuses to being here in Ontario. In fact, here are some of them:
+ First, I enjoy living with my wife much more than living 2,000 miles away
- I do not enjoy being isolated from the university, people, and other resources that help me do my job. It feels like trying to run a business in Pittsburgh from a tent in the Sierras.
+ It’s only 3 months in the summer
- Then there’s winter… Continue reading →
It’s weird to be back in Hamilton, feeling like it’s home, but knowing that in 5 days I’ll be in my “real” home in Texas. As my sweetie pie has mentioned, our trip was great. Even the family reunion, which I was initially not very excited about, turned out very well. My only gripe about that is the accommodation situation (medieval torture hide-a-bed in an alcove with no privacy in a condo with 8 children and 6 other adults… not a lot of sleep for those 3 nights). My family is great, and every time I’m around them, I’m reminded of that. It was really nice to get to hang out with my nieces and nephews, too. Alex and I spent some serious quality time with Carter, Lindsey and Truman, and we had a total blast playing with them in the water park.
Speaking of water parks, Alex and I ditched the kids and rode roller coasters and vomit-inducing carnival rides for the last few hours at the amusement park. I have to say I did not expect Alex’s manic desire to spin us around and around and around at high speeds on the ferris-wheel-esque-puke-ride-of-death. This animated mockup is from Amazing Earl’s rollercoaster modeling website, and I hope it’s OK that I borrowed it. As a note, the spin on our ride was controlled by the riders. This means Alex.
I enjoyed every second of the ride, by the way.
I’ll blog more about the wedding itself, later. It was great to hang with Scott and the other interns again, and it was very nice to gasp for breath every night at nearly 9,000 feet altitude.
We had a combined lesson for Priesthood/Relief Society today. The teacher made some very specific claims about the meaning of selected verses in the second chapter of Joel (but not the troublesome verses in between). I agree with some of his assertions, and the rest are not totally beyond the realm of possibility. However, the most obvious interpretations of those verses, in my mind, do not involve the “closet” that the Bride comes out of as a symbol of the Whitmer farm, nor the “pillars of smoke” referring to the Twin Trade Towers. Continue reading →
So, you know about light writing? Well, it has lots of names. You go to a dark place and you open your camera shutter for a few seconds (or a few minutes) and write things in the air with flashlights, candles, etc. Here are some examples of light writing that I had fun with a few years ago, after getting my Canon Rebel SLR (film version).
So, I have loved this kind of magical stuff for a while. And then I found this excellent project (link: blog - higher resolution) from some guy calling himself pikapika (hee hee). Thousands upon thousands of light-writing images, stitched together into a stop-motion movie. Joy! (the link below is the lower-resolution YouTube version).
