fall

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Nothing looks like this, not lately.

November 14, 2009 | 5 comments

brightleaves1009
This week: grey, rain, rain, rain, grey. With recently broken bones and my still-smashed right hand, I’m tempted to sound like one of those people who acts like crappy weather was invented just for suffering and just for their suffering at that.  It doesn’t feel good.

However, in search of better times and making the best of what’s left of autumn, Mrs. P. and I will venture to our very favorite bookstore and perhaps have dinner somewhere in Charles Village, Hampden or Roland Park.  I will have a waterproof messenger bag, so treasures will make it home unscathed.  At least it’s going to be in the upper 50s/lower 60s.  I hate when it rains just shy of the freezing point.  Unless I’m cycling.  I do get a kick out of that.

Curiously, Normal’s is on 31st Street, where I blew a spoke last Sunday and had to miss the ride I’d spent so much time helping to plan.  Much better tidings today, I think.

My bike is out of commission currently.  Yes, breaking a rear spoke on the drive side can make your wheel no longer turn without hitting the frame.  No, this does not, as has been suggested, make me a wimp or perfectionist.  It’s a matter of my understanding bike wheels, at least a little bit.  Plus, there’s the empirical smack-your-ass part where my wheel literally does not turn.  The shop will take care of it; it’s under warranty.  It’s a good excuse to visit my favorite bike shop.

I need to get some new books and spend quality time with the Mrs. and our little belly/Baby.  As if it’s not obvious, I’m growing increasingly less patient with people’s bullshit.  A nice walk usually helps a lot.

Where did autumn go?

November 12, 2009 | 2 comments

johnnyoct09
Damn, I miss it every year.  This year, I have an excuse: Little One on the way.  I think we’ll be able to slow down next year.  I always think that.  But the dissertation defenses will officially be over.  And, for the first time since I was probably still wetting my pants occasionally, I will officially be out of school.  I think I’ve completely under-estimated how much that is hanging over my head.

Very crappy weather now, but you should have seen Thursday.

October 27, 2009 | 2 comments

bike1oct1009
It looked like this.

Almost late October bike ride.

October 23, 2009 | 3 comments

phofriaut09
Took a long ride around the city yesterday and witnessed some overwhelming colors. Photo Friday: Autumn 2009.

Ravens season, chili, new music.

September 13, 2009 | 4 comments

mepennst0909
These are things which are awesome today.

Check out new records from Collective Soul, Third Eye Blind, Arctic Monkeys. Also see Shiny Toy Guns, Ashes Divide, Yann Tiersen.

As for my chili recipe, I can’t help you.  I don’t think I’ve ever created something that is as universally hailed as my chili.  So I have taken to guarding the recipe.  It also evolves a little sometimes, with experimenting with different kinds and blends of fresh chili peppers.

(Me in front of Penn Station on a little ride one Sunday morning a few weeks ago.  Taken by Mr. Dan.)

Pumpkin Spice Latte’.

September 2, 2009 | 3 comments

pmpspc0909
I know. Chain coffee is the devil. Etc. I’ll cop to visiting chains regularly, but I do hit the local joints when I can — which, with the amount of coffee I drink, is often. But I got birthday gifts in the form of giftcards, and well, hell, I love pumpkin spice. So there it is. I did decide to only use my giftcards for pumpkin spice stuff though. Those buggers are expensive.

Cold early this year?

November 19, 2008 | 7 comments


Geez, it got cold quickly! I just started wearing shoes (not sandals) last week. Fall came so early this year that I feel like I missed it. But I’m glad to have some winter. It started early in the Dale three years ago, but then the winter was warm and depressing afterward. Maybe we’ll get some nice winter wonderland this time around in Charm City? I’d better get some better fenders for my bike!  My storm windows are closed at home, and I actually wore my scarf at lunch yesterday at a nice cafe’.

Leaves up the street.

November 14, 2008 | No comments


[Larger.]

I feel like I’ve missed a lot of leaves this fall.  I always do.

Photo Friday: Autumn.

Halloween is almost here.

October 28, 2008 | No comments


We have been watching scary movies, documentaries and “Treehouse of Horror” episodes out the yingyang. It’s awesome. I was reading some Poe, but I’m holding off on more of that until closer to the 200th birthday perhaps.

Learned about poverty today.

October 14, 2008 | No comments


Well, as much as one can at a catered event when the speaker is nicely dressed and using multiple expensive technologies to express her wisdom.  I know there are a lot of assumptions we all make (yes, you and I, too!) about poverty and about those living in it.  But in talking about avoiding stereotypes and generalizations about class, we keep reminding ourselves that these generalizations are false.  But then we use them and act like they are hard-and-fast.  This happened repeatedly.  And some of them really strike me as not only unreliable but also false.

For instance, in talking about humor, we were told that members of lower economic classes use it to defuse negative situations but that anyone in the middle class doing it might be seen as disrespectful.  Pile this on top of the statement that “business” procedures and customs are based on middle class ways of thinking and doing, which we were also told.  Unless I’m more of a dreamer than I thought, I can swear I have seldom seen middle class people show signs of feeling disrespected by people using humor to lighten the mood.  And when I have, it seemed more of a personal issue than a class issue.  Maybe humor is universal?  Or, at least, class-less?

I don’t know where I’m going with this.  It just makes me sad and makes me think about what I spend money on.

And thankful for my full belly tonight.

Always my apartment is covered in pens.

October 13, 2008 | No comments


And you should see my office.

Pabst for Uncle Harry.

October 11, 2008 | 1 comment


I toasted my recently passed-away Uncle Harry today at the Taste of Waverly.  When he lived in Boston (while I was small), he would spend his vacation in Maryland with the family — to include playing in the pool and yard with the boys.  He enjoyed a beer, some crabs, the cigarettes he used to smoke a long time ago and people he cared about nearby.

He was one of the sweetest people I have ever known.

He was a fan of Pabst.  The smell of “regular” beer always makes me think of him.  More so now.

[Taken with my new camera!]

October is here, and I am happy.

October 1, 2008 | 3 comments

I’ll be happier when I get a new camera to document the earliest autumn in recent memory though. But today, it’s raining, possibly storming later. My knee’s been bothering me, and I enjoy the bus. So I rode in that noisy beast’s belly today. Grabbed a coffee at work just now, crossing the street on cold sandaled feet and under the cheap black umbrella I bought at South Station in Boston eight weeks ago today. It reminds me of fall 2002, when I lived in Boston and when we had a spectacular fall. We went to Salem and celebrated Halloween like never before. Walden Pond on what might be the most beautiful fall day I have ever lived through.

It also reminds me that, this time five years ago, I was speeding (literally, doing like 90 mph because I was an idiot) toward Baltimore to get married. Regardless of how the wedding actually went (what, with certain family members who — admittedly — tried to ruin it because they didn’t like our style and our refusals of their suggestions), October 4th is my favorite day. And regardless of the stressful, infuriating, quick event our wedding was, October 4th was also the day that we got together, back in 1997.

So while people keep asking me how many years October 4th makes, I qualify my answer that it’s eleven for me. My wedding was not when I was committed. It was not even when I was publicly committed. It didn’t change how I feel about my wife at all. Nothing can.

Took out my ACs.

September 10, 2008 | 6 comments


And I was just in time.  I am looking forward to my commute Wednesday and beyond, with this nice weather coming.  I’ve been feeling like a sucker (but not a “light weight“) for having the ACs in lately, but it’s not like you just put them in a box and are done with it.

Fall, where are you?

September 3, 2008 | 2 comments


I’m ready.  You can come out now.

I should be thankful. We had a relatively mild summer, especially at the end. And, really, as far as a hot week in early September goes, this isn’t so bad. But it felt like it yesterday afternoon, as I patched my second tube in three days in the afternoon sun, on the side of the road, after a crappy day.

Office, fall 2006.

July 11, 2008 | No comments


Dang it, I don’t start my new job and move into my sweet new office until next month. Here’s a workspace from my dissertation, in the fall of 2006, which feels like last month.

My stomach is killing me, which is why I’m still up.  I could go for some of that chai tea right now.

Photo Friday: The Office.