BirdBrain

Perhaps for the blog — or just you guys…

We had a great Parents Day visit with Chris. Because of all the rain, our focus was on talking and eating. But of all the many things one expects to hear from our son, this was one was a surprise… in the midst of talking about his dorm, the kids, his friends, he says mentions that he’s worried about Halloween. Why? “Oh, didn’t I tell you? My room is haunted”….

Check the list of “haunted places in Massachusetts”and here’s the story:

Springfield – Western New England College – Berkshire Hall – Room 401, the students feel that when they are getting up they cannot, like some force is holding them down. Supposedly a former student had hung himself in the room upon hearing that his girlfriend had broken up with him. The students also wake up with sound of broken glass.

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I’m tagging along on BirdBrain’s post. From this weekend:

“Matt, check out my new shirt. It only cost four dollars.”

“Dad, It’s ugly. And it doesn’t have one ugly color, it has six.”

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Got my teeth cleaned today. Andrea, the hygienist, on her way to the tooth she wanted to x-ray, was diverted by the molar I’d broken.

“Eeew, when did you do that?”

“A few months ago.”

“Was it sharp?”

“It was.”

“It was?”

“I filed it down.”

“You filed it down? What did you use.”

“Somethin’ from my shop.”

“Like you use on wood?”

“Or maybe it was the file that comes with nail clippers. I can’t remember which.”

White Rabbit

Hurt

Mike,

For the last few years I’ve been noticing changes in the freeway sound barriers in Maryland. They seem to be gathering foliage at a much faster rate than they used to. Can this be a harbinger of climate change? Botanists say that Kudzu and Creeping Charlie and some other vines are growing 2 or 3 times as fast as they used to because of increased CO2 in the air. (This has been proven by growing the vines in sealed greenhouses under controlled conditions with varied CO2 concentrations.)

But here in the mid-Atlantic, the advance of Kudzu and its cousins is not an unmitigated curse. The sound barriers on the highway to Annapolis and on the Washington Beltway look quite nice with all the greenery draped over them. And in late October and early November, their autumn colors are quite fetching. For quite a while I’ve been trying to get some photos of the better examples of colorful freeway foliage. It’s difficult to find a time of day when you can stand in a freeway and shoot a picture of the walls. But yesterday, early Sunday morning, I had some good luck getting shots.

Freeway Art

The walls where you can see these organic murals are in downtown Bowie, where the city fathers just last year erected some sound barriers around Annapolis Road. On the back side of these walls, the homeowners must have some colorful scenes much like these, but I haven’t climbed over to look.

The wild colorations of these vines must not even exist further south like South Carolina and Florida, where autumn is just a later part of summer, and perhaps the same vines don’t even inhabit New England, where fall colors are best. But as time wears on, and CO2 increases, Maryland may become part of the deep south, and the fall colors of freeway walls will disappear. New Jersey, then New York will get the vines and the colors. And inevitably, I think, New England will be invaded too. Then will the maples fade away?

-rakkity

Mike,

There’s a wonderful picture on APOD today. A couple of years ago, I was shown how to see Venus during the daytime, and of course everyone has seen the moon a few times in daylight, but this is far, far better.

I’ll be coming up with a nice montage of Freeway art later today.

-rakkity

From this website. (appears to be down at the moment)

Diane and Matt heading back to our hotel.

Through the window of the Draught Horse.

We arrived Friday near dinner time and took Matthew to Bookbinders, a well known Philadelphia restaurant that had been closed for three and half years, renovated and reopened about two years ago. It’s an uber-expensive restaurant (What can I say, we were giddy to see our boy.) with people to greet you, to take your order, to pour your water, to assist you in the bathroom, and to stand around and look pretty. Even the owner walks about and introduces himself.

One more thing about the bathrooms. Diane tells me there were three hair care products lined up on the sink, but the attendant, after appraising Diane’s Do, offered her a fourth. And, after Matthew’s description (“Dad, they looked like closets, not stalls”), I figured one Miller paying to pee was enough so I elected to hold it until we got back to the hotel.

Saturday we woke Matt at noon, had breakfast at the Student Union, and then traipsed off to the Meso-American exhibit at the University of Penn. Last night we had dinner at the uber-inexpensive (Giddy had worn off.) Draught Horse, near Temple, where we grilled (intended) Matt about about his current life compared to his old life. Interestingly for me, he said it wasn’t as different as he expected.

“I still go to classes and I still study.” he said.

“But you pick and choose as you please. And when you’re done studying you can do whatever you want.”

“Dad, I went from unstructured to unstructured.”

(As a father my biggest regret is that I wasn’t able to be more of what I consider a father to be. I didn’t hand down the beatings, but I definitely didn’t deal with my father’s hand’s off approach. I didn’t even recognize it as an issue until I was about done being a parent.)

“You’re right. How about getting away, out from under all our stuff. I figured that would be such a relief.”

“Out from under what?”

“HO, Jimmy, Patti. All that.”

“Partly, but I’m still working on that. I miss Acton and my friends. I miss your shower, I miss my own bed.”

Oaxaca

Thursday night, after taking Flo out to dinner, we came home to find the latest issue of Outside Magazine sitting on our doorstep. BirdBrain, my source for free magazines (as rakkity is my source for free books), thought I’d be especially interested in this issue because its articles focus on friendships.

The Buddy System
We aren’t asking you to hold hands and tell each other how you feel. But admit it: when you’re stuck under a leaky rain fly with nothing but a wet pack of matches and your own soggy thoughts, solitaire loses its appeal. Call them your posse, your entourage, whatever—but know that the best friendships in life are forged in the wild and on the road. In the pages that follow, Outside celebrates the power of two—or, if you can’t stand to be nice, the joys of a really bad feud.

I flipped through the pages to get a sense of who wrote what, and was relieved to find my favorite writer, Mark Jenkins, featured in his own column – ” The Hard Way.” Every few months he’s off risking his life, gathering material, and I have to suffer through a guest writer. Like listening to Bob Oaks instead of Tom Ashbrook.

Sadly, this happens to be his final article. “After seven years, this will be the last Hard Way column. It has been an incomparable journey, but it’s time for me to embark on other writing adventures.” I think he left us with his best, kinda like a walk-off home run. If you read it (Adam), don’t skim.

Above and Beyond