Life of Wry

Just some shots from a walk through campus a couple days ago.

The year is winding down, which means it’s very busy on campus right now, but in a matter of weeks, the students will pack it up for the summer and things will quiet way down on campus and in town. Yay. The Pro-Palestinian encampment is still up and on this day they were joined on the quad by a grad student walk out. I think this one is a joint UC campus thing having to do with some students who were sanctioned for their participation in the protests. I think. I also saw a large bunch of folks gathered for the “Cork Harvest,” all clustered under the massive cork trees in the grove by the law school. Big doings!

Then just a few pretty shots of other things that caught my eye.

What a sweet, sweet day.

Most of those of us following the hush money – election fraud trial were resigned to having to wait another day for a verdict. I was stair climbing and power walking around the creek (in my new boots!), listening to CNN (as I do). Taking my cues from pundits who’d surmised the deliberations would go at least another day, I’d shifted over to a podcast (Pod Save America was particularly good today). I checked in briefly with CNN while having a cup of coffee at Cloud Forest and learned the jury was wrapping for the day… In fact, I believe the judge had actually already excused them. On my way home, I dropped by Crepeville to chat with Jim for a couple minutes then as I was heading out decided to check CNN one last time to be sure nothing of note was going to happen and heard Jake Tapper say something to a guest like, “are you surprised there will be a verdict today?”

A verdict!!! What?!

So… in the great tradition of where were you when you heard the news: I was walking through Central Park on a gloriously beautiful day! I hurried home and turned on CNN, made myself a giant blueberry chocolate smoothie and was at full attention as I listened to Jake read the outcome of all 34 counts: GUILTY x 34.

CONVICTED FELON! I love the sound of that.

Accountability for something. Finally.

I did a LOT of happy yelling and swearing. So happy!

So, that was about 2:30 our time and it’s 11:30 now… I’ve been luxuriously immersed in all the post verdict analysis for about 9 hours, minus a bit of speed food shopping and a quickly consumed dinner. Def can’t get enough of this.

CONVICTED FELON!

I just hope to god the Biden people figure out their messaging and get out there quickly. The Magas are well-oiled and falling in line right now behind their beloved CONVICTED FELON, honing their aggrieved, whiny, victimy little narrative and raising lots of money already. These people shockingly have no trouble electing a guy who, in addition to now being a convicted felon, has ALSO been found guilty of business fraud (and is paying hundreds of millions in fines for that), AND slander AND sexual assault (for which he’s also paying out tens of millions (I forget how much), AND is charged with stealing (and lying about) classified documents, AND conspiracy to steal an election, AND fomenting an insurrection to overthrow the government. And these fools also seem not to mind his LIFETIME of cheating and questionable morals and ethics.

So, hurry up Biden messaging people. We got this.

Did you know that a convicted felon cannot serve in the US military? But he can serve as commander in chief. A convicted felon in Florida cannot vote or serve on a jury or own a fire arm. But he can be president.

Anyway, so that’s the wonderful news of the day. Here are some great memes from the funny people, plus headlines, mag covers, etc.

And I thought this was interesting … his lead lawyer.

And, our hero:

Well done, Alvin.

Doing another throwback, because if I were to post about today, it’d be about that stupid hush money/election fraud trial.. and as of today, there is no verdict.. only endless prognostications about the potential verdict. And me, alternating between optimism and total dread. I just can’t write about that right now.

Shudder.

So.. instead, scrolling back into my vast photo archive, I landed on May 29, 2013….

…fourteen year old 9th grade Peter, playing bari sax in what must have been the last junior high school band concert in Central Park, under the direction of conductor and music teacher extraordinaire Clyde Quick.

Look at that cutie… (and looks like he caught me snapping pics).

Looks like a good crowd. That’s nice.

Reed to the right of Peter, Daniel to the left. And a peek at those braces…

My fave in this series…

Seems a good time to defer to my favorite historian/truth teller Heather (Cox Richardson) to report on the news of the day. (These are just a couple of excerpts from today’s newsletter Letters from an American).

And this one…..

Took only a day to start and finish this book.. started yesterday afternoon, finished today. It was an immensely heartbreaking read. Everything I knew about Matthew Perry came from clips of Friends episodes that have populated my social media feed for about a year now. I never saw the show, but the clips are fun, funny, and pull you into a cute little world of people a generation below me. Through the clips, I’ve pretty much sussed out most of the salient storylines of the 10-year series (1994-2004) and came to enjoy the Chandler Bing character (and a couple others).

I’m drawn to tragic stories and his real life story is certainly that. Incredibly frustrating to follow the ups and downs (mostly downs) of his life of addiction. In spite of his obvious intelligence, talent, fame and substantial fortune, in spite of global affection, so many friends and pretty much anything money could buy, he was trapped in cycles of drug and alcohol abuse that were just jaw dropping. I can’t tell you how many times I had to just pause and gather myself after reading that he’d used again.. after a years-long, hard-won bout of sobriety. Truly breathtaking.

Lots of interesting glimpses into Hollywood life, and of course addiction. Def worth the read. Will be eager to hear the outcome of the latest round of investigations (hit the news last week) about the causes of his death (last October). It was an overdose of Ketamine, a weak heart, and subsequent drowning in his hot tub, but the hows are now in question.

One thing Memorial Day Weekend is, they say, is the kickoff of the summer season. I’m not sure that’s what the creators of Memorial Day intended, but there it is. For Jim, the weekend’s been a lot about work, as he’s got a huge subsidence project going on which means a lot of data gathering in a lot of places all over the county, so he was gone a lot. For me, it was the end of a densely packed week and I was looking forward to a lot of time spent reading in the backyard. I always say that but somehow never accomplish that lovely goal. I did this day!

Plunked myself here…..

and here…..

Evidence:

And made great progress in a book I’ve been wanting to read for months… Matthew Perry’s memoir about addiction. What a read.

Again, maybe not what the Memorial Day planners had in mind, but a super lovely (if sad) day of reading.

Training for the Dolomites. You do what you can in flat Davis…

We’re trying to get some hikes in at some of the regional parks within a reasonable drive from Davis, but those hikes are, so far, few and far between. My usual walk around the creek will have to suffice on Davis days. I sweeten the pot by bookending that walk with a bunch of trips to the top of this parking garage.

A couple shots from today…

The parking garage, about a block and a half from our house on the northeast corner of campus:

So.. I typically go up and down 5 times on the front end of the 4-mile walk and again on the backside. My app tells me it’s about 30 feet per trip, so in my ten trips I’m climbing a whopping 300 feet. We’ll be averaging 3000 feet a day, so I better find more hills to climb.

Here’s a shot through campus today (west side of the Quad):

How I spent three hours of my day today….

That black thing is not a fashion accessory.. it’s a heated rice bag. The staff comes around and changes them every half hour or so. Off camera, I’m also fiddling with a heated rice bag in my right hand, per instruction. Keeps blood moving, I guess. My right arm has to stay put for the entire session, as it’s hooked up to machines via a needle in my arm and a tube that flows to and from it. I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on here, because I don’t look, but it has something to do with extracting blood, separating out the platelets and returning the blood. I keep my blood, they keep my platelets. This is different than giving blood, where you leave the place a pint down. The advantage of giving platelets is that you feel completely fine afterwards because you have everything you came with… the thing you loose is time (and a little bag of yellow stuff they use for cancer patients, mostly. If I continue to give platelets, I’ll make an effort to understand exactly what I’m doing.

About the weirdest hiking boots I’ve ever purchased….

I have about 100 theories right now explaining my lost nails and blisters, and twice that many (it seems) potential solutions.

At the top of the solution list is new boots… boots with more room for wide feet and more adjustments to prevent those wide feet from sliding. So… I bought those funny looking Altra boots for their famously ample toe box. While at REI, I also bought some socks that promise blister-protection. And learned from the otherwise very busy boot clerk (REI is having a huge sale this week and the place was packed with boot buyers) some handy lacing techniques that ought to stabilize the heel and hold my foot in place on the downhills (both of them, actually). For the time being, I’m retiring my Keens and Lowas. Fingers crossed for these weirdo Atras.

AND a bevy of foot paraphernalia arrived today — all kind of treatments and gadgets that purport to address my current and future foot problems. Certainly the low tech moleskin will help, and perhaps the funny little silicone toe caps… we’ll see. Maybe the goofy toe socks? Other stuff too… stay tuned for a report on any successes.

AND I had a session with the masterful Hideshi today, who assured me my achilles will not sever. He unleashed a torrent of electricity and ultrasound at the epicenter of my problem right tendon, then taped it, and holy moly it feels great. He reviewed with me the best strategies for ice/heat — the whens and wheres. (Right… I always forget ice and heat.) Tendinopathy at bay for the moment. So things are feeling more positive on that front.

That’s my foot report.

~~

In related news, Peter told me today he and Eli were successful in getting a permit for the John Muir Trail this summer — the trailhead they wanted on the day they wanted. This, after numerous attempts over several months. I am hoping (against hope) that Peter gets his gear game on and pulls all of this together in a timely way (he needs new boots, for example, and time to break them in before July.. not to mention a new bag, a new backpack and bunches of clothes).

That kid will be busy this summer. He’s attending 3 conferences (and presenting papers at all three) and is going on two significant hiking trips. The JMT will be ~220 miles of backpacking over a two-ish week period, and 3 weeks after that, he and Maya will join us in the Italian Dolomites for 8 more days of hiking (approx 75 miles). I learned today he injured his hand when he lost his grip while rockclimbing (bouldering in a climbing gym). Hoping he’ll see a doctor asap.

Gosh.