Blackout Workout

It took a long time for those huge halogen lights hanging from the rafters in the gym to come back on after we were plunged into darkness for a minute or two. I was happily (okay, begrudgingly) jogging along on the treadmill when everything went dark. My machine stopped, but since my music kept going, it took me a minute to put all the details together and realize that it was a power outage. By the time I tapped the pause button on my phone and removed those new wireless earbuds, the big TV screens on the wall were coming back on, but all 6 of them were filled with snow. The exercise equipment blinked once and then twice, and then invited me to begin my workout, but I declined for the moment, instead trying to figure out what the protocol was. The weight area was completely dark, and the lifters were filing up to the dim emergency lit area by the front desk. The studio was very dark also, and Heidi was in there jumping rope, so I went to check on her. She was happily skipping away, no illumination necessary. I wandered back out to the main machine zone, where by now most folks had resumed their running, walking, stair-stepping, and crosstreking, eerie shadows in the gloom. As for me? The aerobic portion of my workout was over, but a little dark weight training sounded good, so I stuffed my earbuds back in and walked into the shadows cast by the faint glow of the slowly reviving overhead lights.

A Measure of Success

The dealership where I have the car serviced is newly remodeled, and I helped myself to some popcorn and a cup of Earl Grey tea and settled into a comfy leather chair to wait. A tableful of magazines was spread out in front of me, and I plucked the one devoted to the best of all our hometown has to offer. Flipping through the pages to get to the list of best restaurants, my eye caught an article about growing up biracial in our fair city. I started to read before looking at the byline, but when I did turn to see who had written such a thoughtful and moving essay, I saw the name of a former student.

How proud I was of her! And how gratified as well in the small part I knew for sure I had played in her accomplishment.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas

(Sing it, friends!)

My cousin brought to me

24
porcelain
birds

which famously belonged
to my grandmother
and I haven't seen them

in
48
years

Wow, what a flock!
Sitting on the table
Wondering where they are
and what is going to happen next.

Detective Circumstantial

As is our New Year tradition, we saw the first movie of the day this morning. Knives Out came highly recommended and it was an enjoyable, twisty, little mannered murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie and Clue. We didn't leave the detecting behind in the theater, either.

Later in the day, as we were walking around the Tidal Basin, I came upon a huge broken piece of heavy cast iron. It appeared to be the base of a column, and scanning the area, I saw that the bottom of one of the decorative light poles lining the road was shattered. It was a good thirty feet from us, and so the impact that tossed the base, which itself must have weighed 100 pounds, must have been very great.

"Wow!" I said to Heidi. "Whoever hit that pole must have been going really fast!" I pointed to the road and the grass, shaking my head as we continued on our way. A few steps ahead, we found an empty champagne bottle. "He was probably drinking this!" I deduced. And next there was a perfectly knotted silk necktie, also in the grass "And here's his tie!"

Not surprisingly? We got back to our car before the case was solved.

In the Nick of Time

We ran errands today: Christmas exchanges, New Year's groceries, and a few other more prosaic items. But most importantly, we bought our 2020 wall calendars-- which was a good thing, because the other ones are running out tonight!

Running Late, but Still Expected

The sun was out and the rain was coming down when I left the gym around noon. I did a quick 360 scan for the expected rainbow, but seeing nothing hurried to my car and headed off to the grocery store.

And then:

50 Words for Rain

According to Wikipedia:

The claim that Eskimo languages (specifically, Yupik and Inuit) have an unusually large number of words for "snow", first loosely attributed to the work of anthropologist Franz Boas, has become a cliché often used to support the controversial linguistic-relativity hypothesis that a language's structure (sound, grammar, vocabulary, etc.) shapes its speakers' view of the world. This "strong version" of the hypothesis is largely now discredited...

That may well be, but after an 8 hour, 400 mile road trip with rain, mist, torrential downpour, fog, inland squall, low clouds, drizzle, and road spray the entire way, I think I have an unusually large number of words for wet weather.

But? Believe it or not, they aren't all profanities. Especially since at this time of year it could have all been snow.