Total Trivia: the 2 r rule

 Bev of Excelsior has a post recently on trivial knowledge.  What's the most trivial thing you know?

Here's mine:  in black letter printing, there are two forms of the letter "r" (miniscule).

It's easier to show than to describe, so here goes:

Here's what it says:  Institutions or princypal grounds of the lawes and statues of Englande, newly and very truelye corrected and amended, with many new and goodly additions, very profytable for all sorts of people to know, lately augmented and imprinted.

Compare the word "princypal" and "groundes" (second and third lines).  See how the "r" in princypal looks like a "2," but the "r" in groundes looks like a more usual r?  

How look at "corrected" in the fifth line.  See how the first "r" looks like a 2 and the second one looks like a more usual "r"?  

The "rule" for when one used a "2 r" was whenever it followed one of the letters in "whipboys."  That's it.  Some trivia I learned in a grad class or something, that has stuck with me for years because it's mildly suggestive.  Or something.

What's your most trivial piece of knowledge?

ps.  I've been sorting through photos and am almost ready to start posting catch up posts about my recent travels!  If anyone has good ways to organize and work with photos on an iphone, please tell me!

Not Flying

In Life, the Universe, and Everything, Douglas Adams writes

There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. … Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties. 

It's that simple, yes, of course. Today, I didn't miss. OOPS!

I was at my group tennis lesson, for beginners, though it's sort of semi-advanced beginners, the same lesson I started taking last fall, and then let lapse at some point.  We were rallying doubles, three students and the instructor, and the instructor hit a ball to my backhand, and I hustled after it, hit it (supposedly good, they told me after), and then my second foot didn't keep up and I fell in the way that sometimes happens.

I wasn't hurt and got up pretty quickly, and we went back to it.

And I've been thinking about that.

First, it's good to fall sometimes (until, I suppose, it isn't).  It reminds me that falling is okay when it happens for a reason, like running after a tennis ball.

Second, and more important:  I've been working semi-hard since I retired to get in better shape.  I've been slowly (emphasis on slowly) doing the couch to 5k program, riding my bike some, and walking some.  But it's been slow, because I'm rather lazy, and if I can think of an excuse, I use it, and don't go.  And I basically took off an entire week to go camping last week, and then my run on Sunday was miserable and slow.

But today, I hustled.  I wouldn't have made that shot, or gotten anywhere close to hitting it last fall.  I'm getting just a little better at moving.  (Between Covid and being chair, I really didn't get much exercise for the past three years, and it really tells at my age.)

Before the camping trip (more on that in the next post), I'd walked 10k one afternoon, and I've run/walked 2 miles.  

(NOTE: the couch to 5k program assumes people run about a 10-12 minute mile when they run, I think.  So that by the time you're done, and able to run a half an hour, you do, indeed, cover 3.1 miles, or 5k.  I do not run a 10-12 minute mile these days.  My best is closer to 18 minutes.  Yes, normal, non-racewalking people walk faster than I run.  I've always been a slow runner.  When I was in first grade, I was so slow at the 50 yard "dash" that the teacher thought her stop watch had a problem and made me and my friend S run it again.  We were both just that slow.)

Yesterday I walked 3.6 miles, so we'll see about tomorrow.

 I think I am slowly getting in better shape, and hopefully by the time I go to Barcelona, I'll be able to walk 10 or so miles a day or whatever.

Packing

I'm getting ready to head north to International Falls tomorrow.  So I should be packed.  I'm not.  Most of my camping stuff is on the floor of the living room, but I really have to dig in and get packing.

This is not unusual for me.  When I was getting ready to leave home for the Peace Corps, my Mom was super frustrated at my not packing weeks ahead.  So I let her pack my stuff, and she packed, unpacked, repacked, and by the time she was done, my stuff was beautifully packed, and she was far less frustrated.  And I didn't have to pack.

But today I have to pack.  Really.

Practice Run

I don't camp nearly often enough.  Or something.

When I talked to the guide about camping at Voyageurs, I asked about temperatures, and he said I could expect 40 F or so at night, and 60s during the day.  60s during the day is nice enough.  But 40 at night can be a bit chilly.

So I started trying out my sleeping bag, well, one of my sleeping bags, which is down and rated to 45.  It's super cozy and comfortable, and was quite nice down to 60 as it was in my room with the window open and fan on.  But the other night, it was supposed to get down to 40, so I decided to practice.

I went to dinner with friends, so it was a bit dark as I started to put up the tent, which was fine, since I'd put it up once before.  (This is a newish backpacking tent.)

Degression: whoever is designing tents these days deserves kudus.  They're so much easier than before.  This tent is even easier than my car camping tent, which has cloth tube-like things to put the aluminum "poles" through (the "poles" break down into foot or 18 inch pieces that fit together like magic).  This tent has hooks that fit over the "poles" so they're even easier.  And the poles fit into the tent bottom so that it's not a struggle to get them bent up at all.  (My old one is a bit more of a struggle, though I've gotten pretty good at it with practice.)  And the rain fly fits more closely to the tent than with the old one, which could be good or bad: less air flow which can be good or bad, depending.)

End digression:  I put up the tent, and took extra clothes for over my base-layer, and an extra blanket.  And in the night, I woke up cold enough to pull over the extra blanket, but not cold enough to want more clothes.  So I think I'll be okay down to below 40, if I take the extra clothes just in case.

I feel better having checked it out, and slept outside again the next night, which was a bit warmer, and things in the tent were great.

A few years ago, I bought an earlier version of this little solar lantern, two of them, and they're just so helpful in all sorts of ways!  Worth the weight!

Next Adventure

 For a few years now, I've been looking at Voyageurs National Park and thinking I'd like to visit.  But Voyageurs is sort of unique, different from most National Parks.  Most parks, at least the ones I know more, you can drive in and there are camping spots, maybe a lodge, so you can car camp or even, if you're a backpacker, park at a trailhead and hike into the backcountry to camp and hike more.

But Voyageurs is pretty much set around a couple of lakes and mostly, you need a boat to get to the "frontcountry" spots (the sort of spots one might normally drive to and car camp), or a boat to get to a trailhead to hike to backcountry spots.  There are a couple backountry spots that you can park at a trailhead and hike to, and I considered those.

Digression:  I remember being in the backseat when my family was on a trip, I think along Highway 1 in California, probably south of San Francisco, and seeing a biker with a backpack and panniers, and thinking what a cool, amazing person that biker must be, and wishing I could do that sort of thing.  But my family didn't do much like that.  I biked in the way kids bike, all over my neighborhood for hours on end.  We car camped but only as a way of going waterskiing at Berryessa or Trinity.  

I remember us once, probably when we rented a houseboat on Shasta, taking a short ranger hike.  But that's the only hike I remember taking with my family.  

In fact, when I went with my Mom on a trip to The Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion (part 1, part 2, part 3) and my Mom mentioning that she didn't realize people actually wanted to hike.  She was 81 at the time, and we went on short walks in the flatest areas we could.  (I really like that I can look back at trips with blogger!)

End Digression

The point of that was that as an adult, and especially now as a retired adult, I can be my version of that biker if I want to.

So, anyway, I've been really hesistant to make plans to go to Voyageurs.  I don't think my kayak can fit my camping stuff and don't feel confident that I could paddle however far I'd need to to get to a camping spot.  I kept telling myself that I should make some calls to the guide companies the park lists, and to the park, and figure out how things work.  On Friday, I finally did it!  And the upshot is that I've made arrangements with a guide's taxi service to get a ride to and from a campsite and a tour of Rainy Lake, and have reserved a recommended camp site (the guide was super helpful: this site looks North across the lake, and should have a great view IF the Northern Lights are visible, and great views of dawn and dusk.)

I'm a little anxious because I'll really be alone out there, but I'm also excited for a totally new challenge.

Dreaming

 Last night, I had my third academic anxiety dream in recent weeks.  They've all been basically the same: I'm trying to figure out my schedule or where my class meets, or something similar, and I can't get the scheduling records system that shows such things to work.  So in a way, it's a technology/computer anxiety dream, more than an academic one, but it doesn't feel that way.

Today, I tried and was able to get the scheduling/records system to work, so maybe that will solve that dream?

Tagging Monarchs

 Last weekend, I went to a state conservation education program on Monarch butterflies.  We learned about butterfly biology and migration, and learned about the current generation of "super generation" monarchs, the butterflies that will make the massive migration south to Mexico (from the upper midwest).

We also learned about infections with something called "OE" (read more at Monarch Watch).

I had thought that Monarchs eat exclusively milkweed, but that's wrong.  They only lay eggs and have larva succeed on milkweed, but once they're adults, they eat all sorts of flower nectar.

Finally, we got to participate in a monarch tagging project.  Here I am, squeezing a tag gently into place on a monarch wing before turning it loose again.

The tags are marked pieces of plastic (I think) with specific numbers and adhesive on one side.  You record the number, then press them into place.  (Check Monarch Watch for more info, linked above.)

Anyway, it was a superb program, very interesting and a lot of fun.  The other people involved were mostly seniors, like me, with a few teens. 

Progress

 I finished painting the bench (see this one and also this other one for previous bench adventures), and with help from a visiting grad school friend, reconstructed it and moved it back to my little porch:

It's bright and cheerful there.

***

In bigger news, I've made reservations for my next couple of big adventures.

First, I've bought tickets and made arrangements (except for the rental car) to go to my Peace Corps group reunion and also to visit a friend and a second cousin and her Mom (my first cousin once removed) on the way back.  So that's pretty exciting.

Second, and this is so big it's almost scary:  I've made reservations for a trip to Europe and bought tickets.

The plan:  fly to Amsterdam and stay there a few days, then go to Barcelona and stay at an air bnb.  Then go to Berlin and stay at an air bnb.  Then back to Amsterdam for a few days, and fly out.

Exciting and terrifying.

***

I've also been working on getting into better shape.  My garmin tells me I have the fitness level of a 79 year old, and that's bad.  So I'm trying to run a bit (couch to five K), bike a bit, and walk a bit.

I have until mid October to be in shape for, say, a 5 mile hike with my RPCV friends.  And then until early next year to be able to wander all day in Amsterdam or wherever.

I rode 18 miles on my bike on a very easy trail at 13.5 mph average yesterday.  And the day before I walked in a local park (so paved, but up and down) for 4 miles.

More to come...

On Watching Yellowstone

I'm late to the game, of course, but when I subscribed to the streaming service to watch the Tour de France, I also gained access to Yellowstone streaming.  So I watched.

Most things have been said: it's a beautifully filmed show with good acting, good writing, and a very western soap opera take on the world.  It's also super violent.

I vaguely remember hearing at some point that there were more people "killed" in Hollywood westerns than lived in the "old west."  I don't know if that's right.  But a lot of characters were killed in Hollywood westerns, for sure.

Or, to make another comparison, I've read that, according to Wikipedia, " if Cabot Cove existed in real life, it would top the FBI's national crime statistics in numerous categories, with some analysis suggesting that the homicide rate in Cabot Cove exceeds even that of the real-life murder capital of the world.^{[13]"   (Source)}

^{According to Wikipedia's page on firearm deaths (source), in 2018, there were 209 firearm deaths in Montana, and 27 of those were murders.  The others?  either suicides, or deaths that weren't considered murders (police shootings, justified shootings?).}

^{According to the CDC, in 2018, there were 265 suicides in Montana.} 

^{I'm suggesting that Yellowstone probably makes some people believe there's a lot more gun violence and murders in Montana than there really is.}

^{The show really normalizes violence, with the bunkhouse men regularly killing other workers by taking them to the "train station," a remote gully off the side of some road, where they shoot the individual men and then push the bodies and gear into the ravine, with John Dutton's character explaining at one point that the area is basically extra-judicial because it's in a county with no human population and no one will ever find the bodies.}

^{Some important real estate mogul is killed, and the murder seems to go unnoticed by the world.}

^{That doesn't generally happen, of course.  Moguls who die get noticed.}

^{The show does make a quick nod toward the real violence towards Native American women (see Wikipedia page on the REDress Project), violence that gets a lot less attention than murdered real estate moguls.  But that nod passes pretty quickly, and we're back to white men (mostly) shooting each other up.}

^{It frustrates me when violence on TV is so normalized, and police are shown as always right, etc, but the violence of Yellowstone is even worse, somehow, because it makes it seem like of course, everyone who gets pissed off at someone just hauls off and punches them, or shoots them.}  

^{(Don't get me started on the laughable fisticuffs: I gather most real life fistfights end fast with broken hand bones or a broken jaw.)}  

^{Added later:  The most creative death is Rip's murder of a neighboring angler (who is trying to get hold of some of the Duttons' land, as is just about everyone in the show).  The angler is fly fishing, and Rip walks up to him holding a mid-sized cooler with a handle on top (a sort of extra big lunch box cooler), asking the angler if it's his, and when he gets close, Rip quickly opens it, and throws a rattlesnake at the guy's face.  It bites him, and the guy staggers out of the water, finally falling on his back.  Rip steps his boot on his chest, says something about dying soon, and the snake glides off.}

^{But even here:  humans don't tend to lead with our faces.  We're more likely to get snake bites on feet/lower leg or hands.  So any coroner worth their salt would be suspicious.  Plus, you can't step on someone's chest out in the country, having gotten your feet wet in a little river, without leaving a footprint of dirt/mud etc.  And pretty much anyone seeing a footprint on a dead person's chest would think that it's not there by accident.  (Maybe it's supposed to take a couple of days to find the body and rain would wash it off?)}

Bench is Back

 In 2018, I did this project to make my wood bench look better.  I started with this:

I sanded and primed and painted and got this:

It looked pretty good for a while, but about two years ago, things started peeling, and now it's pretty awful.  So I've taken it apart and plan to sand tomorrow, and then repaint.  The question is, what color?  Should I go back to yellow?  (Nice and bright at least!)  Or something different?  Blue?  Green?

Thoughts?

New Developments at the BardiacShack (tm)

In April or so, a friend of mine told me about an acquaintance who's going through a painful divorce and was looking for a place to stay for a couple of months during the summer.  Without a great deal of thought, I said it might work at the BardiacShack.  (The house is mostly on an upper level, with a walk out, well-finished basement with the laundry, a den sort of room, two bedrooms, and a full bathroom.  So someone can be downstairs and have a fair bit of privacy while I'm upstairs.)  A day or so later, I got a call, and we made arrangements for A to come stay for a couple of months.

It worked pretty well.  A's a thoughtful adult, pretty quiet, if a bit quirky.  And A cooks sometimes, and that was nice.  

The only wrinkle was that A began seeing B, and B is more than a bit quirky, and spent a lot of time here.  B is also quite nice, and friendly, and also likes to cook a lot.  But one of B's quirks is that their house is lived in with several adult and near adult kids and friends, and so a bit messy, messy enough that B never wanted A to see the mess.

Anyway, it was a little weird, but Sunday A and B loaded A's car and went off so that B can meet A's parents.

And now the BardiacShack is mine, and I'm even more of a "confirmed old bachelor," so to speak.

So that's one biggish thing.

The other is that a couple weeks ago a solar company contacted me, and it put the spark in me to look at other companies, too, so I've just signed a contract to get solar panels on a south facing roof.  It looks like seven or eight panels will fit there, and that would be about 120% of my electric energy, needs, so I could run air conditioning more freely if I wanted, and so on.  I talked to my financial guy, and he says the investment makes sense, even if I only stay in the house another five years, because it also adds to the resale value of the house.  And there's a tax credit, so that's also nice.

And finally, my financial guy gave my basic travel plans for next year a big thumbs up, and figured out where the money should come from (tax implications and such), and so, within a few days, I'll start planning that big adventure!

And Yet Another Play, Even Better!

Today I went to the Great River Shakespeare Festival production of The Winter's Tale, and it was stellar.  I so enjoyed it!  Paulina was amazing, just superb.

They did some really interesting staging.  For example, in the trial scene when Hermione dies, they covered her with a light white cloth on a big chest, the sort of chest you might imagine being used on a cruise in the 1890s.  (Chests and such were the main stage furniture.)  The scene with Antigonus and the baby followed, and when he talked about her dream, the actor stood up, covered with the white cloth (through which she could be semi-seen), and said the lines instead of Antigonus saying them.  They did that sort of thing several times, and it was effective.

The other thing:  it really stood out to me after seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream the other day, how well I could hear and understand everything these actors said, and how deep their range of emotional representation was.  They could represent anger without yelling, and then when they raised their voice, it was effective at showing greater anger.

So, if you're in the Winona area, be sure to see The Winter's Tale before it closes!

And Another Play!

Yesterday, I went to the brand new Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival's production of As You Like It, in Eau Claire, at the newish Pablo Center.  The Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival was announced a couple of years ago, but the opening was postponed, and this is the first year.  It's also had some paring, so, for example, a student production of The Tempest was on the books, but isn't happening this year.

Eau Claire's got a lively amateur theater community, and a number of locals were in this production.  The rest of the cast looked to be (from the intro paragraphs), college students and recent graduates. 

The Pablo Center is a beautiful venue, right at the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers; they've put together what they say is a replica of the Globe, but it's less a replica of the Globe than maybe something such as Blackfriars.  As you can see from the picture at the link, and from the image below:

the seating doesn't take advantage of a thrust stage, nor does it have standing room.  It's basically a pseudo Tudo backdrop to a semi-proscenium arch stage.  The lighting reflects that sensibility, so the audience's attention of fully on the stage, and there's little to no interaction between actors and audience through most of the performance.  (The exception is when the court folks join the first row of the audience to watch the guildsmen's performance.)

The performance was basically a strong student performance, a bit hard to hear clearly (I wasn't the only one who found this), but pretty solid.  Bottom was the stand out performer, and did a really lovely job.  The guildsmen's performance was especially fun, with a really creative wall part that I enjoyed a lot.

It's hard for me to think that another Shakespeare focused theater "festival" is going to be able to compete against the Guthrie in the twin cities, American Player's Theater in Spring Green, and the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona.  Ticket prices are pretty high (as they almost always are at the Pablo) for what's basically a student production, especially compared to what's available in the other venues which are fully professional productions.  On the other hand, it's always good to see new theater opportunities trying to make a go of things!

There was a fun and interesting talk after by a local Shakespearean, which I enjoyed a lot!

I went to a play!

Ahhh, retirement!  I went to As You Like It at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, MN.  I haven't been to the GRSF for a long time, I guess, or at least hadn't blogged about it.  Then I saw Taming, and while I liked the production well enough, I guess, it reinforced my hatred of the play.

On the other hand, their production of AYLI was a delight!  Very fun romp of a production, with some wonderfully creative moments.  For example, they made a lot more of the wrestling scene (which was more mixed martial arts with kicks and punches) than usual, and every so often would go into super slow motion.  One of those times, Orlando leaned back in the way that Keanu Reeves did in The Matrix, except instead of some fancy special effects, they had another actor back to back with him which was both effective and added humor.

And every time two characters "fell in love" (not necessarily at first site, since it happened to Corin and Sylvia after she was stuck with him), everything would come to a stop, special lights and music would hit for a moment, and Voila, LOVE!

Best of all, the three main characters, Rosalind, Celia, and Orlando, were played by stellar actors, who were not only individually good, but who had really beautiful chemistry on stage together.  Celia and Rosalind just seemed to have such joy in each other; when they teased, it was fun.

If you're in the area, I highly recommend AYLI.  They're also doing The Winter's Tale and another play I don't know (Imbroglio).  I'm hoping to go to another of their plays before the season ends.

Big Basin: After the Fire

 When I was in CA recently, I visited one of my favorite places, Big Basin State Park.  I haven't been there since some cousins and I went camping there (in July 2018, when I was on sabbatical).  (It looks like I never posted pictures, though, oh well.)

In August 2020, the park burned in a huge fire (also see the wikipedia post above).  I talked to the rangers last week (well, not real rangers, they told me, but the two women who were in charge of the parking area), and they said 98% of the park was affected by the fire, but 97% of the redwoods survived.  

I was expecting to see just charred remains, which is what I've seen in previous visits to burned areas, but was pleasantly surprised to see that things were looking pretty good.

Here's a picture of the same tree, first higher, showing the growth up there, and then lower, showing that the base of the tree is damaged.  The not really rangers told me that redwoods to fine if the interior is burnt some, so long as the outer part lives.  And that's how it looked.  There were a LOT of partly burnt trees with green way up, and a bunch of little trees growing out of the root area.  The little trees looked bigger than I'd think two years or even three would grow, so I don't know if they just survived, or if they grow super fast when they're released by the extra light post fire or whatever.

At any rate, I was really happy to get a chance to visit and take a short walk, hug a tree, and smell the redwoods.

The not really rangers told me that there's no back country camping yet because all the buildings and such (like latrines) were destroyed, but that there's hope to rebuild a new visitor center and new camping infrastructure in the next couple of years.  If so, I hope I can go camping there again someday.

Seen on the Street

 I was in the SF Bay Area last week, and saw this: 

 

 Several friends quickly identified it as a new Tesla truck.  And one of my cousins said that it looked like they had done the camouflage wrap to make it harder to tell what's up with the car.  Except, since anyone who's looked has seen pictures of the new truck (see link above), what's the secrecy for?

I'm obviously not the intended buyer for this sort of truck, and it's a good thing, too, because it really doesn't appeal to me.  The back seat, for one, looks useless.  There's a pretty steep dive over the back seat that makes it look like you'd have to be short to sit there, and the window's miserably small to boot.  (I spent a lot of time as a kid in the backseat of cars, and a tiny window is ucky.

Anyway, it was fun to see something so new; not something I'm likely to see up in the Northwoods for a good while, I bet.

Retired: A New World to Explore

 It's been a while.  Let's just say that there's so much unbloggable stuff for a chair, and anything that's bloggable is boring.  I don't think anyone wants to read about the hassles of trying to figure out which funding streams can be used for supplies, which for travel, which for stipends or other payments to people.  But now, all that's somone else's worry.  

I've been retired just over a month now, and I'd like to say I'm deliriously happy.  I'm pretty close, anyway.

It's long seemed to me that the most interesting blogs are written when people are doing new-to-them stuff: new PhD programs, new faculty positions, and so on,  So maybe this blog will be interesting in my adjustment to retirement.  At any rate, for a long time, the blog's been a way or recording memories in a semi-public way, and it can certainly have that function for now.

I'm not going to do some massive catch up post; I think I'll just catch things up bit by bit.  For now, I just finished Alison Bechdel's new book, The Secret to Superhuman Strength, and I'm disappointed to say it didn't do much for me.  I really used to love Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For.  A friend gave me a collected volume, probably one of her first ones, and then I got some others, and really enjoyed them.  They spoke to me.

But Secret didn't.  I think part of it is a graphic novel issue.  There's so much in the pictures that they slow my reading down a lot, and I just don't get immersed the way I do with regular prose writing.  I haven't read tons of graphic novels, just this and Persepolis, and Maus, so I guess mostly memoir, and memoir isn't a genre I really love a lot anyway.  At any rate, with the ones I've now read, it seems like you get a scanty sense of the narrator, and no sense of depth in other characters.  Maybe Bechdel was trying to respect her partners' privacy by not giving a strong sense of their lives, their individuality, but you don't get much.  And what you get, your told: so and so is strikingly beautiful or something, rather than being shown what makes them beautiful.

Bechdel's art is, as always, crisp and readable.  I could look at her drawings a lot more and be quite happy.  I liked the connections with the Romantics gang (Wordsworth, etc) and Beats (Kerouac), but Bechdel doesn't really get at the problematics of either movement in a deep way, nor think about how problematic her identifications with those folks are, and how they might add to her unhappiness.

Finally: the therapy thing.  As I understand it, the point of therapy is to help you accept and deal with things to be as reasonably happy as you can so that you don't harm others nor yourself unnecessarily.  Bechdel's narrator has been in therapy for a long while, but it doesn't seem to be working, really.  But it never seems to work, does it?  I never seem to meet people who say, "yes, therapy helped a lot and now I can deal with things reasonably well."

I read Secret because some friends and I have sort of formed a book group and one of them really wanted to read it.  For me, I'm finishing Maus next (it's taken forever) and then I'm thinking of rereading Pearl.  But I'll need to find a newer edition than I have (mine is from maybe the 30s?)