Travel – Zing Blog 2

Take the Long Way Home

We finally got a weekend at home to relax. This week we passed a big deadline at work, the release of Permission Slip 3.0, delivered on time and without any major problems. I also finished re-architecting and deploying the key generation and storage mechanism for OSIRAA, the API compliance test tool for the Data Rights Protocol, after a long and deep debugging adventure, thus unblocking the road forward to testing. And, I submitted Plutonium Dirigible to get CDs made and put on streaming services, so that project is officially completed.

Last weekend we were traveling again, this time up to Buffalo. It was good to see Mum and Dad and talk about things. They are doing basically okay, very stoic, which I guess is not too surprising.

I also saw old friends Mark C. and Chris S. I hadn’t seen either of them in many years, although we used to be very close, so it was great to reconnect. Mark and Chris were the drummer and piano/synth player in Event Horizon, our prog jazz fusion band that was together for a number of years and was the vehicle for alot of musical growth. We were in several other bands together around that time, and both of them stood up at my wedding, which, by the way. was thirty years ago this week. Chris has a new wife and baby. Life has a way of moving in circles sometimes, and after many adventures they’re both back living in Kenmore, just a few blocks apart, in the neighborhood we all grew up in.

After that we went to visit Lizzy and Josh at their new apartment in North Buffalo, just a few block on the other side of Kenmore Avenue. They have a very nice place, and the main decorating them is legos galore. I always admired that neighborhood when was growing up, with it’s tree-lined avenues and well-kept Victorian houses; it’s good to see the neighborhood is still that way. They’re right near Hertel Avenue, with a district of restaurants and shops.

Back home Michelle is home from school visiting. The weather remains nice. It’s been a super pleasant autumn so far, with mainly warm and sunny weather and beginning to get cool at night. Haven’t really turned the heat on yet. Much better than last fall, when it rained pretty much every day. I’ve been continuing to do alot biking. This weekend I went twenty miles on the local rail trial. Hope to get a few more long rides in before it turns cold, and get up to thirty by the end of the season.

This week I’m trying to finish up some origami Flying Fish for OUSA’s holiday tree at American Museum of Natural History. I also have some ideas for a couple new models that I hope to complete for a convention coming up in November. So watch this space for that.

And the Wonder Will Set Me Free

This past weekend Jeannie and I went up to the greater Berne area, in the hills between Albany and the Catskills to visit Kathleen and the kids and participate in a benefit concert in Martin’s honor. We had to get up early Saturday so I could be there for rehearsal. I hadn’t used my rock keyboard setup in a while, so Friday night I plugged everything in and turned it all to make sure it still worked and sounded good, and if I still remembered my way around the controls of my synth. Then I tore it all down, figured out what to pack, and pre-loaded the car.

The rehearsal was at the East Berne Band’s drummer John’s house. He has a nice rehearsal space, set up a bit like mine in that you come in thru the garage and don’t have to go up or down any stairs. I’d met the guys in the band briefly once before, and had been texting and emailing them, so I felt pretty good about the situation. John sent me a list of tunes to learn a few weeks ago, then last week sent me a mostly different list. One thing that was for sure was that we’d be doing two of Martin’s original songs.

The band consists of John on drums and vocals, Dan on bass and vocals, Chris on guitar and backing vocals, Jim on keyboards in the summertime, and sometime vocalist Lorissa, who wasn’t at the practice. They’re all excellent musicians, who sound really good together, and the vibe was very relaxed and friendly. They’re very versatile and can handle everything from the E Street Band to Brittany Spears. We ran thru a good part of the setlist they’d given me, focusing alot of the time on Martin’s songs, which they asked me to sing. Everyone said I sound just like Martin. I guess that’s not far from the truth. I’ve been going over some old recordings we did together and can’t always tell who is singing what part. I was playing sax as well as keyboards and singing. I’ve been playing more and more on Martin’s old sax, a Selmer Mark VI tenor from the late 1950’s and really growing to love it.

After that I went back to Kathleen’s house and hung out with her and the kids. We’re trying to spend some time with them, be more of a presence and get to know them better individually. This time it was mostly Charlie and Abbie I was talking with, with Match interjecting now and then. I also seem to be their dog Gus’s new best friend, having played countless rounds of fetch with him. I spent some time talking with Kathleen’s father Charlie too. We went for a hike later in the afternoon in some nearby woods overlooking the escarpment and, at the furthest point out, offering a scenic view of Albany. Apparently it was one of Martin’s favorite hikes. Kathleen and Jeannie and I went out to dinner with John and his wife Linda, who had been raising alpacas for their wool. Abbie and Ellie and their cousin Bailey came too.

Next morning we spent more time with the kids. Jeannie taught Abbie how to fold Sonobe modules, a kind of geometric origami system that’s very popular. I helped organize some stuff in Martin’s studio. I found a notebook of some of his older songs. He never seemed to write down his chord progressions, but sometimes there were hand drawn tabs in the margins. He liked to explore patterns alot and figure out the names of the chords later. The concert was out at a brewery about a half hour from the house. I got there around 1:30 to set up. The stage was out at the edge of a big lawn behind the brewery, bordered by wildflowers all around. Out in front was a bunch of picnic tables and a shelter. A very nice scene. With four bands on the bill the stage was pretty full: two drum sets, three keyboard rigs, multiple guitar amps. The bass player Dan was in all four bands, so we pretty much front and center the whole time. The first two bands did a mixture of covers and originals, all very good. The overall vibe was a cross between the Grateful Dead and the Barenaked Ladies. I spent the time meeting and talking to alot of Martin’s friends. He definitely made an impact on people. Alot of people seemed to be part of extended family clans, like Martin and Kathleen. Also a whole networked scene of musicians. There was a food truck there that served dumplings. Very yummy.

The East Berne Band went on third, and we started with Lorissa singing, doing a bunch of songs which we hadn’t rehearsed and I didn’t know about. So they called out the key (sometimes) and I followed along by ear and watching the bass player’s fingers. I sang Martin’s songs, One of These Days and Making Miles, and both went well. I almost made it thru without breaking up, but then I looked out into the crowd and there was Jeannie and Kathleen crying. Still, overall a fun and joyous occasion. At the end of our set, a bunch of musicians from all the bands came on stage for an epic jam session to close out the day. Tons of fun. Lots of good feeling and healing energy. I hope they do it again sometime. Meanwhile we’ll be back up there to visit again before too long.

Summer’s End

Jeannie and I ended the summer on a bit of a high note, with our traditional trip to Ocean City, Maryland. This was a quick one, just two nights, but the weather was beautiful and we got in some good lunches and dinners, a sunset cruise, swimming in the ocean and walking down the boardwalk. The highlight was spending an afternoon biking around Assateague Island. This time we parked at the visitor center and took our bikes over the bridge onto the island. This added a few miles to the ride, which is a good thing, plus some nice views on top of the bridge. The whole area is incredibly flat; we might’ve been on the highest point in the Delmarva peninsula. An added bonus is we got to skip to long line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot.

Zero to Sixty in Three Days

Adventure July continues. Jeannie and I just got back from a long weekend up in Buffalo, with a side trip to Canada. We drove up Thursday night after work. Listened to Sheryl Crow’s The Globe Sessions in the car, and early U2. Friday we had lunch with Larry and Jackie at a place called the New York Beer Project. Lovely stone and glass architecture, good food and brews. I learned there’s such a thing as an International Bitterness Unit. Wonder if applies to coffee, or people, or just beer.

Friday night we went to the wedding of friend Scott and his new bride Sue. She grew up on Tonawanda and went to my high school, and the church as right near where I grew up, although I’d never been in it before. The reception was at the old Wurlitzer factory in North Tonawanda, which was unused for many years, but now has a banquet party space in the tower. The whole thing was very nice. There were a few friends there with whom I’ve kept in touch with over the years, and a larger circle of people whom I haven’t seen since college and didn’t immediately recognize. A fun night of catching up. Congratulations Sue and Scott!

The next day we took it easy. I went for a walk around the lake with my Dad. Later in the day I went for a skate around the neighborhood on my rollerblades. I haven’t done any skating this summer, mainly since I’ve been doing a ton of biking, but my parents’ town is much flatter then mine so it was a good opportunity. I have an app now to do metrics, so I can say I did two laps of the neighborhood in 35 minutes, just under 5 miles. That’s about twice as fast as walking and half as fast as biking. Saturday night we went out to dinner with Lizzy and Josh, at a place on the Lake Erie with a view of the sunset. Fancy drinks, yummy seafood. The west coast of New York State.

Sunday we went with my parents up to Hagersville, Ontario, hometown of famous drummer Neil Peart of the rock band Rush, for the sixtieth wedding anniversary celebration for my Uncle Gabor and Aunt Mary, a backyard barbecue party. More good food and wine. Lots of family on my Mum’s side. My Uncle Ron and Aunt Emoke, and cousin Barb and her husband Al, such wonderful people I don’t get to see often enough. Their son Curtis just graduated from university this spring with a degree in biomedical engineering and is working as a field tech way up Sudbury. His girlfriend is studying computer graphics and animation. Curtis has my origami book and has folded most of the models. All my Mum’s cousins were there too. I haven’t seen most of them in many years, since my kids were little. Many are former tobacco farmers living all over central Ontario, and most of the rest are involved in professional motorcycle racing. Good to catch up and know that they’re all doing well.

Monday Jeannie and got on the road early, and on the way home stopped at Letchworth Park. It’s among the most scenic places in New York State, known as the Grand Canyon of the East because of it’s three famous waterfalls on the Genesee River. Again I hadn’t been there for many years but had visited many times when I was younger, so it was good to check it out and do some hiking. We stopped for lunch at a place called Big Dipper Barbecue off Route 17. It’s become one of our favorites. After so much traveling we have a few weeks off to unwind and get some things done at home before it’s time for the next adventure.

Jazz and the Mountains

Just got back from a nice vacation to the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Adirondack mountains. I feel like I’ve been in one long run of deep focus between work and music and other things, so it was a welcome break.

Jeannie and I drove up to Montreal on Monday, which also happened to be Canada day. We arrived mid-afternoon and our hotel was right downtown where the jazz fest was, so we just walked out into the street to enjoy things. The festival is centered around their big performing arts center call Place des Arts, which is on the level of Lincoln Center here in New York. The streets around it are closed to cars and become a big public party space with several outdoor concert stages, and lots of vendors for food, libations and merch. Several other clubs, bars, theaters and other venues host concerts as well. We found a Canadian Asian fusion place for dinner in view of one of the stages. I had a Bloody Ceaser with dinner because, when in Rome …

The main act that night was Robert Glasper, who is sort of a jazz-soul-hiphop crossover guy, somewhat comparable to Kamasi, except he sings and plays keyboards, and his band consists of him, a bass, drums and a DJ. The music was generally groovy and soulful, with some songs featuring modern and minimalist ideas juxtaposed against the main groove. The band were excellent improvisors, individual and collectively, going beyond just taking solos to build moods and structures and atmospheres. It was cool to see the DJ as an integral part of the sound too.

The next day we lounged around the hotel in the morning and got breakfast, then went for a big walk in the scenic downtown dominated by old stone buildings, and finally out to the waterfront. The weather was beautiful, sunny and not too hot. We checked out a science museum on a pier with lots of interactive hands-on exhibit. We got lunch at a cafe nearby: poutine, shrimp and avocado salad, and some Molsons. We bought some souvenirs including a stone sculpture of an Inukshuk in the shape of a human figure. If it can be carved from a single stone, it seems like it might also be a good subject for an origami model too.

That evening the big musical attraction was Joshua Redmond with a new group in one of the theaters in the Place des Arts. The band were excellent and featured a vocalist in addition to the rhythm section. She and Joshua on sax did really cool tight harmony sections together a few times. The theme of the new record they were touring for had to do with the concept place so most of the songs had the name of a place in the title, including some standards like a mashup of John Coltrane’s Alabama with Stars Fell on Alabama, and a surprising way-out jazz version of Hotel California. I’ve seen Joshua a few times at clubs in New York, but this performance was a whole ‘nuther level. There was also a really excellent light show in the theater, which enhanced the sound and mood alot.

After that we took more acts on the outdoor stages, including the Low Down Brass Band, whom we heard on our first trip to Montreal six years ago. Wow, how the time flies!

Next morning we took another walk around the city, looking for baked good to bring back to the States for our friends Mark and Kelly in the Adirondacks. I also picked up a nice-looking (and, it turned out, lovely-tasting) bottle of whiskey at the duty free shop. We arrived in the high peaks area mid-afternoon, and when for a hike at a place called High Falls Gorge on the Ausable River near Mount Whiteface.

The next day was the Fourth of July. Out main adventure in the morning was a bike ride up a rail trail from Saranac Lake to Lake Placid. It was twenty-two miles round trip, my best distance so far of the season, although we took a fairly leisurely pace, and stopped for a while at the turnaround point. This was Jeannie’s fifth or sixth big bike ride of the year. In the evening we went to a party hosted by Mark’s friend Cory, at a very nice summer cottage on a nearby lake. Cory happens to be a passionate cocktail mixologist, and has the best home-bar I’ve ever seen made in a former woodshed. He was very into mixing drinks for everyone using a whole array of bespoke elixirs, infusions, spirits and spices. Like a master chef for drinks. Huzzah!

Mark and I talked at length about improvisational music and the challenges of breaking out of genre boxes and other expectations to explore new frontiers. In addition to his main group Crackin’ Foxy, Mark has been exploring the world of looper jams using pedal and an electric guitar. He played me lots of interesting loop-based stuff from the classical world, including stuff featuring cello and clarinet.

After the party we headed back into to town to try and catch the fireworks show, but we were too late. We ended up at a local bar called the Watering Hole, which I hadn’t been to in many years, and used to be kinda run down but is now very nice indeed. They had a live band doing funk soul party music featuring a trombone player. Alot of fun.

Friday we went for a canoe ride on some nearby lakes. Not quite as epic as some canoe rides of seasons past, but we were out on the water for over two hours. That evening we drove out to a concert venue near Lake Champlain to see Nate Wood doing a project called Four. Nate is a one-man band and quite astounding. He plays drum with one hand and both feet, and also guitar or bass with his other hand (using mainly tap technique), all augmented with some keyboards played in interstitial free moments. The amazing thing is not just that he can do all this at once, but that it actually sounds musical and cool! The songs are basically structured improv jams with a sort of prog-rock-meets-jazz-fusion sound. My kind of weird!

Saturday we drove to a weekend of catching up on chores and things including doing yardwork in the ninety-degree heat. Jeannie and I did another bike ride Sunday morning. I did sixteen miles with an average pace of 14mph, a personal best for speed this season so far. Today Jeannie took off for an IT Admin conference in Pennsylvania; she’ll be back Friday.

Another Sunny June

Summer has arrived in earnest. I’m still busy with work and projects, but have been making time for some low-key relaxation and enjoyment. This is important because I feel like I’ve been working since February on the same set of things, and while I’ve been making progress and getting things done, I’ve also been getting weary of the grind.

Michelle is home from school for the summer. Today she started her new summer job, an internship for her study in civil engineering. She’s very excited. The work is mainly inspecting, reporting on and supporting repairs on train bridges in The Bronx. It’s the kind of work where she needs safety boots and a laptop computer with AutoCad. Apparently steel-toed boots in women’s sizes are hard to find at shoe stores around here so she had to order them over the internet. The company provides the computer and software. Rock on!

Meanwhile, Lizzy has enrolled in grad school to get her Master’s degree in Business. This is a mainly online program she can do while continuing at her day job. A year ago she told me she had no interest in grad school. I think she changed her mind because her boyfriend is pursuing a medical degree, but she says it’s to open up her carreer options going forward. Either way, rock on!

In my own little scene, things are grinding along as I’ve said. Things are getting done, but everything is harder and taking longer than one would hope. My day job has entered an unusually chaotic phase, and I was temped to write in my weekly status update today “EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!!!” but instead wrote “repeated build failures; we are working with the enterprise team to resolve the issue,” which is really just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve hired a new in-house engineer who will start in July, which should help things going forward. Meanwhile the MVP for my more R&D-ish project moves ahead one obstacle at a time, when I have to time to work on it.

The Global Jukebox is approaching the release of version 3.1.0. We’re in the final testing and bug fixing phase. So stay tuned to this channel for future announcements.

The new album by my jazz group Spacecats has been mixed and mastered and ready to publish for a few weeks now. All that remains is the album cover. I put together a cover featuring images of the band members taken from video stills. We all agreed the quality was not the best, so at rehearsal a week ago we took a bunch of new pics of the group as a whole, both playing music and posed at various spots around the studio. I’ve gone thru the images and narrowed it down to a handful of semifinalists. The next step is to drop them into to composition, see how they look, and play around with them until I get somewhere cool.

The OUSA convention is drawing near. I’ve dusted off my list of ideas for models and begun folding, starting with creating exhibit-quality versions of models I’ve already done, then moving on to explore new territory. This year the convention isn’t until late July, so I have a whole extra month to get it together. I also need to decide what I’m going to teach. Probably one of them will be my Spacecat, a variation on another cat, Sophie. I’ve recently refined the Spacecat, changing the proportions and folding sequence, and the final model looks better. Trying to work thru the final sculpting now and looking for the right paper.

I’ve been working out and biking alot, but it’s been a bit uneven as my energy level hasn’t always been the best I’m working thru so weird random pain in my shoulder. I seem to be mainly over it and back up to full weights on everything the last week or two. I still haven’t taken a ride with Jeannie on our local rail trail, but hope to this weekend. I’ve been doing the local loop of my neighborhood (about 4 miles with hills and traffic) about three times a week, and have done the Nature Study woods (longer, no cars, some bumpy trail-ish hills) twice now. We’ve only done one two hikes this spring too. Need to get our into nature more.

We did do some fun things the last few weeks, and at least the major spring yardwork cycle got done, although next weekend starts a new round. Memorial Day weekend I went to a Mets game with Jeannie and Michelle and Mary and Lou and their kids. I don’t care that much about baseball but it was a fun hang, and our seats were in the shade. Amazingly, the Mets rallied in the bottom of the ninth for a come-from-behind victory! We’ve also been doing a bunch of barbecues and hanging out by the firepit in the backyard, listening to playlists from summers past.

Last weekend Jeannie and took a mini-vacation to wild and exotic Connecticut. We went to Mystic, where they have the Seaport Museum featuring tall ships and lots of stuff related to ships and shipbuilding in the Age of Sail, including things like a blacksmith, cooper, printer and other 19th century shops, crafts and industries. They’re also actively restoring several historic sailing ships. There’s also an aquarium there, with penguins, sea lions, beluga whales, and all kinds of fish and even octopus. After that we went out to sushi for lunch. There’a cute little downtown a bunch or restaurants and shops, including a great seafood place. There’s also an 80-foot sailboat parked right there, a three-masted schooner, so we did a two-hour sunset cruise of the sound out beyond the river. The harbor is actually up the river a little bit, so first we had to navigate the channel out to sea. We crossed past a swinging train bridge that seems like the perfect focal point for an action set piece in some adventure film. There’s a train coming and there’s a tall ship coming, and the hero and the villain are fighting up in the control room, trying to gain control of the switch to swing the bridge open or closed.

Everything Under the Sun is in Tune

Been busy. Spring is finally coming. We had a few nice days in a row. The grass is starting to grow and the trees are turning green and other colors with fuzz. Over the weekend I got my Mustang out on the road, finished off some much-needed yard cleanup from a recent bout of storms, and best of all, got on my bike and went for a ride, ending that awkward time of year between the end of ski season and the start of biking season.

The weekend before we went upstate for the big solar eclipse. I’d never seen one in totality before. Jeannie and I drove up to Buffalo on Saturday, and noticed the traffic was fairly heavy one we got on the country roads the last hour of the trip. Excitement was in the air. Saturday night we hung out Lizzy and Michelle and Lizzy’s boyfriend Josh, and Larry and Jackie joined us later at the bar. The place had a tap wall with like a dozen different beers. Lots of fun. The waitress commented that it was unusually crowded because of people coming into town for the eclipse.

Larry and Jackie had driven down to Tennessee for the last eclipse, and Larry told me it was a life-changing experience. He didn’t seem that different to me, so I asked how it had changed him. He told me he it made him really want to see another eclipse. And indeed they drove out to Ohio for this one to try and get out from under the clouds.

Sunday Jeannie and Michelle and I decided to go to Chestnut Ridge Park, which is near my parent’s house, to see the famous Eternal Flame, something we had never done despite my parents having lived there for the last thirty years. It was still stick and mud season up in Buffalo, no sign on anything turning green yet. I think every other person coming into town for the weekend had the same idea, and the trail was pretty crowded, to the point where we had to queue up to climb over rocks in the last part. Still it was pretty cool to see, a jet of natural gas burning in a little cave behind a waterfall. Weird.

Sunday afternoon Martin and Kathleen arrived with the kids and their dog. My mum made a big family dinner for everyone, and my dad brought out the wine. Very lovely evening. Monday I slept in. I’d been feeling tired the end of the last week and it was good to catch up on my rest. I spent to whole morning hanging out and talking with Martin. After lunch we all went for a long walk in the park near my parents’ house. It felt like a low-key fourth of July. People had brought lawn chairs and drinks and even some telescopes to watch the big event. We got back to my parents’ house as the skies were darkening, and watched the totality from their lawn.

It had been mainly sunny in the morning, and grew increasingly cloudy as the totality got closer. Still there were enough breaks in the cloud for good viewing, if not very sustained. We had some obsidian discs from Mexico that were meant for viewing the sun, and they somehow made the sun visible behind the clouds. I think it actually only liked like it was getting cloudier; as the eclipse progressed the sky was getting darker because of that.

When the moment of totality arrived, it suddenly became nighttime. It was like somebody pulled the house lights down on the whole world. The temperature dropped, birds and dogs made lots of noise, and there was a ring of pink near the horizon. We even saw a few stars. Looking at the sun, there are a few moments when the clouds parted and you could see the corona, all dancing shimmering silver gold tendrils. Amazing. Life altering, even. Then a few minutes later the diamond ring appeared and just as abruptly as is descended, the night vanished. It was back to tepid daylight, which returned to full strength over the next hour or so. And wouldn’t you know it, it was bright sunshine the rest of the day, not a cloud in sight.

We dove home Tuesday, and again there was heavy traffic, particularly at the rest stops on the way. I’m happy to say we found some good places for lunch on the trip. For many years the only really quick and convenient option McDonalds. Their food was never that great but seems to have steadily declined in quality over the years. on the way up we discovered a new place, the Old Bat Factory in Hancock. They had a deli with sandwiches and wraps, very yummy. On the way back home there’s a seasonal roadside barbecue stand in Appalachin. Pulled pork and all that.

And, back in the music studio, I’ve edited together mixes of nine out of ten of the songs for the new Spacecats record. I know I said I’d tell you all about it, but I think I’ll save the story for next time, when I have some tracks ready to share.

Fotoz 2023, Part 4

Well this project has dragged on a while, but is finally done. The last batch includes our trip California last fall, including the SF Bay Area, the Lake Tahoe and Yosemite, and the PCOC Origami Conference. All in it was twenty galleries, by far the most for a single year. Ah well this year will probably be less traveling. Can’t wait to get back to doing other things tomorrow. Enjoy!

https://zingman.com/fotooz/
https://zingman.com/fotooz/2023/2023-16/
https://zingman.com/fotooz/2023/2023-17/
https://zingman.com/fotooz/2023/2023-18/
https://zingman.com/fotooz/2023/2023-19/
https://zingman.com/fotooz/2023/2023-20/

High Speed on Ice

The lift to our mood wore off after a few days after returning from our trip to the warm and sunny climes, and I was feeling really ready to be done with winter. Then last Tuesday we got six inches of snow at home and started leaning into winter. We decided to do a mini-vacation trip upstate. It began with a day of skiing at Gore mountain in the Adirondacks. Jeannie and I drove up the night before and stayed in a hotel in Lake George. On the drive up we listened to the Queen album Live Killers, which I don’t think I ever listened to the whole way thru before, and is totally amazing. Unfortunately, the weather turned snowy and slippery the further north we got, so I couldn’t listen as closely as I’d have liked.

It was an amazing day of skiing. The morning was just perfect, with fresh snow on a well-groomed base, and a gentle snow falling on off throughout the day. Probably some of the best skiing I’ve had in years. And because it was a Friday, the mountain was alot less crowded than last time we were there. We skied the first half of the day on the North Slope, with long beautiful trails winding thru the trees. Unfortunately, it began to get windy, and some trip up the lift were a little unpleasant. We skied all the way down to the base then went up to the summit via the gondola, another trail and another lift. The top was kinda windy and icy, but once we got partway down the skiing was great again. We ended up the day on another part of the mountain with mainly blue and green trails, because we were getting too tired for the big hills but wanted to keep on going. Jeannie had a ski tracking app, and we skied over 10 miles in 12 runs, meaning the average run was close to a mile, and some a good deal longer.

That night we drove up to the high peaks area to visit our good friends Mark and Kelly. Saturday we went ice staking in the speed skating oval at the Olympic Village in Lake Placid. It was a beautiful experience, skating outdoors surrounded by mountains. The track is a quarter mile around, and Jeannie did 14 laps and I did 18. That’s three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half miles respectively. Needless to say, after all this our legs were pretty tired. Afterwards we went to a bar for poutine and cocktails, then walked around Lake Placid. Out on Mirror lake, there was tobogganing, dogsleds, ice skating and several hockey games going on. Fun scene.

Spent alot of time just talking and hanging out. Mark showed me his new guitar effects setup, but didn’t get around to playing it. On the way home Sunday, we stopped by Martin’s house for a visit. Spent our time there just talking and hanging out too. Martin showed me his new custom-made combination guitar/sax/sheet music/stage monitor stand. Got home late last night, and today we were all tired out. Now back to work, but hoping to get a couple more ski trips in before the end of the winter.

Work and Playa

Been trying to get thru the winter. The snow we had earlier all melted and it reverted to grey and gloomy. In the years we’ve had solar power, we never generated less electricity than this last January, and it was an extra long month, with five Mondays. At least we’re supposed to get snow again tonight, so hopefully that means more skiing soon.

The last week of January I went into the city several times for work. One day it was a field trip to the Spy Museum in Manhattan, which was fun and somewhat germane to our group, as there was cool exhibits on cryptography, the early development of computers, and various modern privacy and security issues. Plus a James Bond car! Afterwards we went out a bar to say goodbye to our colleague Chris who is leaving us to work on privacy at Google. In the conversation I learned that ten out of twelve people care and know more about Star Wars than the Roman Empire. Strange times we live in. The next day was an all-day planning, strategy and team-building session in a space down near Union Square. Lots of fun but exhausting by the end.

Then on Saturday Jeannie and I took off for a winter getaway down to Cancún, Mexico. Compared to the last few trips we’ve taken, this one was pretty mellow, and mainly involved a circuit between the beach, the bar, the pool and various restaurants. We stayed at a resort hotel right on the beach, in a place called the Hotel Zone. They upgraded our room, a mini-suite with a little sitting area looking out over ocean, to one on the corner so the view was more than 180 degrees. We ended up ordering breakfast in the room most every day so we could enjoy it. The middle day of the trip we took a tour to Chichén Itzá, former site of an ancient Mayan city and now home to a complex of ruins that include the famous stepped pyramid, one of the seven wonders of the world. Also, I must say we’ve now had ten flights in the last year and half, free of any hassles, delays or complications. The more our luck holds, the more my general anxiety about airports and flying is reduced.

On the plane I read a book called The Swerve, which was about a particular book from ancient Rome, and the circumstances under which it was written, lost, rediscovered in the 14th century, copied and entered a place of influence in Renaissance thought and subsequently into the modern, scientific age. The book, On the Nature of Things, was an epic poem that espoused a worldview of rationalism, apathetic gods, mind-body unity, the goal of seeking pleasure in life rather than suffering, atomic theory, evolution by natural selection, and a bunch of other ideas heretical to the medieval church. Sounds like the kind of thing Neil Peart might have written, but in Latin

This is actually the third book I’ve read this year that cuts thru the Renaissance. The first one focused mainly on art and architecture, and masters of the era in that realm, particularly in Florence and Rome. The second one was about Columbus, Cabot and Vespucci, the circumstances that gave rise to their epic voyages of discovery, and their immediate consequences in the new world and the old. All of these stories are connected, and it’s interesting too see how different writers pull together threads from all the things going on to craft a journey about a specific thing. Next I want to find a book on the Copernican revolution and its antecedents. In the explorers book, there was a bit on Vespucci crossing the equator and naming the constellation the Southern Cross. The North Star had disappeared, and the sky was spinning the opposite way. It must have been a mind-blowing realization that the Earth was indeed a sphere, and not just that but a sphere floating in space. As a complement to all this, I’ve also been reading the Discworld series. I can’t believe it took me all these years to get turned on it it. Great fun!

One night at the resort, the Freddy Mercury biopic movie was on TV. Since I’ve been home I’ve been doing a deep dive into Queen’s music. They’re a band I’ve always admired, and I own three of their albums, but they have quite a few I’ve never listened to the whole way thru. It’s just amazing the depth of their talent. Freddy Mercury was a great rock piano player, and Brian May and Roger Taylor were great singers, in addition to being widely regard as among the greatest of all time at their main role in the group. Everyone in the band was a great songwriter and they all played multiple instruments. They wrote and played in so many styles, yet pulled it all together into a unified sound. Plus, they really pushed the expressive limits of what you could do with the electronics and studio technology of the day. Every album is very solid, really imaginative and enjoyable, and contains at least one or two all-time smash hits. I’ve gotten up to News of the World, which is about the midpoint of their discography.