i woke up this morning...

and had a mission. a mission in the next 10 days to replace my aging ranger with something moderately more fuel efficient. i'd done a little research last night after getting back from the wedding. the mazda dealership, always with an interesting ride in the lot, had some cars in my price range. rice crispies, a glass of orange juice, and some olympics. wandered out of my apartment to temps in the high 60s. came home with a new(er) car.


wow, that was fast! now, anyone want to buy my truck? it'll be on craigslist by the end of tonight.

every four years

"excuse me, gentlemen. are you watching this? i can change the channel," the hotel clerk asked.

i can understand her confusion. why would two men be watching with rapt attention women's volleyball? for one, it was a great match. the US and Japan had quite a battle. i was excited for our much taller team to finally pull out the victory.

for two, because it's the olympics! every four years, i renew my interest in sports that don't get airplay. i'm going to be worthless for the next 16 days. just warning you.

usa! usa! usa!

edumacation

First, a Slate article about education and middle upper class snobbery. My response.

Exactly. Case by case. Case one in my class this year, November birthday. Academically ok, but could do better. Probably on the quieter end of the spectrum to begin with, but cried at the drop of a hat with any wrong answers. Irresponsible to a fault, she never remembered to turn in her homework or school communication with her mother.

Same class, a late August birthday. One of the most mature and responsible students in my class. I'd venture to guess that more than age had something to do with this disparity between these two second graders. Stark contrast in home lives for sure.

The big difference between some parents is not whether they send their kids to school early. It's how the parents view school. Fact is (sadly) some parents only view school as free babysitting and unwittingly convey that to their kids. The kids come to view school as unimportant and don't try as hard or do as well. A little fatalistic perhaps, but each teacher only has each child for one school year, six hours (or so) a day. It's the parents' responsibility to reinforce school's lessons and nurture a love of learning that will ensure their success.

tubing plus rapids equals awesome

ok, raise your hand if during your time at UF, you did not partake in tubing on the ichetucknee river or the santa fe river or go to the springs, be they blue, ginnie, poe, et al? not too many out of you gators, eh?

imagine your best day ever at ginnie springs. temps in the mid 80s. cloudless skies. not too many gilchrist county residents. nary a pair of cutoff jean shorts in sight. cold beverages. attractive co-floaters, whatever your persuasion. got the day in your head?

it can't even hold the proverbial candle to sunday when we went tubing for an early birthday trip. keep the weather, lack of jean shorts, beverages, and floaters. add rocks and rapids, and you have tubing on the potomac river in west virginia.

i realize that some of you may not know what tubing is. take an innertube, fill it with air, and float down a river. most often, the float is on calm, flat rivers. butts tubing thought to themselves, "butts old pal, let's see how many crazy city folk will go tubing down rapids in these $5 tubes and pay us $30 a piece for the privilege. we'll buy an old school bus or two, some trailers, get some slick suit to write up a waiver, and they'll come in droves."

and we did. on our bus to the river, which is in a national park, oddly enough, there were three groups. we were rolling ten deep; we were the smallest group! there were groups of seventeen and twelve, all of us rip roaring ready for a lazy day.

lazy it was for the first half hour or so. then the fun began. rapids added to the equation, especially with a cooler tethered to your tube, makes it a lot more fun. everyone in our crew lost something of value, we all got tipped, and we all had a blast. i smell a new summertime tradition!

we're going to a show....

saturday night, i headed into the district to the black cat. black cat is to d.c. what common grounds is to gainesville. that is, the music club for music lovers, or the indie/scene kids that are too cool to act like they enjoy the band on stage. feet glued to the floor. arms crossed. eyes fixated on the band. ears searching for deep meaning in the emo lyrics scratching through the speakers. movement is not tolerated.

i digress. as is the case on weekend nights, i typically get a good laugh from interactions between the cast of characters that hitch a ride on the orange line. saturday was no exception. first actor was a frat boy. khaki shorts, polo shirt mocking the abercrombie moose, rainbow sandals, southern mop of hair, gelled of course. his supporting apologetic friend was clad in plaid and those bright, ugly nikes that indie kids like so much. the actresses were two friendly-looking twentysomethings headed out, coincidentally, to U street also. the scene was a pretty much empty car leaving l'enfant plaza. the two guys were standing, trying to silently gain the attention of the seated ladies. my fly-on-the-wall position was one row behind the ladies. what started out as a fairly innocent conversation turned into an appalling lack of class on frat boy's part pretty quickly, "you know what i'm thinking about? you two naked. good things!" she caught my eyes as we both tried to suppress laughter...hers out of shock, mine in amusement at his tactless (and claimingly sober) approach.

when the train got to u street, we went in separate directions. i struck up a conversation with the ladies on our exit. they got a good laugh out of the encounter. one of them felt bad because it was her friend's first trip into the city, only to get hit on by a sketchball. i wished them a good evening and left wondering how often guys try too hard to connect with women on the metro. trying to be someone they're not. speaking differently. we've all got a lot more in common than it would appear on the surface...but i guess that's still how some frat boys see the world on the metro.

ve vill dahnce the tahngo

she's a dancer. quite a good one, in case you didn't know. ballet until college, even had a job lined up to dance and go to school part time, had she chosen to move to lexington, kentucky. watching football with her on saturdays might be a little more exciting in the fall, but i suspect she'd get tired of the florida owns kentucky jokes real quickly. 18 straight in football, and a pretty good streak in their more cherished sport.

i digress. the reason for the explanation is to illustrate how diametrically opposite she and i are when it comes to dancing. she's graceful and a quick study. i have two left feet and might have a learning disability when it comes to moving rhythmically. thursday night was attempt number two of "teach ben to dance". round one was swing at glen echo. it went better than expected, but i need more practice because i've clearly forgotten all eight steps.

the tango is difficult enough, but in the interest of meeting new people, we switched partners every minute or so. very social, but for a bumbling dancer like me, it made it all the more difficult to learn. one, step back right. two, step left. three, step diagonally forward right. four, step diagonally forward left. five, bring feet together. six, left foot forward. seven, right foot to the right. eight, feet back together. i can remember it now, but in practice, not so pretty. the basic argentine tango. ¡que difícil!

good news, bad news, vol. 2

news from gainesville hits me today, thanks to jedd. ugly, old news rearing it's ugly old head. i sure hope it stays out of the national news. let the vilification of all things greek begin.

better story. less consumption. mainstream? bicycles? how so, washington post?

i love this city.

the dirtbag

i finally managed to climb rocks yesterday. yes, yesterday was friday. i went climbing during the week around here. it only took me all summer to manage it. bouldering around here is marginal at best. lowball, contrived problems. the tops of the boulders often have too much vegetation on them, making topouts tricky. friction is also suspect in the summertime. too damn hot. not quite the season right now.

colorado got my mind running about climbing. wondering about how different my life would be right now had i started climbing in college or even earlier. i'd certainly be a better climber. would i have chosen teaching as my vocation? would i travel more? would i live somewhere else? would i be a dirtbag?

the ideal of the dirtbag climber. traversing the country, searching for the perfect season. the southeast in the fall. hueco at new year's. bishop in the spring. RMNP or yosemite in the summer. living off the grid, making only enough money to buy a 50 lb. bag of rice or a case of ramen noodles. "the life", as it were. i was inspired by several random people i met in colorado, who have all at one time or another, lived in their cars/vans/pickups and climbing as often as possible.

were the twists in my life slightly different, i doubt i'd be a dirtbag, but i'll still idealize it every summer.

the great gas experiment

"i can't remember the last time i rode in your truck," she says tonight. i've tried my damnedest to save gas this month. it's been much easier with the addition of a bike to my arsenal of driving avoidance tools. i can manage my barely a half-mile ride to visit my better half. i've been taking it with me on the metro on my ventures into the city. quite often, i've been riding my bike back from the city, but not into it. sure, it's probably because i have to make it to an appointment, but no need to make it back quickly. six miles and change back most days, including today's trek from the white house.

when i got back from florida, i put a half-tank of gas in my truck. since that fateful july 1st, i've driven 144.2 miles. had i not gone climbing in maryland or driven out to reston to move a tv and a grill to arlington, that number would be much lower. the curse of a pickup truck! let's see how long i can stretch it out. perhaps make this half-tank my last half fill-up before i get keys to a new ride?

yes, this was intentional. thirty bucks in gas is far less than what i seemingly must spend during the school year. sixty bucks in metro fares is far more than i spend in a month. i guess reducing my footprint is still pretty expensive. i haven't gotten to the point of walking to the grocery store yet, but if i ever buy one of those little carts, i might just do it. i just buy too many groceries to consider it. which reminds me, i'm still hungry.