Even in Kyoto

Last lab of the semester yesterday. The students enjoyed the crayfish tremendously, a reminder of why I go to such great lengths.

I tend to experience insomnia in the spring, which I suspect is mostly due to allergies. When it struck this morning, I went ahead and got up to go to the optional Wednesday strength training practice with rowing teammates. After all, exercise can really help with anxiety.

There are just a lot of loose ends to tie up: Getting us in lecture to where we'll actually finish out our course topics for the semester; ordering supplies needed; fixing a bike from the Bicycling class so a student can get back out on it; watering the ants and checking the crickets; meeting with research students; setting up the lab for the lab practical next Tuesday; et cetera.

High-octane life can't go on indefinitely.

Because Cat News is the Best News.

Here's a carpenter bee that got stuck on the front porch on Thursday:



The cats were quite interested in it.



I released the bee back outside shortly after this video, and it flew off.

Part of the reason George is keen for Catio time is that he loves hunting and chasing things out there. Here he is with his favorite stick:



This video can give you a sense about how much he LOVES to chase this stick, except imagine this video is about 10 times as long and the chasing and pouncing are even more ferociously cute:



In fact, he loves his stick so much that when I tossed it into the basement to try and get him to go back indoors, he jumped back through the catio door into the basement, and, well, see for yourself:



Hilariously, if I keep George out of the catio and just let Martha out, she loves the exact same stick game. I think they like being able to chase and pounce on the grass since it's softer than many of our indoor surfaces.

Meanwhile, here's the part of the catio where George has been making his more recent escapes:



I tried wedging those pieces of wood between the pole and the side of the house, but (a) they're going to fall out, and (b) George just climbed up onto that window ledge on the side of the porch and then climbed over all my handiwork.

So that whole corner is just going to need to get redone, but that isn't something I'm going to manage to get to right now. But clearly it's something that needs to get done, based on how much the cats appreciate their outdoors time.

My sister has the best t-shirts. This week I keep thinking about the one she has that says, "Every Day I'm Brusselin' " with an illustration of brussels sprouts. There are a lot of copycat images on the internet that do not do justice to the design and artistry on that shirt.

Anyway, that's the sentiment of the now. Today looked like:

-Emergency pinch-hit rowing coaching because one of our coaches was just in a terrible car crash where someone rear-ended them (don't yet know how serious the injuries are, that takes time).

-Dentist appointment - minimal gum bleeding and no major actions required, WHEW.

-Receive shipment of 24 large gray crayfish*, spend a good 90 minutes preparing the tanks to house them, house them.

-Act as a facilitator for an institutional strategic planning listening session.

-Write a quiz for tomorrow.

-Meet with manuscript coauthor and apologize for being slow to make progress.

-Review/prep to teach (mammalian, basic, introductory) kidney function.

Part of me wants to go on the weekly social bike ride tonight, but the prudent part of me suggests I should just go home and collapse in a heap.

At least next Tuesday is the last Lab of the semester.



*I think I put in the order for these about 5 weeks ago? They were backordered and I was about to completely pull the plug and do something different to replace the lab, except when I requested to cancel the order I learned they'd shipped, sigh.

I think we're up to 6? I could have miscounted in there somewhere.

Yesterday's labs ran long, but the lab is an engaging one and students got a lot out of it, so I can't begrudge them for needing the time. When I finally went to check the weather for the bike ride home, the radar looked quite colorful in a way that posed two options: wait an hour or so, and get home for a late supper; or, set forth but be ready to get very wet. So I suited up in all my rain gear and set out, and the apocalypse struck when I was about a half mile in. It wasn't particularly cold but I was glad for the rain gear more for keeping the grime off than anything else. By the time I got back into town someone was exclaiming about the rainbow visible in the sky behind me.

The recent catio fortifications had been working well, so I've been generally coming home after work and letting the cats out for a while, which they love, of course. It helps that it's now warmer and lighter later into the evening. With the rain subsiding, I let the cats out.

Sometimes they'll go out for a while, then come back in to say hello again, then go back out, and it can be tricky to call them back in for the night, often requiring cat treat bribes. But there's another behavior pattern, where if George escapes, Martha comes and finds me and acts super affectionate. Who knows what's happening in her catty brain, but it seems like some version of, "Finally, that pesky kitten is GONE!"

So, that happened later in the evening, as I was ready to head for bed. I tried shaking the freeze-dried salmon cat treat bag to summon George, to no avail. Eventually I just went out on the back porch to groggily sit in a chair for a while, because there was no way I would actually be able to sleep well if George was stuck outside all night.

...and eventually he came trotting up the back porch steps, and flopped down at my feet, like he does.

They're going to be mad when I won't let them out on the catio this evening.

The shop that hosted this 200k brevet is awesome, New Horizons Bikes in Westfield, MA. I was able to talk with the shop owner for a few minutes after the ride wrapped up, and was also able to buy most of the things on my current bike parts shopping list. It's a well-stocked shop.

I did not have any profound thoughts while riding this 200k.

I had lots of non-profound thoughts, about things like what I was looking forward to eating at the next control, and about the state of my legs, hands, feet, and butt. As one does, on brevets.

I'll post photos and maybe even the gpx track soon. The northern loop went from Westfield, MA up to a town at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain, so now I know where that is. We also biked past Mt. Tom, an area that looked pretty cool. An advantage of riding in the early spring is you can see more when the trees don't have leaves on them yet.

I was amused by biking through Southampton, then Easthampton, then Northampton. What's a "hampton," anyway??

On the southern loop we rode past the Dewey-Granby Oak, and I have to concur, it is one of the most amazing trees I've ever seen.

Also, somewhere in there, the New Old Copper Mine Prison, I think it was? Plus the Old Copper Mine. I'll have to look up more info on what that was all about.

There were sections with headwinds, and some gusting winds at points, but all told it took me 10 hours 31 minutes to complete this one. That makes it one of the fastest 200ks I've completed.

The shower beer after the ride tasted fantastic. The cats were sad that I got home so late.

I think I'm reaching the stage where there's something of a steady-state for managing the new worm bin bench. It might go out the window once scrottie returns, but for now I'm pretty pleased with things.

To begin with, by myself I generate around 1 batch of kitchen scraps a week that can go into the bin. My kitchen scraps mostly include spent coffee grounds, banana peels, apple cores, and vegetable trimmings from whatever I happen to be cooking that week. Eggshells now get handled separately, and citrus goes into the yard compost outside because citrus is toxic to worms.

Here's what the worm bin bench looks like, in situ, in our basement cluttered with other things and projects:


( more photos and description below the cut... )

Which is, after all, way more fun to celebrate than grading papers.

I celebrated by decorating my helmet, and by handing out googly eyes to my rowing teammates.



Apparently the day is now Intergalactic.

1. This past Monday I got a request from a colleague from our School of Business to serve as a third reviewer for MBA pitches from student groups for her class, because the pitches would all be related to bicycling. Since the request was made on Monday and the class was scheduled for that Wednesday evening, I had to figure it might be a somewhat desperate request, so I said Okay.

In general, listening to the pitches was interesting from the standpoint of trying to understand what each team had accomplished up to that point in terms of setting up a (fictitious) bicycle manufacturing business, and what the next aims would be (e.g. scale up production, expand to new markets, improve product quality, improve working conditions). As a mostly science-focused audience member, I was definitely the odd person out; I don't spend much time thinking about quarterly performance indices, market shares, etc. And I'm generally skeptical that the world needs more bicycle manufacturing companies; I think we actually need better repair systems. Still, it's good to foster connections with colleagues in other disciplines.


2. I will bring up this second item on multiple occasions over the upcoming months: this past week I also got asked if I'd be willing to be a speaker for campus Climate Series talks, once again largely because of being the token campus bicyclist.

I've been a bit bummed this spring, because the first 2 of 3 talks in this series happened on evenings when I had scheduling conflicts, and I really wanted to attend them; one talk was about sustainable fashion/textiles, and the other was by a colleague on identifying where and how to put one's energies to work towards climate change mitigation. I'm going to track down the colleague who gave the second talk because I want whatever I talk about to build off of her presentation.

So in the fall, I'll give a talk on climate change and transportation. This is a huge topic, eh eh? And that's why it will probably come up here on multiple occasions between now and when I give the talk. The thing is that I don't want the talk to just be about riding bikes, because of everything we know about the need for systemic changes rather than just individual actions.

But the problem is that a talk about systemic change is going to be a tough sell for a collegiate audience, so I still need to work in the personal narrative, too.

Along with that, I want it to be a well-informed talk. So I have some learning to do (e.g. what do current carbon emissions look like across different transportation sectors? Which sectors will be easier to address? What are the big problems within those sectors? Where are the barriers? And what can/should student-age people do to tackle the changes that are needed? They have the energy and the motivation, and they want guidance!!). If you happen to know of specific resources on the topic, please share.


3. This is kind of related to item #2. Someone was asking me this morning if I plan to go and ride in the Paris-Brest-Paris again. I'm still not sure. However, I do at least feel as though I'm in a different place now compared to where I was in 2022, the last time I started to gear up to go. (the prep needs to start at least a year and a half ahead of the ride) This is literally from a "gear" standpoint: for 2023, I needed to rebuild Froinlavin's wheelset, and I also wasn't confident about things like my choice of shoes and clothing. The preparations for 2023 were such that I finished stitching together certain aspects of my gear the day before the ride began. I *do* know this time that the bicycling and rowing training are adequately compatible with each other, at least.

Right now, while I have some of the major items sorted (new wheels still going strong, *some* clothing matters better sorted out), I do also still have some lingering questions and gear elements to work out: will my newest cycling jacket (MEC one) fare better than the previous one (Showers Pass Elite 2.1, purchased in 2020)? Will I like the newer trunk bag I recently acquired (roomier than the old one)? Should I continue with my platform pedal strategy? (that was the weirdest fatigue element last time around). At least I'll have a chance to test out all three quite soon; I've signed up for a 200k next Saturday.

But is it worth it to jet-set back to Europe again? Should I get more serious about carbon offsets for flying? Do I need to have all the answers? (I mean, I *know* I'll love many aspects of the trip, but I could be doing many other things instead!).

I could SLEEP last night, FINALLY, because some spring rainfall finally brought blessed, blessed, sinus relief. WHEW.

Tuesday, as usual, has been exceptionally busy. The kids students did well with the lab, though, which was great.

This is the best cartoon depiction for Ohm's Law, by the way: https://www.circuitbasics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Ohms-Law-cartoon.jpg

Our lab involved characterizing/quantifying sodium transport rates across a tissue surface (frog skin, in this instance). Long story short, there's a method that can be used to "short circuit" the tissue, where the measured current will then be directly proportional to the rate of sodium transport. Handy!

It has taken me YEARS to figure out how to get this lab to run well. Thank goodness it now does.

But now, time for more sleep.

...Brandi Glanville.

Now. I did not know who Brandi Glanville is until just today, but yesterday I learned a friend of mine recently obtained a lemon tree bush that she has named Yolanda, and because of that I asked her to help me come up with a similarly fitting name for the apricot tree. Some of you will know the origins of these names and will be rightly amused. If I watched television I might have watched an episode or two of this all, but I don't own a TV or watch much television.

Anyway. Brandi has now been banished to the backyard. I'll put her in the garage overnight, since we're expecting freezing temperatures again.



I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and in spite of closing off the front porch and running air filters, I could hardly breathe due to the pollen allergies. This is the worst I've ever had them. I'd only had the air filters running on low, so I cranked them both up and thereby managed to get a bit more sleep before my alarm went off.

But this situation is clearly not sustainable.

I do like apricots, but I'm apparently too allergic to apricot pollen to keep a tree indoors. Who knew?

Other than that, we held our 5k run/walk event today! It was a big success! The weather was rather cold, but clear, so we didn't send out any rowers but the runners all showed up and had a great time. And I am relieved to be finished with planning for this one for the year.

I didn't take many photos on account of being busy with organizational projects, but we had some fun moments, like with the creation of the next round of motivational posters:



And now on account of it all, I am flopping around in a useless heap.