Entries tagged with “lenore”.


Hayward/Thomas Model A Covered Bridge Tour, October 12 2008

We couldn’t have asked for a better day for a drive.  The morning started off a little cool, but the sun warmed us up nicely by midday.  The fall colors had just come out, and we had plenty of opportunities to see them on the many tiny, winding roads we took to get to the covered bridges and the trolley museum.

Things started off at the McDonalds on Washington Ave. in Bridgeville.  On our earlier scouting runs Lenore and I had discovered that all the covered bridges that we knew of were identical, so for the tour we decided to just see a selection of them.  Since the bridges tend to be on very small roads, and not near towns, the tour group got to drive on some very narrow, winding roads through some gorgeous rural areas.  Several people wondered how Lenore and I were able to find these tiny, out-of-the-way roads after having only lived in the state for a year… it was all thanks to the internet.  Much of the planning was done with the help of the Google Maps website, followed by several scouting trips.  You can see our route here.

We drove right through the first covered bridge without stopping, and went on to the stone “S” bridge at the intersection of Hwy 40 and Hwy 221.  It’s an all stone bridge, completed in 1818, that was actually built for wagon and stage traffic headed toward the expanding West.  It was fun to see something designed for a time so long before our cars were around.

Next it was off to our last two bridges, in the vicinity of East Finley.  This was when we had the first break-down of the trip… and unfortunately it was my car that broke down.  On the upside, it was a quickly fixed sticky clutch pedal, and I got to see a “roadside seminar” up close and personal.

Keith Waltower gets us back on the road.  It was very funny that the men couldn’t wait to look under the hood, but most of the ladies stayed in the cars.  Lenore took this fantastic photo.

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Maybe living  on top of a hill isn’t so great after all.  Lenore, Vader and I were in the bedroom as a thunderstorm was rolling in last night.  Lenore and I were in the bedroom getting ready to go to bed, and Vader was in there because he was freaking out that the thunderstorm was going to kill us all.  Turns out that the dog may have been on to something.

As we were talking, a particularly loud clap of thunder sounded outside and there was a flash of blue light right above my head.  I couldn’t see it, but Lenore sure could.  She said that there was an arc of electricity that stretched from the window to the ceiling fan that was right over my head.  So that arc went about six feet into the house in order to miss my head by about a foot and a half.  Eep.

Vader freaked out while Lenore and I discussed how crazy it was that lightning came into our house.  Maybe we only think we’re that much smarter than dogs.

Woke up late today at around 10:00.  Listened to a little Within Temptation (metal band with a female lead singer) on YouTube.  Took Lenore to work.  Walked the dog.  Had a light lunch consisting of a yogurt and some Ass-Kickin’ Snack Mix which says right on it that it is “Kick Yo Ass Hot!”  And, as it turns out, it is.  Went out to the garage and got my tools organized to put the radiator back on my family’s 1930 Model A Ford.  Had to cut short workin’ on the car to go to a event for the artistic community that is trying to get established in Indianapolis called “Culturati”.  Came home, walked the dog, ate dinner, made juggilng balls out of old tennis balls to use tomorrow at a gig where I will be teaching race-car drivers how to juggle in order to improve their hand-eye coordination and reaction time.  Got a call from a buddy telling me that his dogs might have given my dog Whip Worms.  Ick.  Ate Brittish candy bar that I bought in San Francisco called “Toffee Crisp”.  It was yummy.

One morning a few months ago, when I let my dog out, there was a hawk in my backyard eating a freshly killed pigeon. It was awesome. There was a big circle of feathers, and bright red blood in the snow. As Vader ran out to see what was going on the hawk tried to fly off with its prey, but couldn’t manage it, so it had to drop the pigeon in the yard. Although it came back later, it couldn’t find the carcass in the snow. I felt bad for it. I am VERY much in favor of anything that will kill and eat pigeons… especially if it’ll do it with such style. After a misidentification by me in the bird book, my wife Lenore looked it up, and we both agree that it must’ve been a juvenile Northern Goshawk.


thanks to www.birdchick.com for the image

Today, I think I spotted its nest in a tree a few houses down the street from ours. I love raptors, so I’m excited about having the chance to watch this one more often. The leaves are just starting to come out, so in another week or so I won’t be able to see its nest, but at least I know where it is now so I can watch for it better.

I also saw a pretty big owl in the neighborhood last week, but it was far away and silouetted, so I really couldn’t see enough to try to identify it. I have seen very few owls in my life, so I hope I can get a better view of it.

Lenore and I went to the international grocery with our pal David Morrison. It was really fun. David is very much a food guy, so we stopped at the grocery on the way back from one of Dave’s many secret restaurant gems. This time it was a Vietnamese place called Sizzling Wok Hai, and it was delicious.

Even though it happens every time, I am always surprised by how much food there is in the world that I can’t recognize. Of course that’s the real fun of going to an international grocery. My favorite sections are the drink section and the candy section. This time I bought a bottle of Green Plum (soda I think, but I haven’t opened it yet), and a bag of White Rabbit candy.

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My wife Lenore had some surgery last week (she’s ok) so I have been hanging out with her at home just letting her recuperate. Today I am with her at work being her teaching assistant since she is not able to lift anything heavier than 8 pounds for a month. She gets tired very quickly since she is not all the way healed yet, so we might go home and take a nap between her classes. I know… very cute.

This week is the Indianapolis Fringe Festival and I was asked to do some street performing as a part of it. The only problem is that there is no one out. I mean really no one. I drove down Mass Ave yesterday at about the time I was considering starting and I counted a total of 19 people in the five blocks of the street, and most of them were getting into their cars. I think that the problem is that unlike other major downtown streets in other cities, Mass Ave is not closed to cars.  So people just drive up to what they want, do their thing, and then drive away.  Since the only pay I will be getting is passing the hat, I am starting to think that I might not even be able to do a single show. I’ll keep checking it out though, so we will see.

Yesterday, Vader (my dog) and I left Indianapolis around noon Eastern time. We stopped briefly at the library to get what turned out to be a boring audiobook. I’m actually still in the middle of listening to Dune by Frank Herbert (and it’s AWESOME!) but it’s on cassette and I wanted to take the good car this time, and it only has a CD player. The plan was to drive up to Milwaukee, stop at Lynn’s house (my mother-in-law), drop off Vader and then head off to the gig at the Milwaukee Zoo. Unfortunately, leaving later than we should have (my fault, not Vader’s), coupled with unusually bad traffic in Chicago (we lost an hour), meant that we had to drive straight to the Zoo, and Vader had to wait in the car for me while I did the gig. For lunch I had packed a sandwich, some blueberries (that I got on Saturday when I performed at one of the Indianapolis Farmer’s Markets), some carrots and two cookies. Good thing too, since there was not time to stop for dinner before the gig.

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Lenore and I went to a really fun barbeque today. There was all the fun stuff that you could want, volleyball, badminton, boche ball, drinks, food, a potato cannon, and fireworks. But what really added to it is that Dave has a collection of tin wind-up toys from the 1950s (which was really fun), as well as a bunch of little mechanical toys. All sorts of little widgets, mostly made of wood, that do cool stuff when you turn a crank.

The simplest of them was just a head that turns to try to see a butterfly that is always flying just out of sight, and one of the most complex was a guy who is very unhappy to be getting a tooth pulled in a dentist chair. Aside from working well, these things are really beautiful and fun. For some examples check out my friend Don Olney’s site.

Jay Gilligan and his buddy Erik Aberg are going to pass through town on their very brief Shoebox Tour on May 26th.  Lenore has been helping me hook up a space for them to perform at Herron School of Art, and the show is going to be incredible.  Now I just have to do some promotion and get people there since school is out, and we won’t be able to count on the students coming.  I’m letting the juggling and yo-yoing communities know about it, and I just made up some leaflets to pass out at the dog park.  We’ll see how it goes, but I sure hope a lot of people come.  Every show is better with a big crowd.

At the last minute Lenore and packed up the car, put the dog in the back seat, and headed up to Chicago on Thursday. It had been her plan all along to be there, but there were a whole series of problems with the show this year. The main one being that it appeared to be cancelled on the Monday before it was going to start. Shortly after that it was maybe back on, but they didn’t know where it was going to be. Since they didn’t have a location,

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