27 July 03
The Tour Wraps Up
And we get our early mornings back until next July. What a race! Even the last stage, traditionally a procession through Paris, had its drama: Baden Cooke beat his fellow Aussie Robbie McEwen by about two inches to win the green jersey competition for overall best sprinter. Lance Armstrong joins the elite company of Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, and Indurain to be the only cyclists to win the Tour de France five times. And Tyler Hamilton gets our coeur de lion vote as the most courageous rider, winning one stage, coming in second in the last time trial, and finishing fourth overall despite breaking his collarbone on the second day of the race.
Maybe we aren’t the only critters to be inspired by the Tour: Pica just saw a white-tailed kite drafting a southbound train, the wind of the train helping the kite to hover motionless against the southerly wind.
26 July 03
Seabiscuit and the Great Depression
I feel as though I spent the afternoon in the company of my mother’s parents when they were young… The years before World War I when anything seemed possible, the twenties when everything went crazy and there was no booze to be had to celebrate it, the years following the Crash when a peripatetic lifestyle was cause for resignation and invention, family and focus. When the whole country was waiting for something more, something to lift it out of a self-induced quagmire. This story somehow seems very timely, a warning against complacency: if this happened tomorrow, would we cope? Would we deal?
I don’t know whether my grandparents were remotely interested in horseracing, or if they cared one way or the other about the fortunes of Seabiscuit. I’d like to think, though, that the story I saw on the screen today really did have the effect it was portrayed as having had: to lift the spirits of an entire generation, to raise the possibility of the second chance.
I like these underdog stories. I wish David Millar had not crashed in the Time Trial this morning so he might have beaten Tour de France speed record despite the appalling conditions, for instance. I hope against hope that the Red Sox will be able to edge out the Yankees this year and then not choke. I root for teams in the World Cup that are described as having no chance. I’d root for Seabiscuit.
25 July 03
The Madness Of Crowds
If you should be in a public space such as a train station sometime, and you notice a crowd inexplicably gather, spontaneously burst into applause for no apparent reason, and then disperse, take delight! You may have witnessed a flash mob. (From Slashdot).
24 July 03
Not Ranting About Dentists
I’m not going to rant about dentists, not about how they get you at a pre-pubescent stage and slap braces on you which, for those of us who grew up with un-fluoridated water (or even with it), consigned us to a steady stream of root canals followed by crowns, which despite flossing consultations consigned us to a steady stream of gum problems, which then consigned us to terrifying visits to periodontists, resulting in the loss of said gums and ultimately our teeth on which we’ve already spent thousands and thousands of dollars, which we could have avoided if only they’d given us dentures at age eleven instead of all this trauma. No steaks, granted, but we might have invented the world’s most delectable pap, just think of the wasted culinary opportunities….
Instead, I’ll talk about the rain. It rained this morning, audible rain, rain that made you leap out of bed to go and stand in it and even have fantasies about the green returning. The jackrabbits and magpies were in ecstasy.
23 July 03
A Break From The Heat
It was overcast and humid much of the day, which is unusual weather for summertime Davis. It never got around to raining, but with no direct sun it thankfully wasn’t as hot as it’s been. We went to the Davis Farmers Market, now our Wednesday afternoon habit, and met Fernanda for a picnic. She has family visiting—at our picnic her niece Julia was making these good luck charms from the lawn.
22 July 03
Haiku for a Hot Evening
Barn owl’s love-screeching:
crickets sing to the blackness.
The train bisects night.
21 July 03
Beeboxes In Twilight
It is still quite hot here: in the late afternoon the critters were taking shelter and there was no sign of the ground squirrels that live under and amongst these beeboxes. Only the western kingbirds were up and about, proclaiming the end of the day—they’re the first birds up in the pre-dawn hours as well.
20 July 03
Four Fat Drops
It’s been hot over the weekend, hot enough almost to persuade us to just give it up with the self-righteousness and turn on the airconditioning… But the blue mud dauber wasps are living in the outdoor fan unit, hopefully polishing off the black widows, and we don’t want to interrupt them. We sneak into movie theatres to see films that are far too young for us in an attempt to keep cool. (Yesterday we finally saw Finding Nemo.)
The predicted thunderstorm never really happened-we got a few huge drops (cuatro gotas gordas, in Spanish) which never amount to anything, don’t cool the place down, and certainly don’t get rid of the dust that blows off the new-plouged fields. One crop’s done, another needs to go in. We saw our first tomato truck yesterday-barrelling down the road with an articulated load of romas. The ones on the bottom inevitably get flattened, despite being bred not to, and cover the roads in a red film which is lethal come the first rain.
Above are a jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) and Western scrub-jay (Aphelocoma californica) through our kitchen window doing their best to stay out of the heat.
19 July 03
Cooking With The Sun
We’ve had lots of fun these past several years with this solar cooking kit from Solar Cookers International. The persistently sunny Sacramento Valley summertime weather is excellent for using solar cookers. Place the food in the black pot, keep the apparatus pointed towards the sun, and several hours later, your meal should be ready! Today’s was beans with red and yellow peppers.
19 July 03
The Drama Increases
Jan Ullrich is surging. In yesterday’s time trial in the Tour de France, he won handily, beating Lance Armstrong by a margin of 1’ 36” over the 47 km route. In today’s Pyrenees mountain stage, he took more time out of Armstrong, and finished second in the stage. He now trails Armstrong by 15”, who is looking increasingly vulnerable. Not far behind, at 1’ 01”, and very much a threat, is the consistently riding Alexandre Vinokourov. We have a bike race on our hands!