Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. While I slept, a night shift postal worker picked up my chocolate order from Tennessee and drove it to Alabama. I don’t think we – at least I don’t – have the faintest idea what goes on to keep our world functioning.

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Last Wednesday morning. Dipping below freezing for a few hours happens often. Twenties all night is unusual for us. Hence draining the hose the night before.

Lesson for the day. Ice is hard to photograph. I suspect this is true with any camera. In addition, the phone’s autofocus picked everything but the ice. Even when I manually locked focus on the screw threads of the faucet, it still didn’t agree.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. The tree, American Museum of Natural History: The Origami Holiday Tree. The planning, AMNH: The Making of the Origami Holiday Tree. Short video, NBC New York: Origami Holiday Tree opens at the American Museum of Natural History — a first look, Gaudino, November 20, 2023. Galleries of past years, Origami USA: Origami Holiday Tree.

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Now that I am almost halfway through the alphabet, I’ve decide to match the color to the letter, if possible. Hence, lilac.

[Fractal Alphabet]

Onwards!
Katherine

Elsewhere on the Internet. Stories from another culture highlight the tropes in our own stories. Strange Horizons: The Ghost Did What?! Translation Exposing Providentialist Thinking. Palmer. Issue 27, November 2023.

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This is blog post #4270. More relevant for the purposes of this discussion, this is post #2017 in a row. Wednesday 15 November 2023, I reached 2000 posts in an unbroken series since 26 May 2018. [Bright-Eyed, Bushy-Tailed, & Back to Blogging]

Reasons

It keeps me amused. As I’ve said before, “My blog has a purpose – to keep me from going batshit crazy.” [I’m Baaaaaack]

It provides a sense of deadline. I have rarely (almost never?) written or taken photos as an artistic pursuit, for sheer joy of it, for myself. Call it what you will, if I don’t have a reason, it doesn’t happen. In the past, that reason has been either that someone paid me or that I had a class assignment. (To be completely accurate, I would have to include vacation journals, but only big vacations, and holiday snaps. But I digress.) Somehow, the blog satisfies my sense of purpose. [Photo Safari The First, Beeswax Creek Park]

Related to the above, I enjoy the puzzle of figuring out what to put up each day.

Yeah, but why daily?

“I thought about going to weekdays only, but didn’t. Among other reasons, ‘The idea of breaking my streak bothered me even more than I thought it would.’ ” [Blog Milestone] quoting [State of the Blog, Weekends NOT off]

Plus, I have the sense that if I didn’t do this daily, I wouldn’t do it at all. I’m not being absolutist. Okay, I’m not *just* being absolutist. I know this phenomenon. I have lived this phenomenon. I would have good intentions. It would live on my To Do list. I would not get around to it. Days, weeks, months would slide by.

Some days, the discipline of daily blogging is the only thing that keeps me motivated.

Visual reposted from post #2000 on 9 July 2017. [Letter Art: MM]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. A search on Christmas Sports yields the results that are all about TV broadcast schedules. For instance, Front Office Sports: The NBA’s Christmas Tradition Could Finally Be Challenged…By The NFL. McCarthy. December 24, 2022. Article is specific to last year, but covers background historical facts. “Since the 1980s, the NBA has become synonymous with Christmas Day, similar to the NFL with Thanksgiving or college football with New Year’s Day.” Lede. (Note. Could access on my phone but not my desktop. Shrug.)

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One K New Place

Kowaliga Bridge Boat Ramp over Lake Martin on the Tallapoosa River. Combination photo shoot, walk, & bike ride (for those of us who indulge). Once around the parking lot was .4. So one mile was easy. Watched folks taking their boats in & out.

A fast mile for me. Flat & easy path …

… no …

… wait ….

1 KILOMETER. No wonder it was fast. Seriously, I just noticed this as I was doing the post. That makes much more sense. Four mph is peak speed for me. [In Which I Set A PR, Walk Report, Magic City 5K 2021]

Somewhere between 2-3 mph is consistent with my usual strolling pace and stopping to take photos. I was wondering if our morning walks were having an effect. No. Measuring was having an effect. [Cold Weather Clothing]

What can I say. Milton’s lesson was that morning. Hitching Milton is a team effort, mentally as well as physically. [Milton at Work]

Rest of the walks were mornings in the pasture. We missed three. One when Milton worked that morning (I made up for it later). One for rain (took the day off). One when we had to be somewhere early (Milton’s lesson, walked later, above). [Milton’s Morning Mosey]

Daily walk mileage counts toward my slow virtual amble down the middle of the country. [Biking and Walking Virtually, Mississippi River, Table of Contents]

5K Not New Place

Was having a cranky day. Decided to do the monthly 5K. At least get something done that day.

Found an interesting place. Did I really want the carbon footprint of driving 40 minutes each way just to check off a new place? I go back & forth on this question. [October Walks]

So, I went for a stomp around the pasture.

I forgot that the perimeter of pasture, complete with hill and winding dirt path takes 30 minutes per mile, rather than 20+ minutes. Finished in a solid 1:30.

10K into NYC virtual walk. [Archives]

Other

Biked twice. My plan is to bike once a week, on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, I am a fair weather biker. Doesn’t take much to keep the bike in the barn.

Biking down the Mississippi River. Can’t do that IRL. [Biking and Walking Virtually, Mississippi River, Table of Contents]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Christmas in January, but not the Julian/Gregorian calendar explanation. St. James Armenian Church: Why Do We Celebrate on January 6th?. Watertown MA, USA

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Updated Now Page

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November December 2023

New month. Status remains quo.

Wishing you a delightful December.

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It was either repeat last month, or whine about how the show season is over & the home team did not participate. Repetition for the win.

It’s been a Milton-heavy week for content. He is delighting my blogging soul by engaging in photogenic activities. Rodney’s fine.

Last Month [Rolling Into November, State of the Now]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Another way of putting this is that, for huge swathes of the American population, essentially all of the gains in life expectancy for the population as a whole over the past generation have been driven by big gains among the relatively well off, while the poor, the working class, and even much of the middle class have seen either tiny gains, or actual declines … Consider these kinds of statistics the next time the sane moderate responsible Republican alternative to Donald Trump starts talking about how we need to raise the Social Security retirement age because ‘people’ are living so much longer these days.” Lawyers, Guns & Money: The cost of income inequality. Campos. November 28, 2023.

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In the spirit of Helmet Watch.

Show jumper Peter Petschenig wore a safety vest in the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup – North American League CSI4*-W, Las Vegas, NV, held 18 November 2023, broadcast later.

I think.

It was black and close fitting, blending into his black jacket. Definitely not your average XC vest. [Rodney Tests The Vest]

I can’t find a confirmation photo from that class.

However, surfing turned up a Facebook photo of one of his students with a vest. Obvious due to black vest over a contrasting light blue jacket.

More surfing turned up the fact that vests in show jumping are becoming a thing. Not sure if the vests are regular or inflatable or if both are being used.

Equi.Lifestyle: Safety vests: “Absolutely no reason not to wear them”. Editorial. 2022. The person quoted is Karen Oris of OK Stables in Belgium. More a thing in Europe that in the US?

Kaval offers Airbag Jackets.

Questions

1) Why not?

2) Do vests actually help? The data is weak here. As in, maybe yes, maybe no. We don’t know.

3) If vests become common, how long will jackets last? Maybe it’s time to leave behind Ye Olde Foxhunting Attire and move into the 21st century. Gasp. Clutch the pearls.

In other news, an explanation of the letters. Equestrian Life: Showjumping: Know your C’s. So the CSI4*-W is a Concours de Saut International, meaning FEI rules, four-star, World Cup event.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Four-foot, five-inch Globetrotter? Yup. Harlem Globetrotters: Hot Shot Swanson.

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Practice

Lesson

Onwards!
Katherine