tyler's take

Tuesday morning I skipped most of my normal swim workout to help out a friend, and consequently arrived at the pool about an hour later than typical (to run with friends after practice … I did not go all that way to swim for 15 minutes). This unusual timing proved rather serendipitous.

After briefly crossing paths with Ande in the parking garage (apparently he got out early), I began crossing the street to the swim center, and as I looked around to check for traffic I noticed other things.

To the east I saw the rising sun punching crepuscular rays through the opening rifts in a recently passed thunderhead. As I let my eyes follow these rays to the western vista I perceived a most beautiful apparition: a nearly full rainbow glowing brightly in blue sky above the distant dark background of an advancing storm.

Again, I was hamstrung with only my lesser recorder. Alas. It does at least convey the general idea.

After crossing to the other side of the street I saw one end of the rainbow coming down seemingly in the pool (olympic gold inside):

Looking back towards the capitol I found the other end (isn’t that where they keep the rest of the gold?)

Here they are in a pseudo-panoramic digital collage:

The rest of last weekend turned out to be about as beautiful as Friday evening. Saturday provided even more gorgeous sky shots.

And even the evening proved to be worthy of some imaging.

Sunday got off to something of a slow start. I had intended to get up early and run around the lake, since I haven’t seemed able to completely kick my cross training habit yet. But perhaps my body was asserting its opinion that running rather brutalizes it, as I ended up sleeping in until the sun was high enough to make the run seem unfun (and hence, not done). Instead of running around in a big circle downtown I instead stayed home, mowed the lawn, and trimmed back the bramble.

After that I thought it might be time to assess the growing things that I planted so many months ago.

By autumn, the meyer lemon tree, which at one point in the spring had over 100 blossoms, had only a sole surviving fruit:

The topsy turveys were something of a mixed bag. The serrano was somewhat fruitful, but not more than had it grown upside up:

The santa fe pepper produced only three or four peppers during the entire summer (but aren’t they cool looking? I think I’ll grow these again, but in the ground or a regular pot next time):

For most of the summer I was ready to accept the tomatillo as a total failure. It grew far more green leaves than either of the peppers (by a factor of 3 or 4), but never flowered. Still, I kept watering it (and it kept needing water). I suppose after several months of it essentially ignoring me I was not quite ready to give up on it (is that tenacity or just stubbornness)? Then, sometime around my birthday I noticed that it was actually flowering! Of course, since then it’s basically back to ignoring me. The flowers (amazingly) are still there, but as yet no fruit. It *has* been a really hot summer after all (far too hot for good growing). Perhaps the cooler fall weather will be more productive … I think I’m not quite ready to give up yet:

Finally, at some point over the summer I stuck a pineapple top in a pot. They’re rather slow to flower (2 years or so) but it’s fairly well taking off. I like to watch them grow:

Then I decided that it was probably time to change the oil in my car …

… is coming soon. Really. While we wait, serious bonus points will go to anyone who can identify anybody in the obnoxiously cool photo above.

Arnel Pineda really does sound a lot like Steve Perry. These days, he might even sound more like vintage “Steve Perry” than Steve Perry does. Even if Steve Perry had/has a “one in a million voice,” I guess that just goes to show the power of numbers: if you’re a “one in a million” kid growing up in india or china you have over 1000 people who are just like you (FYI, Arnel is filipino).

Too bad the box deal fell through guys. Anyone who does go to the concert tonight should take good mental notes (along with your earplugs! (honestly, it actually sounds better with them)) and enjoy the late 20th century flashback.

Today I think I might have seen the most beautiful sunset ever. Sadly I was hampered with a only a very low quality image recorder (at least, the one with images that can be shared). I might have known it was coming since on the way to twilight I saw some of my most favorite clouds, high cirrus and cirrocumulus.

Seeing these types of clouds always seems to make me smile. Perhaps it comes from the sense of awe that they inspire … so high and far away, and seeming so wispy and delicate.

The natural world around us is filled with things of such beauty and wonder, if we only take a moment out of our busy lives to stop and stare we might decide that some of our “large problems” are actually small in comparison to world in which we live. A little perspective can be a good thing.

Follow along in your own mind’s eye as the cloud bottoms, surrounded by a darkening blue and purple sky, slide through the spectrum of glowing colors … white, to yellow, yellow to orange, orange to red, red to pink, dissolving into the backdrop and then reemerging in field of darkening white and grays over a deepening blue.

Sometimes it pays dividends to walk the world with eyes open and up.

Yes, I’m a bit behind. They’re coming …

Todd tells me he has an over/under on my upcoming triathlon. Never having been outside of the airport in Vegas I’m not sure I exactly know what he means. But anyone who *is* in the know can send an email to TheRaceOracleOf2009@tylerblessing.com and proceed accordingly (RobotSpammers take note: after race day, that email address will forward to the great bit bucket in the sky, so hurry up with all the adds for ambien, xanax, and personal enhancement … you’ve got only 48 hours to reach a very receptive audience of one).

Here’s the breakdown of the currently known info:

• Olympic distance triathlon (1500m swim / 40km bike / 10 km run)
• it’s my first olympic distance triathlon
• I’ve done a total of two triathlons in my life, both sprint distance
• I’m possibly overtrained for the swim
• I’m undertrained for the bike and run (unless two weeks is adequate)
• I’ve run longer than 10k exactly 3 times in the last 10 years
• I’ve ridden my bike more than around the block approximately 3 times in the last year
• Ande thinks I have a good practice-to-competition performance ratio
• I’ll be riding my regular road bike with clamp-on aero bars and regular training wheels
• I’m running in shoes that I bought before my first triathlon (hey, they’re still the comfiest)
• my first triathlon was in may of 2005

Anyone wishing to speculate publicly can simply post a comment here. As the robotic spammers have long ago discovered, you don’t actually have to enter legit info in the email and name fields of the comment form (so anonymous posting is perfectly fine). That being said, if you start speculating about how much ambien someone else on the internet wants to buy from you then your post will likely not make it through the filter.

Cheering and encouraging comments are most welcome (as are similar PMs).