Still More Babytime

A staggering number of pictures of Labor Day in Portland.

BABYTIME

Over Labor Day Weekend I went to Portland to see my nephew, Isaiah, for the first time.

Pictures

More Pictures

Some of the pictures are from other peoples' visits - everyone is eager to be in The Presence.  I was lucky enough to be there at the same time Karen was visiting.  She is Isaiah's godmother, and clearly adores him.  It was nice to see her and catch up; she's on a few different rescue squads now, takes classes on how to use the  jaws of life (including how to avoid being shocked while chopping up a hybrid), and has driven the fire truck in Bristol.  She continues to be awesome.

He does seem like a pretty good kid, for a first try.  He didn't cry much when I was around, and slept regularly for long stretches.  I couldn't help but imagine that he would easily upset and waking up at random times.  But he's great, and according to Nana Cheryl is the cutest baby ever.

The visit was more than just attending on the new Eling.  I went for a nice bike ride with Dad, around the Back Cove, through the Old Port, and over to Ryan and Bethany's... to see the baby.  And do yard work to help them out.

One night we went to a Portland Sea Dogs game, the Red Sox' AA affiliate.  Good game, though it got to be a bit of a blowout.  We had seats behind home plate, right in front of the press box.  Many nearby foul balls, until later in the game, when one came right at me.  I'm still kicking myself - I did not have a glove, and tried to barehand it.  Got a piece of it, but I wasn't quick enough to clap down both hands and hold on.

We also took an outstanding cruise on Casco Bay.  Rather than a tour for vacationers, we just rode the evening ferry that goes from the Old Port to Great Diamond, Long, Great Chebeague, and Cliff Islands.  Looking at the crowd, especially on the way out, it was more like riding a bus.  People coming home from work, bringing groceries packed up by the supermarket in banana boxes.  While the islands are mostly filled with summer homes, many people live there year-round.  So it gave the boat a much different feel than what I expected, but it was a blast.  The Bay is beautiful, and the islands are dotted with amazing homes.  Great Diamond even has an elegant restaurant at the stony cove where the ferry docks.  Lots to see, and it is always a great pleasure to me to get out on the water.  The campers on Little Chebeague even set off fireworks as we went by.

It was a fantastic visit, very restful and reinvigorating.  Mom took a few thousand more photos, I think, which hopefully will be up soon.  Then you can enjoy Babytime preserved for the ages.

Busted

They saw me rolling; they hatin'. Patrolling, they caught me ridin' dirty.

The weather was great this morning, so I got up early (for a Saturday) and rode the Mount Vernon Trail. It was a great ride - nice weather, and a fantastic way to start my day. I did have to stay on my toes coming back, because there were a number of larger packs of runners on the trail. I guess the Potomac Runners have a regular training run on the MVT on Saturday mornings. They were the best kind of runners, from a cyclist's perspective - pretty quick, stayed to the right of the trail, formed small easy-to-pass packs, and paid attention to bike ahead and behind.

The good mood was partially spoilt when I got a little careless. The MVT runs on the streets through Old Town. One section runs right along the waterfront, along the old Torpedo Factory. There are T-intersections, where the trail runs on the crossing leg of the T. Despite the stop sign, I rolled through one of these a little too quickly since no traffic can cross my path without hopping the curb; and of course I got pulled over by the APD. I got lot of looks from pedestrians, standing there while the officer ran my license. I should have told them I was speeding.

In the end, I got a warning, which I had coming. It is a good reminder not to get complacent when I leave the trails and get on the streets.

Really, it didn't do much to ruin my mood - I still had a great ride, and stopped at the Del Ray Farmer's Market for peaches. The yellow peaches are so juicy I have to eat them over the sink; worth the mess, they are delicious. And all of this is on top of going to the Nationals game last night with Sarah & Paul, Phillip, Matthew, and Sarah's dad. Neither team is having a very strong season, but they were pretty evenly matched, with the Rockies just edging out the Nationals. There were homeruns, quick double plays, critical errors, even the rare passed ball on a third strike - and the batter safely made it to first. I've never actually seen that happen live in a major league game. And since it was National Guard Night, I got a slick t-shirt. It was an excellent night, I'm glad I got invited along.

Isaiah Michael

This morning at 0019 little brother and his wife had a baby boy.  Everyone is doing great - healthy baby, relatively easy delivery, everything as you would wish.  Mom took many photos, and is convinced young Isaiah will have red hair.

I'm very excited and proud of Ryan and Bethany.  I'm so happy for them, and the family they've started.  Now I'm going to start buying loud toys and fireworks.  I will be Cool Uncle Dan.

Sleighride

Another beautiful day today - uncharacteristically mild for August in DC.  I thought about kncocking off for the afternoon anyway - I had a headache brewing all day.  And the Reds traded my favorite player, Adam Dunn, to the Diamondbacks for, as Chris put it, "a bag of beans, and they aren't even magic beans."

But days like this are all too rare, so I rode to over to Hains Point in DC.  I'm glad I did, too - it was fantastic.  I usually don't stop during my rides, but today I did.  I took a long break near where the old Awakening sculpture used to be.  And I just relaxed in the shade and the breeze, watching the boats on the river and the planes at National.

The wind was very strong out of the North, and the route to Hains Point from my house essentially goes North, short run East, South, North, short run West, South.  So each of the legs heading North was a bit laborious.  The first leg South is sheltered by the larger buildings of the district near the Washington Channel.

The last leg South, though, is along Potomac, with nothing to the north but the river until Georgetown.  Watching the river, I could help but remember downwind runs in my offshore racing days - we called it a sleighride.  You just catch the wind and let the boat ride it down.  Once I turned off the 14th Street bridge, it felt like I could coast all the way home.  Very fast, and lots of fun.  Too bad I didn't go home earlier; I might have considered taking Betty out onto the river for some sailing.  Maybe next time.

War Machine

Lots of coverage in the papers about the nasty little war in the Caucasus. It sounds like Russia is absolutely steamrolling Georgia. Reports have them conducting bombing and heavy armor operations in South Ossetia and landing troops at ports in Abkhazia. It's actually a pretty good demonstration of the first part of what was known in the U.S. as the Powell Doctrine: if you're going to fight, go in fast and with overwhelming force.

This region has been officially "troubled" for some time now - Chechnya is right around the corner, after all. And it has been slowly heating up for months - there was this fascinating footage from about 6 months ago of a Russian jet shooting down a Georgian UAV:


I'm pretty ignorant of the details of the situation - Georgia was trying to put down separatist rebels, Russia came in as a peacekeeper, now it looks like Russia may try to annex both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. I was wondering what the appeal was for these regions - they're only about 50 miles square each. Then I took at at this map they had up at the Information Dissemination blog. Notice the many, many oil and gas symbols south of the mountains. Mostly in Azerbaijan. But the pipeline that carries that crude out to the West is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, running right through Georgia. This is an awful little war, and I don't see it ending well.

NBM

Building Museum 8-9-08

There's been an exhibit at the National Building Museum for the past few months that I've been meaning to see: Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future.  I finally went yesterday, ready to take a number of pictures - Chris has said he is a fan of Saarinen's work, and urged me to go to see this.

Unfortunately, photography was not allowed.  I did take some pictures of the NBM, which is one of my favorite buildings in DC.  It was originally built as the Pension Office after the Civil War, so the stairs have long, easy grades for injured veterans.  The atrium is pretty amazing - they use if for kids paper airplane contests.

The Saarinen exhibit was extremely interesting.  They had a number of detail design drawings for some of his buildings, like the Yale Whale, Gateway Arch, and TWA Terminal.  Saarinen was also did a lot of furniture design, and they had examples of some of his more successful works.  Too bad they were displays, and you couldn't sit in them; the Womb Chair looked very comfortable.  I was intrigued by the "criticism" leveled at Saarinen by his contemporaries, that he "invented a new style for each project."  I think that is an obvious virtue - not letting any kind of dogma or standard practice inform a design, but creating the right solution for the problem.  If that's the way Saarinen worked, then I'm a fan of Saarinen.