Just around the corner

Perhaps the most misleading phrase one hears close to the end of a race is "Just around the corner!" from the well-wishers on either side of the course.  Depending on how depleted one is at the time, it can either be exhilarating or dispiriting - either "Thank goodness, it's almost over!" or "OMG, I'll never get there!"  We are now four weeks into our 10-week half marathon training for the Indianapolis Marathon on October 15.  It seems that one can't claim to know a place unless one ploughs through it on foot.  I wouldn't have traversed all five boroughs in New York City if I hadn't run the NYC marathon there.  I'm afraid the marathon days are over for us now, but being able to tough through some more "halfs" is still something for us to aspire to.  

Dappled Light

the Fall

Whether you are ready for it or not, "things" in general seem about to turn a corner--a new semester officially starts tomorrow at IU, the annual football fever is about to heat up, and though the temperature is still hovering around low 80's, one is beginning to sense a reprieve from the oppressive heat and detect a hint of a change of color at the top of the trees.  Kirk was seized with an inspiration yesterday to explore some nature areas around Bloomington.  We hit the road and drove to McCormick's Creek State Park, about a 30-minute ride northwest of town.  We drove past corn fields, barns, silos, and the quintessential deserted old main streets of small towns USA, in this instance, in Ellettsville and Spencer.  Driving or walking on a part of the earth surface which we've not been before never fails to amaze me; to think that so many lives have, unbeknownst to us, existed and toiled in these parts for so long is something to wonder at.  McCormick's Creek State Park, we learned, was dedicated in 1916 as Indiana's First State Park.  We had a very pleasant walk on one of the trails under the dappled sunlight on the forest floor and we made a date to come back in late October to witness the leaves change colors.  


I imagine that by this time my friends in Gainesville are chomping at the bit for the football season to start, no?

Abby

Free-spirited Abby

The "phantom" Abyssinian cat honored us with an unannounced visit yesterday afternoon. We were just finishing up dinner in the Sunroom and spotted the cat on the deck. Kirk opened the screen door and she rushed over to be patted, then proceeded to walk through the Sunroom and into the house.  After a brief once-over in the TV room, she came back out, unimpressed.  Though skinny, she didn't seem to be much interested in food.  She was playful and appeared to be in good health.  We suspect that she has been cared for by people.  We named her Abby, as in Abby Wambach.

B-Line Trail

B-Line Trail

[For my Bloomington readers]  We made a great discovery last Sunday while out looking for a suitable running route for a longer distance than what we've been used to around the neighborhood.  There is an extensive trail network in Bloomington, a large portion of which was converted from an old railroad.  We ran on the B-line trail, which lies in a north-south direction along the west side of town, about 3 miles long.  The trail is almost completely paved--only a small portion of it is still under construction.  By continuing on to other existing trails, one can get up to about 14 miles round trip, enough for half-marathon training.  It was very pleasant running on the smooth, wide asphalt pavement without having to worry too much about traffic; I was surprised to find that it was not better utilized.  We will certainly be back for our Sunday long runs this fall. 

Rocky Raccoon

Rocky Raccoon

We saw a lean Abyssinian cat wandering across our backyard a couple of times not long ago.  He (or she?) didn't seem to be leery of people, for he once got close to Kirk and rubbed against his legs.  The cat looked troublingly thin, as if life in the wild did not suit him.  Though it is common wisdom that "once you feed a cat, you own it," I decided to put out some cat food and water by the Sunroom door and hoped that the cat might stumble on them at night while hunting for food.  The food was untouched after it was left outside during the first night, but, on the second night the bowls were licked clean.  We weren't sure what or who actually ate the food, but somebody enjoyed it, that much we knew.  I filled the bowls and left them out again and nothing happened on the third night.  The mystery, however, was solved last night - we got home a little after 10 p.m. from a concert and after switching on the kitchen lights we discovered a pair of black-ringed eyes staring at us from the other side of the glass doors!  There he was, a small raccoon rudely disturbed while having his repast.  He appeared to be annoyed but continued his mastication in leisure while we tried to capture him--on film.  Though my attempt to rescue a cat has come to naught, I don't think I should try to domesticate a raccoon.   

Asymmetry

I heard a segment of a radio program, radiolab, on our local NPR station last weekend.  It was called Mirror, Mirror, part of a three-part episode called Desperately Seeking Symmetry, first aired in April this year at WNYC.  (The segment is a lot of fun to listen to.) It calls attention to a curious fact about ourselves which we are seldom conscious of, i.e., that the faces we see of ourselves in the mirror are not how others see us.  The face which I am accustomed to identify as being my own in the mirror does not, in fact, exist in reality.  This fact, however, does not prevent us from picking out our own images in photographs, for we assume that the features of our faces are symmetrical and have learned to overlook the differences between our mirrored-self and our real-self (how we appear in photographs and how we appear to other people), so that we no longer notice the differences.  But if one is presented with a photograph of oneself and another photograph of one's mirrored image, chances are one will be taken aback by how different they look. This experience brings to the fore the fact that, contrary to our common belief, most living things are asymmetric (chiral) in nature. It also makes one wonder how similar or dissimilar one's perception of oneself is from other people's perception of oneself.  Some people don't like their faces in the mirrors, while others don't like their faces in photographs.  Either way, there are differences, however subtle, in the two.  

To demonstrate the differences, I used Photoshop to flip a picture of myself, Kirk, and President Obama horizontally.  For me it is easy to tell the differences for there is a noticeable asymmetry in my face--there is a large mole under my left eye while there is none under my right eye.  (But unlike the people in the story, I change my hair-part almost daily, so that is not a reliable predictor of whether it is the I you see or the one I see.  Also, it disproves the theory of one of the interviewers in the story - my popularity, generally subdued, does not appreciatively increase or decrease depending on which side my hair is parted.) 

How you see me

How I see myself

Kirk as he appears to us

Kirk as he appears to himself

Obama to us

Obama to himself