§ We haven’t had a moon all week. I didn’t notice until Thursday when I was taking my garbage can out to the curb and looked up to see just a tiny sliver of a fingernail, only barely waxing. New moons must be just as common as full moons but I so rarely notice them. I guess it is difficult to register the absence of something.
§ Or it is totally possible that I just never think about the sky and it is only now top of mind because I’ve been reading Mason & Dixon and at least the first dozen chapters of which features astronomy prominently.
Somewhat contrary to my previous review, the longer our heroes are moored on remote island port towns, earnest grounded prose morphs into “conspiratorial hallucinatory” ramblings, as Pynchon is wont to do. I’m still enjoying the ride but, man, it is a long, strange, book.
§ I’ve spent the past few days learning all I can about culverts and bioswales and retention basins and stormwater runoff this week after last week’s visit to my local wastewater treatment plant. This is all in service of an enormous new exhibition all about water. Although we are still a year or three away from anything actually coming to life, the design phase is ramping up and that is honestly the most exciting part. Where nothing yet is set in stone and no idea is too crazy.
§ Looking back at previous weeknotes, it looks like I haven’t yet mentioned the rogue tomato plant that has been growing in my front flower beds, I guess out of an abundance of caution in the event any neighborhood deer reads this blog.
It has been fascinating to watch. What started as a silly sprout from a haphazardly tossed cherry tomato fruit has turned into an absolute menace. It has numerous stalks growing in a six foot radius out from the original stem, greedy for sunlight, climbing up any and all available vertical affordances—other nearby plants, the railing of my front porch, a shepard’s hook.
It is, by far, the most healthy and vigorous tomato plant I’ve ever grown and I haven’t touched it all season. I am trying my best not to read into that fact too closely.
§ It has been just over one year since I last took my car to the mechanic. Since getting it back it has made an increasingly concerning metallic grinding sound whenever I turn left or, especially, break hard. I know next to nothing about cars. A coworker thinks it might be worn-down rotors. I’ve been putting off getting it all checked out until after the wedding and, well, here we are. I don’t feel particularly comfortable driving it in its current state throughout the winter season so now is the time.
§ I’ve been—somewhat reluctantly—watching Chimp Crazy. It is pretty much exactly what you would expect but I’ll admit that it is super impressive that the guy that made Tiger King was able to do it again.
§ After some recent nudging from Matt Webb I added Cursor Party to my website—the one you’re reading right now! If anyone else happens to be visiting this site at the same time as you are, you might see their cursor zooming around your screen. If you just want to see what it looks like, it also works if you open this page in two different browser windows.
§ I guess this is the in-between times. We have a few weeks left until autumn although Brat summer is officially over. Temperatures dropped below 60°f yesterday. I put on a roomy fisherman’s sweater and made some chili con carne.
§ The Cleveland Air Show was, again, a lot of fun. This year the Blue Angels performed with their first ever female pilot.
