more normal than not

How many coyotes does it take to make a sound like that?!

That’s not a riddle.

It’s a question.

Crazy loud multiple coyotes outside my window somewhere.

Oh, well….outside is better than inside when it comes to coyotes.

Here’s another video.

I usually post a video when I run out of time in the morning….my “window” between going to work and getting up (that’s in reverse order, of course) is small sometimes….so I post a video.

Sometimes it’s hard to ponder anything deeper than how to turn on the computer and get on YouTube.

Good morning!

 

 

PS  I wonder how far I could fly a drone?

It’s hard to get out to Idaho….but, if the range was good, maybe I could make my own video from North Carolina?

Does it work like that?

Would I need a pilot’s license?

How many coyotes make a sound like that?

I saw the fish and chips….and wondered where you’d go to get something that looked that good?

It turns out, this fellow’s tour is taking place in Suffolk, UK.

It’s nice around here….but, you know? In his video, I didn’t see any giant monster trucks with confederate flags pounding down on a lone cyclist.

I saw fish and chips….and beautiful countryside.

Oh, well….to each his own. Every man can’t have the paradise of little boys in giant trucks chasing them down….flying the colors of the rebel flag behind them.

This is a good time lapse video….showing a day of good touring in a place that looks like it was made for touring.

Bikes!!

 

Another excellent Kirsten Dirksen video….this time about an old cement factory that has been reworked and given new life.

How many buildings are out there that could be rehabbed and turned into something useful and beautiful?

Of course, it takes a lot of vision and hard work…and a lot of money….to do something on this scale, but you could take something small like a house and turn it into something pretty nice.

It’s all beautiful….and hopeful….to see this reuse.

Everything old doesn’t have to just rot into the ground.

Here’s the description of the structures from the YouTube site….

When architect Ricardo Bofill discovered an abandoned cement factory outside Barcelona, he was inspired to give the place a new life. After two years of work he turned 30 silos, 4,000 meters of underground galleries and a 105 meter smoke stack into his home and the offices of his Taller de Arquitectura (notable works include Les Halles and the Christian Dior headquarters in Paris, Shisheido building Tokyo, JP Morgan skyscraper Chicago and the Shangri-La Hotel Beijing).

The transformation of factory to home office was a process of destruction. Destroying 22 of the 30 silos, Bofill searched for hidden forms in the abandoned buildings. The process was “like a work of sculpture in concrete.”

Today, “La Fabrica” (The Factory) is a monument to adaptive reuse, a castle of Brutalist architecture, and enduring proof that Bofill could turn “the most ugly thing” into something beautiful.

The silos, which once held concrete, now house architects and overnight guests. Underground passageways, now daylighted with huge skylights, connect a labyrinth of laboratories (including one for 3D modeling), archive space and even an employee kitchen.

The most spectacular space is ““La Catedral” (The Cathedral) which earns it’s name with its 10-meter-high ceilings and concrete relics from its industrial past. It’s now used for meetings, exhibitions and concerts. Bofill’s own home sits above La Catedral with it’s own impressive, high-ceilinged space called “Sala Cúbica” (“cubed hall”).

The work is vivid proof of the idea that function can follow form. “Many people say that something has to look like what it does and it’s not necessary,” explains Jean-Pierre Carniaux, partner at Taller de Arquitectura for 4 decades. “You know instead of being full of gravel it’s full of architects.”

Taller de Arquitectura: http://www.ricardobofill.com

Original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/…

When my son started school, one of his “teachers” suggested that we teach him to use a keyboard because she didn’t have any confidence that he’d ever learn to write with a pencil.

He was little and hyper and had a lot of things going on in his world and she couldn’t see his potential.

We, and I’m looking for the most gentle of words here….let’s see….oh!! …”demurred”….we demurred…and the following year, after a lot of work, and, what his hero of a teacher described as “crocodile tears”, Isaac was a writer.

It’s hard for a little guy to sit and do the painful things like holding a pencil against a piece of paper, trying to make sense of motionlessness for the sake of communication, learning to make the loops and straight lines that allow us to understand what someone else is thinking.

When you waited until you were between 4 and 5 to start talking, sitting and holding a pencil is the worst kind of torture.

That’s hard….physically hard….but he did it.

Tonight, Isaac graduates from high school.

I never had any doubts that we’d see this day.

It’s funny how all that goes.

Things could have taken a different turn if we were willing to listen to some of the “experts” who’ve given advice and prescriptions along the way.

Things could have been different.

It hasn’t really stopped being a “hold your pencil against the paper” kind of discomfort….but, really, it’s like that for all of us.

Growing up is uncomfortable.

Joni Mitchell had an album a while back called “Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm”….seeing the chalk on the stoop and the drawing that the little guys did made me think of it again after a bunch of years.

We have these moments that are important, like a graduation, and then we move on to the next chapter.

It’s all just marks before the rain….a pretty picture that time washes away and turns into memories.

It’s a big deal, what’s happening tonight.

I’m proud of my son for a lot of reasons.

He’s worked hard….harder than a lot of people to figure all this stuff out.

Tonight he graduates from high school.

Man.

I saw that one coming a long time ago.

 

My Jeep quit running at the bottom of the hill yesterday and wouldn’t run again.

That’s a bugger.

It’s a bugger when everyone (seemingly…..more on that later) who could help me was busy.

It’s a bugger, too, because the cellphone service is kind of sketchy in that area unless I walked down the road some.

When it stops running in the middle of a mail day is more of a bugger.

It’s a bugger.

But, as I was sitting there, wondering why a fuel pump that’s a year old would quit on me like that, I was pleased to see how many people wanted to help me.

I had people pass me who turned around and drove back to try to help me.

I actually saw some unfamiliar faces, too….strangers who turned into new friends when they asked if I needed any help.

Finally, my co-worker who was on her way to Gatlinburg on vacation stopped and let me use her mail Jeep to run the route for a couple of days while my Jeep was in the shop.

They stopped to help me on their way to their vacation.

Man.

So…..there’s a thing that happens if you’re lucky.

You can go from feeling like you don’t know what to do, that the day is going to be a bad one and that everything has really hit the fan this time, and that you can’t feel that there’s a whole lot to be grateful for….to remembering that the final conclusion that the circumstance “dictated” isn’t really….right.

I heard on an audio book that I was listening to the other day that Stephen Covey said something about the millesecond between event and reaction being where everything important happens.

Let’s see if I can find the quote, because I’m sure he says it more eloquently and clearly than I can…..

Awwwwww….I can’t find it.

Anyway, I don’t always find the best route to take in-between the two things.

That’s my point, I guess.

Yesterday, though, it was a really pleasant thing to see how many people wanted to help me.

There is room in every circumstance for gratitude.

You don’t have to be an obnoxious Pollyanna about it, either.

My Jeep is in the shop getting fixed today.

It was the fuel pump….and, hopefully, even though it’s 13 months into a possible one year warranty, they’ll cover it and I’ll save at least a little bit of money on the repair.

It’s not raining.

I have so many strong reasons to be ecstatically grateful.

I live in a state of grace….even when I’m sitting by my broken mail Jeep.

Even then.