“Timber!”
The week started with another home maintenance issue. Do we ever get a solid break from those? Maybe six months between major issues? This time it’s the arbor over the back deck. I suppose we can’t get too mad at it since it’s been solid over the seven and a half years we’ve lived here. I noticed a crack in the middle of the seam and then Diana reported hearing creaking and breaking. We called a repair company and were hoping they would arrive before the whole thing came down, pulling gutters and whatever else with it. They made it in time – whew! – and we rigged up a very temporary support with our ladder and a jack. A sturdier support was applied the next morning and the new beam materials (30 feet wide) should be delivered tomorrow.
By the way, that tree in the background is our sworn mortal enemy. She’s the one (I’m sure it’s a female) that dumps mountains of small leaves in the pool for several weeks every autumn. If “we” (99% D) don’t keep the skimmers cleaned out multiple times a day, then the whole pool mechanism gets blocked up and puts stress on the pump.
Are you familiar with Emily Harrington? No? That’s disappointing as she’s one of the fiercest women I’ve heard of. Don’t feel too badly – I hadn’t heard of her prior to this week either. Harrington made news as the first woman to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite in less than 24 hours. Truly an amazing accomplishment. She topped the 3,000 foot mountain in 21 hours and 13 minutes.
Look at these amazing pictures:
Those beds clipped into the cliff face give me the heebie jeebies and almost make me start to feel the dizziness of vertigo. Just crazy that someone could be comfortable enough to fall asleep in one of those.
Here’s what Harrington has to say about hat nasty gash on her forehead:
“A nasty slip on the 13a Golden Desert pitch almost took my resolve – a deep gash on my forehead left me bloody and defeated. I pulled on again, part of me not really wanting to stay on the wall, the other part gathering courage and flow. I kept thinking “why am I still hanging on?
The next pitch was the A5 traverse, where I failed last year. This time it was not my limit. I fought hard but with flawless movements in the dark. I cried at the belay – it could happen this time….The final 5 pitches felt scary in my current state but I pulled over the final lip at 10:30pm in disbelief.”
If you’re interested in seeing more of El Capitan and free climbing, I highly recommend the movie “Free Solo” that I reviewed a couple of years ago. I saw it on my month off between jobs and loved it.
A new TV for the master bedroom was delivered on Thursday afternoon. I had heard comments about maybe getting a bigger screen in there and decided to go big and not have to deal with it again for years.
McD did an excellent job of helping me hoist the behemoth up onto the TV mount – fortunately we were able to reuse the one that was already secured into the wall. Going to bed is almost like a trip to the cinema now – except that I’m forbidden from eating popcorn in bed.
Sunday started as normal with the New York Times crossword puzzle – 21 by 21 squares as compared to the normal 15 by 15. I finished in record time – almost half my normal time. The crossword blogs revealed that most puzzlers also had record times – so must have been a very easy puzzle. If you’re confused by the picture below – it took me 27 minutes and 12 seconds to finish the puzzle and I finished at 6:37 am – way too early to be up and around on a Sunday morning.
My favourite clue: He was told to “take a sad song and make it better”. Do you know the answer to that one? Would you like a clue? Ok – it relates to a Beatles song that wasn’t originally on an album but was recorded during the sessions for the White album. Still stuck? The answer is “Jude” as in “Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better”.
The TV box was too large to fit through the hole up into the attic – part of our “Team Robertson” activities on Sunday morning. A small bit of cutting and folding and we were able to make it through. The family room curtains joined the box up there and some Christmas garlands came down.
After all that strenuous work, it was on to the seemingly never-ending task of cleaning up the leaves from our massive front yard oak tree. Eighteen bags in all over the last couple of weekends. That should just about do it – there are very few leaves left on the branches and McD used her new blower to eject most of the stragglers from the flower beds.
I was amazed at the size and number of acorns among the leaves. Almost three inches in diameter. Is that normal? They seem about ten times bigger than the acorns that I’m used to.
Some googling taught me about “mast” years for acorns. Who knew? Here’s what I read:
“Like many trees, oaks have irregular cycles of boom and bust. Boom times, called “mast years,” occur every 2-5 years, with smaller acorn crops in between. But the why and how of these cycles are still a mystery.
Scientific research can tell us what a mast year is not. A mast year is not a predictor of a severe winter. Unfortunately, plants and animals are no better at predicting the future than we are.
Strangely, mast years are not simply resource-driven. Sure, a wet, cool spring can affect pollination and a hot, dry summer can affect acorn maturation. But annual rainfall and temperature fluctuations are much smaller in magnitude than acorn crop sizes. In other words, weather variables cannot account for the excessive nutty production of acorns in a mast year.
So what does trigger a mast year? Scientists have proposed a range of explanations—from environmental triggers to chemical signaling to pollen availability—but our understanding is not clear. The fact is, we simply don’t know yet.”
After all that, I still can’t find out if 2020 is a “mast” year or not. Maybe the reduced pollution from everyone staying home – wait, very few people are doing that here now – had a positive impact on acorn production.
So there you have the excitement and activity for our week – picking up leaves and studying up on acorns.
I watched a very interesting documentary about Philip Glass, “A Portrait of Philip in 12 parts”, while suffering through the torture that is known as the elliptical machine.
The film follows Glass as he travels the world both composing and performing with various ensembles. I know that his music is a bit of an acquired taste – you have to love rhythmic triplets and somewhat monotonous themes that morph slowly. Here’s one of the more accessible pieces:
I enjoyed the variety of musicians that Glass collaborates with and the insights into his creative process. He does have a very impressive body of work with many operas, symphonies, solo piano pieces and others in his catalog.
I didn’t learn a completely new piano piece this week but did record this short video of “Happy Birthday”. My boss had a milestone birthday on Friday and one of our marketing folks was putting together a video for him. I spiced it up as best I could and was proud of finishing even though the iPad with the music died part way through leaving me to play by ear and memory – thankfully it’s a very simple song.
We’re looking forward to the new season of “The Queen” this evening. I’m interested to see Gillian Anderson (Fox Mulder of the X-Files) as Margaret Thatcher. This series is always so well done.
I finished up “Anxious People” on Saturday morning. You’ll remember that I loved the beginning two weeks ago and then was slightly less enthused with the middle section last week. I’m pleased to report that the ending was excellent. A lot of unexpected conclusions with a heavy dose of kindness and compassion that I didn’t see coming.
As Backman writes a little over half way through:
“The truth? It’s hardly ever as complicated as we think. We just hope it is, because then we feel smarter if we can work it out in advance. This is a story about a bridge, and idiots, and a hostage drama, and an apartment viewing. But it’s also a love story. Several in fact.”
I’m pondering whether to add this book to the small section of my bookshelves reserved for my very favourite reads. Based on the originality of the writing and the excellent ending the chances are pretty good.
I made a solid start on “Goodbye to a River” by John Graves today. This is a book from 1959 about a section of the Brazos river east of Fort Worth. But, from what I’ve read so far, it’s about much more than that – there are lots of anecdotes about the Comanche tribe who inhabited the area until the mid 1800s, history about the settlers who first farmed there, and thoughts about how man made lakes and dams forever alter the natural way of things. I’m looking forward to continuing to learn about the Brazos and the history of the area.
Switching now to new music and discoveries. The super talented songwriter and musician Chris Stapleton released a new album this week. I’ve only listened through once and here are a couple of initial favourites:
Here’s a very simple but effective song about man’s best friend:
If you’re feeling a bit tense and stressed, here’s a piece to make you totally calm and mellow:
I continue working my way through the “Long Way Up” series about Ewan McGregor and crew riding electric motorcycles from the southern tip of South America to Los Angeles. Things are not going well with being able to charge the bikes regularly. This great song popped up on the most recent episode that I watched from the master bedroom cinema:
And finally another soothing song from an Icelandic artist that I read about this week. The whole album is very good: