New Panniers

With the Amazon gift card that the staff at the archives gave me as a going away present, I just paid for part of a set of nicer panniers to replace the ones on my bike. My current set has survived two full years of commuting and is almost more duct tape than vinyl. It's being replaced by these Axiom Panniers.

I'm going to be using these every day in Syracuse! And they'll remind me of people I loved working with and care about. Yay!

Walt Whitman

I've never really read much poetry at all. I found this selection pieced together from Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road" while looking at non-traditional readings for wedding ceremonies.

Oh, it's a hard road being presented here! For a long time, it was the life I wanted. I think it still is, though perhaps no longer unreservedly. Traveling freely and without lasting connections is a lonely life, and this feels as much a curse as a blessing until the end, when the invitation to a fellow traveler appears. Though that part reminds me all the more that I'll be physicaly away from Danae for the next two-to-three years.

Regardless, this is meaningful to me and I want to share it.

I do not offer the old smooth prizes,
But offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is called riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve.
However sweet the laid-up stores,
However convenient the dwellings,
You shall not remain there.
However sheltered the port,
And however calm the waters,
You shall not anchor there.
However welcome the hospitality that welcomes you
You are permitted to receive it but a little while
Afoot and lighthearted, take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before you,
The long brown path before you,
leading wherever you choose.
Say only to one another:
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love, more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law:
Will you give me yourself?
Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

Here's a link to the entire poem: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178711

Walking in Kenosha

Well, I'm glad I got back from my walk along Lake Michigan before the rain started! Instead I had an hour's foggy ramble through Southport Park and the Kenosha Sand Dunes. As it always does, the heavy fog along the shore provided a sense of unfolding mystery as I walked along the rocky trail through stands of trees, listening to bird song.

It's hard for me to quiet my brain. For a lot of my walk, there was music of various kinds on my mind, playing on loop. Toward the end of the walk, when I got it to go away so I could listen to the environment around me, it made the time even more pleasant.

It looks like the city is tearing up the north end of Southport Park pretty thoroughly. There's a big dump truck sitting behind the construction fencing on the rip-rap slope to the water's edge, huge piles of dirt and rocks mounded ten feet tall, and an excavator with a big bucket on the end of its arm.

I scrambled over the train tracks twice, once completely unnecessarily, angling off of the road next to an underpass to climb up and over the fifteen-foot stone-covered embankment and down the other side. I met a guy with a shy rescue dog who'd been burned down the middle of her back and had a large scar. We talked briefly about the importance of rescuing 'damaged' animals that are less likely to find homes.

All in all, it was about four miles. I learned that I average a little over three miles per hour thanks to my tracking app; that's probably useful to know. I was going to ride my bike the ten miles or so to Zion, Illinois and back, but I'd forgotten to bring my helmet with me. Kind of fortuitous, really; it was a nice walk.

(Just for fun, here's the path I walked: https://www.endomondo.com/users/9694895/workouts/529970558. Yup; still living in the future.)

Graduation Party!

Just a reminder; my graduation party is going to be June 20th, here in Kenosha. I sent invites to tons of people on Facebook, but that's just to help organize. If you didn't get one and you're interested, you're welcome. It would also be a big help to have a sense of how many people are coming.

To recap; there will be free pizza for up to fifty people! But you'll need to cover anything else you might want from the restaurant. I know most readers here can't make it. But if you can, you'd be welcome!