Wednesday, March 17, 2021

In A Quiet Place


This sculpture by Morton C. Bradley Jr., is hanging in a quiet alcove in the IUPUI Campus Center in Indianapolis. Called Ensign, it was created in 1996 from square brass tubing, silver solder, and paint. The large piece, fabricated for Bradley by Harold Robinson, contains six planes aligned so that they seem to flip over onto one another as they turn overhead.



Tuesday, March 16, 2021

At the Swim Meet


I spent this past weekend working as a timer at the 2021 Senior Short Course Championships. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the meet was held in two cities, Elkhart and Indianapolis, with times from each site combined to determine the winners
in each event. 
All participants were required to be screened each day for Covid-19 symptoms. At the first station I checked in and stated whether or not I'd developed any symptoms of infection from the virus. At the second, I was asked to stand in front of an iPad on a pole, with my head filling the outline more than it shows in the above picture. It actually "took" my temperature and I betcha-by-golly it sure would have taken my photo if it was not within its guidelines. I was then given a colored band to display on my lanyard to indicate I had been screened. After meeting with the other members of the timing and scoring staff, we took what was essentially a backdoor, winding route to get to the pool deck, one that I guarantee we would never have used in *normal* times.


Ordinarily, the stands would be filled with anxious and proud family members cheering for their child who would be trying for that time, that medal, that could lead to scholarships and further glory in the blue box of water. The decks would be crowded with team mates, coaches, and officials - all their attentions focused on the pool to watch the swimmers' progress in their events.
Like everyone else, the kids had to maintain social distancing guidelines: They had to wear their masks at all times, only taking them off just before they mounted the starting block to compete and replacing them upon exiting the pool. For the most part, they did really well. 

As can be seen in these pictures, there were no spectators allowed at the meet, which had been divided between the the two cities in order to meet the state's health department guidelines as to the number of people that could be in the facility at one time. This may seem harsh, but in this time it seems the best way to keep people healthy while allowing everyone - swimmers, coaches, meet staff, and volunteers, to participate in a sport they love.



 

Monday, March 15, 2021

Amaryllis: Now She Is Three


 Amaryllis has been joined on her stalk by two sisters. I love looking at these flowers, seeing their line and structure as the morning sun shines from behind. I've loved translucent light since I was a little girl. A saleswoman in a jewelry store was kind enough to show me some nice porcelain china and showed me the differences between opaque, translucent, and transparent objects, with a fine china cup being the "translucent" example. Those few moments she spent with me, in addition to other occasions when some kind people took the time to show a poor, neglected girl beautiful things have made a difference in my life: I do now have a set of nice dinnerware and I love the light that shows the details of flowers.    




Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Amaryllis: The Ultimate Squirrel Fighter


 Amaryllis, the 2019 USF* Champeen,
has just produced the first of what will be three blooms. The picture I posted yesterday was taken Monday morning. This picture was taken just a bit ago. Unfortunately, it's dreary this morning, so that lovely bit of golden light does not show, as it did in the first shot and the one shown below, taken yesterday morning.


*Ultimate Squirrel Fighting

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Amaryllis: The Survivor


 Several years ago, just after Christmas, I was grocery shopping at my neighborhood Kroger when I saw a flowering red amaryllis plant. It was marked down to just a few dollars so I bought it, bedraggled blooms and all. Ever since, it has blossomed every other spring or so, rewarding me with three vibrant red flowers that last about ten days before they fall away and the plant, once again, goes dormant. All I have done for it is trim its dried leaves back and water it every several days or so. And each spring I am surprised when its flowers appear, feeling blessed to have such a beautiful, undemanding plant.
You might imagine my surprise one morning a couple years ago, when I came to the front room of my apartment and saw a squirrel - A SQUIRREL, dammit! - breakfasting on Amaryllis's defenseless bulb! "Hey, you little fucker! How'd you get in here?! What the hell are you doing?" And the squirrel, henceforth referred to as Little Fucker, made a mad dash for the kitchen, where it shape-shifted into something about as thick as a floor tile and escaped underneath the cabinet baseboard.
Of course, I immediately called maintenance who came over with a humane trap, baited with peanut butter, that they put in the cabinet where Little Fucker was last seen. The next morning, as I lay in my bed, I heard scurrying sounds behind the wall. It was Little Fucker, who apparently either kept work hours or was sufficiently aware of human routines to think I had gone to work. I waited ... Sprong! and much squeaking: Little Fucker had been seduced by the peanut butter lure and was hurling itself around the cage, unable to escape. A maintenance man came to take away the cage and the captured squirrel. Ah, over and Amaryllis had
not suffered additional injury. 
Two days later, however, I again heard the telltale scurrying sounds inside my bedroom wall. This time I found Little Fucker nibbling on an avocado. "Well, shit!" and again, "Hey! You with the tail!" and Little Fucker scurried for the safety of the kitchen baseboard. The maintenance man came with another trap and, since it had liked my avocado soooo much, I put it in the cage. The next day, the maintenance man and I peered between the green wires of the cage where we saw a small, bright-eyed gray squirrel. This time, I will say, he seemed smaller than he had earlier. Once again, it was taken away to be freed some distance from his territory.
Two days later, scurry-scurry-scurry and, again, I chased Little Fucker through my small living room into the kitchen where he fled to the safety of the walls inside my apartment building. The maintenance men return, just as frustrated as I am. Certain that they had captured not just one, but two squirrels, I had some convincing to do but we again baited a wire cage, put it under the kitchen sink, and waited. 
The next morning, as regularly as if he had punched a time clock, Little Fucker reported to my kitchen, lured by the promise of Amaryllis's sweet bulb. And Sprong! waylaid by the temptation of more avocado, the little gray scavenger found himself stuck inside the trap. Maintenance men took him away, to a large field about two miles away before he was freed.
You might think the squirrel was stupid, or so entranced by the promise of Amarylliss's bulb that he became a stalker. The maintenance crew and I discussed it some time later as we tried to figure out how he'd gotten in. That's when I found out one of the men had also captured a squirrel in the apartment above me.  We figured it must have been a family of furry thieves; my flower had been assaulted by Little Fuckers I, II, and, maybe, III, each of them a serial nibbler who'd learned of the temping red flower and was determined to try her flesh for themselves, only to be carted away from home in a cage. Amaryllis is still sitting in her vase in the window, none the worse for wear, working to show me a few new blooms over the next week or so. And I get to see golden morning light on her beautiful petals and stem.

          

Monday, March 8, 2021

Cement Tart Cups


 I dunno. I want to get a picture of these big planters that emphasizes the angles and contrasting light of their pleats. I noticed them a long time ago, but this is the first time I've tried to capture their rhythmic design in a photo. I think I need to put my camera on a tripod and settle it lower down, using a smaller f-stop for more detail and depth of field. Hmmm ...

Sunday, March 7, 2021

The Sun's Out!


The morning was crisp and clear. The sycamore/plane trees criss-crossed in front of my view of IUPUI Campus Center bell tower, their limbs creating sharp contrast of light and dark against the blue sky. Students bustling to and from classes, appropriately masked, had still proven eager to drop as much of their winter clothing as they dared; I saw two very good-looking young men in workout clothing, baring their well-conditioned arms to the sun. Their dark, curly hair and honey-colored skin made me smile. It may only be meteorological spring, with about two weeks to go until the Spring Equinox, but the welcomed sun, blue sky, and good looking men made me happy. *Sigh.*