Author: tomeri

The Mind in the Hand

7 July 2021

I have spent the last four years learning piano.

I started late, just after I turned 61. I was starting pretty much from scratch – I knew the treble cleff and quarter and half and whole notes, but that’s about it. They say that one learns things – especially things like language and music and dancing – better before puberty. That may be so.

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:::Topography::: {fragment}

30 June 2021

Two years ago I took a course in Forest Ecology. I learned a lot about forests, and, unsurprisingly, have come to see them differently. But what I didn’t expect was that it would give me a new sense of appreciation for topography.

Prior to the course, I thought of topography as big stuff. Hills. Valleys. Mountains. Plains. Canyons. In my original vision of topography everything was large scale, at least relative to humans who would be small figures situated within it. I did have a sense of topography as fractal, at least a little bit. Valleys have gullies, hills have hillocks and humps, plains – well, OK, plains only have plains within them which is still fractal, but not very exciting.

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The Napkin Thief

29 June 2021

Earlier this week I was cleaning out the cupboard in the mudroom. Among other things it contains a continually growing collection of cloth bags. Some are ancient, from professional conferences, often dating back 10 or 20 years, with acronyms I have forgotten. Others are souvenirs of a sort, gathered from various travels. A personal favorite is the Big Save bag, from an eponymous store in Hanalei, Hawaii. Others are kept for functional purposes, typically because they have elaborate structures with outside mesh pockets, and inner pockets, and zippered tops. Some, that appear of no import to me, mean something special to my spouse: ‘You discarded that?’

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Unfocused Freewriting: On Errors, Patterns and Learning

29 June 2021

Start of second period of regular blogging (18 month gap)

My charge is to do some unfocused ‘freewriting.’  Don’t think of a topic. Just start. I don’t really care for the notion, but part of the role of being a student is to trust the teacher, or at least to give them a sporting chance.

Of course, I started out by ignoring the assignment. I did a number of focused freewritings. While I produced sizable chunks of text, that were reasonably coherent even though I wasn’t trying for that, I found them boring. Both in the production and reading. (On later re-reading, I did see bits of interest, but overall it was not a satisfying experience. And so I come to the assignment.

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Letter to DC – Retirement & Identity

Tuesday 27 August 2019

From Then to Now

Email to DC

Yes, the self-description problem is a challenging one. I usually, as well, include that I worked at  Apple, even though Apple was half the length and two decades farther in the past than IBM, for the sorts of reasons you describe. Apple still has cachet. Amazing it’s lasted 40+ years…

I have a friend who commented after a charitable event she was hosting — she does a side-gig as president of a small non-profit — that she ran into “one of those guys who used to be somebody,” referring to the way he was presenting himself. I thought, ‘Yes, I know what you mean,’ (not that I was much of a somebody) and ‘I don’t want to be that guy.’

So I am trying to let go of the professional component of my self identity. And of course it’s difficult to let go of an ~4-decade investment in a career that I feel turned out pretty well. Still, I have to accept that as time goes on it will seem less and less relevant to others. Other people of our age may be be mildly interested, but to most it will seem (at most) a historical curiosity. 

I’m not quite sure what the alternative is to identifying myself with a profession. I can list a string of avocations, but that somehow doesn’t quite feel like it. And I will never be accomplished enough at either piano or geology, my two biggest foci, that I can call myself a pianist or a geologist. Saying I’m a bricoleur or flaneur seems more accurate, but almost no one knows those terms. 

I’ve not yet had any negative interactions with younger students, but then I’ve had approximately zero interactions because so far I’ve only taken a lecture course. And I believe that to students, I am either invisible (a feeling which I’ve been increasingly noticing as I age), or perhaps a bit off-putting as I look like a parent (grandparent) or professor. We’ll see how it goes this fall, where one course has a sort of lab (it’s forestry, so I don’t think it will be what I think of a lab), and the other seems like it may have some group projects.

#

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Su: Hearts of Our People MIA exhibit

18 August 2019

From then to now

Friday the high point of the day was a visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see their exhibit: Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists. I particularly liked two tryptichs by Mary Sully (her artist/English name). I can’t find an image of either trytich, but the drawings below are by her and give a sense of her work:

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Miscellany 8.9.2019

Friday 9 August 2019

Health

Difficulty getting to sleep; took lorazapam about 11:30. Aches from Shingrix arm vaccination, and from ‘sunburned’ patches. And clearly running a fever. Woke up several times in spite of lorazapam, but got back to sleep and feel reasonably well rested. Still feel aches.. Going to take it pretty slow today, although perhaps a ride to Minihaha for dinner.

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Miscellany

Thursday 8 August 2019

Slept well, and woke around 7:30 well-rested. Katie had another night of difficulty sleeping, and finally took things and got to sleep about 3; she slept in til a bit past 9. I the meantime, I made breakfast, read the paper on the porch, and then got a call from CD for our Pleasant Chat, the time for which had come sooner than I’d anticipated

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Miscellaney

Wednesday 7 August 2019

Start of the first period of my regular blogging..

Had a nice chat with HA this morning; going to review her article for the American Bee Journal. Scheduled next meeting for September.

C dropped off some excess dirt which I put on the boulevaard to improve the soil.

Had visit from last of 3 contractors regarding the ice dam/re-roofing project. I think we’ll end up going with Kuhl, because they will do everything we want, rather than requiring us to manage the insulation work. We’ve gotten pretty unanimous input from the contractors that some or all of the roof bedding needs to be replaced, the eyebrows need to be taken care of, and our attic venting is not to code and needs to be much more expensive. Put the attic back together, sealed the entry to the attic space, and vacuumed thoroughly. I think the moldy smell is gone.

Need to finish analysis of expenses for next week’s meeting with Mark Berger.

Activities and Health

Did a bike ride to Minihaha park, and had half a beer. Came home, and made lamburgers and yams and salad for supper. I finished the the Subduction Red wine (from Syncline) that I bought because of the Geology connection.

Online looked up possible causes for sunburn-like patches of skin (outer thigh; front of armpit; back of shoulder — all on the right side) and found references to Shingles. If it is that, it is so far very very mild compared to what is described. Other symptoms which ought to follow the above, but instead have preceded it, include itchy spots that turn into blisters (I had exactly one of those, before we went up north), and someone mentioned shortness of breath, although I need to verify whether that is a real symptom or just an individual’s annecdote. Made an appointment with my doctor for tomorrow — it’s not bad at all, but if this either allows me to get into the queue for the Shingrix vaccine, or heads off a worse outbreak, it is certainly worth it. …The other health issue is that my jock itch is back — at least I think that’s it, although perhaps it’s somehow related to the possible-Shingles.

Started looking into glucose monitors so I can see what’s happening on the blood sugar front.

Courses and Hobbies

I heard back from Rebecca Montgomery in regard to my query about the Forest Ecology course, and as a result I plan to take it. I’ve decided that the other course I will take is the meterology course, because it looks like it will not be a lot of work. (Katie has advised me to take measures to avoid labs and group projects, which I think is good advice.) Other educational activities will be (hopefully) the Plato course, and regular attendance at GSM lectures to keep up my geology knowledge. I will also see if I can find an online course on volcanology, or barring that, an advanced textbook.

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