Safe and Sound

Writing from my new desk, in my new office, at my new school, in my new town, in my new quadrat of the United States. Strange-y. I have photodocumented the epic journey undertaken by the Schaackmobile and her humble accomplices (me, Jesse, Idelle, and all the nice people we met along the way and one not-so-nice person), but I need to go get a few things fixed on the rig so I can get situated on my new driveway in my new neighborhood. In the mean time, I just wanted to post a sigh of relief that I am here, the trailer is here, the car has not collapsed into a pile of rubble and I am hoping to get everything squared away today so that, as of tomorrow, I will once again be Open for Business. That is to say, back to work and eagerly anticipating visits and visiting my dear pals and family scattered all over, including my most recent dearhearts in Texas, and the all-important task of blogging. More soon....

Helter Swelter

Not much new this week, just getting ready for the big haul next weekend when I start heading West. I am feeling really sad about leaving Arlington for so many reasons, but one of them isn't how hot it is. Today's high: 105 degrees. I am going to a baseball game tonight, and I am fully prepared to soak through my clothes in sweat. It has been so hot here, for so long, some of the guys in the department got a bee in their bonnet about trying to fry an egg out in the parking lot. It is inhumane. Every day new questions are posed-- did anyone live in this area before air conditioning was invented? how hot does it have to get for 98 degrees to seem cool? how hot was it here before global warming? Someone recently asked me if I really thought I could survive a Portland winter living in the trailer. If surviving a Texan summer is any indication, then yes. I am trying to escape the heat while basking in all the other types of warmth I have come to know here in Arlington.

Science Fair:
This is the egg starting to cook about 20 seconds after it was cracked onto a cast iron pan in the parking lot outside my lab.

Post #101: Lake Weekend 2010

Over 100 random thoughts seems like kind of a lot for a fairly delinquent blogger, no? Today's post is about this year's Lake Weekend-- a holiday I now anticipate as much as Christmas, and one that has domino-like beneficial effects for my friends because of the hallowed Lake CD exchange. In addition to the all-important music swap, there was the customary tubing, water skiing, grilling, and shooting the breeze-- an entire summer's worth for me, neatly packed into one long weekend. Unlike previous years, there were (I believe) a record number of attendees, the never-before-attempted-double-handstand-on-the-tubes trick, and a spontaneous sing-a-long that would warm the cockles of even the coldest heart. Imagine, if you will, the whole gang out on the deck getting ready for the annual Lake Weekend Picture (which ends up on the wall in the condo alongside all the others from years past while simultaneously serving as log book for all Darron's past girlfriends, Steve's ex-wives, and Rodenbeck's physical feats of tube mastery). Everyone's out there-- 15 adults and 3 kids, one of whom is bawling his eyes out because, well... maybe because he lost at mini-golf or couldn't get up on one ski or something like that, we may never know. Anyway, Mr. Luesse (Darron's dad and the annual Lake Weekend picture-taker) is teetering on a deck chair trying to snap the shot while Sarah Luesse (Darron's wife and the mother of his child) tries to soothe their baby, Jude, so he does not look positively miserable in this picture that is supposed to capture the bliss of Lake Weekend for perpetuity. It's not working, and finally Mr. Luesse just wants the baby to at least look at the camera and he shouts out "Hey Jude!" To which there is only one reasonable follow-up from the group: Don't make it bad. And so the whole group erupted into a spontaneous, gentle lullaby for the baby, continuing the song (Take a sad song and make it better, remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better), then crescendoing (better, Better, BETTER, BETTER!), and then skipping ahead a little bit to the good part (Naaah, Na, Na, Na-na-Na-Naah, Na-na-Na-Naah, Hey Jude) and finishing off somehow still in near-perfect unison despite the new arrangement of the song with (Jude, Jude, Judey, Judey, Judey, Judey, WAAAHH!) All this-- while still holding the pose for the picture! Needless to say, the baby stopped crying during all of this and was looking up and around at all his (essentially) aunts and uncles. I can only guess what he was thinking, but perhaps it was "Wow, these people must have spent a lot of time at the karaoke bar singing this song because it sounds pretty good!" If so, he was right.

Lake Weekend 2010

The Beatles Version