February 27, 2008
It's All Greek Mythology To Me
Apparently kids get gifts for Valentine's Day these days - at least mine do. Now, don't get me wrong, it's okay for them to get stuff - I'm just a little perplexed because when I was a kid a box of chalk hearts was about as good as it got. Good thing they've got Katy around to look after them.
This year Katy ordered them some books from the latest Scholastic book order form to come home from school. You remember what I'm talking about, they're the same two-page foldout form of the lumpiest, cheapest paper available and printed with smeary half-dry ink they handed out Back In The Day (I'm sorry to tell you, however, that the fine periodical "Bananas" is no longer offered.)
Anyway, Katy ordered Cameron a book of Greek mythology. I thought this was kind of cool because one of my favorite library books when I was a kid was a large book on the same topic. I had it checked out of the library pretty much nonstop for several years. Perhaps this makes me a gigantic nerd (perhaps?) but believe you me, I caught every damn reference to Greek mythology in every bit of literature I ever read.
On the night before Valentine's I was helping Katy wrap the kids' presents. I cracked the cover of Cam's new book.
...Hey, this illustration looks familiar...
I flipped a few more pages
... That picture of Gaia looks familiar too - hey wait a minute how do you know it's Gaia just looking at the picture?
My hands keep flipping pages while my brain goes deep into the archives. The realization is slow in coming but all of a sudden HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE SAME EXACT BOOK I READ AS A KID ARE THOSE GOOSEBUMPS WHOA HOLY CRAP.
Talk about your weird associative memories.
Anyway, the next day I did a little research on the title - D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. Reading the reviews on Amazon showed me that while I may be a mythology geek, I am by no means alone. If you want to introduce your kids to classic Greek literature and heroes, or you want a refresher yourself, take a look. And if you check it out from the Weatherford Public Library, well, there's more than just Greek history in that particular volume.
February 24, 2008
The Tour of California
This weekend the Tour of California visited Santa Clarita again.
I volunteered to help with Saturday's arrival and Sunday's departure and got the plum job of Course Marshal. This sounds really important but basically amounts to standing in a driveway and not letting people out into the roadway while the race is passing. In return for this crucial service, I got a snappy orange long-sleeved t-shirt and two bottles of water.
Saturday I was posted on the back side of the finishing loop. I didn't have a camera with me but snapped these shots of the racers with my phone.
This is the six-man breakaway on their first lap. At this point they had a 1:45 lead on the pack and it looked like they might survive. They had been away most of the day, building a lead of around 7 minutes before the sprinters' teams started reeling them back in.
The peloton was relentless and caught them right before the last lap. Here they are coming in to the final 3 kilometers of Saturday's stage:
Today I had a driveway out in the sticks, about ten miles from the start. Here's a shot of the peloton zipping by.
I didn't really have any trouble keeping people out of the road - in fact the houses we were watching seemed deserted - but it was cool to see the riders and the fleet of support vehicles zip by.
I know what you're asking - "Brad, why didn't you bring a camera?" Well, the guy from the Tour who did our volunteer training must have said ten times "Leave your camera in your pocket." What can I say, I'm a good rule follower. This probably would have been sound advice had I been working a more crowded part of the race course, but since the fans I had to contend with were basically my fellow volunteers, it wasn't a big deal. EVERYBODY ELSE had a camera.
Oh well, it was still cool. And the phone cam shots turned out okay.