Edgewater Beach Now
May not be the current picture. But you still get the idea.
The Dalai Lama Speaks to Us
The Dalai Lama came to town this weekend to bless the local Buddhist hangout, and among other things, give an all-day lecture on Buddhist philosophy. The blessing and other appearances were a invitation-only events and we were not invited, but they sold tickets to the lecture, which was held at the arena downtown.
The venue, the arena, was okay; it was very cold and you could tell who had been there before – they were the ones wearing jackets, sweaters, and hoodies. Now we know. They also did not turn on the lights in the audience area. Come on! It’s a lecture! People are going to want to take notes. They did have a couple of nice big monitors so that you could see close-up images of Mr. Lama as he spoke and pulled his robes around him to try and stay warm.
The first hour and a half or so of his talk focussed on the general purpose of religion: spreading love and compassion and all that stuff, and how the major religions have this in common. He spoke about how the acquistion of material goods does not produce peace of mind. Interestingly, he did not recommend that people in non-Buddhist countries convert to Buddhism. “Stick with your own traditions”, he advised; it will avoid a lot of problems. He used the simple sixth-grade-level English that we’re used to from political speeches. It was beginning to sound rather pop-psychology, like something you would hear from a Doctor So-and-So on TV, and I was wondering if this was all we were going to get.
But then he started discussing “our text for today”, which was Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. This is a treatise of about fifty stanzas that was written in the ninth century. At this point, the Dalai Lama switched from English to Tibetan and put his pedal to the metal. He covered the basic tenets of Buddhism before lunch and when we came back he tore all the way to the doctrines of noself and emptiness. It was an impressive performance, especially for a seventy-seven year-old man.
During the breaks, they played music by flautist Nawang Khechog. When they flashed his name and picture up on the giant monitor, I asked CVH, who was working email on her phone, to email me his name. “Who?” she asked. “The guy playing the music. I want to see if he’s on Spotify.” “He’s playing down there?” she asked as she peered down at the empty stage. “No, he’s not here! That’s just a recording. Email me his name; I want to see if I can find his music online.” She went ahead and emailed me his name just in time for a fellow to come out on stage and announce that it was his great pleasure to introduce the Grammy-nominated Nawang Khechog, who then came out and played a piece for us.
I have to mention that the Dalai Lama has a great laugh, as all Buddhist monks seem to have. I think they study this in the monastery.
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The old schoolhouse ain’t what it used to be
Today I helped with a seminar put on by one of the professional security groups that I belong to. One of the group members had connections at a local university, and she arranged the use of a lecture hall at their College of Technology and Design.
We arrived at the college early this morning and got into the lecture hall. I found the jack for the speaker system and plugged in my MP3 player so that we could listen to Rimsky-Korsakov while setting up. I checked out the projector and made sure that our computers could connect and display on the big screen. Everything was working great until I noticed a strange anomaly – there were no lecture boards.
Now, I realize that they don’t use chalk and blackboards anymore, but I did expect to see whiteboards in a lecture hall. No. I went up and down the hall, looking in the other rooms to see if they used portable ones. No. How does one give a lecture without boards? I know you can write on the computer, but that’s only one screen. Or maybe it’s automatically broadcast on stored onto the student laptops? Whatever it is, it is very different from lectures when I was in college. Guess I need to sign up for some courses.
Owensboro
This morning we went to see the fancy waterfront park Owensboro has built along the banks of the Ohio River. It’s really very nice. They have fountains and a music shell and a huge playground that must have cost an arm and a leg:
But as with everything today, it seems, there are “rules” attached to its use:
The playground rules
The first rule of which, incredibly is:
The First Rule
After visiting the park, I went across the street to the International Bluegrass Music Museum. Yes, it’s “International”, as they do have some artifacts from bluegrass artists outside of the U.S. This year is the centennial of Bill Monroe’s birth, and they have a special exhibit of more Monroe memorabilia than you can shake your mandolin at. I learned an awful lot about bluegrass artists and their history here, although it’s not for everyone, I suppose.
Posted in Outdoors, The Modern Condition
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John James Audubon Birthday Party
John James Audubon
This weekend, the Kentucky contingent of the American Association of University Women held its annual convention in the town that bills itself as “Kentucky’s Fourth Largest City”. CVH is an officer of the local AAUW chapter, and went to help represent her branch. I drove the car.
CVH is a bird lover, and since today was John James Audubon’s birthday, and we were headed into the heart of Audubon country, we decided to include some Audubon-related activities in our day. Just outside of Owensboro, there was a small sign pointing the way to “Audubon sanctuary”. Well, that sounded exactly like what we were looking for, so we turned around and headed down the road to check it out.
We shortly arrived at a fancy contemporary subdivision. You know the type – big box houses on disproportionally tiny lots with impeccably groomed shrubbery and a golf course out back. Near the entrance of this suburb there was a small stock pond, a stand of trees, and a parking area labelled “Audubon Sanctuary”. Admittedly, there were a number of birds there, but whether they had found sanctuary I cannot say. The whole thing smelled of some deal the developer cut to get access to the land.
We spent five minutes traversing the sanctuary, and then got back in the car and headed into Owensboro. When we got to town, CVH was hungry and wanted to try some of the famous Owensboro barbeque. We pulled into Ole South Barbeque for some chopped pork and smoked turkey, which you can get at ten o’clock in the morning in Owensboro. CVH agreed that Owensboro-style barbeque is interesting.
Thus fortified, we headed on out past Owensboro to Henderson, where the official J.J. Audubon state park lies. Now this is a nice park; it was created as a Civilian Conservation Corps project back during the Great Depression. They have a bird viewing area where we saw several birds including a red-bellied woodpecker. There was an exhibit area showcasing works by local painters. There were lovely easy trails through the woods which led to a little lake.
Grapevines
The woods contain an incredible number of huge grapevines, some of which you can see in this photo above (they’re the dark gnarly twisting things).
CVH and old tree
The whole woodland area looks a lot older than the woods around Louisville. I know all the woods around Louisville are reclaimed from logging and farming; I wonder if these woods were just never logged. Seems unlikely, but I don’t really know.
After visiting the woods, we toured the Audubon museum there at the park. This is an impressive museum. They have one of the largest collections of original Audubon bird prints in the world, including a set of the giant life-size double-elephant Birds of North America (the four volume set is worth about nine million dollars). For a taste, you can view the University of Michigan’s copy of Birds of North America online. Unfortunately for those of us who are more into real animals, they don’t have as much from his Viviparous Quadrupeds of America, but this park is definitely a must-see if you’re in Western Kentucky.
A viviparous quadruped
Posted in History, Outdoors
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Clothes make the man
Back when I was a young buck, I was skinny. When I bought suits, I had them remade to fit very slim. Some people thought such skinny suits looked funny, but, well, they fit me.
I’m not so skinny anymore, and hardly ever need a suit, but the occasion does arise from time to time where something other than a pullover is called for.
This week I got an email from Men’s Warehouse announcing a sale on Big & Tall suits this weekend. OK, I thought, maybe it is time to replace some of those Talking-Heads-era suits in the closet with something a little more in style. I clicked on the Calvin Klein Grey Extreme Slim Fit to see if they had it in a 42 extra long. No. Not even close. But you can get it in a 54 extra long. Or a 60 regular. Jiminy H Cricket! How in the world can you make an “Extreme Slim Fit” in a 60 regular?!? How many sheep have to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to weave a 60 regular anyway? I don’t think I’m going to be making fun of Bloomberg anymore; I now see what he’s talking about and where this is leading our country.
Posted in The Modern Condition
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Hiking Patoka Lake
After a foggy, near freezing morning, it turned into a beautiful spring afternoon. I decided to cross the river into Indiana and hike the Lake Potoka trail. (Lake Potoka is officially known as Potoka Lake, for reasons known only to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.)
It’s a nice trail in the spring, but I could tell that it might be rather buggy in the summer, what with all the little damp areas that I had to cross. The landscape is dotted with these big rocks.
Big Hoosier Rock
In places the trail is not well marked, and it took all of my Daniel Boonin’ (which, admittedly, is not that much) to pick it back up again. They give you a map when you go in, but it’s a rather schematic one, without any topographical features other than the lake, and if you’ve gone off the trail and into the lake, you’re probably going to know that without the map. However, I had my GPS with me and made a recording of the path, so next time I will be fully prepared.
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The Responsible Rally for Rover
The City has recently opened the Big Four Bridge across the Ohio River. This is an old railroad bridge that dates back to nineteenth century. The bridge approaches were removed in the 1960’s, leaving the waterfront skyline with an old bridge that didn’t go anywhere. This was not a particularly appealing sight.
But now that problem has been addressed. Sort of. A wonderful new approach to the bridge from Louisville’s Waterfront Park allows joggers, walkers, runners, and bicyclists (sorry, skaters – you should have shown up for the council meeting that night) to spiral up to the bridge and go over the river. Over the river, that is, but not into Indiana, as they haven’t finished the approach on their side.
In any event, the bridge has proven surprisingly popular, given that we’re still pretty much in winter here and it’s awfully cold down by the river. One thing that happened right away is that a lot of dog owners brought their dogs to the bridge. And a lot of those owners don’t pick up their dog’s droppings. I don’t know why someone would bring their dog to walk over a bridge; I can’t imagine that the dog gets much out of it. Perhaps these people have been bringing their dogs down to the park all along and the new bridge is just something else to walk on.
In any event, there was an immediate (and understandable) backlash against the dog poop on the bridge. The public demanded action. So some of the local humane organizations, who have seen what can happen in this country when anti-canine sentiment gets out of hand, apparently decided to head off the problem at the pass and hold a Responsible Rally for Rover to encourage dog walkers to pick up their pet’s poop. I volunteered to help out. Well, actually I volunteered to help with the kitten adoption activity that was going on this same weekend, but they said they needed me at the bridge more. So to the bridge I went, on a cloudy, rainy, cold day. That’s me below, just to the right of center in the yellow t-shirt (which is being worn over an Eddie Bauer foul weather coat, over a wool sweater, over a technical vest, over two layers of technical jerseys).
Me at the Big Four Bridge
Despite the weather, about a hundred people showed up. I’m not sure how much good it is going to do; the kind of people who don’t pick up their dog’s droppings are not the kind of people who care much about what other people say about it, but we will see.
Posted in News from Louisville, Outdoors
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Wild Kingdom
This is one of a series of posts on our 2012 trip to Costa Rica. If you like, you can start with the first post.
We had an interesting experience last night. I was sitting and reading on the balcony of our hotel room when, from the woods just outside, came a loud, hair-raising howl. It sounded just like one of those horrible creatures in a fifties monster movie just before it kills a whole bunch of people. The sound made the fence behind the hotel look awfully short. We found out later that it was the growl of a puma.
Huge crocodile
We went on a crocodile tour today. We saw a huge five meter crocodile, as well as a osprey, a kingfisher, a roseate spoonbill, and some other birds that CVH could recognize. This time I could actually see the animals. We could all hear the scarlet macaws, but since it’s their nesting season, none came out for us to look at. I’m not sure why they make so much noise if they’re nesting, but that’s what the guide told us.
On the way back from the tour, I also got to see a large black ring tailed iguana climb up a tree right by the road. I felt much better having finally seen some Costa Rican fauna.
Me and the Oxen
At one stop, there was a man with a traditional oxcart. He posed for tips.
Our Bus
Finally, before we wrap up and come home, here’s a picture of the shiny green bus that carried us all over Costa Rica.
And a picture of our most capable and gracious tour director, José, doing what he does best – directing.
So farewell, beautiful Costa Rica; we’ll be back as soon as we can!
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Resort life
This is one of a series of posts on our 2012 trip to Costa Rica. If you like, you can start with the first post.
Christmas day, and we wake up in our fancy (that is, American-style) Pacific resort. The view is truly right out of the advertising brochure.
I actually took this picture
The tub in our room. It had a mountain view.
They had a very nice creche at the hotel. Quite a bit of craftsmanship went into this.
It was beautiful at the beach. I found the wave images on the sand fascinating.
And while I shot a short clip of the beach, I began to understand why so many of the men on the Bounty were willing to risk it all for this.
Posted in Costa Rica
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