Summer

My neck of the woods:

Camping

Lake Titicaca

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

 New Orleans

Museum of Popular Art (Mexico City)

Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City)

Peaches

When I was a kid, my mom canned peaches and pears. We'd have boxes of fruit sitting in the basement for a couple of weeks while she canned (we did help her). And the peaches were sooooooooooo good. Honestly, canned fruit from the store is ruined forever. 

As an adult, I've tried and tried to find good peaches at the store, and it's always a disaster. They are always hard, and they don't ripen correctly. A ripe peach has this texture where you push on it and it dents, but there's a feel to it that you know means it is ripe. Peaches shipped to the store get this rubbery texture when you test for ripeness, it's just wrong. And they smell good but the taste and texture while eating the peach is completely wrong.

So, last Saturday I walked into a grocery store and they had locally grown peaches for purchase. I tested some, and they had the right ripeness texture, so I bought a week's worth, and man, was it worth it!!! They are just what peaches should be. I think I've only had one that had a spot that wasn't quite as good. It's amazing and my only lament is that I'm going out of this town this week and I'm worried that they won't still be available by the time I get back. 

I had so little hope for good peaches at all this year, because we've had a bad growing year locally, so this has been a lovely little joy for the week. Go, peaches!!!

Rain!!!

We finally got some rain this week. And, I've been trying to take a walk everyday, just to get outside and give myself a break. So, on Thursday I went for my walk, and because it was still warm, I took my umbrella instead of my raincoat. Turns out, it was also pretty windy, so that was a fun adventure. Also, umbrellas make it hard to see everything (in fairness, I think that is just a side effect of rain in general. Umbrellas, raincoats, they all make it harder to see). The result being it took me way longer than it should have to realize that there was an amazing full arc double rainbow going on. (The houses and trees and hill might have also been contributing factors, but that's not important. What's important is that I saw it). 

Sadly, I didn't have my camera, but fortunately I had my phone. And the pictures turned out alright. You can even see the double rainbow. I just couldn't fit the whole thing in without zooming out, and I can't zoom out without hearing my friend (and co-worker who taught me most of what I know about digitizing records) saying, "Never use the digital zoom!!!".

It rained on Friday, too, while I was at work. I headed up to the fourth floor and you could hear the rain everywhere, hitting the roof. It was so exciting! I love that kind of rain and really was tempted to go for a walk in it, work and dressier clothes be hanged. I got back to my floor and watched from the window. It was creating a bit of flooding towards the edges of the street, and my five-year-old self enjoyed watching a truck drive through it.

Yep, the rain sure was great. Here's hoping we get more!

alone time

I do a lot of things solo, including going places. But I don't do a lot of out-of-state travel (or out of country travel) alone. And this week, I'm at a conference and I feel like I have this opportunity to just check out the city solo. Nothing crazy, obviously, but just take some time, find places to take photos, just see a little something. And maybe not eat huge lunches and dinners and always be busy with people.

So, day 1? Ran into some people from work and spent lunch and the museum with them. Ran into a friend I worked with, and spent the evening with her. Which was great, but I'm really hoping that tomorrow I can hang out by myself. I love traveling with my team and my family, but I just want to see how I like doing some travel where I can make decisions and not worry if the whole group is down with it. Just to see what it's like. 

So fingers crossed!!

Pattern recognition

Someday, my newsfeed will realize that the pattern in the sites I ask it to not show me is that they are all sites from Threads. (I do NOT get my news from social media). It will be a wonderful day.

Someday, the streaming services will realize that I am NEVER looking for or going to watch an R-rated movie, and will either let me filter my search without that rating or stop suggesting shows with that rating. (I believe Netflix does let you set a filter for rating. Bless them).

I think I am just disillusioned with algorithms and AI because they are supposed to be good at pattern recognition, but honestly, so far they kind of stink at it. Maybe that's not what algorithms do? But it does seem to be the whole premise: You are interested in x, maybe you are also interested in this thing which is x-ish. But why can't they figure out "Of the last 30 things you said you didn't want, they all had this thing in common: Threads. Maybe that's the thing you don't want." 

Truthfully, I think the algorithms and AI could do it, I'm just not sure it's in the company's interest to stop driving me insane. It should be--an insane customer isn't much of a customer. They aren't functional enough to be a customer, because their brain has been blown up by the sanity terrorists that are their algorithms. Brain dead people aren't known for doing a lot of news reading and TV viewing. Or shopping, which also uses a lot of algorithms and does so very poorly. And they aren't known for paying their bills, I would think.

Anyway, here's hoping someday comes. One can always dream.

World Cup: Argentina vs. Switzerland

I know practically nothing about soccer. I know what it is, I've watched my nephews play (usually under the age of 10, which seem like an important detail), and I have played a lot of chair soccer, but chair soccer is hardly the same thing.

I do know that two teams are trying to get the ball into their goal, which obviously is blocked by a goalie. They also are trying not to kick the ball out of bounds and you can't touch it with your hands, but heads are okay. And there are yellow and red cards, but don't ask me what gets you one. And fouls, and positions (but I don't know what they are other than goalie), and lots of running. LOTS. 

So, with that being said, I went to a friend's to watch the Argentina vs. Switzerland game. It was a grand old time, especially because there were a lot of Latinos there, so an authentic soccer experience. And, I was very proud of myself because even though I know very little about soccer, there were things I did pick up on, just based on my basic understanding of other sports.

First, and most important, the stereotype of soccer players as drama queens when it comes to injuries? True. 100%. Every few minutes, someone would be rolling on the ground like their leg was broken or tendons torn or muscles disintegrating. And as soon as the ref noticed, they hopped up and ran off fit as can be. I'm pretty sure there is at least one half hour session each week to practice their injury acting. And yes, I know this happens in other sports, but it happens so much more in soccer. Probably because the opportunity to get kicked in the shins is second only to the actual sport of shin-kicking.*

Second, as in other sports, they do try to run down the clock. In soccer, this seems like a high-risk strategy given what a low-scoring game soccer is to begin with, but someone did confirm that they were trying to run down the clock. It makes sense if you are ahead, but this was during the tied portion of the game, so, yeah, it seemed counterproductive. But, I am not an expert, so what do I know?

Third, Switzerland had a really good defense. If I remember, for at least a chunk of the first half of the game, Switzerland had the ball more, and had a lot more attempts at goals. Then Argentina managed to dominate and have possession of the ball most of the time, but there was just a solid wall of red jerseys and they couldn't get close to the goal. So, lots of time kicking the ball to each other, but hardly any goal attempts. It made me think of playing games with my nephews. There's one where you win by getting the most points. And there are 2 dragon cards that are worth a lot of points. They spent the whole game preparing to capture the dragon cards and ended up losing, because they forgot that the goal was points, not dragons, so I'd snatch up all the lower point cards and just rack up the points.** They'd do the same thing in other games. 

At times, it really did feel like Argentina had forgotten that the way to win the game is to score, not have the ball the most. But really, it speaks to how strong Switzerland's defense was. 

And, finally, fourth: The referees are definitely not given enough credit. Not only do the run just as much as the players, which is a LOT, they have to keep track of everything and everyone on the field. All while putting up with soccer drama. They are definitely athletes. 

Anyway, Argentina did manage to pull off a few good minutes in one of the overtimes and scored twice, winning 3-1. And good for them. But also, the Swiss were a tough team. At least to this inexperienced (and also unbiased) eye. 

*Yes, this is a thing.

**They've mostly figured it out now, though. 

Nostalgia

We had a family reunion a week ago and we held it at a campground where we went a lot as a family when I was a kid.

A lot of the campground didn't ring any bells--it's been about 30 years since I've been, and the world looks different when you are an adult than when you are a kid. Things that were big seem smaller, you've got decades of memories to confuse things, and a completely different sense of direction. And I don't know if we were in the same campsites as when I was a kid or not. 

But one thing definitely hadn't changed: the creek. There is a creek running through the campground, and as kids, we spent hours wading up and down and all around. It was ice cold, because the water is mountain runoff (so cold it hurts, as my nephews discovered), but if you stayed in the water long enough, your feet went numb so you couldn't feel the ache anymore. But the best part of the creek was that there were spots where it ran over the road. You could drive through the creek! It was the best!!! Imagine my joy to see that is still a feature! 

I don't remember much about any hikes when I was a kid. I'm sure we hiked, or at least followed the trails. But this trip, we hiked up to the spring. I don't know if we did that when I was young (our camping trips were very unstructured. I remember just playing outside all day, occasionally reading, and playing some games, so we maybe didn't do formal hikes). A couple of nieces, one nephew, and I drank the spring water, unfiltered. Which may not have been the smartest thing to do, but 1) If you can't drink spring water, what can you drink?, 2) My niece is studying to be a nurse, so surely it's okay?, and 3) I've survived water in stranger places.*

Anyway, it was quite fun to remember my experiences and also to watch my nieces and nephews have their own, new experiences in a place that was such a part of my youth. I don't know if there's a term for that experience--nostalgia mixed with ...what? It was sweet, and if there isn't a word, there should be. And I hope someday (if you haven't already) you get to experience it.

*How ridiculous would it be to get massively ill from water in my home state?! 😂