Books we made

This fall we're in a bookbinding class, part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UI. Technically it's called "Adventures in Book Conservation" but "adventure" may not be quite accurate ;^} . The class instructors are from the Iowa Book Works, and the lead instructor is a conservator with the University library.Last night our class made books, using an ancient Ethiopian sewn-book technique. It was quite interesting and not too difficult, but the class members who knit, crochet, or sew seemed to find it easier than the others. The photo shows the books we made -- Judy's is upright and mine is reclining. If you can download and zoom into the photo you may see the pattern of the lock stitches on the spine; they can be quite nice.

Drive and drop

Today we went out on a "Drive and Drop" for the Obama/Biden campaign. I mentioned this in a post yesterday, but let me explain what that is.

The Democratic party has developed a list of everyone in Iowa who is a registered Democrat or has registered his or her intention to vote for the Obama/Biden ticket. Each day the county auditor in each county makes available the names of all the registered voters whose votes have been received (by mail ballot or at an early voting place). These names are marked off the master list, and the next morning the precinct captain will get a list of those voters in our precinct with an Obama/Biden interest who have not yet voted. We will take some of these names and will drive around a neighborhood, putting out door hangers reminding them to vote. Simple. Our job will be simplified considerably by the fact that well over 50% of the registered Democrats in our precinct have already voted.

On election day we will be poll watchers, another get-out-the-vote volunteer job. We will note and report those people on the list who have voted (not HOW they have voted, of couse; we won't know that) so that as the day goes along, the precinct captain will know who has not yet voted so they can be contacted with more reminders. Some of these contacts will be by phone and some by door knockers.

World Series 08

It's a little hard for a Cardinals fan to root for the Phillies in the World Series. I grew up in the 1950s when the Cards and Phillies always seemed to be racing for fourth place in the National League (there were only eight teams in each league then), so the Phillies were hardly the Good Guys, but at least they're National League instead of the Designated Hitter League. The Phillies seemed to win in spite of themselves; it was terribly frustrating seeing all the runners stranded in scoring position, game after game. But it's over and we have to settle for sports with time limits for a few months until baseball comes around again...

Interesting few days ahead

We've been looking for ways to be involved in the elections this year, but some of the traditional election volunteer activities, such as door-to-door canvassing or phone bank staffing, just don't fit our personalities. We've found two that do work, though. We'll be putting out door hangers in our precinct for registered Democrats who have not yet voted, and we'll be working as poll watchers on election day. Each of these is a two-hour commitment and there is training for poll watching, so we'll be a bit busier than usual through Tuesday, but it feels good to be doing more for the election than just voting.

First hard freeze

We had our first hard freeze last night -- not just a frost, but a real freeze. Not a big deal here, but I can just hear some California teeth knocking at the thought! It's supposed to be pretty nice by Hallowe'en, and I imagine that I'll have the usual bunch of terrible visitors. Lots of kids in the neighborhood, which is a lot of fun.

Gas mileage

We've all (well, those of us who watch TV) seen lots and lots of ads about how fuel-efficient the new cars are. I'm not particularly impressed -- I have a 14-year-old Nissan Maxima that was the top of the line in its day: six cylinder, good power, lots of accessories (for its time). And when I filled up yesterday, I had gotten 21 mpg in town (that's actual, not estimated) and often get 30 mpg on the road, and that's with E10 ethanol content that should actually reduce mileage a bit. That's comparable with many new compact cars and better than any of the new six-cylinder midsize cars.

I sometimes rent cars and like to get the smallest car I can, and some of these just-like-a-car-but-smaller vehicles are OK, but I'm not sure I'd like them every day. The only car I've driven that impressed me more with its economy and driveability was a Volkswagen turbodiesel we drove in Scotland in 2006. I didn't figure the fuel "mileage" but even with the very high European fuel costs, the per-mile fuel cost was just about the same as our cost here. In the US, the Jetta and Jetta Sportwagen diesel (30/41 manual, 29/40 auto) are impressive, but I think the European version gets even better mileage.

Last Saturday farmers' market for the season

Fall is lovely in Iowa, with oaks turning rust-colored, maples bursting into flames, and sumacs becoming scarlet ranks along the roads. The weather breaks and long-sleeved shirts come up from the basement closet, but it's not yet cold enough to deal with icy roads. It's time for the year to come to closure, but the closure is tinged with sadness because it's the end of the farmers' markets. The stuff for sale is different now, with hard winter squash and late fruit predominating, but there are still fresh tomatos and even a few raspberries. We'll miss all the fresh food but it will be back in six months -- Iowa's own version of Orpheus and Euridice.

Oregon beach

As part of our Oregon trip, we spent a couple of days in Gold Beach -- an interesting little town that was starting to shut down after the tourist season when we were there. Several restaurants were closed (including, alas, the little Paul Bunyan Burger shack) but there was a really nice little cafe down at the harbor. Our place was beachfront, though it was maybe 40 meters from the actual beach. The weather was cool, but nice enough to sit out on the deck and read (when suitably bundled up, of course!)Of course, we also drove along the southern Oregon coast, a lovely part of the country; that's Arch Rock above, only one of many great views.

Adventure boot camp?

We stopped at several viewpoints as we were driving around Crater Lake last week. At one of them we found this vehicle from an "Adventure Boot Camp for Women." I'm sure the participants were out hiking around the rim, but apparently they left the driver behind to take care of the van...

Visiting Crater Lake

We were in Oregon for a week earlier this month because some friends from the Northwest were giving some computer graphics content at the CCSC-NW conference in Ashland. As long as we were there, we visited Crater Lake and the coast for a couple of days each.
We were at Crater Lake Lodge just a couple of days before it closed for the winter. It was pretty nippy, as you can tell from this picture of Judy taken as we walked over to the Rim Village store to see if any Christmas stocking stuffers jumped out at us. (Did they? We'll never tell!)
Our first day there was beautiful and sunny, as you can see by this photo from the window of our lodge room. We drove around the crater rim and enjoyed the day quite a bit. We also enjoyed a really good dinner at the lodge; National Park lodges seem to have really good menus--probably to give guests the energy to get out and enjoy the parks.
The next day started out pretty, but by the middle of the day it was spitting snow and by the end of the day it was snowing pretty solidly. We went out for a walk in the morning and found these frost flowers "growing" by the side of the road, but later on the lounge chairs outside the dining room were less inviting. By the next morning it was largely clear and the lake was beautiful with snow on the island and caldera walls.

From John McCain's campaign...

A member of John McCain's campaign staff has been quoted as saying "John McCain needs foreign-policy advisers like Tiger Woods needs a golf coach." (New Yorker, October 13, 2008, p. 116) Interesting concept, since Woods HAS a golf coach (see TheAge.com or USA Today, among others). On the other hand, Obama has an extensive and very experienced foreign-policy team. So which is best -- "experience" that needs no assistance, or "experience" that knows enough to know that policy needs to be developed with careful thought and input? I seem to remember a President who insisted that he didn't need any help; wasn't his middle initial 'W' or something? Saints deliver us from another President who is his own vision of perfection...

Sign seen recently

We're just back from a week in Oregon, including the CCSC-NW conference at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. I'll write more about that later, but a quick note here to share a sign just outside an elevator door at the SOU library. I hope people don't take it too literally...

Just turned off the "debate"

I tried to watch the debate tonight, but watching McCain try to get the last word in on every point and watching him spread the same distortions that his negative attack ads have been putting out, I simply got too nauseated to continue. Good bye, John. Good bye, Sarah. "Mothra" is on another channel, and I intend to raise the level of my television viewing.

Alaska postcard

Got this postcard in the mail today. Interesting, and it means something. Not negative, not smearing anyone's character directly or by implication, simply saying what the sender believes. And I agree with him. Hope you do too!

Cartoons this morning

This non sequitur cartoon was in this morning's paper, and I found it funny and very, very germane. Enjoy!

And in the next New Yorker there will be the following cartoon that's perhaps a bit more subtle.

The Seacrest barn

Today was a celebration of the Seacrest barn's 125th year. This is an octagonal barn about 15 miles east of Iowa City. We have enjoyed visiting old barns, and this celebration also included a demonstration of Belgian work horses loading hay in the barn. So we went out and enjoyed the afternoon quite a bit.

The barn is quite complex, with a lower level having stables and milking stations, a "main floor" (where the ramp shown in the first picture leads) with workshops and various equipment, and an upper level that would have stored hay for the winter. The upper level was gorgeous, with an amazing domed ceiling that almost looked church-like.

The Belgian horses are beautiful, massive animals that are clearly capable of an amazing amount of work, but they are also very well mannered and take directions readily from their owner. It was beautiful to see how they worked, and it was amazing to see just how difficult it was to move hay from the main floor of the barn to the upper level. It seemed to take at least two different pulls on different ropes to get the hay lifted up and then moved over to the right storage area.

Perhaps the most surprising event of this aftenoon was seeing a graduate school friend at the barn. Kent Fuller worked for the same advisor I did, Frank Anderson, and I knew that he was in the Iowa City area, but we hadn't looked him up after I moved here. He and Gretchen were at the barn, though, and it was nice to say hello. I'm sure we'll get in touch with them when we can have time to catch up. A very nice treat for the day!

Washington and Facebook

I'm just back from some NSF panels in Washington. They were read-on-site panels, so we had to read, write reviews, meet our panels, and do panel summaries in just over two days. Hard work, but I always enjoy meeting other panelists and learning about what's happening around the country. And sometimes I even get some time on my own -- I was able to get to DCA pretty early so I could go to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to catch a marvelous joint exhibition of Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams. The exhibition was built around the concept that they had natural affinities, and I think it made the case pretty well. And, of course, their works are incredibly gorgeous.

While I was there I got an email from Rob inviting me to join Facebook and be his friend. I'm too old for that, I thought, but what the heck -- it's Rob, so how bad could it be? And it's not bad at all, though I think I'll stick with my blog and not be QUITE so cool as he is. But it is a chance to be a little closer to him and Trista, and that's great.