Visiting the Temples of Learning

I guess that title is a bit overstated, but it works with the picture. This is a reading room in one of the libraries at Boston College. We visited BC and Boston University last week with Colleen, who is entering her junior year at high school this fall and should start thinking about colleges soon.

We made a quick trip to Boston to visit campuses and spend some time with friends from the Tyler Place who live south of Boston. We drove up on Wednesday and came back Sunday.

The summer college visit set-up seems to be a meeting in a lecture room where a large group of parents and kids hear from an admissions officer and a student (or a panel of students) about the school. There's a chance to ask questions and then campus tours in smaller groups led by students tour-guides.

I notice that the prospective students don't ask as many questions as they should; parents ask quite a few. In some cases, perhaps they should sit back and let their kids do the asking. The student guides, on the other hand, are not shy at all; they can't be and also have that job. They are generally outgoing and impressive kids who represent their schools well.

There is a cynical part of me that finds these young men and women just a tad too high on their schools, but I keep that part hidden. These are nice kids.

BC and BU are lovely schools, if rather different from each other. BU is much larger and more urban. BC is a smaller suburban school, set off by itself. I could see my daughter at either; but the choice is hers and there are many more schools to consider. The cool thing is that we have started the process that will lead eventually to her selecting a college or a university.

It's another step taken.

Seventh Golf Game of 2008

Andy, Rich and I played a storm-interrupted 18 holes at The Rookery Golf Club today.

We had to scamper off the course from the 13th hole when a huge thunderstorm that had been passing south of us paused and started drifting our way. It never hit the course full-on, but most of the golfers out there decided it was a good time for a short break; a beer and a hot dog.

Andy said, as we raced towards the clubhouse, "I have a rational fear of lightning."

I played badly, scoring an unacceptable 121. I want to apologize to golfers everywhere, to Ben Hogan, to the Calloway Golf Company and to the people of Scotland.

Golf is a mental game. You can destroy your swing by thinking about it too much. The first tee is the worst place, sometimes. You tee off in front of a "starter" who watches you, clipboard in hand, and seems to be thinking about just how much you are going to slow-down the flow of golfers. And there are usually a group of golfers behind you, waiting their turn, and watching every move you make. And so, you think about it. And thus you swing can be... rough.

So I flubbed my first drive and I tried too hard on the subsequent shots to make up for it. And I tried to be too fast, thinking about the group behind us. I started poorly on that first hole and never quite caught up over the next 17, though there were a few shots, here and there, to make me proud.

And yet I still had a very good time. I made small adjustments and fixed things a little. I had shots that felt and looked great. And I spent time with friends.

Sixth Golf Game of 2008

Andy, Rich (from Connecticut), and I played the Man O'War course at Glen Riddle, just west of Ocean City, Maryland, today. Rich and his family were down to visit and Andy and his crew. When they come to visit, it often means a golf-orgy for Andy and Rich; I'm pleased to join in sometimes too.

Glen Riddle Golf Club is part of the a large golf and residential development built on the old Glen Riddle Farm. This was the home of champion thoroughbreds Man O'War and his offspring War Admiral, who won the Triple Crown in 1937. Another of his offspring sired Seabiscuit.

There are two golf courses, named for the two most famous residents. They partly incorporate the old training track, which serves as a long sand trap at one point. That's my ball in that trap in the picture. In the background is an old starting-gate.

I don't recall which hole this was, but it was typical of my game today. I hit a solid, straight, if not hugely long first shot. My second was very nice as well, but fell short of the green (into the sand there). This is how I approached many holes; the problems started here. In this case I hit too firm out of the sand and flew over the green. I had to chip back on, and my putting is only so-so. The result, a two-over 6, if I was lucky. On other holes I was tentative on my chips and fell too short.

I ended with a 111. Andy kindly said that he thought I'd played better than that score. That was nice of him. I enjoyed the Glen Riddle course. Lots of challenges and changes and surprises.

In Mahaffey, PA

We spent only about an hour in Mahaffey, Pennsylvania; we had a long drive back to Delaware. But I'm glad we stopped.

We found our way (with thanks to directions from my cousin Don Mahaffey Weaver) to the Borough of Mahaffey graveyard. There's a monument to Robert Mahaffey in the center of the graveyard. It is surrounded by several sets of Mahaffey family plots. There's a lot of history here.

The town of Mahaffey, the Borough, is quite small. The downtown, such as it is, is next to a bridge across the upper reaches of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. There is a restaurant, a gun shop, a funeral home and a few churches.

There is a town park, Scout Community Park, according to Google, though I saw references to a Mahaffey Park which was to host a fireworks show that evening. Scout Park includes a ball field, always a good sign in a small town.

I'm glad we had a chance to visit Mahaffey. It's a part of the history of a distant branch of my family, but I've been studying family history for a while now and I was excited to see the place.

Looking Out Over Johnstown

We made a flying visit to central Pennsylvania this past weekend. We were there for a family event in Karen's family and took the opportunity for just a small amount of looking around.

We drove out on Friday. Interstate 70 in western Maryland was packed and reduced to a crawl. After ghosting over one mountain at 10 mph behind a truck, we abandoned the interstate system and hooked up with the old National highway -- US 40. We took that through Hagarstown and then took back-roads out to Breezewood and on to Johnstown.

On Saturday, we had a family lunch at the City View Restaurant, overlooking Johnstown. The restaurant is next to the Incline Plane which carries people and cars up and down a substantial hill. We took the ride down; then back up. For a flat-lander, like me, this sort of elevation play is great fun.

Sunday, we took a quick ride up north from Johnstown to visit Mahaffey, the Borough founded by a second cousin of my great-great-grandfather. It's a visit I've been thinking about. I'll have a few photos from there later.

I will say that it was very interesting, and it was fun. And it was a great excuse to do more driving on two-lane highways in the hill country.

Fifth Golf Game of 2008

Andy and I played 18 holes on a hot Saturday at Pine Shore golf course, near Ocean Pines in Maryland. Pine Shores is a small, mature course that is adjacent to the larger and newer River Run course. It is less expensive and more laid back; that's what we were looking for.

Andy has been off the course for a couple of months for health reasons. He was not sure how his game would react and didn't want to be part of a foursome with folks we don't know and who might have paid a great deal for their game. He's polite like that; I just look to see if the people we play with have a sense of humor before I start swinging.

In any case, Pine Shore was the right course for us on this particular week-end. It is short -- par 60 -- but challenging in a way that only mature courses can be. It has trees that have grown up as part of the course layout, rather than having been carved around. And there are rolling greens. We don't see rolling greens so much on the newer courses.

I started rather poorly, but shaved strokes off the back nine and finished at 91. I had a few pars and only one bad blow-up. I find that I can achieve a decently straight, if short, golf shot if I don't try to hit too hard and if I accept that my lower back issues mean an odd, twisty follow-through.

It feels funny when I do it right; which, if you think about it, is an apt description of golf.

New Wheels. No, Not a Hybrid

I've bought a new car, a Scion xD. We've become a three-driver family this summer and so now have a third car. This will be my car, and it is not a hybrid; that is a major change for me.

I've driven Toyota Prius hybrids for most of the present century. My first was a 2001, the first version that was available in the US. I was, I think, the second or third to have a Prius in Delaware. I replaced that with a second generation Prius in 2004.

I love our 2005 Prius, it is a roomy, comfortable, efficient and clean car. But we are at a point where we need a car for our daughter to drive. We could have found her a used car at one of the dealerships, and we looked a bit. But I didn't really want to buy a used car (my personal bias, I guess). And, if I'm going to buy a new car, it won't be for the young driver; it's going to be for me. We recently replaced Karen's car, by the way.

So I started looking for a small, efficient, and inexpensive car for my commute. I did some research, test-drove a few models, and settled on the Scion. It presents a nice balance between efficiency and features. The Scion is a sporty little thing but you sit up fairly high, which I like. The styling is sharp; a colleague described the front view today as like a Japanese anime character. I can see that.

I'm pleased with the stereo and its integration of both satellite radio and the Ipod. I think this will be a nice place to spend my commute.

I'm a bit sad that there isn't a new version of the Prius, or something even cooler, ready for me to buy this year. I like having cutting edge cars and now that so many Priuses are on the road I feel a bit overtaken (of course, it is a good thing to have more hybrids out there).

Why can't I have an all-electric car, with a big battery, lots of energy recapture technology (regenerative breaking and such) and a skin made up entirely of photovoltaic cells? I don't need hydrogen, thanks, and I'm ready to start ending my dependence on oil (not "foreign oil," mind you, all oil).

I'm here, I'm not queer, but I do like to buy cars. Who will sell me my real e-car? Anyone? No? I guess I'll have to wait. I'm happy to play in my little blue Scion for now.

Changes Have Been Made

The column on the left side of this blog was just getting too long. Changes had to be made.

I have replaced the lists of Delaware blogs, political blogs, media blogs and other blogs with a shorter, simple blogroll. For a while now, I have tried to link every Delaware blog I can find (using del.icio.us) and listing them all (at least the active ones) in the sidebar. Too long.

I have instead limited the side-bar blogroll to sites I visit regularly, sites by good friends, and sites by people I admire. I have included links to longer lists of Delaware, non-Delaware and media blogs that have caught my attention. I will continue to update those lists.

I also moved photos of my folks' fiftieth anniversary party from an old HTML page I created in 2004, before I found flickr, to a special flickr set. That let me delete yet another left-side link; a small victory in blog-decluttering.

All Politics Is Local?

There's an interesting on-line discussion this week on several sites about a race for a state representative seat in Kansas. Sean Tevis, an IT guy from Olathe, Kansas, is running for the 15th District seat in the Kansas House.

He's a Democrat challenging a several-term incumbent Republican and he's making a strong on-line pitch that includes an xkcd-style infographic about his reasons for running and his fund-raising approach. Told he needs to raise $26,000 for the run and that the traditional approach is to find 52 people to donate $500 each, he has decided to try instead to get 3,000 people to donate at least $8.34 each. And his web site is set up to do just that.

This approach has attracted notice on several web sites nationally, including on metafilter, where Tevis has been a member for many years. He didn't post the link himself, but he has joined in the discussion and seems to be listening to criticism and suggestions from the many commenters. There's a lively discussion which is generating some contributions and is helping Tevis refine his thinking on some issues.

My interest increased when I looked at the District map and realized that Tevis is running to represent the downtown portion of a town that my great-great grandfather helped found, where my grandfather was born, and where I still have some distant cousins.

As of this morning, he's almost half-way to his goal of 3,000 contributors and he's now known to a wider, and growing, group of politically interested voters. Not all of them, however, are local.

I have Succumbed

When we rolled-over our family of cell-phones this summer, Karen and I decided to get unlimited texting. Colleen, being a teen, seems to have lost the ability to talk on a telephone and communicates entirely by SMS text message. So it made sense for us to become texters ourselves.

Even though we are old.

As a result, I have decided to finally look into twitter. I never thought twitter would be a format that worked for me as a browser-based writer. Twitter is designed to allow users to send short-form updates -- "tweets" -- limited to 160 characters. I have never been "short form."

Still, I don't like to post on Mike's Musings from my machine at work. Sometimes I think of things I'd like to post during the day, but don't feel that I should. So I have signed up for twitter and added a "Random Thoughts" box at left that I can populate from my phone.

God forbid you should ever have to be without my, um, thinking.