Month: January 2025

Some links: 106

Some posts about gratitude and the big picture:

  • Day One, by Tim Sommers.
  • Gratitude Monday: well, okay, by Bas Bleu.
  • Not just heat death: Here are five ways the Universe could end, by Paul Sutter.

    [A] phase transition would start in some random spot in the cosmos and race outward at the speed of light, containing within it a brand new kind of universe almost certainly incompatible with the kind of life, chemistry, and even atomic physics that our Universe has managed to concoct.

    Because this phase transition bubble expands at the speed of light, there would be no warning of its arrival. One day, we would simply be going about our business and then blink: The new Universe takes its place. Whatever particles had composed our bodies and whatever forces held them together would vanish, to be replaced with a new quantum configuration.

    Sleep tight.

  • Process, process, process: Dwelling in the Doing: A New Year’s Resolve, by Gary Borjesson.

    So, here’s to dwelling in the doing, learning how to love the very things we spend most of our time doing. Happiness itself is like this. It’s not the surge of joy we feel when we find what we’ve been searching for, cross the finish line, or finish building the boat. It is, rather, a way of living in active engagement with the good, meaningful things that make up our life. Your friends, for example.

And one simple way to make a time machine: Dinosaur Comics #4283, by Ryan North.

Kindertransport: an update: 1

We are already looking ahead to moving into the theater and making all the tech happen. I think that no one will miss working in RLT’s rehearsal space/construction shop/costume and prop loft—it’s nothing but a glorified two-story shed. At least there’s heat.

What is still an uncertainty is how smoothly we’ll move into RLT’s temporary performance space, the Kreeger Auditorium at the Bender Jewish Community Center. The team toured the space back in October: it’s a good size for a show like this.

I hope that younger audiences (i.e., 30 and under) connect with this material. The line that really punches me comes from Evelyn (Act 2, scene 2):

You can’t let people who hate you tell you what you are.

The context is whether a woman born to a Jewish mother, long since quietly converted to Christianity, should consider herself Jewish. But Evelyn’s words apply to so many other situations.

My year in hikes and field trips, 2024

Another middling successful season of monitoring nest boxes at Huntley Meadows Park, Fairfax County, Va. I performed invasive management at Elklick Woodlands Natural Area Preserve, Fred Crabtree Park, and Fraser Preserve, Fairfax County, Va.; Clifton Institute, Fauquier County, Va; and an few other places in Fairfax County that I don’t remember.

Christmas Bird Count 2024: Seneca and Central Loudoun

One more time leading Seneca’s sector 14 (fourth time) and Central Loudoun’s “Old Ashburn” sites in sector 11 (third time).

We found 49 species in the Seneca sector on a day that ended with rain and sleet; my feeder watchers detected Orange-crowned (good documentation) and Black-throated Blue Warblers (notes but no photo). Our American Robin count was way down, and we were shut out on Cedar Waxwing. Stream reconstruction at Lake Fairfax Park is ongoing.

We were scuffling with rain in Ashburn as well, but the Graves Lane ponds turned up Redhead (Aythya americana), Bufflehead, Gadwall, and an intriguing pair of ducks that were likely Mallard hybrids, and the pond at Ashburn Library yielded a pair of American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes). One of our private property sites has changed owners, so we didn’t make it to that location.

Philadelphia getaway

In the winter holiday break, I Amtraked up to Philadelphia to take in the Barnes Foundation (underwhelming: the pictures can’t breathe) and reacquaint myself with the Duchamp room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And to be a bit of a transit flâneur.

my ridemore ridesChanging plans at the last minute, I staked out a loop with the Market-Frankford line1 (heavy rail), the 102 line toward Sharon Hill (light rail/streetcar), and the Wawa line (commuter rail2). The interchange at Clifton-Aldan is apparently an afterthought, as there is no streetcar platform and the operator warned me to look out for cars passing the streetcar on the right. Here’s two shots of the 101/102 rolling stock at 69th Street.

finally cameTo get to the Museum of Art, I took my old beloved rattletrap subway-surface line3 to 22nd Street to catch a bus up to Fairmount Avenue.

mini machinetailor shop windowIn the vicinity of my hotel, I spotted a fun tailor shop window,

bays and stairsand a lovely fire escape.

first bodega catAnd I photographed my first bodega cat! This is Chaucer, mascot of Book Corner, for the benefit of Friends of the Free Library. I found a Joseph O’Neill that I’d been casually looking for.

1SEPTA is rebranding the subway and light rail lines, but apart from colors on the signage, nothing is carrying the new designations.

2Somewhat confusingly called “regional rail” by SEPTA. Philadelphia’s gonna Philadelphia.

3The subway-surface would drop me right at the corner of Chestnut Street for Grad Towers. It’s not as rattly as I remember.

Meterstones, 2024

Small accomplishments during the year, not otherwise accounted for. Not major milestones, but bigger than inchstones.

  • I took on new responsibilities for Virginia Native Plant Society.
  • I resumed working in community theater, stage managing Dance Nation for Silver Spring Stage and Kindertransport (in rehearsal) for Rockville Little Theatre. Much waiting in traffic to cross the Cabin John bridge.
  • After trips to three different shops and a returned online order, I found the right replacement halogen bulb for my bedside lamp. After multiple trips to local stores, I bought a $7 (+ shipping) threaded rod from McMaster-Carr and successfully repaired a chair from IKEA (model long discontinued) that I’ve had since I moved into this house.

New venues, 2024

  • Warner Brothers Theatre, National Museum of American History, Washington
  • Cadby Theatre, Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, Md.
  • Old Town Hall, Fairfax, Va.
  • Baltimore Theater Project, Baltimore, Md.
  • Milton Theatre, Studio Theatre, Washington
  • 1057 W. Broad St., Falls Church, Va.
  • Dance Studio, Clarice Smith Center, College Park, Md.
  • Memorial Chapel, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

Plus multiple venues out-of-town in New York: five jazz clubs big and small, David Geffen Hall, and The Shed.

My year in cities, 2024

Moar travel!

Overnight stays in 2024: