Life in Vermont: Pulling a Fire Truck

Yes, you read that correctly, pulling a fire truck. I get dragged into all sorts of odd things, and today was one of the odder ones - and also one of the more pleasant ones. I was asked to participate in an event to raise money for Outright Vermont, a really great organization that supports gay, lesbian, transgendered and questioning youth in Vermont. The goal was to pull a fire truck, from a dead stop, twenty feet. Each team could not have more than twelve members. I was a member of the Champlain Beavers team (Champlain's team name is the Beavers, even though we don't have any sports teams - and we even have a mascot, who I think in this latest incarnation is named Chauncey, and he actually shows up for events occasionally, although, obviously, not for sporting events). In the last couple days I think I was the 10th member added to the team, followed shortly by my good friends Mike "Slice" Kelly (we had to give him a nickname because we already had a Mike - the nickname itself means absolutely nothing and we made it up one night on the fly and it stuck immediately) and Mike Lange (known as "Real Mike" or "Original Mike" or "Star Slayer Mike" [OK, so that's a new one I just made up today, but I think it has potential]), which was good because we definitely needed the bulk. As you might imagine, pulling a fire truck from a complete stop is a bit of a physical challenge. Luckily, Mike had a theory on how to do it (displayed in actions shots as he walked us through the finer points of pulling a large object - and then his utter mystification that people were listening to him). He also brought gloves. The very fact that he brought gloves and understands how to pull heavy objects speaks to my theory that he is actually a serial killer, but that's another blog post. As it turns out we actually did very well, pulling the truck the required distance in 16.3 sectons (our fastest of two pulls - and being the first ones to pull, and then discovering that we had to turn around and do another pull right away was a bit of a shock to the system). We were leading the entire way until a team of big burly fraternity guys from UVM blew our score away (I think their best score was 13.5 seconds, which is a serious beatdown on 16.3 seconds, but we were very proud of our score). I do have to admit that during the competition I did walk over and attempt to bribe the fraternity guys before they pulled - there was some talk of certain young men faking injuries and a concometent two free rounds of adult beverages at a local watering hole - but they put team glory (and personal ethics) before beer and ignored my offer (which shows that fraternities have obviously gone straight downhill since my days in Phi Delta Theta). Right after our pull the Mikes and I had the brilliant idea of jumping in and helping out one of the other teams, which was a local school with several of the pullers being kids - it seemed like a good idea, and was greatly appreciated by the teachers - although it left me seriously winded, and I think I heard a sound much like a guitar string snapping from the area of my groin. Beyond a prize for fasted pull, there were also prizes for most money raised and best costumes. The best costume prize went to Team Gaga, which did have an impressive choreographed entrance. Actually, it was a lot of fun, and it is definitely a good cause. Vermont is just about the most enlightened and tolerant place you could imagine, but there's always work to do. Oh, and I did get a picture of Mike with Star Slayer, the best player on the Vermont Derby Dames roller derby team (they were competing in the event), which is apparently going to instantly become the wallpaper on his computer at school. Star Slayer is Mike's favorite Derby Dame, and I suspect that after the wedding he'll retire from Champlain and work as her manager full-time (although that might keep him out of the serial killer business).

Visiting the Natti

Last weekend I flew back to my old stomping grounds in Cincinnati to visit my best friend David. He's been a little under the weather (well, a lot under the weather) and it seemed like a great time for a visit. I had not been there since last spring for my annual sojourn for my fantasy baseball draft (which, oddly, I have never blogged about). Even though I grew up in Indiana I've always considered Cincinnati to be my hometown, and I get that nostalgic rush whenever I drive into the city that I never do when I actually come home to Indiana (it probably helps that Lawrenceburg, the town where I spent most of my childhood, is a pretty dreadful place - although I still have pleasant associations with Rising Sun, where I lived when I was really little). Anyway, I had no great plans for the visit other than spending time with David. We sat around and ate ghetta (a Cincinnati specialty - sausage and oats rolled together, and sometimes with onions or garlic - delicious, and something that is very hard to get outside of the Natti), went to the First Watch (a great Cincinnati place to get breakfast) and watched movies and football/baseball games - and just talked endlessly. It was a great visit - and the reports of David's demise are greatly exaggerated, which does my heart good because he's been my best friend for twenty-five years. And his great dog Dudley (named after the Cary Grant character in The Bishop's Wife) is also doing great. It did make me want to get back home more often. One of the things that I have finally learned over the last couple years is that life is short and even I don't get a free pass, and I truly want to be a better friend and spend more time with those folks that are close to me (and I'm very fortunate to have a lot of great friends).

Biking to Hero's Welcome

Sometimes life provides a lot of pressure - such as recently when I was racing to both get in one last really big bike ride and also find a way to get involved in my friend Trish Siplon's 52 New Things before she sells the book/movie rights and retires to Zanzibar. Luckily, I was able to kill two birds with one stone, although I had to sacrifice my bike in the process. A few weeks back my friends Mike and Andy and myself had taken advantage of the bike ferry to cross the gap in the causeway and make it up to South Hero Island (an earlier blog). We made it Town Line Road, despite my pleas to keep going - mainly because this was exactly where Trish and I had stopped last year, and I felt we should at least get a little further. However, it is a logical place to stop, and only partially because it's at the top of a hill. My goal was to make it all the way up to North Hero Island, specifically to a great little coffee/sandwich shop called Hero's Welcome. Trish, who is always up for a challenge (despite all those rumors you might have heard on Entertainment Tonight about how all of those trips flying business class had turned her into Posh Trish), jumped right in and folded it into the 52 New Things. The biggest challenge we were facing was finding time to fit it in - in between rain and injuries and limited bike ferry opportunities we were running out of summer. We scheduled the ride for 29 August and hoped for the best - and things looked good until I remembered that I was scheduled to spend three hours that morning explaining ePortfolios to incoming freshmen. Beyond the incalcuable damage that I did to the students' understanding of ePortfolios even that obstacle was hurtled, and I made it down to meet Trish a little after noon. This meant we had to made it up to Hero's Welcome and back, probably around 45-50 miles round-trip I'm guessing, in time to catch the last ferry at 6:00. We took and made great time, and despite Trish's maddening refusal to bike in the lead (even though she is in freakishly good shape - although she's also a lot smarter than me and was doubtless taking advantage of the wind drafting caused by my bulk), we had a fantastic ride. On the bike ferry - in classic Vermont fashion where everybody knows everybody (and the six degrees of separations is never, ever more than three) - I ran into a new friend of mine, who I initially met through my friend Ericka (the one who just moved to Austin), and who also knows my son, and whose first name is Scudder; that's now two people in Vermont that I know who have Scudder as a first name, the other being Scudder Parker who ran for governor a couple years ago. Anyway, we blew past the dreaded Town Line Road and I was surprised how quickly we made it all the way to Hero's Welcome, although we did stop a couple times and calculate out the chances of making it back for the last ferry. We made it and, even though we knew we didn't have time for one of their great sandwiches, we could at least enjoy some coffee and a quick snack before heading back. And then disaster struck - we walked to the back of the store and my front tire was flat (now, I had just had two flat tires on my rear wheel the week before, so you can imagine my excitement). Oddly, it also began this strange stretch wherein my front tire went flat four times in the space of a week. The folks at Skirack, where I take my bike, were complete mystified by it, and I'm sure it has nothing at all to do with the imposing collection of blow gun darts and knives that Trish has brought back from Tanzania (I'm just saying . . .). All attempts to fix the tire, including a Herculean effort by this great guy who worked at the boat shop to patch the tire, failed. And now the problem - we're stuck twenty-five miles north of Burlington - and while the fellow was trying to patch my tire I was watching our window to make the ferry closing - and, really, even if he had been able to patch it we just wouldn't have had the chance to catch the last ferry. So, I called my excellent friend Mike Kelly, who is the other Faculty in Residence at Quarry Hill, and he, although he was new to Vermont and had no idea where we were - or even where the Lake Champlain Islands were, dropped everything on a Sunday afternoon and came up in his mini-van and saved us. The nice thing was that we then had time to sit down for a sandwich and then some ice cream. So, all in all, despite the misadventures, a marvelous day. And, Trish, being a good soul, decided to include me in her 52 New Things list, despite my abject failure as a riding partner. There's still no word on who will play me in the movie.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (but I'm flying to New York, right?)

My plane is sitting on the runway in Philadelphia - just think how excited I'd be if I were actually scheduled to fly to Philadelphia. I'm on the way back from visiting my friend David in Cincinnati and am supposed to be connecting through JFK before heading on to Burlington. However, the traffic was so heavy in JFK (on a Monday afternoon?) that we were stuck spinning around the sky in Pennsylvania, until we ran short on fuel and had to land in Philadelphia to refuel - which, of course, still doesn't get us through the crowded queue into New York. There is no minimal level of competence that Delta can't effortlessly crawl under.

Journey Through the Past: Carrom

I suppose I should celebrate my 300th post (is this even possible?) with a post from my favorite place, India. This is another picture from that stash of pictures which I thought were long-lost. This is from a trip to India that Michelle and our friend Hope made in August 2003. It turned out to be a great trip, which partially relates to the fact that we stopped for a couple days in Paris on the way back (my first trip there, and I immediately fell in love with the city), but also because I made a more concerted effort to see more of India. Included in this was my decision to leave our campus there (and the watchful eye of my dear friend Michelle) and wander into the chaos of a major religious holiday (Krishna's birthday, which has to be a post in and of itself very soon). In some ways it was my first true international experience, and one which profoundly changed my life (but more on that soon). Here are a couple slides of our students playing a game called carrom, which is a fun game that is sort of like table shuffle board (if that makes any sense). I'm showing it because it is one of those simple little moments that carry far more weight than you would think the would. Our students at the Mumbai campus were just so amazing - so respectful and so hungry for knowledge - that it, on a daily basis, reminded me of why I became a teacher in the first place.

Journey Through the Past: Amsterdam

So, I was always wondering why I got so many threatening messages from the Champlain College computer system in regards to what an absolute band-width pig (more on the appropriateness of this word later) I am. Granted, because of the Global Modules and the various administrative sides to my position - as well as a lot of class material and Powerpoints - I do have a lot of stuff stored on the college drive, but never as much as it seems would warrant my continual crimes against the college memory storage (and not even in a Proustian fashion). So, after scouting around, I found a wealth of old pictures that were hidden away within folders and subfolders. Actually, not only were they hidden away, they were completely forgotten. So, let me post some early (and rough) pictures of Amsterdam, that I thought were long lost. I think they were taken in 2002 or 2003, on the way back from either my first trip to Dubai (which I think is when they were taken, which would make this the fall of 2002) or my first trip to India (which I think would make this the early spring of 2003, and why can't I remember it?). Anyway, Amsterdam was the first city in Europe that I visited, and I liked it very much - maybe I'll post a story about fingernails tapping on a glass that I remember from Amsterdam soon (wow, I guess I really should edit these things in advance and not just type them as I go, because just mentioning the fingernails means that it was on the way back from India). Hmmm, although this might still be the fall of 2002 - I'll just have to ask my friend Michelle who has a great memory for these things. Oddly (or maybe not), the things that jumps out at me is how fat that guy in the wooden shoe is. OK, I've now determined that it was early spring 2003. I'll post more about the trip soon (as I try and jump-start my memory). I remember really liking Amsterdam quite a bit, and finding it not nearly as seedy as its sometimes portrayed.

Gandhi Samadhi

Still getting caught up on India and other posts. Here are some pictures of the Gandhi Samadhi, which is part of the lovely park right in the middle of the chaos of New Delhi. The park, which stretches for many tree-lined acres, provides a quiet retreat from the noise and chaos of the surrounding city. There are areas dedicated to Mohandas Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, as well as many other important figures in Indian history. By Indian standards I essentially had the place to myself, with the exception of a few winged friends.

The Q

Well, of all the odd adventures of the last few years, and there have been a few, I'm just embarking on arguably the oddest. Last week I moved into the brand new Quarry Hill Apartments in South Burlington, and will be serving as a Faculty In Resident for the next year. It's a new program at Champlain (based, obviously, on a very old model) or having faculty live with the students and provide some academic life lessons. My nice two bedroom apartment is on the fourth floor, and the other Faculty In Residence, my friend Mike Kelly, lives on the second floor - along with his wife, three kids and dog (more on them later - they're great). There are three RAs (all great kids) and Amanda from residence life, so I don't have to worry about writing anybody up or laying the smack down (I can just reserve that for my students in class). Instead, I'm responsible for academic programming, which should actually be both challenging and fun. I've already had a lot of my colleagues at Champlain volunteer to help out. I'm going to have the philosophers out when the students are all reading Plato's Republic in our Concepts of Community class and the literature folks out to discuss Othello, which is a required reading in our Concepts of the Self class. I'm also arranging visits from the faculty in charge of our different majors - for instance, my friends Scott and Tom are coming out this week to discuss International Business with the students here at Quarry Hill. Beyond that I have some open hours every week to meet the students and give them advice on school. I think it's actually going to be a lot of fun, and will probably inspire a fair bit of blogging. Although the place is officially called Quarry Hill, it has already been labelled "the Q" - so fill in the appropriate Star Trek joke of your choice. To get prepared I rewatched Goodbye Mr. Chips.