Today Tom and I went out for a bike ride. We did a 35 mile loop, heading to the Southwest to start and then coming back along an eastern leg and then a northern leg. The weather was pretty wet and cold yesterday, but it ended up being a gorgeous day. A perfect Iowa day. Little puffy clouds in a mostly brilliant blue sky. Tons of son, about 75 degrees. I got a little sunburned, despite applying sunscreen before I left. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. I have difficulty taking pictures because I fail to understand how I can capture a moment with a photo. Few photos can attempt to replicate the sensation of standing atop a hill surrounded by the vastness of rolling farmland. Tom and I spotted an interesting phenomenon a couple of times today: the wind blowing through fields of alfalfa creating undulations of color. It's a little disconcerting, because it almost feels like looking at a body of water. I like to think of it as a time lapse movie of a carpet. At every time slice you ruffle up the carpet differently, and when you stitch it all together you end up with an effect like the color gradations are rolling through the carpet.
When I was younger (before I went to college) the fam and I would occasionally take trips down to Iowa to visit family friends or to see my grandparents. More recently, my mom and I would come down to visit Tom when he was still going to school at the University of Iowa. Every time we would come down here, I would get this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had this feeling that Iowa was so far away from everything cool that I had to be missing out on something. I could be in New York City or Minnesota hanging with the homies, or taking some dope adventure somewhere or doing anything other than going to Iowa. Now I've been to New York City. I've spent a semester there. I had a good time, but here are some observations about NYC: 1. It's expensive and 2. it takes about and hour to bike to place where you can start taking a bike ride. As long as I don't have a car and I'm not making my own money, I don't think I'll ever truly feel at home in New York City. Strangely, I feel okay being here. I like it a lot, actually. No sinking feeling in my stomach. No longing for missed adventures. The adventure is here, right now. Playing physics in the afternoon, biking in the morning, drinking beer, chatting with my parents.
For those of you who are cursing me for not talking physics, I'm working on some more classical mechanics stuff. I'm going to solve the double pendulum problem, and then maybe move onto something involving E & M. I feel this need to solve all the differential equations we stated but never solved in my physics classes.
When I was younger (before I went to college) the fam and I would occasionally take trips down to Iowa to visit family friends or to see my grandparents. More recently, my mom and I would come down to visit Tom when he was still going to school at the University of Iowa. Every time we would come down here, I would get this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had this feeling that Iowa was so far away from everything cool that I had to be missing out on something. I could be in New York City or Minnesota hanging with the homies, or taking some dope adventure somewhere or doing anything other than going to Iowa. Now I've been to New York City. I've spent a semester there. I had a good time, but here are some observations about NYC: 1. It's expensive and 2. it takes about and hour to bike to place where you can start taking a bike ride. As long as I don't have a car and I'm not making my own money, I don't think I'll ever truly feel at home in New York City. Strangely, I feel okay being here. I like it a lot, actually. No sinking feeling in my stomach. No longing for missed adventures. The adventure is here, right now. Playing physics in the afternoon, biking in the morning, drinking beer, chatting with my parents.
For those of you who are cursing me for not talking physics, I'm working on some more classical mechanics stuff. I'm going to solve the double pendulum problem, and then maybe move onto something involving E & M. I feel this need to solve all the differential equations we stated but never solved in my physics classes.
No comments:
Post a Comment