First scan
by Anton Zuiker on September 24, 2024
At some point in the last 10 years, I volunteered to be the family historian and archivist, so my father and mother have sent me many boxes of photographs, slides, negatives, transparencies, and Super-8 video reels. These images document my family, my childhood, my father’s Peace Corps service in the Dominican Republic, and even my grandfather’s travels in the 1940s.
There’s a lot of family history to organize and file away on the family tree.
I finally ordered a new flatbed scanner.
Today I unboxed an Epson Perfection V600 and reached to the stack of photos on my desk. On top was the image you see above, an instant photo of me and Erin in Provence taken by the proprietor of Maison º9 took during our stay at that lovely inn. That stay in Cassis was part of our memorable trip to France to celebrate our twentieth anniversary.
My plan is to spend this winter organizing the materials and scan what I can, blogging along the way.
A bye
by Anton Zuiker on September 23, 2024
A work day, and Oliver’s evening soccer game, and daily chores around the house, and other people and issues to focus on, so no blog post of substance tonight.
Sunday at the beach
by Anton Zuiker on September 22, 2024
Oliver joined me for an overnight trip to the Wilmington area so we could visit my brother, Joel, who is acting in a community-theater performance of a play called Shakers Revised, by the playwright Rose-Mary Harrington. Joel played two parts, and he was good. The play, about the start of the Shaker religious sect and its emigration to America, was interesting. I was reminded how a black-box theatre can be used to show and tell stories.
Before the play, Oliver and I walked through downtown Wilmington and along the river walk. It was beautiful evening and the city was humming with people on dates, lined up for the One Tree Hill reunions, or like us in search of ice cream.
This morning, after breakfast and goodbyes—Joel had a matinee performance to get to—Oliver and I went to Topsail Beach. The weather was perfect, the waves fun, and the beach not too crowded. So nice. In Surf City, we had lunch at Shaka Tacos, then headed home to Chapel Hill.
The drive to the coast is so easy, and with Joel there always willing to host me, I’m baffled why I don’t head that way more often.
Above and below
by Anton Zuiker on September 21, 2024
Nearly every week I get an email message from a colleague that uses the word ‘below’ as an adjective, such as the example below:
Your leaders received the below message a few days ago. Please amplify in your departments and units.
Or a sentence on a web page that began “The below map includes …
I’ve noticed that this makes me uneasy. I don’t like it. Below should come after, not before. Using below as an adjective is not wrong, though, according to this Grammarphobia post. Used to be rare, but still acceptable, and clearly rising in use.
Then, this morning, I read the latest issue of Ruhlman’s Newsletter and saw, beneath a photo of delicious-looking beans, this:
Beans! It’s fun to shout! BEANS! They’re good for the heart! I have a bowl of them beside me as I type these words, leftovers from the above dish, about which more below.
I’ve known Michael for 30 years. I’ve looked up to him and found inspiration and joy and learning from his books and articles and blog posts and newsletters. So if Michael is using these words in ways that feel uncomfortable to me, I oughta up give.
Seriously, I know language changes and evolves. Even that Grammarphobia post mentions how linguists change their minds.
I’ve been changing, too. I’ve been giving more attention to emotions and so have been mindful to how little changes—in my body’s temperature, for example—affect my nervous system and well-being. I’m better attuned, and more relaxed.
So, now I know how to skip over the above pet peeve.
On another note, Michael’s newsletter is entertaining and informative as ever, with a focus on beans and also a confession to “two epic kitchen failures.” What a coincidence! Earlier this week, I cooked a pot of Flageolet beans but I added too much salt and completely ruined the beans.
Lessons learned.
Night sounds
by Anton Zuiker on September 20, 2024
This last week I’ve been sleeping upstairs while Erin recovers from hand surgery—I’m a heavy sleeper, and I don’t want to roll over onto her stitched and bandaged finger—and each night I open the window so I can feel the cool air and listen to the forest.
I’ve heard the barred owls plenty, and the other night I heard a pack of coyotes near the chicken coop.
I texted Sid, a friend who hunts deer on our land each fall and who set up a critter cam, if he’d gotten any photos of the coyote. No, but he’s seen “about 10 raccoons in there” and he’s gotten the fox a few times and also the kitten trying to get a squirrel. I’m sure he’s seen a lot of deer, too, gathering under the oak trees to eat fallen acorns and the corn he’s spread.
Right now I hear crickets and other insects. I image the bats are flying above, feasting on bugs.