There goes the sun

First day of fall. Cool temps, but gloomy skies in Pittsburgh after a rainy night. Last bouquet of summer (mint, calla and papyrus) is fading in my kitchen and quince fruits are ripening, but I have no idea what to do with them. Rats.

Bouquet in a crystal vase. (Katy Buchanan)

Quince from my garden.
A long time ago, I had a lipstick named "Clear Quince."
At the time, I had no idea what that meant,
but looking at the rose tint on the fruit, now, I get it.
(Also, I would never wear that color again,
lovely, but not me anymore.) (Katy Buchanan)

In the words of Charles Schulz's beloved character Linus, "Summers always fly, winters walk."

Even though the days are getting shorter (ugh, I hate when it gets dark by 4 o'clock) the light of the fading year is really pretty. Something about the way the sun's rays slant and how they bounce off those pretty red and gold leaves in the green grass. 

Only eight-ish months to go til Memorial Day.

Wonderland

So, reviewing some of my work at the Pittsburgh Post-
Gazette. What I can take credit for here is the typography and the photo illustration. The native art for this story was the geeky guy wearing VR gear from the company selling it. That was it. Thankfully, my employer had a subscription to a stock photo/image service. So it was pretty cool to meld the VR guy with the stock illustration. Also, I love stretching type. Also, credit due to  istockphoto.

Addendum to this post on 09122018; I like the art, but upon further review, the layout needs more work. That sidebar did not need such prominence, but story placement is an ongoing issue in a world where the print product is shrinking. So, my insecurities as a designer, coupled with the section editor's (imposed from above) priorities for front page story count equal .... erm ... something that could have been better. Anyway, I still like the photo illustration. If I had a do-over, the sidebar would vanish, the headline would be centered and there would be nice white space around the type of that centerpiece package. It would be a much more interesting cover.

I guess I'll just go ... crazy tonight

Weird Northeast summer in 2018.

Totally soaked in June, parched and hot in July, kind of a mix in August and now bizarro September, which has gone from a muggy 90-or-so degrees on Wednesday to  a dreary, rainy 55-or-so degrees late Saturday and early Sunday
. I hope we get golden fall with clear blue skies. Lord knows there will be more than enough grey and gloom from November through February.

Mt. Lebanon, PA, September 8, 2018

And yet, late afternoon, kids playing on the street in the downpour, yelling and shouting. 

Puts me in mind of this lovely song, featured in the 2011 movie "Bridesmaids." But this is an earlier artist, Irma Thomas

And, lastly, thinking of the people in the Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico and Houston who suffered so much at this time last year when Maria, Irma and Harvey barreled in south of here.

Coda to summer, Dormont Pool

This photo is from 2017, the Dormont Pool, Pittsburgh, PA

Didn't make it to the pool on Labor Day 2018, even though it's one of my favorite places in the world. Have been swimming there since the early 1980s when we bought our first house, in Dormont. Interesting to see how it has changed over the years. For example, now it seems lifeguards are hired outside; I don't know, but they are very professional, not high school kids sitting on tall chairs. They stand, with rescue equipment.

Dormont Pool, Sept. 2017

The diving boards are long gone, but there's a fun slide and a kind of giant mushroom thing in the kids' end that has a water spray coming out of it. There are two old, heavy turnstyles when you go in, with a check-in counter in the middle of them. $7 if you are not a resident (as I am these days). Behind that is the lifeguard’s room. Usually you can hear them chatting.

For a long time, there was a woman who swam there, older than me, who had the oddest crawl stroke. Her right arm was always fully extended, but her left never made it above water. In the winter, I would see her doing laps about the time that I did, early morning, at the South Hills JCC. Haven’t seen her in years; she seemed so dedicated. I found out at the JCC that her name was Sue, but never met her personally.

Despite the updates over the years, the women’s locker room still has that cavernous, chlorine-y, concrete-y kind of feeling. The ceiling is low. There are a few changing booths, a couple of bathroom stalls, a couple of shower stalls, a bunch of 25 cent lockers and two benches. Two sinks with raggedy mirrors. Fluorescent lighting that is not great. Almost always when I'm there are moms with kids, trying to figure out getting dressed or un. And then you walk out to the pool, through of this kind of cool, short tunnel to the main patio, with the gorgeous blue expanse of the water waiting for you.

The beach, green grass and clover, is long but not deep. There is also a second beach, which is the sloped descent into the pool, all parallel to Banksville Road (fortunately there are hedges). Lots of pool goers just park themselves on the second beach and enjoy being cool with toes and legs in the bright water. I like it for doing leg kicks after my laps are done.

One other change over the years, lots of people with tattoos. Lots.

I’m glad Dormont has been able to keep this going. Given how wet the summer of 2018 was, I’m sure the borough lost money on it.

The mural in the women's locker room at Dormont Pool was added within the past 10 years. http://friendsofdormontpool.org/

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Cat Who Won't Sit On My Lap, But Happy To Park Himself On The Sunday New York Times ... Print Edition!

Just a few words ... I love print and will never stop loving it. To those who say it is dead, I say you are not creative enough (and I am aware of the irony of making this statement in such an ethereal medium). My cat enjoys the Sunday paper, too. He is most comfortable enjoying it in his own way (that is, parking his furry behind on a four-page NYT spread for a very pricey real estate development, something RH). 

Cat who won't sit on my lap tromps on the Sunday paper.

Lorain County, Ohio

Not a fan of the place my family landed in the late 1960s. I didn't have a choice, because I was a youngster and Dad and Mom were looking for a place to settle, after years of the Army life of moving, moving, moving. We had lived in interesting places -- Washington, D.C., Orleans, France. Not that I could take advantage of what those places offered, but my parents could, and did, and did so for us kids, too.

When we did end up in a northeast Ohio auto factory town, I was at the age to go to high school. My peers all had known each other since birth, practically. I was an outsider. That didn't make me special ... anyone could have been an outsider. But me it was, sibs, too. I did not enjoy the experience and, after college and one year back, left with no regrets.

Black River view at Bur Oak in Sheffield Village, Ohio.
August 19, 2018. (Photo by Katy Buchanan)

My family, Mom, Dad and some sibs, stayed and it turns out that this little town, though I will never live in it again, has grown in ways that I care about (I know, why does my opinion matter?). Lorain County, Ohio, has a remarkable parks system. A beautiful marsh at Sandy Ridge, a gorgeous walk at Bur Oak and a deeply satisfying wood experience at French Creek.

Every time I come home, I enjoy these places.

Turns out (Mom tells me) my family almost might have moved to Oregon after Dad retired from the Army in the late 1960s. That might have been great, but the smaller 'green' story of a Lake Erie county in Ohio is pretty cool.

I'm a fan of public transit

Regarding the Station Square derailment on Sunday 8/5/18 in Pittsburgh

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2018/08/05/Freight-Train-derails-Pittsburgh-Station-Square-South-Side/stories/201808050144

There was a recent photo essay in the Guardian, posted on FB by others, about the "melancholy" jobs of Pittsburgh parking lot attendants (Search 'melancholy isolation'). It started with these words: "Given Pittsburgh’s poor public transport, many commuters choose to drive. Tom M Johnson photographs the city’s parking attendants in the confines of their booths." A commenter to that article described the Light Rail system as "going nowhere."

Now we have the reality of an awful lot of nowhere and nobodies being affected for a long time. I did not respond to that comment, but as someone who has used the Pittsurgh transit system consistently since the 1980s, and who recognizes its drawbacks, I really dislike the Guardian article's description of the public transit system as "poor" and of the commenter's description of Light Rail as "going nowhere."

I'm not up on the funding, though I have read that a lawsuit over fees that the PA Turnpike must pay to Port Authority and SEPTA is delaying some revenue, but I can't help but think that anything that gets more cars off the road is worthwhile.

I agree that travel by bus with various transfers is time consuming and draining. (Would I do it to get from South Hills to Oakland? No, not now. On the 44U express, though, I most definitely would have. That route is history, unfortunately, as is the PATrain). But I'd appreciate a discussion of how that is less time-consuming and draining than sitting in endless traffic jams of one car, one person. 


One advantage of the transit system here (and elsewhere) is the East Busway and the Light Rail operate outside of car traffic. There are problems (disoriented driver on the EBA), and near disasters, (like Sunday's on the LRT), but in general, they serve well to keep a few more cars off the road. And I always appreciated the time to read, study or just watch the passing scenery without having to focus on the traffic around me.

 There is a giant rabbit hole of laws passed by Congress adressing transportation funding, starting with Ice Tea, (at least in my memory) but it's hard to figure out what they have to do with double stack trains (fewer trucks on the highway. Sounds good, but what about safety?)

(Written but someone who hates to drive.)