Friday, May 29, 2009

Sprinkled on but not rained on

It was another spectacularly beautiful day until about 5:30.

I rode pretty hard for the riding that I did do. It was the shortest ride on the LOOK this year but it was still hard considering that a sprinkle hit me in the face while I was on the other side of the Fair Grounds. All miles ridden from that point on were ridden at full sprint.

Consequently I did not get a photograph while bicycling. I got a couple today at work though. Here are my much admired and highly coveted antique oak office chairs.These chairs are so highly thought of (as they deserve to be, these are great, great chairs) that practically the first thing that happened once word spread that I would be leaving the building was that random folks showed up and made comments about how nice those chairs are, obviously fishing for information about possible procurement. However, the chairs new location was finalized long ago. In fact, one of them is already in the cubicle of Guitar guy, Mars Volpatz. I had to go over there today and borrow it back in order to get this picture. Mars did me a major favor during the big carpet laying trauma of last spring and summer and I promised him these chairs in return. Of course, I suppose this is all dependent on no interference from the principals of the space committee.

How does a guy get such nice chairs? Well first you work there for a loooooong time. When I started I acquired a cubicle with a wooden chair, but a wooden chair with a ruined finish. A nice old chair but quite unattractive. Irv, in the cubicle across from me had a really nice chair. Soon enough Irv transferred to the Division of Waters. It was more or less understood that his chair was not being transferred so I prevailed upon him to trade chairs. So that's one. Then Karl got a job in Washington and left the building. I moved into his office to discover that Karl had had another really nice chair. They are not a matched pair but they have been fixtures in my office ever since.

Nice chairs or what?

Experts said don't plant that bush there. It will never bloom, it doesn't get enough sun.In the springtime there are no leaves on the ash tree that was shading this location when those judgments were made. No leaves means that the miniature lilac got plenty of sunlight.

Nice flowers or what?

4 comments:

gfr said...

Very nice chairs.

Do the miniature lilacs smell as good as the traditional ones? Like lilac pie?

Ash trees leaf out late. Yay, ash trees.

Anonymous said...

I did the research and can say definitively that the blossoms of the miniature lilac smell as good as the big lilacs, but you have to get your nose really close to the blossoms. No aroma permeates the air surrounding the bush. But, maybe when it grows a bit . . .
BB

Anonymous said...

If that bush is a 'dwarf korean lilac', as it appears to be, it should grow nicely into a 3-4' rounded shrub. While waiting at the local taco bell drive-thru yesterday, I was in finger-tip distance of a whole row of these beauties and the scent was lovely. Made the 7 minute wait quite tolerable. Give it lots of water the first two or three years, and it will grow well. Adequate water, not sunshine, is most often the limiting factor to good plant growth. Enjoy.
jilrubia

Unknown said...

I can verify Jillrubia's comment on the growth of the lilac. Ours is now about 5' high and wide and it has an awesome aroma.

Love the historical story of the chairs.

If passed along properly it could become a mythology, part of the basis of cubicle culture. In today's world these works of art definitely qualify as ancient objects of significance. They are, after all, more than 5 years old.

It starts this way: "Dude, somebody actually MADE these from trees."

marz volpotz