A Random Week to an "Ever Better" Weekend

Looking back at my pictures from the last week and a half, I was struck with the randomness of it all.  I can't say we've had a lot happening, but I guess we've tried to make the most of the small moments!

A week ago last Friday, I went on a tour of the UR laser lab.  It's in the building next door to my office, so it was nice to finally see what was inside.  I've heard about amazing things coming out of there, and in fact two physicists with UR ties won the Nobel Prize a few years ago based on work done there.  While 95% of what was shared during the tour went completely over my head, it was really cool to know there are science people who thrive on this stuff and are working to find better ways to use lasers for lots of practical applications.

It's hard to see but there's a giant sphere under this structure that houses the target for the lasers in this room.  This is one of the most powerful lasers in the world, with just four beams.  There are a lot of amplifiers housed in tubes that get it to full power.  

This was leading to a different laser target in a separate space.  I believe this one had 60 laser beams, but the cumulative effect apparently still wasn't as powerful as the other one.  But each of those tubes contains a beam and amplifies it. 

You can see here a better view of what houses the target.  There's a sphere on the right and if you look close you can see numbered openings that let the lasers in from redirects all over the room.  Mind-boggling.

That weekend we managed to squeeze in one more mini golf outing before the weather went back down the tubes.  We still had the second game of BOGO passes we bought last summer for the courses down in Henrietta, and I wanted to use it before they changed the rules or something.  We played the course we didn't play last time.  The other one was more of a rustic mining theme, and this one was beautifully landscaped with a castle and (like our usual course) a giraffe.  It was a tough and questionably constructed course.  I think they must have once been sued for someone tripping over the course border, because there was an area on each hole (usually right behind the hole) where the edge was super shallow...and the ball popped out there every time, even with not much speed.  You can see it to Jacob's left if you zoom in below.  We stopped penalizing pretty quicky, but it was a challenge!

Those yellow flowers were so cool.

Maybe fall isn't so bad!

I basically had the game of my life and won.  Jacob and I were in heated competition until he blew one hole in particular and he ended up a handful of strokes behind.  Craig did not do well at all, and Carter--despite playing pretty well and hitting some awesome shots--was so discouraged.  As a whole he's not bad, but he always has a couple holes that he maxes out and those usually do him in.  I keep trying to remind him that I spent my entire childhood playing mini golf with actual golfers so I always lost by a ton.  It was discouraging, but look at me now!  Hopefully someday he sees a little more success, because he's actually not that bad considering his style is very casual--sometimes I don't think he even aims! 

Speaking of Carter, here's a random picture of him that I love!  This is from after I hung the finished diamond painting over my bed.  I was trying to get a picture of the finished product (and decide if it needed something flanking it on the sides) and he photobombed me!  But how could I not capture this moment--my bed is made and my son is adorable!  But how did he get so big?!

I swear the picture actually matches a bit more than this shows.  The rusty reds in the comforter match the picture well.  Still undecided what to do on the sides--not sure candles will work since there are already uplights just off the sides of the photos.

I had a second dahlia pop out last week, and it was lovely.  This was right after it opened.  I love how the petals are streaky! 

Here's how it looked later in the week.  The lighting is different but the pink had definitely filled in more.

Last week Carter and I watched together as the DART mission crash-landed a spacecraft into an asteroid to try to knock it off orbit in a test for when an asteroid might head toward earth.  It was neat to watch it live, and this was the view right before it crashed.  Look at that asteroid surface!

Not sure why the screen looks so blue, but it's pretty cool anyway.

Carter wasn't convinced at the beginning but got more interested as everything started coming into focus, and then he kept telling Craig and Jacob (who were not interested in coming upstairs) that they were missing out!  It was fun to share that with him, though.  I guess we still won't know for a bit if it was successful. 

I've been very lax about going out to the yard since we got back from Florida.  Part of it is the weather--it's been cold and rainy a lot of the time, and even when it's not raining, it's damp.  If it's not sunny, cool and cloudy isn't really motivating to get me outside, and now I'm just out of the habit.  But a frost was coming last week and I knew I needed to get out there to salvage the last round of tomatoes and whatever else was there.  I picked a bunch of beans and a few cukes (another giant one, ugh), plus probably a cup and a half of tomatoes.  I was shocked by some of the randomness happening in the yard.  My front variegated weigela bush had flowers (four months late), my hosta had more new flowers (the last ones were spent in probably early August), and those last two late-arriving hydrangea blossoms were still going strong.  I don't know how all of that was happening since it hadn't even been warm.  Usually that happens when it's been cool and then gets warm again.  We haven't really had much of that, so who knows.  But given all the rain, I found a couple of these. 

After the fun I had photographing a flower from below in the spring, I decided to do it with the mushroom, as I remembered ones like this tend to have a cool underside.  This one seemed to have been sampled by an animal or something, but it still turned out sort of cool.

Oh, and I also found another dahlia hiding back there in one of my pots.  Those plants did nothing all summer and then I finally got a little something--though not quite what was on the package!  Still pretty, though.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been sick since last Wednesday.  It got better late Wednesday night after the initial onslaught, to the point of just feeling like a normal cold, but it has varied quite a bit ever since.  I went from feeling functional on Friday, to my nose being a faucet Friday night, to almost normal Saturday--well, normal in that one sinus was quite blocked but the other was fine, so I could breathe through the good nostril without sounding sick.  I did the Netipot Sunday night, which made me feel almost normal through the night, but now the last couple days have been ramping up the sinus pressure again, without much luck in the nose-blowing department.  Tuesday night I took a Sudafed (nothing else seemed to do much, so I figured it was something new) and turned into a sneezy mess for a couple hours again, just like last Wednesday.  I sent a note to my doctor on Monday to see if they thought the one-sidedness was a sinus infection, and finally made an appointment for Thursday since Tuesday night was awful and the congestion is hanging in there.  I'm almost positive this is a sinus infection.  It's very reminiscent of my last one, from the focus on one sinus and the "wall" that seems to be in that one sinus, to the way it seems like it's getting better one day and goes right down the tubes the next.  I do not plan on letting this one go for two months, but let's see what happens!  Maybe I can get medicine in the meantime and then need to consider talking to the ENT again to see why this one-sided thing is happening and prevent more infections, because too many antibiotics aren't good.  I've already had two this year from my tick bite and from when my doctor thought my long COVID headache (or so it seems) was a sinus infection.  Either way, I'm over all of this.

Despite my illness, I had to work all weekend for Meliora Weekend.  In case I never mentioned it, "Meliora" is UR's motto and means "Ever Better", hence the title of this post.  The boys were off to Boston so I ended up allowing myself to be pretty solidly booked both Friday and Saturday.  Before I get into that, the boys' weekend was a little hectic due to some miscommunications and navigation failures, but Jacob's cold and injuries let up and he had a pretty decent weekend, including one nine-point game.  Carter was entertained by the arcade, and they made two trips to Wahlburger's (and brought me back souvenirs), so all in all not a bad trip for them.  Now a couple weeks off before we go on the big travel streak.

Meanwhile, back at home, I busted through some work projects Friday morning before spending my afternoon into the evening at the Eastman School of Music working registration.  It was a long shift, but in the middle of it I got to see 50th reunion alumni receive a special medallion gift, plus three special performances to close out the ceremony.  This marimba performance was absolutely riveting.  I was just fascinated by how beautiful the sound was in that space and how masterful the musicians were, each with two mallets per hand.  

There was a series of three piano performances with two people sitting at the same piano, which was lovely, and then the chorale came out and performed a couple songs. The first one was incredible--it sounded like an old hymn, but upon further investigation, it's actually a more modern spiritual that's only about 30 years old.  I absolutely adored it, though, and the talent singing it was insane.
 

Once my shift ended, it was right around sunset and I was greeted outside with the makings of a good one.  I walked across the street to where they had set up a tent for a special celebration for Eastman's centennial.  It looked so elegant, and the clear ceiling was perfect for the sunset!

Even the reverse view was lovely.  Note the fun crosswalks!  They even have a way to sometimes make them make music, ala the floor piano scene in "Big".

Back across the street, of course I had to stop in and see the Chihuly...again.  But I almost never get to see it at night--this was only the second time ever, I think, and the first time in probably five years--so I was excited to get some better pictures with it illuminated.  And it definitely did not disappoint.  

As I worked my way upstairs (there are three floors in that atrium), I noticed out the window that the sunset was getting even more colorful.  I couldn't believe my luck!  I had the space basically to myself with this amazing Chihuly and an incredible sunset!

The higher I went, the less I had to zoom, which meant better pictures.  And the darker it got outside, the whiter the lighter pieces looked.  There is a lot of gold in this chandelier, and I will say that the first few pics I took looked more like the white had gone yellow, but the more contrast they had as the ceiling skylight got darker, the whiter everything became, which I think honestly just looks cleaner.  

While I was up on the third floor, I took a little detour and peeked into Kodak Hall.  Again, it's been years since I had been in there.  I didn't linger since they were preparing for a concert, but I did snap a pic.  That chandelier is amazing, as is the gold piece above it on the ceiling.  It's just such elegance all around.

By the time I came back out, the sunset was even better.  

And on my way back down I had to take my favorite shot--as gorgeous as the whole piece is, this bottom view just gets me every time!

I could have stayed there all night, but the sunset was getting even better!  By the time I got out there, it looked like this!

I just missed getting a different picture of it on the drive home.  It had turned into one very orange stripe, one very yellow (almost greenish) stripe, and a stripe of gray clouds.  I just couldn't quite get a good spot to capture it, but what a show the sky put on.  I probably said, "Are you kidding me?" about a dozen times throughout that whole escapade, like how did I get so lucky to keep seeing even more amazingly photogenic scenes?  I mean, the sunset alone would have been great, or the centennial setup or the Chihuly, but to have it all happening together and the sunset continuing to get more interesting?  It was incredible!

The next day I had another four-hour Eastman shift followed by a three-hour reunion dinner shift.  This time I got to poke my head in on a Brass Cavalcade concert, which was definitely a new one for me to see something with nearly all brass instruments (save for a little percussion).  This concert hall has many similarities to Kodak Hall, but is much more intimate.  The wood paneling and the classic light fixtures are enchanting. 
  

I ate some cold pizza in my car, as I drove over to the River Campus.  I worked my three-hour shift at a 25th anniversary dinner (three-year preview for me--haha) and had the pleasure of catching up with a colleague who's also a neighbor.  I had sort of seen her around a few times, and then we confirmed over the summer that we live around the block from each other.  Her house is right on my mile walking loop.  We also figured out that she was an Amerks intern for the ticket department back when I still worked there.  Such a small world!  While we were waiting for the dinner to start, I caught some color on the edge of the Hirst Lounge windows out of the corner of my eye, and sure enough, amazing things were happening outside again!

I ran out to the quad to catch an unobstructed picture, too.  I mean, seriously?  Two nights in a row?  I just love this one with all the balloons!

On Sunday I had a lengthy to-do list considering I still wasn't feeling fantastic.  I watched church from my bed, cleaned the bathroom, went to the Hilton Apple Fest (first time it happened since COVID) on an unsuccessful quest for lunch (sold out of the stuff I wanted) and glass pumpkins (vendor wasn't there), made a stop at Kohl's, then back for a lot of vacuuming before the boys got home.  I made us all dinner after that, but ran out of energy before I got the Halloween decor out.  It was a pretty busy day all things considered, which obviously made Monday a bit of a challenge.  But it's a short week to be off with Carter on Friday and a half day with both boys on Monday.  And we have a fun evening planned on Friday, my family's Oktoberfest on Saturday, and hopefully off to the pumpkin patch Sunday.  Fall is apparently not for the weak--so hopefully I'm feeling better soon so I can enjoy it to the fullest!