Of all the problems we deal with, I can't believe we so readily overlook "places to keep our dog while we shower at the rec center." It's also easy to forget that sometimes the best possible solution to this problem is a combination of solutions...like an I.V. drip or a bombpop. The dog goes on the clothes on top of the locker next to the backpack just below the sign that says no camera phones. This is a perfect solution. I think we can all agree.

Have you noticed how every time "Kung Fu Fighting" comes on, it always seems to be the perfect time for "Kung Fu Fighting" to be on? Phenomenology, maybe, but I have to believe in something more sound. Something like, "Kung Fu Fighting."

When I was a kid I loved the Foucault pendulum at the science center. As I grew up, it never occurred to me that Pendulum Foucault wasn't Phenomenology Foucault. How great was this guy, I'd say to myself, with all his ways of existing. But I know a lot more now than I did this morning. Leon Foucault was not Michel Foucault and was pretty rad in his own right. Eddy currents, gyroscopes, pendulums and light speeds. He did those things! I often wish I lived in world where swinging weights and playing with tops were still science experiments. Alas, they are nothing more now than office decoration and bad birthday presents.

It's hot. I wish it were less hot. But then I think of how wishes are usually limited in quantity and I take it back. I'm saving my wishes for something better.

But I do kind of wish it were less hot.

Walks. I've been on some. One day I came across a camp of migrant workers. I would have felt sad, but they were all so happy. I went back there a few days later to see them again. They were gone and my assumptions were correct. All there was was a pillow, a few t-shirts and little ways down the path, a blanket. These things aren't sad in a dresser or on a bed, or, even when someone is using them under the bridge the trail goes under, but they are sad here.

The clouds are all moving the wrong way today, but my typing is progressing as expected. So time travel, my initial and gut-based conclusion, is most likely not the answer why. What ever is going on, these clouds are going to be pissed when they see the Rocky Mountains again...

Hey Thanks Benjamin is the name of this blog. HEY THANKS BENJAMIN is the name of my manuscript. I used them both to try and score a job today. I hope it worked. I did make them sound very interesting.

Further Adventures will have a small but noticeable presence this Saturday, July 16th at the Iowa City Book Festival. 10am in front of the UI Main Library/Gibson Square. I walk/ride through that park everyday. I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time there and maybe talking to you. I'll have free stuff. Mostly free stuff, actually. I'm down to only a few books. You should say stop by and say hi. I'll say hi too. It will be a pleasant exchange.

I was recently at a place that looked like this. I went to see the Mississippi River, but found it less interesting than the place I was looking at it from. Alfred Caldwell designed this place. Alfred Caldwell designed other places too. Namely, the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool in Chicago. I've seen that too. Do you know about the Prairie School aesthetic? I do. Natural landscapes using native materials in an effort to mimic local ecosystems. Ecosystems take care of themselves. But we're not building ecosystems, we're building structures. Upkeep becomes necessary. We know this because we take showers and get haircuts. Most of Alfred Caldwell's parks have recently taken showers and gotten haircuts. And they're all pretty again. Hey, that's a fact!

And here's another one: Caldwell was hired by Mies van der Rohe to teach at IIT. This blog started with me being in a place called Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House.

Harold "Duke" Dejan used to tell you that "everything is lovely." You were often hesitant to believe this, but then, somehow, it just became true.

Sunsets like this definitely helped in that.

Kansas City A Go Go! Kansas City I Went Went! I'm sure there are many, many things to do in Kansas City, but I only did these things; ate BBQ at Oklahoma Joe's, saw many great things at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, including the museum itself, spent time with good people, and fell in love with condensed milk.

On the way home I stopped and looked at a bridge of Madison County. It was romantic as shit.

A haboob is a dust storm. A dust storm is really fucking scary. A haboob is a funny word to be scared of.

I drove around in the country yesterday. I picked some wild flowers. I walked in corn. I saw a huge fire. There was also a sunset and an unhitched trailer rolled over in a ditch that said "Funnel Cake" on its side. That's a funny way to make a funnel cake, I thought.

I also heard this really great song:


Do you know the reason why iced coffee costs more than regular coffee? I don't, but whatever it is, I bet it's stupid.