Three seemingly unrelated tales of environmental misunderstanding…

When I was playing disc golf at Furman Sunday afternoon I noticed something unusual. There were weeds everywhere and the place looked badly overgrown. This was most noticeable around several of the park benches and picnic tables around the lake.

Furman usually keeps immaculate grounds. Not a blade of grass is left too long, nor leaf left to clutter the green grass. With students returning and so many families on campus, I couldn’t understand why things were left like this. I figured cut-backs on maintenance were much greater than I had thought.

When I got home and mentioned this to Laura, she set me straight. This is part of Furman’s sustainability program, and the intent is to let portions of the lake shoreline return to a more “natural state.” Of course, one of my fellow alumni and Facebook friends pointed out that this is a man-made lake, so how could it be natural. My reply was that it probably focuses on saving fuel by not cutting down the weeds.

I was only partially correct. What looks like weeds to me are actually carefully selected natural plants, following an extensive landscaping plan. The plan is to create a wildflower meadow along the banks. While the flowers aren’t in bloom, they do look like weeds.

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Back last spring Furman University put up an official disc golf course.  Sunday was a beautiful (albeit, hot) day, so I decided to spend the afternoon playing a round.

Background

As a student here a quarter of a century ago we played quite a lot of Frisbee golf.  We used standard-sized Frisbees (there was no other brand) and picked a target for our next hole, be it a tree, bench, or hapless passer-by.  Then we would estimate how many throws it would take to get there, and that would be our par.  It was informal, but it worked.

Furman took its first steps toward an official course about fifteen years ago.  This first venture was wasn’t much more than what we had done when I was a student.  A map was drawn up indicating which objects (again, mostly trees) would be used as targets.  The course wound around the mall and PAC building, for the most part.

A few years ago there was an attempt to create a true course on campus, but for whatever reason, that didn’t go through.  Finally, in February of this year it was announced that the course would be built. (more…)

It’s been a busy weekend. First there was the dedication for the new Townes Science Center at Furman on Friday, then there was a birthday party for my mother’s 80th birthday on Saturday.

The Townes Science Center is named for Charles Hard Townes, Nobel Prize winner for his pioneering work on maser and laser technology. Programs for the ceremony as well as banners hung around the site featured Townes’ hand-written formula that led to the invention of the laser. The new center consists of a remodeled Plyler Science Building and two additional wings for even more space. It houses the departments of chemistry, physics, biology, and Earth sciences.

There was a dedication ceremony with several speakers, including President Shi, Charles and Francis Townes, and our good friend Brian Geoss. After the ceremonies, attendees were treated to a tour of the new facility. I loved the new Timmons Planetarium, and it was nice to see everything so clean and nice after two years of construction. I was even able to say hello to the Townes, and to meet Richard Riley, former governor and Secretary of Education under Clinton. Below are a few shots from the event:

It was great being there for the dedication, but it really messed up our Halloween. I feel like the holiday slipped right past us this year. We didn’t even get to see any Trick-or-Treaters.

Saturday we had a party for my mom’s 80th birthday, which was last week. My entire family gathered at the Gray Court house for a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner. As is the habit with my family, we gathered for singing, then Frisbee and football out in the yard. It was a great day for a great party.

It’s hard to believe the years have passed so quickly.  This weekend was Homecoming at Furman, and my 25th Reunion. There seems to be a core group of my classmates that attend these reunions.  This wasn’t really the group I hung out with while at Furman, and my friends have been spread out over several years, so we have tended to do our own thing at various Homecoming reunions.

Since this was a biggie, though, Laura and I decided to do the entire thing, and had tickets for a cookout Friday night, breakfast Saturday morning, a luncheon, then a reunion dinner in the evening.  My friend Dwight was coming up Friday to spend the night with us and join in the activities.  In addition to our 25th reunion, this year marks 50 years that Furman has been located on its present campus.  There was much to celebrate, and lots of events planned.

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My photo collage, Elements, was hung in the Furman Chemistry offices just in time for the Homecoming weekend.  It turned out very well, and black and white was the appropriate choice for the rich red wall on which it’s hanging.

We had a time getting this thing framed.  Each of the photos is 13″ X 19 “.  Given the amount of matting we wanted to use, we would need a 45″ X 32 ” matte.  The largest we could find available was 40″ X 32″, so we had to crop and re-center everything.

Once we got the correct matte, glass and frame, we had to cut the four panels for the images.  That also turned out to be a challenge.  Cutting for a single images is much more forgiving than for four, so we had to go back in with a razor and clean up a couple of gaffs.  We had a spare matte just in case we made a really bad goof.

We put everthing together, then after a day of leaning against a wall, the images began to separate from the matte and warp.  The size of the frame left a lot of unsupported real estate.  We either needed to add slats, or stiffer backing material.  A sheet of form core provided enough support.

The photos were hung without any labels.  The Chemistry Department decided to leave it as a type of Rorschach test to see if folks could figure it out.