cleveland posts page 2

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Went on a riverboat cruise down the Cuyahoga. More industrial and history focused than cruises I’ve gone on in the past, which were mostly wildlife focused. Learned plenty of interesting things about the history of the river, bridges, shipping, the steel and other industries there, the fires and pollution, and the park and restoration plans. We got to see some of the steel operations including an ore bridge in grabbing and dropping stuff for a blast furnace. The operator saw us and did a demo pick-up and drop right by the river. It was pretty cool. Also saw a kind of heron I’ve never seen before. We went along almost the entire six miles from the lake to the end of the shipping route. I was there with my parents, brother, and his girlfriend in celebration of my brother’s looming birthday.

Givecamp 2016 day 1

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First day of GiveCamp 2016. Working on the Cleveland Garlic Festival website. Seems like it’s going to be another relatively easy one, as I think the last few have been. We are rebuilding the site to run on WordPress and be responsive, plus other general improvements as we go. I’m on a team of four plus one organization representative. Things are going smoothly.

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Long day downtown today (yesterday). I took the day off for the Cavs parade, then went to an Indians game after. I may post more later, but to summarize: packed rapid transit, lots and lots of people, lots of waiting, lots of sun, hot, lots of walking, lots of garbage, saw a few Cavs players from afar, kinda heard some speeches, confetti and loud fireworks, saw people running from what turned out to be gunshots, large colorful animal statues, kid running across baseball field and climbing home run wall to escape into stands.

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Woo, the Cleveland curse broken after 52 years. Such a close game all the way to the end. Stressful, back and forth. Worked out that the Cavs were ahead at the end. A battle. Something for the Cleveland 52 years in the making. Don’t know if this will change things for the future of the city and area, but it at least changes something of the feeling that being a Clevelander / Northeast Ohioan is.

Cavs

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I think I’ve watched or listened to more basketball this playoff season than in any previous entire season. Last year I watched the finals but this year I’ve been more into it. It has been surprisingly time consuming, especially when I get caught up in the pre-/post-game news and speculation. It has been rather stressful, even when the Cavs win, especially these finals. It is easy to get caught up in the game and want the local team to win. It can feel like their identity is part of my identity and their success is part of my success, in part because of the city’s renowned “Cleveland curse” and broader “rustbelt” identity against a desire for the area to succeed. I sometimes have to remind myself that their game is not my game and their success is not my success. It can feel great when they succeed and might have an influence on the city’s morale, but it is unrelated to success in my own life. Just watching the games has been entertaining, some of the plays and records broken have been exciting, and so has how far the Cavs have come against expectations. If they lose game 7, I think it was still worth it to watch. That said, I do hope the Cavs defy the odds and finally break the “Cleveland curse”. Go Cavs.

House fire down the street

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To continue with my fire theme (see Van fire), I was awoken around 0500 to the sound of some yelling and then some fire trucks. I couldn’t see any fire or smoke from my bedroom window, but could see the trucks and firefighters and neighbors outside. I could hear some talking and at one point chopping and breaking glass. There were so many fire trucks with flashing lights that a red glow came through the curtain, reminding me of a certain Seinfeld episode. They took up like half the block parked along the street. One firetruck parked right in front of our house. They were there for a couple hours probably and kept me awake for at least that long (I often have trouble falling asleep). The event got a brief blurb and video on the channel 5 website.