John Scholvin

John Scholvin

still can’t fit a half-stack in the trunk

02 Nov 2024

cattle not pets

some ansible code This post is primarily to prove out the new server I built for this blog this week. I need to make sure the content management system I use, Hugo, is configured properly, as well as the various other subsystems that make the machin...
26 Oct 2024

26.2

I knew it was hopeless. At 3:15, I reached up to turn on the little halogen lights in the headboard, then reached over to pick up my phone and turn off the alarm. 5:00 would get here soon enough. That’s the thing about events that play out over exce...
26 Oct 2024

marathon details

For the real running nerds out there, or the morbidly curious, here’s a detailed recap of the race, mile-by-mile. This might make more sense with the map in front of you. Marathon Route 2024 And a preemptive, general note: at no point did I wet my pa...
15 Sep 2024

running past graveyards

Waldheim Cemetery It’s hard to avoid them. The western part of Cook County is essentially one long band of cemeteries running north-south at approximately the longitude of the Des Plaines River. Presumably, about 200 years ago, shortly after c...
30 Jun 2024

catching up

Cassiopeia A (see footnote 1) I kinda feel like I lost the first half of this year. The first four months were largely consumed by taking care of my dad, and then the next two in dealing with the aftermath (emotional, logistical, financial) of his p...
28 Apr 2024

the rally

hospice window People who know their way around the hospice experience will tell you about “the rally,” or the bounce-back. Terminal lucidity is the more formal name. For reasons science can’t speak to definitively (though there are theories), patie...
14 Feb 2024

1IL2

1IL2 -> 4IS3 Dad heard it first. “What the hell is that?” I wasn’t entirely sure right away, either, but it was obviously coming from outside. A repetitive, mechanical thumping sound, distant yet growing steadily louder. Was it some piece of main...
05 Feb 2024

write me when you get there

photo by Aaron Burden via Unsplash I don’t know where I saw it today. I was idly skimming around the internet, wasting time while waiting for some long-running job to fail and issue a series of cryptic error messages that would take me the next hour...
21 Dec 2023

solstice '23

from a window seat It turns out that the actual solstice doesn’t occur until 9:27 CST tonight. I thought I’d missed it. Most of us think of this day, December 21st, as the “winter solstice,” and this day is over. It’s been dark for two hours. But in...
18 Jul 2023

wet bulb

‘wet bulb’ trending I was the kid with weird science kits. Chemistry sets, electronics kits, mechanical toys of all varieties. I even remember an architecture kit where I learned about cantilevers and spans by snapping little plastic I-b...