The Life of a Mathematician

On Friday I got a haircut. The barber shop also sells antiques and art. The guy that owns it does photography along with a little bit of painting. He used to be an engineer, and his favorite subjects are engineering and motorcycles. He was showing me a new technique they have for prints: There's a printer that actually puts paint onto canvas, so that the finished product looks like a painting. In a way I guess it is a painting, but it's done by machine. He showed me an example of the canvas print next to the photograph it was based on; the print looks a lot better because of the texture and depth.

Yesterday I helped move a large pile of broken drywall into a trailer to be hauled off. I was the wheelbarrow operator. It took about three hours. It's been hot recently, but we had cloud cover for a lot of that time.

Last night we had dinner with Mr. Nickel -- and his wife, who is finally back in town after being gone for about 4 months. We played Bocce Ball in the backyard. It's sort of a cross between croquet, bowling and horseshoes. One of the families had a ten-year-old named Nathaniel who was very enthusiastic about the game.