We only got to three places today, partially because we're being cautious about my gimpy knee, and partially because, well, there's a really good story at the end of this blog entry.
(Please note that every thing is relative; it is a "really good" story for this blog, but most people would read it and say, "Um, OK, whatever, you guys are weird.")
The first stop today was Stauffer I, II, and III, which are three older engineering buildings near the computer science building. As we ran by, we passed the first building, and we weren't sure whether it was I or III. We'd run by before, and we knew that they were in order, but we didn't know whether the direction from which we approached them meant they were ascending or descending. We passed the first building, and Ira thought it was III. We could see the second building by then, and we saw that the sign said "II". He said, "See?" and then realized that the fact that the second building was II gave us no mathematical information about the other two buildings. Silly Ira. Though he was right that the building we passed was III. In any event, these aren't the most picturesque buildings, but today's run didn't hit a lot of beautiful architectural highlights.
We thought our next stop was ridiculous; it's listed on the map as Storage Buildings, as if this is the only place on the whole campus where anything is stored. They are, in actuality, just a bunch of those metal shipping bins that you see on freight ships. Well, there was a lot of chain link fence and other stuff, but certainly not a sign that said "Storage Buildings" or, in fact, any sign whatsoever. I'm not sure the map-maker should have included this as a place on the map at all.
Next, it was back across campus to behind the Cowell Cluster for Student Housing Management. We had one big quibble with this listing, dear map-maker. The sign on the front of the building says something like "R&DE Housing Management" or something like that. "R&DE" stands for "residence and dining enterprises", something I had to look up. I'm not sure that anyone would ever find this building under the S's, since you'd probably first looking up "Housing", then maybe "Residences", then maybe "Management", then maybe "Housing." Isn't the goal of listing all the buildings to allow someone to lookup and find a building? Our visit to this building was saved by the fact that nearby there was a woman training the world's cutest golden retriever puppy. You know those little adorable puppies that are so young and tiny and fluffy and cuddly? Well, we ran by one twice.
So, we've adopted some rules in our alphabetical adventure. One of them is that we can't ask anyone for directions or help finding a building. If I've got my phone on me, we can look it up, but that's it, and we try to avoid even doing that. We intended to visit one more building today, the Student Services Building, but notice that I didn't put it in bold, because today we had our first failed attempt in the entire journey.
We knew the building was behind Munger, the new dorm across the street from our ending point. Ira thought he knew what building it was, but we couldn't find a sign that said "Student Services." We ran inside one of the buildings and there was a guy at an information desk, who clearly saw us walking around inside this building looking for something. He said "Can I help you find something?" Ira replied "Actually, I don't think you can." And then we walked out. It was pretty darn funny.
We decided to abort our mission and call it a day. It was an easy decision, since this building is so close to where we'll start the our next run on Saturday. We won't have to backtrack at all, and at least we got a good story out of it. I'm still not sure why this one random building merits an informational help desk. Bizarre. That must be a pretty boring job. I hope we brightened his day.
Distance: 3.7 miles today, bringing us to 162.5 total
(Please note that every thing is relative; it is a "really good" story for this blog, but most people would read it and say, "Um, OK, whatever, you guys are weird.")
The first stop today was Stauffer I, II, and III, which are three older engineering buildings near the computer science building. As we ran by, we passed the first building, and we weren't sure whether it was I or III. We'd run by before, and we knew that they were in order, but we didn't know whether the direction from which we approached them meant they were ascending or descending. We passed the first building, and Ira thought it was III. We could see the second building by then, and we saw that the sign said "II". He said, "See?" and then realized that the fact that the second building was II gave us no mathematical information about the other two buildings. Silly Ira. Though he was right that the building we passed was III. In any event, these aren't the most picturesque buildings, but today's run didn't hit a lot of beautiful architectural highlights.
We thought our next stop was ridiculous; it's listed on the map as Storage Buildings, as if this is the only place on the whole campus where anything is stored. They are, in actuality, just a bunch of those metal shipping bins that you see on freight ships. Well, there was a lot of chain link fence and other stuff, but certainly not a sign that said "Storage Buildings" or, in fact, any sign whatsoever. I'm not sure the map-maker should have included this as a place on the map at all.
Next, it was back across campus to behind the Cowell Cluster for Student Housing Management. We had one big quibble with this listing, dear map-maker. The sign on the front of the building says something like "R&DE Housing Management" or something like that. "R&DE" stands for "residence and dining enterprises", something I had to look up. I'm not sure that anyone would ever find this building under the S's, since you'd probably first looking up "Housing", then maybe "Residences", then maybe "Management", then maybe "Housing." Isn't the goal of listing all the buildings to allow someone to lookup and find a building? Our visit to this building was saved by the fact that nearby there was a woman training the world's cutest golden retriever puppy. You know those little adorable puppies that are so young and tiny and fluffy and cuddly? Well, we ran by one twice.
So, we've adopted some rules in our alphabetical adventure. One of them is that we can't ask anyone for directions or help finding a building. If I've got my phone on me, we can look it up, but that's it, and we try to avoid even doing that. We intended to visit one more building today, the Student Services Building, but notice that I didn't put it in bold, because today we had our first failed attempt in the entire journey.
We knew the building was behind Munger, the new dorm across the street from our ending point. Ira thought he knew what building it was, but we couldn't find a sign that said "Student Services." We ran inside one of the buildings and there was a guy at an information desk, who clearly saw us walking around inside this building looking for something. He said "Can I help you find something?" Ira replied "Actually, I don't think you can." And then we walked out. It was pretty darn funny.
We decided to abort our mission and call it a day. It was an easy decision, since this building is so close to where we'll start the our next run on Saturday. We won't have to backtrack at all, and at least we got a good story out of it. I'm still not sure why this one random building merits an informational help desk. Bizarre. That must be a pretty boring job. I hope we brightened his day.
Distance: 3.7 miles today, bringing us to 162.5 total
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