Falling through Fall

Fall has come to Michigan and winter is just around the corner, but for a month we enjoyed cool temperatures and fall colors. The big news for the month was that the university’s safe and public health informed semester was derailed by a 2-week Stay in Place order for the undergrads issued by the county. After three straight weeks of increasing case numbers (144, 226, and 401 cases), Washtenaw County instructed all undergrads to remain in their dorm rooms/apartments/houses with no gatherings for two weeks to get things under control. However, they’re still allowed to attend class (though more classes are supposed to switch to remote instruction), get food, vote, go to religious activities, and participate in physical activity outdoors with no more than one other person, so we’ll see how much this order does.

Again, the numbers are not so horrible that people should be planning their wills and locking themselves in bunkers, but hundreds of confirmed cases every week when you’re undertesting means that you’re running the risk of 1) spreading cases off campus (Washtenaw County hasn’t really seen this yet, but the city is already not happy with how U-M reopened this fall) and 2) having something seriously bad happen to someone (still not likely given the hospitalization and mortality rates for college-aged people, but even rare events occur given enough attempts). Other fun stories from the university: With over half of quarantine and isolation housing full, they ran out of space in unoccupied buildings and started putting people in apartments in the same buildings that students had signed normal contracts for this school year. An entire dorm was supposed to be “enhanced social distancing” (semi-quarantine, where they could get food but weren’t going to class or otherwise leaving their rooms) even before the Stay in Place order because of the number of cases there. The news of the Stay in Place order first broke on Twitter, and was picked up by the U of M subreddit before the official university email.

So that’s what’s been going on at the university. I’m avoiding central campus and otherwise carrying on as I have been. I’ve been doing variations on the same things for the past seven months, so I’m arranging this post by activity instead of date, which also helps to obfuscate the exact date of my birthday, because it was my birthday month. Here’s what I did:

Birthday cupcake

Tuned into Zoom University to watch a department seminar given by a Cornell ChemE professor. My years at Cornell overlapped almost exactly with a period of time he wasn’t teaching, so I never had him as a professor, but I knew who he was.

Watched the Revolution play Nashville to a scoreless draw in their first meeting, lose to Toronto in a moderately controversial game, take points from NYCFC at Yankee Stadium, gamble a bit by putting out their B team against an admittedly struggling Montreal and come away with all three points, lose to Philadelphia (again) for the same old reasons, tie Nashville (again) after a weather delay in Tennessee, and lose to the Red Bulls to close out the month.

Baked pumpkin cranberry bread, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (currently hanging out in the freezer for a future date), and chocolate cupcakes for my birthday. The recipe said no mixer necessary, but the last step was also to beat the batter on high for a minute, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Because I didn’t get enough air into the batter, I substituted applesauce for oil, or my baking soda is extremely expired (I don’t think it’s this – I’ve baked plenty of other things with it that have risen fine), I didn’t get a great rise and the crumb structure was tight. But it’s 2020, so weird dense spongy cake it is. Still tasted good.

Finally made it to the dentist. I was supposed to go in March or April but close contact activities where one person has their mouth open the whole time weren’t encouraged under coronavirus restrictions, for whatever reason. They’re avoiding aerosolized procedures so they didn’t do everything that typically gets done but I got the plaque scraped off my teeth at least.

The Huron River, Barton Nature Area

Celebrated my birthday weekend by biking/hiking across Ann Arbor. I went to a nature center, the arboretum, and the botanical gardens; biked on the Border to Border; and explored some new trails.

Watched old 90s TV, including Star Trek: The Next Generation and some episodes of The Magic School Bus for my amusement. I also saw The Addams Family (the 1991 movie) just in time for Halloween.

We’re heading into a stretch of holidays and events that will include Halloween, election day, Thanksgiving, colleges sending students home for the year, Christmas, and New Years as coronavirus cases rise to record levels across the country and hospitalizations range from increasing to reaching critical levels. And for some added fun, throw flu season into the mix. I have no plans to travel or gather with anyone for the foreseeable future. I will be starting to put my various socks, mittens, hats, and jackets to work as temperatures drop and I trade mosquito bites and poison ivy for frostbite and black ice. And if it’s really too bad to go outside, I’ve got lots of unread textbooks to enjoy.

Parker Mill County Park

After visiting over a hundred parks in Ann Arbor this spring and summer, I found out about a new park from a friend. I knew of its existence, and its exact location, and I’d biked right up to it, but never actually gone into it. It wasn’t on my park list because it’s a county, not a city, park, but I was told it was worth visiting, so I biked over to check it out one weekend. Like many other destinations in Ann Arbor, the optimal driving route is not the optimal biking route. The main parking lot is at the corner of two busy roads right by entrance/exit ramps to US 23, but there’s access to the other side of the park from the Border to Border (B2B) Trail. The B2B makes a funny turn at the end of Gallup Park before going into Ypsi, so I usually use that as my turnaround point when I ride the B2B in that direction. The other option is to keep going straight into Parker Mill Park, which I was mildly curious about, but never curious enough to actually investigate, until now.

The weather was starting to cool off and I was also hoping that people would be busy with school/work/other activities now that things were (rightly or not) opening up again, so I ventured onto the Gallup Park side of the B2B for the first time in 2020 on a Saturday afternoon. Similarly to my ride the previous week on the Bandemer Park half of the B2B, it was less horrible than I was prepared for. I’d describe it as busy, but not crowded, except for a couple areas in Gallup Park. Coming in from the Gallup Park side, I walked about three-quarters of a mile on a paved shared-use trail to the park’s namesake, the Parker family’s former grist and cider mills, built in 1873 and 1887 respectively. The grist mill is still operational and contains the original equipment while the cider mill was converted to a museum; because of coronavirus, both were closed when I was there.

Parker Mill grist and cider mills

Besides the cider and grist mills (plus a log cabin), there are a few nature trails, two small loops and a longer boardwalk out-and-back. The trails follow Fleming Creek, which flows into the Huron River, and at one point cut under the railroad tracks and lead into Forest Nature Area, which is listed on Ann Arbor’s parks and recreation department. My guess is that the city of Ann Arbor owns the Forest Nature Area land but it’s managed by the county together with Parker Mill. Whatever the explanation, I got a bonus park out of my trip to Parker Mill.

Fleming Creek

Overall, the trails were decent. Besides the paved shared-use trail through the park, they’re only open to foot traffic. The hiking trails go through wooded areas, explore riparian¹ and wetland ecosystems, and as an added bonus, have informative interpretive signs. I can appreciate a good interpretive sign. Like most of the Midwest, there was no discernable change in elevation throughout the park. Traffic noise was prevalent especially by the grist and cider mills, though partially drowned out by the creek. The southern portion of the park is across the train tracks from the Ann Arbor Wastewater Treatment plant, so that’s a definite minus if the wind’s blowing the wrong way. But in the greater context of Ann Arbor and my car-less existence, Parker Mill is reasonably accessible, has unpaved trails in nature, and isn’t a zoo filled with screaming children, people blasting music, and/or drunk people, so it checks off enough boxes that I would go back.

Boardwalk trail

¹New word from the park brochure, meaning “relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (such as a river) . . .” [Taken from my friends Merriam and Webster.]

. . . must come down?

If you’ve been following the Revolution for any length of time, you know not to get your hopes up. You keep your optimism in the closet and only allow it to peek out after the final whistle’s been blown. If there’s a way they can screw something up, they’ll find it, and then some, just to make absolutely sure potential wins turn into ties and ties become losses. So I wasn’t entirely surprised that after a good end to September, October started less good.

Saturday, October 3 vs. Nashville SC – 0-0 T – In the first ever meeting between New England and Nashville, nobody scored. It was a game that the Revolution could have won, but like so often happens with them, they didn’t step up to get things done. Nashville’s defense has been solid, especially for an expansion team, so not the worst result. It earned Matt Turner his season-best sixth shutout, at least.

Wednesday, October 7 vs. Toronto FC – 0-1 L – Toronto have been establishing themselves as possibly the best team in MLS right now, so I would have been happy with a tie. Alas, it was not to be. The Revolution were not great, but I won’t say they were terrible either. Toronto’s goal came on a breakaway that Andrew Farrell seemed to be handling until he was pushed. Former Revolution player and now color commentator Charlie Davies insists the Toronto player was just using his strength, but I still lean towards offensive foul. 1) Farrell had decent position on the Toronto player. There’s no reason he would fall unless he was fouled. (Maybe the one thing he should have done was just kick the ball out and concede the corner. I think he had enough time to do that instead of try to make the play and keep the ball in, but then again he wasn’t planning to get fouled.) 2) If the Toronto player had gone down like that, Farrell would almost positively have been booted off the field for DOGSO (denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity). 3) He gets pushed into the ball and trips over it, which makes it more foul-ish for me than just getting shouldered off the ball. Midway through the second half, Lee Nguyen was pretty obviously fouled in the box and earned a penalty kick. However, after the Toronto goal it felt like one of those games where the Revolution shoot themselves in the foot. And indeed, instead of Nguyen taking the penalty (and it would have been a birthday penalty), Adam Buksa stepped up to the spot . . . and missed the goal. I feel bad that Buksa hasn’t had a great season, but he absolutely has to put his penalty on frame. Just one of those nights.

Sunday, October 11 at NYCFC – 2-1 W – Somehow NYCFC got themselves back into Yankee Stadium and onto their *allegedly* regulation size soccer field (it’s basically the smallest size allowable by FIFA but feels even tinier than it should). The players appreciate the grass, but this must have been the slipperiest grass the Yankees could grow, because people were falling all over the place. Though the game had its shaky moments, the Revolution came away with another road win. After two games without scoring, who better to get things going again than Teal Bunbury? In the third minute of the game, New England gained possession in the middle of the field. Bunbury passed to Nguyen, who weighted his pass perfectly back to Bunbury to get him behind the defense. With two defenders behind him and the goalkeeper in front, he got the ball off his foot and into the back of the net. MLSsoccer.com analyst Matt Doyle insinuates his shot wasn’t entirely intentional, but Revolution fans know that Teal Bunbury never does anything accidentally. Ever. New England managed the game pretty well through the first half, then NYCFC started coming into the game early in the second half, but Arena used his substitutes to both regain control and manage minutes. Matt Polster made his first appearance since getting kicked in the head and seemed okay. He got himself fouled in the box, setting Nguyen up for a makeup penalty, which he made in the 80th minute. Turns out they needed the insurance goal, as NYCFC got a goal of their own in stoppage time, spoiling what could have been Matt Turner’s seventh shutout of the season. It felt like a solidly Revolution performance, with 10 of the 11 starters having played college soccer, 2 homegrown players getting minutes, no designated players starting (Gustavo Bou and Carles Gil were out with injuries and Buksa, well, Wednesday happened) and the entire backline + goalkeeper coming from the Superdraft. And as an added bonus, Nguyen’s assist makes him the first Revolution player to 50 goals and 50 assists.

Six games to go, and things are getting/remaining interesting. In the eastern conference, Toronto has already clinched their playoff spot. New England is five points back from the top four, who get to host, two points ahead of the seventh-tenth places, who have an additional play-in game, and seven points clear of the playoff line. They remain in decent playoff position, but can’t afford too many mistakes and still don’t look great against the top teams. The western conference has a bit of a coronavirus problem, with Colorado having players and staff members testing positive during multiple rounds of testing. They’ve only played 13 games to the 16 or 17 they should be at and are out of dates for matches to be rescheduled. Other games have been postponed in both conferences, but Colorado’s going to be the biggest problem. Hopefully teams stay on top of things and this doesn’t get any worse. If it does, the playoff seeds are going to have to be determined by points per game or something, and MLS cup 2020* is going to turn into MLS cup 2020*^*.

What goes up . . .

MLS keeps trucking on to the end of the season, as temperatures drop and become more bearable in the south and flirt with frost and freezes in the north. The league released the final twelve-game schedule, keeping matches between teams within a 1-2 hour flight radius. The Canadian teams will play their “home” games in the US, Vancouver using Providence Park (Portland’s stadium), Toronto at UConn’s stadium, and Montreal borrowing Red Bull Arena (which is also hosting NYCFC, whose usual home “field” is Yankee Stadium). The remainder of the Revolution’s schedule involves playing Toronto and the Red Bulls once, and NYCFC, Montreal, D.C. United, Nashville, and the Philadelphia Union twice. It’s a pretty fair schedule. Toronto and Philadelphia are contenders for the top of the east, while United and Montreal have been struggling as of late, and Nashville is an expansion team. By the end of the season, they’ll have played no western conference teams, and only eight of the other thirteen eastern conference teams (no games against Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Columbus, or Cincinnati). They’ll have faced Nashville, Toronto, the Red Bulls, and the Chicago Fire twice, NYCFC three times, and Montreal, D.C., and the Union four times, giving off strong 1996 inaugural MLS season vibes, when the ten teams played the other teams three or four times each.

Saturday, September 19 vs. NYCFC – 0-0 T – Following their last-minute loss in Philadelphia, the team returned to Foxborough for a rematch with NYCFC. Compared to whatever they were doing a couple weeks prior, they looked much better, but their scoring woes continued (though they did coax six yellow cards for NYCFC out of the ref while earning none of their own). Lee Nguyen made his first start for the Revolution in almost three years, and I’m still trying to figure out if he’s been the team’s missing piece or it’s a coincidence that things are suddenly clicking for New England.¹ The forwards had a few decent looks at goal, and two or three offside goals, and the defense kept NYCFC from too many quality chances, with Matt Turner bailing them out when necessary.

Wednesday, September 23 vs. Montreal Impact – 3-1 W – In a reversal of their usual fortunes, the Revolution had been keeping themselves in playoff contention by tying and winning games on the road, but they had yet to win at home, until this game. Thanks to all the coronavirus weirdness, it had been almost a full year since their last home victory. They started strong, but were unable to get on the scoreboard until a first-half stoppage time corner kick. Nguyen provided the service, and the ball came off of someone’s head before falling to Henry Kessler, who fired a shot into the corner of the net for his first MLS goal. Besides making everyone on the team and Revolution fans really happy, he has the distinction of recording New England’s first goal of 2020 not scored by a player whose last name doesn’t start with B (Gustavo Bou, Adam Buksa, Teal Bunbury, and Tajon Buchanan). Coming out of the half, the Revolution continued to look good, and made something of it when Bou picked up his fourth goal of the season after his blocked pass/shot rebounded back to him, he made some space for himself near the corner of the penalty area, and slotted the ball into the goal. It was his first goal in close to a month, which is non-ideal if you’re one of the team’s leading goal scorers. Substitute Diego Fagundez capped off the scoring for New England with his first goal in over a year (and Buchanan got his first assist), so all around it felt like a game the Revolution needed. Substitutes Cristian Penilla and Buska also looked dangerous, though they didn’t find their way onto the scoresheet. Montreal collected a late consolation goal after both right-sided defenders were caught too far up the field, spoiling the shutout but not the overall result.

Sunday, September 27 at D.C. United – 2-0 W – Similarly to Montreal, D.C. have been struggling to get results (Montreal has lost their last four games, been outscored 14-4, and has something like four red cards in five games; D.C. is winless in five games, four of which they were shut out in). Still, the Revolution themselves haven’t exactly been the paragon of scoring prowess, and they have a unique ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They arrived in the nation’s capital and unusually had the majority of possession, atypical for the visiting team (thanks Nguyen?). The first half was spoiled when Matt Polster got kicked in the head after going in for a slide tackle. Consensus: 1,000% percent concussed, but he walked off the field with the medical staff and by the end of the game was doing better, per Bruce Arena. It was completely accidental, and players from both teams were visibly concerned. They played out the first-half stoppage time and headed into the locker room to regroup. The second half was playing out similar to the first, until Bou scored on a pass from Penilla in the 86th minute. Penilla got the second assist as well, on a Revolution counter after getting the ball to an open Adam Buksa on a Revolution counterattack. Faced with only D.C.’s goalkeeper, Buksa chipped him for his first goal in two and a half months. After surviving stoppage time, the Revolution came away with consecutive multi-goal games, their fifth shutout, and their first back to back wins in 2020.

So a strong eight days from the Revolution puts them in a good position re: playoffs, and several players picked up much-needed goals. Things are looking up, but the season’s far from over. Heading down the final stretch, they have nine games in 36 days, so player rotation and roster depth may become vital, as well as keeping players healthy. Here’s hoping for a good October.

¹Seriously, Lee Nguyen gets back and all of a sudden Bou, Buksa, and Fagundez score again. Kessler and Buchanan get their first goals, and second-year player Buchanan looks like he may have this MLS thing figured out. Penilla isn’t scoring, but he’s picking up assists, and is playing like he could be scoring. The defense is reliable, if occasionally caught napping, and a far cry from the porous mess they were under Brad Friedel. Turner is solid, and has kept the Revolution in games when they weren’t scoring. Scott Caldwell has strung together his best games in literal years, and Kelyn Rowe, Matt Polster, and Tommy McNamara have also looked good in central midfield. And Bunbury continues to do Bunbury things. In the D.C. game, deadlocked at 0-0, Bou dummies a pass to Bunbury at the top of the penalty area. Bunbury does all the hard work to control the ball, shake off pressure from one defender, avoid another, and get the shot off with only the goalkeeper to beat, and goes wide. In the words of the announcer, “oh, no!”

Life in the Time of Corona

In the span of about two weeks, the temperature in my apartment went from “so you like to sweat all the time?” degrees to “put on more layers; we’re not paying for heat yet” degrees. It’s since warmed back up to what the average temperature in September is supposed to be (~highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s), so no heat here yet. The undergrads and new students semi-successfully moved into Ann Arbor and began classes. I say semi-successfully because we’re not seeing hundreds and thousands of coronavirus cases like some other universities, but we’re also not testing, which I just can’t agree is a good idea when you’ve brought back twenty(?) thousand partying, interacting, public-transportation taking students from all over the place at once. The lack of preparedness for move in and minimal testing also didn’t sit well with multiple groups, leading to the graduate students’ union (GEO) striking, the RAs striking, the dining hall workers wanting to strike, and a no confidence vote in the university president from the faculty senate.

The president has since committed to “more” testing, though it’s still random opt-in testing of up to 3,000 (6,000?) people a week, which is 1) not very many people percentagewise and 2) not really random. The university’s COVID-19 dashboard also continues to improve, but we’ve passed the hundred cases per week threshold. Again, this isn’t horrible, but on the other hand, Cornell went for the test everyone every week strategy and in their most recent (as of writing) 7 days of data (9/18-9/24), they processed 33,400 tests and had 6 positive results. Their percent positive rate is 0.02%. They actually have a reason to be cautiously optimistic that they’ll make it through the semester. The University of Michigan needs to hang on to their hats and send up thoughts and prayers that things don’t go seriously wrong in the next couple weeks. And after that long introduction, let’s get into what I did in September.

I started off the month (still) working from my apartment reading some utterly fascinating literature that a whole three people, at least, care about. The Revolution played one of their worst games of the year on Wednesday, September 2, losing 0-2 to NYCFC at home at Gillette. On Thursday, September 3, I went for a hike after work through my loop of nearby parks. Around this time, I also discovered I had a little over 25 days to watch about 55 episodes of Parks and Recreation before it left Netflix. Between streaming services turning into the new cable and editing/removing “problematic” episodes of shows, they’re going to push people back to DVDs. I picked up my clarinet for the first time in six months on Friday, September 4, just long enough so I can say I remember my scales. I would have practiced longer but I had to find a new use for duct tape – removing corroded batteries from my tuner.

California said hi to Michigan, but it was with smoke :(

I spent the weekend in my apartment and baked peanut butter swirl brownies on Saturday, September 5 and watched the Revolution secure a 2-1 W over the Chicago Fire courtesy of everyone’s favorite not blue, not green guy, Teal Bunbury, on Sunday, September 6. It was back to work the next week; Tau Beta Pi had our first virtual meeting of the semester on Tuesday, September 8. Saturday, September 12, I met a friend in person for the first time since coronavirus shut down the university in March. We went to the Furstenberg Nature Area for a walk/hike and that night the Revolution went to Philadelphia to lose from a last minute corner kick. The next day, Sunday, September 13, I met a different friend on the other side of Ann Arbor to hike Bird Hills/Barton Nature Area. I biked there via the Border to Border trail, which is more miles than my other route but is more pleasant so that may become my default way to get there.

The next week (Monday, September 14) started with a new batch of my micelle simulations, as well as season 37 of Jeopardy!. Armed with sunscreen and insect repellant, I passed through North Campus for the first time since classes started on Wednesday, September 16 to get to Cedar Bend Nature Area and see the Huron River at sunset. Campus was noticeably occupied, but not swarming with people. I ended the workweek with a trip out to the Thurston Nature Center on Friday, September 18 to see the goats they had there to eat poison ivy and other invasive plants. On Saturday, September 19 I did groceries in the morning, rode the Border to Border to a new park after lunch, got back to my apartment in time to watch the Revolution tie NYCFC in a frustrating but not horrible scoreless game, and made pancakes for breakfast for dinner.

Thurston Nature Center

In another first since March, I returned to in person church back indoors in Ann Arbor on Sunday, September 20 to see how I felt about it. It was okay, fully masked though not super distanced, and I got to catch up with some people. I had leftover pancakes waiting for me when I biked back to my apartment (not touching the bus system until I have to) and it was laundry day. Wednesday, September 23 the Revolution were back in action at Gillette and put together one of their best games of the season, beating Montreal 3-1. I was back on my bike on Saturday, September 26 to check on the fall colors at Barton Nature Area (just starting to change; probably won’t be much even at the peak), and back at church on Sunday, September 27, after which a few friends and I walked through downtown. It was busy; mask compliance was pretty high, though there were also a lot of people dining in the streets and I wouldn’t want to hang around there too often. I also finished Parks and Rec on Saturday with days to spare.  The Revolution picked up their first back to back wins of 2020 on Sunday with a 2-0 result over D.C. United.

To close out the month, I’ve been running more simulations and keeping tabs on the coronavirus situation. Honestly, people would be much less frustrated if the university would at least commit to performing the alleged number of tests they claim to be able to process (10,000/week). Students have been back for 5-6 weeks and we’re still barely making it over 3,000 tests a week. On average, Cornell processes more tests than that in a single day and is still seeing fewer positive results. What’s worse, the U-M number includes testing athletes and support staff every single day, so it’s not even 3,000 people randomly scattered across campus. (Also, student-athletes, yeah right.) People are getting tired of emails about coronavirus clusters in the dorms, exposure in in-person classes, room and building closures, and our “safe and public-health informed semester” (there is no corona at the university/there is no war in Ba Sing Se, anyone?). But damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!