2024-03-18

It was a good weekend, during which I found myself inside Westside Pizza twice. As an added bonus, I saw an old time hashing friend, Little Sister, who works there.

I spent some time cleaning up the outside portion of the ITP Estate, including pushing the hipster lawnmower over a tone of leaves and some burgeoning weeds. If nothing else, I chopped a bunch of dried leaves into smaller pieces of dried leaves so that they will breakdown quicker.

Yesterday was a lovely St Patrick’s Day spent, at least for a little while, at a Mexican bar. I’m saddened that I didn’t get to travel to Vern’s funeral in Columbia, SC, but that conflicted with my plan for today.

Today finds me on my way to Florida.

Wordle: four, my starter was MOUTH
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Purple > Green > Blue

Posted in My Daily Life | 22 Comments

2024-03-15

Not much to report from my end.

I did the CVS ride last night. A small group of us rode from Decatur through Piedmont Park and back with mostly no issues. The only strange part of the evening was a homeless man came and essentially set up camp (no tent) right next to us, we were set up neighboring a spot that had a tree and was covered in pine straw, in the parking lot as we sat around drinking. The man didn’t ask us for anything, he really just wanted to lie down, and even asked that if we’d be bothered if he smoked a cigarette near us.

Wordle: three, my starter was LAUGH
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Blue > Purple
Strands: no errors, though admittedly I didn’t know all of the words

Posted in My Daily Life | 19 Comments

2024-03-14

Not much going on today. I was going to rant about land development in Atlanta, but that’s as useful as yelling at clouds.

Hoping to ride again tonight. I’d like to keep up my momentum. Who knows, I might shed one pound prior to BRAG STU next month.

Wordle: two, my starter was GRIND
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Purple > Blue
Strands: one miss, mostly because I have an issue with one of the answers

Posted in My Daily Life | 48 Comments

2024-03-13

It was a good night for riding, even if some of the roads on which we ride are being torn up, and we finished in the dark. I’ve ridden further distances recently, but not that hard.im already feeling a little sore, in the good way. It was nice seeing some of my riding buddies again, even if the chatter about the past two days of a Black Sheep hashing dominated the post-ride conversation.

Even though the winner has already been spoiled for me, I have decided to undertake the watching season two of The Traitors UK. Perhaps knowing who wins will make it more enjoyable?

Wordle: four, my starter was WEIRD
Connections: one mistake, Blue > Green > Yellow > Purple
Strands: As I publish this it is completely beating me. Thus far I have identified one incorrect word, and have no clue on how I am going to solve it.

Posted in My Daily Life | 47 Comments

2024-03-12

Our BRAG cycling community lost another friend last week. I only knew Vern for a little more than a decade, meeting him at my first BRAG Spring Tune Up (2015, the year it rained so much that all of the riding I did consisted of riding to happy hour on Friday, and leaving on Saturday.) and didn’t get to ride with him much because by then his better cycling days had already passed him by, but he was a kind and funny soul who will be missed.
Ode to Vern
Vern was also a creative person, he made all of the items pictured above.

As time goes on we will become increasingly drunk at BRAG events as we salute our fallen comrades with shots.

While cleaning out the Florida house has been a chore, there are some interesting things which I have found. For instance, during the last trip we were certain that we had discovered all boxes and emptied all drawers until we moved furniture. A teacart had a drawer on the backside that was not discovered until we pulled it out of the corner; it contained bus schedules, maps, playing cards, and the like. A shoebox was found under a dresser when we removed that, it contained coins. Here’s the interesting part. In the shoebox were three rolls of pennies. I haven’t cracked open the rolls yet, but looking at the “top” penny in each roll reveals that all of these pennies are probably from the 1950s, and may have been in these Chase Manhattan Bank wrappers for almost seventy years. Unless a rare coin has been included, the copper value may be greater than $1.50, but I have no idea about that yet.

Wordle: six, my starter was CUMIN
Connections: two mistakes, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple

Suffice to say, not my most brilliant day of wordplay.

Posted in My Daily Life | 26 Comments

2024-03-11

Happy Black Sheep Founders Day!

On Saturday I successfully secured my fourth Georgia Beer Day Glass. I also ate an amazing carnitas burrito from the El Tesoro located inside the West End Wild Heaven Beer. Even though I can realistically walk to the original El Tesoro location, this was the first time I have eaten their food. With my burrito I consumed a West Coast IPA and a nitro Irish stout, both of which were delicious.

I am down to four clocks that require my attention when the time unnaturally shifts; they are two battery-operated clocks, my Kindle (which although connected to the internet refuses to set its own time), and the clock in the M6. Technically my microwave’s clock should be changed, but the ITP Estate loses power so often that I have stopped setting its clock at all. Oh, I suppose I have introduced two new “clocks” whose time I must set, the two outlet timers which control the lights and germination heat mats in the basement.

With a cold morning staring me in the face yesterday I baked a pumpkin bread. I laughed for believing that I could convince myself to walk to Kroger in order to buy nuts and raisins to include into the loaf; I didn’t. The loaf would have been improved by their inclusion, but tasted fine anyway.

I wish YouTube would put a badge on the thumbnail images of videos which “Includes Paid Promotion”. In my opinion “paid promotions” are advertisements under another name, the only difference being that Google receives no money from them. Unfortunately I know that Google won’t do this because if I saw how many videos still contain ads after I pay for an ad-free experience, it would be damning. Hell, with this information I would probably also cancel my YouTube Premium subscription.

Wordle: four, my starter was ACORN
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Purple > Blue

Posted in My Daily Life | 13 Comments

2024-03-08

I did a poor job of weight maintenance yesterday. My attempt to walk the Bob Collum trail was thwarted by a lack of parking in its tiny parking lot. Instead I visited a Cobb County Goodwill where I purchased two DVDs, but left the Georgia Beer Day 2022 glass on the shelf because I already own one of those.

I think my strategy for tomorrow will be to eat lunch at one of the breweries in Lee & White — Monday Night, Wild Heaven, or Best End — which should give me three chances to score a glass. And if I fail, I can always scour Goodwills until I find one.

This weekend I will finally start planning my BRAG Belgium Bike Ride Adventure, perhaps purchasing my flights in an effort to catch up with my ride mates.

Oh, don’t forget that we spring the clocks forward this weekend as we foolishly believe we can control our lives with arbitrary time shifts…

Wordle: two, my starter was REALM
Connections: one mistake (and a complete guess to get the Yellow, and never would have gotten the Purple), Green > Blue > Yellow > Purple

Posted in My Daily Life | 29 Comments

2024-03-07

Things of note:

March is Phoenix Flies by the Atlanta Preservation Center month. I am trying to figure out the free tours in which I can partake while I am in Atlanta this month.

This coming Saturday is Georgia Beer Day. I have a collector’s glass from each year starting in 2021, so I will be heading out to get the fourth in my series.

Today is the two hundredth “consecutive” day of learning German on Duolingo, since I restarted. Admittedly I have had two or three days for which I used a “Streak Freeze” to compensate for either being unable to learn, or forgot to do so.

Wordle: three, my starter was BLAST
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Purple > Blue

Posted in My Daily Life | 29 Comments

2024-03-06

Nothing from yesterday to report.

I’ve started my day poorly by missing the first two Duolingo sentences for today, so I’ve gotten angry and have had to put my phone down for awhile. I started the day with four out of possible five lives. Today is one of the days I wish I had committed to Duolingo at the start of the year and purchased their subscription when it was 60% off its normal price. Oh well, if I don’t get back to it today all that will happen is I will lose one of my freezes to keep my 198 day streak alive.

At some time today I want to go out into WLF to see how much rain was dumped on it overnight, and what effects that has caused.

Wordle: five, my starter was DAILY
Connections: perfect, Purple > Yellow > Green > Blue

Posted in My Daily Life | 51 Comments

2024-03-05

Something strange happened last night, my iPhone called one of my buddies while it was on the shelf charging. Therefore I was not even touching it, and it should have been locked, when this occurred. I cannot explain how this happened.

Day of chores ahead of me.

Wordle: four, my starter was SHOCK
Connections: FAIL, Yellow > X > X > X

Posted in My Daily Life | 42 Comments