Good Morning from Lake Hartwell. Yesterday I drove up, did a bunch of weed whacking to clear tent space, set up said tent, and proceeded to start drinking. I’m a little rough this week but not as bad as I feared I would be.
No big plans for the weekend other than relaxing and hashing.
Hope that you have a fantastic weekend, no matter what you get up to doing.
I’m glad that I waited until this morning to pack my clothes for the weekend. Brrr! Im looking forward to sitting around a campfire drinking beer this weekend. More about this tomorrow.
Other than the hours wiled away choring in WLF and having dinner with Betsy, yesterday was merely a normal Wednesday in my life.
Even though the temperatures are not supposed to get high this weekend I need to get out and do some watering in WLF this morning since it’s not suppose to rain again for awhile either.
I thought I’d be visited by a local owl this morning since I heard it’s calls near WLF as I started packing the car. No such luck.
Hope that you are having a happy and healthy week.
I was hoping that coming to the Waschsalon would improve my chances that it would open at its advertised time. It has not. As I have stated before, I get to the Waschsalon early in an effort to ensure that I get all of the machines I need. Oh, there is the attendant…
And now I am pissed because I just walked up to go inside to see a makeshift sign that reads “Closed for pressure washing.” DANGEN!!!
More later…
Rain, rain, go away. Okay, I know it will soon.
I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished yesterday, staying indoors for the majority of the day. I watched a lot of videos (no football game since I don’t have ESPN), read some of the pawpaw book, discovered there are pawpaw festivals including the largest in Ohio which took place last weekend, and that Ohio festival even put out a podcast. I am listening to an episode of that podcast currently, learning more about the pawpaw.
The biggest thing to happen yesterday was having Bonnie tell me that the series “Horace and Pete” put out six/seven years ago by Louis CK is available for streaming on Hulu. I’d bet dollars to donuts (which isn’t as one-sided as it was when that phrase was coined) that I wrote about this dark comedy in this blog when I watched it back then. Oh, and I’m okay with supporting Louis CK, and if you are not that’s okay with me too.
I considered going to the old Waschsalon this morning, but my poor night of sleep squashed that idea. I didn’t get out of bed until 7am, and it’s now 7:30 as I write this blog post. Laundry will have to be done tomorrow morning instead because I want to have all clothes washed before packing for Hartwell.
According to the weather app I use we (East Atlanta) are supposed to get a little more rain in the next hour, but that could be all we get for today. My plan for today is to go out to WLF and do some choring until around lunch time. Today’s lunch will be some of the leftover “eggplant lasagna” that I baked last night, and the run some off-the-property chores after taking a good shower.
Hope you week has started off well.
Tuesday Tale of the Tape: 185.2 pounds (-0.8 from last week’s weigh-in); at least that’s the direction in which I am hoping to head again.
Hmm, not the greatest of weather we’ve been having. Even a two-bit farmer likes me wants to see some sunshine every once in a while.
I don’t recall what I did on Friday night, which means that I probably didn’t do anything outstanding. I know that I didn’t go to Comedy Night at Red’s Beer Garden because they postponed that until,Saturday night, and then had to cancel it the next day. Oh wait, I fried eggplant and okra for dinner. 😮
It wasn’t raining Saturday morning when Betsy, Bella, and I walked around East Atlanta, but it was humid.
On my trash pickup walk up to the village I was stopped by one of my neighbors who thanked me. It was a nice gesture and we chatted for a few minutes before I resumed my chore. Apparently this man’s family used to own some of the land around EAV, and he has been in his house for 27 years. I like meeting people who have been in EAV longer than my 22 years.
Toward the end of our walk Betsy and I stopped at a local church which was having a plant and bake sale. The farming snob in me didn’t buy any plants, but I did walk away with cookies, a zucchini bread, and a small rhubarb pie 😋😁, and some caramel corn puffs that stuck to me teeth 😮😢.
Saturday afternoon saw Bonnie and me get together. We walked up to Midway Pub to watch the second half of the Atlanta United game, and ran into Betsy there too. I also kept one eye on the tv showing the Florida v. Alabama game, much the same way that most people look at a bad car wreck. The the wrong team eventually won that football game, the good guys put up a better battle than I thought that they could in a valiant defeat. It was good that Atlanta United won, because of the four soccer/football teams I follow they were the only one to do so this weekend.
After leaving Midway and the unexpectedly running into someone who doesn’t live in Atlanta, Steve who hosted the gang of us for a weekend of bike riding last fall, Bonnie and I put on our optimistic hats and went to the velodrome for bike racing. Well, we at least went to the velodrome, since it was clear within fifteen minutes of being there that no bike racing would occur due to the rain. Pity, it would have made for a fun evening.
Yesterday’s weather was no better, I did some choring in the drizzle and then a trip up to Schoolhouse Brewing occurred. There was a thought about going to Kennesaw breweries, but I’d like to do that when hiking at Kennesaw mountain can also happen. It turned out to be beneficial that it was just Bonnie and me at Schoolhouse, because just before we purchased our second beer my old buddy Hank called. Within a span of five minutes we had packed up and were on the road to Contrast Artisan Ales in Chamblee to meet up with him.
As much as I’d like to get more things in WLF sorted today, it’s supposed to rain all day so I guess that I will be staying indoors for choring. Choring in the rain is no fun, unless you are pulling magnolia trees out of the ground since the ground is wet, making it easier to do so.
Tonight’s Moonlite hash is in Marietta. Though I like tonight’s hare, I may use the weather as an excuse decide to stay at home, to rest, and to save money. We’ll see…
Hope that you had a fantastic and healthy weekend.
We’ve made it to the end of another week! Some of you made it to the end of another workweek too! 🙌🏼
Though I made efforts to be productive yesterday, with a modicum of success, overall I didn’t accomplish a whole lot. I will try again today, because the more I try the better things shall become.
I am also trying to eat the food that currently inhabits my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, as well as the few crops that are still producing out in WLF before returning to any store to buy more goods. By my rough calculations I could probably eat three meals a day for over two weeks, as long as I was creative with my male meal planning. Tonight I will be attempting to make something using the five long eggplant I harvested yesterday.
Well, well, well. This weekend was shaping up to be a busy one, but the weather will perhaps literally rain on my figurative parades.
This morning, though wet outside, I will attempt to beat any more rain by working in WLF first thing. My plan is to do more cleanup of plants that will no longer produce fruit/vegetables, and also prepare an area into which I will plant lettuce. I am also considering how to protect such plants in case the bunny rabbits figure out how to break into WLF.
There was discussion of going to Red’s Beer Garden for comedy night, but then Red’s moved this month’s edition to tomorrow night to avoid the rain. Now it appears that it won’t rain tonight, but will tomorrow night instead?
Tomorrow night I had planned on joining Bonnie in attending the bike races at Dick Lane Velodrome. However, if it does rain tomorrow night the races will either be canceled, or I will have to find a Plan B because I don’t want to sit outside while it rains.
Sunday? I suppose it can rain all it wants Sunday since it’s not a Black Sheep day. I should use that day to plan/prepare for Hartwell, and/or look over some maps for the Black Sheep Bonnie and I will be laying in October.
Atlanta United play tomorrow afternoon, and the Falcons play Sunday afternoon, maybe sports watching is an option on rainy days? Who knows…
Hope you have a healthy and happy weekend no matter what you get up to doing.
Well, it’s happened again — I applied and failed to get into a paid survey. I’m sure that I will qualify for some eventually.
I’m not sure what I did for most of yesterday. I guess I spent some time reading; I’m currently reading a book about the pawpaw fruit. Most have us have never seen nor heard of the pawpaw, never mind tasted them. They are America’s largest native fruit (in size), grow naturally from mid-Georgia to Michigan, from the East coast as far west as the midwest but have never been commercially viable to grow. Here is a YouTube video showing how to grow papaws.
My recent reading has been unexpectedly linked. The book I finished recently, “The Good Lord Bird”, contains a historical account of John Brown’s raid on a US Armory in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia as part of his attempt to abolish slavery. In the book I am reading currently, “Pawpaw, In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit”, the author meets up with a pawpaw expert in Harpers Ferry and even references the John Brown incident.
Yesterday afternoon I drove up to the Publix in Madison Yards in an attempt to get inspiration for the meal I was going to bring to Betsy’s house for “Top Chef” dinner night. I suppose I failed at that too because I wound up bringing over a frozen pizza onto which I piled in peppers, tomatoes, and fake chorizo sausage; at least the peppers and tomatoes were from WLF. Betsy and I watched the first episode of this year’s “Top Chef” which was filmed in Portland, Oregon last year.
With the prediction of rain for most of today I will be spending my day indoors, working on cleaning and organizing my basement, and hopefully starting to get back into coding. My two other goals for today are to figure out how to get some decent exercise while indoors, and to eat less than I have been eating lately.
Hope that you are having a decent and healthy week thus far.
It was a day of adventure!
I saddled up my bike and rode over to Bonnie’s where she and I started our day riding up the Beltline toward Piedmont Park. Thankfully it was a weekday so the Beltline wasn’t as crowded as it would be on a weekend day. Bonnie and I rode our was up to the park and then navigated the construction of the Music Midtown construction, making our way to Willy’s.
It was fun to each lunch with Bonnie, Barb, Sal, and Steve. We ate outside, and since I was involved with the table selection, in the shade.
After lunch Bonnie and I rode to the Westside Reservoir Park, making a few mistakes and curious turns along the way. At one time our technology led us down a road where we were stopped by a security guard and had to turn around.
Turning around seemed to be the theme of riding in that area. Not only are the paths in that park winding, but when we attempted to ride toward home via the Proctor Creek trail we encountered a Georgia State Patrol car who stopped us in our tracks, forcing us to turn around. Apparently there is all sorts of construction and tree destruction occurring during the week, and it was his job to ensure that no one made it near that. I will whine that a sign alerting people of the closure, especially since there is no outlet, at the entrance of this section would have beneficial.
We used our technology to wind our way to Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, and then to the Westside Beltline.
It was a hotter day than either Bonnie or I had expected, so by the time we arrived near East Atlanta I exclaimed that I wish I had a pool, forgetting that Bonnie’s neighborhood has one. Bonnie politely invited me to swim, so I rode home, showered, changed clothes, and drove to her house with a bottle of rosé to share. I think Bonnie’s pool contains all of the cold water around the neighborhood since after a quick dip I was ready to sit (in the shade) and drink wine.
It was a fun and exhausting day. According to Bonnie’s Strava (I had a Strava mishap), we rode more than twenty-two miles yesterday.
Hope your day was equally enjoyable.
What do you get when you cross a turkey with an eagle? Unfortunately you get the runners doing the shorter trail, and the walkers doing the longer one. Such was the case last night when the hare accidentally transposed her T and E. The eagle trail takers were at the beer stop in less than a mile, and then we waited for the walkers to arrive. As if we didn’t get a short enough trail, from the beer stop everyone went straight to the bar. Oh well, at least we were able to get a table, eat, and drink at Midway Pub on the first Monday of Monday Night Football, and on the night they apparently have a bocce league playing. Trail did run us past SoBa, a popular Monday night ending pre-pandemic, who is now (finally) serving food on the deck they constructed last year.
Prior to the hash I spent the day puttering around WLF. I’m still in “slow tear down mode” fighting the desire to return order (tidiness) to the farm, but also hoping those last tomatoes will ripen on the vine before they too get eaten by goddamn caterpillars. I was hoping by September the cabbage white butterfly, responsible for laying its eggs (which become caterpillars) on greens, would have gone for the season, but no, they are still fluttering about, landing on all of the seedlings I have put out.
One thing I didn’t do well yesterday was get back into the software development world.
I did manage to finish the book I have been reading, “The Good Lord Bird”, a day before my library loan expired. My desire to turn hiatus into retirement was strengthened last night when I talked to Aw Burned Out; he is retiring at the end of October. I’m not 100% sure, but I’d guess he’s roughly the same age as I am? 🤷🏻♂️
Win at is up for today? Well, I need to knock the cobwebs off my bike and ensure it has air in its tires before riding to Willy’s for lunch. In the name of exercise, fun, and no commitments Bonnie and I will probably pedal around a bit after lunch, taking in some of the local scenery (and working off some of the calories).
If I were still employed lunch would be had at my desk so that I could be glued to the monitor watching today’s Apple iPhone event. Instead I will watch the presentation tonight to find out what is coming down the Apple pike. Also tonight I expect to watch the latest episode of “Only Murders in the Building”.
Hope your week has started happily and healthfully.
Tuesday Tale of the Tape: 186.0 pounds (+0.8 from my last weigh-in two weeks ago); rats, I was hoping to turn this around. I am starting to wonder if my weight loss was tied to a medication I was taking?
Monday again. I must say, it’s a lot easier to wake up on Monday knowing that I am not going to have to commute to work nor attend standup meetings. Now where am I going to get the money I need to survive…
Mine was a glorious weekend, different, yet the same.
I spent most of Friday choring in WLF. Slowly but surely I’ve cleared much of the felled pine tree and have taken out plants that are no longer productive crops. I still have much to do back there, but progress continues, more on this in a minute. I stayed at home on Friday night, and a glance at Instagram changed my plan for Saturday.
Naturally Saturday started with a walk up to the Village, picking up garbage along my route, to meet up with Betsy and Bella for our weekly walk. This week’s edition also saw us stop into a garage sale that happened at one house along our route. The three of us wound our way around our beaten path, and when I arrived home again I showered and plopped onto the couch to watch sports. However, I still had that nagging feeling from Friday, and then around noon decided to act upon it.
WHAT WAS IT ALREADY?!?!?
The plan was two-fold, which it had to be in order to justify driving to Marietta on a Saturday.
On Instagram I saw that Schoolhouse Brewing had just released a new beer called “Pitter Patter IPA”, thus combining two of my loves — IPAs and Letterkenny. I had to have some! Because Schoolhouse never brews a second batch of any beer, I convinced myself that going sooner rather than later was a good idea. Also, remember back to Thursday when I went to two Aldis to find a camping table; I figured that I could check the Aldi on Spring Road (twenty-plus years of going to that area for my dentist has its benefits). I scored on both accounts!
While sitting outside at Schoolhouse I was greeted by a dog, whose owner apologized. The dog was friendly, and as I discovered a mere, yet not small, 9-month old. The young lady (owner) and I started talking an I couldn’t figure out how she knew my hash name, nor from where she was getting her facts about me.
“We moved here from Illinois.” Um, no I didn’t.
“We moved to Sandy Springs.” No, when I moved to Atlanta I moved to Dunwoody.
“We want to buy a house in Roswell.” The man who identifies as ITP? NEVER!
And then I realize that she was talking about herself, the dog, and their man. 😂 And was sending me abundant signals telling me that she wasn’t interested. As if I didn’t know that. 😏
Yesterday found me back in Marietta for the Black Sheep Hash! 😮 Though there was much road for a Black Sheep, I understood that the hare was getting us to Breaststroke’s pool, so it had to be done. I was okay with it regardless, because truth be told, I wasn’t looking to run a brutal trail yesterday. After the hash I drove Glory Mole (aka ITP-Reader Bonnie) home and hung out for a little while. I hadn’t seen her cats in awhile so I didn’t want them to forget who their favorite person, well mom-resident favorite person at least, is. 😹
Today?
– Choring
– Coding
– Hashing (another Brownwood Park start? Huzzah!)
Hope that you had a fantastically fun and healthy weekend.
