Inside The Perimeter

Perhaps it’s a good thing that I will have no time to exercise today because inexplicably my right knee started hurting — while I was sleeping! Seriously, who else gets hurt while sleeping? Have I turned into the guy from the movie Glass? Ugh.

Other than that, Memorial Day was wonderful. I managed to catch up on my Swift training, decided not to drive out to Tucker for the Moonlite Hash because I assumed Tucker Brewing’s beer garden would be packed and I didn’t want to be around that many people, and did a long walk around East Atlanta with Bonnie that culminated with drinking beer, eating snacks, and grilling up some Beyond sausages for dinner. The idea of doing our drinking and eating on the rear deck of the ITP Estate was considered, but given that rain rolled through yesterday afternoon it was good that we thought otherwise.

Hope you had an equally-enjoyable Monday, and that you are staying healthy, at least while you sleep.

Tuesday Tale of the Tape: 206.9 pounds (-2.3 from last week’s weigh-in!); see, hashing helps… 🙄😂

Geez, the weekend is gone already? Thankfully for me today is a paid holiday, though there is no rest for the weary. Already this morning I have washed and hung a load of laundry, washed all of my dirty dishes, reorganized much of my hashing gear, and have eaten breakfast. Before I can have any fun today I need to bang out my daily Swift learning, for which I am a day behind, and do some German homework.

Though the weekend whizzed by it was incredibly fun.

Friday? I have no recollection of what I did on Friday. Oh, I attempted to make seitan, with moderate success.

On Saturday I did a long morning walk with Betsy. Along the way I bought a pound of coffee at Joe’s Coffee Shop, and a five-pound bag of peaches from a popup farm stand that was in the neighborhood. In the afternoon I met up with Bonnie and we did a bike ride out to Avondale Estates and back, stopping for our first visit to Sceptre Brewing Arts where we picked up some beer that we consumed in a nearby park.

Yesterday I returned to hashing. It was Bonnie’s (aka “Glory Mole”) 50th Black Sheep! It was a good trail, even if I did get a little testy toward the end and boxed to the end. In my defense I was on trail for over six miles and two hours, so I was ready to be done. It was good to see my knucklehead friends again, even if it was when masked. 🙂 The normal weekend ended in my carport drinking a beer and sharing an Impossible burger and fried cauliflower from Flat Iron with Bonnie.

Hope your weekend was fun and that your Memorial Day is enjoyable.

Keep staying healthy friends.

5:45am, yes that’s more like it today. I have no idea at what time my eyes shut involuntarily last night and activated Sleep Mode.

Rest of my bloodwork tests are in, mostly positive, some things on which to research and improve. I guess that was to be expected.

Good news from the Southern Front last night, apparently bingo has been targeted to reopen in two weeks. Naturally there was a bounce to my mother’s speech that has been missing for a couple of months.

I was going to suggest registering for tonight’s virtual, and free, Banff Film Festival showing, but inexplicably it has “filled up”. There is another opportunity for tomorrow night but I doubt I’ll be interested then. [update at 8:20am – tomorrow night’s session is also “FULL”]

Today I will be attempting to plant a rosemary cutting that I have been nurturing in water to sprout new roots. Excitingly, it’s starting to do so!

Today I will also try to start refocusing on some of those chores I was certain to have completed by this time during Shelter in Place, but have not. I am not sure when I will have to start reporting to an office again, but I expect it to happen at some point.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend friends! I expect to go hashing at least once!

Attempt to remain healthy, and as many people have been saying of late, be kind to one another.

6:45am? Wow, did I sleep “late” today!

Other than the mysterious skin irritations that appeared on my quads yesterday after my hour-long trainer ride, yesterday was pretty “normal”.

Maybe I was irritated by the skin irritations, but I did not feel like cooking last night. I used my need to walk to the post office and return them a mis-delivered piece of mail as an excuse to get some takeout food to bring home for virtual Top Chef night.

After the post office I put on my mask and got in a short line to buy beer at Argosy. I have yet to support them during this pandemic, and there beer selection is first rate, so I figured this was a wise choice. However there was no indication that their ordering process was working efficiently, and I still had food to pick up, so I left without purchasing anything.

I was also now being irritated by my glasses continually fogging each time I breathed while wearing my mask. I realize this all comes down to a lack of a nose wire, but this mask is not outfitted with one, so fogging occurred and could not be stopped.

My food order was placed with SoBa, who nearly lost my order because I was irritated that could never verify my new account on their online ordering system; I called my order in instead, so I headed that way. Fortunately my order was ready when I arrived, and I subsequently dropped $5 more for yet another mask. Why not, right? Dinner was delicious, and to support my neighborhood I bought two meals! Okay, I bought two meals because I wanted two different dishes. At least my indecisiveness has provided me with another meal today!

Hope your life is encountering fewer irritations…. 🙂

Attempt to remain healthy, friends. I will try to do the same.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
(it is “Throwback Thursday” after all, at least I think it’s Thursday)

It’s 5:30am as I type this, and I have been awake for about 30 minutes already.

Yesterday would have been much better if not for all of my obligations. Sure, it was nice sneaking in a load of laundry, but there was time spent or for my physical, work wasn’t fun, I ate leftovers, and then spent the beautiful night indoors struggling with German on a Zoom call. I couldn’t even make time t to exercise yesterday.

When riding with Bonnie on Sunday I saw a broken, abandoned scooter. It was the first time since March that I have seen or even thought about the once wildly-popular transportation devices. I wonder how these companies are weathering the pandemic.

For some of reason the other evening some people thought it would be a good idea to pedal peddle (okay, I have to admit that this wasn’t a typo, it was an error of ignorance) discounted medication plans door-to-door, at nearly 8pm. Yes, as if now is a good time to stand a food foot apart from strangers discussing business opportunities at your front door. They were wearing masks, though the man who started the pitch had pulled his down. Fortunately I don’t answer the front door so my curt “conversation/dismissal” was handled at a distance of three feet in my driveway. Unbelievable.

Yet another event that I considered doing this year has been canceled. This time it was the Jackson Brevet ride in late June. Rats. As with all of the other cancellations I believe this was the correct decision, but the event cancellations are mounting depressingly high.

Another busy day ahead as I try to figure out how to get my work done, and my lower back to stop hurting. Of course it was wasn’t hurting yesterday at during my physical…

Stay healthy friends.

Depending on when you read this, if you are one of the early ones, I am out of the house again! Yes, for the first time in months I had to wake early, shower, and hit the road for my doctor appointment for a physical. This time I am bedecked in a mask for my hospital visit.

My dinner last night was a failure on multiple levels. I tried to make fried (chicken) tofu using a block of tofu that I froze and defrosted a few time to “improve its texture”. I set up a dredging arrangement as you would for fried chicken but I’ve never fried chicken before, and my failure proved this. I made a mess, including dropping an egg on the floor, and my frying technique was abysmal. I wound up smothering the poorly-fried mess in Frank’s Hot Wing sauce and eating the entire concoction. So, if my sodium levels are off the scale today I know exactly why…

Tuesday Take of the Tape: 209.2 pounds (+0.8 from last week’s weigh-in); rats, I thought I might have lost weight again this week, but I did not.

Hope you are staying healthy, friends.

Not the greatest of weekends, too much health and family drama for my liking. I did have some fun and good times, however.

On Saturday I did a morning walk with Betsy and Bella. Later in the afternoon I had a nice long Zoom call with the Raleigh Royalty, simulating our cancelled LEAF weekend.

Yesterday I rode my mountain bike along the Southside BeltLine with Bonnie. Of course we managed to sneak in some exercise-negating beer drinking. We stopped for lunch and beer at Wild Heaven’s outdoor space. Then I took us off trail to buy beer at Red’s Beer Garden and then we rode a few blocks to Benteen Park to drink in the cool of the shade. I was well worn out and passed out on the couch before 8:00pm.

Back at it today, hoping that things continue moving in a positive direction. Of course no hand washing of clothing today as the rain and clouds are not conducive to drying.

Hope you had a good weekend and are staying healthy.

Oops, I almost took “taking a day off” to the extreme by forgetting to blog today. I am a little bummed today because it was supposed to be a LEAF getaway day and I’d be hanging with the Raleigh Royalty this weekend, but this Spring’s LEAF has been canceled. Thanks Obama COVID.

I have been a busy man already, however. At 7:10am, as I type this, I have cooked and eaten breakfast, washed and hung a small load of clothes, and have started the preparation work for a batch of Instant Pot “Baked” Beans. This recipe takes over two hours to make (letting the Instant Pot achieve and release pressure twice mostly) so I wanted to get a jump on it early this morning, because there is a lot more already on my “relaxing day off” schedule!

What, you may ask?

Well, I have a haircut appointment at 12:45pm, I have to swing by Target and actually go inside in order to pay and receive a prescription, and I will be hanging out with Bonnie a bit this afternoon talking bike maintenance, perhaps getting in a ride?, and hopefully some beer drinking.

The rest of the weekend is shaping up to be more of what life has become, a lack of solid plans since planning is hard for me these days, spending fun time with a friend or two in the day time, followed by spending the night home alone.

It’s been two months since we started staying at home all of the time? I really feel ashamed at the lack of progress I have made in my life (i know, i am not supposed to feel disappointed, but I do anyway!) On the positive side of the ledger, I did finish reading “Alice in Wonderland” yesterday, so I’ve got that going for me!

Time to get back to bean prepping.

Have a great weekend and attempt to stay healthy, friends.

Once again I don’t have much to say. Yesterday’s HVAC visit was fine, though I am suspect that when the days turn completely warm starting soon that the AC won’t be able to provide the necessary amount of cooling I desire — and I don’t even want the house to be cold.

The rest of my day was spent doing work, chores, getting in a workout on the trainer, and whipping up an Instant Pot chili and some toaster over Jiffy cornbread to eat while watching an old “Top Chef” with Betsy. Since she doesn’t have Bravo and can’t stream the current season, we are watching a series from 2011.

I am typing this in my home office trying to draw as much of this morning’s comfortable air through the house before the temperature rises. I will be spending my day doing work, as well as German homework to prepare for tonight’s second German class for which I enrolled.

Hope things are going well in you world. Attempt to stay healthy, friends.

Not much to talk about today, other than my first meat meal of the month. I decided to buy the last disposable face mask in stock at Flat Iron and in the process procured a fried chicken sandwich for dinner.

Tonight I assume will be another virtual Top Chef night with Betsy, though we’ve not confirmed.

The biggest thing on my mind today is the scheduled appearance of an HVAC maintenance person, who is due to arrive “between 8:00am-11:00am”. I am hoping to not incur a large bill attempting to get the air conditioner ready for the imminent heat.

Have a good Wednesday. Attempt to stay healthy, friends.