Inside The Perimeter

I expected to be out in the yard again this morning. Yesterday’s hard afternoon rain would certainly make pulling weeds (English ivy) in moistened soil easier, but honestly I am feeling a bit tired and lazy, am a bit time constrained again, and do not want to suffer any more ant bites prior to going camping this weekend. Assuming the grass is dry tomorrow I’ll get my fill of yard work tomorrow morning by mowing the front lawn after packing up the car for the weekend.

Yesterday was a busy day, unfortunately I was not as successful at being productive as I hoped. I was able to put in 45 minutes on the trainer in the morning (something I wish I was capable of doing when I am done with this post but I am too tired), went out running errands for awhile, did work, and did a little German studying.

I may have found a replacement for the bins that I attempted to buy at Lowe’s yesterday. The replacement bins are from Amazon, aren’t as large, and may not be as sturdy, but are a few bucks cheaper and are almost guaranteed to be in stock when I go to Amazon.

Today will be all about work, gathering camping gear, and getting through German class. Oh boy!

Hope you are remaining healthy.

Once again I am pecking out a blog post the night before posting it. This time I am not out getting bitten by ants, but rather am in the basement riding the trainer first thing in the morning. [update at 5:55am – ugh, the vortex fan I use while riding to trainer quit on me this morning. I guess I’ll have to add another To Do item to see if I can fix it before my CHaRM appointment mid-month.]

There have been many days since March that I wonder where the time has gone since I have so little to show for my waking hours. Sure, there were three bags of ivy filled, I did a load of laundry last night, and took a trip to Aldi (where I ran into Martha), but I have little else to show. My work effort was less than stellar, my German homework effort followed suit, and I can’t even complain that I wasted a whole lot of time corking, cleaning, or watching videos. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have been slowly working my way through a book called Flight Path: A Search for Roots beneath the World’s Busiest Airport, which I bought after hearing the author speak at a virtual Creative Mornings Atlanta presentation in May. Here is the blurb about the book on Amazon:

In the months leading up to the birth of her first child, Hannah Palmer discovers that all three of her childhood houses have been wiped out by the expansion of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Having uprooted herself from a promising career in publishing in her adopted Brooklyn, Palmer embarks on a quest to determine the fate of her lost homes—and of a community that has been erased by unchecked Southern progress.

Palmer’s journey takes her from the ruins of kudzu-covered, airport-owned ghost towns to carefully preserved cemeteries wedged between the runways; into awkward confrontations with airport planners, developers, and even her own parents. Along the way, Palmer becomes an amateur detective, an urban historian, and a mother.

Lyrically chronicling the overlooked devastation and beauty along the airport’s fringe communities in the tradition of John Jeremiah Sullivan and Leslie Jamison, Palmer unearths the startling narratives about race, power, and place that continue to shape American cities.

Part memoir, part urban history, Flight Path: A Search for Roots beneath the World’s Busiest Airport is a riveting account of one young mother’s attempt at making a home where there’s little home left.

Due to my scheduling, today could prove to be hectic. After cleaning up after the trainer I will work for a few hours before I go out to get a haircut, pop into Lowe’s on the way home, and then return to working. I may reclaim an hour or so of free time tonight since Betsy had to delay her drive home due to the hurricane by a day and will be (should be?) occupied by that.

Hope you all are remaining safe and healthy.

I’m writing today’s blog post on Monday night as I do a little mindless YouTube watching. The reasons for my early penning is that this morning I am out in the yard continuing my improvement efforts.

Yesterday was mostly a mundane Monday. I worked, managed 45 minutes on the trainer, and did a little German homework. The highlight of my day was visiting My Friends Bottle Shop with Bonnie where we purchased beer for this weekend’s camping extravaganza. Woot! Once again I read the weather tea leaves correctly and pulled in my drying laundry before the rain, which was rather substantial, came down.

When I wind up today’s yard work I’ll take a quick shower before starting my work day. Hi ho. Hi ho. It’s off to work in my home office I go.

Tuesday Tale of the Tape: 195.2 pounds (-1.6 from last week’s weigh-in); satisfactory result.

Hope your week is going well.

Oh, hello. I got started right away this morning and I temporarily forgot that today is Monday and that I needed to write a blog post; I interrupted my laundry chore for you. 😉

Another summer weekend is in the books. While things obviously are far from returning to “normal”, the activities I did this weekend helped hide that fact for a little while.

On Friday I joined Bonnie in celebrating a birthday of one of our friends by doing a mini-pubcrawl at Lee+White; we had beers at Monday Night Garage, Wild Heaven Brewery, and Best End Brewing.

Saturday was a early morning trying to get to Florence Road to meet Steve for a Silver Comet ride. Bonnie, Steve, and I rode a little more than 42 miles, sometimes pushing ourselves harder than we probably should. 🙂 The ride was harder than I expected it would be and by the end I was completely spent. Perhaps my dreams of riding to the Alabama border are a thing of the past? After recovering a bit Bonnie and I had an early dinner at Red’s Beer Garden. Nothing says “You deserve this because you worked out today!” like a vegan hot dog smothered in squeeze cheese with an order of fries. Oh, and beer. 😀 To say that I fell asleep early that night is an under-statement; when I was awaked by the sound of fireworks (not gunshots), wondered who the hell was doing this in the middle of the night, then looked at the clock to see that it was 9:30pm, even I was surprised.

Yesterday was a Black Sheep Hash day. This trail, the annual Lyon’s Day Run, followed the for of those from year’s past. However, we were rewarded with a mile float down the South River to end the trail. If the river had more water in it the float would have been completely enjoyable and I wouldn’t have hit so many rocks along the way. Thanks to Bonnie I was able to use one of her boogie boards for the float, which was a great way to get down the river.

July 2020 Summary

A completely vegetarian month? During my birthday month? Who am I?

07/01 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 🙂
07/02 – ?, V, walking (2.50 mi, 58:46) 😕
07/03 – ?, V, yard work (~180:00) 🥵, hashing 🙂
07/04 – ?, V, jogging/walking (9.64 mi, ~177:35) 😀
07/05 – ?, V, hashing 🥵
07/06 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 🙂
07/07 – 195.2, V, trainer (50:00) 🙂
07/08 – ?, V, yard work (~120:00) 🥵
07/09 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😅
07/10 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😅
07/11 – ?, V, cycling (43:26 mi, 181:00) 😅😁
07/12 – ?, V, yard work (~150:00), hiking (4.50 mi, 103:00) 😁
07/13 – ?, V, nothing 😢 (hurt knee)
07/14 – 195.4, V, nothing 😢 (one more day for knee)
07/15 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😕
07/16 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 🙂
07/17 – ?, V, yard work (~120:00) 🥵, trainer (30:00) 😕
07/18 – ?, V, yard work (~240:00) 😮🥵
07/19 – ?, V, hashing 🙂
07/20 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😐
07/21 – 193.2, V, yard work (~60:00) 🙂
07/22 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😀
07/23 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😀
07/24 – ?, V, walking 🙂
07/25 – ?, V, walking 😐, SUP 🤔
07/26 – ?, V, walking, hiking 🙂
07/27 – ?, V, nothing 🙁 (travel day)
07/28 – 196.8, V, trainer (50:00) 😀
07/29 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😀
07/30 – ?, V, walking (4.10 mi, 74:29) 🙂
07/31 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😀

Welcome to another end of month blog post.

As I type this I am cooling down from the shower I took after putting in 45 minutes on the trainer this morning. I started a little later than I hoped to because I fell back asleep and slept through my alarm by 45 minutes.

This week I have been in a bit of a foul mood, for no specific reason. I think my health, nothing connected to this week’s weigh in, has been bothering me; I’m constantly frustrated by my body and its inability to be “normal”.

Yesterday I went on an afternoon walk as my exercise for the first time in many weeks. I used to take almost daily walks at the start of this whole mess, but it was a lot cooler back then. It was too hot to work in the yard, something I have not done in over a week. 😕

This afternoon I’ll be joining Bonnie visiting our friend Robert, who also celebrates a birthday in July, for a beer or two at Lee+White (think “Monday Night Garage”, “Wild Heaven”, or “Best End Brewing”).

As a reminder:
What: Silver Comet Bike Ride
Where: Florence Road parking lot
When: Saturday morning, wheels on the ground 9:00am
Why: Earn some beer drinking of course

Have a great weekend, wear a mask in public when you can’t keep a safe distance, and attempt to stay healthy.

I’m sitting outside the Waschsalon; it’s like life has returned to normal, well, except that I am in shorts and a T-shirt and will be wearing a mask while doing laundry and not going into the office when done. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yesterday was a new-normal day of work, 45 minutes on the trainer, and all meals eaten were prepared by my hands. I did spend time watching an old Top Chef while texting Betsy as well.

Once I am done with laundry I will be heading home to do work, and later be sitting in German class. I am hoping to shoehorn in a workout and knocking out a few simple chores to tick them off by month’s end tomorrow.

Here’s to staying well!

I am early. I am often early. Today I am fifteen minutes too early to go directly inside Lowe’s. I don’t have much to buy today, I just want to knock this chore out before the store gets busy.

Ugh, I just encountered my inability to blog using my iPhone thanks to the latest version of WordPress’s shortcomings. Moving to a text editor…

Yesterday I intended to work in the yard, cleaning up what the City left behind and assessing what they scraped up using their oversized claws for the process of yard waste removal. However my plan was thwarted by an early afternoon rainstorm. Instead, I popped into the basement and put in a tough 45 minutes on the trainer.

Last night I restarted watching and working along with Stanford’s Swift/SwiftUI course known in the world of programmers as “CS193p”, its Stanford course identity. It was past 9pm when I finished the first two lectures, and I rewarded myself by watching some mindless videos.

Today I refocus on work, need to put some time into preparing for tomorrow night’s German class, and hope to catch up with Betsy.

Hope you all are happy and are remaining healthy.

Unsurprisingly, I don’t have a lot to talk about today. I spend a good part of the day driving home, stopping only for essentials — food, gas, and bodily functions. Breakfast was a Beyond sausage sandwich from Dunkin Donuts, and lunch was an Impossible Whopper with fries at a Burger King.

I was rather a lump last night, unpacking and binge watching episodes of season 2 of “Making It”. Hulu’s excessive interruptions with commercials allowed me ample breaks to do simple chores.

Because I have not done hand washing since last week I now have five days of laundry to do. I thought about hitting up the Waschsalon this morning, but I think I’ll add another day or two of dirty clothes to the pile before going.

Tuesday Tale of the Tape: 196.8 pounds (+3.6 from last week’s weigh-in); disappointing, but considering all I ate and drank during my birthday and over the weekend it’s not surprising. Back at it again today!

Most likely when you are reading this I’m headed back ITP. It was a fun “birthday” weekend with the Raleigh Royalty.

Because the weather on Friday wasn’t great we hung at home and watched the movie Masterminds; it was a funny flick. On Friday evening we went to a “drive in” movie held at a local church. The movie being shown was “The Princess Bride”. The setup wasn’t the greatest, but we made do.

Saturday saw us do some family things like walk dogs, take and pick up kids from swimming, and then we headed to Jordan Lake where for the first time in my life I did stand up paddle boarding. I was quite shaky at first and went ass over teakettle the first time I tried to land the paddle board, but after a little while I was able to navigate somewhat. We celebrated our day with a stop for snacks at a restaurant patio, before returning back to the house where we vegged for the rest of the day and had pizza for dinner.

Much to the boys’ chagrin we loaded up the car on Sunday morning and drove down to Raven Rock State Park where we did a four-mile hike. Upon the hike’s end we stopped into Viscous Fishes brewery where we consumed a few beers before returning to the house. Last night we ordered in some Indian food while we watched the movie Irresistible. I also enjoyed “Irresistible”, which it seems has ties to Georgia including being filmed in part in Rockmart, and having a cameo appearance by Tom Key, now former artistic director of Theatrical Outfit.

By the time I make it back ITP, unload the car, and put everything where it needs to be, I will be ready to relax for the remainder of the evening.

Hope you all had a fun weekend and are staying healthy.

Good morning from Raleigh, NC. Even with driving rain I encountered starting near Greensboro, NC I made it in a “record” time, about 6.5 hours, mostly because with the exception of stopping for gas ($1.81/gal) in Gaffney, SC I drove straight though.

A lovely evening was had hanging with the Raleigh Royalty as we ate a home-cooked meal and had a few libations as we caught up with one another. Having not seen them in person since the days just before Shelter In Place, for some reason they are under the impression that I have lost weight. 😉😂😂😂

We are talking about doing many outdoor activities — hiking, swimming, walking — while I am here. Of course I am happy to do any or all of these, especially now that my bathing suit will fit me better, but the weather will dictate what we can actually do.

I hope that you all have a wonderful and healthy weekend. I’ll be back again on Monday.