Inside The Perimeter

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.

Oh Florida… Last night I watched the opening game of the NFL season. The game was in Tampa, had an estimated 66,000 people in the stadium, and very few other them seemed to be wearing a mask. At least the game was outdoors? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Fun fact: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won two NFL championships, but they only need two digits to represent them for they won in 2002 an 2020.

Yesterday was a really good day for me, with the only setbacks being not getting something for which I stopped at two Aldi stores to buy, and overcooking my pasta dinner.

As you know, I took the M6 down to Morrow to get some routine maintenance done. That went to plan with no unexpected expenses. After the dealership I drove to an Aldi down there looking for a camping table I had seen in their weekly ad email. No dice. I then drove to the Aldi down on Moreland, no dice there either.

After returning home I changed into choring clothes and headed into WLF. I spent a good two hours working with Wee Little Chainsaw, cutting up the felled pine tree and pushing large sections to the side of the yard. I have one thick, nearly nine-foot long section to deal with soon; the stump is going to have to stay there for awhile.

Two hours of tree work exhaust per me, so I switched to light maintenance, taking out tomato plants affected with blight, deadheading flowers, etc. My only mistake there was killing part of a butternut squash plant by cutting it instead of the dead leaf I was intending to prune. Oops!

After Bonnie dropped by to give me the box of books that were delivered over the weekend, I puttered around for about another hour before calling it quits for the day.

By the time you read this I have probably already returned from Lowe’s, where I spent my $25 gift card on compost.

Today is more of the same when it comes to my activities, mainly I will be working in WLF. I doubt that I will do any work on the pine tree, instead I plan to do some sowing, transplanting, pruning, and general cleanup.

Tonight I hope to cook a veggie burger for dinner, perhaps outdoors on the grill, or perhaps in the house.

Tomorrow will be a walking day with Betsy and Bella followed by more choring around the house.

Sunday is a Black Sheep day!

Hope you have a fun weekend planned, taking advantage of the fall-like weather.

Good morning from Morrow, GA. Do I know how to travel to exotic locations, or what?

Today I am getting some routine maintenance done on the M6 at the Mazda dealership. I was thrown a curveball as I arrived to find construction where I normally pull in to drop the car off, but I figured out where to go thanks to the signage. As I am wont to do I arrived early, and was scolded by one of the GMC workers for coming into their space too soon since they didn’t open until 7am. Look, in my world if I arrive for a 7am appointment at 7am then I am late; I guess I have been conditioned by doctors. I’ll be sitting here at the dealership awaiting the service completion, and killing some of that time by writing this blog post.

Even though I was shut out of qualifying for paid surveys yesterday I did make a “killing” with my Kroger shopping. I saved more than $30 on $66 (tax included), nearly 50%, on my purchases! Woot! Some of the savings, $20, were in the form of sale prices and Kroger coupons (including unexpectedly getting a bag of nacho chips for 49¢ because it has a WooHoo sticker on it), and $10 was from Ibotta for buying certain brands, nearly all of which I purchase already. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Last night I went over to Betsy’s for dinner. It was her turn to cook and we had a (meaty) pizza and salad. Since we have no “Top Chef” to watch currently, and we both have watched all four episodes of “Only Murders in the Building” available, we watched the Netflix documentary about the Fyre Festival instead. I had heard about the Fyre Festival fiasco when it happened, but had no idea just how large of a clusterfuck it was. The documentary also reminded me how much I dislike the whole “influencer” culture in which we live.

Thanks to Covid I skipped my routine of eating breakfast at Waffle House across the road from this dealership. 😢 This is fantastic for my waistline and wallet, but I do miss eating there.

When the car is finished, up to ninety minutes from now, I will drive toward home and perhaps make an errand stop or two along the way. Once at home I expect to suit up and do some hard choring in WLF to take advantage of this weather, and to prepare for the choring I will do tomorrow after my 6am trip to Lowe’s. Unlike the Fyre Festival, there will be a Version 2 of WLF. 😁

Hope your week is going well. I am certain that none of this readership did anything more monumental than saving more than $30 on grocery purchases yesterday… 😉

After arriving home yesterday and plopping my ass on the den’s futon I didn’t get much accomplished other than catching up on videos and resting. It was a little after 4pm by the time arrived home, so it wasn’t like there was a whole lot of time to do much else.

Today I am going to attempt a bit of a life reboot. I need to stop eating so much food, eat better food, get more real exercise (such as hard choring or bike riding), and put my nose back to the professional grindstone so that I will be able to draw an income (and get subsidized health care) again some day. Oh yeah, after today I have to stop spending so much money as well. No biggie, right?

The sun is due to “rise” in about ten minutes so after I am done typing this blog post I will get out to WLF for some September cleanup work. Given the weather radar I saw around midnight last night I expected to awake to find everything soaked, but I guess the storm system didn’t provide much rain after all. Heck,I even backed out of the idea of going to Lowe’s this morning because I assumed everything would be wet. Oh well, perhaps Friday morning I will go instead.

I can’t dilly dally too much this morning because later this morning I have a haircut appointment, after which I will be hitting up Kroger and/or Publix to buy some essentials.

Tonight is Betsy’s turn to cook, so all I will have to do is be ready to get to her house by 7pm, so perhaps I will kickstart my iOS development re-development before then.

Hope that your week is going swimmingly well, even if there wasn’t enough rain to fill your swimming pool last night.

Back on the road, but not as early as I was on Friday. While I’d like to get home early enough to investigate the state of WLF I am not going to push it today. As always I have had a wonderful time hanging out with the Raleigh Royalty.

It would do me a world of good to skip a meal or three…

Yesterday I went for a hike in Umstead State Park. The hike was cut to about 4.5 miles because one of the parties had a grueling swim practice earlier in the day and wasn’t having the greatest time hiking. The hike did burn off a few calories which I later replaced with copious amounts of beer and food.

Last night we picked up Thai food from a food truck at a brewery. Thai food and beer, two things that taste great together! 😁

It would do me a world of good to skip a meal or three…

After dinner we, the adults, watched the three available episodes of “Only Murders in the Building”. I am really enjoying this series this far.

I am hoping my return trip doesn’t involve any more rocks to the windshield, or other car problems for that matter, along the way. I have scheduled routine maintenance for the M6 on early Thursday morning and it would be nice if that went as cheaply as possible given my lack of salary.

Hope your week is off to a healthy and happy start.

Tuesday Tale of the Tape: postponed since I am not near my scale this morning.

Good Morning from Raleigh, NC where I have had a fun, and fattening weekend. I have consumed much food and beer this weekend, but am not complaining since it has all been quite good. I even ate at a vegan restaurant in downtown Raleigh called “Element”.

On Saturday we drove to a town called Wilson, NC where we walked around the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, which was quite the interesting attraction. Unbeknownst to me I have already seen some of Simpson’s smaller whirligigs, they are part of the folk art exhibit at Courtland and Ralph McGill in Atlanta. We also walked around the deserted downtown area of Wilson as well. In Wilson we found a place called “Brewmasters” at which we ate lunch. From the outer appearance the place it looked unimpressive, but once inside it was a beer-lover’s paradise with many taps and beers for sale. Who knew? 🤷🏻‍♂️

As the boys have gotten older the novelty of an Uncle Paulie visit has worn off, with the eldest wanting to spend time with his girlfriend, and the youngest wanting to spend time in front of his gaming PC. It was inevitable…

The Royalty also have two dogs, each of which is a bit of a handful in its own way. The younger dog, and Australian Sheep Dog is very energetic and loves to hear the sound of its own barking. And both dogs get riled up at the sight of a squirrel or bunny in the back yard.

Not sure what is on today’s Labor Day agenda.

Hope you are having a fun and healthy long weekend.