Life Begins At 50?

Geez, I thought that I was ending mine yesterday…

If you remember back to Tuesday’s blog I mentioned going for a bike ride, going to the Braves game, and then going out to dinner with my boss and some of his friends. Two out three ain’t bad.

Fifty On My Fiftieth
Because I love ridiculous gimmick I decided that if I were going to ride then I should do fifty miles, and no fewer.

The first forty were fine, but the final ten were very difficult for me yesterday, having to stop momentarily no fewer than three times. I think that I went through more that four water bottles’ worth of water.

By the end I was spent.

Don’t Take Me Out To The Ballgame
Even before I arrived home I knew that going to the 12:10pm Braves game was out of the question. Had I arrived home, showered, and gotten into the M6 immediately I would have made it in time for the first pitch, but that was not going to happen.

Upon arriving home I plopped onto a towel I placed on my bed to allow my aching legs to recover. I proceeded to take a much-needed nap, and then just relaxed the rest of the afternoon.

What Soccer Games…
All along my plan for dinner was to go to Der Biergarten which is located downtown not far from CNN Center. It’s a German restaurant, I’ve obviously been taking German lessons since last year, and one of the people who was to join is from Germany so I was hoping to practice my German a little with her (turned out that she got stuck at work so she couldn’t make it.).

And then I started reading tweets about some soccer games that were going to be held at the Georgia Dome last night.

What the wha???

I called the restaurant to make a table reservation but was told that they weren’t taking reservations for the day.

Dangen.

In any other situation I would have pulled the plug on my plan to eat at Der Biergarten, but there were people I couldn’t contact so I decided to gamble and keep the plan.

Were it not for the stand-still traffic that I hit between Piedmont and the Georgia Aquarium the night went off with few hitches. The restaurant was nearly empty when we arrived, we were sat immediately, and I ate a lovely German dinner with a few German beers.

Many Thanks To All Of You
Throughout the day I received texts and telephone calls wishing me a happy birthday. Thanks to each and every one of you!

And Before Turning Fifty
On Tuesday I wore my Black Sheep crew neck shirt to my German class. Before the class started the partner of one of my classmates stopped in our doorway and stared at me for a few seconds. And then he said “Are you a hasher?” to which I of course answered “Yes.” even though I’ve rarely hashed in the past four years. As I found out he is “Leaky Faucet” a mostly Pine Lake hasher.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]