One Of The Hardest Work Days I’ll Have All Year
Today is my last day for this week and next week as well. Somehow my Winnipeg vacation is almost upon me (and thanks to United Airlines I’ll be up at the buttcrack of morning in order to make my flight.)
As luck would have it my sole tomato and first cherry hot pepper are probably two days away from being perfect as well… I guess that it’s true, timing really is everything.
Even though it’s far from Mecca, I’ll be using this getaway to Winnipeg, and the days spent alone, to answer a lot of questions about my life. I do know one question’s answer already however….
< begin ode to Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson >
Carnack places sealed envelope to his forehead.
Carnack: Hmmm, the answer is “No.”
McMahon: The answer is “No.”
Carnack: That’s what I said, “No.”
Carnack tears open envelope and blows into it in order to extract the question.
Carnack: “Will Winnipeg be a candidate to which Paulie will consider moving?”
< end ode to Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson >
I know my loathing for snow and bitterly cold weather and I know that Canada gets its fair share of each.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I’ve also decided to pass on the activity that convinced me to go this time of year — the Canada Nash Hash. In the end I decided that I really didn’t want to spend three days camping with hashers and that I’d rather make this trip entirely about relaxation and photography. Also, starting tomorrow this will be the only space updated for a while. I have no plans on announcing my trip via Twitter or Facebook because I don’t need to broadcast this information any farther nor do I feel the need to play the “Hey, look at me! Look where I’m going!” game that has become all the rage on social networks.
Greatest. Plan. Evah!
(until I ordered and ate too much food.)
The last time I stopped for a Vietnamese sandwich at Lee’s Bakery on my way home from work I noticed that there was a laundromat next door. A plan emerged!
“The next laundry night I should combine my love of Lee’s Bakery sandwiches with the need to do wash.” I thought. Last night I executed that plan and things couldn’t have been much better.
The laundromat (or “lavandería” as some of the Buford Highway residents may call it) was large, clean, and cheaper than the other two laundromats that I’ve been frequenting since my plumbing fiasco arose. Sure, I wasn’t going to see the Midtown indie-hotties that I’d been seeing at the laundromat across the road from Manuel’s Tavern. Sure, I wasn’t going to see the Emory underage-hotties that I’d been seeing at the laundromat in Toco Hill Shopping Center. But this time I had something better, a cheap, delicious, and quick dinner option.
I loaded my dirty duds into three washing machines that, unlike the machines at the other laundromats, told me that I had exactly twenty-three minutes until they were done. And then I exited one door, entered the next door, and ordered a pair of crazy cheap sandwiches (which were slightly more expensive than they were in the past).
Two sandwiches consumed, I headed back into the laundromat to find the first machine I started already done and the two others close to completion. When the three machines completed I packed up my wet clothes and headed home, belly full of Vietnamese sandwiches.
Fantastico!
ITP Flickr Pic
Back to Old Car City…
This is a top-down view of an old hood ornament. I found it amusing that many ornamental features on cars were shaped like planes. I guess flying was the “big thing” then and that it made the car appear as is if it was so fast that it could fly.
How Much Does It Cost To Use One CCF Of Water In The City Of Atlanta?
The answer is $18.09, unless of course you want to pay online using a credit card because there is now a “processing charge” of $4.50. What a bunch of bullshit.
Because of my inability to wash my clothes or do any real cooking at the house, my water bill is “low” and breaks out like this
- Water Base Charge – $4.63
- Water Usage Charges – $1.81
- Homeland Security Surcharge – $0.15 (this still chafes me!)
- Sewer Base Charge – $4.63
- Sewer Usage Charges – $6.87
This month I’ll begrudgingly write and mail a physical check to make my payment instead of paying online with a credit card as I’ve done for years. Assuming that there is no “processing fee” for paying using a bank draft / electronic check, I’ll start paying using that method starting in July.
Oh yeah, also starting July 1st water and sewer rates will increase by 12.5% in order to help pay for nearly one hundred years of the City of Atlanta’s sewer mismanagement.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – nervous, and realizing that I have so much shit to do tonight because there will be absolutely no free time tomorrow.
Current Music – nothing because I’m downloading new podcasts
Website Of The Day – Which is “better” A&W root beer or Dad’s root beer? Drake’s Devil Dogs or Little Debbie Devil Cremes? Go to Second Rate Snacks and vote because it’s up to you to decide.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 24 (24)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 23
Marta Rides – 0
June Goals
- lose four pounds… plain and simple (not going to happen)
2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I think this is a mistake:
The last time I stopped for a Vietnamese sandwich at Manuel’s Tavern.
I just got my water bill from Marietta Power & Water yesterday (who is only my water company, I have to use Cobb EMC for power…. does that make sense to anyone?).
Here is what mine says (I brought it to work with me to pay):
2 Tgals used
Wastewater charge $13.06
Water $15.00
You mean Manuel wasn’t Vietnamese?
I just corrected my error. I accidentally forgot to close one of the quotes for the link to Lee’s Bakery. So much for my editing skills. 
Thanks for the head’s up!
Your bill is for an entire month of two people who live a (semi) normal life and it’s only ten dollars higher than mine.
hey- (semi) normal? What’s that supposed to mean?
Well – you do have to pay for the City to fix all that OLD infrastructure.
And – maybe Manuel’s does have Vietnamese sandwiches? I haven’t been there in years, but I was just making an educated guess. My car repair shop is right near there, maybe next time I get an oil change, I’ll get Martha to take me there. Then Lam could be shocked when I tell him I ate Vietnamese food.
BTW – I haven’t gotten any tomatoes yet either…..
Hehe, I thought that might get your attention.
As with any hasher we tend to have a few more items which need to be washed than your “normal” citizen.
Yeah, I updated that section to mention the 100 years of sewer mismanagement that the City has performed.
Manuel’s has many things, crazy cheap Vietnamese sandwiches are not one of them. Next time I will get an oil change and probably have Lam check out my brakes to make sure they are okay as well. Damn, I just remembered that I still need to get the emissions on the Jackmobile checked out. Oh well, I might as well wait until I return.
Not that you need further irritation Paulie, but when I pay my county water bill, it costs me only slightly more than a postage stamp. While I understand a slightly increased charge for the convenience, I also understand gouging and turning it into a profit center.
At least Winnepeg should be cooler than the ATL. Have a wonderful time.
-FP
I can deal with the price increase to pay for the sins of my predecessors much easier than I can with the $4.50 fee to pay online.
Winnipeg will be cooler and I’m very much looking forward to the relief from this heat.
I pay all my bills on-line, through my bank. It doesn’t cost me a thing. Watershed’s website has to be one of the most un-user friendly messes, I’ve ever seen. It is near impossible to figure out what payments have been made and what you owe…
We are still eating the food Jerry’s mom sent home. For breakfast Sunday we had fried rice, egg rolls and (my fave) fried plantains.
I’ve had a couple of tomatoes, small ones, but it looks like the grape tomatoe plant may be taking off. It has grown a foot in the the past week and now has quite a few flowers. Fingers crossed. I noticed my green bean plants are only about 6 inches high but each has about 4 or 5 beans ready to pick…strange. I’ve got more cucumbers than I know what to do with and I’ve made quite a few salads with the letuce I’ve picked.
Do you need/want me to swing by and check on things while you are gone?
Martha, thanks for the offer if you want to swing by once or twice just to make sure everything looks kosher that would be great.
I think I’ll just let the plants tough it out since they are on the deck which is on the second story and they are not so important to me to have someone come into the house just to water them. The rosemary bush is the only real mobile one, the storage bucket containing the peppers is too heavy, and the tomato plants need to be hanging.
I’ll eat the tomato, jalapeno, and cherry hot pepper tonight (ooh, the thought of eating both peppers sounds painful) so I at least get some benefit out of my plantings this year.
Hopefully dried/dead plants will be the worst thing I discover upon my return.
Barb: my Marietta Power and Water bill says the same thing
Wastewater 13.06
water 15.00
But we also have power on our bill
$3.50 for county street lighting and then power usage.
Paulie: Have a safe, fun and relaxing trip!! Look foward to seeing the pictures.
No ripe tomatoes yet!
Now the gas bill is a whole different story
Actual gas use was only $7.00.
But I have a Customer Service Charge of $5.95
Then there’s the AGL Pass Through Charge of $14.77
the AGL Meter Read Charge of $0.71.
and then taxes on all that.
I just love paying bills.
In the country, I just call the man and he comes and fills my tank and leaves the bill on the door… I might have to pay sales tax.
-FP
Gotta say E. Point has it down. Water, electric and garbage are all on one bill… I don’t have a gas bill as I elected to install a tankless water heater and an all electric heatpump system in my house. It has worked out really well so far.