Living Like A Rock Star Without All The Perks
Like the Energizer Bunny I just keep going… I am a little disappointed in myself now for missing last Thursday’s Cracker show at The EARL since it would have been cool to complete the eight nights of birthday fun that I had planned.
Take Me Out To The Ball Game — Chattanooga Style
On Friday I took a drive up to Chattanooga to go to a Lookouts game. The night was nice and upon my arrival with the sun shining brightly I realized that I had made two rookie mistakes:
- I had checked the weather report and knew that it was going to be sunny and hot, yet I still decided to wear a black t-shirt.
- I had left all ballcaps in my car, thus requiring me purchase yet another ballcap. I think that my ballcap count is now somewhere on the order of twenty. Stupid is as stupid does.
The game itself was fun although I had a hard time following the logic of the strict seating policy for a stadium that may have been half-filled. My awesome, first row seat behind the first-base dugout cost only $8 (plus an unconscionable $3 charge to hold it a Will Call) so it’s not like moving “up” was going to get you a big gain. At one point I tried to move to a cheaper seat in a largely unfilled section. I showed the usher my ticket and asked that if it would be alright to sit in this cheaper section for a few innings. I was reluctantly told “okay” as long as I sat in the same exact row and seat as the ticket I held. Whaaa???
ITP Flickr Pic
I’m enjoying shooting at minor league baseball games.
Once I make time for editing I think I’ll have about a dozen neat shots from the evening.
One Night In Nashville
The whirlwind weekend continued with a night in Nashville, Tennessee.
Irony With A Side Of Bacon
I woke early on Saturday morning with a plan to eat a little free hotel breakfast and be on my way. Unfortunately the hotel in which I was staying was also holding a large family reunion (that’s large in count, not necessarily large fat people — although I saw many of those in Tennessee) so I didn’t want to fight my way to get some grub. Somewhat ironically I wound up eating at a Shoney’s. (The irony lies in that I took a photo of a Shoney’s coffee mug that I used in Athens on Thursday morning, even though I was not eating at a Shoney’s — and then on Saturday I found myself in a Shoney’s.)
Tour de Goodwill
As I finished breakfast I realized that I had no plans and could not check into my hotel until the afternoon, so I decided to take a slow roll on lesser-traveled roads hitting thrift stores along the way. I was hoping that I’d strike it lucky finding some old camera gear, but alas I was shutout.
The Show? Awe-Some!
With the exception that the Ryman Auditorium still fervently fights the “War on Photography”, unless you are an “official Ryman photographer” of course, it is an awesome place to see a show.
It’s an even better place to see a show when you luck out and score a seat in the third row, one the inner aisle.
Thanks again for your help, Vic.
What made my seat even better was that it was on the side on which Jason Lytle played, and Kelly Hogan stood (Neko Case stood center stage of course).
All The Lines, None Of The Dancing
After the concert I was planning to do what everybody does on a Saturday night in Nashville — go to the bars on Broadway. Unfortunately, everybody decided to go to the bars on Broadway and at 11:00pm CDT there were lines to get in everywhere. If you know anything about me it’s that I am far from hip and find waiting in line to get into a bar or restaurant an unworthy way to spend my time.
I decided to head to the West End near Vanderbilt. Surely in the college section of town there would be places for me to get some dinner and a beer. I was stymied at my first choice, and when the provided alternative was as smokey as a The EARL on a Saturday (stupid hipster college kids) I decided to bag my plans and head back to the hotel.
Oh To Have The Ultimate Power Of Timing And Opportunity
Driving along I-24E yesterday morning I passed a small roadside billboard advertising Neko Case’s latest CD “Middle Cyclone.” Knowing that Case’s tour bus was also headed to Atlanta yesterday I know that they had to pass that same billboard. How fucking cool would it have been to have the ability to stop the tour bus and take a photo of case standing next to her billboard. Well, I think it would have been cool.
I’m Already Missing le Tour
Admittedly I didn’t get to follow this year’s le Tour de France as in depth as I would have liked to. I was just too busy or not near a television that broadcast Versus. And so one the first post-TdF Monday I’m feeling the blues.
And For My Final Trick — It’s Back To Athens Tonight
Tonight I wind up my “Eight Nights Of Birthday Activity Tour ’09″ back at the 40 Watt Club for the M. Ward show. With last week’s starting time information in my back pocket I know not to rush over to Athens and to try and get a decent bite of dinner in my stomach prior to entering the 40 Watt. This should be a good, and most likely well-attended, concert so I’m debating the merits of bringing my camera gear into the club with me.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – weird, feeling like a turning point is headed my way
Current Music – listening to last weekend’s “le Show” podcast
Website Of The Day – If you ran my Black Sheep hash then you ran some of the trails of the Gwinnett Environmental And Heritage Center. You would have run more of its obscure parts had I not messed up so badly. It’s a nice place, too bad it’s soooo OTP.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 201 pounds (not all that surprising)
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~6 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 2, Carnivorous Days – 26
Marta Rides – 0
July Goals
- Regain interest in my life
- Not get fired from my job
- Plan and lay a successful Black Sheep hash on July 19th
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]
Yep, the Tour is over. Think Alberto will be invited to be on Lance’s new Team Radio Shack? I didn’t watch the final stage, I will watch the finish just to see the sprint, but when flipping channels I heard I think Phil say Lance was 2nd? I about had a heart attack, but I figured he had just mis-spoke. So, I had to watch for another minute or so, and I was right.
Why can’t you eat in Athens tonight?
Whoa. I rushed so much this morning to get a post out that I just realized that I made no mention of last night’s show at the Variety Playhouse. Oh well. more blather for tomorrow.
I think that I missed four of the final six stages this year. Bad Paulie!
Barb, my wording is poor (again with the rushing to post). I meant to imply that with a later starting time than I thought that I didn’t have to leave work early and rush over to Athens. Since I’ll have time to “spare” I will eat dinner in Athens prior to going into the 40 Watt. Last week I went into the 40 Watt around 9:30pm only to find that the show didn’t start until about 10pm. Also, since I plan on driving back to Atlanta tonight I don’t plan on drinking much, perhaps one beer, so there’s no need to go to a bar earlier than necessary.
oh, now I understand.
Barb, I wasn’t really paying attention but I heard the same thing (about Lance) and wondered why Jerry hadn’t said anything. I know I’m in the minority but I’m glad the Tour is over, maybe I can see something besides VS. on my tv.
A group of us ventured down to FDR State Park on Saturday, it looks like its a winner for the Campout formally known as Providence Canyon. However, the two ticks Jerry found once we returned home undid all the progress we made on convincing him camping can be fun. Paulie the site we picked will be a perfect place for camping in the Jack-mobile.
Hopefully we can make it to the FDR Park campout this fall. I’m pretty sure we road our bikes past it when we did the Wheels Of Fire ride this spring.
Oh so Providence Canyon is following the lead of Black Rock and changing locations?
What weekend is that campout? You know I like to plan in advance. I’m sure it’s on the AH4 website, but you also know I tend to be lazy.
FDR Park is about an hour closer to Atlanta then PC…it took 90 minutes max to drive there this weekend. It looks like the decision was made to make it a joint Black Sheep/AH4 hash, it will be the weekend of Nov 8th.
Just a word of warning, 2 of the co-hares when out for a 30 minute run to check out some of the trails…they returned two and a half hours later. Never leave camp may be my mantra for the weekend.
Martha, you might as well get on board with the Tour… it isn’t going anywhere and if Lance gets his picks for the new team, there will probably be even more press next year.
-FP
Speaking of cycling, I nearly went for a ride yesterday but alas a nap won out. I’ve been planning on making time to ride this week. However, a quick look at the ten-day forecast looks sketchy at best.
Come on, there is only like a 30-40% chance of rain. That shouldn’t get in the way of a ride. I think our normal Tuesday morning ride is on, if you’d like to join us sometime.
I think next year I will be scheduling a 3 week, living in a cave vacation.
So what a month until college football starts back? I guess I might be hashing a bit more come fall.
30-40% of THUNDERstorms, not just rain. I’ve no time in the morning because I have a pesky blog to publish daily.
In a cave? Really? Neat. I wish that I could take a three-week vacation but that would use all of my allotted vacation time.
I plan on winning the lottery tomorrow night so perhaps I’ll just quit my job.
College football starts in September. Surely your not letting your relationship get in the way of hashing, right?
Who cares about college football, but I can get on the Pro football bandwagon.
Paulie – feel free to bring your bike to work with you, and we could always meet you after work. You might want to ride once or twice before that Wilson 100.
But Barb, if I train I won’t have opportunity to complain!
Sadly, the bike was supposed to ride to work with me today but I was so unprepared that I couldn’t pull it off so it’s still at home.
The Wilson
10060-something is a monumental motivator for me. If memory serves me right, and it should still at forty-four, 2008 Wilson 100 was the last time that I rode. It’s also when I started to have knee problems.COMING SOON:
For all of you reading this now, I will be dropping a lot of bizarre ideas in the blog during the next few weeks — stay tuned.
No Paulie you must train, your complaining wont be nearly as efficent and entertaining if you don’t train to complain.
I don’t see anyway I’m going to be able to ride. I just don’t have the time to get out for a long ride, 20 miles is about my max on the bike. My ‘long’ runs start this weekend, so unless I start taking time off work and riding long during the week I just don’t see it happening.
As for the tour, the last 15 minutes or so was pretty interesting/exciting, I couldn’t believe how fast those guys were going at the end.
In other cycling news, the Grant Park Criterium is next month. Two of Jerry’s friends will be riding and it is Jerry’s birthday weekend, so I thought I would organizing something (no details yet) so let me know if you’re coming ITP for the event.
What category riders are Jerry’s friend’s? Crits are good races to watch if you want to see some wrecks. There isn’t enough money in the world to get me to ride a crit. I (or we, depending on if Allan is working) will come watch if we aren’t booked with something else.
Paulie – I’m sure you can find something to complain about, even if you train.
> Paulie – I’m sure you can find something to complain about, even if you train.
At least I’m consistent, right?
Issac is a Cat 3, I think Mary Pat is Cat 1, but not sure. She didn’t start riding until she started dating Issac, she seems to have a natural talent for it (helps she’s in her early 20s as well).