Lions, And Tigers, And Bears, Oh My!
Of these three I saw two, thankfully only painted on the face of ITP-Readers Lisa’s and Randy’s son Cooper.
Rain, And Cold, And Shitty Traffic Coming Home, Oh My!
There was no blog on Friday because I took off for Black Mountain, NC where LEAF was being held. As I am wont to do I chose the path least traveled my drive up there. I was out of the house before 8am and managed to miss Atlanta rush-hour(s) traffic before I made it to the US highways which led me through Clayton, GA and in to North Carolina. While the weather was a might sketchy I managed to have a pleasurable drive which, because of my old-man driving these days, allowed me to cruise by three speed traps set up along the way. I also managed to stop at two thrift stores, but unfortunately neither had anything of interest for me.
Getting to Lake Eden, once the campus of Black Mountain College was the easy part (thanks to Jill who was called into duty because I’ve yet to unbox the new GPS). Finding the “Mountain Top” camping area proved to be much harder. You’d think that the volunteers who are positioned along the one main road within the boundaries of the festival would know how to direct someone to each camping area. But noooooooooooooooooo! I was mis-directed no fewer than two times and luckily came across one individual who could give me proper directions. In some ways it felt as if I was on The Amazing Race except for the fact that these people spoke English and were specifically placed there to help people. When I finally found the camping area I put up a tent and waited around for the Raleighites to arrive so that we could camp next to one another.
The weekend was fun but the rain and cold really put a damper on my desire to be out and about. When the weather finally cleared up yesterday I realized that, with nice weather, the festivities would be much more enjoyable. I never did manage to find ITP-Reader Romanlily, nor did I try my feet at contradancing.
For my drive home I decided to take the interstate route in order to get home “quicker.” Wouldn’t you know that I-85 South was fairly fucked about fifteen miles from the South Carolina / Georgia border. The traffic continued to be stop-and-go until I got frustrated and got off the interstate near the Mall of Georgia. Having scouted many of the roads in the area while planning my hash in July I felt fairly confident in my ability to get home via surface roads. I wound my way to Lawrenceville Highway and headed ITP from there. I finally arrived at my house around 7:30pm, more than five hours after starting my journey from Black Mountain — with my only stop being a gas refill.
Overall I think the weekend was enjoyable and something I’d like to try again — preferably with nicer weather.
ITP Flickr Pic
Rain and cloudy skies did not make for ideal shooting conditions. Additionally I’ve come to the conclusion that my 13″ MacBook screen makes for horrible editing conditions. I may have to break down and get a larger screen on which to edit. If only those fuckwads had not broken into my house and stolen my 20″ iMac.
My Amazon Account Has Frozen In Hell
Much like the weather my Amazon account is STILL frozen! Can you tell how frustrated I am by this?
I’m Losing Everywhere
Thankfully the Gators (narrowly) won this weekend because I incorrectly picked the Eagles and have been eliminated from the NFL Pick’em challenge, the NY Jets lost to Buffalo and my East Atlanta Deadbeat Dads are on the verge of losing their third game in a row.
A Return To To RPS
Tonight I’m returning to a Roswell Photographic Society for the monthly meetup. Tonight is the monthly critique night, but I’ve not had the drive to take a photo that I think is worthy of submitting.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – cold, tired, frustrated
Current Music – listening to last night’s The Amazing Race
Website Of The Day – Letters of Note is a neat blog containing interesting and historic letters.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 8 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 5, Carnivorous Days – 13
Marta Rides – 0
October Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Take at least one photo every day
- Restart work on house, actually making progress this time (note: not successful during August)
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’m glad you didn’t do a Amazing Race recap – with the Falcons on & it being delayed over an hour (due to your Jets-Bills game) I didn’t watch it last night.
I just love that I have to record the entire Sunday CBS lineup to be sure to watch 1 program.
Do you really buy something from Amazon everyday? Maybe if you quit trying to log in, it will unfreeze? Or – start a whole new account?
I just watched The Amazing Race this morning. I fell asleep watching the Falcons game. I wish that CBS would realize how frustrating Sunday evening program watching is for us on the East Coast in the Fall. I’m certain that The Amazing Race would benefit from being on a different night in the Fall because it never seems to start on time.
I don’t buy something from Amazon every day but I hate not being able to log in. I thought about starting a new account but my purchase history is invaluable especially when printing receipts for insurance purposes. Amazon and Chase have been horrible at communicating with me so the only way that I think I’ll find out that my account has been reinstated is by logging in successfully.
Barb, please send me your mechanic’s phone number and address (again). I’m planning on taking it there to get some service done soon.
Glad to made it to LEAF and back. I wish I had run into you there. I kept looking for you. Wow, that place is huge. I spent most of my time either in the family camping area or in the dance hall.
I enjoyed LEAF, but holy crap, I packed very stupidly. The heaviest clothing I brought was a couple of fleece jackets. No hats, gloves, scarves, thermal underwear… So I just about froze to death the entire weekend. Did you know that LEAF actually got some snow flurries on Saturday night?!
The dancing was utterly transcendent. My buddies and I are planning to return in the spring for that reason alone. I’m told by LEAF vets that the weather is rarely that nasty and cold. Let’s hope they’re telling the truth!
Sent you Lam’s address & phone to yoru email.
without telling me what, anything good happen on Amazing Race?
BTW – Wheelhopper & SOB ended at The Grange yesterday – nice little bar.
@Romanlily – Sorry I didn’t run into you either. I looked for you, especially when we stood inside the dance hall for a (cajun I believe) band. I spent most of my time shivering, waiting for beer/food, or listening to storytellers. I didn’t know that we had flurries, but I am not surprise. I was surprised to see kids do the zip line into the lake.
I realized early in my journey Friday that I packed only my hiking boots for shoes — great for cold weather, notsomuch for dancing.
@Barb – Good episode including our first “Oh crap, we’re going to need another car.” moment. I won’t tell you who finished first but I will tell you that it’s probably pretty easy to get through life being one of the “pretty people.” I think you will enjoy the episode — especially when they go into a skiing area built inside a Dubai building.
oh yeah – they are going to Dubai…. very cool.
Glad you survived the ride home, Paulie. I thought I might have seen some small flurries as I was outside walking Nolan out of his crying jag at 3am Sunday morning, but I couldn’t tell for sure – light drizzle and small snowflakes look about the same in a headlamp at that time…
LEAF is definitely more enjoyable with nice weather – I’m glad Sunday gave you a glimpse of what it can really be like. On the plus side, how good did that hot shower feel last night? Hopefully we’ll see you there again next year.
I agree, those zipline kids were crazy! Flying half-naked into a lake when you can see snow on the mountain next door is just plain nuts.
I almost hate to admit this, but I didn’t shower last night. When I got in to my house it was 58 F (!) because I hadn’t switched my thermostat to heat because I didn’t expect it to get that cold. Because of this I went into the basement (it’s always warmer-in-the-winter / cooler-in-the-summer down there) to watch the game and fell asleep doing so. This morning’s shower was fantastic!
You’ll more than likely see me again there next year, hopefully we’ll have better weather too.
The Grange is one of my favorite bars! Owners are awesome and they pour the best Guinness pint, hands down!