I’ve Been Too Busy To Do Much

Last night consisted of meeting up with some Flickr / RPS friends at the Thinking Man Tavern (which employs one of the cutest young waitresses I have ever seen) for a bite to eat. The plan was to head from dinner to the Jackson St bridge to do a little sunset photography, but I had other fish to fry (not literally, of course) so after a pit stop at the corner of North and Highland for a delicious King of Pops Banana Pudding popsicle I turned the Jackmobile toward Kroger. At Kroger I picked up all of the necessary ingredients for this year’s version of Andouille Grit Cakes with a Crawfish Shrimp Cream Sauce.

Tonight I plan to prepare the grit cakes, which need to be refrigerated overnight, so that I can have everything packed into the Jackmobile for my journey up to Hartwell after work tomorrow afternoon.

ITP Flickr Pic
Nothing new is in my photo pipeline so I’m digging one up from the recent trip.
From A Different Perspective
Obviously this is the St Louis arch.

Things That Go Swish And Thump In The Night
It happened again last night. I was lying in bed when I heard a strange noise outside. The noise reminded me of the one I heard a year or so ago when my neighbor’s aged sweetgum tree dropped a large branch. It was dark outside by the time this noise occurred, just like the last time this happened, so when I went on my cursory fact finding mission on my back deck I saw nothing.

I posted a quick update of this event on my Facebook account, and quickly one of my friends confirmed my suspicion. Apparently she was walking her dog down my street when the branch fell and she said that the loud sound startled her and the dog.

I checked things out this morning and there was thankfully no damage to my property. However, this tree is ancient and huge, and has been losing about a thick branch a year for the past three years so I’m concerned about the long-term health of this tree. This incident has also reminded me that I’ve wanted to have someone come out and trim back some branches, as well as take out one medium-sized tree which threaten my house’s roof. Oh goody! Another opportunity to spend a lot of money for maintenance! Ugh.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh, the toe is slowly coming around
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – If I had a stash of decent photos with which I’d like to publish a book I could use Poyomi to produce my book.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – don’t want to know
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~15 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (2)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 22
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

September Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 250 miles
– Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
– Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
– lose five pounds
– eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I’ve sadly gained weight; I’m at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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8 Responses to I’ve Been Too Busy To Do Much

  1. Barb says:

    Since it is your neighbor’s tree, you need to talk to them about it before it does do some real damage, & then you can put something in writing stating that they would be expected to pay (or their insurance would pay) for any damage to your property. It might be enough to get them to do something. You could also work out a deal to have the tree guys come & do your tree(s) at the same time, making their cost go down a little.

  2. I’ve been thinking of talking to my neighbors. Their tree is so huge and tall that I’m sure it’ll cost a lot of money to take it down and it’s so thick that cutting back branches will make it look strange.

    If I get my act together and have someone come out to do some tree work I’ll also get a quote for trimming their tree branches back so that if they fall there will be no chance of them making it to my house. This is also the same tree that damaged my gutters, which also still needs to be repaired.

  3. Barb says:

    If it has dropped other branches, the neighbors have probably thought about it anyway, so if you speak to them, it might make them do something sooner than later, and you won’t have to worry about it much longer.

    I’m sure it wouldn’t be cheap to take it out, but if you have some work done at the same time, it would cut their cost a little bit – it is amazing how the price goes down (per tree) the more trees you take out. Once the guys are there………. We had 4 big trees taken out & it was less than I expected.

  4. Steve says:

    Big trees that could actually fall on the house scare me, and sweet gums are just overgrown weeds, IMHO. When we had one taken out in Tucker, it was a happy day to have no more little spiky balls lying everywhere.

    I’m glad you said that was the arch, bucause the perspective made it look like an odd building (which I guess it is, in a way).

    I crossed the Jackson St. bridge on my ride last night, but it was still mostly daylight. I wonder if there is a west side equivilent, which could get the moon coming up over downtown.

    -FP

  5. Westside shots are difficult.

    There is a bridge with a decent view northwest of the city, but it’s near a CRX facility and I’ve heard of many photographers getting bum-rushed off the bridge by the police.

    The best true-west location I’ve found for shooting the entire city is an overpass way out by Six Flags.

  6. Steve says:

    Right, I know the one and have tried to take pictures there, but never owned enough lens!!

    I wonder about some of the lofts on Marietta St. I know one with a roof patio….

  7. Stacy Fox says:

    Obvious, but maybe not so obvious, the arc. Love the angle and didn’t realize you could actually get up so close to it. Very nice pic!

  8. Oh yeah, you can get up to it and touch it. In fact, on a freezing day you could probably try to lick it and freeze your tongue to the arch. 🙂

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