What A Strange Night

Even by my standards last night was strange, not in a “I met a wonderful woman” strange, but strange nonetheless.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Learn signs and symptoms of asthma.

Asthma is a chronic lung condition that restricts the airways and makes it harder to breathe. The symptoms aren’t always severe, but without the proper treatments, an asthma attack can be life-threatening. By learning the common signs and symptoms, you’ll be better prepared to seek treatment if you experience them.

Things That Go Boom On The Drive
I scampered out of work at 4:00pm in order to beat a bit of traffic downtown. What I didn’t realize was that I was also driving myself into yet another powerful thunderstorm. Holy Hell a lot of water was dumped on midtown and downtown yesterday afternoon. I managed to avoid the myriad of people who cannot drive in this town as well as dodge the massive puddles that were created on the side of the roads and made it downtown in fairly decent time.

My knowledge of downtown, specifically the Fairly-Polpar region, paid off again as within two turns I found myself in an inexpensive, covered parking garage.

What To Do With Two Hours To Kill?
Because it was raining the thought of walking around downtown was unappealing. I wandered about the parking lot for awhile seeking unique photo opportunities, but came up fairly dry, which as about the only dry thing within eyesight.

While it is not uncommon to see tv/movie lighting trucks around these days I was a little surprised to find that from the third floor of the parking garage I could watch the setup and shooting of a scene of a movie or tv show. Apparently I saw the shooting for an upcoming episode of a tv show called Constantine.

The rain finally stopped so I decided to walk around and try to find the building that Switchyards will inhabit next year; this turned out to be my biggest rookie mistake of the night. I walked toward The Tabernacle and of course was approached by someone who just needed some money for food. As I do, because I am a cold-hearted privileged person, I said “I’m sorry” and kept walking. What I should have done is kept walking further.

As I approached the ferris wheel I realized that I had made a directional error and passed Spring Street, so I turned around. Even crossing the street to walk on the other side didn’t keep another person from coming up to me. His story was that he’d gotten out of jail two days ago and that he wasn’t looking for money. Uh huh, I’ve heard that before… To my surprise he accepted my offer to buy him food at the nearby convenience store, so we walked the two blocks together and I bought him a sandwich, chips, and a drink. I’ve never done this before. After exiting the store I declined his offer to help me find the building and parted ways.

So. Many. People.
Because of the weather I figured the tour of Switchyards was cancelled. When I found the building I also found four other guys trying to figure out how to get in. We eventually gave up and made our way to Park Bar, an establishment I never knew existed never mind visited. The bar is nice and we had the entire upstairs reserved for our party. I was glad to have gotten there and ordered food early because when the people who met up at Switchyards arrived, the place became packed. I never expected Switchyards to generate so much interest.

Today’s Personal Project
Get some exercise.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – pretty good
Current Music – listening to today’s stage of La Vuelta España.
Website Of The Day – Last night we were shown Slingput, a service targeted at helping people realize ideas.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – checking tomorrow

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – ~25.0 miles
Gym Visits – 0 (0 cardio)

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

September Goals
– clear out a room’s worth of things I no longer wish to own for the rest of my life
– hire a plumber to come in and fix the “small” repairs
– contact a realtor to make a hit list of things that need to change before the house can be listed

2014 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate
– Sell the ITP Estate (tentative)

2014 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Continue to simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)

Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2014

  1. “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
  2. “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon
  3. “Chaos: Making a New Science” by James Gleick
  4. “What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life” by Tim Conway

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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13 Responses to What A Strange Night

  1. Barb says:

    We barely got any rain yesterday in Marietta.

  2. steve says:

    I think the rain came and went quickly on the farm… and you’re a good hearted soul. I have done the same thing several times.

    The plan was to get home and ride the road, but the weather kept me stranded so I spent a quality half hour on my trainer. The heat only makes that type of riding more unbearable. Ugh.

    For the moment, I have won the battle of the small pool pump, but of course, now the main pump has a small leak- and the fitting that I want to tighten is larger than any wrench or clever technique I can devise. Just. Shoot. Me.

    I believe “filming” is taking place on Gordon Road today. The caterer had already set up a “circus” tent in a pasture near the location and security was in place when I drove home from work. This morning, there was no more than the sign warning the road would be closed- no uniformed folks manning the intersection- yet.

    -FP

  3. Martha says:

    I’m alive and have not been sucked into an alternate Amazon world, just super duper busy…having a day off just means I have to squeeze 5 days of work into 4.

    Do we know if the show Constantine is related to the movie of the same name (starting that great American actor Keeanu Reeves?)… that movie is messed up. However, not as much as Cloud Atlas which I started watching about half way through the other night.

    The rain the past couple of days has been crazy in-town and it looks like we will have more of the same for a few more days.

    I’m not sure if I can make it Saturday, I need to speak with Jerry. We had plans to go to the Brownwood Bike Rally and I signed up for Mystery Mountain so I really need to add running to my schedule at some point over the next month.

  4. steve says:

    We’re hoping to see you, Jerry and your evil twin Jenka as well!!

  5. Today’s Vuelta stage is a criterium, or perhaps technically a circuit, which means that it’s boring television but probably pretty exciting in person.

  6. Debbie says:

    The Walking Dead is shooting down the road. No wandering Zombies that I could see when I left the farm. I’ve got Dad duty while Mom gets her hair cut. Thankfully the days of needing to be with them every day seem to be behind us. Dad was practically high stepping during therapy this morning and he stood up straight for the first time I can recall in years. I had forgotten that he’s fairly tall!

    I’ve got the fixin’s for pork enchiladas for Saturday. There will be pulled pork as well. And banana pudding. Looking forward to seeing whoever can make it.

  7. Jenka says:

    Park Bar is one of my favorite places! And it’s owned by my friend Quickie, who lived (still lives) across the street from me in OP. He also owns Sidebar.

    They’re going to film an episode of Constantine (or did last week, I forget) at Emory. It’s a spin-off from the TV show Grimm.

    This weekend is already pretty packed. I’ll talk to Kevin, but I don’t think we’ll have time; we’ve got stuff Saturday midday and then a dinner. Martha: we’ll be at Aussie’s on Sunday helping to put up the pergola. Excuse me, they will put up the pergola, I will “supervise.”

    There is no “of” when you’re using the word “myriad.” Correct usage would have been: “I managed to avoid the myriad people who cannot drive in rain, etc.”

  8. Martha says:

    To paraphrase Dan Akroyd “Jenka, you ignorant slut”… you should stick to correcting grammer and leave the sci-fi/fantasy stuff to the professionals. 🙂

    Constantine is not a spin-off of Grimm?? Grimm is inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales, sort of a ‘what if’ they were real sort of premise, set in modern day Seattle. Contantine, on the other hand, is based on the comic book series “Hellblazer” set in the DC Comics universe.

    Now it looks like NBC is going to have Grimm followed by Constantine in the fall line up, otherwise they are not related.

  9. I know that you are correct but I cannot express how wrong “myriad people” sounds to my ears.

  10. Jenka says:

    Ah! Well, that’s what I was told, but then again, my source was not very reliable. And I’m sorry but I must correct you: Grimm takes place in modern day Portland. BOOYAH! THAT JUST HAPPENED!

  11. Barb says:

    Damn – Jenka beat me to it -Grimm is filmed & takes place in Portland!

  12. steve says:

    Not that I would EVER question Jenka on matters of language, but I did look it up just to see what part of speech it was..

    noun
    1. a very great or indefinitely great number of persons or things.
    2. ten thousand.
    adjective
    3. of an indefinitely great number; innumerable:
    “the myriad stars of a summer night.”
    4. having innumerable phases, aspects, variations, etc.:
    “the myriad mind of Shakespeare.”
    5. ten thousand.

  13. Martha says:

    Fuck, I know that, damn it…

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