Inside The Perimeter

While Barb and Allan were making the utterly complicated dinner of a timpano, last night I did nearly the opposite by heating up a can of refried beans with a can or Rotel stirred into them, along with some diced WLF tomatoes and jalapeños, and ate that with some rice that I made in my InstantPot. Okay, now that I have typed this my dinner was not as simplistic as I thought, but still, it was no timpano!

Yesterday’s excitement included watching a local hawk fly through WLF, and then seeing a large branch drop from a neighbor’s tree into WLF. I have identified the branch the fell as problematic, but thankfully it did little damage as it fell into an area in which nothing is planted.

I’m getting close to being ready for the RAGBRAI trip. Doing laundry today to have clean cycling kits, and will finish my packing tonight.

I received an email from Peacock today informing me of (another?) price increase. I just renewed my annual subscription in June, so the $20 increase won’t hit until then, at which time I will have to determine if Peacock sans ads is worth $140/year to me.

Wordle: four, my starter was FIGHT
Connections: one mistake, Yellow > X > Blue > Green > Purple

Yesterday was another day when it looked as if WLF would get a good watering from the skies, but that never materialized.

Happy birthday to ITP Reader Barb.

I have nothing today. I woke up too late and too unmotivated to do laundry, so I will do it tomorrow. I am going to spend the day getting my shit together.

Wordle: five, my starter was TRADE
Connections: perfect, Blue > Yellow > Purple > Green

It’s Prime Day(s) and while traveling to Iowa for RAGBRAI is certainly going to cost me money, it will also be saving me money because I can’t order anything from Amazon during the next few days since I won’t be home to receive any purchases.

Last night for dinner I pulled all of the beets from WLF and roasted them along with some WLF potatoes that I had in storage. This is the first year that I have successfully grown beets! I roasted enough for multiple meals, and last night I ate a bunch along with a patty melt that I made using ingredients that I am using up before heading to Iowa.

I hope to ride tonight to give my tube replacement a stress test. Certainly I will be packing plenty of tubes and CO2 cartridges in case I have flats in Iowa, but it would be nice to have a higher confidence in my handiwork before I depart.

Wordle: four, my starter was TREAD
Connections: perfect, Purple > Yellow > Green > Blue

On Saturday morning I talked myself out of going for a bike ride. This is where having an accountability partner would be beneficial. And that’s completely on me…

Because I wasn’t out on the road I was able to watch Saturdays stage of the Tour de France, and my remote control’s Mute button got a workout as Peacock/NBC inundated us with commercials prior to the riders getting to the mountains.

I managed to make my Saturday productive, however. I reorganized all of my bike shit, and packed almost everything except clothing for my journey to RAGBRAI.

On Saturday night I was going to watch the Atlanta United match, but then reflecting on how I felt that the club has given up on this season by selling their best offensive players, I decided to give up in their season as well. Instead I watched the finale of “The Bear”, and that’s all I have to say about that.

Yesterday was a day of fun and more choring.

Today I am going to cleaning out plants from WLF which have passed their prime, in part thanks to the brutal heat we’ve experienced.

Wordle: five, my starter was HABIT
Connections: perfect, Purple > Blue > Yellow > Green

Barb, you nearly got your Seated referral bonus last night. With a free night, and the desire to treat myself after riding, I was going to have dinner out. Unfortunately (for you) I was ravenous early and decided to eat leftovers at home. That being said, I may have lunch out today…

Yesterday I watched the penultimate episode of season three of The Bear. I will be interested to hear what other people think about this season.

Wordle: four, my starter was ACORN
Connections: one mistake, Yellow > X > Purple > Green > Blue

In my attempts to use food that I already have purchased, I made a variation of my standard breakfast casserole yesterday. In this version I used a tube of Pillsbury biscuits, six eggs, a jar of pizza sauce, an eight ounce bag of mozzarella, two WLF jalapeños, and a bag of frozen Quorn “chicken” cubes. You know what? It tasted like a deep dish pizza, and satisfied me immensely. Also, it will provide me with five more meals!

When I was out in WLF this week I had a “time is weird” moment. As I was picking a couple of jalapeño peppers I thought back to last year when my pepper plants were producing more than I could eat. It seemed as if it were just yesterday, and not about a year ago. This season I’ve had only hot banana peppers and jalapeños from the two plants that I bought at Lowe’s earlier this year.

Wordle: six, my starter was REACH
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Blue > Purple

Yesterday morning I baked another amazing zucchini bread, perhaps the last one for a while since all zucchini plants have been yanked from WLF. I have been tweaking a recipe I’ve used for years and have finally fine tuned to my taste. I’m not going to say this is “healthy” but it uses much less sugar than dictated by the original recipe, I use apple sauce instead of oil, and dried cranberries instead of raisins.

Today I am going back to Marietta to pick up my bicycle. Along the way I will stop at Total Wine to get my payment for the services rendered. I am going to *try* to go for a longish ride tomorrow morning to test it out, and to get in a ride.

Wordle: three, my starter was GRAIN
Connections: perfect, Blue > Green > Yellow > Purple

Another Wordle solution that was on “My List”, but didn’t use at the proper time. Hell, today I even zagged when I should have zigged.

I struggled mightily this morning with Connections. And as you will see below, eventually failed today.

Today I am going to attempt to stay at home all day and do some choring. Given that it will be hot and humid later, it’s already humid, most of my activity will occur indoors.

Wordle: four, my starter was DAILY
Connections: perfect, Yellow > X > Green > X > X

On Friday I watched a YouTube video posted a couple of years ago which identified six neighborhoods to avoid when moving to “Atlanta” (and, if I interpreted the vibe correctly, you are black). East Atlanta made #2 behind Stone Mountain. I felt so proud. 🙂

Saturday morning I drove out to Conyers to go to Tractor Supply and Harbor Freight Tools. I needed some fertilizer for WLF and some 30% vinegar for weed killing, and just wanted to do something different than I have been doing recently.

I have skipped forward and started watching season 3 of The Bear. Can somebody explain why Hulu insists on calling this series a “comedy drama”? I’ve watched from the beginning and it has been nothing but dark, stressful, well made television, but there is nothing funny about it to me.

Today I am bringing my bike up the best mechanic in the Grove family for a once over prior to heading for Iowa. Inconceivably, we depart for RAGBRAI a week from Friday!

Wordle: four, my starter was STEAM (because I didn’t have the balls to go for it in three)
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple

Happy 5th of July, or as it’s known this year, Friday.

I spent my Fourth poking around WLF. It was my intent to use my weed whacker to clean the brick pathways that border WLF. I was 90% successful before the cap which holds the spool which feeds the line broke, thus ending my day. I am a little less enamored with my weed whacker because I used a good bit of string, and had to stop often to feed it again before the cap broke.

Dinner last night at Hank’s was nice, and I was home in time to be in bed before the fireworks started.

Wordle: two, my starter was REACH
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Blue > Green > Purple