Inside The Perimeter

Happy Memorial Day.

So much of the recent rain has fallen north of I-20 that I have captured more water from my HVAC condensation line than I have from the sky. Rain is predicted for every day this week, let’s see what tune I’m singing by the time I drive to Columbus on Saturday. I hope by then it has rained itself out so that BRAG won’t be a complete mess.

According to the t-shirt I wore yesterday, this year marks twenty years since I saw Flaming Lips at Tabernacle. Wow.

Wordle: four, my starter was AWFUL

I love Publix BOGOs, who doesn’t? However, when I see the prices of groceries today I sometimes wonder if Publix isn’t multiplying the prices of their BOGOs by two prior to putting them on sale.

If I were not going to be doing BRAG on June 3rd I might have bought a ticket for that night to see comedian Don Macmillan
perform at the Punchline.

To kill time before my dental appointment the other day I wandered into a Best Buy. Yes, I’m still contemplating a new television and wanted to see what is out there. My word TVs have gotten FUCKING HUGE!!! I guess you need a big TV to watch TV inside your 8000 sq ft house? I also may be in the market for a new Blu-Ray player. Hilariously Best Buy had more turntables (aka “record player”) on display than the two Blu-Ray players; they only had one DVD player for sale in store.

Wordle: three, my starter was USAGE

In the hour and ten minutes it took for me to drive from Marietta to East Atlanta yesterday afternoon I drove through a torrential downpour. Even though I knew I had no rain capturing basins out, I was excited to see how much rain fell on Wee Little Farm… until the skies cleared on I-20. The answer was “certainly not enough”, the answer was 0.5″. I am fortunate that I had budgeted a long time to get home, because I apparently just beat the flooding that occurred on The Connector.

I’ve turned off the sprinkler system in hope that the rain predicted to start today actually comes. I don’t even care if it causes Concrete Jungle to cancel tonight’s volunteer shift, Wee Little Farm needs water from the sky.

Good dental checkup was followed by some beer drinking either Allan and Chip at Schoolhouse. Oh, and I also found “Elf” on Blu-Ray yesterday at a Marietta Goodwill!

Wordle: four, my starter was TRIBE

When I met with ITP-Reader Steve for lunch last week he ordered crawfish étouffée. This piqued my interest, so now I am doing some research on making a shrimp étouffée, probably on Sunday. Whenever I complete this task I will have made my trinity of Cajun/Creole food — jambalaya, gumbo, étouffée — this year. I found étouffée recipes in two cookbooks, one is far more complicated than the other. I think I will start with the simpler version, and try the other sometime later if the first doesn’t appeal to me.

Yesterday the funk returned and was joined by a desire to be alone. Thus, I chose not to go to the Tuesday Night Ride to make up for my inability to get my ass out to Silver Comet. To be honest, I also don’t care for our new post-ride gathering site because I think we are too loud to be sitting so close to a couple of houses.

I spent some of my alone time gathering items for BRAG. As an added bonus, it was cooler in the basement than on the main floor of the house.

Wordle: two, my starter was SCREW

In anticipation of a new BRAG jersey I forked over some money to Primal Wear for a pair of road cycling shorts to make a kit. For an old, fat person who rides but seven months out of the year I have an abundance of cycling clothing.

The Bundesliga season has ended. Werder Bremen managed to escape relegation, though as was par for the season they didn’t manage to score in their 0-2 loss in the finale. I will be canceling Disney/Hulu/ESPN before month’s end.

Wordle: five, my starter was SLING. Another day where my Wordle instincts were poor.

Well, Ormewood Farm was supposed to notify me of their decision on farm allotments by May 16th, but that date has come and gone and I’ve heard nothing. This doesn’t bode well for me.

On Saturday I transplanted 24 bell pepper seedlings (wee little things) with the intention of giving away no fewer than twelve. It’s late for them to start, but we can have pepper weather all the way into November ITP, so I think that if they grow they will produce late season fruit.

Yesterday I baked a breakfast casserole. Instead of a base made from frozen potatoes, I used the remainder of the focaccia which was starting to dry out and become hard. And now that I think about it, I wonder how using leftover waffles would work as a base? For dinner I spent the four hours necessary to make a chicken and sausage gumbo from scratch. The gumbo was very delicious, and perhaps the best thing about it was that I used onion I picked from Wee Little Farm this week, and bell pepper and okra which have been in the freezer since last year’s harvest.

Even with an unexpected rain shower yesterday afternoon, the heat forced my air conditioner into action for the first time this year.

Wordle: four, my starter was ALTER

Maybe it was my Wordle failures, but probably not. Maybe it was because no one seemed to care for my pimento cheese on focaccia, but probably not. Whatever it was, I fell into a major funk yesterday that I just couldn’t shake.

I was going to escape the city today, until I recalled the 285 shutdown this weekend which starts at 7pm tonight.

Wherever I am it is unlikely that I will be very responsive today. Have a good weekend, everyone.

Wordle: five, my starter was ANISE

Yesterday I listened to an album I love — “Carnavas” by Silversun Pickups and came to the shocking realization that this was released twenty years ago. (It doesn’t seem that I saw them at Drunken Unicorn for that tour nearly that long ago!) Because of this, I’ve come up with an interesting (to me since these are records I love) timeline: each of these albums was released twenty years apart.

“Carnavas” – Silversun Pickups (2006)
“Lifes Rich Pageant” – REM (1986)
“Revolver” – The Beatles (1966)

There were a lot more well-known albums released in 2006, but I chose “Carnavas” since that’s the one that got me thinking.

Perhaps it’s my perception of time, or aging, but each of these successive gaps seem to grow larger than twenty years.

Additionally, the five-year period of 2002-2007 was probably the last era in which I fell in love with a lot of new music. At the time I was streaming college/indie rock all day as I had access to Sirius/XM at work.

Wordle: FAIL, my starter was MUSIC. Perhaps it’s time I quit Wordle?

Good lunch with ITP-Reader Steve at Po Boy Shoppe yesterday. I really like the food there, and it was good to catch up IRL.

I like to think that I am as strong as I have ever been, but opening jars has started to become more difficult. The other night I found it impossible to open a jar of Mid’s pasta sauce, and in the end resorted to stabbing a hole in the top of the lid in order to release pressure using a wine opener in order to get to its contents.

Speaking of strength, I had a hard time keeping pace last night, at least for the first half of the ride. My body righted itself for the second half, thankfully.

Wordle: ???, my starter was TRIBE. I’m on my sixth guess so I will score either a six or a fail.

Over the weekend I made a focaccia, and not to toot my own horn, but it was fantastic! I followed a different recipe than the last time I made one, and would love it the loaf I make tomorrow is just as tasty.

I hope that they are wrong, but the long-term weather forecast is calling for near 90°F next week. Too soon!

Wordle: four, my starter was DITCH