One Thing Remains The Same — I Am Different

Tripping All Over The Weekend
The remnants of Humberto caused my to stay ITP (not necessarily a bad thing) and therefore gave me a lot of opportunity to get a lot done around the house (a very good thing); except I really didn’t (a bad thing).

I awoke at the crack of 5:30am (ninety minutes later than desired because I set the “weekday only” alarm) and headed up to Lake Hartwell. My morning commute was fantastic, although I learned a few things while at a QuickTrip OTP.

1. QuickTrip does not accept American Express
2. QuickTrip has Wachovia ATM’s (this I knew) but they can be hard to find once inside the store
3. When paying with cash you must pre-pay (I didn’t learn this until I had returned to the pump after going inside for cash
4. QuickTrip’s coffee is really, really hot (I burned the roof of my mouth and the tip of my tongue

Missing sunrise at the lake I decided to head directly to camp where I was surprised to see many hashers already moving about at 8 am.

Hearing stories of monsoons, Noah, gully-washing and frog strangling (this may not have been about the rain), I decided I need to raise my alcohol level so I started drinking Sweetwater Hummer, which as it turns out is quite a delicious breakfast beer.

My morning consumption may have slowed me down on trail, although I ran like I haven’t run in some time (which is a good thing). However, I turned a bit green at the gills on the long truck ride back to camp. I power napped in the JackMobile and returned to life as the rest of the hash arrive back at camp.

The rest of the day is a blur. Nah, I am kidding. There was time spent in the lake, a return to alcohol consumption, avoiding the Oil Can Crusade for fear of another green-gill feeling or worse earning a “I Yakked at the hash” stigma, sitting around the camp fire listening to Terri’s awesome mix-cd, skinny dipping, and an early return to the JackMobile for a surprisingly not-awful night of sleep (although it was far from perfect and my neck is still “cricked”).

Taking The “Roads Less Traveled”
Sunday morning I was out by 7 am. Sure, I knew that I would be missing out on plenty of fun, but I was a man on a mission. I had some daybreak pictures to take, and when I arrived at my destination it was cloudy. Damn. Unfazed (not-a-word apparently) I fired up Jill (the GPS) and headed back to home base via some of Eastern Georgia’s back roads. The goal was to take shots of rural America, although I seemed to rarely stop. I wound my way south to I20 and then headed due west back ITP.

Paulie’s Traveler Note: If you choose to pull a crazy maneuver such as this, make sure you have plenty of gas. I probably drove at least one hundred miles without seeing a gas station.

ITP Flickr Pic
One of the benefits of being “different” is that you often run in to things that you wouldn’t otherwise.

I woke up early and headed to Hartwell Lake intending to take pictures of the sunrise. The lake was breezy and chilly, and the sky was overcast so I gave up and left. While driving I saw this scene and decided to stop. Then, to add more to the shot someone in a boat rode through my frame.

Having said all that I am still not thrilled with the way this came out. Looking at the EXIF data you can see that is not “tack sharp” because I let my shutter speed get slower than my focal length. (D’Oh!)

Carson Palmer For President
Yesterday the East Atlanta Deadbeat Dads moved their record to 2-0 thanks to the one-man wrecking ball that was Carson Palmer. Palmer, who scored 51 fantasy points, made up for the cumulative one point that was scored by my defensive players and tight end. This marks two weeks in a row that these positions have shat the virtual bed.

Can Somebody Justify The Cockroach?
Even if you believe in Intelligent Design (I do not) or a lover of all creatures great and small (I apparently am not), how do you justify the cockroach’s existence?

Seriously. They provide no nutritional value to any other being (as far as I know; I’ve never heard of “Roacheater”). I don’t believe that they eat other insects (which is the spiders’ saving grace). And they creep the hell out of most people.

I was “greeted” by a cockroach in my bedroom this morning (that’s what I get for leaving the window open even though there is a screen) and quickly took every measure to kill the living shit. It took some effort, but I won.

If there is a silver lining to this event, it’s that I found a few photos under my bed that I need to scan. Oh, and I also learned that I don’t do the best job of removing dust bunnies from under my bed.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – no different than I did on Friday
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Built To Spill — “You Were Right”
Website Of The Day – I typed “Dare to be different” into Google and ThinkExist was returned. ThinkExist is a database of quotations. Sweet Chicken! (don’t look, it’s not in there)
Exercise (b)Log – hashing on Saturday
Monthly Mileage – 6.5 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car

September Goals
1) Get my first Ruby / Ruby on Rails program written
2) Lose 5 pounds (if at first, second, third, fourth, you don’t succeed….)
3) Take now fewer than three photos a day
4) Listen to (and review) one CD a day in September

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]