If not, rejoice. If I remember correctly today is the Summer Solstice and should also be the day with the most amount of daylight. I am willing to accept that I am incorrect on both of those matters, however.
Somebody Should’ve Given The Organizers Of The Mid-Summer Music Festival A Calendar
On Saturday night I headed over to Candler Park to take in the last half of the Mid-Summer Music Festival. I was all geeked for the evening because the headliners were Better Than Ezra, a band whose career I’ve been following since the evening I saw them play in a bar in Huntsville, AL with about fourteen other people back in 1994. After all these years and a handful of drummers the boys from New Orleans did not let me down. I thoroughly enjoyed their set, including the bizarre medley of covers they did as part of their encore.
I was a little less impressed with the fact that I had to pay $10 to get a wristband in order to drink beer (it was $5 before 5pm) and then inside my only choice of beer was Red Stripe. I get that Red Stripe was a main sponsor, and I even like Red Stripe, but damn give us some options if you are going to make us pay to drink. In the end I wound up paying $10 so that I could buy one beer.
Unlike the drink, the food was stellar. Fox Bros BBQ were selling pulled pork sandwiches, so that’s what I ate for dinner. Later on I saw a guy pushing a cart for the King Of Pops and I had to finally try one. The flavor I chose was pineapple-habañero and it was fantastic! I may have to stop for a popsicle on my ride home tonight.
While milling about I ran into a couple of hashers (“Wet Dreams” and “Tastes Great”) and combined with the fact that I found a pretty decent parking space the night was enjoyable.
ITP Flickr Pic
Some flower, growing on the top of Arabia “Mountain.” I joined a few of my Flickr friends for a daybreak shoot on top of Arabia “Mountain” Saturday morning.
I really don’t consider myself to be a flower shooter, but recently that seems to be the only subject matter that’s been popping up in my photostream with regularity.
The Loneliest Hasher
For me, yesterday’s Black Sheep Hash was both difficult and lonely. The first check was impossible to solve but being the good little hasher I tried and I tried. In fact, I tried so hard that I missed the bit of intelligence which told everyone to give up on the check and run behind the Publix.
I was actually on my way back to my car to quit when a local asked me what was going on. I gave him and his young daughter the clean description of hashing and asked if he had seen any other people running around. He said he’d seen them all around, and on that bit of intelligence I made the decision to run behind Publix and lo and behold found trail.
I followed trail to a marked check which took me into weeds taller than me, until I gave up on that nonsense and figured I read the check marking too literally. At that point I ran into a couple of hasher and we figured out where the trail went by finding, and solving, another check. At this point I knew I was in trouble because I knew that I could not keep up with their pace (they somehow managed to go from DFL to FRB!), but being the good little hasher who wanted to hash yesterday I pushed on.
It wasn’t more than five minutes before I was alone again. If not for the fact that I ran into three hashers at the water stop (which I’ll guess was somewhere at the 60%-70% point in the trail) I would have never seen another hasher from the time I fell off the pace of the eventual FRBs. From the water stop to the trail’s end I never saw another person on trail.
Hashing alone is frustrating to me. I don’t know the time difference between the main pack’s arrival at the end an my arrival at the end, but given how refreshed everyone looked when I staggered in it must have been some time. I was worn out and displeased by trail’s end. It’s a pity that because I wear my emotions on my sweat-filled, dirty sleeve, I’ve seemed to have earned a reputation of being a malcontent at the hash now.
My spirits were revived at I joined ITP-Reader Betsy for dinner at the Holy Taco in East Atlanta after the hash.
Yes, There Will Be No RPS For Me Tonight
I never found/made a “Nature” shot that I was proud enough to submit for tonight’s critique. So, given that and the fact that I decided to ride the Red Rocket to work today I shan’t be attending tonight’s Roswell Photographic Society meeting.
I’m disappointed in myself, except for the fact that I am getting some good exercise in the place of joining my friends for dinner and RPS. Life is all about tradeoffs I guess.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – good, though saddened that I won’t be attending RPS
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – I may not know when the Summer Solstice is, but I do know that if I were to be in Santa Barbara, CA next weekend I’d be attending the Summer Solstice Celebration.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my bike
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: hashing, 5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check because I rode in
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 10.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 89.5 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 21 (21)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 20
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 2
June Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
– Complete at least one iPhone application
2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account.
– 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]
I saw that “King of Pops” guy Wednesday when we ran through North and Highland… it was bleeping hot and had I been carrying cash, I surely would have bought one. I wonder if the guy only wears one glove???
It was plenty hot on the wheelhopper yesterday, but Beavis laid a good trail that only a few people had problems following.. and somehow I was FRB!! Surely someone wasn’t paying attention.
Rumor has it there will be a skinny tire wheelhopper that “may” end at JEFDSDR in the next couple of months… stay tuned.
-FP
You should have come out to Wheelhopper, Beavis was nice to us and laid a really nice trail. Well marked, well thought out, shaded ending, very un-Beavis like.
I see you are participating in national ride to work day too http://www.ridetowork.org/ (horrible web site BTW). I’m on 2 wheels today but I rode the bike with a motor. Yesterday I did 28 miles in the morning then another 9 at Wheelhopper, the legs are done.
The corner of Highland/North (across from Manuel’s in the Buddy’s parking lot) is the original(?) and normal spot for the King of Pops. There is a large mural painted there for him as well.
Glad to hear Beavis’ trail went well.
To give Little Easy and Wine Ho credit, everybody but me loved yesterday’s trail. Then again they didn’t hash alone for the majority of the day.
Bob, I didn’t realize I was participating in that today. I feel much better about my decision to ride to work now. 🙂
why isn’t that picture posted here a “nature” picture for the RPS meeting?
yep – Beavis did a surprisingly good job of laying trail yesterday, I guess since he wasn’t staying for the end to hear us complain, he decided to give us nothing to complain about. I got lost once in a wooded area, but I think it was because we were just riding the trail & weren’t paying attention.
Steve managed to see the arrow turning left to the end, when everyone else said they saw it, but also saw marks straight ahead. I’d always take an arrow over marks personally – so I guess Steve is the smartest of those FRBs…..
and – Sunday 8/15 would be a good date for a skinny tire wheelhopper at JEFDSDR……. I’m just sayin……..
I got a ping from a friend on FB saying it was ride your motorcycle to work day.. I think Bob has it right.
I don’t recall ever seeing that KoP guy there before.. he was so much on the corner we basically had to run around him.
Couple of reasons I didn’t submit that shot.
1. Submission deadline is noon on the Sunday before the critique. I barely had it edited by then.
2. I though it a bit “run of the mill” and didn’t think it’d fare well.
3. If I went to RPS tonight I would’ve been unable to ride to work, and since I’m trying to lose weight and get some mileage on my legs I chose riding today.
King of Pops is a relatively recent phenomena. He also has a slate board advertising his flavors which sometime encroaches on the sidewalk. I’m not a huge fan of that, but his popsicle was incredibly good.
oh yeah – and I forgot to mention – this Friday may be another bike ride to Kennesaw mountain with some beer stops on the way home kind of night – if anyone is interested……..
Just checked out Bob’s link. Their website is a bit unsightly, and it does seem motor-centric, but that’s okay because there was the whole bike to work week thing a couple of weeks ago.
Barb, my calendar for Friday evening is (pathetically) wide open. Count me in for a Kennesaw ride!
Wheelhopper had been on my to do list but once we finished at Red Top I was done. Sounds like it went a lot better than the last time. I rode Saturday, just 25 on the Comet. I had my geek hat on last night, I spent the even flipping between Futurama (only 3 more days ’til new episodes) and playing video games.
Good job on the hash, the important thing to remember is that when it got difficult, you kept going. My workout this morning was one of the few times I’ve wanted to cry, only hate for my coach kept me going 😉
I like your picture, the dew drop is great. I have a sunflower in the front yard that could make a nice shot.
Oh yeah, BWanA brought one of his daughters to the hash yesterday — and she was really cute. Who knew? 🙂 To his credit BWanA warned her about the men in the hash so she had nothing to with any of us. Pity, I don’t understand why BWanA wouldn’t want to hear me call him “dad” some day. LOL!!!!
Wouldn’t having BWanA has your dad be warning enough?
Perhaps you are right about that, Martha.
If I can find some time in the near future I’ll see if I can take photos of your sunflower. Does it get better sunlight at morning or night?
Eh, I’m not sure what makes up ‘better sunlight’…the flower faces east, so if you were taking a picture in the morning, the sun would be at your back….
You understood. Morning would be the best time then.
Sometimes, especially in home situations, flowers only get light at some portions of the day, and you only get the best photos at that time of day.
You are correct on the summer solstice / longest day thing (for us northern hemisphere types anyway). This site has a wicked map and time chart on it that tells when it hits each timezone: http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/2010.html
Speaking of flowers and sunlight? I didn’t learn until maybe a couple of months ago that the sunflower is not called the sunflower because it looks like a big ‘ol sun. It’s called that because it will actually keep its face to the sun and follow it from morning light to evening light. Way cool. 🙂