I guess my real beef is with the ice, not the snow. And in an unusual turn of events it appears as if the bitterly cold weather is going to be here for a few days, with the exception of today which is supposed to rise to a balmy 34º F, so the ice might not be going anywhere fast. Damn, this sucks for me.
It’s Odd To Feel Safer Walking On Ice
After a few hours of Facebooking and Tweeting I decided I was going to trudge over to my friend Sharon’s house to see if I could help her and her husband Sam hook up a laptop to their tv.
The walk was great! The snow had yet to turn into hardened ice and those folks who were out frolicking in the snow were as friendly as they could be. In my nearly twelve years of living in East Atlanta I’ve never experienced more people exchanging “Good Morning!” greetings with me.
By the time I made the six-block walk to Sharon and Sam’s house they had already figured out the video problem. But, they kindly offered me a cup of coffee and asked me to stay and watch “The Social Network”, which I happily did since I’d yet to see the movie. While movie-watching ITP-Reader Betsy called and decided to make the walk over to Sharon and Sam’s as well.
Upon the movie’s completion the four of us walked up to East Atlanta Village for a late lunch. As could be expected not much in the village was open, though the “smoking” bars — The EARL, Midway Pub, and Flat Iron — all seemed to be open and crowded with smoking (cigarette/pipe, not necessarily “hot”) patrons. It was a fun afternoon of drinking some Guinness while eating a Greenie Meanie chicken sandwich, all the while inhaling second-hand smoke. Upon arriving home I all-but emptied a bottle of Febreeze on my long coat which had gladly absorbed the stench of cigarette smoke.
Sometimes it’s nice to live in a walkable village, especially when the greatest danger is slipping and falling on ice.
In bad news for East Atlanta Village, I’ve heard on good authority that The Glenwood has closed its doors for good and that Gravity Pub — one of the few places remaining from the time when I moved into East Atlanta — is not far behind.
ITP Flickr Pic
I did take a few obligatory snow photos yesterday. However, I’ve yet to process them so for today have a gander at the pizza I made last Saturday which will serve as my lunch today if I can’t get out of the neighborhood.
It was/is quite tasty though I needed pay a little more attention to its cooking time (read “it’s overcooked”)
A further reason for publishing this shot is that in order to set this shot up I pulled my coffee table over to the window, and in the process added a couple of scratches to my living room’s hardwood floor. If I’m going to damage my house for my photography I might as well publish the images.
It’s Hard Not To Feel Snakebitten
The planets have aligned. The moon and stars are in favorable alignment as well. I have plans tonight, and unless this ice clears up I will have to cancel them. And because I also have plans to leave town on Thursday it means the earliest possible reschedule would be next week. I am more than mildly displeased by this turn of weather events.
I’m Trying Hard Not To Suffer A Training Interruption
Also on my docket today is a scheduled 3-mile run. I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider running on ice either safe or smart. I’m becoming further pleased by the fact that I have a few weeks of buffer in my training schedule, though after getting out for “Day #1” (and failing to do much of anything yesterday) I’d kinda like to keep the ball rolling. And even if I were a member of a gym I’d be hard-pressed to go in and do three miles on a treadmill.
Perhaps I’ll hook the Red Rocket up to my trainer and spin for awhile. I wonder what the cycling equivalent of a three-mile run is.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – nervous
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – ITP-Reader Steve has been talking about cycling training videos put out by The SufferFest. You know, I might have finally turned the corner on gluttony as I’m considering buying them.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car, if possible
Exercise (b)Log – nothing unless you call walking around in the snow exercise — which I sort of do
Morning Weigh-In – Feb 1
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~6.3 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 6 flights
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 10
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
January Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run no fewer than 75 miles
– Prepare Sharpened Stone, LLC for 2011 so that I get no more penalties
– Lose two pounds
– Eat vegetarian at least one day a week
– A couple of goals which I will not divulge
– Eat lunch out no more than twice a week
– Limit myself to eating dinner out on laundry nights, meeting nights, and dates
2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– 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
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two half-marathons
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
And before you ask, most of the answers to questions raised by today’s blog will be “No comment.”
Okay, okay…I really want to get out for a run. Two days with no workout and little else to do but cook is starting to take it’s toll. The fear of falling on my ass is currently winning, another few hours it may not. If you want to make it a 3 mile walk, let me know. I’d love an excuse to get out of the house. Otherwise I would go for time on the bike…3 mile run = 25-30 minutes.
Jerry is suppose to fly out to Cincinnati tonight, his flight has yet to be canceled but I wont be surprised if it is…he dad is doing much worse and they are trying to get the family together. Driving doesn’t seem a better option at this time.
I know what you mean about people being out, we did walk to Kroger yesterday. In the nine years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen so many people out walking around. There were almost no cars in Kroger’s parking lot, so I have to assume most the people there walked over. Pretty cool.
I just made my first new car payment today, only 47 more to go 🙁
Well, I’m officially working from home today. (note to self: do some work!) I’ll have to see how things progress during the day.
Best of luck with Jerry’s flying out tonight. With yesterday’s cancellations I can only imagine the airport will be far from the happiest place on Earth today.
I’d say a 3 mile run equilivent on the trainer is at least 30 minutes. And I was thinking it wouldn’t be bad to try and run on the grass, but even the grass is slippery here. I’m trying to work from home, but there is a limit to the amount of work I can actually do.
I guess we’re pretty lucky if you think about it. As much ice is out there, I’m not aware of any major power outages.
Martha, could Jerry take the train? I know he’d have to go to DC, but I figure they are running.
-FP
My walk home last night was tricky (and would have been even if I hadn’t had three Guinnesses) which leads me to believe that running may be out of the question for me today.
I agree that we’ve been somewhat fortunate regarding the lack of power outages.
Honestly, if not for tonight’s event I’d haven’t a care in the world today (I’m at home “working”, plenty of entertainment, and I have food and alcohol in ample supply.) and no desire than to do more than I did yesterday.
I just came in from outside, it is way worse than it was yesterday. It is just one big sheet of ice. The ‘good’ news, it seems like it is melting just a bit, of course it will re-freeze in no time.
I started to clean of my car, on the oft chance that his flight isn’t canceled. I’m only taking him as far as Marta, the south side interstates seem to be the most f’up.
We are suppose to work from home if we can. I’m sending out emails but no one seems to be responding, so I’m not working too hard. I really wish I had brought home some stuff I wanted to read.
I’m now watching Stanford courses about Apple development and eating reheated pizza for breakfast. Wheeee!
It makes sense that it’s worse today as some of the snow melted and was compressed into a thick sheet of ice.
I’m holding off on the “Do you think we should postpone?” conversation as long as possible. Seriously, I have some shitty luck sometimes. 2011 was supposed to change that!
I’m actually thinking about walking up to the office, we still actually use a fax machine & I bet it is out of paper & I bet there is a few things that need to be tended to. I will probably scan them & email them out.
Plus – I need some spreadsheets & RR website passwords.
good luck to Jerry to get to Cincy – I can’t believe his flight hasn’t been cancelled.
Sal & Marty walked over to our place last night, it was a good time catching up with them.
Oh my god, I’ve just figured it out!
A woman to whom I am attracted finally agreed to go out on a date with me and Hell, along with its outer ring known as “Atlanta,” have frozen over!
Geez, sorry about that.
Somehow I knew this was all your fault 😉
Just heard the coffee shop in Ormewood is open, ROADTRIP!!!
I hope Jerry gets out, 1) I know it’s driving him crazy to be stuck here with what’s going on at home 2) we’ve been stuck in the house together for almost 2 days….need I say more?
Drive very carefully, Martha. You still have 47 payments to go.
I figured it had to be something you did Paulie. You went out of your comfort zone throwing the earth off its axis and causing another ice age. Good work!
🙂
Yep, blame me. Because why should I be allowed to go out on a date?!?! Seriously, FML.
Yeah, Paulie!!!
I walked to work the past two days and found it suprisingly fun. Yesterday was definitely easier than today. No cops picked me up today, but I can always dream. I do feel bad for Bob being stuck “working from home” with Travis at his heels.
Yes, I am counting the 3-mile one-way walks toward my weekly running mileage. Haven’t decided the formula for conversion, yet.
hey Laura – you insired me to walk to the office (plus, I really needed a spreadsheet that I didn’t have access to at home)
It wasn’t that bad of a walk, but walking on ice is fun…. only fell down once, and that was because I got distracted watching a car spin on the ice.
I may come in again tomorrow, just to do it. I’m guessing the majority of my office won’t even attempt to think about coming in.