TGIF

It is Friday, right? When I return to work in ten days, I officially start April 10, I will have to relearn how to remember what day it is.

Well That’s Going To Cramp Our Style
Atlanta: The City Too Self-Important To Take Mass Transit

We, and I include myself, love our cars. Cars are the best (and worst) way to get around Atlanta. And as long as we keep building roads we never have to rely on public transit, in fact, we’ll never have to succumb to building light rail and can continue to slash bus routes left and right. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh. That.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this metropolis reacts to the collapse of a portion of I-85 due to a massive fire yesterday. Thankfully no one was injured.

Stay tuned.

I’m Just Wild About Harry’s
You don’t get to have a face a remarkably handsome as mine without good shaving products. Truth!

For the past few years I have bought into using the razors and shave creams from Harry’s.

Every other month I receive my subscription order of razor blades, shave cream, and now facial scrub. But this month my order was wrong! Instead of facial scrub I was sent after-shave balm. Bummer! Or not. Harry’s has great customer service, and when I reached out to them on Twitter they responded nearly immediately. When I described the error they informed me that they’d send the facial scrub at no cost to me, and that I could keep the after-shave balm as well. Nice.

Wasn’t I surprised the other day when walking in Target to see an end-cap with Harry’s products on it. Bonus! Now in a pinch I can restock without having to try and finagle my subscription.

I don’t say this often, but I am pleased.

If Only
Many days late, many Euros short.
Ich Wünsche
The other day when I dropped off my stuff at that massive new Goodwill on Lawrenceville Highway near North Druid Hills I noticed this now-closed German Café and Bakery. You know me and my love of all things Deutsch. Sad!

Forced Day Off
I really wanted to work out at LA Fitness this morning. Really, I did. No fooling! (see calendar) I even loaded up on two doughnuts for breakfast. Alas, I must take a day off.

My change in exercise plan is two-fold.

First and most importantly, I somehow managed to tweak my right knee yesterday; it hurt a lot last night. I don’t think that whatever I did is serious, however it is still bothering me a little this morning and I see no reason to push my luck.

Second, I have a time pressure today. Today I am joining Urban Explorers of Atlanta for lunch downtown, followed my a tour of the facility that houses the Zero Mile Marker for Atlanta. Apparently getting to see this landmark is a big deal. I’ll let you know more about it on Monday.

After the tour I will be having a few drinks up in Atlantic Station with some old coworkers.

Since I don’t want to pay for all-day parking downtown I had intend to take MARTA, and now I am relying on them to be able to handle whatever rider increase has occurred due to yesterday’s interstate collapse.

Speaking of MARTA, I am more than a bit ticked at them for once again changing its Breeze Card. Now I am going to have to purchase a new Breeze Card and figure out if/how to transfer whatever balance I have on my old Breeze Card to it. Apparently today is the last day to add rides to a blue Breeze Card and all balances on blue Breeze Cards must be used by July 9th — “use it or lose it” according to the website. Sometimes it feels to me as if MARTA continually seeks ways to put itself out of business.

Have a great weekend.

Paulie [eatl/ga]

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17 Responses to TGIF

  1. Stacy says:

    I’ve seen the Zero post! I did a walking tour a couple years ago that had a stop there. You will be amused at its location and…well, post-y-ness. I love historical stuff like that.

    Since no one got hurt in the interstate collapse, the memes coming out are very much amusing. My favorite so far is the one I tweeted. 🙂 (I know you at least have the tweets!)

    And I’m sure you know it but just in case you don’t: there’s a free shuttle to Atlantic Station from the Arts Center MARTA Station.

  2. Depending on my knee and my desire to get exercise I may use the shuttle, or do the fifteen-minute walk from Arts Center.

    Why am I not surprised that you’ve seen it? You are queen of this city’s tourist/historic sights. 🙂

  3. Steve says:

    I’m a little confused- what building houses the zero mile post? Last time I checked it was on Lower Wall St., on the level of Underground, basically under the old First National building. I think you can see it from the Marta E/W line if you know what you’re looking for.

    As we watched the fire last night, the talking heads on Ch 11 made NO MENTION of using Marta as an alternate. There were a few more cars in the lot at 06:00 this morning- noticeable because there are actually fewer cars on Fridays. They said they added trains, but my train was on it’s normal schedule, so I couldn’t tell.

    A meeting tomorrow morning at “Here comes the son” or something like that in Avondale- breakfast at 8!! Who planned that?

    I keep saying there is a bike ride in my future, but so far I’ve failed. Maybe this weekend.

    -FP

    • I’m not sure where it is, I will be led there. Stacy?

      I did a pitiful hour on my trainer yesterday afternoon. This is not what borked my knee, however.

      • Stacy says:

        Same place. That’s what makes it seriously awesome. I remember them walking us through a parking lot under one of the old viaducts and I thought we were going somewhere super special but then with no fan fare at all, it was: oh, hay there post!

        LOVE.

        • Steve says:

          Yep, sounds about right. My old friend Kevin showed it to me y.e.a.r.s. ago. It was on his commute to GSU, which also included a cobbled street in downtown.

  4. HamWithCam says:

    When I saw the huge plumes of black smoke (driving home from the Decatur DQ, don’t judge) and turned on the (Ham) radio and heard the reports, I called the collapse and the foam trucks from ZATL. Thick black smoke, “Bravo” fire (burning liquids, intense heat). The foam (essentially water + air + “soap”) smothers the fire, deprives it of oxygen. Then you cool it down using high-pressure water spray, and monitor for reflash. (I was a Damage Controlman (DC2), on-scene leader Special Firefighting Team, USS Kitty Hawk, during Vietnam.)

    Th Atlanta Fire battalion on-scene commander deserves a medal. Pulled his teams back in advance of the collapse. Imagine how different it might have been if 25-40 firefighters and 30+ automobiles had been involved.

    I’ve driven by that area a bunch f times. Many stored rolls of fiber optic cable “interducting”. First, the interducting is buried then fiber is run through it. You’ll see it all over the city. Multicolored, usually sticking out near a utility pole. Think “Google/ATT Fiber” (I’m not saying Google/ATT had anything to do with it.)

    On a more positive note, the Atlanta Woodworking Show is today, Saturday and Sunday at the Galleria. Woo hoo! Cheap entertainment, presuming I can get there.

    Lastly, under the cover of darkness and while literally everybody else was “distracted” the Georgia Legislature passed the “Campus Carry” bill, for the second year in a row. The bill now goes to Governor Deal for possible signature. Deal did not sign a similar bill last year.

    This year’s version of “Campus Carry” specifically excludes dorms, frat and sorority houses, sporting events, any daycare facilities and classroom areas which might have high schools students. Further, the bill applies only to those (faculty, staff, visitors and..students) on a college campus possessing a valid Georgia Weapons License, which requires you to be *over 21*, undergo a very thorough background check, be fingerprinted and pay a significant fee. (Interestingly, statistically valid GWL holders have a lower crime rate than sworn police officers.)

    Disclaimer: I are a valid GWL holder.

    I hope everybody has a great weekend es 73 de JG/HamWithCam
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/hamwithcam/

  5. HamWithCam says:

    Oh, I almost forgot, regarding your knee:

    R-I-C-E
    – Rest
    – Ice <– most important
    – Compression
    – Elevation

    Ice: fill a"Dixie cup" with water, freeze. Peel down slightly to expose ice, use for 10-15 minutes, making circular motions never stopping too long in one place. Refreeze, repeat.

    Throw in a few anti-inflammatories (Aleve, etc) for good measure. Don't take them for just a day, but for at least several days.

    (But I'm betting you already know all that.)

    73 de JG/HamWithCam

  6. Yep. 😉

    Here’s an unsurprising outcome of yesterday, MARTA parking lot was completely full, I had to find an alternate parking place. Of course this might not have been the case had MARTA not sold off half of the parking lot to a developer…

    • Stacy says:

      Oh snap! Didn’t even think about that consequence. Is that the Inman Park one? I remember thinking: good! They totally could reuse a lot of that space that’s never used. Um…oops.

      • It’s the one east of L5P (by Jim’s and Ashlee’s house) MARTA sold off most of the south parking lot. It seems they sold off most of the Avondale Estates parking lot as well.

  7. Sitting at Gibney’s Pub for a pre-lunch beer. Today will be a highly caloric day. 🙄

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