Inside The Perimeter

Rutledge? I camped at Hard Labor Creek State Park for a four-day weekend. This campout was the umpteenth gathering of hashers who once met up at Providence Canyon State Park, the FDR State Park, and now Hard Labor Creek State Park. Since quitting hashing this is the only occasion during which I see most of them, and sadly some of those I’d like to see no longer attend.

Yesterday marked the third anniversary of my mother’s death. I had to chuckle a little because this campout used to be one for which I had to warn my mother that the cell signal was poor and that she shouldn’t worry if she couldn’t contact me. Signal at the campsite is better, but still poor.

It was a horrendous sports weekend for me, all four games in which I had rooting interest ended in losses for me.

Wordle: four, my starter was BRUTE

Though I know the roads well, and would love to get out on them, this time in Rutledge is not meant for riding; that will happen next April.

I was hoping to find more oyster mushrooms, like I did last year, but the tree on which they grew appears to be gone. Dangen.

I brought what we used to call a “real” camera, my Nikon D300 with a Tamron zoom lens, with me. My goal is to shoot some images, and remind myself how one processes them on a computer, but without Lightroom now. If I am successful images will once again be part of my posts.

Wordle: four, my starter was FLORA

Remember, remember the Fifth of November. Some years ago now I co-hared a Moonlite trail on November 5th which ended at Mr C’s on Howell Mill Road. Some people may still have the koozie I commissioned to mark the occasion.

For the second haircut in a row the person cutting my hair remarked about my hair coloring. This woman asked me if I colored my hair, and when I laughed she told me that my hair is darker on top and gray on the sides. Credit all my hat wearing when I go outsides perhaps?

At a Goodwill on Tuesday (side note: try finding DVD or CD players in thrift stores these days, they have become rare on the shelves) I found a DVD I never expected to find — Detectorists (season 1) — so I bought it! Now if I can luck into seasons 2 and 3 before paying full price, I will be thrilled. I have quite the DVD/Blu-Ray collection built now. I think I’m satisfied (at current prices) paying for AppleTV/YouTube/Britbox/Peacock that I can supplement my want for visual stimulation for the rest of my life, or at least for the life of my A/V systems, with my collection.

Wordle: four, my starter was TRADE

I did something I was hoping to avoid — buying new pants for the wedding I will attend in two weeks. Had I not gotten rid of all my fat suits when I was so much thinner, this wouldn’t have been necessary. I really thought that I’d keep the weight off. I am too undisciplined to diet, and unwilling to do GLP1, in order to lose the weight again anytime soon.

I did something I have been waiting until November to do — register for BRAG Spring Tune Up.

My left eyelid is being a little bitch again, and unfortunately it appears that a new chalazion is forming. I will see how bad it gets before I decide whether or not I will have it removed.

Wordle: three, my starter was DAIRY

On Sunday critters forced my hand to start doing a little WLF maintenance. I cut back some branches of a bush which I had let get too large, and blockaded the opening to my dryer vent so that no critter could use it as living quarters; I had suspicion that something would.

While doing this cleanup I found my lame, a razor blade on a stick used to slash the tops of bread dough prior to baking. The lame was on the ground, which tells me that it must have been sitting on the silicone mat I use to shape dough and I shook it off at the same time I shook off the excess flour.

In the past few weeks I have found:
– headlamp
– U-Lock
– lame
Funny the things found while cleaning/organizing. Now if I could just find my youth, brown hair, slenderer waist, and belief that life will get better…

Last night I made air fryer “fried” chicken using some thighs that I had in the refrigerator. While a bit messy to coat, the process was not hard, and was very tasty.

It’s Election Day! If you’ve not yet voted, and feel informed, please go am vote today.

Wordle: three, my starter was CLAIM

I feel like I’m starting over.
I feel this way a lot.

Because Friday was predicted to be the last beautiful day for a while, I pushed almost all of my WLF choring until Saturday. I went out, ate lunch at Savage Pizza, and then drank a beer at Wild Heaven, prior to returning home.

Ironically, I walked to WLF@UFO on Friday and, because my garden neighbor cleaned out her sprawling sweet potato vines, wound up doing some of the same chores there as I planned to do in WLF.

It’s funny, as I sat at home on Halloween Saturday it felt as if the Fourth of July was just a couple of weeks ago.

Wordle: five, my starter was AFOUL

This week was filled with tricks and treats. Wednesday’s horror of finding killed trees is somewhat offset by finding lost items this week, specifically the U-Lock (tucked into a drawer in which I rarely look), and my key pouch (which slipped behind a stack of t-shirts in my closet).

I saw photos from last week’s dinner thrown by Concrete Jungle, and I never realized how much gray hair I now have, and how old looking I’ve become. Yowza!

Old Man Paulie is going to spend today working on WLF and the ITP Estate.

Wordle: four, my starter was USAGE
My Wordle luck is shitty. Since the beginning of 2025, when I started keeping my own stats, I have used today’s solution as a starter seventeen times, including once very recently. But not today…

I went for a walk yesterday, and twice I stumbled on a hash trail (chalk arrows only) and twice I lost that trail attempting to follow it. I’m going to blame the hare, and not this former hasher.

After finding the one-year-old pecan tree that I have been nursing cut off at the base with its pot tipped over I am rooting harder for the hawk that I saw land in a tree recently.

Yesterday I updated my basement AppleTV to the latest operating system, and now I get no audio. Aaaargh! I need that setup to function properly because we are getting close to indoor riding time for me.

Wordle: four, my starter was USAGE

After a trip to ChaRM, one of my last due to their pending move, I stopped by WLF@UFO. While at my raised bed I harvested all of the okra prior to cutting down all five of my plants; none of this okra is edible, the pods were all too large. I also took down my four tomato plants, from which I think I harvested one, maybe two tomatoes. Still in the ground are three tiny pepper plants and some struggling sweet potato plants.

WLF@UFO started with such promise, little of which has been realized. Once again I will be unable to attend a social function, it’s happening the weekend I will be in Greenville for the wedding.

Wordle: three, my starter was SCREW

Cleaned and cooked yesterday, neither did I do very well.

Wordle: four, my starter was ANISE