Inside The Perimeter

Happy Birthday to ITP-Reader David aka The ITP-Reader formerly known as “Lurker”.

Last night I did a good couple of hours volunteering with Concrete Jungle. A large group of people came down from John’s Creek (bless them) to volunteer, and they also brought some delicious Indian food that they shared.

For a long time I couldn’t understand why my credit card bill is so high this month, and then I remembered that part of it is a $1200 charge for a new bicycle…

It’s bad enough that I am spending way too much money, but this month my healthcare provider’s billing system decided to triple bill me. They have acknowledged the error, but I have created a recurring reminder to check my credit card to ensure two of the charges have been reversed.

Wordle: three, my starter was STAKE (this should have been the solution the day after the solution was STEAK ten days ago)

I’m back in Atlanta, which is good because I have a CHaRM appointment this morning as well as a Concrete Jungle volunteering shift this afternoon.

I probably should have spent one more night in Clemson so that I didn’t spend so much of my birthday driving home. I did have an interesting stop in Lavonia however, where I was surrounded by my elders at the bar and heard all of the town gossip. I was even gifted a beer, but in the end wound up paying it forward for a future healthcare worker’s next beer.

It appears that in my absence my neighbor’s have cleaned up the fallen tree. I was hoping to be out there when they did to spy on their work, and see if I could pay cash to have another problematic tree taken down cheaply. It was pissing down rain when I arrived home yesterday, so I need to get out there today and inspect, and hopefully see that they didn’t come over to my yard and kill my paw paw trees in the cleanup process.

Wordle: four, my starter was FAUNA

Happy birthday to ITP-Writer Paulie. Oh wait, that’s me! 😀

Also birthday greetings to Jen, wherever she is. She is one of the women who have dumped me during my Atlanta years. I always wished that she liked me, because I think celebrating a double birthday with your partner would be awesome.

Today would have been Alex Trebek’s 86th birthday, which is a big hint for today’s Strands.

In my life I’ve met two other people who share the exact date of birth as yours truly; one person was a friend in Huntsville, and one was a coworker at Echostar.

After yesterday’s session I imbibed at Keowee Brewing Company in Seneca, SC. It seemed as if I ate all day long yesterday, but it was 5:30pm by the time I got to Keowee so I had a burger for dinner since I figured I would get back to Clemson before 7:30pm.

I’m sitting in Clemson again today and will be making my way ITP after the session ends. It won’t be a direct drive however, because somewhere along the way I will stop for beer and food to celebrate my birthday.

Wordle: three, my starter was NAKED (as in a birthday suit)

Fun Fact: these have been the Wordle solutions on my birthday since the game started in 2021.

2026: ?????
2025: BURNT
2024: CADET
2023: FROZE
2022: TRYST
2021: CROAK

My last day as a sixty year old finds me in a classroom in Clemson, SC. I’m taking a course in the essentials of organic farm certification. I’m considering becoming an inspector, in order to make a few dollars to compensate for my five years of a lack of income.

My poor plant husbandry continues as more of my seedlings continue to die. This is getting depressing. Upon returning from the organic farm essentials workshop I am attending this week I am going to try to start again from square one.

Wordle: three, my starter was ANISE

I rode my bike 35 miles up at Sosabee on Saturday with the likes of ITP-Readers Barb, Sal, and Bob. Unfortunately I faded badly toward the end. Unless a miracle happens, Brevard is going to be a very tough weekend of riding for me.

With blueberries I picked at UFO and a box of cake mix I had at home, I made an accidental blueberry upside down cake yesterday. The blueberries sank to the bottom of the batter as it baked, so I had to flip it over to get it out of the pan.

Yesterday I fully canceled my Disney+ bundle when I discovered that ESPN will no longer be the home of Bundesliga. According to what I’ve read, USA Sports and Fandango will stream the games, which probably means that I won’t be watching many Bundesliga games any longer.

Speaking of Fußball, um soccer, I decided I was not interested in going out to watch the World Cup finale yesterday. I wasn’t feeling sociable and didn’t want to spend more money. Instead I watched at home using an ancient technology called an “aerial”.

Wordle: four, my starter was FAUNA

Happy birthday to ITP-Reader Barb! I will relish the five days I have during which your age is higher than mine. 😀

I had a really good day yesterday, especially since the Amazon package I ordered arrived yesterday when it was initially supposed to arrive on Monday. This will allow me to skip town at whatever time pleases me next week. I did make jambalaya for dinner, and it was predictably tasty.

I have come to the conclusion that my latest growing mistake has been to overwater my seedlings, essentially killing them through a process known as “damping off” which causes the plant to rot at the base. Always learning…

Wordle: three, my starter was WAGER

I did a lot of good work in Wee Little Farm yesterday, none of it dealing with the downed tree debris.

I wandered up to Midway Pub to watch England crumble to Argentina at the end of the game. From Midway I went straight over to Betsy’s for dinner and tv; we watched the end of the movie “Flight” and then the first episode of the final season of “The Bear”.

This morning I’m using the window of sunshine to ride to Trees Atlanta for a volunteer shift. At this point I know I’ve put in enough shifts this year to get invited to the volunteer party at the end of the year.

Wordle: four, my starter was COUGH

Though not newsworthy, yesterday was a decent day.

ITP-Reader Sal and I ground out a 42 mile ride on the Silver Comet, getting very wet and dirty along the way. This was the second outing on my new bike. I think I need one more good ride before I take it back to the shop for some fine tuning prior to taking up to Brevard at the end of the month.

After rinsing off the bike, rinsing out the bike kit, eating lunch, and showering, I took a much-needed nap.

Yesterday afternoon I met Chip and Sal at Schoolhouse. My buddy Chip has finally seen the light and joined the Mug Club. The lowlight of my day was spending about an hour in traffic driving home from Marietta.

Wordle: ???, my starter was GRAPE. I’ve used three guesses so far and I’m stumped.

With the exception of my excursion to Decatur to run errands in the morning I didn’t accomplish much more yesterday. I did make dinner at home, an American Goulash, which filled me greatly and will provide at least four more meals.

Well, I hemmed and hawed about signing up for a $40 Trees Atlanta rain barrel workshop to be held on July 23rd to the point that it sold out before I could register. I have three rain barrels, one of which continues to sit idle, so I kept thinking about this as I waffled about spending the money. Now I don’t have to worry…

Though I say it often, I am/was hoping to get in some riding this week but the weather forecast isn’t looking promising.

Wordle: four, my starter was WIRED

Since moving into the ITP Estate in 1999 my neighbor’s huge sweetgum tree posed problems. At first it was the amount of spiky balls it would drop into my yard, especially when I used to mow the backyard. Then over the years it started dropping large limbs into my backyard. During the last few years I noticed the health of the tree decline and it was getting covered by ivy as well. I started researching if there was a program to help the elderly remove dead trees for discounted rates or cost free, and how I would broach the topic with my neighbors. Yesterday morning I had a sense that there was more light outside. When I went out to walk around Wee Little Farm and check on the status of my paw paw trees, I noticed one paw paw was covered by a large trunk-sized limb. Naturally I assumed one of my other trees was damaged by Saturday’s storm, but no, I quickly realized that the sweetgum had toppled. Fortunately for me it did the unthinkable, it fell toward the back of my neighbor’s property and into the property behind theirs. It’s very possible that the far corner of my chain link fence has been damaged, but that’s a minor nit compared to what damage this tree could have done to my property.

Wee Little Farm may also benefit from the tree’s departure as it might now receive a little more afternoon light, and depending when my neighbors get around to hiring someone to clean up the debris I may get some wood chips out of this.

Wordle: six, my starter was DAILY