Inside The Perimeter

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

Today will be different than normal, well as normal as I get. Today I want to introduce you to the book that launched an idea, which I still really want to turn into an art project. The book is “Death of a Salesman”, written by Arthur Miller.

You all probably know that I have an art project called “Home Was Where the Hearth Is”, a collection of photographs of freestanding hearths in the wild. I believe early this year I mentioned starting another art project to be called “In Others’ Words”, which would be a collection of photographs of books which have an inscription, and the inscription within them. Once I figure out how to arrange these photographs I will begin the project. While my copy of “Death of a Salesman” doesn’t have a proper inscription, it does have the name and address of the person who owned it before I did, written in meticulously fine penmanship; this is what intrigued me.

For many years I wondered about the man who once owned this copy of “Death of a Salesman”.
– Who was he?
– Was this a book he purchased, or was it a gift?
– Why did he write his name and address in this book?
– Did he do this for all of his books?
– Why did he get rid of this book?

I’ve been in possession of this book for over forty years, and lived not far from the address when I first obtained it. I believe that I attempted to Google him years ago as well. When I repeated this effort this week, I discovered that he died in 2007. I never got to meet Mr Wyllie, but he altered the trajectory of my life.

FWIW- “Death of a Salesman” is my second favorite play, eclipsed only by “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Unsurprisingly both of these plays are about men in sales, down on their luck.

As Paul Harvey used to say… “And now you know the rest of the story.”

One more thing: This must be Anniversary Week. Yesterday I realized, thanks to the t-shirt I wore, that ten years ago today I rode the GA400 ride.

Wordle: four, my starter was RISKY

I have been doing more “Tradman” chores this week. My use of the term is a bastardization of the term “Tradwife”, aka “Traditional Wife”, where a woman does chores as in olden times. What did I do? I mended clothes — put a button back on a pair of shorts, sealed holes in two pair of underwear — using a needle and thread. I also hand washed some clothes and hung them out to dry since it was hot and dry yesterday. Additionally, I’m trying to learn how to make more food from scratch, such as breads, preserves, and condiments.

Yesterday I also mowed the front yard. I had to do this the traditional way since the only mower I own is a push mower. 🙂

Once again I had to chuck out bean plant starts because they didn’t look great, and when I left them outside overnight some critter destroyed them. My inability to grow healthy plants this year has really baffled me. All I can imagine at this point is that I bought a lot of tainted soil at Lowes this year causing my plants to become stunted and disfigured.

This morning I’m riding my bar bike on the Beltline to Trees Atlanta again. I considered eating lunch at Eats inside Wild Heaven, but decided that I should return home to eat food for which I’ve already paid.

Wordle: three, my starter was USAGE

Here’s a funny story from Monday night’s USA v Belgium game:
I have a bone to pick with FIFA, and not regarding the overturning of the red card. Why was Belgium, a team whose country’s flag is black, red, and yellow, wearing a kit that was white with splotches of red and blue? It causes confusion for those watching on tv, especially when that team is dominating the game. When I watch on Telemundo they put a colored circle next to the country name in the scoreboard to help the viewer; such is not the case on Fox. I realized I was the only one who thought that the team wearing white, red, and blue was the United States when that team scored and I was the lone person who cheered. It was like the guy in the Schoolhouse Rock song who interjects “Hoooray, I’m for the other team!” 😀

I am having a hard time getting on a bicycle. Because I really dislike the new(ish) meeting/partying spot for the Tuesday night ride I have had difficulty riding with them. I’ve registered for the NC Mountain Ride, which is at the beginning of August in Brevard, so I really need to spin the pedals.

Wordle: three, my starter was LOTUS

After last year’s epic sixty mile ride in Asheville, I know you are all waiting with bated breath to find out what I will be doing for birthday #61 in a few weeks. Initially I thought I might go to Montgomery for a Biscuits game. However, a funny thing happened while planning my birthday activities… I completely changed them and will be spending most of the day indoors, in Clemson South Carolina. Because the deadline for registration for the two-day Organic Certification Essentials (are you seeing a theme emerging?) was yesterday I had to shit or get off the pot; I secured a free ticket in the final hour they were offered. The workshop ends at 3:45pm on my birthday, so I will have plenty of time to drink beer somewhere. 😀

Wordle: six, my starter was BOUND