I KNEW that I’d eventually find my concert ear plugs! Unfortunately, this happened months after I bought a new pair. Apparently Past Paulie thought putting them into a little-used drawer in my armoire. I finally found them when I was getting out the items necessary to reattach a button on the pair of shorts I was wearing yesterday.
Wordle: five, my starter was GLARE
I probably watch more Major League Soccer games on tv than most people. What I have noticed often this year are the sparse crowds, and it’s not just at Atlanta United games. I predict that in five years there will be at least 25% fewer teams, and the possibility that the league will fold in the next ten years.
Wordle: four, my starter was LEAST
The festival I attended over the weekend could be described as “fair to middling” due to lack of communication, and the unexplained cancellation of a couple of presentations that I wanted to hear. I actually left early Sunday morning, not because I became Cranky Paulie, but rather because I had my car packed ten minutes before heavy rain was due to arrive, and I would have had to kill three hours before any of the festivities started. Oh well. Do I regret giving the festival a go? No. Would I return for the next one? Probably not.
Of course since this was also the first time I’ve returned to Scottsboro in over thirty years it’s the first time I returned to shop at Unclaimed Baggage since then. That store has grown dramatically since the 1990s. I bought a Kindle Paperwhite, an Apple charging block, and an Apple headphone jack converter cable, all for $45.
I’m sure it’s nothing, but I signed into my Amazon account using my WiFi on the newly-purchased Kindle, and the device thinks I am in Illinois.
Wordle: three, my starter was CRUEL
I moved from Huntsville, Alabama almost 31 years ago. I returned Thursday*.
Why was I in Huntsville? Well, the long story is that it’s because I was attending a weekend festival in Scottsboro, and I discovered that the band Bully’s show on Wednesday night at The EARL was sold out, but they were playing a free show in Huntsville on Thursday, so why not spend two days in Huntsville and make the short drive to Scottsboro on Saturday? As the Chattahooligans say, “Embrace the Chaos!” Of course a free show isn’t exactly free when you are paying for gas, lodging, beer, and food. And it would have been cheaper, and better, if not for the stupid rocks on I-20. I saw my first solo apartment, the massive changes which have occurred during the past three decades, ate at my two favorite restaurants (amazingly both still in business), drank at breweries which didn’t exist in the early 1990s, and did an eight-mile hike around Monte Sano.
Thanks to ITP-Reader John, I learned about the unfortunate passing of Ken Rosskopf, ironically due to complications from getting hit by a car at the end of his bike ride. It’s ironic because Rosskopf was known as a lawyer who represented cyclists after wrecks, including yours truly back in 2011.
Wordle: five, my starter was ANISE. I’ve become a very mediocre Wordle player.
* to be accurate, I have been back to Huntsville once before since I moved to Atlanta, to work a career fair.
If this were a different weekend, one which isn’t already planned, I’d be headed to Hiawassee (again?) today for the Georgia Mountain Fair. Why? Because it’s one of the earliest concerts by Molly Tuttle supporting her new album “So Long Little Miss Sunshine”. At first I didn’t know when Tuttle would return to the southeast. Thankfully I’ve just seen that Tuttle will be playing at Variety Playhouse in October; tickets are $45 (what was my self-imposed threshold?).
Has anyone ever booked one of those “cheap” vacations which require you to sit through a timeshare/vacation presentation?
Wordle: four, my starter was SHORT
As we hurtle toward the end of August and look back to my growing season, I have to consider it to be a failure.
I didn’t grow enough cucumbers or jalapeños to do the fermentation experiments I envisioned. I didn’t grow enough herbs or vegetables to use the dehydrator that I’ve purchased. And my corn pollination was so poor that I neither had a single ear to eat, nor enough to turn into cornmeal. I had mixed success with bell peppers but had a handful rot on the vines, and suffered the critter damage that I mentioned on Monday (the same could be said for tomatoes). Okra production was okay, though there were never enough pods ready at the same time to do more than cut them up and add them to recipes.
For some crops I have to blame the farmer; I had a sufficient quantity of yellow squash and eggplant, but failed to do anything with most of these before they rotted in the refrigerator.
Wordle: five, my starter was SNACK
AT&T keeps sending me offers so that I will return to them. Yeah, no. Being an AT&T stockholder is punishment enough for me these days.
Critters sure make it hard to enjoy gardening/farming. Last night during a break in the rain (WLF caught 1.5″) I saw that something tried to gnaw into the only Georgia Candy Roaster Squash of decent size. It doesn’t appear that the critter successfully got to the flesh, so when it’s ripe I will eat it immediately, after investigating the area with the bite marks first.
Wordle: five, my starter was CHAIR
According to my self-kept statistics, it’s been seven months since I scored my last Wordle deuce.
I’ve booked travel to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada! While I certainly don’t condone, nor enjoy, paying for seat selection, I have done just that. I paid $57 per flight for the “privilege” of seat selection, extra legroom, and a “complimentary” alcoholic beverage.
You will either have to see me in person, or find out after the trip, for when and how long I will be away.
Wordle: four, my starter was PLANE
Here are some constants for the summer of 2025:
– rainstorms break up before reaching East Atlanta, therefore not providing enough water for Wee Little Farm
– the Atlanta United can’t win a soccer match
– Werder Bremen will once again not win the DFB Pokal, after losing their first round match and getting knocked out of the tournament
Wordle: three, my starter was REIGN
Yesterday I took a half pound of mixed hot peppers and made a small bottle of hot sauce from them. Essentially I cut the peppers and blitzed them with salt and vinegar in a mixer before straining the mixture into a jar.
Wordle: four, my starter was CRUEL
