Inside The Perimeter

Our BRAG cycling community lost another friend last week. I only knew Vern for a little more than a decade, meeting him at my first BRAG Spring Tune Up (2015, the year it rained so much that all of the riding I did consisted of riding to happy hour on Friday, and leaving on Saturday.) and didn’t get to ride with him much because by then his better cycling days had already passed him by, but he was a kind and funny soul who will be missed.

Vern was also a creative person, he made all of the items pictured above.

As time goes on we will become increasingly drunk at BRAG events as we salute our fallen comrades with shots.

While cleaning out the Florida house has been a chore, there are some interesting things which I have found. For instance, during the last trip we were certain that we had discovered all boxes and emptied all drawers until we moved furniture. A teacart had a drawer on the backside that was not discovered until we pulled it out of the corner; it contained bus schedules, maps, playing cards, and the like. A shoebox was found under a dresser when we removed that, it contained coins. Here’s the interesting part. In the shoebox were three rolls of pennies. I haven’t cracked open the rolls yet, but looking at the “top” penny in each roll reveals that all of these pennies are probably from the 1950s, and may have been in these Chase Manhattan Bank wrappers for almost seventy years. Unless a rare coin has been included, the copper value may be greater than $1.50, but I have no idea about that yet.

Wordle: six, my starter was CUMIN
Connections: two mistakes, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple

Suffice to say, not my most brilliant day of wordplay.

Happy Black Sheep Founders Day!

On Saturday I successfully secured my fourth Georgia Beer Day Glass. I also ate an amazing carnitas burrito from the El Tesoro located inside the West End Wild Heaven Beer. Even though I can realistically walk to the original El Tesoro location, this was the first time I have eaten their food. With my burrito I consumed a West Coast IPA and a nitro Irish stout, both of which were delicious.

I am down to four clocks that require my attention when the time unnaturally shifts; they are two battery-operated clocks, my Kindle (which although connected to the internet refuses to set its own time), and the clock in the M6. Technically my microwave’s clock should be changed, but the ITP Estate loses power so often that I have stopped setting its clock at all. Oh, I suppose I have introduced two new “clocks” whose time I must set, the two outlet timers which control the lights and germination heat mats in the basement.

With a cold morning staring me in the face yesterday I baked a pumpkin bread. I laughed for believing that I could convince myself to walk to Kroger in order to buy nuts and raisins to include into the loaf; I didn’t. The loaf would have been improved by their inclusion, but tasted fine anyway.

I wish YouTube would put a badge on the thumbnail images of videos which “Includes Paid Promotion”. In my opinion “paid promotions” are advertisements under another name, the only difference being that Google receives no money from them. Unfortunately I know that Google won’t do this because if I saw how many videos still contain ads after I pay for an ad-free experience, it would be damning. Hell, with this information I would probably also cancel my YouTube Premium subscription.

Wordle: four, my starter was ACORN
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Purple > Blue

I did a poor job of weight maintenance yesterday. My attempt to walk the Bob Collum trail was thwarted by a lack of parking in its tiny parking lot. Instead I visited a Cobb County Goodwill where I purchased two DVDs, but left the Georgia Beer Day 2022 glass on the shelf because I already own one of those.

I think my strategy for tomorrow will be to eat lunch at one of the breweries in Lee & White — Monday Night, Wild Heaven, or Best End — which should give me three chances to score a glass. And if I fail, I can always scour Goodwills until I find one.

This weekend I will finally start planning my BRAG Belgium Bike Ride Adventure, perhaps purchasing my flights in an effort to catch up with my ride mates.

Oh, don’t forget that we spring the clocks forward this weekend as we foolishly believe we can control our lives with arbitrary time shifts…

Wordle: two, my starter was REALM
Connections: one mistake (and a complete guess to get the Yellow, and never would have gotten the Purple), Green > Blue > Yellow > Purple

Things of note:

March is Phoenix Flies by the Atlanta Preservation Center month. I am trying to figure out the free tours in which I can partake while I am in Atlanta this month.

This coming Saturday is Georgia Beer Day. I have a collector’s glass from each year starting in 2021, so I will be heading out to get the fourth in my series.

Today is the two hundredth “consecutive” day of learning German on Duolingo, since I restarted. Admittedly I have had two or three days for which I used a “Streak Freeze” to compensate for either being unable to learn, or forgot to do so.

Wordle: three, my starter was BLAST
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Purple > Blue

Nothing from yesterday to report.

I’ve started my day poorly by missing the first two Duolingo sentences for today, so I’ve gotten angry and have had to put my phone down for awhile. I started the day with four out of possible five lives. Today is one of the days I wish I had committed to Duolingo at the start of the year and purchased their subscription when it was 60% off its normal price. Oh well, if I don’t get back to it today all that will happen is I will lose one of my freezes to keep my 198 day streak alive.

At some time today I want to go out into WLF to see how much rain was dumped on it overnight, and what effects that has caused.

Wordle: five, my starter was DAILY
Connections: perfect, Purple > Yellow > Green > Blue

Something strange happened last night, my iPhone called one of my buddies while it was on the shelf charging. Therefore I was not even touching it, and it should have been locked, when this occurred. I cannot explain how this happened.

Day of chores ahead of me.

Wordle: four, my starter was SHOCK
Connections: FAIL, Yellow > X > X > X

On Saturday night I stayed in and watched The Irish Pub before toddling off to bed. Another 2013-era documentary, this one interviewed Irish pub owners and patrons, of some pretty old pubs around Ireland.

Yesterday I intended to go to Fairburn to visit Cochran Mill Brewing, who were having a free Irish food festival and darts tournament. In the end I decided that I didn’t want to go it alone.

I had an interesting day of games yesterday, failing mightily at Connections by getting the blues and then nothing else. I then played Wordle, starting with STAKE, which provided four properly-placed letters. Three guesses later I finally landed on STATE after playing STARE and STAGE.

Wordle: five, my starter was TRULY
Connections: perfect, Blue > Yellow > Green > Purple

Have I mentioned how much I love my air fryer? I do! Of course I rarely use it as an air fryer, instead using its standard “bake” function more than any other. Yesterday I used it to whip up a meal consisting of stuffing, sauerkraut, and sausages; think of it as a casserole and it makes more sense. And this morning I used the air fryer’s “bake” function to bake a batch of refrigerator biscuits.

I met my buddy Hank for drinks yesterday at a bar called Napoleon’s. I chose the venue, to which we’ve been once before last Saint Patrick’s Day, because we’d not been there in nearly a year. Hank and I did a three mile walk prior to sitting down to drink. As an added bonus we got to hear Atlanta legend Michelle Malone and her band do sound check on the small stage in the bar.

For some reason I didn’t realize that today is Friday, so I was a little surprised when the podcasts which are normally delivered on Fridays started to download this morning.

Unless I change my mind, I will be wandering up to The EARL tonight to see Raleigh’s own band and now down to being a trio, Chatham County Line, perform. I’ve seen them perform more than a handful of times, and was delighted when I heard a song of theirs playing in the background during the movie “A Walk in the Woods” a couple of weeks ago.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Wordle: six, my starter was REACH
Connections: perfect, Blue > Green > Purple > Yellow

February Summary

02/01 – ?, M, trainer (60:00) ????
02/02 – ?, M, hiking (8.04 miles, 2:59:48) ????
02/03 – ?, V, walking ????
02/04 – ?, V, trainer (60:00) ????
02/05 – ?, V, walking (4.33 miles, 1:23:37) ????
02/06 – X, V, walking (3.00 miles, 1:05:24) ????
02/07 – ?, M, walking ????
02/08 – ?, M, trainer (60:00) ????, walking ????
02/09 – 205.2, M, nothing ????????
02/10 – ?, V, walking ????
02/11 – ?, M, nothing ????
02/12 – ?, M, nothing ????
02/13 – X, M, nothing ????
02/14 – ?, M, nothing ????
02/15 – ?, M, choring ????
02/16 – ?, M, nothing ????
02/17 – ?, M, nothing ????
02/18 – ?, M, nothing ????
02/19 – ?, M, walking (3.00 miles, 1:01:25) ????
02/20 – X, M, cycling (48.28 miles, 3:11:00) ????
02/21 – ?, M, walking ????
02/22 – ?, M, cycling (38.94 miles, 2:29:00) ????, walking (~2.0 miles) ????
02/23 – ?, M, choring ????
02/24 – ?, M, walking ????
02/25 – ?, V, cycling (45.53 miles, 2:43:00) ????
02/26 – ?, M, walking ????
02/27 – X, M, nothing ????????
02/28 – ?, M, walking (3.25 miles, 1:02:36) ????
02/29 – ?, M, walking (3:12 miles, 1:02:52) ????

Happy Leap Day. Today would’ve marked my seventh Leap Year Hash, and had I done them all would have earned a Leap Yeah Hashname. Does Atlanta still do Leap Year hashes?

I spent the majority of yesterday choring, mostly cleaning up and organizing the ITP Estate.

At the beginning of every month Apple poses an exercise challenge on my Apple Watch, and once completed awards me a virtual pin. February’s challenge could have been one of the easiest posed, except for one thing… My February challenge was to do six indoor cycling sessions, each lasting at least five minutes. Given that all of my trainer sessions last at least thirty minutes this should have been easy to accomplish, except, for the fact that I spent nearly two thirds of the month away from my trainer. Oh well, no virtual pin for me!

Sadly I had to give up reading a book I had on loan from the library because there was no way I was going to finish reading it prior to the due date. The book, a novel written by comedian Steven Wright called “Harold” was quirky and good, but I never made the time to read it while I was in Florida. I did check out another in the Hamish Macbeth series from author MC Beaton yesterday to replace “Harold”. I cannot figure out the public library system because apparently I have to read this book from within the Libby app, whereas most other books I am able to download to my Kindle and read them using it.

Not that I needed to start another tv series, but all this talk about Will Trent taking place in Atlanta has piqued my interest and got me to watch the first episode. I’m almost tempted to read the books first. Barb, I have still an interest in watching For All Mankind.

Wordle: three, my starter was WEIRD
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Blue > Purple

Given that I was awake at 4:30am and did a 7+ hour drive yesterday I shouldn’t have been surprised that I was tired early. However, I think I fell asleep last night around 8:30pm while watching a pretty decent documentary (if you are into photography) called Everybody Street. The documentary, which was released in 2013, talks to street photographers in New York, and contains some pretty amazing images from the past fifty (relative to 2013) or so years.

Yesterday I planted about eight of the purple (Adirondack Blue) seed potatoes that I purchased at Tractor Supply. I should have also sown some of the potatoes in the house which have sprouted eyes. It’s been my experience that seed potatoes are great, but store bought potatoes which sprout eyes also produce decent results. I will probably find a few places to stick these other potatoes too, especially since none are of the Adirondack Blue variety.

It wasn’t until this morning that I realized that I should have gone grocery shopping yesterday. Clearly I am not going to starve, hell, I have the makings for a peanut butter sandwich on hand, which is what I will eat for breakfast today, but man, all I can think about are eggs. Guess what one of today’s chores will be… I have considered going out for breakfast, there are so many places that I want to revisit, but I’m feeling poor and fat the moment, so that’s not happening.

Wordle: five, my starter was CRASH
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Purple > Blue