Inside The Perimeter

Thanks to Jenka I made Paulietouille last night based on this Food Network ratatouille recipe. I didn’t have any fresh tomatoes nor zucchini, so I substituted canned tomatoes and yellow squash. The dish contained eggplant, peppers, and yellow squash from WLF. The resulting meal was good, though not something I’d make often.

After the colossal collapse of the NY Mets this year I was pumped for the start of the NFL season with Aaron Rodgers as the NY Jets quarterback. While I didn’t expect Aaron Rodgers to lead the Jets to the Super Bowl, I did expect him to play more than one offensive series without suffering a potentially season-ending injury. I will die before the Jets ever win another Super Bowl, of this I am now certain. Somehow the Jets came back to win in overtime (long after I had turned off the tv), thus winning the battle but most likely losing the war. I could only wish that another mediocre season for one of my sports teams was my biggest concern.

I solved today’s Wordle in four attempts; my starter today was CURSE.

Typing today’s date for the title reminds me that it is a National day of remembrance for the horrific acts which transpired twenty-two years ago.

In the end it was an easy, but still disappointing, decision to skip the Wilson 100 on Saturday. I was feeling okay for the majority of Friday but had a minor relapse around 10pm so the thought of waking by 5am in order to get down to Gay for the bike ride was inconceivable. I hate wasting money, but this was the correct decision for me.

Over the past week I watched the first season of “The Afterparty”, “Hijack”, and many episodes of “Home”. All of these are on AppleTV+. Over the coming months I am going to see how much I am paying for streaming services and see if there are one or two which I can live without. If I can’t identify any I will look at other ways of cutting costs (A different cellphone plan? Cancel Adobe subscription? Finally get rid of my landline phone?).

I’ll blame getting ill upon return, but I forgot to mention that I brought one of those “old” bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon that I recently rediscovered up to Raleigh. Thankfully the cork showed no sign of leakage, but crumbled upon my attempt to open the bottle. Thankfully the wine had not turned to vinegar and tasted delicious. I’ll open the other two bottles within the next year, when I feel like drinking quality wine, assuming they held up as well as the first one.

Good day of riding yesterday. Though I didn’t feel 100% I was able to hang with the group and then celebrate our effort with a beer. The lunch stop in Rockmart was also a nice addition to the ride. I might go back just to eat their unusually thick and tasty steak fries.

I solved today’s Wordle in four attempts; my starter today was TRAMP.

I mentioned in a comment late yesterday that the collard plants I planted on Wednesday seem to be dead. What the fuck. They looked perfectly healthy when I transplanted them, separating their roots which had become bound, into good soil and then watered them. Sometimes I feel as if I am one of the worst farmers/gardeners in the country. Okay, that’s far from true, but I do get depressed when plants just die on me for seemingly no reason.

Sadly I am still not back to 100%. My body is sloooowly working on healing itself. It’s working so slowly that now my participation in tomorrow’s Wilson 100 is highly in doubt. Steve and Debbie, I will let you know if I am in your neighborhood. Also, I’m assuming that I will be okay by Sunday, but will send a text to those participating if I am forced to miss the ride.

I solved today’s Wordle in three attempts; my starter today was ROACH.

I have no declutter update this week since I essentially became sick after arriving home earlier in the week, so I’ve done nothing since.

What would you hope to have a few days prior to a weekend of cycling? Some sort of cold(/illness, of course. That is what I started battling yesterday. Clearly I will not be riding tonight, in fact I will probably do little more than lie on the couch and attempt to ride out the storm.

Dinner last night used some eggplant and peppers from WLF. Woot!

I solved today’s Wordle in six attempts; my starter today was REACH. I really thought I was poised to fail today.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to ride. I wish that I had stayed home because last night’s ride pissed me off. Life is continually throwing a thousand golf balls at me and while I dodge many of them, I am struck enough times to make things aggravating.

I solved today’s Wordle in four attempts; my starter today was ROAST. The Wordle solution has started with a B ten times since the last time it started with an R.

On my way back to Atlanta. As I am not in a great rush I have decided to once again return via I-95 -> I-20. It helps that the ITP Estate is so close to I-20.

Yesterday was a chill day spent lounging around the community pool to which the Raleigh Royalty are members.

I am bringing some collard green starter plants home with me, and hoping to plant them into WLF this week. I purchased six plants at the State Farmers Market for a whopping $3.

I solved today’s Wordle in four attempts; my starter today was RELAY.

Forgot today was Monday. Had a good weekend in Raleigh. We will be lounging poolside today, and I will return ITP tomorrow.

I solved today’s Wordle in four attempts; my starter today was ROOST.

We moved from New York to Florida in 1978, a month before my thirteenth birthday. This was a terrible time for me to move… Upon moving we found a new doctor in Florida, these were the days before we called them “primary care physicians”. Upon this doctor’s retirement my mother started seeing his son as her doctor. The junior doctor just told her that he is retiring soon, so my mother has outlived two generations of doctors! Sadly for her there is no third generation to whom she can go.

For the first time in awhile I scanned Eater’s list of restaurant closings and discovered that Georgia Beer Garden on Edgewood Avenue closed in June. Pity, though I have to admit I hated trying to park over there so I didn’t go as often as I wished. I also had no idea that Revival in Decatur had also closed. I guess being unemployed and not willing to eat out often has caused me to lose touch with the Atlanta restaurant scene.

Steve, question for you: do you believe that Bob Roll and Christian Vande Velde are in Spain, or commentating from their respective homes?

Have a great Labor Day Weekend everyone!

I solved today’s Wordle in four attempts; my starter today was ROUGH, which is an apt description of how I feel this morning after a shitty night of sleeping.

August Summary

08/01 – 198.4, V, cycling ????
08/02 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/03 – ?, V, yard work ????
08/04 – ?, V, yard work ????
08/05 – ?, V, yard work ????
08/06 – ?, V, yard work ????
08/07 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/08 – 198.6, V, walking ????
08/09 – ?, M, yard work ????
08/10 – ?, V, manual labor, cycling ????
08/11 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/12 – ?, V, hiking ????
08/13 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/14 – ?, V, yard work ????
08/15 – 198.4, M, walking ????
08/16 – ?, V, walking ????
08/17 – ?, V, cycling ????
08/18 – ?, V, yard work ????
08/19 – ?, V, walking, cycling ????
08/20 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/21 – ?, V, walking ????????
08/22 – 198.4, V, cycling ????
08/23 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/24 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/25 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/26 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/27 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/28 – ?, V, nothing ????
08/29 – 199.8, V, yard work, cycling ????
08/30 – ?, M, nothing ????
08/31 – ?, V, cycling ????

Almost surprisingly I only ate meat three days in August.

I hope your United game was fun, even though they lost. I intended to watch the replay of the game but when I went to do so AppleTV spoiled the result so I didn’t bother.

I had a lovey time eating at Wrecking Bar and then heading to Horizon Theatre for a show, even if each did dredge up some melancholy. Oh, Horizon has bought new seats since the last time I saw a play there, circa 2019. The play was good, not great. It’s about a recluse woman who lives in a treehouse and inadvertently inspires a cult to start. It’s more comedy than anything else, resolving little in the end.

I have a huge day of chores today, ahead of getting the heck out of Dodge at the asscrack of Friday morning. Two of my chores, lawn work, were nullified by the late night rain which fell.

I solved today’s Wordle in five attempts; my starter today was ROUGH.

My ability to abstain from ordering from Amazon is weaker than the NY Times’s for not having a Wordle solution start with the letter R. My streak lasted from July 12th until August 27th, while the NYT’s has lasted since June 25th until (perhaps) today. I will continue to start with an R word until the NY Times gives in.

I had a good day yesterday. I worked in WLF for a few hours, mostly doing cleanup work and killing tomato hornworms. Three of the Tuesday night cycling group (two active hashers and one retired one) decided to brave the weather and ride. Unfortunately the rain started to fall while we were out on our ride and one of us (not me) took a spill turning a corner, so we cut the ride short in order for him to tend to his wounds and we could start drinking.

I arrived home a little before 10pm to discover my Amazon packages had not yet been delivered. They arrived shortly after 10pm; what a brutal job being an Amazon delivery person must be.

Apple announced a September 12th event, which is the right time for an iPhone announcement. It appears that in two weeks I will get a sneak peak at my next iPhone, assuming I decide to spend the money. My current iPhone is an iPhone XS, purchased about a month before the iPhone 11 came out four years ago.

I solved today’s Wordle in four attempts; my starter today was RICED. Thought I had cleverly solved it in three, but the final letter was different than my guess. After solving I found out that my third guess had already been a Wordle solution.