Get Busy Living

Project 365: April showers

Time is marching relentlessly on.  People look at the calendar and say “Jeez!  It’s already May!”  And it is…  This year is passing by a little too fast.  But I will probably regret saying that with such forlornness later in the year when I will be wishing that I am once again this busy.

April has treated us with some wonderful times!  Riding nekked, pine pollen coating the world, motorcycle marshalling for the Multiple Sclerosis Atlanta to Athens Bicycle Ride, one day of laziness in the hammock, overnight motorcycle trips for each of us, just not together, new tires and my brother coming to visit just to ride with us.  We’ve had great fun and seem to have even more planned for May.  So wait and see what might spring up with the April showers.

Project 365: Marching In

Snow. Ice. Freezing Temps. Rain. Spring. Buds. Flowers. POW’s. Rabbits. Riding Weather. Hospitals. Sick Bed. Bubbles. Muffins. Bills. Fog. Moon. Screens. Doggy Dentals. Cancer. Mowing. Weeds. Lenses. Tomatoes. 80 degrees. Sun.

Andersonville National Historic Site

It seems that many of guests to our house want to visit the Civil War battlefields.  It does seem to be one of the things Georgia is known for.  With some sleuthing we discovered a Revolutionary War battlefield.  Quite the rarity.  But this has all taken another turn with the discovery of Andersonville.

Andersonville National Historic Site was better known as Camp Sumter in its illustrious past.  Camp Sumter was the largest Confederate military prison during the Civil War.  We can argue that Camp Lawton near Millen, GA was larger.  But it was compromised during Sherman’s “March to the Sea” before it was in use for more then a month.  During Camp Sumter’s 14 months of operation 45,000 Union soldiers were confined at the prison.  During that time 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding and exposure to the elements.

Andersonville now commemorates the sacrifices of all American prisoners of war from the Revolutionary War to Operation Iraqi Freedom.  And beyond.

Interestingly, Andersonville is one of fourteen National Cemeteries nationwide, serving as an honored burial place for present-day veterans.  It is one of only two classified as active and continues to bury veterans and their dependents.

Please go to Flickr – Andersonville NHS for more pictures.

Project 365: February

Woefully behind!!!  I’m taking the pictures.  I’m posting them on Flickr.  You can view them there to keep more up-to-date.  I’m obviously not going to finish January.  Because I can now post ALL of February in one shot here.  No, you aren’t going to get the cute sayings.  But you can click on each image and go directly to the Flickr page and see what is written there.

I am beginning to have more fun with the camera.  Every so often absolutely nothing happens in a day because all I did was wake up, go to work and take care of the house, dogs and child.    So sometimes I’m reaching a little for subject matter.  But I’m learning.

The other issue I’m competing with is to take something meaningful, and not just something that annoys me during the day.  Which I am finding out is quite alot.  Like the people that drive 45 in a 30 zone, then turn the corner and drive 35 in a 40 zone.  I just don’t get people sometimes.

Other times I’m constantly walking around the house and grousing about little pet peeves: open medication containers, lids of peanut butter jars, toothbrush in the kitchen, open cereal boxes on the living room floor in dog reach, ladders left outside for weeks, hoses that aren’t wound up for months.  The list continues.  But I’m not bitter…  hehehe

So, here are the pictures from February.  Again, click on the picture to go directly to the Flickr page for information.

Project 365…

Honestly, I have been taking the pictures and posting them to Flickr, but haven’t told anyone here.  Feel free to navigate over there on your own if you want more updates then I am providing here.  You can use the link on the left to Project 365, or you can click here.

Otherwise, here are a couple more days to whet your appetite.

Jan 27. Just waiting at the bus stop for my prince charming to arrive.

Jan 26. Laundry day. Couldn't work myself up to doing this yesterday. So it was a rush to do it at the last minute today.

Jan 25. Little did I know how that stupid little drip was going to cause tons of heartache and difficulty. But that is getting ahead of the story. Right now that little drop of transmission fluid meant replacement of a $5 seal that took 2 days to get to.

Jan 24. Will the rain ever end?? Apparently not... But what a great excuse to snuggle with dogs, blankets and movies.

Jan 23. Rode the bikes through wind, rain and darkness to meet up with the other TOUGH BMW riders. All one other rider. All others wussed out and drove their lovely wives to the meeting in dry cages.

For Want of a Full Dishwasher the Vacuum Cleaner was Lost

or…

Just because I’m on my knees vacuuming does not mean that I will do the windows!

I haven’t yet explained about the transmission in the truck.  That is a long story all of its own and it still hasn’t finished itself out yet.  Suffice it to say we are not King Midas and everything in the house has not yet turned to gold.

I was cleaning up the dinner dishes and squaring everything away in the dishwasher.  The last glass was in my hand and moving towards the top rack.  With very little room to place it I pulled it away to make a little room.  Alas, it caught on the edge of rack and slipped out of my fingers.  You know where this is going.  It fell to the bottom rack, then the door, then the floor.  I do believe it had shattered long before it reached the floor.  Glass shards were everywhere.  Darn, this was one of the cut glass water glasses that I liked.  But it is the first broken one of the set in something like 10 years?

My mother works with glass, making stained glass windows all my childhood.  And I hated wearing shoes.  So I was always running in and out of the shop barefoot.  I became proficient at flat foot walking and rarely got slivers.  So I wasn’t worried about making it to the broom.  I just wanted to clean this up before the nosy air-head pup decided to come investigate.

MotMS rushed to aid and became the dustpan to my broom.  And what a good team we make.

I still wanted to pull the vacuum out to pick up those little slivers that do the nasty work.  MotMS also made quick work of that while I rushed to the camera…

But there were a few fragments in the rug across the room that he missed.  As I grabbed the vacuum plug I took a quick look at the prongs, as usual, because they are generally bent from accidentally tugging the vacuum an inch farther then the cord can go.  Which invariably pulls the plug…literally…and bends the prongs.  Well, they were a little bent and as I bent one back a little I could feel the metal give way.  What the heck.  It wasn’t going to be doing its job and I didn’t want it to break off in the socket.  So I just finished the job I had started.

That still doesn’t solve my problem of vacuuming the rugs.  MotMS thinks he knows where the old vacuum is in the garage.  He struggles to drag it into the house, realizing that time has not been good to the machine.  We originally replaced it because the vacuum tube was unraveling.  Duct tape was starting to hold together duct tape.  Well, the duct tape had given up.  It was unusable.  Now what?

MotMS remembered the shop vac!  Huzzah.  It isn’t the greatest, but it does suck.  HEHE.  So that is how I ended up on my hands and knees, holding the wide nozzle onto the vacuum tube and doing a really bad job of a once over on the rug.  I was working on the assumption that glass didn’t have time to become embedded.

What started out as a 5 minute job just loading the dishwasher turned into a 30 minute half-assed cleaning of the kitchen.  But don’t expect me to do those windows.

My Momma Didn’t Raise No Smart Kids

What’re some of momma’s first rules?

• Don’t pick your nose in public
• Always wear clean underwear

and

• Dress warm when it is cold out (!)

I know this.  I know I know this.  (As I try to move my desktop mouse and expect my laptop pointer to respond… jeez.)  But would you know I know this to look at me?  NO  (or KNOW!)

I blearily peer at the outside temperature gauge and make out what appears to be 40F.  But it really doesn’t feel too bad as I test the air when I let the dogs out.  (But that is also what I always say.)  It feels a warm 40F compared to the frigid 38F last week.

I have three choices of clothes for my morning walk.  The thick 2 layered workout pants.  Great for cold mornings.  Better with thick fleece underneath for those 18F mornings.  I have single layered workout pants for those nippy mornings that aren’t too cold.  And I have shorts for these upcoming HOT summer months.

My choice this morning is between the thick and heavy 2 layered pants or the shorts.  The single layered pants are currently on the cold cement floor in the garage covered in grease.  So what do I decide?  Come on, take a wild guess…

The SHORTS!!!

In actuality it wasn’t too bad.  The trail was still dark this morning.  The sky has the faintest hint of black turning blue color with the branches a dark black against this.  The birds are beginning their morning songs.  It is nice to hear them out and singing since it has been lacking over the winter.  The rabbits are stirring around.  Though I still haven’t seen as many of them as I did before the big flood.

Right, back to the shorts.  The couple of mini hill climbs at the start of the trail warm me up and there isn’t much fallout from wearing the shorts.  It’s when I reach the end of the trail and head back that I realize my decision making skills are sometimes lacking.

On the way back I am just on the wrong side of the wind.  The front of the legs are downright chilly compared to the backs.  I have to tuck my head down a little more to reduce the breeze.  And I’ll be bamboozled but I do believe the temperature has dropped a little more with the sun coming up.  It is possible.  Our high today is expected to reach 43F.  Not much different then that readout this morning.  Of course, if it did drop a minute ago it will have more room to climb.

My morning trail buddies notice the shorts and always have something to say.  We chat briefly and do agree that the second time out of the house is a better indicator of how cold that temperature really is, not the first.  And that sometimes 40F can feel cold or warm.  Today it was mostly warm. 

Oh…and sometimes I’m even known to run with scissors.  <gasp> 

Project 365

I’ve seen reference in a couple of different places now about this Project 365.  The idea is to carry your camera everywhere and document something interesting each day of your life for a year.  It seems to be meant as a way to chronicle your year, whether you image a new person you have met, a new adventure you have undertaken, a new haircut or a new perspective of something old, near and dear to your heart.

The hopes of it seem to be a way to highlight what is important in your life, how you view the world, sharing personal insights and learning more about photography.

I realize that I am a little late in starting this on the 20th of January.  But I just learned of this idea a couple days ago.  Even though I have taken pictures this year I haven’t decided if I want to post anything up from the sparse days that I have brought the camera along on my adventures.  Or just wipe the slate clean and start from the here-and-now.

One of my regular self-criticisms is not taking the time to stop and pull the camera out.  To document something I find interesting because it is too much of a hassle to unpack the camera.  Or better yet, that I didn’t even bring the camera.  So hopefully this will make me a little less forgetful and a little more assertive and take the time to take the pictures that I want to take.

My biggest obstacle in pondering this assignment is the mundaneness of my life at times.  I mean, if this should embody the events of my day, how exciting are 100 pictures of my office going to be??  Or how interesting will you find 100 images of the morning trail going to be?  I’m going to have to be creative at times to come up with something interesting.

I am hoping to post at least once a week.  So…here are my first three days.

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Jan 22, 2010
The first BBQ of the season!!  Here’s to many more this year.

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Jan 21, 2010
Mud, mud and more mud!!The disheartening part is the squelching sound as you open the back door and she tries to anticipate which door you will open. And it doesn’t matter if you head towards the one she is moving towards. She will still turn around at least once. We’ve resorted to washing the paws. Now just imagine the mud covering the paws, up the legs and even onto the underbelly of the beast!

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Jan 20, 2010
Decided to ride to Coffee & Chat despite the rain forecasts. It has been a while since the meetup has been on our side of town. We felt it our duty to go and encourage more people to attend or encourage them to have the meeting here more often.

Apocalypse 2010

Apparently the Apocalypse is coming to the South TODAY!  Did you know that?

Our “unseasonably” low temps this week have been accompanied by very low humidity.  Such a blessing.  But the “forecasters” have been predicting the snow and ice to arrive today for the last week.  Five days ago we were supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow.  Two days ago it was down to 1 inch accumulation.  Yesterday it was down to half an inch.

But it is too late.  The panic and paranoia have already been stirred up.  And I believe it is the news’ fault, shouting doom and gloom.

They were already announcing school closures yesterday.  The radio station I was listening to was also announcing afternoon closures for its office.  They had even rented hotel rooms nearby already for the on-air personalities.  The markets have been mobbed of staples.  People are already making arrangements to work from home or take PTO.

Forecasts today have now postponed the storms arrival.  It was supposed to hit mid-afternoon.  Now it is supposed to begin approaching at 5 PM with the “snow” arriving around 8 PM.

What about all those closures now??  Dweebs.

This same thing happened in early 2001.  Huge predictions came for terrible and severe weather.  Businesses shut down for two days in anticipation.  But it never came.  So when everyone HAD to get back to work as normal is when the debilitating weather came.  And people just had to deal with it.  And they dealt with it quite poorly I will add.

So…here is to my hope (and expectation) that it will not be nearly as bad as anticipated.  We are already off to a better start with 25 degrees at 6 AM instead of the 18 degrees we have been stuck with the last 3 days.  The daytime temp should reach 40 degrees today.  Much higher then the reality of 33 degree highs the last two days.

Please keep your eyes on the news.  Just in case Hellanta freezes over I think the outside world should be aware of what happened.    If anything exciting does happen I will take pictures and post if connectivity to the outside world is still intact.

You know it’s cold when…

…or Stalagmites growing on the north side of the house.

Our slothfulness became glaringly evident today.  I was confronted by this closing the house up today.

This year we haven’t bothered to remove the little Styrofoam spigot cover from the front of the house.  Conversely, we hadn’t bothered to replace the Styrofoam cover on the rear spigot when the temps plummeted last week.  Even though the stupid little thing was sitting on the ground two feet away.  Exactly where it had been discarded months ago when it had been removed.  Because we obviously can’t be bothered to put things away anymore.  Too much work.

So our 18° nightly temps are having some effect.  This pipe and the water pipes for the washing machine are in the same outside wall.  Last year we applied the spigot cover properly.  So no worries.  The worry came when the cold water pipe to the washing machine froze.  We held our breath and brought in a little space heater to thaw the wall/pipe.  And the temps soon increased and we didn’t have to worry.  See, there isn’t much insulation in that wall, and it would be quite a bit of work to take it apart and remedy that.

So I have been keeping a keen eye on that room.  Each morning I get up and turn the washing machine on quickly to see if the water is flowing.  At night I try to run a load through the washer and run the dryer to heat the room up a little.

The temps are holding there own for now and seem safe enough.  So what happened outside?  Don’t know.   I knocked the stalagmite away.  Doused the spigot with hot water.  Held my breath and opened it up.  I was just hoping the pipe wasn’t broken and I was unleashing another flood inside the house.  Water flowed unimpeded.  Good news.

Once I could breath easily I grabbed the big camera and took some fun shots.  I particularly like the weeds and air bubbles caught in the bottom.  Yes, the ice block was basically solid.  No, it didn’t melt one iota today.  Ok. I didn’t exactly measure it, but the ridges of paneling were almost as sharp as they were this morning.  I think our high today was 33°.  At least there isn’t any precipitation.  (Other then the darn faucet.)  The snow and ice should come on Thursday…