Musings

The Ohio River is still a major transportation artery—for commercial traffic.

Meanwhile, we’re barging northward….

Posted at 10:13 PM | Comments Off on Rolling

Lake Clara Meer has a distinctly green cast these days, and the algae bloom is blowing bubbles. Pop! Pop!

Spooky!

Posted at 9:54 AM | Comments Off on Lake comes alive

So, I’m browsing the latest offerings of PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published weekly, and I spot an article “The Water Footprint of Bioenergy.” Huh?

There’s more about bioelectricity, and an assortment of stuff that’s kinda interesting, but right now is not registering in my brain.

Instead, I’ll head out front and harvest basil for some fresh pesto for dinner….

Posted at 6:07 PM | Comments Off on “Water footprint”?

We took an early walk this morning, just after sunrise, and managed to get in and out of Piedmont Park ahead of a fund-raising race. It’s dry dry dry out, since the rains and daily showers have abandoned us; I was surprised the race didn’t begin earlier, as it was already semi-steamy at 8 am.

Yes, new Sanctuary photo again….

Posted at 10:55 AM | 2 Comments »

Last weekend I bowed to a spousal request and we saw “Up” in 3D (at the theater, of course—too loud, as always). Very interesting, this: by half-way through I wasn’t even paying attention to the 3D-ness or the goofy ill-fitting specs. I found it a rather sad tale, although I think it was supposed to be positive and uplifting. Unexpected how many 3D trailers there were. Bonus: they played an animated short, too! (Pixar’s Partly Cloudy.)

Also, around noon, the USPS female-mailperson delivered our new Holux M-241 Wireless GPS logger. It’s a cute little thing, no map, just a simple display, which I wanted (me!, not The Guru—at least initially) as a high-tech digital-not-mechanical pedometer.

Posted at 3:34 PM | 1 Comment »

The interface between the ABG and Piedmont Park is changing. The parking deck is open and today we found workers taking down the plywood wall that kept pedestrians from the architectural focus that people now can traverse going from the park to the parking deck and vice versa.

* Disclaimer regarding yesterday’s entry…sorry, my best intentions went awry. The lovely vehicle in the picture is not destined for stock car races, which are a far different kind of track and race than this car is headed for. I should not have implied otherwise.

Also, there is no Matte Silver, Matt E. Silver, or anyone else by a similar name. Matte silver may, on occasion, refer to an attractive paint that may or may not be underconsideration for the most-excellent MG Midget pictured yesterday.

Posted at 12:56 PM | Comments Off on Interfacing with…among…and between…

There’s a lively interest in certain circles in car stuff down here in the Deep South, although it’s not as pervasive as I’ve encountered in the Midwest. Remember, after all, that stock car racing is an outgrowth of prohibition-era moonshine deliveries to, among other places, Atlanta’s thirsty, from stills in the southern Appalachians….

This aging, bug-like British body has just had the paint removed by a process that sounded like sand-blasting, although with baking soda, not sand. It’s more delicate than sand, I hear.

This car’s driver is now known as “Matte Silver”—at least by those who know him well….

UPDATE: followup footnote with tomorrow’s post….

Posted at 5:13 PM | 2 Comments »

We escaped from Atlanta’s urban clutches to explore a tiny bit of the Callaway family property around Callaway Gardens. This area is down by the the Little White House in Warm Springs, at the tail end of the Appalachians*, off a landform now known as Pine Mountain. Anyway, we enjoyed a guided tour led by our friend Dean.

Susanna was there, too, and recommended a post-hike wash-down with rubbing alcohol, in addition to a normal shower, as an anti-chigger treatment. So far, my personal affliction count is low, thanks I think to the Susanna Treatment.

Thankfully.

* But what do I know about geology? This abstract indicates that the landform is a “complex window” framed by “three ductile faults” (?) including “the polydeformed pre-thermal peak Box Ankle fault.” I include so many quote marks to remind you how little I know about this subject….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Don’t jump!

D’s stump garden is quite healthy. The hostas that were of modest size in May are into their seasonal progression, thanks to good nutrition and nurturing….

BTW, since I mentioned Lake Lanier’s levels in that May post, I’ll note that it is now about 4.4 feet below the summer floodpool level, where it’s been for a while. So either the measurer is stuck or inflow/outflow is currently balanced. Since we’ve had some rain recently, I worry that the reporting is erroneous—oops, I just noticed the fine print says the levels have come down 0.02 feet since midnight. No more showers!????

Posted at 8:55 AM | Comments Off on Hostas abloom

Sorry, light was flat; sky (not shown), on the other hand, was rather dramatic….

The claim is that this 700+ space six-story parking deck, which opened in May and provides spaces for visitors to Piedmont Park and (this is the headliner) the Botanical Garden, will be screened by vegetation etc. planted on a berm in front and on boxes attached to each level. We shall see. Certainly, when you’re on the upper deck, it looks pretty much like a hot place to be mid-day in mid-summer, just like most any other parking facility.

Upside: the ABG claims they will get 40% of the water for the plants (not flushing, etc. by visitors) from runoff from the deck (held in a cistern until needed).

CONCL: need more cisterns.

Posted at 10:15 AM | Comments Off on Parking variables