Musings

Choices, choices

Stairs landing

Today’s concepts: nuclear option and loya jirga.

Quiet at the moment

Playground scofflaw park

It’s official name is not Scofflaw Park, but it is the place where people ignore the leash law and throw sticks for their dogs, and folks abandon large plastic kid-toys in the playground, and, in turn, the kids leave them on the walkways.

Habitat habitat habitat

PiedPk carriage road overlook

Somehow until today I missed the plaque saying this is Joni Winston’s Carriage Road Overlook in Piedmont Park—over the “marsh” below, which is really a ponding area for rainwater overflow. I told The Guru the other day that they sure were letting a lot of young trees take over the basin. Then, today I also discovered that they had cut down a bunch of the volunteer trees, leaving willows and I don’t know what else.

Wildlife report (thin)

Clara Meer geese sky

I scrutinized Lake Clara Meer’s shoreline, looking for the GBH (Great Blue Heron). Yesterday I watched her/him fishing for quite a while—meaning standing still as a statue for quite a while, then striking, with success, and retreating to a sheltered location, I assume to digest. Today, I didn’t spot her/him.

On the other hand, I felt like there were more Canada geese…looking for handouts.

Recharging Sunday

PiedPk lake tree view

We had a light spitty precip for most of the day, mostly without a breeze, so quite tolerable given that it wasn’t very cool.

I spent the whole middle of the day with B strolling PiedPk and the BotGarden, stopping here and there to perch on a bench and just look around—great R&R.

The downtime continued in the evening, when I discovered there were plenty of leftovers, so no need to cook!

Delightful evening

Key lime pie n cranberries

We did a family dinner tonight at my FIL’s, just to socialize—no holiday, no birthday to celebrate.

My most colorful (?) contributions were key lime pie (without key limes, see my recipe) and scrumptious cranberry sauce (best cultivated cranberries I’ve ever had—so dark and flavorful).

Best, however, was seeing everyone.

Even though UGA lost… On the other hand, MichState trounced Nebraska….

Even in the city

ABG Halloween creature

ABG Halloween creature, now replaced by umhem holiday lighting. On balance, I prefer the plants, but I found this statuesque beauty compelling.

It was a dark and foggy morning…and in the quiet an owl hooted. And hooted.

Adventure

Street view golden

I am adventuring. I’m pushing my personal envelope exploring…apps for this fancy iPhone 5S I’m carrying around these days. Today, I discovered a few new things.

The earbuds that came with are FAN-TAS-TIC. And, previous to today, I was NOT an earbuds fan. (Big change!)

Forecast.io (browser version here) had my location as “Middle of Nowhere.” That was pretty disheartening until The Guru explained to me that that meant I had not allowed it to know my location. (Ooops. Live and learn.)

Totally in love with Fitbit app (Fitbits are overpriced, but once you allow yourself to go with that, they can be motivators. I have the Fitbit One. Buy through REI if you’re a member and get the rebate…and (announcer voice:) SAVE!)

Along with the earbuds, I used the Tunein app (also browser version and ever-so-handy in both forms) so I could listen to weekend wrap-up hours from the Diane Rehm Show (without Diane this week, which isn’t too uncommon; I think her health issues are huge).

Okay; that’s it for promotions. I’m so trying to be 21st-century.

Step in time

Step in time

I took off on a wander during the sunlit part of the day, turned in a few library books (some due today), then met up with my sweeeetie at the gro. Such fun!

Zones of this/that

House sunset oblique light shadows

After way too much inactivity over hours and hours (catching up on journal article reading), I finally headed out when the light was low and temps were dropping.

I walked past the Thai basil and noted that most of it had been frosted black, but not all—stripes of branches still green (strange).

I kept walking toward light, but sometimes it was patchy. I tried to groove on shadow.