Musings

Yesterday our neighborhood Kroger re-opened. Or, at least, there was a Kroger here, but there’s a totally new building now, complete with two parking garages (one underground), and a high-rise apartment building. Far right is an old building on a different property. We made our first visit this morning. We passed on the Halloween swag, tasted a few of the offerings scattered throughout the store, and talked to several kindly and helpful employees. Two of three referred to a map to tell us where things were—Bob’s Red Mill dried-bean soup mix (one only, but not the one we like); organic fresh Italian sausage (none).

They are trying for a new identifier. Locally this used to be called the Murder Kroger (after a parking lot event, if I have it right), or Wino Kroger by the Guru. One edge of the store is the Beltline, so: Beltline Kroger.

Here’s the view from the Beltline. Note the blue bow on the column, left.

While most bins, shelves, and cases were nicely filled, with all items tidily aligned, this prepared-food section was empty. Someone decided that empty containers with post-its was better than totally empty. If the handwriting had been clearer, I could have browsed the offerings-to-be.

The checkout lady—we did serve yourself—was very helpful with corrections…five packages of 12-oz Starbucks coffee were supposed to be $5.99 each, but they rang up at the regular price ($7.99), not even the sale price (apiece)—$6.49. Plus, we were gifted some onions that weren’t in the menu at all.

We came out with assorted fresh veggies (salad stuff mostly), some uncured pancetta, and a few other grocs (e.g., coffee!!), plus their idea of a “Hawaiian” poké salad (fine, not exceptional; made for a more interesting lunch than we were going to have). We’ll go back….

Posted at 6:45 PM | Comments Off on Krogerized

…spider. Duh. Secondarily: the sparkles in the web.

…potted plant. Secondarily: the geometric pillows.

…riotous autumnal shapes.

Posted at 7:12 PM | Comments Off on It’s about the…

Proof that we’re southbound. Also, proof that it was sunny early on.

We drove into rain, and never out. Some stretches had incipient rain, but the perception was that rain would restart any moment.

We made the NC transportation museum our big stop. It’s centered on a roundhouse, but I even saw a dugout canoe and motorcycles. My digital dictionary indicates cow-catcher is hyphenated; coulda fooled me.

Wagon hub. Looks like a fancy locking pin.

Have no idea why forty men and eight horses.

Dusty, chrome-laden car.

Aha! Stone Mountain.

Aha! Atlanta traffique.

Posted at 9:41 PM | Comments Off on Homeward (no angel)

Probably should have used this yesterday with my discussion about textiles. Only this is with cotton or something mimicking cotton.

Almost COLD this morning. Almost autumnal. Yay!

Haven’t heard a prediction on this, but I’m assuming we’ll get some rain here in Big-A-town from the spinning bands generated by the coming storm…Monday? Tuesday?

Posted at 8:38 PM | Comments Off on Please stand by

Among assorted post-trip photo-processing chores, I added selected images to our “screen-saver” collection. Great fun! And we can play the collection…anywhere.

The Guru does the complicated stuff, like geolocating images from the camera that does not support texting or phone calls; that takes real time and know-how!

Posted at 7:30 PM | Comments Off on Techno-missions

I am possibly too fascinated by the patterns I see in nature, especially in plants.

First big magnolia blossom I’ve noticed this year.

White and green is not a reference to MooU. It just looks like it might be.

Posted at 9:23 PM | Comments Off on Variations in white and green

Not far from the house I helloed with a fellow who was walking his dog. I don’t remember him or the dog, so perhaps we haven’t crossed paths before. He smelled strongly of patchouli and the dog was something like a black standard poodle. I kept going and turned the corner, and finally the patchouli scent faded.

Later, I walked in the street past a parked pickup, windows closed, as no sidewalks on that street; I couldn’t tell for sure, but wondered if it had been there all night. I caught the scent of pipe tobacco, or the sweet tobacco smell some of it has, as I passed the driver’s door. But only near the door.

My question: do smells linger longer in super-humid air?

If I had to do captions, I’d start with something along the lines of “backlit redbud leaves,” “rampant polebeans (auto-correct changed that to plebeians, harhar),” and non-chemical weed-killer (except it is made from petroleum chemicals, I recall).

Posted at 7:48 PM | Comments Off on Scent hypothesis

After the rain stops, insects get busy. I think of this as an anthill, but that’s a large passage for a typical ant. Ah, the rain has changed the ants, and now they’re mega-ants! 😃

This was unexpected…you can’t tell, but the reflection on this first-floor wall is from a window in the upper story of the opposite building. I guess the angles work, but on first glance I didn’t intuit that the window-ghost would be projected at a downward angle.

Or, if you prefer Bill Nye science, check out the latest John Oliver….

Posted at 6:48 PM | Comments Off on Unexpected science

Public art one: red bird, airborne.

White bird: tethered.

I like the red one better; seems “free”er and less contrived. My imagination, perhaps.

“License plate” on rental electric moped. The second letter…you’re meant to see “U” not “O.” I see the intent, but it’s an “O” to me. The rest is…tacky. At best.

Posted at 9:03 PM | Comments Off on Public art. Plus.

Friday theme/goal, ¿no? Create energy! Bang a drum!

And some visual symmetry. Just ’cause.

Posted at 7:41 PM | Comments Off on Friday Friday!