sliding in to the solstice

the light is awfully weak this time of year, only days away from the solstice

cataloochee

an excellent weekend in asheville with an old friend i hadn't seen in seven or eight years --- today we drove over to cataloochee, where i had been wanting to go since the national park service re-introduced elk in 2001 --- it was wonderful to sit along the road for a while just watching them do their elk thing --- the valley itself was simply spectacular, with great buildings, and the drive up and across cataloochee ridge on a fine gravel road was outstanding --- will definitely go back

errata

another almost 5 hr long meeting last night --- it was after 9 before i got home --- i'm always so wound up after one of those and just being downtown after dark

a long day at the office today before putting it all away in anticipation of a long weekend in asheville catching up with mr. woodall, whom i haven't seen in years

i just wish that new building wasn't messing up my winter solstice sunset, dammit

dex just wants to be on my chest

nothing will make this right

finally, the country and the world knows what we knew all along: the u.s. was torturing people, pure and simple --- what we did at abu ghraib and guantanamo in the name of national security was every bit as evil and cruel as anything the spanish inquisition did in the name of religious orthodoxy --- we even tortured innocent people to death even as we trampled our own civil liberties in our terror after sept 11 --- tenet, rumsfeld, w, and most of all the evil one himself, cheney, ought to be in chains on their way to the hague right now to be tried for war crimes --- they won't be, but we can have the satisfaction of knowing their names will go down in history as the worst of what this country has to offer, or in bush's case, maybe just the dumbest ---

bon voyage and merry christmas

rain all morning then cleared off just in time for the egleston xmas parade --- excellent going-away soiree for a-ron this evening --- twenty people in the house, including a grammy nominee, which impressed the hell out of robert

i liked the guys on the seventh floor in their santa claus caps drinking champagne

working and walking

i've had my nose to the keyboard virtually none-stop for the last week but made good progress on the xmas-deadline project --- interesting buildings and i've learned a lot about the beginnings of tennessee, east tennessee especially, that i didn't know before


i would really like to know exactly how old is the cottonwood (a city champion) in front of the academy of medicine --- it's been sad watching it slowly lose its limbs --- each spring i wonder if it's going to leaf out again

blount mansion, original story-and-a-half, hall-and-parlor house built in the mid 1790s and added on to multiple times until it looked more or less like it does today by the end of the war of 1812 --- built by a scoundrel who was governor of southwest territories, one of first tennessee senators, and the first senator to be impeached --- exactly how the house came to be called "mansion" is beyond me, but it's a national historic landmark

across the street from the blount house is the craighead-jackson house, built in 1818, front porch added in the 1880s and other alterations after that --- restored in 1963-1965, using excellent paneling and what not from the poor house below (1790s) that was torn down in 1965

light time

xmas lights going up, including in my unit ---

probably my favorite christmas tree this season

the euphorbia trigona all decorated up for the first time --- it presents itself in a far more orderly fashion, not to say blob-like, than did the giant euphorbia tirucalli, which i chopped down this summer but which has now re-sprouted

why we are thankful

from olden times:

Throughout history, European settlers have thanked god for help killing off indigenous populations. Because I would literally be here until the next Thanksgiving if I tried to compile all the “thanks for the extermination back up, God” quotes, I’m going to focus on the way a particular massacre inspired gratitude and thanksgiving celebration among the British.

thanksgiving 2014

an excellent thanksgiving feed with friends --- plenty of food and drink, beginning with cranberry-rum punch --- thanks robert and mary and brian and aaron and maria!

dog food

the concierge passed out bacon-flavored dog treats at halloween, and the dogs haven't gotten over the transition since to bull-shit milk bones --- this one was peanut butter from aunt mary, so he eventually did the doggie thing and ate it --- but he's apparently the only dog in the building that flat out refuses the non-bacon treats from the concierge ---

he would probably have been happier living with a carnivore

the retriever in the video below defines "wolfing" one's food --- under 4 seconds and it's gone --- something you might have expected out of the shepherd, which wound up making a big ol' mess while taking nearly 3 minutes to finish

what are "deadlines"?

a nice long walk in the park with dog --- after several productive hours at the keyboard and a call from my client wondering if this big-ass report i'm putting together for him might be done by xmas --- i hate deadlines


historically, a deadline was a line drawn around a prison, beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot.

another long-ass meeting

four-plus hours, and we were promised an even longer meeting next time ---

sliding toward winter

it rained purty much non-stop all day today --- got a lot done, desk-wise --- with enough clearing toward sunset to make for a fine sky

east palisades

it's really kinda wonderful that all of this is inside the city limits of atlanta --- well, except the first one here, where we're looking into the wilds of cobb county --- there will be fewer of such excellent days in the woods over the next few months