twelfth street

the backside of twelfth and midtown

spring and twelfth

twelfth and west peachtree, changes coming in this viewshed but they better not involve that red oak

the finest sidewalk in all of midtown, mainly because of the street trees, the specie of which i do not know

williams street

the turner broadcasting building at williams and twelfth is great mid-century modern --- fabulous masonry

the progressive club was out at the edge of town when it was built in the 1920s and williams street north of tenth was mostly un-developed until after world war ii  --- we had our jr-sr prom there in 1967 and the building remains much as it was built, at least on the exterior, even if it is now dwarfed by everything around it --- 

do what you love

thirty years later and he's still playing rock n roll --- yay, kevin!

an excellent day

the peachtree research is coming together --- found the proof today of what i suspected early on: peachtree road south of buckhead did not really exist prior to the 1840s --- fun times for a historian!

mr. terrell  surveyed the land lots in the 17th district in august and september 1821 and went to the trouble of noting the roads, trails, and paths, which most of the other surveyors did not ---

walked over to the garden this evening --- dog and i already walked to tech and back, plus his morning and mid-day constitutional --- my fitbit is all impressed ---

walking it off

the vickery creek unit is the best in the chattahoochee national recreation area --- we did half the loop today, checked out the mill dam (c. 1853), which robert and dog had not seen before, saw a lot of mountain laurel in bloom, and made it to the covered bridge just before a storm blew through --- a dozen or so soaked people and dogs eventually joined us, clearly not having checked the weather radar as the sky darkened --- the trails were awful even when dry (another benefit of tax cuts for the wealthy), so we decided to walk back down atlanta street to the car, and found the road blocked to cars because of downed trees in two places ---

remembering the waste

and my poor g-g-grandpa moore, out picking blackberries during the siege of vicksburg, shot by a union sniper and buried in an unmarked grave ---
a few years back, i posted what i knew of how my brother died

out on the towns

we spent the afternoon wandering around the decatur arts festival, and when that got boring, which didn't take long, we went over to the city cemetery and wandered around --- 

shoulda just spent the day in the park: the jazz festival was the place to be

the palisades

i just never get tired of the place

some great loblolly pines --- maybe a hundred years old

the orchidian alliance

this is the only terrestrial orchid that i have, and the first time it has blossomed

and i have been gifted with five little cattleya, of which one can hardly have enough

gadgetry

i've been using my little "fitbit" for a little over two weeks now and i love it (thanks, c.w.) --- it tracks steps taken, stairs climbed, miles walked, keeps up with "very active minutes," and logs sleep time, including restless minutes and awake minutes during the night ---  it's synced to my android so i can obsess on it --- it will count calories, too but i'm not really using that feature

i've been trying to walk at least two miles every day for years, but i have found the fitbit a real motivator, in and of itself, to do more --- a couple of times, at the end of the day, i have looked at it and realized i was under my daily goal, and said "come on, guinness, let's take a walk" --- he wishes i would throw the damn thing away ---

stereotyping

A lot of our ideas about what we can do at different ages and what age means are so arbitrary — as arbitrary as sexual stereotypes. I think that the young-old polarization and the male-female polarization are perhaps the two leading stereotypes that imprison people. The values associated with youth and with masculinity are considered to be the human norms, and anything else is taken to be at least less worthwhile or inferior. Old people have a terrific sense of inferiority. They’re embarrassed to be old. What you can do when you’re young and what you can do when you’re old is as arbitrary and without much basis as what you can do if you’re a woman or what you can do if you’re a man.

walking the dog

yesterday, after six hours wrestling two paragraphs into shape, dog and i checked out boundary waters park over in douglas county, just opposite cochran road and campbellton --- we only did half the 7+ mile loop, and i don't think it was necessarily the best half  --- most of the forest post-dates wwii, so is not all that --- this southern red oak was the largest in the park at 19'-3" in circumference, but is now dead, slowly falling apart from the top down

some of the "trails" are more like roads, and a lot of places were nearly impassably muddy and messed up from a lot of horse traffic --- dog liked it cause it was mostly more-or-less level ground

the park abuts a purty great horse farm on the south, with beautiful pastures ---

the landscape along the river south of town is much different than it is in the southern reaches of the national recreation area where there are palisades and shoals and lots of hills ---




plus everybody in the city has peed in the river by the time it gets down that far

awards and memorials

atlanta urban design commission awards tonight at first congregational --- as one of the commissioners, i was introduced as "a native atlantan, and an eighth-generation georgian --- a historian recently retired from the national park service, he loves dogs and old buildings, but also likes his high-rise living in midtown atlanta," which i guess is ok, since a few people laughed --- - saw several people i don't see much, including councilperson norwood, who was not, praise god, wearing a red dress --- i'm not crazy for the new look of the sanctuary (actually two or three years old), but i love the exterior ---

the special award given every year to recognize an outstanding historic preservation professional went to the mason who has done such tremendous work on the monuments at oakland cemetery --- i met him briefly and, as always, promptly forgot his name

also talked to a couple of guys with the atlanta vietnam veterans business association, a group that has put up several dozen memorials to some of the tens of thousands of lives wasted over there so long ago --- the fourth one was installed at cnn center in honor of my brother way last century --- the guy tonight even remembered that gary had gotten a distinguished service cross --- i told them that i found a box of his letters next to her bed when she died --- made me sad

god, i love maps

i've spent much of my day rummaging through the usgs map site, one of my favorites --- but after fog brought visibility to naught this morning, it turned into a beautiful spring afternoon --- heat lurks on the horizon

washed out sunday

the sign in the elevator this morning indicated that somebody had fun last night ---

but the weather was crappy for "streets alive" on peachtree

the cars were gone but nobody much wanted to get out in the rain --- i would have probably enjoyed an afternoon in bed with the animals

and at six o'clock the cars were back on the streets and the sky was mostly clear by sun set

morningside

thirty acres ain't much, but there are a lot of trails, boardwalks, etc. along the south fork of peachtree creek ---

i don't know whose bright idea it was to use grates for steps --- several flights, maybe fifty steps --- guinness looked at them and looked at me like, are you kidding? i carried him most of the way but his ass is heavy