30 September 2014

tripping

geting amped up about seeing multiple world heritage sites next week --- lvg friday for miami and then on to nine days in cuba, including four days in havana, a couple in remedios and santa clara, and a couple in trinidad and the valleys of the sugar mills

fall color



29 September 2014

keep on pumping

saw my cardiologist this afternoon ---

i told him that a heart attack, which took out my maternal grandfather in about five minutes, was much preferable to multiple strokes, which took ten years to kill my paternal grandfather --- and he managed to do a lot of drooling on his shirt in those ten years --- all he could tell me was that it was the same preventive maintenance for both

see ya next year, he said

how to survive a heart attack when you're alone

one thinks about such things as one gets older --- but as my aunt savannah used to say: "ain't none of us getting out of this alive"

28 September 2014

tybee

 underwent another of my irregularly scheduled cardiac stress tests --- 178 steps, 150 feet or so high --- legs were on fire by the top but i passed

then off to the tybe island shriners club for adult beverages, sea food, and what not ---

all in all, well above average for a saturday evening, don't you know

yay, savannah!

as always, savannah was excellent in every way! this time geeking out over historic roads during the day and geeking out on the city itself at night --- there is nothing better than walking the squares of savannah after dark --- good to see some old friends and maybe make a new one or two --- we also saw the premier of a great little documentary "down the dixie highway," focusing on georgia and including archival images and movies that were purty good--- watch for it on gpb, maybe later this year
flannery's house










city market square and st. julian street were a hot mess saturday night --- river street seemed a bit subdued by comparison
spectacular architecture everywhere

and mustard-colored britches and steel-toed boots onstage on sunday morning ---

25 September 2014

changing viewsheds

they've commenced work on the 33 peachtree place project, but it's unclear how the building will impact my thirteenth-floor viewshed,since their stupid rendering gives you no clue as to orientation
meanwhile on the west side of peachtree between fourth and fifth, work for the new 780  peachtree project has begun 
that was the site of the old first baptist church, before it fled town for the suburbs (purty much all the other historic congregations stayed put) --- 

to build it in 1929, they tore down richard peters' old house, built in 1881 --- he was responsible for most of the early development of what is now midtown atlanta south of eighth street








the two student-oriented apartment towers down on spring street are also moving right along and another apt tower is about to go up on west peachtree at fourteenth --- ditto for the prissy little starbucks tower on peachtree at seventh, site of one of the sleaziest krystals around in the 1970s --- it's a whole lot of building going on, and a bunch more "announced," all portending a whole lot more people all up in here --- yay, midtown

yay!

just finished the powerpoint for my peachtree paper at the preserving historic roads conference in savannah this weekend --- maybe i do not have to finish the panic attack that started setting in earlier this afternoon

23 September 2014

overdoing it

i wish they hadn't started this --- a water-featureless wood with simple bark paths was just fine --- it doesn't take all that concrete to showcase native woodland plants

The Atlanta Botanical Garden is about to embark on its first expansion in four years, which will add new gardens, paths, water features and a pavilion to one of the last mature woodlands in the city.
(and if i'm not mistaken, the city champion, not the state champion, tulip poplar is in those woods)

22 September 2014

equinox

the autumnal equinox is tonight around 10:30 --- definitely a fall slant to the light of late ---

high of 80, maybe into the 50s tonight for the first time --- it must be fall ---

21 September 2014

river walk

turning a paper into powerpoint gets old on a sunny sunday, so we went to the river --- water was very low, exposing the shoals and their northeast-to-southwest linearity



19 September 2014

people! everywhere!

hordes of people streaming from the tenth street station --- dog and i did a loop through the park anyway, but what a mess! music midtown has taken over the park and most of the streets and sidewalks in midtown --- i love it


in addition, there was an older crowd of people ensconced in their stadium seats waiting for a mavis staples concert in the botanical garden --- not sure how the acoustics of that will work out with the two  three music midtown stages --- fortunately garth brooks is indoors at phillips arena, and so not adding to the general cacophony of sound


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18 September 2014

wheeeee!


obsessing on creeks

rottenwood creek has an unfortunate name (thought by some to be a corruption of an Indian name) and has been very much abused by the construction and, most especially, the subsequent enlargement of i-75 and its access roads in the late twentieth century --- the creek itself is nice, in spite of the noise from the highway above, which ear buds and bach will usually drown out --- some giant walls and bridges all up that way




i'm not sure what's happened with the old foundations to akers mill, which are somewhere on the west side of the creek, but the linear feature on the left might have had something to do with a flume for the mill

17 September 2014

creekside again

an amazing array of trails and relatively undisturbed woodland are scattered around the city --- the herbert taylor/daniel johnson nature preserve on the south fork of peachtree creek is a great little 26 acres --- city champion silver maple and black cherry and above-average woodland that probably hasn't been logged since the nineteenth century --- nice trails all along rock creek, which has some nice little cascades

rumors are that the mysterious mound along rock creek is native american, but i'm betting it has something to do with the old quarry a few hundred yards up the creek ---

daniel johnson (1800-1894), a son of a scottish father who immigrated from scotland in the 1770s, was one of the original white pioneers in what is now morningside, lenox park, and johnson estates in northeast atlanta in the 1820s --- he married a daughter of abraham chandler, another early pioneer who had a blacksmith shop near what is now lavista and cheshire bridge roads --- the johnsons lived near what is now lenox and johnson roads --- they moved the family cemetery in 1928 as their children or grandchildren began development of johnson estates on the old farm --- 

herbert taylor (1895-1987) was a son of jewish immigrants who fled the russian pogroms in the 1880s and married in atlanta around 1890 --- by his mid-twenties, herbert taylor owned a drug store that had one of the first 24-hour pharmacies anywhere  --- he went on to found the famous plaza drugs on ponce de leon at highland avenue in 1939 --- he was also the developer of west end mall in 1973 --- he and the missus are buried at greenwood cemetery

i'm not sure how, but it must have begun with decisions of the johnson family, especially of dr. daniel noble johnson (1851-1944), that ensured preservation of that acreage --- the 16 noble is my favorite bus line, even though i never use it ---

it's purty great that these sons of immigrants left us this legacy