flora

sweaty walk to the garden this morning, but always worth it, dendrobiums to dahlias

 

a few yellow leaves on the poplars, a late-summer reminder that fall will get here sooner or later

paying for your life

heart attacks ain't cheap, but thank god we don't have socialized medicine, right?

still good

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed . . . .

dog days redux

an excellent evening with a very dear NPS friend --- wine, a viewing of koyaanisqatsi, which she had never seen, and more wine in the atl bot gdn --- i've been a little humbled by the love i've been shown during the dead dog and heart attack situation --- hand-written notes, lunch dates, and what not and this afternoon i got a wonderful box of pears and peaches from another dear NPS friend (i have several) ---

fútbol

i wasn't gonna, but the soccer siren sounded and we checked out the campeones cup match, atl utd over club america (mexico city), 3 - 2 --- a great game, not least for all the mexicans and central americans in attendance --- both mexican and american national anthems sung at the start

respect for human diversity is a big thing with soccer fandom, and rightly so --- but fans were ejected sunday over what stadium mgmt called "political" signs, which were actually signs about human rights --- the resurgence rowdies called b.s. on that with a statement "declaring that human rights are not political statements . . . . that making the Iron Front logo unwelcome while ignoring the growing presence of white nationalism in the terraces makes you complacent in the attacks being suffered by Seattle’s supporters – and ignorant of the dangerous landscape many MLS supporters face every day."

a return to nermalcy?

i almost feel like myself today: the headaches are gone and i slept like a log last night --- but i still could die at any minute, as could we all --- i obsessed on that thought yesterday, learning such things as one in three men are dead within five years of a heart attack --- for some reason, the first attack didn't put me at the edge of mortality the way this one seems to have done --- but i shan't let it get me down --- i will take my pills (a dozen of them over the course of the day), get back into my walking groove, remember to carry my nitro, and move on ---

atl utd match this afternoon! wheeeee!

dogless days of summer

it's been a crappy week --- the new meds have kept me with a splitting headache until last night --- not gone but maybe slacking off --- i walked around the lake this morning but i still don't feel great 

still dogless, but at least i have my support kitten --- he's great as long as i don't expect too much

perils of my gene pool

a lot of good all the walking has done: yesterday, another low-grade heart attack, just like the last one [non-ST elevation myocardial infarction, for what that's worth] — caused by a small artery on front of my heart that they couldn't stent, so i'm back on blood thinners again and a new slow release substitute for nitroglycerine to deal with the angina

and lucky to be somewhere i can uber myself to the emergency room at emory midtown, spend the better part of two days in the hospital, and walk home after it was all over

all in all, i'm doing better than g'pa hart, who dropped dead of a  major attack at the age of 54 — or g'pa jones, who spent ten years of having strokes, and nothing to do but watch it happen 

moving around

 for the last couple of years, guinness was not into long walks and so we weren't on the beltline much (it's at least two miles roundtrip just to get down there) — a tiny upside to doglessness might be the chance to walk further and a little quicker — sunday i did a four or so miles loop to ponce market and back, taking an hour and a half, but i stopped for a sandwich half way — the trees and all are growing up nicely

sabado

another excellent atl utd event — ATL over LA, 3–0

a p wood and g p bates liked it too

except for the match we went to the day after dog died, i have never failed to enjoy these events

jueves

big urnge excels — as did the storm that blew up on top of us a while ago — much lightning, which sent dex up under the bed, winds probly 60 mph, and dime-size hail — too close for any photographs — drinks and what not with an old nps friend after that was more than fine — we watched this semi-nerdy nps video chronicling the nightmare mess at effigy mounds national monument earlier this century — the entire site messed up with boardwalks and human remains gone missing because of ignorant and arrogant staff — no real surprises for me, but confirming what it took me a long while to start figuring out when i worked there

"atlanta balloon glow" wasn't all that

dex sleeps too much

dog days

nice walk with neighbors to the far end of the park and back this morning, but i'm still getting used to not having my life ordered around a dog's bowel movements ---

i'm done with "trails, wagon roads, and city streets" --- sent it to ms kidd and am ready to throw it out on atlanta magazine's stoop and see if the cat licks it up

monday, monday

i miss the dog walks a lot already, especially since i now have to really make an effort to get in my steps — this morning i walked to the far end of the park and back, maybe 3 miles, but not with a lot of sniffing along the way, so it mighta done my cardio-vascular system a little good — cicadas and the creek and swamp and what not, and then two people butt fukn on a swing by the lake in front of god and everybody — i've seen some stuff, as it were, in the park over the decades, but nothing quite so brazen — a friend was interested in the physics of that action, and i said it seemed to basically depend on a wide stance and firm footing

adult beverages with angela and robert this evening weren't so salacious, although there was discussion about cutting off one's breasts in the interest of gender identity, which a cousin's young'un just did — i am glad to know that they repurposed the nipple, although i have to admit to some discomfort with the idea

awesome

flora and fauna

the wildflowers were wonderful all over — i never got a good shot of all the turks-turban lilies, and only the last of the rhododendron was blooming — but the great swaths of rudbeckia and bergamot and what not were the best

of course i could never image all the humming birds at the NC arboretum, nor the elk, deer, turkey, raccoon, and what not along the parkway —