Why I Do NOT Live in Texas, part two

My daughter just spotted this car in a parking lot near Austin, TX, where she lives, and where she risked life and limb to take this picture. Back AWAY from that car, H! Don't DO that! These people are armed!!!

Yikes!

(Although I suspect Georgia might be just as bad, just not as obvious about it.)

BREAKING NEWS

Georgia Outguns Texas

I'm just so proud scared.

Thanks, gun nuts.

Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers

Or: truth is stranger than fiction.

Who Knew?

I spent part of yesterday in Dahlonega, GA, which is a cute town at the southern end of the Appalachian trail and is the site the nation's first gold rush (in 1828).

Among the usual types of shops and cafes was this small store:

I had no idea that there were so many types of jerky...

Not Your Grandmother's Knitting

Unless you had a very cool, ahead-of-her-times grandmother.

Yesterday was both Worldwide Knit in Public Day AND the first ever International Yarn Bombing Day, and so of course, several of our Thursday night Knit Night crew were out and about, doing our best to celebrate both of these very important events.

Sallyknit won best yarn bombing item with this cute mouse, which we attached to the downspout of a gutter at the back corner of a canoe store. The store itself is on a corner of the main street, so the mouse is very visible

Monster paw and chain cover: Crochet square:
Pole cover:

Our "We were here" mark:
There was more, much more. Madame Rella, Lucille, Sallyknit, and I had a great time knitting, crocheting and installing yarn bombs. The odd thing was that even though we were doing this in full view of all the people window-shopping, eating and drinking at tables along the sidewalks outside of restaurants, almost NO ONE commented or asked us what we were doing. One woman was getting out of a car as we were installing the mouse on the downspout. She glanced at us and looked away quickly as if she were embarrassed that she had seen us. As if she had seen something she wasn't intended to see. We told her that she was fine, that she could watch, but she walked away.

Then we realized, maybe people were embarrassed FOR us.

What are those crazy old ladies doing???

Having fun, that's what!

And if you happen to be walking along Canton Street in Roswell, Georgia, look around. You never know what you might find.

Coooooool!

Well, cool for what they are: portable outhouses!

They are at a three-day Art in the Park festival in Marietta, Georgia. There were glass artists, painters, photographers, jewelry artists, basket-weavers, shaker box makers, and what did I take pictures of? Outhouses, of course!

And There are More!

Are the interiors similarly painted? Couldn't say. We admired them from afar.....
because.....maybe Mona Lisa is right:

This is the South?

We had a cold weekend, and the ice in our little pond in the back yard froze...I think for the first time ever.

Poor fish!

Georgia, Georgia, Georgia

It's embarrassing to live in a state like Georgia. We're near, if not at, the bottom of any educational achievement scores in the country; we have a governor who prays for rain in a drought, but who has done nothing to come up with a plan to have reservoirs to help deal with future droughts (if this one will EVER end); and now the Georgia Medical Board has ruled that "because the flu vaccine is considered a 'dangerous' drug, it should not be administered without a doctor's order", i.e., a prescription. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/18/08)

No wonder DH found lines at CVS over the weekend when he tried to get a shot. The Governor has said that the state will not prosecute anyone who gives a shot to someone without a prescription, but Kroger and Publix, who have 327 pharmacies in the state, will not administer flu shots to those without prescriptions. CVS, Walgreens and others are throwing caution to the wind and giving shots to anyone who wishes to get one.

I imagine that this screwup will keep some people from getting shots and others will end up paying their co-pay at a doctor's office in order to get the shot, plus the cost of the shot, which isn't usually covered by insurance.

Way to go, Georgia.

Georgia On My Mind

I've lived in Georgia for nineteen years. I didn't move here by choice, but because of my husband's job. After all these years, I still don't much like it, but I have friends and activities here, know where the stores are, and have a hairdresser and doctors I like. The reason this area has grown so fast and so large is because companies move here, and the unfortunate employees must follow. After all these years, I still wouldn't choose to live here if I had the choice, and I can't think of any reason anyone would move here if they didn't have to.

Two items in this week's news reinforce my opinion of the area: Clayton County, south of Atlanta, is the first school district in the nation since 1969 to have its accreditation stripped from it; AND there is a road sign on the Georgia side of the Georgia/Alabama border that says that our speed limit laws will be "strickly enforced." Oh, good.

I feel sorry for the parents in Clayton County. Unless they are wealthy enough and can find decent private schools within commuting distance from their homes, they are stuck with schools that are poorly run and poorly performing. If they are homeowners, they can try and sell and move someplace with better schools, but people aren't moving to the area because of the schools.

I don't know the solution to any of this, but I do know that there is a connection between education in Georgia and the sign just inside the state line...

Gardens in a Time of Drought

(with apologies to Gabriel García Márquez )

I live in a suburb outside of Atlanta, Georgia. We have been in a drought for several years, but last year and this have been the worst of it so far. Last summer we weren't allowed to water outside at ALL, except with water saved from the showers indoors---water that runs while we wait for hot water. There was even controversy over that because some people thought that using that water in the yard kept it from going back into the water supply via the sewer system. But that's all the water we had for outside use.

This summer, even though the drought has not eased, we are allowed to water three times a week, for twenty-five minutes each time, using a hand-held, automatic shut-off nozzle attached to a hose. Woo hoo! We can do this until ten in the morning.

If we want to install a pool, we may fill the pool. If we have a pool, we may top it off throughout the summer. If we have landscaping professionally installed, we may water it for a month. This allows pool and landscaping businesses to survive. But if we have---and I do---nearly 20 year-old landscaping---tough. I understand this, I really do. I've been to Lake Lanier and seen how terribly low it is. It is just so frustrating to watch plants wither and die. Last year nothing died, but this year things are on their way out. My azaleas didn't bloom this year and are now wilted. Daylilies, which are tough plants and survive neglected along roadsides, did not bloom. My roses are just hanging in, but not flowering. Very large leyland cypresses that give us complete privacy in the back yard are now diseased and will probably fall over in the next ice storm. I think the drought has stressed them beyond the point where they could have remained healthy longer. Meanwhile, in other parts of the country, there are floods! We watch the news and cringe to see floods ruining homes and destroying crops.

Last summer we learned that Atlanta is the only major city in the country to have only one source of water: Lake Lanier. Other cities have multiple sources and thus, have resources to allow them to deal with droughts. Not here. And our always-unhelpful governor, Sonny Perdue, can only think to hold prayer sessions on the steps of the capitol.

Gotta love the "Bible Belt"!