You may notice that the W's and K's on this site are now color-coded. I have done this to voice my political views on the upcoming presidential election. The W's are evil red with a strike-through. The K's are 'new' blue. I will let you decide what my current political opinions might be.
Last week, Kristie and I made our way to Atlanta. I had a business meeting monday and tuesday, but Kristie and I came in friday night. We stayed with our usual gracious host, Brad. We did some shopping on saturday and made it to a Braves game on sunday afternoon. The Braves won! Yippee! Brad and I put up some shelves that hang from his garage ceiling to hold all kinds of boxes of stuff for storage. Just to let you know, finding studs/joists in the ceiling is a pain in the butt, but a clothes hangar can be very helpful. We finally got it all hooked up, and it actually worked very well. We got his office room cleaned up and rearranged.
Then then fun started. Hurricane Jeanne decided to say 'hello' to Atlanta on monday. After enjoying my meeting that day and Kristie going to the mall with my coworker's husband and daughter, Kristie and I decide to visit Brad at his office to join him for dinner. We call Brad and decide that we'll take the MARTA to near where he works and walk the two blocks to his office. His building has a nice restaurant in it, and that's where we decided to dine.
Well, after stopping at the Underground and grabbing an umbrella, we head to the Arts Center MARTA stop. Making our way up to street level, we didn't realize how hard it was raining. We decide to brave the rain and head out onto the streets. Sharing one umbrella was a chore in itself. I let Kristie carry the umbrella so that she would be able to make sure that she was always covered. The sidewalks were wet, but not under water, but there was a bit of puddling happening in the street. As we got closer to Brad's building, cars are passing by, generally passing in the inside lane away from the sidewalk. These nice drivers have made us oblivious to the problem that lie just inches from our footsteps. Well, the next passing car used the lane closest to the sidewalk, and threw water on Kristie. We had no real time to react. Kristie was walking closest to the street, and pretty much took the bulk of the water. We were not happy, but it was kind of funny. So we continue on, we have no choice. We know that food and dry lodging is just ahead.
The circumstances surrounding us apparently prevented us from learning anything from being splashed by the first car. We continue walking on the sidewalk, not that there was anywhere else to walk. Before we realize it, a screaming MARTA bus is passing by. Water, waves of water, is all I can see. Kristie tries desperately to sheild herself from the blast with the umbrella. She is moderately successful. I have been directly hit by the wave and have wet shoes and pants. The problem with a bus is that it also has a nice set of rear wheels. We never realized that we were being splashed by only the front wheels. The rear wheels were moving forward to greet us with an even larger tidal wave. The umbrella may as well be a kleenex, as it is useless to protect Kristie from the water being thrown at her. I turn my back in an instinctive move to protect myself. All it does is make sure the back of my pants, my shirt, and my wallet are hit by the water. The bus passes, no doubt with the driver laughing with glee, and Kristie and I stand soaked and laughing. What else can you do but laugh?
Well, we make our way to Brad's work. It is cool in his office, but not cold. But when you are wet, it doesn't take much to be cold. Kritie and I begin hitting Brad up for dry clothes. He has a sweater that Kritie puts on. She takes her shoes off to dry some. I am completely wet, and I refuse to remove my shoes and socks knowing that they will feel even colder when I have to put them back on later. So I change shirts into a 'shirt-in-a-can' that Brad picked up from a conference or something. Anyone that knows what kind of shirt this is, knows that the shirt is super-hyper-omega wrinkled. I didn't care. I was cold and wet and just wanted something dry to wear. We then go eat. The food and service were great. The waitress commented on my super-wrinkled shirt, as she was familiar with the shirt-in-a-can. My food later did not agree with me, and I leave what happened then to your imagination.
We then return to Brad's office so that he can bring us back to our hotel when he gets off of work. We decided against taking the MARTA that late at night. Kritie's feet were cold. I didn't have anything to do, so I used scotch tape and paper towels to create a custom pair of very expensive Weston-designed paper towel boots. They actually made her warmer. There are photos in the Photo Gallery. Brad then brought us back to the hotel and we were able to get to bed by 1AM.
I finished my meeting tuesday morning. My coworker gave us some Braves tickets to the game that was cancelled on monday night. We hang out at Brad's until the game starts. The tickets from monday night's game are supposed to be honored for tuesdays game. We hang out for about three or four hours and then head to the stadium. We then realize that our tickets say “Complimentary” on the back and no one else's seems to. We get to the front of the line to exchange monday tickets for tuesday tickets only to find out that complimentary tickets are not honored. We were not very happy. So let this be a lesson to everyone out there reading. We then made our way home. A short six hour drive later, we are back in our own home. THE END.