Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Journey to Atlanta


Lana and I left Friday morning for a drive to Atlanta to visit some good friends of hers. It was about seven hours. Lana drove down while I read, and I drove back while she tried to nap and didn’t succeed very well. We stayed with Doug and Katherine, whom I’d never met, and they were very kind in treating us to a great time and great eats. Saturday night they even treated us to Star Trek: Into Darkness. Although there were clearly some plot twists of convenience rather than logic, I enjoyed the show quite a lot and would recommend it for Trek fans. The actors nailed the characters very well, particularly the Spock, Bones and Checkov characters. I don’t want to say much more to avoid spoilers

Saturday during the day we went to see Stone Mountain, which Lana said was on her bucket list. This is the largest “carving” in North America apparently. It consists of images of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson cut into a massive granite dome that is awesome in size. Lana and I were more interested in the rock formation itself than the carving, and we took the sky tram to the top of the dome of rock and explored it. Simply amazing.

Saturday evening, after Star Trek, our hosts queued up some episodes of the SF series Firefly for us. I had heard good things about it but had never seen it. I got hooked pretty quickly and will have to watch the remaining episodes when Lana brings them home from the library. There’s very nice chemistry between the characters and good acting all around.

Sunday, Lana and had brunch at a very nice German restaurant in the area. The pork fritters and sausages were delicious. In the evening we visited a used bookstore, and I bought quite a few books that I’ll have to report on some time. Then we had a grilled supper and watched more Firefly. Monday was our trip home. Although I wanted to get back to writing on Tuesday, I’m not feeling very well. I went to the dentist this morning and found out I have a cracked tooth that will have to be crowned. In the meantime, they set to cleaning half my teeth and my teeth and jaws are aching horribly at the moment, too much even to get my hoped for nap. The numbness finally wore off by 3:00 and I was able to get a few bites to eat. I get to look forward next Wednesday to having the other half of my mouth feel this way.

Anyway, off to visit blogs now.
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30 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Sorry about the cracked tooth. Glad the rest of the trip was fun though.
Star Trek was awesome. Just a lot of fun.
And yes!! Another Firefly fan. Welcome to the Browncoats.

Deka Black said...

Sorry about the tooth .

About firefly... Why some TV shows are treated so bad by the broadcasting companies?

Snowbrush said...

Dental work--aargh. I had work on two teeth recently, which was immediately followed by a three hour root canal on a third.

I've never been to Stone Mtn, and wondering what kind of rock it is. Given the area, sedimentary, I would assume.

Chris said...

I was in Stone Mountain last year myself; had a great time hiking around and up it. It's a beautiful part of the state.

Ty said...

Sounds like a great trip. Sorry to hear about your dentistry woes. At least you'll have an excuse to sit around moaning while watching more Firefly.

Charles Gramlich said...

Alex, and now I know what you mean when you say browncoat! :)

Deka, I don't know about Firefly. It seemed like it was a hit in the making when they cancelled it.

Snowbrush,igneous, I believe. They said it was from extrusions of Magma, the same kind that produced the Appalachians. It's huge.

Chris, was great to get up on top and be able to see so far.

Ty, aye, tis true. Hadn't thought of that. :)

Angie said...

Firefly's excellent; you have some good stuff ahead of you. :D

Jim and I saw the new Trek movie yesterday, and I agree that it was great. Yes, there are some plot holes you could fly the Enterprise through, but this is Star Trek, and plot holes are pretty much canon. [wry smile]

Massive empathy on the dentist. :/ I had the first part of my implant procedure done yesterday, and it wasn't any fun. A writer friend of mine is having something similar done today; it must be Dentist Season for Writers or something. Hugz, and feel better soon. {{{}}}

Angie

mybillcrider said...

One of the things my grandfather gave me when I was a little kid was a Stone Mountain half dollar. I still have it, all these years later, but I've never seen Stone Mountain.

Ron Scheer said...

I look forward to a review of FIREFLY from your thoughtful and insightful pen. Keep flossing. If you don't, start. I say this as someone who neglected his teeth and must have helped put a couple of dentist's kids through college.

Cloudia said...

All in all, a fun sounding weekend :)



ALOHA from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
~ > < } } ( ° > <3

Charles Gramlich said...

Angie, I'm looking forward to the rest of firefly for sure. Does sound like dentist day for Writers. Ouch.

Bill, we got a nice mug, and Lana got lots of photos. It was definitely an interesting place and we barely scratched the surface of what was there.

Ron, the dentist said I had very good teeth, just lots of build up of plaque.

Cloudia, it was indeed.

Tom Doolan said...

Sounds like a great weekend, followed by UGH! Glad to hear about another Browncoat convert. :)

Riot Kitty said...

Ouch! I hate tooth pain. Glad you managed to have a good trip in spite of it. I loved Star Trek, and when I found out who John Harrison was, that was probably the best part.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Charles, sorry to hear about your dental treatment. It's such a helpless situation to be in. Do they give you a shot for cleaning teeth? Here they do so only for extraction or root canal or other surgery. There are some who insist on a shot no matter what. I hate it, though, the numbness freaks me out.

Unknown said...

Stone Mountain = granite.

the walking man said...

You still have teeth at your age? Wow, that is amazing!

Except for driving in Georgia and seeing Stone Mtn. Charles once again I've no clue. Pork Fritters? That sounds like something you'd have to shoot before you could eat it.

BernardL said...

Firefly was a great series. If you like the series, the movie made later called 'Serenity' is terrific.

Charles Gramlich said...

Tom, teeth are feeling a bit better this morning.

Riot kitty, Lana already knew who Harrison was and had not told me but had hinted enough that I was pretty clear on it.

Prashant, since there was a LOT of cleaning to do, they numbed me. It felt very very strange for sure.

Lana, with some kind of quartz like stuff in those deposits too.

Mark, Pork fritters are kind of a thin, boneless pork chop. They's good.

Bernard, I'm glad I didn't watch the movie Serenity when I had the chance. It'll be better to see it at the end of the series.

Oscar Case said...

I had a tooth crowned a couple of months ago, not cheap! I had never heard of Stone Mountain and wouldn't mind seeing it. Sounds like you had a great time!

Sidney said...

I like Firefly a lot, and the movie that follows is good as well. I thought "Into Darkness" was pretty good too, though I find a little hard to engage with the characters since it's an alternate universe.

Charles Gramlich said...

Oscar, definitely a good time. As for the crown, I'm hoping my insurance will cover the worst of it.

Sid, Kirk is definitely different and had a very different upbringing in this universe as opposed to the original.

laughingwolf said...

yay on the good trip - hiss on the teeth, but they need to be done

can't wait to see what books you got

as for 'firefly', what i saw back then, was great - better'n a lot of the trek stuff....

Vesper said...

What a nice trip you took!
Sorry about your teeth being so painful. I always wonder if this cleaning doesn’t do more harm than good.

Vesper said...

What a nice trip you took!
Sorry about your teeth being so painful. I always wonder if this cleaning doesn’t do more harm than good.

Vesper said...

What a nice trip you took!
Sorry about your teeth being so painful. I always wonder if this cleaning doesn’t do more harm than good.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I love FIREFLY. wish they hadn't cancelled it.

RK Sterling said...

Oh, two of my favorite things here: Stone Mountain and Firefly!

Glad you guys got out to have some fun. Am looking forward to hearing how your reviews of Firefly and Serenity.

Deepest sympathies about the dental work. :)

jodi said...

Charles, what a cool break for you and Lana! As a former dental assistant, may I recommend warm saltwater rinses to soothe and heal your aching gums!

Travis Cody said...

We saw Star Trek over the weekend and really enjoyed it. And Firefly is one of my favorite series. It's a shame it only got 14 episodes.

When you finish the series, I highly recommend the feature film with the same characters, called Serenity.

Charles Gramlich said...

Vesper, I'm still hurting from the cleaning. I'm not sure it has helped much at all.

pattinase (abbott), I'm just finding out how good it was.

RK Sterling, Stone Mountain would be worth a lot more exploration.

jodi, I'm gonna try some saltwater rinses post haste.

Travis Cody, yes, our friends told us quite a lot about Serenity so we will definitely watch it too.