Observations
I saw two deaf people on MARTA today. Differently-abled people taking MARTA isn’t strange in itself, and I shouldn’t focus on people’s differences, blah blah blah, but I couldn’t help but watch these two. They were both standing up, carrying on a conversation in sign language and trying to figure out how to hold on to something at the same time. They seemed to be doing pretty alright at it, but there were a couple of rough spots. I’ve never really met any deaf people, so I found the way they talked kind of interesting. They were both moving their lips as they signed to each other but not really saying anything aloud. One of them was nearly silent, I guess subvocalizing whatever he was signing, and the other made some indistinct sounds. He was loud enough to hear at times, but it wasn’t words; just vowels. I wonder why they did that. Maybe as a habit from talking to hearing people? Maybe to provide enough to the other person to read lips as well as signs? I don’t know. I didn’t know if it would have been rude to ask, and I doubt they would have heard me anyway.
Trader Joe’s is now open in Midtown, which I think is the first Atlanta location not way out in the ‘burbs. They took over that building that used be a Save Rite on Monroe, and it’s the largest of the three Atlanta stores I’ve been inside. They’re also open to 10. There is no longer a Brewster’s next to this building.
The park that they built over the interstate looks a lot nicer than I thought it would. It’s not something that would make you stop and say, “that’s a park!” but it’s at least a nice break from the concrete and steel surrounding it. On either side of the bridge there is a low wall at the outside edge of the sidewalk followed by a strip of grass at the level of the top of the wall, and beyond that there’s a series of terraced walls with a variety of plants, ended finally by the fence and the inescapable view of the connector. Oddly, the fences didn’t look like they had the suicide curve to them. Maybe they think the walls are enough of a deterrent.
There are a lot more bikes in Midtown now than what I remember. It’s crazy. West Peachtree now has a bicycle lane along most of its length along with a lot of the side streets, but the lanes are completely useless. Cars park directly inside the lane, so there’s a constant danger of being run over or hit with a door for bikers that actually use the bike lanes. I suppose it’s a nice gesture, and I hope no one is injured badly as a result of it.
I don’t think I was meant to have plants. I had a couple of plants in the Smyrna apartment, one that died quickly and another one of those big corn plants that hung on to the very end, though it did look mighty rough before I threw out and moved. I have a much smaller corn plant now, and it seems to have a constant problem with the leaves turning brown. I assumed it wasn’t getting enough light and put it outside for a few days, and that caused a few leaves to look pale and burned. Maybe I should get fake plants next time.
I really hate shaving. I don’t have enough facial hair to grow a respectable beard, so I don’t have much an option, but I find it very unpleasant. The way my face feels after a shave is especially irksome: it feels too smooth, and like there’s a layer of junk on top of it. I don’t think this is the shaving cream, since I get the same feeling if I shave straight out of the shower without it. Maybe it’s that stupid aloe strip. Whatever the cause of this feeling, I don’t like multi-blade razors on principle alone. Crap gets stuck between the blades, and though the Razor Gator song is pretty catchy, I don’t think it can help. I’ve found other household items to fill the razor cleaning function, and the blades still dull quickly. Worse, the efforts of Gillette and Schick to find the upper limit of the number blades a single cartridge can hold drives up the prices of what should be a cheap piece of metal. There are still dual-blade razors, but I have an unfounded suspicion that the razor companies start making their existing product lines crappier with each new product release to encourage migration. Before I use the last couple of cartridges in the family size box of Gillette Sensor something or another I bought a while back, I’m going switching to one blade. I found an old-school dual-edge razor on the Internet, and I’m hoping that the lack of stupid features—the aloe strip moisturizing a face already covered in goofy lotion, the second blade there to cause clogs and encourage ingrown hairs—will be somewhat more comfortable. If nothing else, the blades are supposed to last a lot longer, and replacements cost about fifty cents.