Strike Two

_{We got our power back around 2:30 am this morning. Yesterday I left work at five and without thinking drove my usual way home. At the river Roswell Road was shut down headed up the hill into historic Roswell – and Azealia was closed west of Roswell, so I had to backtrack and go a different route. Got home and raked the driveway and street in front of the house before it got dark. I’ll have to deal with the yard this weekend.}

 

_{With no power we went to Stockyard at The Avenue East Cobb to eat. I called to make sure they were open. It rang and rand and was about to hang up when they finally answered. I should’ve taken that as an omen. The restaurant seating area is shaped like a block C with only seven tables in two thirds of the C, so there was plenty of spacing – plus a tall plexiglass divider between our table and the one next to us.}

_{After being seated at 7:25, it took a couple of minutes for our waiter to come greet us. He admitted they were short-handed and service would be slow. In addition to waiting on several tables he was having to cover the bar, which was out of our view. We didn’t mind, because we were in no hurry to get back to our dark house. He took our drink order and went away. I thought that maybe we should’ve ordered our food as well, but sometimes that messes things up, and besides, we were in no hurry anyway.}

_{It took a while to get our drinks. The restaurant wasn’t that crowded and I saw several other employees hovering around tables. When our drinks came we were sure to give our waiter our order. The food finally arrived at 8:07. The BBQ pork sandwich was good, with sauce and slaw and fried onions. The french-fries were hot. When I had ordered the fries the waiter asked what dipping sauce I wanted, but none arrived with my food and there were no ketchup bottles on the table.}

_{Ceil’s salad had the chicken and fried onions around the side of the bowl, but the middle looked like plain lettuce. Only when eating it did she find some of the other promised ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. We ate and finished and waited. At 8:25 the waiter finally returned to check on us. We’d never been offered refills on our drinks. We asked for the check. All that took another 15 minutes to complete. It was 8:45 before we left the place.}  

_{The bad thing is that we have to go back to use up the gift card. Gonna be hard to get Ceil to go back. While we were there I was thinking how Reid and Edie always get good service.} 

_{Got home and with the wind still whipping around I parked both vehicles in the garage. Normally even if I didn’t watch TV I would play on my laptop or phone, but with no Wi-Fi that was out as well. Plus I didn’t want to drain my phone battery with no way to recharge until I got to work. Since I hadn’t got much sleep Wednesday night, I went to bed early.} 

_{At least there was one positive from the evening with no TV - I didn’t have to watch the Falcons. The Birds beat the Panthers. So much for finishing last and drafting Trevor Lawrence. Had the Falcons hung on to win the three games they’d had a 95% or greater probability – Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit – their record would be 5-3 and they’d be near the top of their division.}  

_{Power was still out in our plant on Friday. That’s a bad thing for the last two days of the month, especially in October, as sales traditionally drop off in November and especially December. The plant will have to work this weekend to catch up.} 

_{Remember the Gilligan’s Island episode when the professor was turned into a zombie? With all the zombie shows on TV nowadays, Gilligan’s Island was ahead of their time.} 

_{UGA made an impression of Barney’s paw in clay and sent it to us. At some point we have to go and pick up his ashes.} 

_{Sad news one of Anna’s UGA classmates died Wednesday night when a tree fell on their home in Decatur. I haven’t seen anything about it yet in the AJC.} 

NOMAR GARCIAPARRA  [SABR Bio] a one-time, Chicago Cub player won the first rookie home run derby, held before the 1997 All-Star game. Garciaparra hit 3 HR to win the rookie contest, defeating Scott Spiezio and Jose Guillen, who each hit two.  By winning the rookie contest, Garciaparra earned a spot in the regular All-Star HR derby.  He was eliminated in the 1st round after he failed to hit a home run. Played for CHC 2004-05. He was voted Rookie of the Year unanimously, only the second unanimous vote among his franchise’s six rookies so honored. ROY in 1997. He swept the Rookie of the Year balloting, becoming only the second unanimous selection among his franchise’s six rookies so honored.  Carlton Fisk was the other ROY unanimously for BOS in 1972. He hit the 10,000th home run in his franchise’s history. Hit BOS 10,000th HR 17-Jul-2000.