Acetio | Blogma

WalkScore is a site that rates towns and neighborhoods based on how easy it is to get around on foot - The way it works is essentially based on how close a place is to businesses. So in a way, the site is as much a measure of population density and zoning regulations as anything else.

When I think about the places I would want to live, it ultimately comes down to the single issue of how pedestrian-friendly the place is. Living in New York was great for this reason, and Lubbock, TX was terrible. As a kid, we lived across the street from a library, but the street was a 12-lane highway with no place to cross. We had to wait for my dad to come home with the car so that we could drive across the street.

I hadn't heard of this, but apparently our very own Decatur, Georgia had a moment in the media Sun a few weeks ago when a local kid named Moey dressed up as a voting booth and essentially polled the neighborhood, taking candy in lieu of ballots.

Sometimes it's weird when a parent gets so involved in a child's costume (I'm guessing this wasn't Moey's idea) but the kid seems to be having fun.

We still haven't gotten the kitchen entirely in order and I've been relying on the jar of instant coffee we got when we were living in the hotel for a week.

I hadn't had instant coffee for years, since I was in Europe, where instant coffee isn't scorned the way it is in the U.S. In fact, after trying it again, I much preferred it to anything I could get at a gas station or similar place where coffee sits for hours on a warming tray.

I took a walk through the local cemetery (the Vanderbilt plot has a lovely view) and on the other side was a Kroger's grocery. Some people here seem to have opinions about which is better, Kroger or Publix (northern chains don't exist here) but they seem pretty much the same. You can sell wine in grocery stores in Georgia, which is a big improvement over New York or Delaware.

Something I had never seen up north was this:

Day One in Decatur.

24 hours to fly from Burlington, VT to Atlanta GA because of backup air traffic in Philly.

Swampy weather. Thankful for central air.

Found a beautiful, tiny, iridescent green wasp on the stairs:

Less than 1cm in length, and so bright that the scanner couldn't capture the color - as though it were trying to take a picture of a mirror.