Thursday, January 12, 2006

In Praise of Routine



It's a fabulous day in Atlanta, sunny and 70 degrees with a light breeze. This is someplace I've flown in & out of enough to have settled into something of a routine that I revisit whenever I return:


    * Sleep as long as possible, usually until 1:30 pm or so (the Hilton has impossibly comfortable beds with down pillows and down comforters and blackout curtains that deliver midnight on command!).

    * Walk down the street to my choice of one of three Waffle Houses in a one-mile stretch (!) for low-carb bacon & eggs and a couple DCs. I sit at the counter (I love a diner--they're so film noir)--and tackle the day's sudoku & crossword.

    * Then a bit of a stroll around the perimeter of Hartsfield (this is the most dubious part, since there tends to be a band of near-industrial wasteland surrounding large airports. But any pilot geek can always keep occupied near the country's busiest airport!).

    * Back to the hotel for a bit of quality time with the Powerbook.

    * Then another short walk back down the street to Spondivit's, a fabulously whimsical beach-shack restaurant (my posts will get a lot more interesting when I get a camera phone, or at least start frequenting more restaurants which have photos on the web which I can steal), for a little chicken caesar salad action.

    * Finally, back to the room for a quick shower and collection of things before starting the workday as the sun sets.


Our contracted hotels are in varying places from city to city, and we're not always privileged to stay in an interesting part of town (I think most people would declare this particular setting in ATL to be unfortunate). One's impressions of a place, naturally, depend on one's experiences there. There is a train near this hotel, the MARTA, which connects the airport to downtown, but there's usually just shy of enough time to make the trip and get back in time (though, interestingly, I never fail to take the 45 minute train ride into Manhattan when we fly in & out of Newark, no matter how short my stay in The City will be. Priorities, I guess). But in spite of this, I have a fondness for this run, tho no desire to come here on vacation. But this is a kinder assessment than what I have for Rockford (my previous two days), which is without charm or interest.

I'm in the last breathless quarter of Pride & Prejudice, which I may come near to finishing at Spondivit's. There's another post fermenting from this, but, well, it's not properly aged yet.

Yeah. It's a slow day in Blogland for Bald Pilot Dude. But life is good.

6 comments:

Lucy said...

I love Waffle House hardcore. I like their hasbrowns, scattered -smothered - covered and chunked.

wstachour said...

I've actually never had anything there but bacon & eggs (the Atkins diet springs perennial, and there's always one close at hand for this purpose).

I need to blow off my diet and branch out! But that leads to Peanut M&Ms and Oreos and Krispy Kremes and all the stuff that no adult should eat. As a steady diet.

Lucy said...

From http://www.answers.com/topic/waffle-house?method=6

Waffle House is best known for being open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and having a unique system for calling in orders, particularly with respect to hash browns. For example:

quarter plate = A hamburger with hash browns
scattered = hash browns scattered (not in a ring)
smothered = hash browns with onions
covered = hash browns covered in melted cheese
chunked = hash browns with ham
topped = hash browns with chili
diced = hash browns with tomatoes
peppered = hash browns with peppers (option added 1999)
capped = hash browns with mushrooms (option added 2000;not available in all areas)

Kate said...

I'm a scattered and covered gal myself. But I love their cheese-n-eggs plate.

Atlanta around Hartsfield is pretty sad.

wstachour said...

Cheese & eggs. My mouth waters just reading the words. I nearly can't read esbee's hash browns comment for fear of wetting my pants with excitement.

Spondivit's, which seats all of 50 folks, had about 100 waiting in line :-(

So I had to eat across the street at Ruby Tuesday's. Sirloin & salad. I assume I won't run across any Ruby Tuesday's devotees.

Jessica said...

My first date with my husband was at a Waffle House, so I'm always nostalgic when I come across one. This doesn't happen in the North, unfortunately. It is where I fell in love with Tom as well as grits with a little butter and sugar. :)