This Guy Falls Down

Atlanta Festival of Trees

This past Wednesday, my wife and I had a fun experience decorating the "Third Day Rock and Roll Christmas Tree" for the Atlanta Festival of Trees. Check out the Third Day Weblog for details and pictures...

After 3+ years, I finally bequeath to you...

... a photo album! Yes, that's right. I've finally followed through on a promise of some pictures. Check out the right sidebar to see a photo album from my recent Chattahoochee trip. And I added the most redneck shot of the day to my "Canoeing the Chattahoochee" post below. You gotta live it, right?

Seven Days, Seven Creations

I'm still working my way through a book called Creating, by Robert Fritz. The language is pretty dry, but the author's take on the subject is fascinating. One exercise is to spend seven straight days working on small to medium-sized creative projects. The idea is that the creative process is virtually the same for whatever field you're working in.

For the first day, my wife and I worked on the "Third Day Rock and Roll Christmas Tree" for the Festival of Trees in Atlanta. I plan to do a post on it at the Third Day Weblog sometime today, so you can go there to see how the experience was. There should be some pictures uploaded there in the near future as well.

I learned two main things from this process. One is the concept of visualization. I guess a Christmas tree would be a pretty strong visual image. And it was pretty amazing to see how the assembled tree compared with our visual concepts of it. Surprisingly, I think it looked like both of our ideas for it, even though when we were first talking about it, it sounded like we were talking about something different.

The other concept I keyed in on was momentum. When we were driving down there, I had a sense of dread, and wanted to put it off as long as possible. But once we got moving, it made more sense to go ahead and finish than it did to stop. Just like a big ship, it's hard to get it moving, but once it gets going it's a seemingly unstoppable force.

What am I doing for day two? No idea. I'll fill you in a little later...

Canoeing the Chattahoochee

I think the world might be ending soon. I embarked on a paddling trip for the second time in almost as many weeks. Yesterday, my cuñado and myself went canoeing down the world famous Chattahoochee River outside of Atlanta. This marks the fourth such trip I've taken this year, which would be the most time I've spent on the water since I was a camp counselor in the mid-'90's. Needless to say, it's been a pretty cool year for me...

We started our day bright and early by dropping our canoe off near Morgan Falls Dam in Roswell, then dropping a car at the takeout at US 41 in Smyrna. At the takeout, we saw none other than kayaker Richard Grove, who's been in the news lately for taking a couple of marathon trips down the Chattahoochee and Etowah/Coosa Rivers. Then we headed back up to Morgan Falls to begin our trip. It was pretty cold when we set out, but it warmed up quickly and turned into a beautiful day.

After about 30 minutes, we passed Johnson Ferry, which used to be a hub for summertime activity in Atlanta. The Chattahoochee Outdoor Center would rent rafts here, and literally hundreds of these rafts would be seen on the river on a weekend afternoon. Then they discovered ultra-high levels of e coli bacteria in the river, and well, that was that. The old Chattahoochee Outdoor Center was left in disrepair since it closed in '02, and now it looks like they're doing some kind of renovations to the park and boat ramp there.

Canoeist Joe Cook has likened the Chattahoochee experience to "simultaneously paddling through a national park and an industrial park.". The section of river we were on is quite interesting, as it's kind of the last gasp before the "industrial" hits you head on. You're just at the point where you're starting to see a lot of development, but it doesn't quite feel industrial. High bluffs line either side of the river, and many a nice home can be seen hanging off these bluffs.

After about two hours of steady paddling, we stopped for lunch at Powers Island and had quite an interesting experience. A young Indian man came up and asked us if we worked there. After we responded "no", he explained that he had some ashes from a temple ceremony that he had to pray over and send down the river. He wondered if we thought it would be OK. We said "sure", so he proceeded to begin his prayer. We started to quietly slip off so as not to disturb him, when he looked up, and without skipping a beat asked us, "You guys got any beer in that canoe?" Only in Atlanta...

We then crossed under I-285. At this point, you would think that it would get really congested and polluted. But that's the funny thing about the Chattahoochee. Even though you are only a few miles from downtown, this next stretch of river is virtually unspoiled. At one point we got out and walked around. I leaned against a tree for a while, and with the exception of a plane passing overhead, you would have no idea I was in the middle of a metropolitan area. Crazy.

We passed the famous "jumping rock" and then proceeded through the "devil's racecourse", which are some surprisingly swift and exciting rapids. Right past this point we pulled off again and went on a quest for a cave which we had heard was somewhere in the vicinity. After about an hour, we were successful. To call it a "cave" would be a bit of a stretch, but it was pretty cool.

Over the last mile or two of our journey, we passed a bunch of fishermen. Apparently, there's some pretty decent trout fishing on the 'Hooch. On my next trip I'm going to have to figure out a way to bring a pole and try my luck.

All in all, it was a great way to spend a surprisingly warm and sunny day in late November.

I really could get on my conservation soapbox right now, but I think I'll save that for next time...

Also, I hope to get some pictures (of this and the Ogeechee trip) uploaded in the near future.

Disney Half Marathon - Training Update

Location: Mountain to River Trail / Downtown Marietta, GA
Distance: 5.18 miles
Time: 1:13:27
Pace: 14:10 min/mile
Temperature: 50's
Notes: My wife discovered something really cool today about doing these long runs: you're in a pretty good place when you view a 5 mile run as a break. Especially when a few weeks ago 5 miles was your "long" run. It was a pretty day to run, and we both felt great. And downtown Marietta is a great place to run.

My new favorite guitarist

We had the chance to meet Pete Huttlinger at last night's Lighting of the Great Tree at Macy's. I scored one of Pete's CD's entititled The Santa Rita Connection and it is amazing. He is a world class acoustic guitarist, and a nice guy to boot. They've got a couple of his albums on iTunes, and if you love great guitar music, it would behoove you to check it out...

Unknown Hinson on downloading: Stay off the interstate

Good points there, Unknown...

Gobble Jog

This will end up being an odd Thanksgiving for me this year, as I'm not doing the traditional family thing and instead doing a show...

My wife and I got up this morning and ran in the Gobble Jog. This is a fun race held each year on the historic square in Marietta, Georgia. The proceeds go to MUST Ministries, a local shelter and soup kitchen. They have a 1K, a 5K, and a 10K. This year we opted for the 5K. It ended up being a fun way to kick off the holiday.

Later, I head down to Lenox Square to perform as part of the 59th Lighting of the Great Tree at Macy's. Check out the Third Day Weblog for an update in the next couple of days...

Disney Half Marathon - Training Update

Location: Silver Comet Trail, Powder Springs/Hiram, GA
Distance: 10.04 miles
Time: 2:23
Pace: 14:14 min/mile
Temperature: 30's
Notes: It was COLD running today, so we had to bundle up. We hit that psychological "wall" at about mile 9. That's why you do these longer runs - so you can be better prepared for what you'll go through during the "real" race. The section of trail we ran today was beautiful. Less crowded and less road crossings than other sections we've tried. Also, despite the cold, it was a nice fall day in Georgia.

Poor little critter in the road

As I'm sitting here nursing my wounds in the NaNoWriMo medic tent, I can't help but wonder what went wrong. The obvious answer is that I had too much on my plate in November this year. I was on tour and traveling and all that, but I'm always on tour or in the studio or out of town or something crazy like that. And I'm coming to realize that if I sit here and justify things, it would be easy to do absolutely nothing. But I know that I would not be OK with that. So it's sort of a gut check time for Mr. Lee right now. I know the idea of the NaNoWriMo thing is to write a novel in a month, but there's a bigger goal lurking in the background. Writing a novel.

So for anyone else who, like I, fell off the wagon this month, I urge you to pick yourself up and join me in creating. Finish your novel. Or start TODAY the symphony you've always talked about starting tomorrow.

HOY! HOY! HOY! HOY! (Espanol for TODAY. I think that might be my new personal slogan...)