I Love the Smell of Kudzu in the Morning

It's been a few years since I've done more than a day trip to Atlanta. This week I've got four days to do my own thing in between taking care of some business. True, most of that time will be eaten up by the God-forsaken traffic jams on I-285, but it's been worth it to explore some of my old haunts.

If there's a housing crisis you'd never know it by the amount of development going on here. Every new subdivision I've seen has been done in the typical tasteful, opulent Atlanta style, but I'd trade the empty mansions for a thick, lush stand of trees (or Kudzu) any day.

Thankfully, they haven't turned my favorite spot, the Chattahoochee jogging park along I-285, into a parking lot just yet. But it now costs $3 a pop to park your car there! Communists! What the heck do Georgians pay state income tax for? Ok, so you can pay $26 for a year's pass, but that's not the point. Besides, there's no attendant there to even check the dadgum thing. Do they think these dog-walking yuppies are going to adhere to the honor system? Please. If I hadn't been so excited to see a firefly for the first time in six years, I would've needed some anger management.

Speaking of yuppies, today on the road (actually, most of my time here has been spent on the road ... going nowhere) I was reminded of the changing political demographic of that subculture from staunch Republicans to liberals. Hypocrisy is a perennial liberal trait, but this was such a simple visual of that truth I had to risk rear-ending someone to get this shot ...
HELLO, she was driving a new Volvo! This sticker was adjacent to the ones begging you to have your pets "fixed," and the one that read "Obama 08." Good thing this guy came along to restore my faith in Atlantans and, once again, chill me out.