Our Six Places In Georgia

It's kind of sad to think that this is my last day in Georgia. I leave tomorrow morning. We will miss it a lot. To commemorate the eight years we lived here, following are some of the highlights from the six places at which we lived.

#1: Anya is born. Crazy Neighbor Man watched TV all night long at full volume. Lindy and I sleep in the dining room.

#2: Austria is born. Crazy downstairs neighbors smoked and sold pot. Lindy busted the drug ring with help from her neighbor. Cops take them away. They're back within a week...

#3: Closest apartment to the Marta. I walk every day for a year. Nice walking path. Nice grill. Our friends' car's wheels are stolen while they are on vacation. Later we learn thieves target Hondas.

#4: This was our P90X apartment. Loud upstairs neighbors. Yelling, fighting, thumping keep the kids awake for a year. Surprisingly cold in the winter.

#5: Olympia is born. Longest stay in one place. Neighbors finally worth knowing. He sings in a band. She's gainfully employed. Best pool of all our apartments. Anya pulled out of the crummiest school in the state.

#6 Washington is born. Best neighbor on one side in eight years. She shares backyard pool with us. Bad neighbor on the other. Parties until 5am. Beer cans on our lawn. First family garden and first trampoline. Anya and Austria go to school together.

We love you and will miss you, Georgia! Thanks for all the adventures!

Marta Moment #20

I'm waiting for a big download to finish so I had some time to write one.  I will miss experiencing these Marta Moments but I still have a backlog so it will keep my spirits up for a little while.

A few weeks ago I was walking from the Marta station to work and a man stopped me and asked me for some money. I don't often give money (as you may know if you've read other Marta Moments) but this time I changed it up a bit. (I freely forfeit any blessing I would have received had I not publicized my experience here.)

Anyway, I pull out a dollar from my wallet and this man's eyes light up.

Man: "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Me: "Hold on! I haven't given it to you yet..." [pause]

Man: [Pause] "Wha!?" [Very confused...]

Me: "Here's my deal: I'll give this dollar to you right now and [more] later if you clean up this street today. Look at all that trash." [I point it out to him.] "I walk by everyday and I get tired of all this trash. I'll be coming back this way tonight. If you are here and it's clean you can have the rest of the money."

Man: "Deal! Deal! Awesome! Deal! It will be so clean! It will be so clean! You'll be surprised. It will be so clean!"

Me: "Okay. Here you go" [I give him the dollar.]

Man: "When are you coming back?"

Me: "Sometime after 5, probably around 6."

Man: "What time is now?"

Me: "Almost 10" [Yes, it was a late start to the work day, I had an allergy shot appointment that morning...]

Man: "So... I have how long to clean?" [Huh? Math must not be his forte...]

Me: "Seven hours. Around seven hours. I think you can do it." [There might have been 30 pieces of trash around. Max.]

Man: "Okay. I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. You'll see! You'll see!" [Yes, I will.]

Me: "I'll be back. Good day!"

[Around seven hours later, I come back and he's picked up maybe 5 things and those things could have easily been blown away in the wind...]

Me: "So, how did you do?"

Man: "You! You! I waited! I waited! I cleaned! I cleaned! I kept my word! I kept my word!" [He liked to repeat statements.]

Me: "But what's all that? And that? Look at that!" [I replied]

Man: "That's..... uh.... asphalt. That's asphalt." [Lots of baseball-sized chunks of asphalt all over. They were trash in my opinion...]

Me: "Yeah, but what about that?" [I ask, pointing.]

Man: "That? That's on the other side of the street." [He replies]

Me: "What? That's only fourteen feet away! How could you miss it?" [I'm not impressed.] "Did you really clean up this place?"

Man: "Uh.... I picked it up...I picked it up."

Me: "I don't know, man. I don't know... Where did you put the trash? There are containers just right there."

Man: "Come on. Come on. Okay, Okay. I'll do it right now. Up and down. Both sides of the bridge. Both sides of the bridge. And that piece too!" [He bends down and starts picking up some trash three feet from where we're standing - the exact same location from this morning.]

[I'm debating in my mind for a while what I should do. During those few moments he's actually picking up some trash and is never more than ten feet away from me.]

Me: "Okay. Here you go." [I give him some more money.]  "But I want you to finish this area, okay? That was our deal!"

Man: "Ah, yeah.... Ah, yeah.... I will. I kept my word and you kept your word." [What???]

Me: "Okay.... well, I'll be checking your work tomorrow morning on my way back to work. Have a good day and don't waste it. You know what I mean." [I start walking away.]

[He starts walking with me while picking up a piece of trash every few feet.]

Man: "What's your name? What's your name?" [Yelling]

Me: "John"

Man: "Don?"

Me: "John"

Man: "Don?"

Me: "John. Like in the bible..."
 
 [He then pulls out a Book of Psalms from the Old Testament and slaps me pretty hard in the chest with it. In fact, harder than you would willingly let anyone slap you with anything... let alone a bible. I pick up the pace and quickly move away...]

[You're a weird man, buddy. You're a weird man....]

New Digs

I can't find my camera cord to download pictures :(. I put it in a "safe" place during the move.

Funny things since our move:

Talking about taking John's sister down the street to the MTC, Austria piped up: "Why is Alita going to an empty sea?"

Anya seeing a snow shovel near the door at church asked, "What is that for?"

John asking Olympia about BYU, replied, "B Y me?"

Nearly daily, Olympia points to the mountains and says, "Mountains!" like it is the first time she has ever seen them. They are rather impressive I must admit.

Part of Anya's prayer one night: "Please bless us to become better country people after living in the city so long."

And I keep asking people in our ward where they live. Duh, within the same block as me!