being with some cousins

Pilot Mountain is always easy to identify and is a very visible landmark from just about any direction. I can recall hiking around the "knob" and also hiking down the mountain. I think we ended at Dad's cousin George's house which is very close, but I am not sure.

The roads around the mountain through the countryside are just plain beautiful to drive and on the way to the family reunion, Patt and I enjoyed a wonderful Sunday AM drive. The reunion was wonderful and Patt and I had a grand time.
Here I am with one of Dad's cousins, Jim S who was the son on one of Grandmother's brothers - he was a career soldier and is of course interesting to visit with.
This is George J and Peggy and Billy S. George is to my right (your left) and is the cousin we used to think looked most like Dad. He used to come by often and frequently visited Hazel and Granny too. Billy and Peggy have a dairy and tobacco farm, George a retired college professor. I am the "young one" in these photos, but there were dozens of small children and younger cousins present.

oh what a beautiful day

One day I will have to show you a picture of my office, but till then, be aware that few people get to go to the back sides of landfills. and you know who is one of them -- (and byw lots of people have seen photos of offices) and few have seen landfills -- and I have been to the front, side and back side of most of them in the state. -- I try to go on pretty days - and normally am successful too, I may add.

just check out that sky, the clean air, well you do get over the the close up smell pretty quickly. (or I do anyway)-- one of our attorneys does not and I enjoyed taking her on these trips.
and one of the things we do is as rumored-- true-- we intentionally put them in the prettiest parts of the county.
see what I mean in this photo of new expansion of a landfill. Just think, sometime in the future, your - or your neighbors garbage is going into that newly constructed landfill - (got a better idea)(or one you want to get Americans to chose)-- we tried and did not get very far.
anyway, it keeps on coming- --that is a famous forest in the background of the photo below too.-- like on the other side of the fence.
photos from two different landfills - both small local government owned operations.

the internets

Today I went to a conference on the internet - a little different from one on landfills. The booths were a bit different. The schwag was a lot different, no hats, golf tees, or put your business card in a jar for a drawing for a shotgun. (Occasionally I go to environmental type conferences where the schwag is a bit different yet again, lots of reusable bags, some odd dohicky made from something recycled)

Anyway, I have digressed, the schwag was different as the booths and names on the booths, some of the names were famous, some not so much, and the chance to win a new Apple Ipad has a couple of my business cards. - I never won the shotgun- the jury is still out on the ipad

the purpose of my attendance - in addition to my being a man of multiple interests? was to hear my cousin Dave speak. My registration was as a guest- I did not come up with the cash to be a regular attendee as it was quite expensive -and billed as international, and crowded and among featured speakers was the famous Doc as in my cousin
Here is Dave getting miked up prior to expounding on stuff and more items and them about the construction industry - earlier he had been on a panel with people from UNC school of journalism, FOX news from NYC and some others of note. That panel discussed the future and the role of journalism and the internet and communications. I asked about what were we going to do about the increase in the number of people who believe that the earth is flat.
and speaking of the internet, my son is now trying to make a million dollars with the internet. Apparently making a million is more difficult that he originally imagined. anyway his web site is http://www.kooziez.com/ check it out and by the way , I did not get an answer to my question. Stephen and Jen and a friend are selling on line koozies, hence the koozie name. you know drink can/bottle huggers.

eating at the K & W

here in the land of large cars and rugged and hard(ly) used pick up trucks aka, Raleigh's Cameron Village, I went by the K & W for lunch the other day

the young and not so spry alike are in the line selecting the chicken pie, chicken livers, fried fish, broiled fish, roast beef and turkey and dressing and so on.
the vegetables are pretty good too, I go for the fried okra, turnip greens, and stewed apples
and the deserts- well, you just have to stay away from the deserts- they seem to like the cream and the sugar.

held hostage -

This moment, this very moment, the Deacon, the head deacon, (lower case intended) is holding we WF basketball fans hostage. We have no coach. The athletic director, the one we used to say could walk on water - well the sucker cannot even swim apparently - has yet to hire a new coach. and the fans in blog space and on internet boards are apoplectic. They have gone nuts. My brother, alias EJ, has been taunting those who worry the internet bulletin boards. ( some are going berserk about wars and rumors of wars - or coaching hires - which apparently is much more important)

We have been following this episode as it is quite important - did I mention war - on various web offerings, including a site called "blogger so dear" and one that actually has referred to my brother Eric as "brother EJ". That site may be accessed at http://www.journalnow.net/index.php/mytakeonwake/, or my take on wake. It is the site where we go for the most current of information on WF sports and trade worries and such. It is better than espn or fox or those others.
EJ called out the complainers a couple of posts ago - I also have commented, but go by a more subtle alias, - "Paul" - but there is at least one more Paul commenter - the other Paul is not quite as sharp as yours truly - but one cannot control all who have chosen similar aliases.

at any rate, we are looking forward to having the heels back on their heels soon. Check out the heels of the heels below! Ah those were the days! and coming soon to a gym near you.

Pollen Pollen yes we have pollen

See that yellow film on that car in the parking lot at my office last week. Yes indeedee, it was a delightful greenish yellow, as was every other car, parking lot, street, or inanimate object in Raleigh. I spent the week, going house to car, car to office. - in office all day, back to car, car to house. Needless to say we did not open a window in our house.

Our green van, nestled beside the house, is well garnished with pollen, the wisteria, is in full bloom too, and smells great - but I am not staying out side for long.
in the picture below, note the difference between the part of the garage that is closed versus outside the door, also the tracks inside - pollen just flows into the garage when the door is open
Rain thankfully came on Thursday and was strong enough to wash away most of the green soup that was created by the cleansing of the streets and air. Hopefully this, the worst of this part of spring is behind us. We are certainly enjoying the change from winter, and I am looking forward to putting the car to its proper use.

and I know and love people from here too

This is a true story, only, and I repeat only, the name has been changed ! A young man for the sake of this story, lets call him Elbert -this is the changed name- entered this very Mal-Wart in a town very near my hometown. My brother took me to this store to examine personally the location and to ascertain the likelihood of the events to be retold here.

It seems that midmorning one very recent day, Elbert entered this establishment. I am going to make a judgement here, in an impaired state, or possessing at least less than normal of what would pass for normal judgement.

Now once inside, Elbert, while his exact path is unknown, did indeed pass down this very isle where alcoholic beverages are offered for sale. Here apparently Elbert's thirst? judgement? class? inspiration? took hold.
One can not help but smile thinking of Elbert's delight upon recognizing a favorite beverage. He did take hold of a six pack and proceed to begin to drink--- and imagine if you will the pure enjoyment he must have had when drinking that first moderately cool bottle of Miller Lite probably very close to this very display.

Can you imagine Elbert saying to his friends, "come on guys, lets go to Mal-Wart, grab us a couple of moderately cool ones, stroll down to the TV's and catch some movie or sumpin' ---- now this is in the town that used to look down on my home town as not being very "cool" or "classy" --- So now I offer them their very own Elbert. Well perhaps all this would have been acceptable in this classy upper-crust town that has a tendency to put on "airs" when comparing themselves to their neighboring towns. However, as do many in this town, Elbert proved unable to know when to stop. He proceeded to drink the entire six pack ....
apparently somewhat completely impaired by now and perhaps even attracting attention of an employee - anyone notice anything strange going on in TV's or the grocery isles? - as Elbert finishes beer after beer. Well apparently somewhere our friend Elbert passed that magic point where his ability to "hold his beer" was exceeded. (hence my earlier observation about his being impaired upon his arrival- I am thinking a man of Elbert's class and style probably can normally hold more than a mere 6 before noon)

Our friend proceeded to become somewhat disorderly (surprise, surprise) drive a little impaired, commit a few traffic violations, and upon being apprehended and placed in a police car, using his head and feet did bend and dent the squad car door, emitted bodily fluid on police officers, resisted arrest (you probably figured that one already) and a incurred a couple more charges.
His exact rap sheet, to quote the newspaper did read "misdemeanor larceny, consuming malt beverage on city/county property, malicious conduct by a prisoner, resisting a public officer, three counts of injury to personal property, three counts of assaulting government officials, failing to stop at a stop sign, driving while impaired, open container violation after consuming, damage to city property, intoxicated, and disruptive" ------- ya think ?

It was a dark and stormy night

It was indeed a dark and stormy night and day too as Mark and I entered the Greensboro Coliseum grandly calling itself Tournament Town this recent Friday on the occasion of the second day of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. Mark and Marie had gone on Thursday to see the pride of the Deacons 09-10 edition which continued a lengthening tradition of losing badly in the ACC early in the Tournament. Hence the foreboding nature and gloomy atmosphere - might as well have titled this "no joy in Mudville either. Anyway, there was no need for me to be wearing my lucky WF garb - which btw, I was NOT. The clouds are hanging heavy over the Deacon faithful

These are our seats, and as seats go they were just fine, they were inside the building, kept us off the floor, did not have pepsi or other spilled beverage on them, and were not wobbly. They were however, not "front row", as the saying goes, and so we did a little improving during the afternoon and evening sessions, hence the opportunity for different views. They were row Q upper deck and far more rows were between those seats and the floor than between the seats and back wall. But I believe I did mention that they were inside the building- a very important fact and should definitely kept in mind.

That team taking the ball up court against Duke was Miami, yes lowly Miami and not Wake Forest as was intended. The Deacs were supposed to have this shot at the hated devils and though Miami did very well, ahead at halftime and only lost by three (you know who talked to the refs at halftime) the Deacs could have, should have, would have, well fact is they didn't and I was disappointed with that fact-
as you can see from my "encounter" with what would be the closest thing I could find to a Deacon was below and he appears as befuddled as I am, and we both certainly are.
It was quite a view that Eric and I had for the State vs Georgia Tech game on Saturday afternoon, (I think I mentioned that we moved on occasion in order to improve seat location or in this case, to improve seat location and be located closer to the exit. Also gives you and idea of just how big this place is. Big- very Big

As you can see from below, we appreciated taking short cuts when possible. This was our transportation from one side of the parking lot to a BBQ restaurant on the other side of the lot -- all you had to do was ask. I am thinking of asking that the Deacons start winning a game in March.

Into the Valley of Frunitureland Rode the Six Hundred

Well, perhaps not 600 were with me a fateful recent Saturday morning, but all else was in place and accurate and not hyperbole - advertised one million square feet - walkways between buildings. Hotdiggitydog!

Into the Valley of ....... was there ever a more ominous sign? "Showroom"? Portends horrible potentials -- and did I mention their million square feet and moniker of Furnitureland (I mean just think of a preposterous name- what do they think they are Disneyland or something?)
and check out below JUST WHAT I HAD IN MIND -- I mean isn't this just darling? probably weighs several tons and causing deforestation and global warming too with all the timber in the thing. There were other equally "attractive" offerings, some with upwards of 15 little pillows.
and tables, yes we have tables
and more tables, often set ever so tastefully -- none had stacks of mail or similar stuff on them

and I had a happy wife who owes me. (or perhaps I am moving towards breaking even?)

James basketball playing

A couple of weeks ago, Patt and I stopped in Durham to watch James play a basketball game. And no this first picture is not his team. As is the custom girls games precede boys games and so it was this particular evening and we got to enjoy the last few minutes of the game. Actually the last quarter, well perhaps it was most of the second half. Anyway, I had not seen a girls game in quite a while. Hence you get a photo of the Elon School girls team in action.

James' team is - how do I say this delicately - not one of the best in North Carolina - how was that? and this particular evening they were in a close hard fought contest. Their claim to fame is that they have been dunked on by some of the best players in the state. Anyway as you can see in the photo below, James who is taller than me, is not really all that big on the basketball court.
James, also is not all that fast, but he does bang and as they say "mix it up". We enjoyed watching the game, though ultimately his team lost by two points. Later in the season they lost in the state tournament to the team that would later play against the famous team from Raleigh that has many "D-1" players on the squad-- Word of God private school where John Wall (now at UK and of Sports Illustrated cover fame) attended.
The crowd was loud, no check that, shrill and enthusiastic. Admission was not free, by the way.