Now that your unpacked and got to test drive the area for a bit, encountered some locals and yokels, and hopefully some actual people that moved to the area from your home town or state its time to list the likes you have of your new or semi-new, or heck if the area is your native home than by all means and ways list what you like! Y'all got it? Well here goes!
Weather! You like or not!
Year round flowers!
Long springs!
Longer Autumns!
Shorts year round! For the hearty ones that is.
Variety of sub divisions to chose from!
Snow is a neat event versus a ho-hum not again event!
No rust on older cars! Amazing if your from the Northeast!
Can fish year round without cutting holes in the water (ice) for us North Easterners!
Pretty country side is usually only 5 minutes or less from where you live anywhere in the triangle.
People R People. No matter what they say!
Day trip to Mountains!
Day trip to Ocean!
And in a lot cases no trip at all to the many lakes, ponds, river, and streams that spot the area!
Good food can be had by all and more is always welcome irregardless if they are called viddles or pickins!
Out away from the city lights the sky at night explodes with the many stars that fill the emptiness of space with the occasional flying star to catch a dream or two on!
Groceries can be cheaper but we all have to eat!
Sure it takes time to get use to this place, remember the place you came from was called home and that is never a easy place to replace! But give it time, explore the area and get involved and this place too will be your new home not only in name but in feeling!
May the triangle, RDU, RTP, Crossroads, the Quay, Wake Forest, Knightdale, Apex, Raleigh, Durham, Zebulon, Oxford, Mossisville, Franklinton, Youngsville, Chapel Hill, Henderson, ...seems like I am forgetting somewhere.
...????......Oh yea! and Cary, be with you!
Oh Tarheels! I forgot to number the above as I did say I would count thy ways!
Weather! You like or not!
Year round flowers!
Long springs!
Longer Autumns!
Shorts year round! For the hearty ones that is.
Variety of sub divisions to chose from!
Snow is a neat event versus a ho-hum not again event!
No rust on older cars! Amazing if your from the Northeast!
Can fish year round without cutting holes in the water (ice) for us North Easterners!
Pretty country side is usually only 5 minutes or less from where you live anywhere in the triangle.
People R People. No matter what they say!
Day trip to Mountains!
Day trip to Ocean!
And in a lot cases no trip at all to the many lakes, ponds, river, and streams that spot the area!
Good food can be had by all and more is always welcome irregardless if they are called viddles or pickins!
Out away from the city lights the sky at night explodes with the many stars that fill the emptiness of space with the occasional flying star to catch a dream or two on!
Groceries can be cheaper but we all have to eat!
Sure it takes time to get use to this place, remember the place you came from was called home and that is never a easy place to replace! But give it time, explore the area and get involved and this place too will be your new home not only in name but in feeling!
May the triangle, RDU, RTP, Crossroads, the Quay, Wake Forest, Knightdale, Apex, Raleigh, Durham, Zebulon, Oxford, Mossisville, Franklinton, Youngsville, Chapel Hill, Henderson, ...seems like I am forgetting somewhere.
...????......Oh yea! and Cary, be with you! Oh Tarheels! I forgot to number the above as I did say I would count thy ways!
Wake Forest, Gosh its a pretty nive place to live!
Posted 03-09-2009 at 08:59 PM by dansdrive
Wake Forest, NC. located in Wake County NC. Some call it Wake's Forest of the Triangle....Ok maybe that's just me. But if you come from the North East, Wake Forest seems to fit. It has some rolling hills and many farming areas.
It has a small town feel but close to Raleigh, you could be down town Raleigh, depending on time of day in about 15 to 30 minutes. You can be at the Virginia border in less than an hour.
It has old Historical homes and some new subdivisions. It certainly worth a look see if your looking and seeing the area. It has transplants from New Jersey, New York, and many other NE State and Mid West and California and....well you get the idea people from all over this great country now calls Wake Forest home!
C'mon down, over, left, or right and check it out you may just like what you see.
It has a small town feel but close to Raleigh, you could be down town Raleigh, depending on time of day in about 15 to 30 minutes. You can be at the Virginia border in less than an hour.
It has old Historical homes and some new subdivisions. It certainly worth a look see if your looking and seeing the area. It has transplants from New Jersey, New York, and many other NE State and Mid West and California and....well you get the idea people from all over this great country now calls Wake Forest home!
C'mon down, over, left, or right and check it out you may just like what you see.
Total Comments 1071
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Tuesday May 10, 2011 and its 54.9 degrees heading up to a nice 78 degrees! Wonderful! Calls for a Road Trip! Heading to a customers location today so get to get out of the office! Ditto the wonderful from above!
The great news is I do not travel anywhere near what I use to. Today's communication tools has for the most part obsoleted travel in my line of business. What I do have is the stories of travel gone wrong and that was before all the security measures they put in place. Use to live in a small upstate NY town where the last evening flight in was the last flight in. It was usually always late sometimes hours late. Never really wanted to get booked on that flight but typically got booked on that flight. Drat! Double Drat!
Anyway one spring evening you guessed it, the flight originated in Pittsburgh PA. The inbound flight was late coming up from Florida due to stormy weather up the east coast. So instead of leaving Pittsburgh at 10am we left at 11PM. We took off and within minutes the pilot came on and said we were being diverted to another airport due to fog at our destination. Not unusual for my old home town airport.
Than about half way there the pilot came on and said he was going to 'try' to land at out home airport, the fog has become spotty......nice! Well we started our decent into the airport when all of a sudden the planes engines raced and up we went. Pilot said he was going to swing it around and try again. He this three times and finally said we would have to devert to the airport he planned to take us to begin with. That city was only 20 minutes away flight time. So we started out decent and down, down, and down we went when all of a sudden the engines raced again and up, up, up we went. Apparently the pilot undershot the runway. He swung it around to try again but fog had set in so up we went again. At this time a lot of us were thinking how much fuel is left?
So off we went to the Syracuse airport which was a couple of hours by car to my hometown. Syracuse was clear and we landed at about 1AM and no place for the plane to pull up to. The ground crew had to move a plane so we could deplane into the terminal. The airline said they would have buses available to take us to our hometown airport. ....Well no buses available, they had to get some sent to the airport. So what shows up? Two school buses, a regular size one and a half pint one. The luggage went into the half pint one and us passengers went into the large 'luxuries' one!
So we drove and drove until we got about 15 miles from our home town airport when the bus abruptly pulled off the road and the driver turned around and ask us if we knew where our airport was from there! In the meantime the little half pint bus with out luggage was no where to be found.......are you kidding me? Is this happening? Is Rod Sterling somehow involved in this trip form Pittsburgh, Pa?
So someone told the bus driver how to get to our airport at now 2:30AM. We made it to the airport and our luggage was lost out on the interstate somewhere. Some of the passengers that had enough left to drive home and came across the luggage bus and guided it back to the airport! We got out luggage sorted out by about 4AM. I headed from my car parked outside in the airport parking lot.
I turned the key and nothing! A few sputter of the engine and nothing. When as faith would have it our area got a driving rain storm while I was away and I was parked such that the driving rain drove right into my engine compartment and soaked my engine. About this time that I was trying to start my car some airline guys were just getting off shift and stopped to see if they could help. I opened my engine compartment and tried to start the car...one gentleman said it looked like the forth of July in my engine compartment with all the sparks! So I had a rag and dried the engine and wires off as best I could and low and behold it started and ran poorly. It was a 4 cylinder that was running on two. So off I went before it would stall and all the time I was thinking that if I hit a deer on the way home the car would just stop. The deer would be unhurt that is for sure.
So I made it home at just before 6AM crawled into bed and was about to settle down when my wife rolled over and said, "How was the trip?".................I just said, 'fine'!
Quote of the day from Bob Hope:
"There was nothing subtle about our landing. The pilot just pointed the nose at the ground and let her rip!"
Happy Tuesday and may your travel today and always by smooth sailing!Posted 05-10-2011 at 05:26 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday May 12, 2011 and its 65 degrees outside rising up to a cloudy 72 degrees with the distinct smell of fire. Coming from the outer banks wild fires. Just getting caught back up, out of the office for one day and a day and a half to catch up! Whewww! But I am getting there at least that what I am telling myself.
First time I got to explore the state a bit west of Winston-Salem. Lots of open space out there for sure. As with most trips not enough time to spend with clients and to much time sitting in a car to and from. Where is a tele-porter when you need one, Captain Kirk? One would just have to just dial 1-800-soo-gone! or 1-800-bli-nkit!
Quote of the day from James Kirk:
"Everybody remember where we parked."
Happy Thursday and wishing all a delightful day complete with finding your car in your parking lot of life!
Posted 05-12-2011 at 10:31 AM by dansdrive
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Friday May 13, 2011 and its 63.8 cloudy degrees out slowly rising up to a projected high of 68 degrees. Hmmm, not much movement there in temperature! But its Friday and its all good! Especially since the weekend is almost upon us. It has been a busy, busy, busy week for me. So the weekend being about here will hopefully let me recharge my batteries, sort of speak! In my younger days I emulated the Everyready bunny batteries, today I am getting closer to the Dollar Store batteries!
Speaking of batteries and more precisely auto batteries, I had a close encounter of the explosive kind as a kid with a car battery. I was with my Dad when he went up to our neighbors house to jump start his car. I was quite young at the time but remember the incident with great detail. My Dad had a Chevy and our neighbor had a Chrysler New Yorker, in this story the car makes and models are irrelevant. But add some flavor to the type of cars people drive back in the day in our neighborhood.
So my dad pulled up next to the neighbors car pulled out the battery jumper cables. I was standing next to my Dad and our neighbor was in his car. My dad hooked up one side of the cables on our car battery and moved to hook up the neighbors car battery. He got the one lead on and just as he touched the second lead to the battery a large explosion happened. The battery literally blew up. Pieces were everywhere! All that was left in the car was the batteries lead plates and its plastic base. Fortunately my Dad or myself were hurt, our clothes had to be thrown away as the battery acid burned holes in or clothes over time. How we did not get flying battery acid in out eyes is a miracle. How we did not get hit with any plastic battery housing shrapnel that flew in all directions is a miracle. It is the only time I have ever witnessed a battery blow up and to today whenever I jump start my car or a strangers I think back to the day the battery went kaboom!
I also learned to hook up the positive terminal on the battery first and the negative far from the battery on the car frame. This eliminates the change of igniting the gas that could be leaking from the battery. So whenever helping someone with a jump start of their car be CAREFUL!
Quote of the day from Benjamin Franklin:
" If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing."
Happy Friday and Ben certainly knew the value of borrowing!Posted 05-13-2011 at 06:12 AM by dansdrive
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Monday May 16, 2011 and its 61 degrees outside heading up to a high of 78 degrees. Nice! Mixed back of weather this weekend, thunderstorms, clouds, rain, and sunny. Got it all this weekend. I suppose they refer that as unsettled. I did manage to get some things done outside this weekend. Made up some ceder arbors for our rose bushes to climb on. Made them from ceder fence pickets. Sliced them up to 1 inch wide stripes. They came out pretty cool. I also managed to purchase a couple of containers off of Craigslist. I now have to make the containers into rain barrels. That will be part of this weeks projects.
Rain barrels and all this hype on everything being 'Green' and 'Eco-friendly', I guess we all want to be that 'cool dude', we all want to save the planet. In my case its more about managing the water that flows from my gutters than saving the planet. My rain barrels are more about how 'cheaply' I can make them than it is about them, if that makes sense. My goals on my rain barrels is simple make two rain barrels for less than $20 each. I am well on my way as my two containers were had for $5 each. Now I have to add the spigot at the bottom, the overflow value on top of the barrel with some hose of pipe that will let it overflow into and some screen material to catch the debris from the gutter with out it getting into the rain barrel. I believe I can do it, ah scratch that, I know I can do it!
I also have to build two stands to hold the rain barrels up but I have that covered with the free lumber I got off of Craigslist. I challenged my self to use every bit of that until its gone. These two wood rain barrel stands will take a bit out of the left over wood I have. I have one 4 inch x 4 inch x 12 foot pressure treated beam left over that I am trying to figure out what I will use it on but I'm sure I will find something to do with it!
Quote of the day from Patrick Henry:
"No free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."
Happy Monday and ole Patrick said more than, "Give me liberty or give me death!".....how many of those words above are part of our (your) current American fabric? ....Think about that.Posted 05-16-2011 at 06:35 AM by dansdrive
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Tuesday May 17, 2011 and its 57.7 degrees heading up to a isolated stormy 78 degrees today. Unsettling, I suppose is the best way to characterize the weather for today.
Speaking of unsettling, this is the time of the school year that was most unsettling. As the school year winded down the after school things to do winded up! These were the days the old street lights did not come on until 8:30 or so. The old abandoned park we played in was coming to life with new growth, the grass areas were getting high again so one could hide in it. The trees were getting leaves and adding good cover for the endless games of war and Cowboys and Indians. Even had some 007, Bond James games in there! The possibilities of things to do in that old park were limitless. It sat on a hillside and had some big old trees in it. Ones we could climb and get a great view of the city. Multiple sets of concrete steps traversed the park, A set on each end and one that went right down the middle. The one in the middle was the best. This is the one we would slide down in the winter months and the one we would sit at the top of during the summer months. It never made it to the top of road that boarded one side of the park. It just ended near the top. This area was a great meeting place. A place to be home base for hide-in-go- seek. A place to look out over the city and think about the future. I remember one day my cousin and I sitting at the top of those steps discussion where we would be in 5 years or 10 years, what the city would be like in that amount of time. Turned out we were both way off! Neither of our lives turned out as we thought but the time spent there and trying to project the future was priceless!
Quote of the day from Charles Jones:
"You are the same today that you are going to be in five years from now except for two things; the people with whom you associate with and the books you read."
Happy Tuesday, Happy because its the first day of the rest of our lifes, and happy among us that can remember the past as we do! Cease it before it is yesterdays memory!Posted 05-17-2011 at 05:04 AM by dansdrive
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Monday May 23, 2011 and its 66.4 degrees outside heading up to a toasty 93 degrees with scattered thunder storms. One of those scattered me out of bed this morning. No alarm needed just the window rattling roar of thunder did it. It rained like the dickens too! I invoked my alternate route to work this AM to avoid the rain slicked rush of 540.
Took a few days off last week, headed up to Baltimore for the yearly Yankees game and worked our way back to points south. Was good to get away but it was bitter sweet. Sweet to get away. Bitter because our youngest headed up to NY for the summer as he starts college this fall up in NY.
But that is all part of the life cycle. The emotions when your children grow up and start a life on their own is like getting to the end of a great book. You have the pages and Chapters to look back on but its not like reading it the first time through! It has been a tough weekend that is for sure. Our lab looks for her pal to hit her the tennis balls out in the backyard, for her to run and retrieve them over and over again. She takes off with great enthusiasm to hunt down the tennis balls only to slowly and methodically bring them back to him at a snails pace. She, like us miss him greatly but we have been down this path before with our other children who have found their way after college to establish roots in other parts of the country to start their careers and lives.
This past Saturday the world was going to come to an end and for us in a different way it did when we said goodbye to our Son on Thursday as we parted Baltimore, him heading north and us heading south...........
Quote of the day from author unknown....
"There are things we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go is not the end of the world, its the beginning of a new life."
Happy Monday and make today count lest tomorrow never comes....Posted 05-23-2011 at 05:35 AM by dansdrive
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Tuesday May 24, 2011 and its 69.9 degrees outside heading on up to 93 today. Toasty comes to mind. Just with the rain yesterday morning my new rain barrel had runnith over. So not only tested out the rain barrel but tested the overflow system. Used a 3/4 inch overflow fitting and it was to small. Have to go with a larger diameter on my next rain barrel. The rubbermaid garbage cans I picked up on Craigs list work fine. They are 32 gallon versus the 50 gallon. But I just did not want to spend the extra money for the 50 gallon barrels.
So on the barrel I have done I will add a second overflow fitting to bleed off the water when we have a fair amount of rainfall. I am thinking a 1 1/2 diameter overflow system should work just fine. Garden is growing well. I have small yellow squash, a few green tomatoes, small cucumbers, swiss char is about half way there of being ready to harvest. Asparagus is growing. Onions and garlic is growing away and the iceberg lettuce is leaving its way to maturity, one leave at a time...sort of speaking! Pun intended, hey its early Tuesday morning!
I have to come up with a new project but the summer heat seems to be arriving so it makes it hard to do outdoor projects. I do have a auto project and that is to find out why my blazers 4 wheel drive does not want to cooperate and go into 4 wheel drive. I believe its the servo motor or the control card but that is just my guess and that like every mega-millions lottery I ever played it most likely is wrong!
Quote of the day from Benjamin Franklin:
"All things are cheap to the saving, dear to the wasteful."
Happy Tuesday and old Ben was onto something there....dearly indeed!
Posted 05-24-2011 at 04:57 AM by dansdrive
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Wednesday May 25, 2011 and its 70.4 degrees zooming up to 95 degrees today! When its Hot Hot Hot I suppose. Its still only May here in the south but these temps remind me of the dogs days of summer growing up in the northeast.
Seems like we waited until July to get days that were 95. Those days as kids we woke up did our chores around the house and than hit the roads to our friends house. Sometimes being my house had the pool my friends would come over and we would swim awhile and than hop on our bikes and round up a few of our neighborhood friends and head to the park where the ball diamond was. It would take about 20 minutes one way on our bikes to get there. It was the next town over from ours. We would play baseball from about noon to three or four PM. Hop on our bikes and head for home. Usually stop off at the river and toss some rocks into the river. Always was a competition on who could throw their rock the furthest. Furthest was a relative term as no one really or should I say rarely knew who's went the furthest so it came down to who could debate the best usually won the furthest contest. We never had a dime on us so stopping off for a can of soda was not an option. The park had a public water fountain which was good enough for us.
It funny how when I reflect back I can't really remember eating throughout the summer day. Hunger did not factor into a days activities over the summer. We were always to busy playing, riding bikes, baseball, tag, hide-n-go-seek, finding new adventures in our old abandoned park, building forts, swimming, playing in old abandoned car and milk trucks to every worry about hunger. Needless to say we were all pretty darn skinny growing up. So maybe there is something to the adage that a rolling stone gathers no moss....
Quote of the day from Howard Thurman:
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who come alive."
Happy Wednesday and Howard does have a fitting quote for hump day. Coming aline again will certainly lead you over the hump of the week! Stay thirsty my friends for fun and adventure!Posted 05-25-2011 at 05:46 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday May 26, 2011 and its 72.8 degrees heading up to 95 degrees. That's hot! That's nice! That's good! Speaking of good I think it was great that the two finalist in American Idol were young wholesome American teens! The final two had the highest ever vote totals and when its said and done the viewer rating may be the highest ever for a Idol finally show.
So the question is why? Because both singers had a country jaundra? Because both were young wholesome American kids from small towns? No visible tattoo's, piercings, funky hair styles, outlandish clothing? Whatever it was it was sure great to see these two kids in the Idol final and they both won and so did we as Americans! We still have roots that run deep for all the good and right things in our youth of today to represent a generation that is not lost but ready, willing, and able to compete! My hat is off to the Finalist and Idol for presenting them in a positive light for who they were!! Yehawwwww!
Quote of the day from Tony Arata, performed by Garth Brooks:
"And now I'm glad I didn't know,
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain
But I'd of have to missed the dance."
Happy Thursday and this is your American Idol Scotty McCreery, of little ole Garner NC!Posted 05-26-2011 at 05:39 AM by dansdrive
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Friday May 27, 2011 and its 70.9 degrees heading up to a projected high of 85. Nice start to the Memorial Day weekend. The official start to the summer season. As a young lad growing up in Northeastern PA it meant the start of the picnic season. A many a summer weekends our family would picnic in a number of lakes around the area. The picnic areas were small usually private lakes where it would cost 50 cent to picnic all day, some had wooden boats one could rent for $1 a day. The picnic area had large fire pits with flat metal plates on them. My grandfather was in charge of the fire. next to the firepit was always an ample supply of wood placed there by the owner to the picnic area, it was part of the 50 cent admission fee per carload! A many a meals were cooked on that hot steel. From Spaghetti to artichokes, hot dogs and hamburgers. And always a fresh pot of spaghetti sauce boiling away on that hot plate.
For us kids we could swim in the lake, play baseball in the field or kick a ball around. We would play tag and race to see who was the fastest in the family. The owner of the picnic area also had a little concession stand by the swim area and for 5 cents we could buy an ice cream bar or Popsicle. As I reflect back I realize what a different world it was back than. Prices for one thing was lower. The swim area never had a life guard because there was always parents around of teens that would watch the little ones. It didn't really matter who was swimming if they got in trouble they helped. I remember the lake had a dive dock out in the lake. It was a bit far for us when we started forst going there but we had to go there. I got in trouble one time getting out there and before I knew it this guy had picked me up and brought be to shore where my Mom and Aunts were waiting.
It was also a cool place to meet new friends as each weekend a lot of the same families would picnic so we got to see a lot of the same kids each weekend we would go. The other neat thing was this one family that would go regularly must of played in a band because they also were playing guitars, accordion, and drums. So live music was never far away. No one really cared it was mostly polka's, it was live and good! Going on those weekend summer picnics went on for a few years until our grandparents could it do it anymore and us kids became teens and were to big to go on picnics.
Quote of the day from Billy Graham:
"Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened."
Happy Friday, Happy Memorial Day Weekend, and simply to those that served, are servicing, and will have the courage to serve, THANK-YOU. For those that have served and have fallen, THANK-YOU.Posted 05-27-2011 at 06:24 AM by dansdrive
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Tuesday May 31, 2011 and its 81.4 degrees outside heading up to a projected high of 98. Sizzling! Comes to mind. Second thing that comes to mind is; Its summer time! Last night when I took the dog out I heard the Cicada's singing their alluring hum. Much more of that to come as the summer rolls on.
The Memorial day weekend had come and gone. Each day as I put up the American flag I could not help but think about the countless times and places around this earth that the raising and lowering of the flag was going on. Could not help but think about the fallen soldiers that never again will get to see the American flag being raised or lowered.
For those fallen soldiers and their families I raised my flag a little higher so all could see the Red, White, and Blue that is a part of each and every one of us. Red for the blood shed over our history to protect the rights of others. White for the Purity and innocence and peace that our nation stands for and the blue for justice and perseverance. And the 5 tipped stars, one for each state of our union. To some the flag is no more than a collection of stars and striped in red, white, and blue. But not to me.
The flag is for respect we pay to our country, each other, and the men and women who serve, had served, and who have died, so that I can raise that flag on the side of my house yesterday, today and tomorrow! Our country does not ask much of us but raising our flag let's us and the rest of the world know who we are and what we stand for. So my personal message on this Memorial weekend is simply, THANKS, to all that served our great country and gave the ultimate sacrifice for it.
Quote of the day from Thucydides (460 - 404 B.C.):
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding , go out to meet it."
Happy Tuesday and way back in B.C. and now over 2000 years into A.D. the words above hold true and pass the test of time, that is for sure.Posted 05-31-2011 at 06:51 AM by dansdrive
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Wednesday June 1, 2011 and its 82.6 degrees racing up to 98 degrees today. Another 'Orange' alert day. Poor air quality day. Summer has arrived! Today also marks the start of the 2011 Hurricane season so we got that going for us too! Ok Ok Hurricane joke....
What did the one hurricane say to the other hurricane?
"I got an eye on you!"
Good gracious can you believe it is June 1st already. Where do the other 151 days go this year? Dag-nab-bit! Time is a flying. Growing up in the north June always meant the end of the school year. The time of the year when school days went by like months. The anticipation of that last day of school was building. The days leading up to it, where the classrooms are cleaned up, books are collected and stored away for next years class. Drawing are removed from walls and tossed or are given to the children to take home. Reflection on the past school year, the funny parts and the sad parts. Its the time of the year when sheets of paper are not used for writing on but to be folder into nice neat little triangle shapes for hours of desk football games. The ones where classmates encircle your desk and watch the game progress. Cheers and jeers go up with each shove of the triangle shaped paper football over the goal line (aka edge of the desk without falling off the edge), and the free kicks through your opponents folded hands in the shape of a goal post. Its the time for card games of rummy and hearts and as we got older pitch and spades. Its the time to shoot the breeze about what we planned on doing over the summer, places we were going or jobs we would be getting. The boys talked about the girls and I'll assume the girls talked about the guys.
The end of the school year was always a special time of the year. It was a sense of accomplishment and pride for some while to others not a day to soon to leave this forsaken place of learning. I have found there is no other time in ones life that feels that way. Once one starts their work life career its never the same. One looks forward to a week or two off in the year but rarely 8 to 10 consecutive weeks off. To be kids again to let the day take them where it will. Oh baby!
That is why to me it is so vitally important for a parent to let their kids be kids for the 17 or 18 years of school they have. Support their learning and foster there summer time off to learn about life and enjoy the time off because if they can't do it in those school years they certainly cannot do it for the 30 plus years they will be working. As they say a child's first 18 years is a terrible thing to waste trying to be a grown up!
Quote of the day Thomas Paine, 1776:
" As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight. "
Happy Wednesday and Thomas words are a great backdrop to hump day! If you do one thing today and only one thing, make that thing something that brings a smile to your child or children's face!Posted 06-01-2011 at 07:05 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday June 2, 2011 and its 76.8 sunny degrees heading up to a toasty 95 degrees today. A few degrees cooler than yesterday as we hit 98 or 99 depending on who's temperature gauge one was looking at. Speaking of looking I remember the first eclipse of the sun I 'did' not see as a kid growing up.
It was towards the end of the school year and I remember our teacher telling us not to look at the sun less you will go blind. You needed to look at it through a reflective device. We made one in school but never followed through to make one at home. We were kids and we didn't need any stinkin reflective device!
Well the day came for the great eclipse, it was on the news not to look at the sun today lest you would go blind. I remember before I headed out to play my Mom saying don't look at the sun today. As I headed out the door I remember saying Ok Mom. So we got to playing and found ourselves constantly thinking and looking up at the sun. We did not really know what a eclipse would do. We listened what our teacher said and what the news said would happen but it just didn't click with us. So we would look and than jeer each other that we would be going blind. The event finally came in mid afternoon, what time exactly? Who knows we were kids and never wore a wrist watch, ever! So it did get darker as the event happened and we did occasionally glance up at the sun and lucky for us we never went blind and as far as we were concerned we could not figure out what the hype was all about. Eclipse.....we would of been much happier with a Eclair that is for sure!
Quote of the day from Archilochus (Greek poet, c680-640 BC):
"Nothing there is beyond hope, nothing that can be sworn impossible, nothing wonderful, since Zeus, father of the Olympians, made night from mid-day, hiding the light of the shining Sun, and sore fear came upon men."
Happy Thursday and my the happiness you experience today eclipse the sadness you feel today! Stay cool today my friends!Posted 06-02-2011 at 05:41 AM by dansdrive
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Friday June 3, 2011 and its 82.5 heading up to a high of 85 today. Picture perfect Friday! 95 and humid hit the road for a day, took a trip down Rt 95 to points south....just a day trip though it come back tomorrow. But today is spectacular!
Spectacular is a word you don't hear much today. We hear doom and gloom, sliding, spiraling downward, dropping, etc. etc. ect... Those words seep into conversations about the economy, politics, consumer prices, and moral issues... How sad is that? My goodness if history teaches us anything it teaches us that things in the past were or certainly could be worse back in history than they are today. Sometimes its a word, a phase, or simply posture that presents how ones outlook can be affected.
So far all the bad new of the day and week and month today is Friday and for Eastern Carolina it is a spectacular day weather wise! I did not say it was perfect, I did not say there were no problem in the world, all I did say on this June 3, 2011 in eastern Carolina its spectacular! Certainly a day to out a enjoy the fresh cooler air, water the garden, take a walk in a nice quiet area and just be thankful for everything in our live that are right and good. Take that walk as the sun begin to set towards the horizon to see the splendid sunset that happens each and every day! Amazing how something that has happened each and every day since the beginning of time is still a special event worthy of seeing and wondering how it all came to be. Spectacular!
Quote of the day today by Sharon Salzberg:
" As I go through all kinds of feelings and experiences in my journey through life -- delight, surprise, chagrin, dismay -- I hold this question as a guiding light: "What do I really need right now to be happy?" What I come to over and over again is that only qualities as vast and deep as love, connection and kindness will really make me happy in any sort of enduring way."
Happy Spectacular Friday and what really makes you happy?Posted 06-03-2011 at 12:43 PM by dansdrive
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Monday June 6, 2011 and its 77.6 degrees outside rising up to a projected high of 88 and with less humidity so they say. So we got that going for us today. I had a wonderful sight in my rear view mirror today cruising down route 540 this AM. It was the sun rising over the horizon. It was a big reddish yellow globe making its daily track high into our sky. It was breath taking actually. It seemed to fill my entire rear view mirror. Was just really cool to me!
Well the weekend flew by yet again. Did get some reading in and also made the last of the window boxes and got it hung outside under the window. Now for the painting part! With the graduation season in the air and the past years trials and tribulation within the Wake County Public school reassignment fights. I tried to think how they got to this place of impasse. Change is never easy but sometimes change is exactly what is needed. We have also seen and read articles this past year bashing teachers and schools all over this great country of ours. Schools are failing, children are failing, teachers are failing, school boards are failing, and the list goes on and on.
We spend so much per student to educated them, feed them breakfast and lunch while in school. Keep they in after school programs till 5 or 6 PM and provide them a snack or two. So from a pure caretaker stand point our schools IMHO are doing a fantastic job. For the most part children go to school in the morning and safety arrive home every afternoon or evening.
As I sweated away cutting the boards to make the flower box and assembling it and than mounting it on the house it hit me, no not the hammer, but the reason our schools are failing our children. Its not the schools as much as the family unit or lack there of. Children are being sent to school without as they say their lunch boxes. Meaning the basic skills they use to arrive with. They come from every spectrum of our current society. From other countries with little or no English, from single parent families which maybe no more than a grandparent that is raising the child, from a foster home or no real home at all. The children are more in tune to basic survival than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Yet for some reason we have a belief that schools can work miracles to transform our children into responsible, intelligent, critical thinking young adults with the proper daily nutritional values. Is that really what are our schools are for?
Until we fix the family and the basic family values we will continue to pass blame on to our schools and politicians for failing to educate our children.......its like gardening, its always better to pick the fruit and vegetables than it is to nourish the roots and soil around those roots so there is something worth while to pick.
Quote of the day from Marge Kennedy:
" In truth a family is what you make it. It is made strong, not by number of heads counted at the dinner table, but by the rituals you help family members create, by the memories you share, by the commitment of time, caring, and love you show to one another, and by the hopes for the future you have as individuals and as a unit.
Happy Monday and a deep subject to start the week but we must fix the family unit one child and parent at a time!
We just cannot afford not to. Its not the schools nor the politicians the fix is right there in the mirror each morning........Posted 06-06-2011 at 08:03 AM by dansdrive
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Tuesday June 7, 2011 and its 72.5 degrees heading up to 92 degrees and sunny! No appreciable rain in sight. My rain barrels are about empty. So the garden is getting good ole well water. ...and as they say that is a deep subject!
Speaking of deep subjects, yet another member of Congress has fell from grace through the use of Twitter and a few lies. Few is relatively used here as now no one knows what is truth and what is a lie from this Congressman.
When our founding fathers envisioned that our representatives should be elected from the pool of common American's do you think they ever envisioned it would come to this? Lie one day and than come clean with the truth the next....or is it the true? Or was the first part of the story true and the latter part false. They seem to hold one truth self evident and that is, "Hold out as long as you can and than ask for forgiveness." A representative can be many things but using common sense and exhibiting morale behavior is one that ALL representatives MUST possess and be held accountable to.
I am saddened today for the country.
Quote of the day from Samuel Adams in 1775:
"The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men. "
Happy Tuesday and forever be curious about the acts and habits of our elected public men and women. Hold them to lofty heights so we all don't sink a little deeper into the muck of innuendo.Posted 06-07-2011 at 01:50 PM by dansdrive
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Wednesday June 8, 2011 and its 74.4 degrees outside rising up to a hot 96 today. Air quality advisory in effect, color orange like the setting evening sun. Man that's hot! Speaking of hot, it reminds me of the summer days peddling down to our city square in the evening to watch the cool 'hot rods' that use to cruise the square. Most every hot rod came complete with thrush headers, wide tires, fancy paint job, typically candy apple red metal flake, and a babe in the front seat. Our town had a car mechanic that was ahead of his time as he would put a beetle bug on a 4WD truck chassis or a Chevy Nova or a Ford Pinto on a 4WD truck chassis. He would add oversized truck tires and this car would sit about 6 foot off the ground. These were the days long before the monster truck era. This guy was a real pioneer in automobile mixing and matching of parts. Use to sit there and imagine driving those cars but never happened. I peddled my bike until I got my first car. It was a Chevy Impala and was as basic as basic can be. It did have an AM radio. Where I could listen to WARM the mighty five 90!
I don't know that kids take the time to work on or modify their cars anymore. Seems like most like small Honda's and add some body kits, nice shoes (mag wheels to my generation), and sound system that people feel a block away pound a steady drum beat over and over again, some engine modification with some nitro boosters, but it just don't seem the same. Today the movies for hot cars are Fast and the Furious, I, II, III, IV, V... while we had American Graffiti which spun out (pun intended) to Happy Days! ...and that they were..
Quote of the day from Dwight D. Eisenhower:
"Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master."
Happy Wednesday and shall we go by way of the Hot Rod or shall we be inspired to make a whole new generation of Hot Rod's?
P.S. and the slogan for W.A.R.M. AM radio? ...."Its only WARM for me!"Posted 06-08-2011 at 04:52 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday June 9, 2011 and its already 76.0 degrees this morning and the bright red/orange globe in my rearview mirror this morning says more hot hot hot today. In fact projected high of 98 degrees. Sweltering comes to mind.
These temps remind me of the dog days of summer and its only early June. These were the days when I did electrical work I disliked the most when I had to work in an attic. Felt more like an oven than an attic. They were dusty and usually dark hot places. Sweat rolled down like the Niagara River over the falls. But there was a job to be done. A wire to run across the attic floor to a receptacle or switch in a wall. Most of the time was spent on ones stomach getting close to the outside walls where the roofs came down to meet the walls. One has to lay on their stomach to drill a hole into the wall to run a wire down. This is where the years of attic dust and fiberglass would fly through the hot attic area. I don't know exactly what a miner felt underground in a coal dust environment but I do know what a hot attic dust filled environment felt like and maybe they were pretty close. The major difference being altitude! They were the days we literally drank a gallon jug of lemon-aid or fruit drink. Purely a liquid diet! My hat is off to all they do that for a living. I can't imagine doing that now as I was only 15 to 19 years old when I did it.
But than again maybe if more kids did it they would know the meaning of work and work harder to do something different....there were no app substitutes for getting ones hands dirty in hard jobs back when I was growing up!
Quote of the day from Elbert Hubbard:
"Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do."
Happy Thursday and Elbert had some great insight about work and rewards....what are you doing today? Stay cool my friends.Posted 06-09-2011 at 05:00 AM by dansdrive
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Friday June 10, 2011 and its 81.7 degrees outside and sunny-ing its way up to a high of 95 with a chance of Thunder busters today. The start of the weekend! Wondrous is a word that comes to mind. For those that are mind-less I suppose the word is just plain 'Duh'...
I started reading an interesting book called "The Fabric of America". It is all about how the states boarders were made and how it shaped not only the countries boundaries but also our beliefs as a people. Its fascinating so far and I am just finishing the section on how Pennsylvania's southern boarder was made by ole Mason and Dixon. Really cool how they used the stars and sexton's along with planet's traversing in front of the sun for their coordinates along with a lot of mathematical calculations to set the state boundary lines. Folks this was the 1770's! No GPS's, no Satellites, no computers. Just raw brain power! Today's GPS systems validated their work in determining what latitude the boundary lines were set at. Most are right on with a few a just a few feet off. The master mind surveyor of these early days was Andrew Ellicott. Look him up what a fascinating person he must of been. His book maybe my next!
Quote of the day from Thomas Jefferson in 1787:
"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves. "
Happy Friday and can't you just see the wolf's teeth these days all over? As Thomas said be 'attentive' to keep the wolves at bay.Posted 06-10-2011 at 09:10 AM by dansdrive
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Monday June 13, 2011 and its 71.0 degrees outside tracking up to a projected high of 88 degrees. Summer! Well the calendar is not quite on the predefined summer date yet but the weather waits for no one particular date so my word for today is simply 'summer!'
Speaking of dates and summer, this is my 400th post to this almost daily blog. As I reflect back I can't believe I had posted that much, time fly's by when your blogging along I suppose. These past 399 and today's post have been a blogging blast. I hope I had made one smile, laugh, and most of all think. Think of what this country or your childhood was like growing up in this great country of ours. Think what it could be again! Reflect on some of the amazing quotes from our founding fathers and other special people along our countries historical path. We must never let the spirit of what America was founded upon die. We need to believe in what America is all about and move forward as a free and self sufficient people. One that helps our neighbors without being asked. One that stands on our own two feet and moves forward without a government hand out. One that strives to make sure our children are learning all they can in and out of the schools classrooms. One that places the family as the core morale generator so our children can be electrified by what the future offers them.
One thing I always learned about history is it always has a beginning, a middle, and a end. So this 400th post will be my end for awhile. I have some vacation time coming that I want to use up and go see the kids and some of this great country of ours. I certainly will miss telling the story of my child and young adulthood growing up in Pennsylvania. What it meant to be a kid 40 years ago at least to me and my generation. How sweet it was and how sweet it is today!
Quote of the day from Mother Teresa:
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
Happy Monday and Mother Teresa got it right in so many ways my friends. On a lighter note, just sing the song today that has the line in it, "Don't worry, by happy!" Bye for now.Posted 06-13-2011 at 05:47 AM by dansdrive
