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.
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Tuesday September 27, 2011 and its 76.6 degrees heading up to 84 degrees. Chance again for a shower or two or maybe three! Chance reminds me of the time as a kid we crawled through some freight cars. We lived very near a few railroad yards. The passenger part of the railway yards was long gone but there was still a lot of freight that went through the yards.
We use to cross the rail yard to go downtown when we were young. Downtown is where the movie theaters were and it was a treat as a kid to go to the movies! Anyway back to the rail yards. We would go down there and play even though we were told many times don't play on the tracks! We did. Fortunately for us no one ever got more than a bruise or scratch from those trains.
We would explore the rail cars. We would climb up there ladders and get up on top of them and than down the other side of them and over to the next and so on till we reached the front of the cars. Not many had engines on them as it was a rail yard were they made up the trains. Sometimes the box cards were open and we would go in and explore. They were usually always empty but sometimes they were not. It was not uncommon to see what was called back in the day a Hobo or Bum sleeping in the empty cars or along the buildings in the rail yard awaiting the next train to leave the station. These men rarely ever bothered us kids but sometimes they would chase us through the rail yard. We had two things going for us, we know the area and we were quicker than they were. Occasionally we were chased by the rail workers but never caught! Over the years a lot of the workers knew is by sight and not name and knew we were not doing damage to the cards or rail yard just kids messing around having fun. In fact we use to get our best chalk from the caboose guys they always had this large diameter chalk they marked the rail cars with when they made up the trains. They use to toss it from the caboose cars when they went by. Pretty cool!
Quote of the day from Ada Luise Huxtable:
"Nothing was more up-to-date when it was built, or is more obsolete today, than the railroad station."
Happy Tuesday and where has your railroad tracks of life taken you?
Posted 09-27-2011 at 12:28 PM by dansdrive
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Wednesday September 28, 2011 and its a cloudy 70.2 degrees outside ticking up to a projected high of 85 degrees today. Chance of a shower or two. Last night had a good thunder buster around 2AM. Woke me Sue and a dog named Boo. Not my dog and I don't know a Sue but someone's named Sue and Boo!
Speaking of Boo we are ever approaching Boo-Day! Halloween is slightly over a month away. So much candy and so little time! Our old neighborhood growing up always did it up for Halloween. About this time the decorations would go up and as the leaves fell it was time to make the scarecrows or stuffed dummies to put in the front yard or on ones porch. Seemed like everyone use to make them up that had kids. Today one rarely finds them. We use to get old clothes and stuff them with leaves and sew the shirts to the pants and sometimes they had real pumpkin heads but most times we just had burlap bags as heads or no heads at all! Gee Gads! They would be in lawn chairs or laying on the ground. Some were hung from trees and porches and some had smiles painted on them and some had faces or pure terror! This was a time for us kids to be creative with the limited supplies we had around the house we always came up with something.
I remember one year my best friend at the time had a second floor porch and he decided to make up a dummy and hang him from the second floor porch. He caused quite a stir in the neighborhood as it was so realistic people thought someone actually hung themselves. His mom received several phone calls from neighbors asking she take that down and to her credit she did not. It was all part of the fun of the Halloween season!
And what was that season without the Great Pumpkin Patch Charlie Brown?
Quote of the day from Chris Rock:
"Charlie Brown is the one person I identify with. C.B. is such a loser. He wasn't even the star of his own Halloween special. "
Happy Wednesday and do something special this Halloween with your children, may it a Boo-er-ific Day!
Posted 09-28-2011 at 06:55 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday September 29, 2011 and its 65.3 degrees outside heading up to a less humid 85 degrees today! Outstanding! ...and a whole lot of sunshine to boot!....or shade if one wants to toss their Foster Grants on!
What a great and glorious day! The drive in these days is dark and the only light is the red lights of the passing vehicles going by me like shooting stars when I appear like a stationary planet in space! No worries the passing red lights are cool! Some blink while others get brighter at times. Ever wonder why so many of us are in such a rush? Why we miss the beauty around us because we don't have time? We all want to feel better and happier but miss the little things in life as they pass them by that could in fact make them better and happier.
Slow down, it is allowed you know. Take a minute or 10 minutes or an hour to just slow down catch your breath and watch a sunrise or a sunset and if your really lucky both! Life on our earth is short and unpredictable and it just seems that those that 'rush' through it never have to time to enjoy the truly short time we have here. We all like to hit the accelerator from time to time but not all the time! Let life come at you so you can fully absorb it and instead of banging into life's obstacles slowly and methodically navigate around them. Patience is a virtue they say but so is taking the time to smell the coffee on the way out the door each morning. Take that extra 30 seconds to peek in on your sleeping child or spouse. Pet that cat or dog on the way out in the morning. Take a few deep breaths to clean the nights air from those lungs. If you are so inclined say a quick prayer to the one above who let you wake up on this fine day and ask for his help and guidance to get through another day of your life. Because remember one day you will spend eternity with him above and that's a real long time!
Once you do all that the coffee will taste better, the commute to work will be a breeze and your day will be brighter. How do I know all these things? I try to practice them everyday and most days are alright with me! We do not live in a perfect world so don't expect your days to be perfect or your clothes, or cars, or homes, or neighborhoods, or children. Perfect is subjective. Feeling perfect is far more important than what someone other than you perceives you as.
Quote of the day from Democritis (460B.C. - 360 B.C):
"Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul."
Happy Thursday and today smile wider and love deeper than you ever did before, its the only way to live! Old Democritis was on to something way way way way back than! <SMILE> it warms the soul!
Posted 09-29-2011 at 05:06 AM by dansdrive
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Friday September 30, 2011 and its 59.2 degrees zipping up a to projected high of 85 sun filled degrees. Hey folks we got a double positive today! Its Friday and its the last day of the month! Its get away day..... Working little longer than half day to close out the month and than getting away to step back into time. Heading to the place that they live our Colonial times everyday! Fan-BenjaminFranklin-tasic!
Fall will be in the air and gas will be in the tank. Yee-haw! But this last day of the month is a good time to reflect on the past month. The Hurricane that came up the east coast and the tropical storm that came up from the Gulf of Mexico that flooded the northeast. In that case good rid-dins to September!
But September in the south to me is the month of the Spider. Seems like everywhere you look you see our 8 legged friends or enemies...that's a personal choice. But when the sunshine's just right in my backyard it looks like Herman Munster s living room! Web's are everywhere usually complete with a spider. There are big ones and little ones, brown ones and black ones, spotted ones and ones I won't go near enough to know what color they are. There are ground ones and ones that are weavers which by the way get very large indeed. I personally am no fan to the 8 leg creatures but respect their right to do what it is they do as long as they do it outside my home and not inside. This is the time of the year our old lab comes back from her perimeter walk around the fence line with a face full of webs. Good grief!
But maybe its the time to get us ready for October and Halloween and all the creepy crawly things that go bump in the night.....I don't know but they can certainly creep and crawl their way far far from me!
Quote of the day from Pablo Picasso:
"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web."
Happy Friday and may the webs of life you encounter keep what you want kept and let pass those that are not worth sticking around for!Posted 09-30-2011 at 05:36 AM by dansdrive
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October 3, 2011 and its 54 degrees outside warming up to a projected high of 85 if that seems possible. What a great weekend to step back into time. Time just before the Revolution, time in the late 1600's to mid 1700's. Time to walk the paths of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Lord Dunmore Governor of the Capital of Virgina for a time days past.
Anybody that has the least bit on interest in Colonial America must must must go to Williamsburg Virgina. Where yes is still Aye. Where 17 Century court is still held as it was in the day. Where time on the hour is stated as Two of the clock. Where one can converse with seemingly a person plucked right out of the 17th century in full garments speaking to you in their native tongue. Just amazing! Being a buff on early American history and being this was the first time I ever visited Williamsburg I was like a kid in the candy shop.
I had to see it all experience it all. I had to visit all the sites and take in all the sounds. The sounds of the large guns the people of the day used going off, the pressure from the cannon blast, one after the other as they were loaded, stuffed, powered, and lite! Boom! Boom! Boom! One louder than the next all going off in front of the Capitol building. WOW! One can certainly live history here.
What a weekend....what a weekend! Definitely on the list to go back to as I never got to Yorktown or Jamestown.
Quote of the day from Thomas Paine:
"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
Happy Monday, Happy October, Happy start of a new month! Aye! Aye!Posted 10-03-2011 at 05:58 AM by dansdrive
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October 4, 2011 and its 49.2 degrees Cooley heading up to 74 degrees. Its certainly is a bit chippy this morning. Fall is in the air for sure. October has come a calling with some brisk cool air. Reminds me of Salmon fishing on the Oswego river near the first dam.
We would get there before first light along will all the other fisherman. There was a set time before you could cast your lines in the water. Hot coffee and tea were the drink of choice. Then as light came up everyone would leave their vehicles and head on down to the river to claim their spot. In a matter of minutes the river was lined with fisherman waiting for the precise moment to cast their lines for those fish!
It was as if fisherman had a whistle that only they could hear, almost in unison lines began to be cast. Fishing poles were like their fisherman holders, they came in all sizes. There were fly fishing poles, and casting rods, and ultralight poles, spinning rod poles, and the list went on and on. With all the lines cast and the fisherman at the ready it was time to catch fish!
In a matter of minutes the yell went out across the river, FISH ON! and up and down the river the fisherman would fight this large Salmon, crossing in front of and behind other fisherman. The fight was on and than as quick as it started it was over.....line broke! I think Captain Quint said it best in the movies Jaws, "Lose one you rig one." It was as simple as that. I seen more fishing poles snap that day as well as angry fishermen at themselves, their gear, and their fellow fisherman than I had ever witnessed before.
I was in utter amazement watching all this, so I hap hardily had my line in the water and waited. Within the first hour I had my fish on! I fought it for about trwo minutes and snap went my line. I was using 20 pound mono-filament fishing line and it snapped like it was sewing thread. But by my third fish on I got it, I fought my third fish for over half hour and it was a big fish.
It weighed in at over 33 pounds and that's a lot of Salmon! I knew it was a lot when it latched onto my hook and started to swim away. It was like playing tug a war with a person. That fish pulled and pulled and pulled. I found out quickly why you must yell in a loud stern voice, 'Fish On!', this is to inform fisherman near you to be ready to yank their lines out of the water as the lines of the fisherman and fish get blurred when fighting a 33 pound fish. For sometime the fish is in control of the fisherman. The fisherman can only glide up and down the rivers edge hoping to tire the fish out.
Now not every fisherman has etiquette to let his fellow fisherman pass with a fish on. So that is where the anger and yelling comes out. The patient fisherman's mystique is shattered by a few obscenities and hand gestures as they pass each other on the river bank. But all in all its an experience worth taking!
So this cool morning reminds of fishing on the banks of the Oswego River in October for the big Salmon!
Quote of the day from Herbert Hoover:
" Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers. "
Happy Tuesday and may your day be filled with catches of unknown happiness!!!!Posted 10-04-2011 at 06:45 AM by dansdrive
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Wednesday October 5, 2011 and its a sun-shining full sky of 56.5 degrees, well down here on the surface of the earth its 56.5 degrees heading up to a projected high of 78 degrees. "How sweet it is!" ..in memory of the late great Jackie Gleason.
Its hump day...middle of the week. Its a day to give thanks to the one above....but than again everyday is! I for one am exuberantly happy the Lord is with me each and every day and forgives me for all my faults. Thanks Lord!
Yesterday I spoke of fishing on the Oswego river in upstate NY and today I shall write about fishing the Susquehanna river in Northeastern PA. I was out on a boat in the Susquehanna with my Uncle many moons ago, one early autumn morning. We had a small fishing boat complete with a 7.5 horsepower Sears motor. We launched the boat from a cottage we were staying at along the river. This area of the river was absolutely gorgeous, it had rapids and deep pools, it had islands in the river, some had mature trees on them while others were just barely visible above the waters surface dotted with rocks and stones. Which I never was sure on the difference between a rock and a stone....but rolling right along..
We stopped about a quarter of a mile up river to test our luck. I put on a black Rooster tail #5 spinner bait. Had some luck with these fishing for small mouth bass. The sun was barely up over the mountain that rose on the east side of the river bank. My first cast had seemingly barely hit the water when I felt a great tug on my fishing line. It had actually startled me as I was not expecting a strike so soon.
Our boat was adrift as rarely one anchors in the river for a variety of reasons but anyway being we were adrift the fish actually was starting to pull our boat down river. I remember yelling 'WOW!'. Just as I was about to loosen the drag on the reel the line snapped! Oh no!!!! I had not even got to see this fish on my line.....no fight, no pictures, no filet's, nothing...notta!
So it was the one that truly got away! Fish one...me none! But it is a day I will not forget. Was just a beautiful day on a boat drifting on the Susquehanna river.
Quote of the day from George Eliot:
"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."
Happy Wednesday on this autumn day of our surroundings and most notably not the feeling within our souls!Posted 10-05-2011 at 07:51 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday October 6, 2011 and its 55.1 degrees outside heading up to a projected high of 77 degrees. Now if it was a rainy 77 degrees I would say that would be ducky! But since its a sunny 77 degrees today I will say it will be nifty!
Nifty reminds me of my old 1964 Chevy Nova! Me and that old car spent a lot of quality time together. In the driveway repairing it, cleaning it up, filling the rust holes in her body with Bondo and eventually getting it painted like new. I knew every inch of that car, under it and over it. I spent a many an hour in the junkyard getting parts for her. I would change parts on that car just for the fun of learning how to do it. The parts were typically all used from the junkyard as I didn't have the money to buy new ones.
I remember I could of bought four used Craig SS rims for it off a friend for $100. The car would of looked really cool with those rims but I just could not get myself to spend that kind of money on four rims....couldn't do it! I did put a stereo in with two Craig 3-way speakers in the back. So Jefferson Starship, Doobie Brothers, ELO, Boston, Pink Flyod, Alice Cooper tunes, just to name a few could be heard by all! The car was frequently waxed and usually spent a weekend night or two in the Drive-in for the double features. ....In those days I was lucky to see one of the double features! Even on cool autumn nights the car heater was not needed in the drive-in!
Quote of the day from Harry Chapin:
"Our lives are to be used and thus to be lived as fully as possible, and truly it seems that we are never so alive as when we concern ourselves with other people."
Happy Thursday and old Harry knew a little more than 'the cats in the cradle' I suppose!Posted 10-06-2011 at 06:03 AM by dansdrive
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Friday October 7, 2011 and its 46.4 degrees outside zipping up to 74 degrees today! For a Friday that is A-OK with me. The operative word for this weekends forecast is sun, sun, and more sun! Cool nights which will equal hot bonfires! Mid 70's during the day which will mean cooler yard working days.
Got some grass that needs its first cutting this weekend. The aeration and seeding has done its job and now the cutter must do his. I think I shall make up some more Blue Bird houses now that it got cooler and I can work in the garage without being soaked as taking a dip in Falls Lake. Tony the tiger says it best when he says....GRRRRR-eat!
Quote of the day from Byron Pulsifer:
"Make each day of the week like Friday and your life will take on new enthusiasm."
Happy Friday and Happiest of weekends and Byron was on to something and that is for sure. So on this Friday October 7, be good, go wise, and most notably be yourself!Posted 10-07-2011 at 06:19 AM by dansdrive
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Monday October 10, 2011 and its Columbus Day and it happens to be 52.2 degrees outside 'sailing' up to a projected high of 78 degrees. 'Santa Maria!' Was a spectacular weekend weather wise and about every which other wise one can dream up!
Decided to get my other old car ready for the coming winter. Rotated the tires and checked the brakes. Rear brakes, acceptable. Front brakes...time for a change. I always purchase life time replacement warranty brake pads. So I buy brakes once for the life of the car. In fact I had a person behind the counter say; WOW you still have this car? I most politely said yes and I bet its older than you!
So brakes went on without a hitch. Unlike my other car that needed new calipers as well. Thanks GM! I also put in a new set of spark plugs. So the entire 'Get Ready' for winter cost was $22. And that is something I can get excited about and the fact that I have not had a car payment in over 10 years! <Happy Dance!> I am happy waxing an old'er' car and keeping it running for a couple of hundred thousand miles than to go out and throw money into a new car and watch its value literally vanish as it is driven off the lot. But to each their own!
I also started a new book this weekend called "American Creation' by Joseph J. Ellis. Its pretty good so far. The author tries to show that the founding fathers were not perfect and in some cases lucky on how things turned out. But as they say your have to be good and a little luck never hurt anyone from becoming great...or something like that.
The other chores this weekend was planting some more grass and trimming back some trees on the property that have overgrown a walking path. What I failed to do this weekend was have a bonfire.... Oh no...and it was a glorious weekend for a bonfire and that fact is for sure. That will have to wait for next weekend.
Quote of the day from...I did not catch his name this weekend as I spoke to this gentlemen but what he said surely captured my attention. I will paraphrase as I can't recall exactly how he said it.
"My goal in life is simple, live to be able to enter heavens gates and take as many souls with me as I can."
Happy Monday and I had never heard it put that way before but what a wonderful and full life you would lead by following the above words and most importantly the deeds to get one there. <Smile> today is the first day of the rest of your life you know!Posted 10-10-2011 at 05:36 AM by dansdrive
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Tuesday October 11, 2011 and its 62.1 raining degrees outside heading its way up to 78 degrees...maybe? With all the clouds and rain I am not a weather man but I think it will be tough to warm up out of the 60's today....
Rainy days like this reminds me of my school days. These were days that it was A-Okay to be in school. It was dry, we were with friends and indoor recess usually meant dodge ball! Boink! Rats I'm out! Then we got to sit on the sidelines and watch our friends get picked off one by one and join us 'losers' on the sideline. Boink! Boink! Boink! Out! Out! Out! Until there were two left and than the wiz of a ball here and there until there was one! The winner! I am pretty sure I never was the last one left but they never deterred me from competing and trying to win. I hated to lose and did get better through the competition of competing!
We had some amazing teachers back than and a lot of it was due to the amazing parent(s) we had that provided us support and challenged us to be better. They taught us not to quite and that not everyone wins. There are losers and losing makes you stronger. We all did not win nor did we get trophies for just competing. It just was not done back then, it was about competing to WIN! Even with that level of competition we still managed to have fun. We also learned the benefits of competing and getting better and we did.
Thanks to all my teachers over the years who challenged me to be better than I would of been without them!
Quote of the day from Ernest Dimnet:
" Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. "
Happy Tuesday and who have you challenged today to be better? Was it the one in the mirror this morning?Posted 10-11-2011 at 06:51 AM by dansdrive
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Wednesday October 12, 2011 and it 66 wet degrees outside sprinkling..scratch that...showering its way up to 74 degrees today. Rain is good! Grass is green! Lawn mower it tuned up and ready to cut! So, rain is good!
Not so good driving in, as accidents rise when rain falls. Today was no exception as the radio was filled with accidents on Route 401, 440, US1 and the list goes on.
Reminds me of an accident I should of been in but was not. I had my drivers license for only a few months when one day I was driving and seen this big puddle of water in the road ahead of me. Well being the 16 year old that I was with my new 'old' car I decided it would be neat to fly through it and watch the giant tsunami wave I could make on both sides of my car. So this plan was hatched in my mind no more than 1000 feet from the puddle. I was ready, it would be cool all I would have to do is accelerate. Now on one side of that puddle was some parked cars so they were going to take the blunt of my wave.. This was a city street mind you, not all that wide.
As I approached the puddle I began to speed up. As I hit the puddle I punched the accelerator as I was going to fly through this puddle. Well I learned all about hydroplaning in about 5 seconds that seemed to be an hour! The car accelerated as planned except the tires lost contact with the surface of the road and the car decided to spin...as much as I turned the wheel the less control I had over the direction of my car. I spun at least three times and amazingly enough I stayed straight down the road and did not hit the parked cars nor the curb on the other side of the road. When the car came to rest after the spins it was pointing the opposite direction from what I was traveling. I remember saying to myself; What was that all about? And that little voice we sometimes here in the tone of my fathers and sometimes my school driving instructor....'Hydroplaning Son!'
I learned a valuable lesson that day and was extremely fortunate I was not hurt, my car was not damaged, and no one else was hurt or any property was damaged. The only thing damaged that day was my pride! I can live with that....
Quote of the day from C. S. Lewis:
"A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of coarse, as long as they are looking down, you can't see something that is above you."
Happy wet Wednesday and never let your pride get in the way of doing the right thing. Jettison your pride to lift someone up today from their troubles.Posted 10-12-2011 at 06:53 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday October 13, 2011 and its will suffice to say its 70 something outside and will get warmer than that which will be the high! Hmmmm...why the ambiguity on the exact temperature? Well my laptop came down with a bug a.k.a virus a.k.a. productivity eliminator a.k.a. pain in the aspirin! (Bet you thought I was going to say something not found in the medicine cabinet! <smile>
Well laptop is on the mend but many files were lost in the process. My last backup was not nearly soon enough. UGH! ..and sooner or later I would pay for that and yesterday and today was time to pay back the lack of back-up(s)! I also used the restore functions of windows which ran and took many minutes and came back with the pop-up window that said is was successfully run! Great joys in my office rang out. I danced with joy and was ready to go down the several stairway steps in the office building and take a deep breath at the bottom. Than with the Rocky music playing in my mind I was going to run up the steps and get to the top and throw a few left's and rights in succession at my imaginary opponent and claim utter victory over my PC Virus! ....YEAH! Hey Adrian!
But it was not to be. Once I restarted my laptop I got the same error! UGH #2! So it required a deeper cleansing of those '1's' and '0's' on my Hard drive. I had to get the bottle of Windows 'Zap'em out' cleaner but my shelf was bare! In other words I had to reload my machine with Windows from scratch... UGH #3!
So after some time, OK...long time my machine was loaded with a clean Windows O/S. But wait....say it is not so...all the supplemental software packages I had loaded over the years are gone...gone I tell you! Not a byte or bit for that matter is on my hard drive....never more, never more! So I will be doing a deep dive in my cabinets in both work and home to find the CD Disk to reload the lost programs! UGH #4! ....and UGH #5!
But it is still a Happy Thursday! I woke up as usual thanked the Lord for my nights rest and to guide me on my day ahead! With him in my corner nothing is impossible!
Quote of the day from Bill Vaughan, 1969 no less:
" To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer."
Happy Thursday for a second time as we can never get enough positive reinforcements in our day!Posted 10-13-2011 at 10:26 AM by dansdrive
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Friday October 14, 2011 and its 62.2 degrees outside clearing out to a projected high of 76 degrees. A nice weekend is in the offering for the start of the North Carolina State Fair. On the list of new fried foods this year.....fried Kool-aid! Are you serious? My fried eating habits stop at chicken......fried Kool-aid? I thought last years deep fried Krispy Creme hamburger would be tough to package but I was a bit soggy because they did top it!
But the deep fried Kool-aid will not be enough to get me to the Fair this year. Going to pass on the Fair. Have gone the last few years and it really has not changed enough each year to get me back. So will bypass the Fair for a couple of years so that when I go back it will feel new again.
Today is Friday, end of the week, start of the weekend! Sweet! My laptop is actually running better since the reload. Still adding back the programs I seemingly find each hour that I am missing so slowly adding them back. Made me think about the times in life where we get to reload and start over sort of speak. We get to add back in the parts of our life we feel we still need while letting other stay on the shelf and eventually get thrown out. The reload lets us feel better about our life and/or the life's of our loved ones.
To me it brings home the book I am reading called, "American Creation", by Joseph J. Ellis. It was the time our colonial leaders wanted a reload of what America was to become and who we were to become as a people of our own United Colonies (States). They got to load programs (laws/rules) to allow the colonies to Unite under one Government for all their over riding protection from our enemies both foreign and domestic while keeping the States in charge of their own inhabitants.
Move the clock forward 235 years and we have the opposite effect governing the unites states. Our federal government has more power than the individual states governments. This was a major fear of the founding fathers who were leaders of the Colonies (States) that the federal government would become so powerful that it would diminish the rights of the States to govern their people and that is so sad, so very sad.
But there is hope and that hope is in the first 55 words of the Declaration of Independence so eloquently written by Thomas Jefferson:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
That my friends is the quote for today. Please read it several times as it sums up who we are as Americans and our way of life! Those 55 words were the least debated among the Continental congress as they rewrote the rest of the Declaration but not these basic beliefs which defines who we became as a people. WOW what a powerful 55 words....
Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend and may it last as long as the first five days of the week!
P.S. Don't forget to mow the lawn!Posted 10-14-2011 at 05:41 AM by dansdrive
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Monday October 17, 2011 and its a beautiful 58.1 degrees outside sun shining its way up to 84 degrees! So says the weather report. And for my generation that is 'Right On!'. It was a spectacular North Carolina Fall weekend, weather wise. Absolutely gorgeous! Plenty of sun and Carolina blue sky! Deep red sunset like State Red! Late fall days just before night the skies faded to their dark Blue Devil blue!
On my old 4WD vee-hic-le I got to change the oil and finally attempt to get the 4WD working in the old 2WD impersonating a 4WD vehicle! I researched all the known problems with 4WD operation on my vehicle and also printed out all the electrical schematics I could get free on the internet and started my assault under and into the vehicle. I unplugged connectors, took off covers, checked fuses, traced wires, traced vacuum lines, looked for leaks, breaks, and the obvious.....and nothing! Everything from the visual eye looked peachy keen! So out came my $2.99 trusty Harbor Freight multimeter to as they say get down and personal with the wiring in my vehicle. After a few 'probes' it was evident to me that the wiring was ok. So what in tar-heel country is wrong with this 4WD. So I put everything I took apart back together again with the greatest of ease. Started the vehicle and set the vehicle in 4WD Low and 'clunk' it engaged. Great catapult machines from the past! It went into 4WD-low. Now with all the courage I could muster up with greases dirty fingers I pressed the 4WD-Hi button and on command it went into 4WD-Hi! Eureka young skywalker the force was with me yesterday! My 4WD has come alive! It has been reborn! It clunks when it should clunk and it un-clunks when it should un-clunk!
Out for a quick test drive constantly engaging 4WD and removing 4WD like a kid with a new toy! I did it! I DID IT! But....what did I do? Nothing you see....all I did was plug and un-plug some connectors so I have a lose connection or broken wire somewhere in the 4WD system. But for now it works! The missing 4WD has been found, albeit by luck more than skill!
In between did manage to get the lawn mowed, a few batches of leaves and pine needles burnt in the fire pit while collecting a wheel barrel of dead fallen branches for a friend to pick up so he could have a bonfire in his fire pit! Just an all around fantastic North Carolina fall weekend!
Quote of the day from James Madison, the last founding father to pass in 1836:
" In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."
Happy Monday and James was on his game when he made the above quote. Now if only our elected officials can remember his quote......Have a fantastic Monday!!!Posted 10-17-2011 at 05:04 AM by dansdrive
Updated 10-17-2011 at 05:30 AM by dansdrive -
Tuesday October 18, 2011 and its 59.6 degrees zipping up to sun filled skies of 82 degrees. Currently its not only mostly dark outside its completely dark outside....Boo! The rains come later this evening and some overnight and some more tomorrow and that is just fine with my grass!
In the category of what next....I arose to the news that people in the city of brotherly love were holding captive the lowly and meek of our society for their government checks......greed. There are not words strong enough in the English language to describe these individuals that would hold other members of mankind in such deplorable conditions. Has this what our society has sunk to? Have we lost sight of our brothers and sisters that need a hand to exist in our rapidly changing society and value their lives in the form of a monthly government check?
I am deeply saddened by this news and am left wondering why? Why has our society that was built on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness sunk back into the darkened days of evil? This is pure evil nothing more, nothing less.
My apologies from deviating from my normal daily journal of hopefully uplifting words, not always of wisdom nor wit but with hope that they bring you some daily cheer and chuckle. Ok its a Monday through Friday cheer and chuckle but chuckle none the less. But this story is so very very sad and disturbing and reflective of where we are heading as a society that it must be told so it does not slip into the news archives as so many stories tend to do these days.
Quote of the day from Monica Baldwin:
"What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us the closest possible intimacy with God."
Happy Tuesday and never let evil come between you and the light of God.....ever!
For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. (Psalms 149:4 KJV)Posted 10-18-2011 at 05:56 AM by dansdrive
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Wednesday October 19, 2011 and its 61.2 degrees outside heading its way upward to maybe a high of 77 degrees. Much needed rain last evening and night and one word for that and that is precipitation!
Here we are in the middle of the week just past the middle of the month and long past the middle of the year! Today driving in reminded me of days as a kid my family use to drive to the apple orchard in October. It was a long ride but well worth it. Us kids would fidget in the backseat until we were yelled at by first Mom and than Dad. Dad had the final word as we knew when he spoke it was time to take notice and cool it!
Eventually we would arrive and it was always busy. It was the kind of place one didn't go pick the apples as they were already in bags and bushels. Mom would typically buy a grocery size bag of McIntosh apples and sometime Red Delicious. These would be for eating and baking. We also got either candy coated apples or Carmel coated apples as a treat! These were umm umm good! Than it was back in the car for the long ride home. Not sure why I thought of that this morning other than it being October and a chill in the air and the cloudy sky I suppose. I can't even remember the price of apples back than but they were obviously worth the trip to the orchard to get them! But it was also good family time where we could all be together which was not always easy and nearly impossible as we grew older.
So for the young families never miss the opportunity to do something together, albeit a Apple Orchard, a pumpkin farm, a park, a walk, or just all being around the supper table together....that time will last a life time for all of you!
Quote of the day from Robert H. Schuller:
"Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed."
Happy Wednesday and I never thought of Robert's quote that way before......endless come to mind!Posted 10-19-2011 at 06:56 AM by dansdrive
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Thursday October 20, 2011 and its 47.7 degrees outside chilling its way up to 63 but the sun will be shinning and the wind will be a breeze-in! That's our forecast and they are sticking to it!
This is the day way back in 1803 the Senate ratified the Louisiana purchase. Next to the Declaration of Independence this was Thomas Jefferson's biggest achievement! It opened up the west to the young United States! What a deal! In 1803 this is what $11,250,000 would buy you and a minor detail of the detail where the young United States would forgive France's debt to the US of a mere $15,000,000. In 2011 and for as long as the United States is knows as the United States it will always be a great deal! Thanks President Jefferson!
With that acquisition our young United States had country building to do. After all the purchase was for only 828, 800 square miles of land and certainly one could build a home or two within that land mass....no? But digging deeper into the history of the purchase shows that it is one of the reasons our young nation finally got into the Civil War. As it was decided that the new United States territory would allow slavery to exist within the purchased land. So with the good always comes the bad and it took another 50 plus years and a lot of life's and a great war to fix that part of the purchase. Thanks President Lincoln!
Now turn the clock forward to present day, 2011 and we have no more land to purchase, no more places to grow west, south or north to......maybe that is why we seem to be in decline. It appears a society albeit free or controlled needs something to strive for. The 1800's we had land to explore and move to, the early to mid 1900's we had manufacturing to develop and make the lives easier for everyday people through automation and innovation, 1960's we had to get to the moon and back safely! ....and then somewhere in the 20th Century will lost momentum, we lost the fuel to keep the fire burning in us as a society to grow, learn, and be number one!
That fire turned to amber's of hot coal that now and again flame up but the flames of growth have left our spirits to lands to the east. China is stoking those flames as they have land to explore and grow to, they have education to complete for their citizens, and they have wealth to achieve based on the flames of growth.
One can learn allot about the future by reading about the past.
Quote of the day from Thomas Jefferson:
"I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some ... that the enlargement of our territory would endanger its union.... The larger our association the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children than by strangers of another family?"
Happy Thursday and what will you purchase this day?Posted 10-20-2011 at 05:34 AM by dansdrive
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Friday October 21, 2011 and its 44.3 cool degrees zipping on up to 66 degrees. One word to explain today weather, 'Fall', that's it! No rain in the forecast for at least the next 10 days....how sweet it is!
Well the weekend is here, it has come upon us from a now far off Monday and a bit closer Tuesday. We were half way here on Wednesday and oh so close on Thursday! But today is Friday, one last work day to close this week out. As a kid Friday's were not much different than being an adult. It was the last day to trudge up the hill to school, it usually meant a test or two of what we learned for the week or a impromptu spelling bee. After the first couple of years of having them we usually knew who was going to win them. Our grade school had very few new kids enter each year so we got to go from K through 6th grade with the same bunch of kids. Needless to say we all knew each other very well.
Well enough to help each other out when needed and well enough to come to blows with each other when disputes arose. Rarely anyone was ever suspended or sent home as we all knew the fate for that with our parents was far worse than the school suspension was. When we got in trouble for talking in class or not behaving we knew our fate. We would have to clap the chalk erasers against a brick wall fire pit we had in our schoolyard. Everyday before school let out a small group of kids would be out there clapping those erasers against that wall in a cloud of chalk.
Our janitor would burn the schools papers each day in that fire pit. They never made it to the landfill, it was all burned. Oh how times have changed. Chalk is out and dry erasers are in. The paths to get in trouble have grown exponentially. We had talking in class, doodling during call, chewing gum, passing hand written notes in class, and the big one was no paying attention during class. Today its all of the ones we had above plus text-ing in class, cell phone games in class, ipod use, inappropriate internet searches, weapons in the classroom, calculator use during test, and the big one for today is lack of respect for teachers in the classroom.....
But for my generation when that school bell rang on a Friday at 3:30PM it was a pure and simple jail break...every exit of our school had kids pouring out to make that track to their homes. It meant a quick change and out to play as fall days meant it gets dark before 6PM and we typically had to be back by 5:30PM to have supper with the family.
Quote of the day from Abraham Lincoln:
"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. "
Happy Friday and ole Abe was so very right....what will the next generation usher in for us? But for today its Friday and enjoy your weekend and read a book to yourself or to a child as we want that next generation to be better than the present!
P.S. Don't forget to clean the gutters out this weekend!Posted 10-21-2011 at 05:30 AM by dansdrive
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Monday October 24, 2011 and its 48.6 degrees outside and the mercury will be as if yeast was added to it as it will rise up to 75 sunny filled degrees today! ....and that is just fine with me.
Speaking of fine and in two ways. One spent Saturday volunteering at a fund raiser for most of the day. Had a great time and met some wonderful people. The day slipped by faster than a dollar bill at the State Fair! Sunday was a day of rest and tiding up the backyard a bit and by that I mean cranking up the bonfire and burning a wood pile or two that was laying around from the cleanup. As the wood burnt and created some bellows of smoke that rose straight up into the air we were finally able to kick back and just relax and count our blessings on another wonderful weekend. Our ole lab took her position between the fire and us as she too got to relax on a late Sunday afternoon. She was not interested in chasing anymore tennis balls or sticks. She was content to just catch a few zzzzz's and listen to our conversations and the crackling and popping of the wood burning!
The second fine part of the weekend was reading a chapter in the book I spoke about called, 'American Creation' by Joseph J. Ellis. The chapter I am on is about the formation of the two party system in US politics. Its centered around Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and a particular area that really caught my attention was a trip up the Hudson river they both took in May 1791. Both Jefferson and Madison who were Virginians took this cruise in the spring and were met with azaleas, blackberries, and white pine along the way. The went up to Lake George and found it to be splendid and then went further north to Lake Champlain which was not nice at all they remembered the battle of Saratoga and Ticonderoga which many a country man was lost in battle. Jefferson wrote to his daughter that New England springs are bland in contrast to the explosion of color in the Virginia spring! Imagine that. Both men traversed Vermont and headed to the start of the Connecticut river and started their journey down river. Like two tourists absorbing all the sights, sounds, and smells as they traveled to them in a foreign land....now these two were no ordinary men! One basically wrote the Declaration of Independence while the other is known as the father of the Constitution! Good grief what a trip that must have been. These two men changed the world as it was known at the time and their legacies live on today. And what did they talk about over the period of this amazing trip....politics! These two guys on this simple trip managed to create the foundation for the Republican party. Much of what they talked about is still talked about between friends and family today.
To think that these two men were able to travel around without reporters, fan fare, or even being noticed is amazing in itself. One could only imagine what an amazing trip that must have been........
Quote of the day from James Madison in a letter to Thomas Jefferson:
"Those who contend for a simple Democracy, or a pure republic, actuated by the sense of the majority, and operating within narrow limits, assume or suppose a case which is altogether fictitious. They found their reasoning on the idea....that they all have precisely the same interest, and the same feelings in every respect....We know however no society ever did or can consist of so homogeneous a mass of Citizens.....In all civilized societies, distinctions are variable and unavoidable....There will be rich and poor; creditors and debtors; a landed interest, a monied interest, a mercantile interest, a manufacturing interest. Those classes may again be subdivided according to the different productions of different situations of commerce and manufactures."
Happy Monday and oh my goodness did James Madison foresee the Occupy Wall Street gang? He clearly states that no society has ever been or will be so much the same as everyone's interest are the same....its just not possible.......its an amazing letter to his friend Thomas Jefferson that rings truthful in late 1700's as it does in 2011. One word sums it up....WOW!
Have a fantastic week and read, read, and read as our future as a people depends upon it!Posted 10-24-2011 at 06:02 AM by dansdrive
