Scotland and Richmond Counties

This week I’ve been in Scotland and Richmond Counties for work. Mostly the usual DOT and DMV compounds and offices and a couple of prisons to assess. We also inspected a 4-H camp and several Wildlife Resources facilities including 2 places where hunting dog field trials are held.

We were working around Rockingham, Laurinburg and Hamlet. I did not know that Hamlet was the location of a very large CSX railroad facility. The train maintenance yard stretches for miles along NC 177 between Hamlet and the North Carolina Motor Speedway. Along that 4 or 5 mile stretch are multiple rail lines, service support buildings and hundreds of rolling stock.

Hamlet has just finished renovating their train Depot pictured above. We spent a few minutes inside to check out the renovation which is absolutely spectacular. The depot is used for the 2 Amtrak trains which pass through daily and the town is gathering artifacts for a train museum to fill the rest of the building. The building originally stood across the tracks but had to be moved off of the CSX rail property. A whole new basement was built and the building placed on the new basement and foundation. That's quite a feat!

Hamlet is also the birthplace of John Coltrane and we happened to pass by his birthplace. So we stopped to take a photo.

We passed by this church near Gibson. Notice that all the windows, including those above the doors, are stained glass save for the steeple and the addition on the right. The plaque says the original church was built in 1835, burned by Sherman (pause while Bill spits the bitter taste out) and rebuilt in 1870.

The final photograph is of the Ellerbe Springs Inn where we had lunch on Thursday. Great food at ridiculously reasonable prices. I had a huge steak salad for $6. Coworkers had a Chef Salad - $6 and a Reuben Sandwich with fries and slaw - $5. My salad was as good as any I’ve ever had at 2 to 3 times the price. It’s amazing what you can find out in the middle of nowhere.

The bedrooms of the inn are very nicely done but the rest of the building still needs a lot of work. Of course, an old hotel of this size requires a lot of money to restore and the owners have only been at it a few short years – so it will take some time for them to afford the complete restoration. But you can tell that it’s going to be a grand mansion once they get the bulk of the work done.

We’ve had a really good productive week. I’m tired but it’s a good physical tired.

Tomorrow we finish up Morrison Prison and should be back in Raleigh by late afternoon.

I’ll be glad to be home for the weekend.

JN’s parents are coming Monday to work on the Durham house so I’ll be cleaning my house this weekend.

I may go into Raleigh on Saturday for the reopening of Fayetteville Street. They’re planning a festival with music and fireworks. I’ll see how I feel Saturday.

pray4anton

http://mosnews.com/news/2006/03/02/musya.shtml

Same Ol Same Ol

Once again - nothing noteworthy to report.

Watched Elephant today. Very well made movie but it's a one time watch only.

Just staying close to home this weekend. Need to clean up, do some laundry and pack. I'll be out of town for work all next week.

Pray4Ray

I don't know this guy or anyone associated with him or the web site.

He's probably a great guy - but for some reason, every time I've seen or heard about pray4ray the last few days - something about it just seems to rub me the wrong way.

Every couple of days there's a small article on the local news about a Charlotte man who was injured during this years Pamplona running of the bulls and associated festivities.

Today for example:

http://www.newsobserver.com/158/story/461723.html

He was pretty seriously hurt.

I do wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Being the web and information age - right after he got hurt - this web page was set up asking people to send their messages / prayers to him, etc. (and a place to donate $).

www.pray4ray.com

Check out the Tee shirt you can buy!

The site highlights Ray and his friends and what a nice clean cut family they are and this is simply an awful, awful I tell you, thing to befall them.

(His injury really is awful - regardless of why or how it happened.)

Sometimes bad things happen to good (Christian) people.

Well, I assume there's some sort of Christian thing going on here. I mean, we are implicitly asked to pray4ray!

Lots of Ray's photos seem to involve cans of beer, bottles of beer, or just plain alcohol and a good ol party time in general.

Allah willing - Ray will recover.

I wonder if it was God's will that Ray get into a bull ring and piss off some angry frightened cattle?

I wonder if Ray consumed any alcohol that day (which seems so ubiquitous in the photos)?


Let's be nice and pray for Ray's recovery.

I do hope that Ray recovers and will be ok.

We might also pray that Ray refrains from drinking too much and annoying large potentially dangerous animals.

Other People Who Do Dangerous Stuff

Perusing the pray4ray web site with numerous 'party on' photos caused me to think of my good friend JN who spent 14 years in the airborne serving his country.

Nuke and his fellow soldiers enjoyed more than their fair share of beer.

Plus they did some pretty dangerous things too - like combat in Desert Storm and peace keeping in Kosovo.

If you're so inclined - send your money to pray4ray.

But - before you send your money - check out anysolder.com and woundedwarriorproject.org.

Now there's a couple of truly worthwhile causes.

Also

If you look around, I'll bet your local fire department, rescue squad or police department might have a cause you could support as well.

And there's always Habitat for Humanity.

Omaha Steaks

Grilled the last of the Omaha Steaks, filet mignons, this evening. Coated with brown sugar and mustard sauce that my sister brought back from London. They were great.

Thanks again, GAH, CAH, CJA and BNA. That’s been one of the all time best gifts I’ve ever received.

There’s a new restaurant in Sanford that opened this year that features only Omaha Steak products. I’m spoiled now, so I’ll have to try it out.

Gattaca

Just finished watching Gattaca again. I think it's one of the best movies made in the last 10 years. Very much under rated by the critics and it didn't do very well at the box office. It's a hard movie to watch and very dark - but with a bittersweet but ultimately up lifting ending.

Nothing New

It’s been a week since I’ve posted anything. So – here’s a post to let everyone know that I’ve nothing to post.

Work has been typical. The usual building reports and cost estimates. Construction on various projects is humming along. When you’re driving about – look around – there’s always something being built.

At home, JN has been clearing out the undergrowth in the yard for the past couple of weeks. I have about 4 acres – heavily wooded. There’s a lot of under story growth that cuts off breezes and looks cluttered. I’ve been intending to start cleaning it up – for about – oh – 7 or 8 years. I guess JN got tired of listening to me talk about it and decided to start on it himself. In just 2 weeks he’s already made a big difference. I plan to work on it some as well this weekend.

I think we scare the neighbours. Most people will get out the hedge trimmers and pruning snips and carefully work away. JN uses a machete. I use a long handled hook tipped bush axe. We just flail away at stuff. It works. Screw finesse. LOL

(Reminder to self – need to hone a new edge on the machete)

Let’s see - next week I get a permanent crown put in (right molar).

I’ll also be out of town for work 2 days next week and the entire following week.

Saturday morning I have an appointment to take the Focus into the shop. It’s developed a spark knock at higher speeds along with a slight decrease in gas mileage.

If JN wants, we’ll go work on his house some more – but that’s up to him.

One and one-half months to the start of football. Yaaay!!!!

Unfortunately, NC State looks like we might be worse than mediocre this year. I hope not. When Amato arrived 7 years ago – I figured we’d be a perennial top 10 team by now. What happened?

Oh well. It’s only a game.

A game on which I spend almost 4 frikin thousand dollars a year on dues, donations and tickets!

Oooops. Started out to give a quick update and ended up putting myself in an ornery mood.

Like I said – nothing to post – just the usual daily stuff.

Answering Machine

I’ve finally given up on the high tech answering machine multi-phone system.

It worked great initially, but after a couple months, it began to display “line not found” periodically. Could be within the base unit or, speculation is, the phone line signal isn’t strong enough for the unit to pick up and amplify. I have no idea.

I bought a new, basic model, cheap, answering machine and 3 bottom of the line phones for the 2 spare bedrooms and JN’s space over the garage.

They all work.

I’ll try and get my money back for the multi-phone system but since it’s been several months, I’m not going to count on it.

If I can’t get my money back, I plan to give the system to my nephew who is very tech savvy. Plus, he lives in Cary where phone signal strength shouldn’t be a problem if that is the root cause of the malfunction.

In theory it’s a pretty nice system. Base unit with answering device and handset, speaker phone, able to transmit to a head set, yadda yadda yadda. 3 remote cordless units that pick up the signal from the base unit. When working – each remote unit can access the base unit data base of memory numbers, call history, etc.

Of course, I really want my money back. But if that isn’t to be – I hope the system is actually not broken (phone signal strength problem instead) so that ADH / family can use it.

Fourth of July

Work

Had a 4 day weekend – it was spent working instead of goofing off – which was good.

Nuke’s dad came back up Thursday and he and Nuke have been working on the Durham house. I helped out Saturday, Sunday and Monday. They’ve been working on the inside, painting, minor repairs, etc. I worked on the small backyard. WN went back to Southport yesterday (Monday). Today, the fourth, was a day off.

Nuke basically had let the back yard / patio get totally overgrown. Not just a few weeds and such – but growth taller than your head. All in a townhouse backyard! That boy is not domesticated.

Basically – nothing to save – just pull out everything and start over. 2 truckloads of brush – which we took back to Moncure and spread out in the woods behind the house. Lots of weeds and briars growing up in the gravel pathway and the privacy fence gate is sagging. Pulled everything out – cleaned up the 2 planting areas, spread mulch / bark over the beds (where the future renter can plant whatever they want) and fixed the gate. Still have to work on the fence and gate – nothing major, mostly re-securing the boards to the frame and basically driving nails back in and applying wood screws where needed. I should have take a ‘before’ photo – it really was astounding.

JN and and his dad WN have done a ton of work inside. Toilet repaired, lots of heavy duty cleaning in the kitchen, repairing kitchen cabinets, closet door needs replacement, (another bi-fold door needs work – I’ll look at that next weekend) and various stuff. Still to do are some more painting in the kitchen and bath, the dishwasher needs replacing, some more cabinet work, trim work needs painting and some repairs around the thresholds. But – already one can see that the house will be really nice looking and ready to lease before too long.

WN and HN are headed out to California to see their brand new grandson – they’ll be back in about 3 weeks. In the meantime, Nuke will continue to work on the house and I’ll help out some on the weekends.

Play

GAH and ACH got back yesterday from their extended cruise – they had a great time. But they did say that a month is a long time to spend on a cruise ship.

Nuke and I just got back from the Iron Horse Bar where there was a cook out this afternoon. Had a good time – but I’m about shot from the heat and work over the weekend. Underground pro 'rasslin including ladies oil wrestling on July 29th. Mark your calendars.

Heading to bed soon – back to work tomorrow and the usual wake up at 0530 routine.

Pretty good weekend – got a lot done.