Feels Much Better To Win

A beautiful fall evening for football.

There's been so much rain through this morning, the field couldn't be completely painted. The outline of NC State and Wolfpack were painted in the end zones, but they couldn't be filled in with red paint.


NC State upset #15 ranked Virginia 29 to 24.



The fans sell out Carter-Finley Stadium and show up for all the games. Even when going 3 and 9 last year – and this year when this game is only our second Division I win. And our only conference win so far.

The kids are buying in to Coach Tom O’Brien’s system.

We will have a solid contender football program. It’s only a matter of time.

Tonight, the stands were rocking and rolling.

Much hugging and happy tears.

It feels so much better to win.

Look - It's a Horsy

Rain

I'm in Morganton and it's rained some every day this week. Today the rain was the heaviest so far.

Looking at the news and on the interwebtubes - it's raining hard back home in Moncure too.

Welcome, welcome rain.

We're still going to be in an extreme drought for some time to come.

But it's a start.

I wish I was there to see it.

Sunday Concert


This photo is from Sunday at Depot Park in Sanford. It was the last of this summer’s concerts by the Lee Community Orchestra.

They’ll have one more Christmas performance on December 1st. After that, it’s a wait still the concerts start up next spring.

Work

Working this week at the J. Iverson Riddle Development Center in Morganton. JIRDC is a full time care facility for people with learning and development needs.

There is a stable on campus and the residents can ride horses as part of their care and therapy. Some folks aren’t able to ride so the horses come to them.


It was raining today when I took this photo. The horse and folks are on the covered porch to keep out of the rain.

The campus and buildings here are in good shape and well maintained. The residents are well cared for and seem quite happy.

If you’re reading this, you are doing pretty good yourself.

Take some time to reflect on how well your life is and enjoy it to the fullest.

Saturday, October 20 +Addendum

Lazy Saturday.

Did a little yard work – make that very little.

In the afternoon, been TV channel switching between the Miami – Florida State game and the Florida – Kentucky game (both very close seesaw games) and listening to the State – East Carolina game (24 – 20 State at the start of the 4th).

And, I made a loaf of bread in the bread machine that Aunt Suzanne gave me for Christmas a few years back.

I like using the bread machine. It’s a lot easier than kneading dough by hand and thus I’m more apt to make bread.

This pretty loaf turned out really nice. I substitute beer for water which adds a really nice flavor.

The house smells great!

Sunday Addendum



NC State finally wins a Division 1 game.

I'm glad we broke our losing streak against ECU.

I was at the game, 20 years ago, where ECU came to Carter-Finley, won the game and the ECU fans stormed OUR field to take down OUR goal posts.

In the ensuing melee, a State Campus Police Officer was seriously injured (almost lost her eye). ECU fan's crassness and unbelievable unsportsmanlike conduct has stuck with me ever since.

And To Go With The Previous Entry . . .

CPCC has 6 campuses spread out over Mecklenburg County. To continue the theme - here are photos taken at a different campus / automotive building from the previous entry.


In this building students are learning heavy diesel engine technology and body work. The 1972 car is in the process of being restored.

I’ll Sign Any Waiver You Want - Just Give It To Me – Please, Please, Pretty Please . . . .

I am working this week at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte.

Among their curricula, CPCC has several automotive technician programs. CPCC has one of the premier automotive technology programs in the country. They are so well regarded that the various manufacturers support the program by providing vehicles for the students to work on and learn with.

We’re not talking used junkers - we’re talking brand new vehicles.

And we’re not talking stripped down cheapo cars – the manufacturers provide a variety of cars to train and learn on.

These cars are routinely taken apart and put back together. After the school is finished with them they are returned to the manufacturers.

There are liability issues with allowing these cars to be sold or used on the road.

Not that there is anything wrong with the cars – in fact – they are probably in the absolute best condition and in perfect running order when the students are finished with them.

But – due to liability – these cars can’t be put on the road.

So they are sent back to the manufacturers – sometimes used in-house for the manufacturer’s own training courses – but eventually crushed.

These photos were taken in one of CPCC’s garage bays / classroom today. It was one of the most pristine automotive shops I’ve ever seen.

The cars in this particular bay are brand new BMWs. Including a fully equipped 760Li V-12.

Which will eventually be crushed.

Sigh . . . . . . . . .

Neighborhood Party

Annual neighborhood party was this afternoon.

As always, good food and good conversation.

Just got back to watch the end of the South Carolina – UNC game.

Nuke’em stayed to talk with folks.

Tonight's Obligatory Raccoon Photo



And In Football

State didn't lose this weekend!!!

Porcupine Tree

Went to see Porcupine Tree last night at the Lincoln Theatre.

Widespread Panic say hello to Pink Floyd.

Excellent, excellent show.

Live performances are always better.

Even with a well deserved encore, the show ended at a decent hour and I was actually home in bed before midnight.

Feeding Mama Raccoon

This video is the Mama raccoon eating this evening around 1900 hours. It’s her 3rd year which is pretty good for a raccoon in the wild.

You can see in the video that she has grey hair along her legs. Her fur is also turning rust color for the winter. You can see it on her back and especially on her tail rings.

She is bothered a bit by the ants attracted by the food.

It looks official – Mama Raccoon is asserting herself. She’s maintaining her territory and is pretty much running off her offspring. They’re old enough to be on their own and she’s protecting her turf and food sources.

Shortly after I finished this video, she came back to finish the plate of dog food. One of her offspring came up and a couple of serious fights broke out. Not the usual snipping and snarling but serious fur flying, pain yelping and almost drawing blood fights.

Mama, older, more experienced and still a bit larger, won both rounds.

Finally, when she had enough to eat, she let the offspring have the leftovers.

Later, her other 2 offspring (the 2 that seem to have stayed paired up) arrived, begged at the door, and Nuke gave them some food.

It's Official

Re: http://bill-1956.blogspot.com/2007/09/it-was-only-matter-of-time.html

Had breakfast at the café in Pittsboro Sunday morning.

Different cashier, same result – senior citizens prices.

I guess its official.

Where did I put that AARP membership letter?

Odds and Ends

Raccoons

Well, we didn’t lose one of the baby raccoons after all.

Lately, they’ve been coming up to feed in ones, twos or threes. Since I can’t really tell them apart, I figured the total was now three. But last night – all four were there at one point.

Maybe what’s happening is that they are at the age where they are beginning to separate and establish their own dens and hunting routines and such. They are getting to the size where they compete pretty fiercely for food. Plus, they are at the point where they are trying to fatten up for the winter months.

Which leads to . . .

Porch and Screen Door

The one that was the runt, and is still just a bit smaller than the rest, has taken to climbing the screen doors and screens on the porch. Unfortunately he (or she) found an edge opening in the living room screen door and almost made her way into the living room. I had to shoo her away – after I sent the wrong signal by petting her on the head and giving her a cracker. Which to her was a reward for being so ingenious.

Learning patterns kicked in and last night she was again trying to come in via the living room screen door. When that didn’t work – she started exploring the screened porch – and naturally found a way in there.

Since she (and they) are finding the areas where the screens are somewhat loose in the frames and pushing their way in – the simple solution is to re-screen the doors and porch. Screens stretch and sag with time and require maintenance anyway, even without raccoons. So I plan to do some re-screening this weekend.

Nuke, being Nuke, took the aggressive approach. He yells, tries to chase them off, stomps at them, throws water on them – overall making a lot noise and generally disturbing the peace. Given just about any situation – whether discussing politics, driving in traffic or feeding raccoons – Nuke will invariably choose confrontation*.

Which is another reason why I’ll re-screen this weekend. It’ll solve the raccoon problem and get Nuke to shut the hell up.

For a while anyway.

LOL

Movies

Watched The Last King of Scotland last night and part of City of God. LKoS was excellent. CoG – went to bed halfway through it – don’t need to see the end of it - hope Nuke puts it in the mailbox to send it back to Netflix.


*There is a reason his nickname is Nuke 'em

Down One

Since this weekend, only 3 of the raccoons have shown up for dinner. The mom and 2 of her offspring. It's hard to tell from their looks, but going on behavior, the strongest, most aggressive offspring doesn't seem to be with us anymore.

The 2 offspring are almost the same size as the mom. You can only tell the difference when they are all grouped together. Then you can see that mom is still just a little bit larger than the kits.

Their color is also changing for the fall. There's a lot more reddish color to their fur. Especially around the tail rings.

Fall his here and nature is kicking in to make them more survivable during the fall and winter colors.

I handed out potato chips tonight. You have to let them eat the dog food when they first come up. They're pretty hungry and trying to give them anything by hand at that time is not a good idea. Later though, when they've had a pretty good meal of dog food - then its OK to hand out little treats. One of them like to take crackers (or potato chips) in it's paws. The other one daintily waits to have the chip placed in her mouth with her paws at her side.

Oh, there's also been a possum showing up for leftovers. I think it's ugly as sin. Nuke thinks it's cute.

Let's see - what else is new?

Not much really.

Back in the office this week. Lots of desk work to get caught up on.

Nuke is visiting for a week or so. He's been helping me out in the yard while I'm at work. Mowed the grass and he's been taking down some of the growth in the side yard septic field. The moisture there has the wild growth going strong. Otherwise, just about everything is brown from this years extended draught.

We've been watching Ken Burn's The War. Excellent documentary.

I've just finished some vacuuming and house chores. The noise from the vacuum cleaner bothers Nuke and sends him scurrying up stairs to his abode. Hmmmmm . . . Now that I think about it, that might come in handy. ;-)

Still need to make my lunch for tomorrow and force myself to go through some bills and paperwork stacked up on the dinning room table.

Just the usual and ordinary weeknight.

That's about it for now.