Sunday, August 16, 2015

Raise the Red Lantern

Football Tickets


Football tickets have arrived. Or, as they say at UNCheats - arroved.

Ticket books are a great idea. Tickets and parking passes are handy and organized. State switched over to the book format about 3 years ago. Should have done it 20 years ago (like some other schools).

Chip and I went over yesterday to check out our parking spot. We get moved slightly every year.

This year we are on the same row as last year - which is on the Gate A road (very easy ingress and egress). Location was great except that the spaces were so small / short - that when driving in - you might have a foot clearance on each side of your vehicle as there just wasn't enough room to park and set up a tailgate behind your vehicle without having your car (or truck) sticking way out into the road.

Someone at the WolfPack Club must be paying attention. This year - on the west side of the road - the spaces are now parallel parking. And sized for a full size truck like a Suburban or Expedition (this is NC State). With my little Escape, we'll have tons of room behind us - Chip is checking on getting a tent for shade and tailgating. Trinity Road Gate A - 94026. Stop by and visit. BYOB.

The Wolfpack Club and ticket office are also working on their websites - which, to put it mildly, have been simply awful. As in, someone should have been fired awful. Before you know it - the WPC and Ticket Office will be entering the 21st Century.

Driveway Light


Raise the Red Lantern was a pretty good movie. Not as great as it was hyped up to be - but still a pretty good movie. The story is conveyed not so much by the dialogue - but often the lack of dialogue. It's about the multiple wives and household 'office politics' of a wealthy Chinese nobleman. Regular movie run time of about 2 hours that seems to go on for days - LOL. Not for everyone.

The paint on my driveway light fixture faded out and sort of evaporated. It only lasted 15 years. The black outside faded to a pale green and the inside white faded to a dull black. Go figure. Likely due to the alloy of the metal - which I can't really tell what the thing is made of.

Was going to paint the fixture black (and underside white) as original. But when buying the paint - I decided to go with color on the spur of the moment. NC State Red. Fixture only. Leaving the post black.

I also considered yellow or grey which I thought would look OK with the black post. Went with red because the front door is already painted red. And NC State.

One of the neighborhood kids was riding his bike up and down the street when I was painting it. He said it looked cool.

So, there you go.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

A Neighbor’s Death

Across the Street – One House Down
About 13 years ago, my builder (Lloyd) stopped by to chat and talk about a couple he was considering selling a spec house to.

He was telling me that the couple was retired, the husband had worked at US Air and the wife was a Registered Nurse. And Lloyd mentioned that the husband was black and the wife was white. Anyway, we kept chatting for a while, and then Lloyd started laughing, and said (as best as I can remember) “Bill, I knew you wouldn’t care or even notice they were mixed race.” And, I honestly replied, “Who would care?” Well, as Lloyd said – there were some neighbors who would, and I could probably guess who they were. Yeah – I had my suspects – but I didn’t let Lloyd tell me who. Lloyd was doing a casual canvas of the neighborhood to see how folks would react.

Lynda and Freeman moved into the neighborhood.

Anyway – while we say hello in passing, I am not what you would call friends with Lynda and Freeman. But I have a pretty good passing acquaintance with Freeman.

He was huge when they moved in. Like, close to 400 lbs.

He started riding a bicycle for exercise. You’d see him riding everywhere and we’d always wave and shout hello or stop and chat. He even rode that bike on US 1 Freeway! It’s a wonder he didn’t get hit. Eventually Freeman got down to about 200 lbs – which is about right for him. He’s a good 6 ft. 6 in. If not even taller. Looks like a former NFL defensive lineman.

Lynda was an RN for over 45 years and then did volunteer work.

A couple years back, during one of our passing chats, Freeman told me Lynda had developed thyroid cancer. But, eventually she responded to treatment and she seemed to be OK. Whenever we spoke, Freeman was upbeat and positive.

Unfortunately, the cancer came back and spread pretty quickly.

Apparently Lynda decided that she didn’t want to go through a lingering cancer death, and she didn’t want her family to have to go through that either. So, this week, Lynda decided to take matters into her own hand.

Being an RN, Lynda had the medical and pharmacological knowledge to do what she had decided to do.

Life can put folks into impossible situations. Until we’ve been there - we just don’t know what we would or would not do.

I'm having a hard time writing this - so I'm gonna stop now.

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Mazda Miata


I forgot to include this in last weekend's update.

Sunday morning, as I pulled out of my Subdivision onto Deep River Road, there were dozens and dozens of Mazda Miatas driving down the road. I didn't count, but my guesstimate would be somewhere between 30 and 50.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Weekend Update 2 AUG 2015

Saturday

Busy day.

Got up early and replaced the center console armrest on my Focus. It broke recently - instead of being level it droops forward. According to the internetubewebs, there are plastic tabs that frequently break. Also, the armrest lid latch broke a few years ago.

Bought a replacement unit off ebay ($60) and it was at the front door when I got home from work Friday.

Didn't take long to replace and the new (used) part is the exact color and works perfectly.

Then went for a late breakfast at Virle's in Pittsboro. Virle's is always crowded on the weekends. Used to be a 'hole in the wall' that no one knew about. Then, Pittsboro started getting trendy and now all the retired Yankees, yuppies, and young Republican families have 'discovered' it. Today though, it wasn't too crowded as I got there late - around 10:00 or 10:30.

Once home, mowed the grass in the front, along the road and the upper field. I'll finish the side and back yards tomorrow.

Sunday

Finished mowing the grass.

Went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch (they email me coupons).

Now home, doing laundry and waiting for the race to start on TV.

Routine weekend.