NC Port - Wilmington

Last week my work took me to the NC Port in Wilmington. It's quite an operation.

I'm a Civil Engineer, so most of my work involves buildings, streets, site work, etc. The other two guys on my team are an Electrical Engineer and a Mechanical Engineer. The EE and ME went up onto a crane - part of their jobs. I went along for the ride - so to speak.

It was cold (low 30's), heavy rain, and very, very windy. Miserable weather. In fact - the rain turned to snow and sleet for a short time while we were up there.

The first two videos are self-explanatory. The third was taken inside the machinery house up at the top of the crane. You can't tell from the video - but that sucker was moving around due to the wind gusts. A LOT!







Field work is usually pretty mundane. But sometimes, I get to see some pretty cool stuff.

A Quick Word About NCSU Football +Addendum

Addendum

Usually addendum are placed at the bottom. Since it's been a while since I posted this entry - I'm putting this addendum at the top - where it blends right in with the topic of this post.

Raycom got it's start televising ACC basketball and football. Us 'old timers' still hum "Sail With the Pilot" when watching a Raycom Broadcast. LOL

Racom has an ACC blog. Well written and insightful. I don't always agree - but it's a professional blog vs. the typical "any moron with a computer" ranting found on the Internet.

Here are 2 Raycom blog posts that speak to my post regarding NCSU football and the hiring of Jon Tenuta.

http://ncstate.raycomsports.com/blog/2010/02/15/wolfpack-eyes-turn-to-football-as-acc-tourney-spurs-little-interest/

http://ncstate.raycomsports.com/blog/2010/02/12/yes-we-got-it-right-tenuta-a-great-tob-addition/

End of addendum

Last season was a disappointment.

We definitely underperformed – especially on defense.

Last week, it was announced that Jon Tenuta has been hired as linebackers coach.

This is great news to me. I’ve always been a fan of Tenuta.

Frankly, he’d be our defensive coordinator if it were up to me.

Hopefully his expertise will influence our defense beyond the line positions.





Fundamentals + Technique = Confidence + Success

Basketball

Still playing hard.

Still losing. Sigh . . .

Lost to UNC yesterday in a battle for last place in the ACC.

The Perfect Snow Storm

 

 

We had the perfect snow Friday night. Wet, fluffy, quiet - about 4-inches here at the house.

Enough to make things pretty and fun to play in but not enough to hinder getting out and around. It pretty much melted on contact with roads. By Saturday afternoon - it was mostly melted.

Work

Next week I’ll be in New Bern again.

We didn’t have time to finish what I had scheduled so we’re going back. As well as adding in additional work to make the trip more productive and worthwhile.

Work Week in New Bern

I was working in the New Bern area this week.

Long days.

New Bern is a nice town. The downtown historic area has a lot of shops and restaurants near the waterfront along with 3 hotels and several inns.

Here's a couple of sunrise photos taken outside the Comfort Inn.

January and February are prime oyster season.

I had oysters for lunch 3 times this week. That's more oysters than I've had in the past 5 years. They were all local - from Swansboro. Plump and juicy. Man, they were good.

Depending on where you go, the prices can vary greatly. All 3 lunches were pretty much exactly the same - oysters, fries, slaw. Monday we ate at Morgan's Tavern - $6.50. Tuesday - Tryon Palace Seafood and Sting Ray Cafe - $9.00. And the whopper was at Gary's Down East Seafood at Minnosott - $13.00!!!!

Not only was the price the best at Morgans, they were the best prepared and Morgan's had the best service and atmosphere. Right in the heart of downtown New Bern, I strongly recommend Morgan's Tavern.

We also had an early dinner one evening at the Harvey Mansion.

The Nuke'ster came up to Moncure while I was out of town (he had a crown put in). When I got home Thursday, he was here and put out French bread, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. That was great for dinner - fresh bread; a drink; and a fire in the fireplace.

The BIG news - my niece and nephew-in-law had their second child Thursday. Maci arrived about 3 weeks early. Not a real problem or anything - just early. My theory is she wanted to share birthdays with her Uncle Bill (yep - 54 today).

Will post a photo when they send me one.

Snow Day

Started snowing around 9PM last night. I got a little over 5-inches here before it turned to sleet around 0600 this morning.

The sleet has compacted down the snow a bit and there's a pretty hard crunchy cover of ice on top of the snow.

It's quite pretty.

I filled up the bird feeders yesterday when I got home. The birds have both feeders pretty much covered up.

I also propped open the porch screen door and put the critter food bowls in the porch so the raccoons and possum could get to them. A couple of birds came in through the opening this morning and couldn't find their way out. It took a while, but I was able to shoo them back outside.

So, not doing much except watching the intermittent sleet and the birds feeding. And, there will be basketball on TV later.

I like snow days.

Instant Addendum

Just as soon as I posted this entry, I went to the kitchen to get some lunch - looked out the window - and there's another bird inside the porch. I'll wait a little while to see if it can find it's way back out before I bundle up to try and shoo it to freedom.

Silly birds.

Not Much

Not much to blog about.

Chip and I went to the UNC @ State game last night. State played really well the first half. UNC played really really well the second half - and won the game.

Work is going well - nothing unusual or all that exciting - everything is simply going well. Which is good.

Took this photo Monday evening. It's pretty typical of winter evenings here. Quiet, maybe some music or TV and a small fire.

I'll definitely be burning some wood this weekend.

Just checked the forecast. Snow, ice and sleet Friday evening through Saturday. The predicted lows for Saturday and Sunday are 16 and 12 respectively.

Yikes!

Fun to Watch +Addendum

NC State is picked to finish last in the ACC. State will likely finish in the bottom half of the conference standings and could very well end up in last place.

Duke is picked to finish first - and currently ranked #6 in the Nation. Duke will likely finish in first or second place in the ACC and will be a very high, probably #1, seed in the NCAA Tournament.

But - last night - it was NC State 88 - Duke 74.

Our guys are absolutely fun to watch. They play all out all the time. We don't have the talent that the other teams have. But when the game starts - you better be ready - NC State is going to bring everything they've got.

And sometimes - it all clicks.





Click here for WRAL video of the end of the game. Takes a few moments to load.

Next up is @ Maryland - Saturday.

Here's a good entry about that upcoming game from the Maryland perspective at SB-Nation.

Next home game is Carolina - Tuesday - 2100 (9 PM).

Sunday Morning Addendum

Maryland took us to the woodshed. They just played a whole lot harder on defense and got more offensive rebounds. The NC State effort was there - just not as much as usual. Maryland put a 24 point hurting on us.