Hat In The Ring

Oh look - A self-absorbed pretentious prima donna has announced his candidacy for president.

The Bridges of Chatham County

This morning I went over to Cumnock to take some photos of the Camelback Bridge. It’s a pretty pin truss bridge – pedestrians only, of course, and part of a park.

 

 

 

But afterwards, I drove about 4 miles north to the Rocky River Bridge. Another pin truss bridge, that is still in service.

Yep – this bridge is just about as old as the Camelback and has a wood plank single lane deck.

 

 

It’s on Chatham Church Road and is not too far south of Pittsboro NC. Actually, it’s not too far (as the crow flies) from my house.

The road leading up to one end is paved; the other side is a gravel road. Both roads are state roads, as is the bridge. Having a gravel road leading up to one end discourages anything but local traffic.

Frankly, I like this bridge a lot better since it’s the real deal and you can drive over it.


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Saturday, February 23rd

Nothing exciting going on this week or weekend.

I’ve been getting the hot tub chemistry set up and balanced. Everything seems to be working well.

 

The tulips are coming up nicely in all the pots. It’s going to drop into the 20s later this week so I’ll probably need to bring them inside for a couple of nights.

 

As far as basketball is concerned, we’re just going through the motions at this point. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t win another game this season. There are only 2 home games remaining; this week vs. Florida State and next Saturday vs. Duke.

Today I’ve been cleaning up the house and doing laundry and such.

Thursday evening I pick up Nuke at the airport. He’ll be back for his 3 week break.

At the moment, I’ve been taking a break from chores and watching North By Northwest on TV. What a classic movie. As I’m writing this entry, it’s just past the fake shooting in the cafeteria at Mt. Rushmore.

Tulips and Daffodils

Lazy Sunday afternoon. The Daytona 500 has just started and I’m watching that on the HD TV my nephew and niece gave me.

This morning I went into Pittsboro for breakfast, grocery store and Lowes. Got the flood lights changed and made some final adjustments to the motion detectors (using the ladder my nephew and niece gave me).

Danny the electrician came by and we fiddled with the hot tub. Had switches plugged into the wrong receptacle – got that squared away and the hot tub pumps are running and the water is heating up.

Hopefully the hot tub is finally fixed and working. I’ve missed having it.

Basketball

State played hard yesterday but lost in the final minute to Clemson. We’re now 4 and 7 in the conference. I don’t see us making the NCAAs this year.

Next game is Wednesday night against UNC. It sure would make me feel a whole lot better if we could beat them – but that’s just not gonna happen.

Tulips and Daffodils

While I was puttering around on the deck – I saw where the tulips are poking through in all 3 planter pots.

Seems a bit early – but I guess the plants know what they’re doing.

I planted the bulbs last fall and covered the soil first with chicken wire and then rock chips to keep the squirrels and raccoons from digging up and eating the bulbs.

They tried. You could see where they’d knock off a rock here and there – but I put enough on so the critters haven’t been able to dig through.

I wasn’t sure if I had put on too much rock and if the plants would be able to grow – but – sure enough – they’re coming through.

We’ll see how that turns out.

I planted the tulips and daffodils because I was tired of having to plant flowers each year. Plus – the deck faces directly south and if flowers are any sort of delicate – they die. Hopefully bulb flowers will do better.

NCSU at BC +Addendum

Here’s a link to a USA Today column that is updated about twice a week. It's a who’s in, who’s out of the NCAA on a week by week basis.

Here's the direct web address:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/2008-bubble.htm

State was supposed to be the solid number 3 team in the ACC, a top 25 team for sure and maybe even a top 10 team. We were supposed to be making Duke and UNC sweat all season.

What a disappointment.

As it stands – UNC and Duke are the locks for the NCAA.

Right now, at best, the ACC is possibly deserving of a total of 4 teams in the tournament. Only 4 teams from what should be the preeminent power basketball conference.

How times have changed.

The way I see it – Clemson and Maryland are teams 3 and 4 right now.

If (and that’s a big IF) the ACC should go 5 deep – who in the world would be team number 5? State? VT? BC? GT? As far as I can tell – the middle of the ACC is pretty much middling.

I could make a case for 4 teams in the NCAA and 6 teams in the NIT. Leaving only 2 teams at home.

LOL

What a strange year for the ACC.

Anyway – it’s the second half of the season and if the Wolfpack wants a chance at the Big Dance – they’d better figure out how to play a solid 40 minute game. In a hurry.

Tonight at Boston College would be a good place to start.

Chip is going with me to the Clemson game Saturday. Lt. Col. Fritz has asked to go to the Duke game in 2 weeks. UNC and FSU games have not been claimed yet.

Coaching

When Herbie left for Arizona State, one of my favorite possible coaches was Kelvin Sampson.

At the time, he had gotten in a bit of NCAA trouble at Oklahoma and left for Indiana. He’s a successful coach and I figured the problems at Oklahoma were just a one time / learning curve deal.

Interestingly at the time, Kelvin never seemed to make it on the short list rumor mill. There was some talk, but most of it was that he wasn’t the type of coach we wanted at NC State. I often wondered if it was some latent racism – Kelvin’s a Lumbee Indian from southeastern NC.

Turns out – the folks ‘in the know’ knew what they were doing. Kelvin’s in some serious trouble at Indiana. Very serious and numerous NCAA violations. Not mistake type stuff – but out and out disregard the rules stuff.

Yikes – it’s good I wasn’t in charge of the search.

I’m so glad we got Sidney Lowe (current season not withstanding).

BTW

By the way – I’ve quit smoking.

Addendum

We stunk up the place last night. Not completely - we'd make a run - but we never took charge when we got close.

In the newspaper, Coach Lowe rightly pointed out that we can't win when only 3 or 4 guys show up to play.

I think he's starting to get a little pissed off.

It's about time.

Primary

It appears that McCain has the Republican nomination wrapped up. Of course, Huckleberry is still out there waving the flag for the NeoNaziCons. But – McCain will be the nominee.

That leaves the Democrat nomination still up in the air.

I’m registered as an independent. Actually, in North Carolina, it’s called unaffiliated. Unaffiliated voters can decide at the polls which primary they want to vote in.

The NC primary is held in May. The candidates usually have their nominations all locked up by then. But not this year for the Democrats. The NC primary might actually be important for a change.

I honestly don’t know who to vote for in the primary – Clinton or Obama.

I’ve visited their web sites, read the news, and generally stay pretty well informed. But I really don’t know which would be the better candidate.

So – for those of you that know me – feel free to weigh in with your opinions when you see me.

For once – I actually want to hear what you have to say.

One thing for sure – we’ll have a real choice for much needed change come November between Clinton or Obama and McCain.

Clemson at UNC

Clemson lost to UNC in an intense double overtime game at UNC Sunday evening.

Refereeing is a tough job.

Griping about the referees is a time honored tradition. We all know that the ref's try to be fair and even handed - but we still get on their case and blame them for being biased for the other team in every game.

However - during the Clemson UNC game - Carolina got to shoot 36 free throws - Clemson got to shoot 7.

WTF?????

When you're behind at the very end of the game - you foul hoping for a miss and rebound. Even with that - there is absolutely no way that Clemson committed 5 TIMES as many fouls as Carolina.

That's just effing Bull-S*%$.

I hope the ACC is reviewing the tapes of that game.

Somebody needs to have a come to Jesus meeting or possibly even told to turn in their zebra shirt.