Snow +Addendum

Also on Inauguration Day - It snowed in Raleigh. We had a lot more snow in Moncure than in the actual Raleigh area.

7 AM at the House

 

Driving to Work

 

Addendum

US 1 freeway was much better comming home.

 

But if you live out in the sticks - the secondary roads don't get plowed.

 

Obligatory photo of the house in the snow.

 

The end of the day payoff - air temperature 28 degrees - water temperature 101 degrees.

 

Inauguration

The Oath of the Office of the President of the United States as prescribed in the Constitution:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Mid January Update

Uneventful January so far.

Just the typical work and home cycles. No real events worth reporting.

The Wolfpack got it's first ACC Basketball win Saturday against Clemson. Tight game till 5 minutes left when we fell down by 10 points and our center fouled out. But then some great bench play by Dennis Horner forced it to overtime. Very exciting game.

State, Clemson and Virginia will likely be battling for last place in the ACC.

Bummer.

 

Action During The Game

 

Post Game WolfPack Club Briefing by Coach Larry Hunter

 

Standing Room Only

Today is the MLK Holiday so I did some errands this morning.

Took the truck in to get the left front tire fixed. I've had a slow leak for the past couple of weeks. Small nail removed and patched and new valve and stem put in.

Then I went grocery shopping. Stocked up on beer for you know who since it's supposed to snow tomorrow.

LOL

That's about it.

Happy New Year

State lost to Rutgers in the Pizza Bowl. It was close though. It looks like we’re turning the corner. I think this coming year will be the beginning of the breakthrough. It’s taken 2 solid years to recover from Coach Amato.

New Year’s Eve was a full day.

Half a day at work. Then went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls special exhibit. Then to the RBC Center for the State – Towson basketball game (which we handily won). Then checked in to a downtown hotel.

The plan was to go to First Night Raleigh and watch the Acorn Drop (Raleigh – City of Oaks). But – it had been such a long day – I fell asleep by 9 watching bowl games on TV. I did get a good view of the fireworks at midnight from the hotel window (the fireworks booming woke me up).

That was fine by me. It was too cold to be outside anyway.

New Year’s Day I just lazed around the house. Did some work I brought home with me and watched bowl games on TV. And I had a nice fire going in the fireplace.

Today (Friday) I went into the office even though I had planned to take the day off. I wanted to finish some work before a briefing Monday afternoon. I could have let it wait till Monday morning but I just don’t like to let things go to the last minute. You never know what might come up.

It’s still pretty cold and Nuke had a fire going when I got home. I think we’ll end up watching a DVD later.

No real plans for the weekend.

The Economy

Over Christmas I got a first hand look at how serious the economic downturn is.

Thanksgiving is the busiest flying weekend of the year.

Closely behind is Christmas. It should have been hectic at the airports since Christmas was close to the weekend. Normally a ton of people would have been flying on Christmas Eve.

I was a little surprised when I got to RDU. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected. Security usually has long lines. Basically none this time.

On the flight from RDU to DCA - my jet had nine passengers.

Nine.

The plane was basically empty. I don't know why the airline didn't just cancel the flight and put us on a later flight.

Then, on the flight back Friday - pretty much the same thing. Took maybe 5 minutes to get through security.

The flight back had, oh, possibly 2 dozen people. Not much more. Again - basically an empty jet.

You can't fly planes with so few passengers and make money. Especially with the fares so low.

And the fact that the planes were basically empty on a major family travel holiday - even with low fares - that tells you that either people do not have the money to spend - or are afraid to spend.

The whole experience speaks volumes about the state of the economy.

Christmas 2008

Very quiet, relaxing day.

We all got together today for dinner - sister, brother-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, and Aunt S.

My sister fixed a great dinner - Duck L'Orange, wild and saffron rice, acorn squash, sparkling wine.

A couple token gifts to pass around.

Everybody else went into DC to help out at the homeless shelter. I stayed in Reston and got some reading done.

All the 'kids' are elsewhere this year - Tokyo, Chicago, San Diego.

Don't tell them I said so - but it was nice having an 'adults only' Christmas. I miss the kids and grand kids - but it was a really nice, quiet, relaxing day.

Tomorrow I fly back to Raleigh. Need to be at the Metro station by around 0900 or so.