Happy New Year


Well we are in the last few hours of 2005. For many tonight will be a time of celebrating and partying for others like myself there will be work taking care of the people who celebrated and partied perhaps a bit too much. So Happy New Year , be careful and enjoy.

Manteo Waterfront

It’s hard to believe the new year will be here in just 1 more day. I had to go to Roanoke Island today to pay the taxes (yuck) so I thoutht the weather is nice, temperatures in the 50’s and minimal wind, I'm in Manteo so I might as well check out the waterfront. I love this time of year on the Outer Banks.

Merry Christmas

photos of christmas 1989

my 2 boys Christmas 1989

The weather this Christmas day here on the Outer Banks is rainy with a temperature in the 60’s. Warm weather on Christmas is not unusual on the Outer Banks, in fact cold weather is the exception. Looking back on the 25 Christmases that I have spent here on the Outer Banks I can only find one truly white Christmas. There have been cold Christmases. One year the chimney from the wood stove was blown across the frozen Pamlico Sound. That was a cold Christmas spent in a bedroom with a space heater and an infant son. In 1989 we had a truly white Christmas. It snowed the night of the 23rd and all of Christmas Eve. Christmas day was white and cold. . Children played in the snow and meals became impromptu gatherings of neighbors trapped by Mother Nature. Those of us who lived in Colington could not get off the Island. Snowdrifts had frozen a foot deep on the roads and Dare county not having a real need for snow removal equipment had to let mother nature do her work. By the 27th the snow and Ice were gone as too were the coats and gloves.

Last night, Christmas Eve, the boys my mother and I enjoyed good cheer and a “simple” meal of meat, vegetables, bread and pie (the 4 food groups). Movies were watched and all and all Christmas Eve was a great time spent with family.

This morning, Christmas, we broke from tradition still full from or “simple” Christmas Eve meal and by a vote of 4 to 1 we skipped the breakfast at The Jolly Roger. After remembering why Christmas is celebrated, presents were opened hug’s were given and the house was happy. By 10am my oldest announced that he was ready to go back to his house and get some sleep. The middle son wanted to go visit friends. The youngest son wanted to try out his new video games and my mother nicely announced that she to wanted to go home and rest (I think she just wanted to go home and play with her stuff). Per moms request I took her home.

At this time the boys are at their father’s house and will be there for the rest of the day. I’m sitting down at the computer writing to my blog. The house is quiet, the dogs are at my feet and music plays quietly in the background, all is good on this Christmas day

Today is the last day I have to get everything ready for Christmas, I work Thursday and Friday night so Saturday morning will be lost time. We will be having our big Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve this year because the boys will be at their dad’s Christmas evening. Christmas dinner is always a “simple” we will have prime rib, ham, green beans, broccoli, mashed potatoes, fresh bread, fruit salad and pumpkin pie (The only kind pie the guys will eat). My mother will do a lot of the cooking while I sleep but the prime rib is my baby. Christmas morning we will open presents then as we have been doing for many years we will go out for a breakfast feast at the Jolly Roger restaurant. There is always a tinge of gilt associated with the restaurant thing. People are waiting on us instead of being with their families so we compensate them well.
In the evening the boys will go to their dads and I will take mom home. The end of the day will find the dogs and me at home by our selves, the house quiet. I love Christmas.

and the winner is

*And the winner of the “Al be home for Christmas” presented by the NBC Today show goes to the Poulos family right here on the Outer Banks and they deserve it. Their holiday decorations entertained my children when they were young. I have not been by to see it in a few years and my has it grown. I’m going to go by again Tuesday night to see it in all its glory.

*Only one more week till Christmas, I haven’t wrapped the first gift unless you count the ones I sent to my niece’s kids. This last week I usually watch my holiday movies, you know the traditional ones, “It’s a wonderful life”, “The Grinch that stole Christmas”, “Miracle on 34th St.”, “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation” “Die Hard”, while watching these movies I wrap presents and finish any other jobs that need to be done. Come Christmas morning if “its” not done, “its” not going to get done.

*To any who read this have and to those who don’t, have a Great Holiday.

Today is carrot cake day. From theses humble ingredients I make a cake that I must say is quite good. I have had more than one friend say “You are giving out cakes this year, aren’t you?” It makes me feel good to know that something I enjoy doing this time of year, is enjoyed by the people I do it for.

gift of nature

found this December rose in the yard this morning.

*It’s December 11th just two weeks until Christmas. My house is decked out in lights, red bows and a wreath. The Christmas tree is decorated, the porcelain nativity and the lighted porcelain Christmas village are out to be seen. Christmas music plays while I bake cookies, brownies and cakes, my gifts to my friends, neighbors and associates. While baking these gifts is something I enjoy doing, this year its saddens me a little, you see three of my dearest friends and neighbors moved this fall and I sorely miss them.


*While listening to a “Prairie Home Companion” last night, folks you have to turn off the TV it’s a public broadcast radio show, the host was talking about New York and Minnesota winters it brought to mind a story told by one of the ladies I work with;

• My coworker’s sister moved to Minnesota in late October and she went to visit her for the thanksgiving holiday. Well just before my coworker got to Minnesota the weather turned very cold. At the airport the coworkers sister commented the ground must really freeze and effect the plumbing because everyone had outhouses in their yard. Well my coworker found this puzzling until her sister pointed out one of the “outhouses”; it was an ice-fishing house.

Moving day

On my way out of the development I live in this morning I noticed at least 5 police cars with lights on. After quickly checking my speed, inspection sticker and anything else I could think of that could possible get me a ticket, and realizing I was OK I looked for what the problem could be. With that many cops and no firemen it could have been anything. Driving further down the road I noticed a house on the side of the road then it hit me. A friend of mine had bought a house that was going to be demolished and today was moving day. The house was supposed to be moved last week but something happened and I guess today became the day.

Now my friend got a good deal on this house. The house is only 10 years old and cost around $15,000 she spent another $15,000 or so to move it and $20,000 for foundation and other incidentals. So for around $50,000 she gets a house that would cost at least a $100,000 to build. The former owner gets make $15,000 instead of spending god only knows how much on demolishing it and sending it to an already stressed land fill which is better for the environment. It this case my friend wins, the former owner wins, and the environment wins. (of course the former owner is getting ready to build a "McMansion" house on a not so "McMansion" piece of property so we will have to think about the environment thing)

learn something new and its a good day; most of the time

Today I discovered a new function in my camera software, panoramas. I made these panoramas from pictures I took at Jockeys Ridge State Park. The top panorama is facing the ocean and the bottom one is a photo of where one must walk to get that ocean side panorama.




I took this shot the end of October, today I got a good look at and decided I really like it

This Thanksgiving break has been nice on the Outer Banks. The weather has been in the upper 40's to 60’s. The kids were in the house all at once so I was able to get a “family photo ”. Friends of my boys who have moved away came back for the holiday. It was nice to see them even with the beatnik beards and the extra body piercings.

I worked Friday, which is affectionately known as black Friday but not for the reason retailers call it that, the ED was steady and no one died on my shift so it was a good day.

Today I will pull out the Christmas stuff and my youngest son and I will go pick out the tree, yes I still prefer the real trees I like the uncertainty of the way its going to look. For the next week I will deck the halls. I love Christmas lights. This is the time of year when stop lights with their red, green and gold remind me of Christmas. The other day on my way to my oldest sons house I saw a home decorated with Christmas lights and I had just a tinge of that Christmas feeling. Soon the firemen with their boot and the Salvation Army with their bell will be at the local stores and more of that Christmas feeling will come. Two weeks before Christmas I will be fully anticipating Christmas.

I like December, I don't like the shopping but I like the feel of December. It is the darkest month but we light it up with Christmas lights. By the end of the month the days are getting longer and we take down our lights. The air is cool but people seem to be warmer to each other. This is the time of year when I see people I have not seen all summer. We meet on the street, at party’s and in the isles of stores and catch up on the past year. It can take hours to get out of the grocery store and I allow for that extra time. I like catching up with friends and acquaintances. I like December.

pelican

There is a spot on the causeway between Nags Head and Roanoke Island where the birds seem to like to congregate. Today as I was driving by I saw this pelican. I was able to shoot two quick shots from afar but by the time I got the tripod out of the car the pelican had had enough of me and left. Pelicans are cool birds I love to watch them casually skim over the water only occasionally flapping their wings. These birds never seem stressed out. They are like the suffer dudes of the bird world.

On my way to my mother’s house this morning I noticed a large ray of sunshine slip through the clouds. I was driving on the bypass at the time and needed to cross over to the beach road and on to one of the beach accesses to get a “good” shot. By the time I got to the access the sunray was much smaller and I thought I had lost the shot. I almost did not climb over the dune but I thought what the heck and I’m glad I did it was a beautiful sight.

fall colors

We don’t have much of a change in the color of foliage here on the Outer Banks but every once in a while there is a spot where the color can be seen.. I spotted this while taking my son to work this morning. This bike path goes around the Wright Brothers Memorial.

We have had very pleasant weather this is to change next week, which is only right, who wants to eat a heavy Thanksgiving dinner in 70 to 80 degree weather.

very end of season

Yesterday I picked the last of the jalapenos and cut the oregano back. The weather has been very warm but a change is in the air for next week so it’s time to clean the rest of the “garden” and get the house plants in.

down time

It’s been one heck of a week. Last weekend my computer either lost a vital file when a program was deleted or caught some kind of virus. Either way I spent 2 days finding back ways into programs so I could save information I wanted to disk in preparation for a reformat of the hard drive and then a reinstall of the programs I wanted to keep. Ladies and gentlemen I do not know what “Geeks on Call’ charge but I might just call them the nest time I have this type of problem. I spent 12 hours a day for 3 days strait just to get the computer working again. Most of that time was spent “figuring” out the most “logical” way to get at programs with out the use of a desktop. I will admit I found it somewhat rewarding when I was able to gain access to information I wanted, but I’m not a hacker and it got old after a while. Bottom line is now the computer is up and running. A lot of old programs that were not being used anymore have been deleted and there is a lot more room on the hard drive.

No good job goes noticed

Yesterday I spent the day doing what I call a deep cleaning. It’s when I move all the furniture and dust behind it. I vacuum the dust out of the electronics. I mop under every thing even the area rug. Windows are washed, screens are cleaned, sealing fans are given a good going over. For 8 hours I did this and everything looks the same, no one will notice all the work I did because the cleaning was beneath the surface. The dust behind the TV accumulated because it could not be easily seen, no one knew it was there no one will know it’s gone.

Many of us have jobs we do that no one really notices. Maintenance professionals and many people who service societies needs go unnoticed unless something goes wrong. At work little things done by anonymous people like stocking the paper bin or filling the ketchup go unnoticed by many. Self satisfaction in our work goes a long way but someone taking notice and saying the job was well done is so much better. Take notice of those around you and quietly let them know they did a good job you will make their day.

Ellis island

A few weeks ago on a whim I went to the Ellis Island web sight http://www.ellisisland.org/. My grand parents and 2 aunts and 2 uncles immigrated from Ireland my father was the only one born in the US. I was under the impression that they came into Baltimore but I thought I would give Ellis Island a go. Thirty minutes later I found the manifest that they were on. It is the coolest thing. The manifest tells you how old, how tall weather they were fair skinned or dark, the color of the eyes but more importantly it tells where they were born. I never really got interested in where my family was from until I was in my 30’s by then most of the people who could answer my questions were gone. Now I piece together what ever I can find about my family, many of my mother's family are still alive but all on my father’s side are to my knowledge gone, the Ellis Island manifest is a great find, from it I can go in many directions. It gives me names of towns and next of kin. I will go to Ireland some day and look at the land my grand parents came from. My grand mother loved Ireland and because of her so do I.

halloween 2005

Tonight I was visited by 2 ghosts the Grim Reaper, a solder, a bumble bee, Robin, Darth Vader, Cat Woman, 2 vampires, 2 witches, a princes, a boxer, a lion, a bunch of young teenagers dressed as teenagers (the scariest costumes by far), Buzz Light-year, Spider Man, a GREAT dragon, a pumpkin, a few pirates and two power rangers.

Halloween is a holiday that started out as the Celtic festival Samhain which dealt with the dead. After the Celts were conquered by Rome Samhain blended with the Roman festivals Feralia, commemorating the dead, and one that honored Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. With the rise of Christianity the festival of the dead became all saints day from wince the name All-hallows (all saints) and All-hallows eve and with time Halloween.

In the United States on Halloween we send our children to stranger’s houses with instructions to threaten these stranger’s by saying “trick or treat”, implying that if no treat is given a trick will be played. Now the pumpkin in the stroller doesn’t seem to be much threat but the grim reaper and the teenagers dressed as teenagers would cause anyone to think twice about holding back. I dutifully handed out my treats, making sure I addressed each and ever costume and I enjoyed every minute of it. I hope I appeased the trick or treaters and find no eggs on my house and no toilet paper in my trees. I cant wait for next year

daylight saving time, day two

Daylight Saving Time was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." The idea was first advocated seriously by London builder William Willett (1857-1915) in the pamphlet, “Waste of Daylight” (1907). Daylight Saving Time has been used in the U.S. and in many European countries since World War I. It was adopted at that time to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power. Today we continue the practice of adjusting our clocks to the season and I guess with the cost of fuel these days it continues to “make sense” but as I laid in my bed at 4am looking at the red display on my alarm clock it did not seem like that great an ideal. It will be a month before I shake off the early morning awakening. The dogs are oblivious to the change. Their noses were on the side of my bed as soon as they heard me stir. The girl dog, Trip whimpered for her morning meal at what is her normal time to eat, 20 minutes after I awake. It’s hard to tell her that it’s now 5am not 6am. Well I’m off to continue my day. I will purposefully stay awake longer tonight and allow myself no naps during the day. By April my internal clock will be firmly set to Eastern Standard Time.

Afternoon looking towards Nags Head

nice end to a nice day

outer banks fall

Yesterday was wet and cool. I had to wear shoes and a light jacket; no long paints till I have no other choice!! I love this type of weather. To me it is so much more interesting than a sunny calm day. There is no way to photograph the layers of clouds as they move independently of each other, or the feel of a biting wind and tiny drops of rain as it hits the skin. It’s just so invigorating!

I took photos of folks fishing from a bridge on the causeway to Manteo. They were bundled against the elements but they were out there. Weather does not stop a determined sportsperson!!

Today the wind is to continue but the sun will be out. That old sun completely changes the ambiance.

hitting the floor running

This past few weeks has given me a full understanding of the term hitting the floor running. This is the first time in some time that I have had more than a very few moments to sit down and write. Mom had her bypass surgery this past Wednesday and with pre-op testing and surprise last minute Dr. appointments she has kept me busy. As of 5am today she was doing very well.
I have also been busy helping my Albanian neighbor prepare to move. Although she speaks very good English some folks have difficulty understanding her and she still has difficulty with some of the nuances of the English language so she is dependent on her friends to help her not get taken advantage of. Of course this is not the first friend I helped move in the past few weeks, some dear friends and neighbors of mine left for Texas the end of last month. I will dearly miss all my friends. The holidays will not be the same, we spent them together like family. Well the sun is coming up and I’m off to help a friend pack. It’s amazing how much you can get into a U-Haul

how many photos can I post at a time

lets stop at 6

this last month

*A lot has happened in the last month. There have been 3 hurricanes, Katrina and Rita affected people in my family and Ophelia brushed the area I live in. Gas went from $2.19 a gallon to $3.29 a gallon and back down to $2.89. (Oil company profits by the way don’t seem to have been affected in a negative way by the storms). The Supreme Court justice died and a new one was confirmed in his place. President Bush apologized for something (!!). My mother was found to have blocked coronary arteries and scheduled to have a 5 vessel bypass, and just to add a little sunshine, my youngest son advanced from a yellow belt in tae-kwon-do to a yellow with 2 green stripes belt. So I took a 3 day trip to the mountains.

bunnies and apples

A rabbit greated me at my camper and the apples made me want to make pie!

*This Wednesday I escaped the Outer Banks and went to the VA mountains. I spent Thursday in Floyd enjoying the company of friends. We had a long lunch at the natural food store after which we strolled the building looking at the work of local artists. Then we drove around the country side. Friday morning before I left for home I strolled the road from my friend’s home to my camper taking in the beauty of the area. Sometimes just a brief change of scenery is all it takes to clear the head.

Geese

*Its fall here on the Outer Banks, the air is cool in the morning, the call of geese and their V formation are sure sign of a change in the seasons. Looking up one can see northern geese that are flying south, they stop in our marshes and water ways to rest and feed. They will be joined by other types of migrating birds as the season progresses. The Outer Banks is an important stop for these travelers.

In the fall the air becomes more still, and as the summer populations (human and nonhuman) departs there is a return to quiet, as the fall progresses into winter this quiet will become deeper to the point where sometime in February we on the Outer Banks start looking forward to the return of the noise but for now the quiet is welcome

the beach on the sound side during Ophelia 

The sound during Ophelia, this is the barrier Islands at work. While its victory at sea on the ocean side the sound is relatively calm

 

again the ocean 

the ocean thanks to Ophelia 

the flowers love the storm 

my street