#3 and I spent most of the day just driving around and a good deal of that driving was done on the parkway. It was a beautiful day, a little cool and breezy at times but the sun was out, the sun being something we haven't seen much ot lately, a good picture taking day.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve and we will be on our way to the Beach to spend Christmas with the family. It's hard to believe that this year is almost over. Hopefully next year will be an improvement over this. Things for me have been good but I know it has been a tough year for a lot of folks.

These past few days have gone by quickly. My #3 son is here on his winter break from school and I have been keeping him busy. He has helped me out a lot tomorrow we will be bringing a good size load of wood down to where I am staying to help keep me warm.

Yesterday was the first day of winter and today was I believe the coldest day of this season. Today I have been inside making carrot cakes for friends while #3 son is out and about with friends. Yesterday we spent a good deal of time at the cabin. I tried to position the cabin in such a way as to take advantage of the winter sun. To me it looks like a wood stove and the sun should keep me toasty.

We have done some driving around the county this past weekend and while on Alum Ridge we pulled over to get a few shots of these cows. They look like Oreos to me. I don’t have the slightest ideal what type of cattle they are but their interesting

I got back from the Outer Banks Tuesday afternoon. I went there to work the weekend and to pick up another load of “stuff”. These short work trips are all a blur. I never even got to see the water except from the Jeep (on paved roads). This shot is of the sound around Colington Island. My #3 son came back with me. He is out of school till January and wanted to spend some time here with me, besides I needed someone to help me unload the trailer!!

Nothing has been done on the house but I can’t fault the builder it has rained just about every day this month. I went on the NOAA website and looked up the rain totals for the month of December so far. According to NOAA this area has had 3 days of sunshine and 14 days of either partly cloudy or cloudy skies.

The work prospects are looking good. I got two calls today, one asking if I would be interested in a position the other wanting to know when I would like to come in for a pre-employment physical. I guess there is a chance that I might be working a little closer to home soon.

I got this little note in my last credit card statement. It basically tells me that they are going to raise the interest on my credit card balance to nearly 20% and that it could go higher. now they are allowing me to "op out" of this, and I did, but I wont be able to use their card when it expires and at that time the rates will change. I wont be using their card a lot sooner than that, I am looking for a different company now.

What really pisses me off about this is that I have been their customer for nearly 20 years. I very rarely have a balance and I typically charge around $1000 a month; lately with building the house it has been a bit more than that. Now admittedly they make very little off me with finance charges but credit card companies charge the seller a fee of between 3 and 5%. so every month the credit card company makes about $30 off my card.

I am very pleased with the new credit card rules that have been adopted. Regulators adopt new credit card rules - Yahoo! News the consumer needs some law's that are on their side!!

I have been seeing a lot of commercials for Hughes Net lately. Hughes Net is a satellite internet provider. The house that I am staying at has Hughes Net and to be honest I’m not impressed. For $60 a month I get “unlimited” internet access…. kinda. The other week I went on line and watched the “Daily Show” I had missed it the night before and my mom said it was a “good one”. I downloaded it using ,Hulu a great site by the way, I was getting good “reception” that day and thought well what the heck I missed “Chuck” while I was away I’ll watch that too. Half way through “Chuck” my signal strength went way down. I thought there was something wrong with my computer, maybe a virus? I did a virus scan, I checked for tracking cookies, deleted my temp files every thing I could think of short of calling my son, the family IT guy. After I rebooted my computer a few times I decided to check my Hughes net connection at the source. When I did that I found out that it was not my computer it was Hughes Net. They had decided that I was using too much internet and cut me off. Where I came from, and I know things are different here, but where I came from for $100 I got local and unlimited long distance and DSL. I watched TV shows on the net any time I wanted to. When I was in the camper I paid $30 a month for dial-up; dial-up sucked but I knew what I was getting. I don’t see enough difference between Hughes Net and dial-up to warrant a $300 to $600 initial out lay, a two year contract and $60 a month. Just my two cents worth!!

I did enjoy the slow down time the almost bitter cold gave me yesterday, I was able to work on my egg Christmas ornaments.

What a difference a few degrees and no wind can make. Yesterday when I went out to feed the horses my face just about froze off. It was 16 degrees outside and the wind was kicking. At that very moment, the second the cold wind hit my face, I knew that I would be spending my day inside cleaning and doing artsy / crafty things. The Floyd Christmas parade was that afternoon at 3pm, I had intended to go but while I like the colder temperature I don’t want to freeze my butt off so I did not think I would be making it; I didn’t. I hear it was very good. I can’t wait to see the pictures. I was not going out if I did not have to. Well anyway I did have to go out; I needed to replenish my wood stores for the wood stove, when I went up to the property, (remember all that wood I split that’s where it is) I got a good feel for how great a southern exposure can be. While the cabin does not have any windows in it yet, the sun shining on the inside made the cabin, even in it open state, feel warmer than the “outside”. I can’t wait to live in that cabin. Boy is this a rambling paragraph, lets get back to the weather. I gathered my wood and went back to the house and stayed warm. This morning when I went outside there was no wind and the temperature was 23 degrees, it felt almost balmy. Its suppose to be much warmer today which is good I have to spend a lot of time at the building site today.

I can’t even remember when I last posted; things have just been so busy. This week I got back from the beach on Tuesday hauling a trailer filled to the rim with stuff I have in storage and then went to class that night, Wednesday I unloaded the trailer and went to a job interview, Thursday I cleaned house and such and went to class, Friday I don’t know what I did it was a blur. Today I went into Christiansburg and took my EMT test, I won’t know for at least 2 weeks if I passed but I don’t care NO MORE CLASS!!!!!! I also gave a pint of blood and did some shopping. On the way home, while listening to Christmas music it started to snow. We barely got a dusting but it was beautiful.

The moon Jupiter and Venus on a clear windy night in Nags Head

this is not normal November beach traffic.....

Its been a very busy week or so…

I just got back from the beach; I went there for thanksgiving and to put a few days in at work. The beach was busy. Traffic was almost as bad as it is in the summer…. Well maybe not that bad but it was close. Work was busy. Sometimes I get the feeling that folks go to the beach just to go to the ER, work was great we were slammed.

My family and I celebrated thanksgiving on Friday, there was way too much food and the company was wonderful. I can’t wait for Christmas. The holidays are always best when spent with family and friends.

The house is moving right along. The roof is on, we will see how long it take for the windows to be put in.