I love the mountians but sometimes on a morning like today I love the beach. There is nothing like fall on the OuterBanks .

These photos were taken around 7:30 am in Nags Head

morning stroll

"work" from yesterday

Spending $9 for a movie to me is a bit much. The matinee around here is $7 so two people going to the movies can easily be a $30-40 event so I keep a look out for movies that I feel just have to be seen on the big screen and I think I have found one. I hope it is a good as the trailer:

http://www.nightatthemuseum.com/

One more thing, weather on the banks is god awful great!! Check out this site and look at the sunrises and sets in this months photo contest. http://www.obxconnection.com/

army "lowers" standards

It bothers me that the army is being criticized for “lowering its standards” to meet recruitment goals. I know many fine people who joined the military because they had no other option’s open to them; people with a minimal education or who had made mistakes in the past or who could not afford to go to college; people who looked to the military as away to better themselves. I fit in all of those categories.

In 1976 after attending at least 28 different school’s 4 of those school’s high schools and being told that we were going move again (high school # 5) I marched over to the Junior College that was across the street from the high school I was attending told the continuing ED teacher that I had quit school 6 months earlier and wanted to take my GED. I took all 4 tests in 2 days and passed. Wallah my high school career was over.

In 1977 seeing that staying at home would serve me no real purpose I joined the ARMY. The army would not take me as regular enlisted because of my GED. A man could get in with a GED but not a woman, so I joined the Reserves.

When I took the army entrance test my scores were so high that the Army wanted to send me to nursing school but no I wanted to be a civilian cop so I wanted to be an MP (18 years old; watched too much Beretta and Starsky and Hutch; did not know what I was getting into; did not become a civilian cop)

I did the army reserve weekend warrior thing and while doing that I managed restaurants and retail stores, got a degree in computer programming and then a degree in Nursing (isn’t it ironic don’t ya think) and today while by no means is my life perfect its not bad, and the plane fact of the matter is that if it were not for my decision to join the army and the army’s lower standards of the time my life may have been much different.

While I would not join the Military right now nor do I encourage anyone to, the army “lowering” its standards is in my opinion not necessarily a bad thing. There are a lot of very intelligent folks out there who could use a break. I know of no other service that offer’s the variety of jobs the army does. From, dishwasher to helicopter pilot Jobs you can take home with you.

Some will take the unfair to the poor man attitude; lower the standards and all you have are poor black and white people who have no other options; D’oh! Go from no choice to one choice at least there is a choice!

Any ways don’t cut my Army down. It was good for me when I needed it. I wish Bush wasn’t the dick head he is because I would have been proud for my sons to have served.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_recruiting_7

I just got back from a quick trip to the mountains. The weather was excellent. It was a good thing I went up. The cows that I allow to roam on my land took out the electric fence that surrounds my camper (I did not turn it on when I left last time). Lesson learned.

A farmer’s day and that of his wife is a long one. Tim and his wife Kristi were out early in the morning getting stock ready to take to market; Kristi went to work afterwards and Tim spent the rest of the day on a tractor putting up hay.

This little piece of Americana is located about 7 or 8 miles west of South Boston Virginia on highway 58. I have been going by it for a few years now and always meant to stop a take a picture; today I did

do I hear Mid-tearm elections; I wonder what the price will be November 8th

Just a few shot's taken this morning; the wind is kicking out of the NW making it a tad bit cool

Boy it’s been a while since I have been able to sit in front of this computer and do any blogging. Things have been moving at “ludicrous speed” and time has gone by so fast that this whole month no this whole year is a blur. If not for this blog and my day planner I would be hard pressed to remember all that has gone by. So what has been going on lately?

• #3 son is now a licensed driver….. I have mixed feelings about this. When a child drives from home you have no control of anything that happens while that child travels. You hope he or she will remember all you have tried to teach them but you know they are inexperienced and they have not the slight inkling of what it is really like to drive; that only with experience will they be able to drive defensively. As a parent you know that the only way a child will get experience is to let them go. It’s not easy.

• Exercise is getting better. It takes up a bit of time in the morning but I enjoy talking with my friend and I am feeling a bit more energetic. Walking in the morning does help to clear the head and with the weather we have been having here lately it’s a very pleasant start to the day.

• Weather on the Outer Banks right now is great. We have been fortunate (so far) not to have any big storms. Temperatures have been in the upper 70’s during the day and upper 60’s at night. Today I went down to the sound and actually wished I had brought my jacket. Oh I love fall!

Well I will be heading up to the mountains next week. I have to close up my camper and get it ready for winter. I should have done this the last time I was up there but hay if I had done that I would have no excuse for going up now. Oh I can’t wait; I will be up there for 3 night and 2 days. I will be packing my sweat shirts and other cool weather clothes. I love cool weather! I am hoping that there will be some color to the foliage but I am going up a few weeks early and I wont be there for the peak. Who know maybe I’ll get lucky and things will be colorful no matter what I know I will have a good time.

As I have said before I HATE hot weather. During the summer I enjoy my AC. I’m bad; I keep my thermostat at 75 during the day and 70 at night. In the summer I exercise very little (not at all). I don’t take the dogs for a walk, I don’t ride my bike. If I get hot when I do it I don’t do it! Well the weather here on the Banks has begun to cool down so for the past few weeks I have been taking the dogs for an evening walk. Lord knows they need it; Cesar Millan the dog whisper has it right when he says dogs behave better when they have had their exercise. On top of the dog walks today I restarted my daily walk.

My walking buddy called me the other day and reminded me that it was time to get back on the band wagon. “Cindy” she said “I giggle when I walk; we have to start walking again!” I looked at her raised my left eye brow and said “You don’t giggle and on your fattest day you’re not fat but yes we need to start walking again because unlike you I have fat that need’s to be firmed up”

So today we took it easy (her ideal) and just walked 2 ½ miles but add that to the 1 ½ miles I walked this evening with the dogs and my glutes and thigh muscles are not happy. God I hate exercise.

So what do I like? I don’t know you’ll have to ask me later.

Do what is best for America cut back on oil use

In 1978 I bought an Olds Delta 88. Gas was .35 cents a gallon and it cost about $ 7 to fill it up. Later that year I traded it in for a Ford Pinto. A week a week after I bought the Pinto gas went from that .35 cents a gallon to .75 cents it still cost me $7 to fill my tank. Today gasoline prices have started to fall and it concerns me that we Americans being the short sighted folks we are will forget the lessons of the past, even if the past was yesterday so I searched the internet for an easy to understand time line of US oil consumption. I found one directed at children. It is very easy to read and very easy to understand. To see the complete time line go to EIA Kids Page Petroleum Energy Timelines - milestone in petroleum energy history

We Americans can control oil prices. It is our consumption that keeps the price up and our consumption that puts other countries in control of our economy. By continuing to very actively seek and use alternative energy we can make ourselves free again. We Americans have difficulty learning from the past. If we had taken to heart the energy lessons of the 70's our dependency on oil could have been greatly reduced and it is possible that today's oil "crises" could have been avoided.

Excerpts from the above refered web site.

1978-1980: Oil Prices Doubled- The Iranian Revolution, which began in late 1978, resulted in a drop of 3.9 million barrels per day of crude oil production from Iran from 1978 to 1981. At first, other OPEC countries made up for the drop in Iranian production. In 1980, the Iran-Iraq War began, and many Persian Gulf countries reduced output as well. By 1981, OPEC production was about one-fourth lower than it had been in 1978, and prices had doubled.

1980-1985: OPEC kept prices high by producing less oil. Saudi Arabia acted as a “swing producer”, cutting more production than any other OPEC country. But high prices caused less oil to be used. For example, cars became smaller using less gasoline. The drop in oil consumption meant that less oil needed to be produced. Oil production from Saudi Arabia fell from 9.9 million barrels per day in 1980 to 3.4 million barrels per day in 1985.

1986: Crude Oil Price Collapse – In 1986, Saudi Arabia stopped holding back production, and other OPEC increased production. This caused an oil glut and prices were almost cut in half. Oil consumption grew quickly in the late 1980’s because prices remained low.

1993 forward: For the first time the U.S. imported more oil and refined products from other countries than it produced. More and more imports have been needed because of growing petroleum demand and declining U.S. production.

1997-1998 The Asian financial crisis that occurred in 1997 had worldwide economic effects. As the Asian economies shrank, their demand for petroleum products declined. The slow demand for petroleum, along with the reluctance of OPEC to cut its production quotas, led to the plummet of oil prices in 1998.

2001:

· The Nation’s petroleum production measured an average of 11.0 barrels of oil per day per well, 41 percent below the 1972 peak.

· U.S. petroleum consumption reached 19.7 million barrels per day, an all-time high.

· Of every 10 barrels of petroleum consumed in the United States, more than 4 barrels were consumed in the form of motor gasoline. The transportation sector alone accounted for two-thirds of all petroleum used in the United States.

· To meet demand, crude oil and petroleum products were imported at the rate of 11.9 million barrels per day, while exports measured 1.0 million barrels per day.

· Net imports (imports minus exports) of crude oil and petroleum products more than doubled from the 4.3 million barrels per day in 1985 to 10.9 million barrels per day. The five leading suppliers of petroleum to the United States that year were Canada, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Nigeria.

2005 :

· The record-setting hurricane season of 2005 caused massive damage to the U.S. petroleum and natural gas infrastructure. The Gulf of Mexico, one of the nation's largest sources of oil and gas production, was dealt a one-two punch by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, causing destruction and substantial damage to offshore platforms within a four-week period in August and September.

· Gasoline shortages occurred in a some places on the East Coast due to power outages disrupting the flow of gasoline through pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico.

These guys have no qualms about stopping traffic

some folks make their own crop circles

sunset off Colington Island

I have been busy the last few days but not the normal hurried busy that seems to rule my life this has been a I want to do this I want to do that kind of busy. I have been reading a Terry Brooks book for over a month and I wanted to just lay back and finish it, so I did. Pansies are in the stores so I wanted to plant pansy, I’ve bought them now I just have to plant them. I have been listening to Radio Paradise - eclectic online rock radio and watching recorded TV shows. It feels nice to kick back a little after the rush of summer.

* I don’t watch much TV there are only 4 shows I watch regularly and one of those is in its last season (season #10) another one of them is “Dead Like Me” it is a “dark” comedy/drama that I feel is very uplifting and hopeful. I hope it makes it.

* My #3 son will be getting his drivers license by the end of the month. There are advantages and disadvantages, good and bad in everything in life. The advantage to this license is that I don’t have to take him everywhere anymore the bad part is I don’t have to take him everywhere anymore. My sons and I have the best talks in the car. We talk of the world and the events that take place. I give them advice and they tell me what is going on in their world. I will miss these conversations. I realized this last night when my #3 son and I were driving together and the conversation went to the book “Of Mice and Men” and from there to Buggs Bunny. (There is a connection some who read this will know what it is)

In the car there are no distractions, no phone, no TV, no computer; the radio may play in the background but that can be turned off without any problem. The car forces those in it to concentrate on the conversation at hand with the people next to them. I will never have a regular cell phone; I will keep my pay as you go phone. I refuse to allow my car to become anything else but the sanctuary it is. I will hope that from time to time my kids will need a ride because I love the uninterrupted car conversations.

* “The Day the Earth Stood Still” what a great movie; played couch potato yesterday and watched it on AMC.

* This article on an electric car that goes 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds SCI FI Tech. If oil prices stay high there is hope, as soon as the price goes down I bet the research money dries up.

Oh my what a weekend we had and its Wednesday already. With Ernesto breezing through last Thursday and Friday it was difficult to know how the Labor Day weekend was going to turn out. Work Friday and Saturday was kinda slow which is not a bad thing when you do the type of work I do. I have a feeling this was due to the storm. Folks waited to see what was going to happen before they headed to the beach.

When I got up Sunday afternoon it was a beautiful day and I planed on reading and hanging out around the house, well my neighbors had other plans for me. They live in Northern Virginia and come down whenever they can; this time they brought company. I being the good neighbor accepted their invitation to come over planning to have one beer, visit for a little while and then head on home; well 3:30am and 6 beers later I walked on home. Folks I did not wake up with a hangover but it took me 2 days to recover. I guess this old body can’t handle working 2 night shifts followed by a late night of socializing.

Yesterday was spent doing mom things and just catching up; today my butt is not getting out of the recliner until 3pm when I have to pick my son up from school. Well maybe I’ll finish that load of laundry and sweep up the dog hair ……….

September 1 2006

What do you do after a storm drops 6 or 7 inches of rain and school is canceled? You find a puddle and have blast. This is not a healthy thing to do the water is most likely contaminated with all kinds of runoff but these kid were having such a great time. Ernesto caused some minor flooding but other than that no big deal.

Well it seems we are finally getting that rain we have needed. I took this photo from my deck. This is not Ernesto this shot faces west and north. On Ernesto’s present path we will get very little weather from it in fact the probability of rain after Friday has gone down. Good news for all those folks who want to come to the beach for one last summer jaunt. Me I’ll be working as will just about everyone I know. One last busy weekend. Some say its been a busy summer others disagree. Where I work it has been busy. People go on vacation and leave their common sense at home and accidents happen.

The rain has started for the day but I did get one cup of coffee on the deck. If all goes well I’ll be able to follow my plan for the day which consist of baking a cake and reading a book. Ahhh school ya gotta love it.

"free energy" post 2

Been keeping my eye on the "free Energy" claim made by Steorn but I haven't seen much. I did find this article Wired News: Perpetual Motion Claim Probed that seemed reasonably conservative with it's view on Steorn's claim. I know its only been 11 days or so and I cant expect much to have been accomplished yet but I would like to know when the "scientist" are going to test this thing and who these "scientist" are going to be. Oh well I'll just keep lookin.

Yesterday was the first day of school in Dare County. While my son was slaving away at school some friends and I kayaked, ate fruit & cheese and drank wine finishing off the early afternoon with a nice swim in the pool. Did we think of our kids? No….. Today I am a little sunburned and my arm’s feel heavy, it has been a while since I used a kayak, but yesterday was a perfect day to be out on the water. The rest of this week is looking as if it could be wet with Ernesto predicted to head north. So far it doesn’t look like much of a storm for us wind wise, which is a good thing but I do hope we get some of the rain we could sure use it.

Last day of summer

Summer officially ends September 21^st but today is the last day of summer for those of us who have school age children. The kids in dare county return to school tomorrow; gone are the days of coming and going without concern for time, of staying out late and getting up late. We now return to a life that revolves around the school schedule. Summer vacation is over.

It has been a busy summer in my house and no one has really done anything. I have hardly seen my oldest son of course he is a young bachelor living on his own he along with my #2 son have been working, surfing and sailing with the occasional trip to Wilmington to sail and surf. Those two boys (young men) have the sea in their veins. My youngest has spent his summer pretty much in front of the computer with the daily bike ride to the pool and TaeKwonDo classes 3 times a week. I asked him if he felt that he may have wasted his summer and he told me again “mom this is the last summer of my life that I will be able to do absolutely nothing” I take that as a no. My mom kept me busy by breaking her arm. Parents, what ya do ;-)

For me the summer has just flown by. I have traveled off this island 4 times putting over 5000 miles on my car. When I haven’t been traveling I have been working and work has been busy. I have this dream that someday in the not too distance future I will be spending time in my 640sqf passive solar home over looking Buffalo Mt in southwestern VA sitting in my comphy chair thinking back fondly on life at the beach with my children and being happy to live in the mountains. I can’t help it I live 2 years in the future

All in all it has been a fare summer. It started off with tragedy and ended with life going on.

Is there a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow?

View on the way to work last evening.

Manteo Wwaterfront Sunday morning

I went to Manteo yesterday to pick up a book from Manteo Booksellers while I was in there I took a stroll along the manteo waterfront. It was Sunday morning so most of the shops were closed and there were very few people.

At work the other night there was a song I just could not get out of my head it was “Ohio” written By Neil Young. My #2 son had been driving together when he turned the music to an oldies station. The song “Ohio” came up and I quizzed my son about it. “Do you know what this song is about?” I said “No” was his reply and with that I gave him a history lesson about the Vietnam war protest's on college campus’s and how 4 students died at Kent State in Ohio when a protest got out of hand. I have always said that song writers are the poets and story tellers of our times. A simple song with 2 verses repeated once can have so much meaning to those of us who grew up in that time and that same music can bring to this generation a better understanding of what it was like to grow up in the 60’s and 70’s.

I explained that I was in one of the first generations to experience the visual news that came out of the TV. To watch night after night as the number of dead in Vietnam were announced. To have friends whose brothers were dead and others who wore MIA and POW bracelets. But Vietnam was not the only change that happened at that time integration was taking effect and I saw on the news each night the fighting that was taking place in the US, citizen against citizen. Reflecting back not a whole lot has changed. We still fight unpopular wars over seas and we still fight among ourselves over stupid thing’s that should not matter like the color of a person’s skin, their religion or their politics. We humans do not learn from history we keep repeating it over and over again.

lyrics by Neil Young

--------

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

"free energy" technology

Irish company challenges scientists to test 'free energy' technology - Yahoo! News

It will be very interesting to see what comes out of this.

This is the chalenging companys home page Steorn Home

OK just a few more

#2 checking out the waves

every one takes one of these shots; under the nags head pier

pelicans!!

I did not plan on going to the beach today but my #2 son asked me to take him to the Nags Head pier. A friend of his called and told him to bring his short board; he said the waves were good, since my son’s car is in the shop (again) he needed a ride. So I was at the beach again.

Just a few shots taken last night around 7:30-8:00pm. Same spot as the last photos. I doubt that I will go to the beach agian for a while but ya never know.

Another great day at the beach. My company that was to come this week baled so I will be spending next 6 days chilling and today I took a stroll on the beach and was treated to a cool ocean breeze and pelicans, I love pelicans. They look so prehistoric; the photo I shot today was with the sun behind the bird in such a way that when enlarged the bones could be seen I think it looks cool. Gotta get a telephoto lenses!

I had hoped to post these shots as soon as I got home but I was too tired and instead went to bed

It was great morning on the Outer Banks and since I got off work early (translation on time) I decided to take a quick trip to the beach. It was a nice morning, the ocean was flat, early morning fishermen and folks just out for a walk were treated to a very placid sight. In my opinion this is the beginning of the best time of year here. The July visitors seemed to be in a hurry all the time. The traffic is bumper to bumper and sometimes has a mean feel to it. I guess it’s got to be the families and young professionals, they are so accustomed to running from place to place that when they get to the beach its hard for them to slow down. This time of year brings a slower group of folks. You see fewer families with school age children and more with very young ones, you also see older people. I think there may be a more experienced group of people that visit the Outer Banks this time of year. Visitors who know that there is little to “do” here other than visit the beach, eat and shop so why be in a hurry. This is the time of year when walks around the Wright Brothers memorial and the Elizabethan gardens are pleasant. A drive to Ocracoke where you can rent a bicycle and explore the island is always nice. I don’t think people can truly enjoy the Outer Banks if they can’t let go and just lay back.

Boatjacked by a bear

In love the radio program calledWait Wait -- Don't Tell Me! . It deals with current events in a humorous way. This weeks "story" that hit my funny bone hard was one dealing with a Canadian fisherman who was Boatjacked by a bear. It was done towards the end of the show in what is called "lightning fill in the blank." I hope you laugh out loud we all need some funny stuff right now.

After the oppressive heat we have been having this mornings 8 am temp of 79 degrees with 42% humidity seemed like heaven. Last night while looking for meteors (I saw maybe 3 dim streaks; bummer) the air almost seemed… cool? Well July is past us and here on the Outer Banks July is the hottest month of year, and the busiest. In August the tourist start to thin out and the day light becomes less harsh as the sun begins its slow march south, I even saw some geese. I smell fall in the air. Fall is still 5 or 6 weeks away and we still have hot weather ahead not to mention the storms that seem to come at the end of August and the first of September but one of my favorite times of year on the Outer Banks is close at hand. I do not like summer, I am glad it is on the wane.

Preseid meteor shower: no show

I got up early this morning in hopes of viewing the Preseid meteor shower. On a good night in a good location a person can see between 70 and 100 meteors an hour. I had hoped to try catching some on my camera using a prolonged shutter speed. I knew I would have to contend with the moon, which would cut down on the number of meteors seen but when I saw the cloud cover I went back to bed; there would be no meteor viewing this morning. I will try again tonight and early tomorrow morning who knows maybe I’ll get lucky. I did see a few when I was at my cousins place last weekend and the meteor shower does run from July 23-August 22 but this morning was the peak. Oh well if things don’t work out this year there is always next year when the peak comes during the new moon and the viewing should be a lot better.

This is a nice site to get information on meteor showers and comets Gary W. Kronk's Comets and Meteor Showers there are lots of others but this is a fairly simple one.

Back from PA what a great time

Good food

a place to sleep

a great view

a bond fire

more food




late night conversation

and the early morning sunrise.

Every year my cousin Jack and his wife Dianna host a family and friends get together, an event started by Aunt D and Uncle Jack as a way for us to get together for a reason other than a funeral. The two of them work very hard on this and I am very appreciative of all the work they put into it. For me this is an opportunity to interact with a part of my family that I would never see otherwise. Thank you Jack and Dianna it was a great time.

It’s the first day of August and man is it a scorcher. Hazy Hot and Humid!!! There is no way that it’s not going to be busy at work today. People drink lots of NON alcoholic beverages and stay inside during the midday sun. I hope the waves are calm and the water cool and the breeze comes from off the ocean that will make for a good beach day http://www.nagsheadpier.com/

I'm getting ready for my trip to the Pennsylvania mountains for the annual friends and family party at my cousin Jacks. I'm leaving on Friday but since I'm working just about every day I have to pack in stages. I'm getting the camping gear together, those of us that want to can camp on my cousins farm that way we can party way into the night and no one has to worry about drinking and driving!! I wish I had a big truck so I could whip on by Floyd county VA and pick up my camper but I'll just have to rough it in a tent. Any hoo when I get back I have to get ready for company that’s coming after that it will be time for school to start. Boy this summer has just whipped by.