It’s been a while since I have written in my blogg. It’s the 4^th of December, the end of the year and I can hardly believe it. November flew by. It’s hard to believe that just over a week ago was Thanksgiving and my family and I were together in Pennsylvania. In November I also took a short trip to Norfolk to visit my sister while she was visiting her daughter and grandchildren. In the beginning of November I took a quick trip to the mountains to get things started on the “build a mountain home” adventure. November was a travel month for me; I hope December becomes the stay at home month although on the 15th I do have to go to Norfolk, mom is flying to New Orleans to be with my brother and his wife and Christmas day will be spent in Norfolk with my niece and her kids.

Well it is promising to be a typical winter day here on the Outer Banks, I spent yesterday afternoon bringing the plants in preparation for the front that came through with strong winds and cool temperatures. This morning there is a stiff wind with temperatures in the 40’s. The skies are overcast but that promises to change. It should be a nice cool, windy day, a day perfect for curling up with a hot cup of coffee or tea and a long neglected magazine or two.

It started as a dreary day here on the Outer Banks. We woke up to a warm foggy morning. The humidity was high, the ground wet with dew. The warm weather is forecasted to last through thanksgiving. Many would be happy with the warm temps but to be quite honest I prefer it to be cooler this time of year. I want to stuff myself on a big thanksgiving meal and when its warm out side I just can’t do that (comfortably).

The boys, my mom, and I are going to Pennsylvania this year for Thanksgiving. We will be visiting family there. We will be traveling in two vehicles because this is where having a Wrangler gets to be a bit tight. You see there is no way 5 people are fitting in that Jeep! This trip will also be interesting in that I will be hauling a trailer, my mom uses an electric scooter and that’s coming with us. I cant seem to get the hang of backing the thing up so I always pull into where ever I’m going, unhitch the trailer and manually push the thing to wherever it needs to go. The boys don’t know I cant back a trailer so it will be one more piece of fuel for the laugh at mom fire. Oh well that’s what moms are for.

We will be packing a lot into 2 days. Thursday is Thanks giving dinner and Friday is a trip to the Pocono’s for some and paintball for others and then dinner with family and friends. We will be returning to the Banks on Saturday tired and stuffed. Oh the holidays!!

I hope all who read this have a happy November 22, no matter what country you are from!!!

I already posted a fall lovers leap photo but I think this composite is nice so here it is.

Lovers Leap on hwy 58 in Virginia

early morning last week in the mountains

and now the beach

It is hard to believe that it has been two weeks since my last post. I have been to the mountains and back and am getting ready to head on up to PA for a nice Family Thanksgiving (think national lampoon) the trip home is always an adventure I love it!!!). It seems that the slower I hope my life will become the busier I get.

The trip to the mountains was very productive. I still do not have a builder, I want two estimates thats that, but I have a septic system plan and someone to put it in!!!!!

Well I'm off to Virginia Beach to see my sister. She is up from Pensacola to visit her daughter and grand kids. like I said the slower I want things to be the busier I get.

I woke up this morning to the whine of the dogs; you see they don’t know that there has been a change in time. I looked at red glowing numbers on my clock (6:27) and then at the stream of light filtering through my heavy duty drapes and thought thank god I did not have to work last night because those folks have another hour to go. The time change is hard enough for those of us that were able to sleep through it but imagine going to work at 7pm you putt along doing your job and before you know it 1 am comes along and you think to yourself “half the shift is over” but wait it's time change time so when 2 am comes along it’s 1am again. To actually work through the time change is not fun. When morning comes along you just want to go home, unfortunately anything can happen and you might just have to stay a little longer. Night shift is hard and the time change doesn’t make it any easier.

We had been feeling the effects of hurricane Noel here on the Outer Banks for the past few days with dreary gray sky's and a stiff wind, but today the sky's are bright the wind calm. It will be a good day to take the boys and girls (dogs) out for a run, but first at least two cups of coffee!

I sent copies of my mountain home plans to some builders the beginning of last week and I am anxiously awaiting their reply. I have to go up for some business this next week (weather permitting) it would be nice to chat with one of them while I’m up there. Building a house is like having a baby. You find out you are going to do it and then go around getting everything in place and then wait for the mile stones and sometimes that takes a while.

We have had a change in the weather here on the Banks. This weekend we got some much needed rain followed by some not so needed wind. I'm tempted to bring in the plants but its calling for temps in the 70's by weeks end and the night time temps are still in the upper 50's to 60's. I just can’t cut those mandevillas yet, they are so happy right now.

I have been spending a lot of time getting mountain home "packages" together for the builders. I’m hoping to get at least two bids to choose from. I have found three builders that come highly recommended but no matter who I choose most likely no one will be able to start until the spring so its going to be a hurry up and wait kinda thing which is fine with me. Once the house is closed in I need to be up there to get the inside work done. There is going to be a lot of sweat equity in this house.

I haven't had much time to write lately you see I have decided to go on a head and build my mountain home and that has been keeping me kinda busy. I have a very strict budget so I doubt I will be able to have my "Dream" home but it HAS to be paid for free and clear and that requires a LOT of "home" work. I also want my home to be passive solar so I have decided to place it against and into the hill side, a modified burm home. the drawings above are my renderings of the homes elevations. I know they will require modification after all I'm not an architect or engineer but this does let me relate to others how I want it to look. I will be starting a new blog that will document this adventure. My my my what have I got myself into... cant wait to get that first stake in the ground marking the foot print!!

I just got back from a trip to the mountains. It was more of a business trip than anything else.
This is a photo of where the new house will be. I'm looking for a builder now. I hope to break ground by the first of the year. aye ....

I discovered a nice little restaurant outside of Willis Va on 221 called Dino's Greek Hillbilly restaurant. They had some of the best peta bread I have had outside of Philly, I believe it was home made. The gyro was great and Rosa one of the owners and Tina the waitress were both very nice. Along with great Greek food they also serve traditional US and Mexican foods. Check it out if you are over that way.

Nice composite shot of "Lovers Leap" off hwy 58

These two shots are of a lake out side of Clarksville Va I have been going this way for a long time and I have never seen the bottom of this lake before. Not good.

Nice morning for a walk on the beach. Nuff said!

It was an exhausting weekend at work. Columbus day weekend is one of the weekends that a lot of owners come down and check out their properties so while staff is down to winter levels it feels a busy as summer. I guess at 48 I just don’t have the stamina I once had and 12 hours running 2 days in a row just wore me out.

Today is a bit warm for my tastes. 82 degrees on October 8^th is just not “natural”, tomorrow it’s predicted to be around 88. I have been spending the day inside just doing little things and watching Modern Marvels on the history channel. They had a very interesting program on sugar that dealt with among other things ethanol in hybrid cars. It seems that back in the 70’s Brazil after feeling the pinch of the oil embargo mandated the use of bio-fuel. Brazil is now only 10% dependent on foreign fuel. Imagine where we the United States could be now if we had learned from the experiences of the 70’s and really did something about our use of fossil fuels instead of returning to our wasteful ways when the oil “crisis” was over.

Fishing on the Outer Banks

All the plants on my deck are happy, my Bougainvillea is finally flowering. It is unusual for it to start flowering so late normally it flowers all season long

Its nice on the Outer Banks and it has been nice for the last few weeks, very mild temperatures and only the occasional rain shower and while we could use more of the rain visitors to the Banks have to be liking life.

I’ve been taking things slow, enjoying some down time and piddling around in the yard. Next week I’m off to the mountains. I’m hoping to see some color but NOW I’m hearing that the color may be later than usual. Go figure. I hope weather up there is good I would love to ride on the parkway with the Jeep top down.

Presbyopia (old mans eyes)

Today I was working in the basement just cleaning things up when it occurred to me that I could not see worth a damn. Yesterday while doing yard work in the bright sun I had no difficulty seeing; of course I wasn’t doing any detailed work just cleaning out the shed and yard. Today’s work is being done inside on a rainy day and involves the use of tools such as screwdrivers, saws and hammers and the plain truth is I can not see what I am doing clearly. I noticed this indoor seeing discrepancy way back in June while at work, I had picked up a medication bottle and while I could easily read the name of the med (with my arms fully extended) I could not read the fine print even with my over-the-counter reading glasses. The time had come to get an eye exam. I went to the doctor took the exam and informed him that I had no problem with my far distance sight but that I was having difficulty with reading close up and the computer screen. He told me that I did have problems with my far distance sight and that I needed trifocal glasses. Humph…..

So ever since I got those stupid glasses I have come to realize more and more that weather I like it or not I “may” need to wear my glasses just about all the time, unless of course it is a bright sunny day and I’m out side doing something that is not all that detailed or important.

mountain top mining

I was tooling around the blogs tonight, haven’t been able to do that much lately and wound up spending quite a bit of time at Fred Firsts blog “Nameless Creek” well you see Fred goes on these tangents, bird flu, water conservation and now he’s up in arms about folks blowing the tops off mountains for coal, give these two entries a few minutes of your time I think you will find them enlightening http://namelesscreek.blogspot.com/2007/08/no-more-high-places-forever.html

http://namelesscreek.blogspot.com/2007/08/stop-banking-on-coal.html

then check out this you tube site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziuFW-7h1LM

then for a better understanding of what exactly is being done to these mountains check out this site http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/facts/steps.php

This Mandevilla is a happy plant and has given me a lot of pleasure in the three years since I discovered it. I bought 2 others this year. One climbs a post on the pergola and the other hides the trash can. These plants have to be brought in when it starts to get cold, temps in the mid 40’s (7C) which around here means sometime in November.

What can I say fall on the Outer Banks

Can’t complain about the weather on the Banks lately, other than the lack of rain it’s been perfect. I’ve been devoting an hour every day to yard work and it shows. I’m going to take on the shed next week, that a scary job. I’m also getting things in the house ship shape for the winter. I just seem to have soooo much energy in the fall!

I’m going to be heading up to the mountains in October to get my fall fix. Hopefully there will be some fall color. From what I’ve been hearing the fall colors could be here early and be gone fast. Anyone thinking about hitting the parkway should check out their site for park information Welcome to the Blue Ridge Parkway and this site for peak information Virtual Blue Ridge Parkway Guide .

It has been nice on the banks this week. We had the Gabrielle “scare” last weekend but come Monday it was fair skies and clear water.

On another note:

This is why I hate to go to the doctor and have to be just about dying before I go. I had a head cold and a “touch” of bronchitis so I spent the early part of Monday looking for a doctor to see me. I had to go to Manteo to help my mom so I figured I would go to “Outer Banks Urgent Care” in Nags Head. I had never been there but I had taken my mom and kids and I knew a few of the nurses so I thought what the heck it’s on the way. Boy did I get a rude awakening; they would not see me because I forgot my driver’s license. I’ll admit it pissed me off when the “lady” rudely tapped on a sign they had taped on the receptionist window. I did not see the sign when I filled out the paper work; I did not know I did not have my license until I went to look for it. When I told her that some of the nurses in the back would know me all she said was that she was sure they would but there “are no exceptions”. That pissed me off I had been nursing a cough, sore throat and stuffy head for 10 days, I had left work early the night before and I needed some meds. I don’t remember saying much but I’m sure my body language was not nice. I had the receptionist return the paper work I had filled out, I could see no reason they would need it and headed on up to “Beach Medical” in Kitty Hawk. Now I had not been up there for myself in years, (I haven’t been to the doctor in years) but I had taken my mom and the kids so the folks knew who I was; they wanted ID also BUT instead of saying no they saw me. Every one was nice. The provider was great. I was able to catch up with some folks I had not seen in years (I know some of the staff). Had a quick exam and was on my way. Now I’m better. Next time I go to “Beach Medical” I’ll show them some ID. I will not say that I will never go to “Outer Banks Urgent Care” again but I will have to be desperate. I’m not the first one to have problems with them. I’ve had others tell me of their problems getting in to see the practitioners. It doesn’t matter how good the medical staff is when the front staff is less than likable.

I expected to wake up this afternoon to wind and rain but as you can see as of 5:30pm not much happening in Colington/KDH. The Banks could sure use some rain. I'll see how things are a 3am when I get off work.

Sub tropical storm Gabrielle

We have some excitement forming off the coast right now. most people are like me, just hoping for a good steady rain to give us some relief from this drought. Personally I sorry its not forecast to go more inland, they need rain even more than we do.

• To me it feels so calm on the Outer Banks right now. The air is “cooler” (a relative term), the sun is sinking further in the south and has gone from a harsh white to a more friendly soft white. There has been a steady NE wind and when I drive on the beach road or bypass the air smells of sea spray. Even on the bypass my Jeep windows become soiled with sea spray. There are far fewer people on the beach this week and traffic is much better. I went to the grocery store and did not have to wait in line. I love this time of year!!
  

• I was looking at the girl dog yesterday and noticed a faint touch of white on her muzzle that I had not seen before. She is so active that I never think of her as being “middle aged” but she will be 6 years old next month. The only disadvantage that I can see to having a dog is that they age to fast.
  

• I am a planner and my mother has talked my sister-n-law and me into taking her to Las Vegas we will be going in February. I am also planning a trip to Wheat Ridge Colorado in either the late spring or early fall of 2008. If any one who reads this has any to do’s or not to do’s or any advice on where to stay and what to do feel free to comment.

Kids at the Wright Brothers memorial and at the beach

Folks from New Jersey enjoying the holiday

It has been quite a summer, one of the busiest and hottest that I can remember. It has gone by fast but for me it ended well. My niece and her children came down last Monday for a few days during the week and my neighbors came into town for the weekend. The “piece de resistance” was the weather, you could not have asked for better. At the beach every one we meant #1 was nice and #2 seemed to be from New Jersey. Summer ended on a good note but the best time of year is yet to come. Fall on the outer banks nothing could be better.