In Over My Head

Rest In Peace

2010-04-16T07:30:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday, April 13th, Harry Zahn passed away from cancer. He was 77.

I first met Harry when I started to fish Nags Head Pier. He worked behind the counter and took my $8.00 and stapled the pier pass to my shirt. I don't remember what words were exchanged, if any. Like most fishermen I probably asked what was being caught and I'm sure he did little more than pass on the "catch of the day" report.

Harry was retired military, a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force. He was a pilot. Anyone who has ever "served" knew that he wasn't trying to be abrupt with the costumers he saw daily; he was being concise. Years as an officer had trained him to be just that way. Time matters when you're at the controls of an aircraft and when giving orders that may save the lives of those around you. Concise and precise is what Harry knew.

Most mornings when I entered the pier house Harry would be behind the counter and each morning I began to know and understand Harry better. Most mornings started the same. Harry poured me a small coffee and we talked and laughed as I took the first few sips. And then one morning, out of the blue, Harry handed me my coffee and told me to put my money back into my wallet. The coffee was on him.

I'll remember that morning forever, not for the free coffee but because it meant that we'd become friends. At that exact moment, and in his own way, Harry had confirmed that I was more than just a customer. I was never charged for a coffee again, and in the years to follow we had hundreds of them together.

Now Harry is gone. The fact that we knew it was coming hasn't made it any easier and those of us who fish the pier daily will miss him terribly. Tomorrow, Harry Frederick Zahn III will be buried. Rest in peace my friend.

You'll never realize just how much that free cup of coffee meant to me.

Closed For The Season . . .

2010-04-07T07:42:00.002-04:00

I knew when I started this blog that it was probably going to be a seasonal thing. The winter months would find me more active, and then once spring rolled around and the fishing began to heat up, it would come to an abrupt halt. Well, that appears to be what's happening. It's now been several weeks since I've shown any interest in it at all. In fact, it's all I can do to check on any of the five I maintain.

So, I'm unofficially "Closing For The Season." My hope is to post occasionally but I'm not making any promises. I'm REALLY hoping that the fishing from Nags Head Pier is so fantastic that there just won't be time, nor will I have the energy, to post anything.

SEE YOU IN THE WINTER!!!!!!

Geocaching

2010-04-06T10:51:00.007-04:00

My Cache Stats as of 4/5/2010 (Generated by CacheStats 3.0. Get your own stats at
www.logicweave.com)

Cache Finds
Total Found:	319 (# found/attended logs)	Find Rate:	0.102 per day (0.7 per week, 37 per year)
Caches:	319 (# unique caches visited)	Avg. difficulty / terrain:	1.76 / 1.66
# Archived:	35 (10%)	FTFs:	17
Avg. in 1 day:	4.7	Oldest Cache:	Four Dances (GCABC placed 5/28/2001)
Most in 1 day:	24 (4/24/2009)	Most in 1 month:	85 (3/2009)

Days Cached
Total days cached:	68 (every 45.9 days or 2.2%)	Most consecutive days with a find:	7 (3/16/2009 - 3/22/2009)
Most in 1 month:	21 (3/2009)	Most consecutive days without a find:	2698 (9/22/2001 - 2/9/2009)

History
Year	Total Found	Rate	Days Cached / Frequency
2001	1	0.010	1 / every 102.0 days
2002	0	0.000	0 / NA
2003	0	0.000	0 / NA
2004	0	0.000	0 / NA
2005	0	0.000	0 / NA
2006	0	0.000	0 / NA
2007	0	0.000	0 / NA
2008	0	0.000	0 / NA
2009	308	0.844	61 / every 6.0 days
2010	10	0.104	6 / every 16.0 days

Milestones
Number	Date	Cache	# Days between
#1	9/21/2001	Four Dances
#100	3/21/2009	South end of the trail	2738
#200	4/26/2009	Music City Audition #3-Executive Decision	36
#300	6/7/2009	"Have mind upon your health . . ."	42

Size Breakdown
Size	# Found	Percentage
Micro	153	48.0
Regular	60	18.8
Small	60	18.8
Not chosen	22	6.9
Other	14	4.4
Virtual	9	2.8
Large	1	0.3

Type Breakdown
Type	# Found	Percentage
Traditional Cache	284	89.0
Mystery	16	5.0
Virtual Cache	7	2.2
Multi-cache	6	1.9
Earthcache	3	0.9
Webcam Cache	2	0.6
Cache In Trash Out Event	1	0.3

Difficulty Breakdown
Difficulty	# Found	Percentage
1	60	18.8
1.5	113	35.4
2	93	29.2
2.5	33	10.3
3	14	4.4
3.5	2	0.6
4	4	1.3
4.5	0	0.0
5	0	0.0

Terrain Breakdown
Terrain	# Found	Percentage
1	64	20.1
1.5	149	46.7
2	77	24.1
2.5	16	5.0
3	5	1.6
3.5	3	0.9
4	2	0.6
4.5	1	0.3
5	2	0.6

Difficulty / Terrain Combinations

	Terrain
Difficulty		1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5
	1	31	22	3	2	1	-	1	-	-
	1.5	16	72	20	4	-	1	-	-	-
	2	14	33	35	7	3	-	1	-	-
	2.5	2	13	14	2	1	1	-	-	-
	3	1	6	3	1	-	1	-	1	1
	3.5	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	4	-	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	1
	4.5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	34 out of 81 combinations found

Favorite and other Notable Caches
Category	Cache	Log	Comment
Most difficult find	Tripping Billies	View	My first of this type and it stumped me on several trips.
Cleverest hide	Out On a Limb	View	Appreciate the effort that went into this cache.

FTFs
Number	Date	Cache	Log
1	4/9/2009	The Currituck Club	View
2	4/17/2009	Quack Attack	View
3	5/5/2009	Daisy's Surprise Cache	View
4	5/12/2009	Molly's cache	View
5	5/13/2009	Time to Think	View
6	5/14/2009	Don't Be Fooled	View
7	5/20/2009	Yahoo at Wahoo	View
8	5/20/2009	Eeny Meeny Miny Moe	View
9	5/28/2009	The Beach Cache	View
10	5/28/2009	Lindy's Yard Sale Cache	View
11	5/29/2009	Cudworth Cemetery	View
12	5/31/2009	Flying Horsegeeks	View
13	5/31/2009	When Pigs Fly	View
14	5/31/2009	Mark William Calaway	View
15	6/1/2009	The cameleon	View
16	3/19/2010	Let's Go Crabbing!	View
17	3/27/2010	HDTV minus the TV	View

Locations
US States (3):	MT (1), NC (312), VA (6)
Countries (1):	United States (319)

Lighting The Way

2010-03-15T06:17:00.065-04:00

You can stand on Cape Point at Hatteras and look out into the Atlantic and watch two oceans currents come together in an astonishing display of nature's fury. There the northbound Gulf Stream and the cold waters of the Labrador Current coming down from Canada's Newfoundland run head-on into each other, tossing salt spray a hundred feet into the air and dropping sand and shells and sea life at the point of impact. Thus is formed Diamond Shoals, its shifting sand bars pushing seaward to form the headstone for what mariners know as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic.''

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

Bodie Island Lighthouse

Since the 16th century more than a thousand ships and countless mariners have been lost in the waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Mariners still dread the trinity of capes that characterize North Carolina's coast: Cape Fear, Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout. The capes arc far into the Atlantic, with submerged shoals extending even further. Geography combines with weather to create perilous voyages for mariners.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

As long as seafaring men have traversed the oceans of the world, lighthouses have shown them the way. They protect them from hands that reach up from sea and attempt to pull them down into the dark and icy depths. They are the connecting link to the distant shores they called home.

Six lighthouses stand sentinal along the North Carolina shore, but for nearly two centuries after North Carolina's settlement, the coast went unprotected. Hundreds of ships met their fate in the stormy shallow waters, and one of the first congressional acts passed by America's fledgling government was lighting the coastline.

The first structure completed in 1795 was the Bald Head Lighthouse at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The first Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was completed in 1802. The Ocracoke Lighthouse came next in 1823. Still operating today, it holds the distinction along with "Old Baldy" as one of the oldest continually operating lighthouses in the United States.

After the Civil War, the government realized that more and better lighthouses were needed along the Carolina coast. The Hatteras Light, which was of vital importance to mariners, was too short, too faint, and dangerously unstable. In addition, Congress established the Lighthouse Board to oversee construction of five new lighthouses along the coast placed at 40-mile intervals.

The Cape Lookout Lighthouse was the first of these post-war structures to be completed. At 150 feet, it served as the model for the future lighthouses at Hatteras, Bodie Island and Currituck Beach.

In 1870, the original Cape Hatteras lighthouse as replaced by the current structure. At 208 feet, the majestic candy-striped lighthouse is the tallest in the nation, as well as the most recognizable and photographed.
The 150-foot Bodie Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1872. Originally located on the north shore of Oregon Inlet, the lighthouse is now two miles north of the inlet, a prime example of the always shifting sands of the Outer Banks.

At Corolla, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse was the last of the five to be built. Constructed in 1893, the 150-foot structure was intentionally left in its natural "unpainted" state. Each of the new lighthouses was painted in a distinctive manner to make them recognizable during daylight hours.

Perhaps most interesting is how these monolithic structures were constructed in the soft barrier island sand. The foundations were constructed of two courses of six-by-twelve timbers laid in an octagonal fashion in a deep pit. Once the timbers were in place, the hole was allowed to fill with sea water, a technique which has preserved the beams for over a century. Then, a granite cap was laid on top of the foundation, and the circular tower constructed brick by brick.

The lights were originally lit with oil lanterns, which required the keeper to make several trips a day to the summit with oil to refill. The light was magnified with a high-power Fresnel Lens mounted atop a rotating base flashing at recognizable intervals, which could be seen up to 50 miles away, even during adverse weather. The light keepers and his families were housed on the site, and their days at these remote, barren outposts were filled with routine chores such as cleaning the glass and lens, repairing storm damage, and making detailed weather reports. Today, the lightkeepers are gone, and the lighthouses are automated to illuminate from dusk to dawn.

Ocracoke Lighthouse

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Dear Santa . . .

2010-03-06T11:50:00.002-05:00

I'm really not sure how to begin this, or where I want to end up. In an attempt to try and get some "facts and figures" about the phenomenon that is Moleskine I "googled" it and came up with 3,400,000 hits in 3.2 seconds. I guess that about says it all. So, I'm going to let you wade through all the info and decide for yourself why something as simple as a few pages bound inside some cardboard and leather can have such a cult following.

I've kept journals off and on for years. Some recorded my deepest thoughts, while others recorded family vacations, seasonal hunting and fishing experiences and even day to day weather conditions. Most have since disappeared. Some because I feared they'd be read after I was gone and be interpreted wrongly, others were lost in moves, while others hit the trash because of a lack of interest in them at one stage of my life or another. Still, I've always been fascinated in them, and in the people who keep them.

Recently I decided to start keeping one again and searched our local stores for just the perfect one to use. I'd been online looking and there were more than a few to choose from. They were available in ruled pages and in blank pages. They came in paper designed to be wrote on, and in paper made for painting and sketching on. They came in a multitude of sizes and materials. They can be purchased bound, like that of a book, or they can be found spiral bound. To put it mildly, the choices will boggle the mind. The one thing that did stand out was that Moleskine was leaps and bounds the hands on favorite.

So, off we headed to search our local stores. We live in a somewhat remote location so the availibility is not what one will find online, or in some of the bigger cities. Still, to my disbelief there wasn't a Moleskine to be found. I'm thinking to myself, NO F^*#ING WAY. Everyone who is Anyone uses a Moleskine and I can't find one. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!!!!! However, there was a good variety to choose from and we came home with one I thought I'd be happy with. In fact, we came home with several.

Well, I wasn't happy. The more I found out about the Moleskine, the more I had to have one. Not because they were that much better than those I had, but because I just HAD to be part of the "Everyone who was Anyone" crowd. I had to use what the people who knew everything about journaling were using. So, yesterday I ordered two . I used the excuse that I was looking for something that had "blank" pages rather than "ruled" pages. I needed them to sketch and paint in, as well as write. AND I needed two sizes; one to carry with me, one for using at home.

Now I'm watching the mailbox non-stop. Despite the fact that they're still days away from arriving I just can't wait to get my hands on them. They can't get here soon enough. I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve. The mailman is my Santa and the milk and cookies have been put out.

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

Camping

2010-03-05T08:53:00.002-05:00

This post can be found at the blog site shown below. It is written by a "white guy" using the perspective of a "black guy." Please don't email or leave a comment stating I'm a racist, or a bigot. Just take the post for what it is . . . humor. AND it also happens to be absolutely true. So, don't get pissed, just enjoy and have a laugh.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

If you find yourself trapped in the middle of the woods without electricity, running water, or a car you would likely describe that situation as a “nightmare” or “a worse case scenario like after plane crash or something.” White people refer to it as “camping.”

When white people begin talking to you about camping they will do their best to tell you that it’s very easy and it allows them to escape the pressures and troubles of the urban lifestyle for a more natural, simplified, relaxing time. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In theory camping should be a very inexpensive activity since you are literally sleeping on the ground. But as with everything in white culture, the more simple it appears the more expensive it actually is.

Camping is a multi-day, multi-step, potentially lethal activity that will cost you a large amount of both time and money. Unless you are in some sort of position where you absolutely need the friendship of a white person, you should avoid camping at all costs.

The first stage of camping always involves a trip to an outdoor equipment store like REI (or in Canada, Mountain Equipment Co-Op). These stores are well known for their abundance of white customers and their extensive inventory of things for white people to buy and only use once. If you are ever tricked into going to one of these stores, you can make white people like you by saying things like “man, this Kayak is only $1200, if I use it 35 times I’ve already saved money over renting.” Note: do not actually buy the kayak.

Next, white people will then take this new equipment and load it into an SUV or Subaru Outback with a Thule or Yakima Roof Rack. Then they will drive for an extended period of time to a national park or campsite where they will pay an entrance fee and begin their journey. It is worth noting that white people are unaware of the irony of using a gas burning car to bring them closer to nature and it is not recommended that you point this out. It will ruin their weekend.

Once in the camp area, white people will walk around for a while, set up a tent, have a horrible night of sleep, walk around some more. Then get in the car and go home. This, of course, is a best case scenario. Worst case scenarios include: getting lost, poisoned, killed by an animal, and encountering an RV. Of these outcomes, the latter is seen by white people as the worst since it involves an encounter with the wrong kind of white people.

Conversely, any camping trip that ends in death at the hands of nature or requires the use of valuable government resources for a rescue is seen as relatively positive in white culture. This is because both situations might eventually lead to a book deal or documentary film about the experience.

Ultimately the best way to escape a camping trip with white people is to say that you have allergies. Since white people and their children are allergic to almost everything, they will understand and ask no further questions. You should not say something like “looking at history, the instances of my people encountering white people in the woods have not worked out very well for us.”

Note: this works for all races!

Separation

2010-03-01T20:46:00.002-05:00

John Joseph (JJ) was born on December 30, 2009 to Bridget & John. Despite the fact they steadfastly refused to name him after me I didn't hold it against them and still think of them as dearest of friends.

Several weeks ago they drove down from their home in New Jersey to introduce JJ to Malinda and myself. Bridget had insisted that he was the most beautiful baby ever, but I think I've heard that from every mother who I've ever known. So I took her boasting with a grain of salt, but it was love at first sight and both Malinda and I had to agree that he was pretty darn cute.

Today was Bridget's first day back to work following eight weeks of maternity leave, AND her first day away from JJ for any significant length of time. She tried to leave him while here, but that attempt failed afer a mere forty-five minutes. Little did she realize that she had returned just in time or Malinda may not have given him up. What is it with women and babies?

Fortunately JJ's daycare is just minutes from Bridget's work place, though I'm sure to her it felt like it was half way across the continent. Still, it's proximity afforded her the opportunity to visit during her lunch break. Had Las Vegas been giving odds I for one would have placed a bet against her making it that long. To her credit I believe she did.

We thought about her all day, worrying about what she was going through and how she was coping. Of course every mother goes through the same emotions, and every mother seems to survive just fine. Still, those first long hours apart are never easy. Tomorrow will be somewhat easier, and the following day even easier. But for moms it never gets easy enough. Separation of mother from child is an un-natural act. It goes against everything they know and feel.

So, tomorrow we'll be thinking about Bridget again, and again the day after. Eventually her dropping JJ off at daycare and going to work will be second nature to us, just a day like millions of other moms endure every day of every work week. It won't even cross our minds. However mundane it becomes to us, it will never become second nature to Bridget. Never second nature to every mother who has ever had to leave a child.

Thanks moms for being there when we needed you the most, and for being there when we thought we didn't need you at all. We'll never forget that you'll always be there to pick us up.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-02-28T08:19:00.001-05:00

It's only been five years?? It seems longer, a lot longer. I don't mean that in a negative way. It's been a great five years and I'm looking forward to the next five, but for some reason the last half decade seems like half a century. Perhaps it's because most days have been so memorable, so stimulating that each twenty-four hours seems so much longer. Each day so full that at times they seem to be over flowing. The minutes cascading over the edge and leaving you soaked to the bone.

Today marks our five year anniversary here on the Outer Banks. I'm still in shock that we call this narrow spit of sand our home. On day I'm in Largo, Florida drinking coffee, the next I'm in Nags Head, North Carolina living a life long dream. Five years later and I still haven't woke up!

Our Anniversary . . . Of Sorts

2010-02-26T11:04:00.002-05:00

Five years ago today we loaded the last of our belongings into our truck, hooked up to the fifth-wheel travel trailer and headed north. We were leaving Largo, Florida headed to our new home in Nags Head, North Carolina. Since our first trip to the Outer Banks in the mid 70s it had always been a dream to live here, and now it was coming true.

Eight hours on the road found us in Brunswick, Georgia. The following evening we'd be pulling into Tarboro, North Carolina - a mere 137 miles from Nags Head, and home. I remember experiencing many emotions that evening: excitement, nervousness and anxiety to name a few. Excited to be fulfilling a life long dream, nervous about what laid ahead and anxious to be settled in.

Hei Matau

2010-02-25T09:31:00.006-05:00

The legend holds that the north island of New Zealand was once a huge fish caught by Maui, the great Mariner, using only a woven line and a bone hook. For the Maori, the Hei Matau represents Strength, Prosperity, Fertility and a great respect for the Sea. It is worn by travelers to provide good luck and grant Safe Passage over Water.

I first saw an ad for a Hei Matau pendant on Facebook. I'm not sure what first drew me to it, but can remember becoming fascinated with it almost immediately . . . both the pendant and the legend behind it. I'm thinking what drew me to it was the fact that I live in an ocean environ AND love to fish. It seemed to fit both my personality and my life style.

So I ordered one. Mind you, mine is a replica of those first used by Maori tribemen as they went to sea. Their's were handcarved from the bones of whale. Mine was produced from cow bone and carved with a Dremel. Today's pendants are mass produced, meant to make money for those selling them, not designed to be functional. They'll never be taken to sea and cast over the sides of boats in hopes of catching that big fish we all dream about.

Still we can dream. For $15.50 plus shipping we can become a Maori fisherman. We can paddle to sea in a waka tiwai and fish the ocean's depths with a bone hook tied to a woven line in search of that fish that will make us a legend. We can once again be providers. To once again have purpose, a twenty-first century Maui.

The Perfect Fit Button (The Alternative To Sweatin' To The Oldies)

2010-02-23T08:59:00.001-05:00

This beats the heck out of an elliptical machine AND you don't have to look at Richard Simmons.

You Want Me To Do What?????

2010-02-20T10:56:00.002-05:00

Several days ago I mailed out a journal to Chuck Schoonover. Chuck (aka: Hyway) will be leaving for Springer Mountain, Georgia in early March to begin his thru-hike of the AT (Appalachian Trail). His hope is to backpack it's 2175 miles, reaching Mt. Katahdin, Maine before the snow sets in this fall.

In a moment of weakness Chuck agreed to carry a journal along for the first section of the trek. The journal (part of The Six Journals Project) weighs in at approximately 5 ounces, nothing to sneeze at when everything you need to live on for the next 7 months is being carted on your back. Ounces are so critical to backpackers that they will do anything to eliminate them. Labels are removed from clothing, handles of toothbrushes cut off and straps shortened. If it's not critical to survival it isn't placed in the pack. Once a backpacker has eliminated the non-essentials, they weigh what's left and begin the process all over again. This goes on until the day they finally hit the trail, and then continues as the thru-hike progresses.

So, when Chuck agreed to participate in the project I was not only a bit shocked, but extremely pleased. Adding extra weight is generally NOT an option, especially at the beginning of the trip when conditioning is a major concern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This morning I received an email from Chuck. He'd received the journal and was voicing concerns about its weight. His thought was that it weighed in closer to 15 ounces than the 5 ounces I was claiming. I wasn't surprised and actually smiled when I read his email. Second thoughts are just part of the backpacking game. I wouldn't be shocked if the next email I receive from Hyway is to let me know that he's ripped most of the pages out, or took the journal to the workshop and sawed it in half. Matter if fact, if he doesn't email that he's somehow lessened his load I'm going to begin to question his sanity. Of course anyone who even thinks about thru-hiking the AT can't be all there to begin with.

Thanks Hyway. We're all wishing you the very best in your endeavour.

Bengay, Isle 3 . . .

2010-02-18T10:53:00.002-05:00

The older one gets, the more one appreciates certain things. Things that make everyday life more tolerable. Items that are under appreciated by those who lack the wisdom that comes with maturity. Below you'll see my top ten. Ten items that are in no particular order, but none of which can be eliminated.

1. Warmth - Whether it be the sun, furnace or wool socks; anything that wards off the chills is a godsend to us old folks.

2. Aleve - the pharmaceutical companies answer to aging joints.

3. Bifocals - seeing is believing

4. Q-Tips - it's amazing the places they'll fit into.

5. Charmin - soft is good

6. Remote controls with BIG buttons

7. Nose/Ear Trimmer - definately a major improvement over tweezers

8. Bengay - it's what's HOT in pain relief

9. Slip-on shoes, or shoes with velcro closures

10. Alcohol - when all else fails

Here are a few items that just missed making the list.

11. Dentures - if I used them I'm sure they would have scored higher.

12. Viagra - see no. 10

13. Depends - see no. 11

I Agree With No.1 But North Carolina @ No. 37 . . . Come On Now

2010-02-16T19:05:00.006-05:00

Below you'll find a recent article telling us what state is the happiest state to live in. Coming as no surprise to most, Hawaii tops that list. I for one would be there myself if I could afford it, AND I wasn't a little nervous about flying. I was first there in September of 1968 when my flight to Vietnam landed to re-fuel. Of course we weren't allowed to venture much further than the gift shop and restrooms. I'm thinking that if we'd been allowed to see just how nice it was (and it certainly had to be waaaaay better than where we were going) most of us would have went AWOL.

The second time was five months later when I met my wife there for R & R. This time I was allowed to leave the confines of the airport, but now I had just one thing on my mind, and it wasn't touring the Big Island. I didn't want to embrace the Hawaiian culture; I wanted to embrace my wife. I didn't want to stretch out on a warm sandy beach; I wanted to stretch out on a bed with Malinda. The only part of Hawaii I was looking forward to seeing was the view from the balcony of our room, between bouts of embracing and stretching.

I was soon to learn that going without sex is just like going without sleep. You can go without both for extended periods of time, but it only takes a few catnaps to get caught up. So, once we were caught up, we did get in some sightseeing. What we discovered was paradise. The sandy beaches I didn't think I'd see were beyond description. The ocean waters surrounding them warm & pristine. Their reefs holding fish of every color. At days end we actually were hesitant about returning to our room, but there were "catnaps" to catch up on.

Okay, Hawaii is hard not see as numero uno, but how the hell can North Carolina be 37. Are you kidding me? We're Hawaii without the jet travel. We have sandy beaches AND it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to see them. Come to the Outer Banks and you'll see whales and dolphins. We surf and our redneck answer to the luau is a pig pickin', and we can cook 'em up with the best of 'em.

If that isn't enough to place us right up there with the "Aloha State" and ahead of the rest; we have Tar Heels basketball. The blue of the Pacific is purdy, but it ain't Carolina Blue. Now that I think about it a little more, I can't understand why WE'RE not number one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you needed an extra twist of the arm to set off on a Hawaii vacation, here it is: The big-wave state was the happiest place to live in 2009, according to a newly released national survey.

Topping the well-being list among all 50 states, Hawaii pulled ahead of the 2008 leader Utah. But Utah and its neighbors still have plenty to smile about. Nine of the top 10 well-being states reside in the Midwest and the West. The south didn't fare so well, taking seven of the 11 lowest well-being spots on the list.

The results come from interviews with more than 350,000 American adults who took part in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index in 2009. This is the second year of the survey.

The well-being score for each state is an average of six sub-categories, including: life evaluation (self-evaluation about your present life situation and anticipated one in five years); emotional health; work environment (such as job satisfaction); physical health; healthy behavior; basic access (access to healthcare, a doctor, a safe place to exercise and walk, as well as community satisfaction).

The top 10 states and their average well-being scores (out of a possible 100 points):

Hawaii: 70.2
Utah: 68.3
Montana: 68.3
Minnesota: 67.8
Iowa: 67.6
Vermont: 67.4
Colorado: 67.3
Alaska: 67.3
North Dakota: 67.3
Kansas: 67.2

Hawaii also topped the charts for life evaluation, emotional health and physical health, while West Virginia scored the worst on those indexes. Utah was number-one for work environment, scoring 10 points more than the worst state, Delaware.

Bad news for Mississippi, which scored lowest on the basic access index. For healthy behavior, Vermont topped the list while Kentucky scored the worst.

Overall, state well-being stayed pretty stable from 2008 to 2009. Only four states - South Dakota, Mississippi, Hawaii, and Iowa - upped their scores by two or more points compared with 2008. Wyoming had the greatest drop of 1.3 points since 2008. Compared with 2008, 18 states moved in a negative direction, 27 in a positive direction, and five stayed the same.

As for why one state tops the list while another fails miserably, in the past researchers have looked at the relationship between 2008 well-being scores and various factors, including economic indicators, education levels, personality traits and levels of inclusiveness. They found the states with higher gross regional product (GRP) per capita (level of productivity and standard of living), higher income levels and higher median housing value, were significantly happier than poorer areas.

In addition, the happiest states in 2008 tended to have more residents with advanced educations and jobs that were considered "super-creative," such as architecture, engineering, computer and math occupations, library positions, arts and design work, as well as entertainment, sports and media occupations.

Level of inclusiveness was also important, according to the research on the 2008 scores, with some of the states scoring best for well-being also being the most tolerant.

If you're wondering if people in a particular state are happy, you might just want to ask them. Another team of researchers reported results last year in the journal Science showing that a person's self-reported happiness matches up with objective measures of well-being. A separate happiest states list, generated from the individual surveys of this study, differed from the 2008 and 2009 lists that relied on the Gallup-Healthways data.

Essentially, the team publishing their work in Science used their data to statistically create a representative American. That way they could take, for example, a 38-year-old woman with a high-school diploma and making medium-wage who is living anywhere and transplant her to another state and get a rough estimate of her happiness level.

Hawaii: 70.2 (68.2)
Utah: 68.3 (69.2)
Montana: 68.3 (66.7)
Minnesota: 67.8 (67.3)
Iowa: 67.6 (65.6)
Vermont: 67.4 (66.6)
Colorado: 67.3 (67.3)
Alaska: 67.3 (66.2)
North Dakota: 67.3 (65.5)
Kansas: 67.2 (66.1)
Idaho: 67.1 (66.8)
Virginia: 67.0 (66.5)
New Hampshire: 66.9 (66.7)
Maryland: 66.8 (67.1)
Washington: 66.8 (67.1)
Maine: 66.7 (65.5)
Wyoming: 66.7 (68.0)
Massachusetts: 66.6 (67.0)
California: 66.5 (67.0)
South Dakota: 66.5 (64.3)
Arizona: 66.4 (66.8)
Connecticut: 66.3 (66.3)
Nebraska: 66.3 (66.4)
Texas: 66.2 (66.1)
Georgia: 66.1 (66.0)
Oregon: 66.0 (66.3)
Wisconsin: 66.0 (65.9)
Illinois: 65.8 (65.2)
New Jersey: 65.6 (65.8)
Pennsylvania: 65.4 (64.9)
New Mexico: 65.3 (66.3)
New York: 65.0 (64.7)
Michigan: 64.9 (64)
Missouri: 64.8 (63.8)
Florida: 64.8 (65.3)
South Carolina: 64.9 (65.7)
North Carolina: 65.1 (64.8)
Delaware: 64.7 (64.7)
Louisiana: 64.2 (64.2)
Oklahoma: 64.2 (64)
Rhode Island: 64.2 (64.6)
Mississippi: 64.0 (61.9)
Tennessee: 64.0 (64.0)
Alabama: 63.9 (64.9)
Indiana: 63.9 (63.3)
Nevada: 63.8 (64.5)
Ohio: 63.6 (62.8)
Arkansas: 62.8 (62.9)
Kentucky: 62.3 (61.4)
West Virginia: 60.5 (61.2)

Wham-O

2010-02-12T16:10:00.000-05:00

Walter Fredrick Morrison, the Frisbee inventor, died this week. His simple sports innovation – a plastic, aerodynamic disc – has become one of the most popular toys in American history, uniting beachgoers, college kids, and competitive teams for half a century.

How did he come up with the idea? Morrison said it was easy as pie – literally. In the 1940s, he and his future wife brought cake and pie tins with them to the beach. The couple enjoyed flinging the pans back and forth, letting them glide in the California wind.
A former military pilot, Morrison applied his knowledge of aerodynamics to tinker with the tins, improving their control. Finally, in 1948, the Los Angeles building inspector began producing and selling his own discs.

Frisbee was not the original name. When Wham-O Manufacturing bought the idea from Morrison in 1957, they called it the Pluto Platter. Later, "Wham-O adopted the name 'Frisbee' because that’s what college students in New England were calling the Pluto Platters," reports the AP. "The name came from the Frisbie Pie Co., a local bakery whose empty tins were tossed like the soon-to-be Frisbee."

Frisbee went on to sell 200 million discs, inspire the sports ultimate Frisbee and Frisbee golf, and attract countless knockoffs around the world.

Malinda's Famous Brunswick Stew

2010-02-11T13:22:00.004-05:00

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 1/2 pounds Eastern Carolina style pulled pork (previously prepared)
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 can Hoppin' John
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced stewed tomatoes with liquid
1/2 cup hickory flavored barbeque sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2 (14.75 ounce) cans cream style corn
1 can lima beans
2 boiled potatoes - diced

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, and saute the onions and celery until soft. Mix in the beef, and cook until evenly browned. Do not drain.
Transfer the beef mixture to a large stock pot over low heat. Stir in the pulled pork, tomatoes and their liquid, Hoppin' John, lima beans, cream style corn, diced potato and barbeque sauce. Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce.

Cook, on low, stirring occasionally, 2 hours, or until thickened. Serve with corn bread or biscuits.

RIP Captain Phil

2010-02-10T07:03:00.014-05:00

Deadliest Catch first aired on April 12, 2005. Captains and crews departed Dutch Harbor, Alaska bound for the crabbing grounds of the Berring Sea. They were seeking Alaskan King crab and their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Most of those who were viewing into the Discovery Channel that evening knew little, if anything, about crabbing, or the vessels and crews that sought them.

By that season's end we were entranced by the program, drawn in like the very crabs that those skippers sought. Names like Big Valley, Time Bandit, Northwestern and Cornelia Marie were on the tips of tongues of everyone who was viewing in. Popularity of the program spread like a red tide and captains and crews had followings similiar to those of pro atheletes. Sig, Edgar, Phil and the Hillstrand Brothers were household names and all of a sudden everyone knew the differences between a King crab and an Opilio.

Now, nearly five years later, we have lost one of those captains. Not to the sea, as all those who watch each episode expected, but to health. Captain Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie has died of complications following a stroke suffered on January 30. He was 53.

UPDATE: February 9, 2010: It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad - Captain Phil Harris. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down. We will remember and celebrate that strength. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. - Jake and Josh Harris

Statement from Discovery - Discovery mourns the loss of dear friend and colleague Captain Phil Harris. He was more than someone on our television screen. Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend to all who knew him. We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart. We share our tremendous sadness over this loss with the millions of viewers who followed Phil's every move. We send our thoughts and prayers to Phil's sons Josh and Jake and the Cornelia Marie crew.

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The smell of salt in the air,
The feel of their skin as it's touched by the spray

An albatross soaring above,
Dolphins in the ship's wake at play

To witness a work of art that only God can create,
The sunset at the end of day

At night a million stars in the sky,
Safe anchorage in an islands lee

When the time comes to die as for all it must,
To awake in Sailors Heaven where nothing ever rusts

And always there would be,
Fair winds and a following sea

Friendship

2010-02-06T17:18:00.004-05:00

It is so good having Bridget, John and JJ here. Unfortunately the weather isn't cooperating but we're making the best of it and not letting it "wash out" their stay.

JJ is the perfect baby and rarely makes much more than a peep. We're doing our best to be sure he sees all the hot spots on the OBX, despite the fact he'll never remember them (he's five weeks old) but we'll be able to show him the pictures once he's grown. Yesterday he had lunch at Toog's and met Nick at TW's.

John brought the three rods he and Steve have been re-wrapping for me and they turned out great. Way beyond my expectations and I can't wait to show them off. Two (the rod I'll use as an anchor rod and my fighting rod) are wrapped in black, silver and Carolina Blue. The third rod ( the rod that Marv gave me last year) is done in a royal blue and gold to match the reel that I use with it. I'll post pictures later but I'm sure they won't do them justice.

The fighting rod is an entirely new rod made from a Rainshadow blank. It's kind of a long story, but one worth telling. The original plan was to take my over-the counter Tsunami rod that I use as my "fighting rod," strip all the components from it and re-wrap in Carolina Blue/black/silver. They'd do the same to the anchor rod and when both were complete I'd have a matching set. Sounds simple enough, right?

Things went well with the "anchor rod" but when Steve started to strip the existing components from the "fighting rod" he discovered that it was broke in half. We're not sure how it happened, but appears as if it was broke from the beginning and whoever was building it just tried to hide it by building up the epoxy at the break in hopes that it would hold together long enough for the warranty to expire. If that's the case, how it ever held together through a season of fishing I'll never know. The other possibility is that I somehow broke it, but I don't believe that to be the case.

Mind you I had no idea what was going on. I just assumed eveything was progressing as planned and when John unvailed the rods to me I was very disappointed to see the broken rod and hear the story behind it. It wasn't an expensive rod, but still I would need to replace it and that would take money I wasn't looking at spending. AND, it had been a Christmas gift so I really hated to see it broken. Still, the other two rods had turned out great helping take some of the sting out of losing the third.

Then he reached into the rod tube and pulled out a "fighting rod" they'd built from scratch to match the rod he'd be using as his "anchor rod" . . . same pattern and same green. I fondled it and ogled over it as he told me about the blank, guides, reel seat, etc. It was built with top-notch components mounted to a top-notch blank and I was envious. Then he reached back into the tube and pulled out the same rod built with the same components, but wrapped in Carolina Blue.

It took me a moment to realize what they had done, but when I finally did, I was overwhelmed. Not only had they did a great job, but they had taken their time and their money and replaced my broken rod. They didn't have to, and I certainly wouldn't have expected them to, but they did it anyway. I just can't put into words how I felt, how I feel now and how I'll feel each time I use it. It will be my "fighting rod" forever and if it never catches a fish it will still be the greatest rod ever . . . a constant reminder of what true friends really are. I'll cherish it forever and never forget that it was built with a little thread, some epoxy and a heart load of friendship.

Thanks guys!

A Large Black Coffee, Please

2010-02-03T07:37:00.003-05:00

Anyone who knows me knows I love coffee. I drink it often and I drink a lot of it. I'm drinking it now and will continue to drink it throughout the day. The first thing I do in the morning is pee; the next thing is brew a pot of coffee. After that its: drink coffee . . . pee . . . drink more coffee . . . pee.

I confess I'm not a connoisseur of the bean. As long as it's hot and black I'm good with it. I like it fresh brewed and I won't turn my nose up at day old stuff either. I drink blends from Sumatra, Jamaica and Kenya. I drink it from Starbuck's, Dunkin' Donuts and Nags Head Pier.

What I don't drink are lattes and cappuccinos. I don't drink pumpkin flavored coffee and I don't drink coconut creme concoctions. I want my whipped cream on my banana splits and if I want something that tastes like coconut it will be in a pie. Mind you, I may have a coffee with my pie, but I won't have pie IN my coffee.

There's no sense wrecking a good thing.

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Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee offer the best coffee blends found at grocery stores, according to a coffee survey released today by Consumer Reports. (see rankings below)

The well-respected consumer watchdog magazine ranked 37 caffeinated and decaffeinated blended coffee varieties. Coffee experts looked for “smoothness and complexity with no off flavors.”

At first blush, coffee connoisseurs and Starbucks critics might mock these results. But, before you do, take note: Starbucks and Green Mountain could only muster a “Good” rating — meaning coffee experts at Consumer Reports were unable to reward any coffee blend a rating of Excellent or Very Good.

“If you’re looking for a standout among blended coffees, you may be disappointed,” the magazine states in its March 2010 issue, which features the coffee survey.

Starbucks House Blend and Green Mountain Signature Nantucket Blend Medium Roast were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 among 14 coffee blends that earned a Good ranking. Consumer Reports said the brands represented the best combination of taste and price.

“Both have an earthy, woody taste, but Starbucks was found to be a fairly bitter to very bitter darker roast, while the Green Mountain has green/sharp flavor,” the survey said.

The other “Good” brands (No. 3 -14) included, in order: Dunkin’ Donuts Dark Roast; Allegro light roast by Whole Foods; Archer Farms (Target breakfast blend); Kickapoo Organic Driftless Morning; Peet’s House blend; Sam’s Choice house blend medium roast (also found at Walmart stores); Eight O’Clock original; Melitta classic medium roast; Seattle’s Best breakfast blend (owned by Starbucks); New England eyeopener blend; Dunkin’ Donuts original blend medium; and Folgers house blend medium.

Other findings:

For java drinkers on a budget, the CR experts said The Melitta and Seattle’s Best brands were the best bargain coffees.

Twenty-four caffeinated coffees were tested. Of those, Folgers classic roast and two Maxwell House blends ranked last on the survey.

Five Things I Love

2010-02-02T07:40:00.001-05:00

1. I hate being old but love having lived this long
2. nor'easters
3. ocean environs
4. being loved and loving
5. cold sheets when I crawl into bed

For All That Ails You . . . And A Few Uses You Never Would Have Thought Of

2010-02-01T08:15:00.008-05:00

In 1996 we moved to Billings, Montana. Soon after I took a job on a ranch. Mind you, I knew nothing about ranching, cows, or horses. I was, however, familiar with manual labor and wasn't afraid of doing it.. So, that's what I went into my first job interview with. Of course the ranch owner was hesitant about hiring me and I understood that reluctance. I had no experience, actually hated horses, and wasn't all that young. In fact my dislike for horses was my reseasoning for applying in the first place. I figured if I was going to live in a state who's economy was dependant on beef than I should at least learn to tolerate the "tools" used to manage that industry.

To my surprise I was hired. I convinced the rancher to take me on on a trial basis. I'd work for free until they gained confidence in me, until they saw that I was willing to learn and willing to work hard at the tasks they assigned me. I won them over and became a hired hand. I can't recall ever being prouder when I was handed my first check.

That was my introduction to Bag Balm. We used it for everything. It was the "duck tape" that held the ranch together. There was no end to its uses, and each day the hands found more ways to utilize it. We applied it to the stock, to equipment and to ourselves. To this day we have a tin in the medicine cabinet. In the winter I use it to combat dry skin and in the summer to ease rashes that tend to break out with the humidity that comes with the season. I use it in my bike shorts to prevent saddle sores and I use it for chapped lips. I use it for sunburn and for the cracked hands one gets from too much fishing in saltwater. Never are we without it.

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LYNDONVILLE, Vt. – Winter is most definitely here. It must be. The phones are ringing at Bag Balm headquarters.

Everyone wants a new tub of the gooey, yellow-green ointment. And all have a story about its problem-salving — they use it on squeaky bed springs, psoriasis, dry facial skin, cracked fingers, burns, zits, diaper rash, saddle sores, sunburn, pruned trees, rifles, shell casings, bed sores and radiation burns.

Everything, it seems, except for cows.

"Some, you don't really even want to hear, but they're gonna tell you anyway," said accounts manager Krystina McMorrow, who is half the office staff.

"I've been here 14 years," said accounts-receivable clerk Shawna Wilkerson, the other half. "The oddest one I've heard was somebody who reloads his ammunition. He puts Bag Balm on the bullet casing and it makes it easier to reload 'em."

Developed in 1899 to soothe the irritated udders of milking cows, the substance with the mild medicinal odor has evolved into a medicine chest must-have, with as many uses as Elmer's glue.

According to Bag Balm lore, the stuff went from barns to bedrooms when dairy farmers' wives noticed how smooth their spouses' fingers were after using it on cows' udders. The wives were jealous.

Bag Balm went to the North Pole with Admiral Byrd, to Allied troops in World War II, who used it to keep weapons from corroding, to Ground Zero for the paws of cadaver-sniffing dogs searching the World Trade Center rubble, and to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sold off pet care shelves and at farm stores for $8.99 per 10-oz. green tub (with cow's head on the lid), it's made of petrolatum, lanolin and an antiseptic, 8-hydroxyquinoline sulfate — substantially the same formula used since John L. Norris bought it from a Wells River druggist before the turn of the century.

It is made in a one-room "plant" by the family owned Dairy Association Co., Inc. — six employees, two officers and no sales force — operating in a cluster of converted railroad buildings in this small (pop. 1,215) northern Vermont town.

Petrolatum is shoveled from 50-gallon drums into a large vat and blended with lanolin from Uruguay, then heated to 95 degrees. A machine quickly squirts the goop into metal cans that are cooled, capped and packaged.

The plant is inspected annually by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, though the product is marketed for use by animals, not humans.

Distributed by wholesalers and sold retail in farm stores, national drugstore chains and general stores, its popularity has grown largely with word-of-mouth advertising as converts becomes users and then devotees.

Imitators through the years have included Udderly Smooth Udder Cream and Udder Balm.

The Dairy Association won't divulge sales figures.

In a 1983 report, the late CBS News journalist Charles Kuralt said upward of 400,000 units were shipped annually. Norris' granddaughter, company President Barbara Norris Allen, won't say how today's shipments compare.

"The colder the weather, the better our business," said Ron Bean, production manager at the plant, which is open for tours but not photographers.

To call the operation old-fashioned is an understatement.

The plant operates with one shift, Monday through Friday. The Dairy Association doesn't take credit cards ("Send us a good ol' check," says Allen). And the names of individual stores that buy directly are kept on index cards in file cabinets.

Long-distance bicyclist Andy Claflin says he started using Bag Balm on a cross-country race last June, when a teammate turned him on to it for saddle sores.

Claflin, 37, from Dayton, Minn., was suffering from saddle sores as he competed in the Race Across America. A teammate told him it was good for the sores, a bane of long-distance biking. So he slathered some on, down below.

"I was sitting there in Arizona, it's 110 degrees, the air conditioning wasn't working, the crapper in the RV wasn't working, I gotta' bike 100 miles in this heat and great, I've got to deal with this," he said. "It was nasty and filthy and it felt weird ... But I didn't have saddle sores from then on, riding 130 miles a day. When you're on the bike, you're like 'Oh, this stuff is great.'"

Marge Boyle, 62, a quilter in Paducah, Ky., keeps a tin by her sewing machine.

"It's really a wonderful product when you're sewing, because of all the pinpricks you get. It soothes and heals your fingers. Quilters are always pricking their fingers. We wash our hands constantly to keep them free of dirt, and you need something to soothe them," she said.

And it's still de rigeur in barns, where it all started.

Dairy farmer Willie Ryan has used it since the '70s, to soothe the chapped teats of cows. And more.

"The cows get frostbit sometime, so we use the Bag Balm," said Ryan, 60, of Craftsbury, Vt. "Any open wound with swelling, you just put some of that in and put a pack bandage on it and it does wonders. Don't ask me how, but it does," he said.

For all its myriad uses, there's one place its makers say never to use it.

"Never put Bag Balm in your hair, because you will not get it out," said Wilkerson.

By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jan 31, 10:51 am ET

Simpler Times

2010-01-31T16:15:00.032-05:00

Today I was cruising around You Tube and came across a video of a girl using a hula hoop. I don't remember what I was actually looking for when I found it, or why it popped up, but it got me thinking back to my youth and what we had to amuse ourselves back then, one of them being hula hoops.

Before PS3, Xbox 360, Rockstar and iPods there were hula hoops, Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets and Tinker Toys. I'm not sure in what order I had them, but I am sure as to the occasions I received them all . . . Christmas. As a kid there were just two dates I generally received presents: May 23rd and December 25th.

We weren't poor, or at least I didn't think so at the time, but we didn't have much except what we needed either. May 23rd was my birthday and for some reason I always remember receiving "outdoor" presents on that date: baseball gloves, fishing poles and used re-painted bikes. I guess because I had all summer to use them my parents figured that was the best time to give them.

On Christmas morning it was "indoor" presents; socks, underwear and the afore mentioned Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets and Tinker Toys. Though I can't recall the order they were found under the tree, because of their simplicity I'm thinking Tinker Toys came first. Lincoln Logs surely came a Christmas, or two, later and because of their complexity; the Erector Set was last, arriving once I'd aquired the dexterity to use a wrench and a screwdiver.

As I got older the gifts became more sophisticated. Chemisty sets found their place under the tree and then it was a Lionel train set. When I was finally old enough to appreciate the responsibility in owning one, it was a shotgun. In today's world they would be deemed as simple. Most kids would laugh if they saw them today and surely throw a tantrum if they found them under their Christmas tree.

Now, all these years later, they represent my childhood and speak of days long since past. Each a reminder of a birthday, a Christmas, of times spent with family. Of wrapping paper and birthday candles. To think of them now is like opening up a photo album . . . Kodak moments made from wood, cardboard and train tracks.

I Might Need To Stock Up On Beer

2010-01-30T05:29:00.000-05:00

Issued by The National Weather Service
Newport, NC
3:33 pm EST, Fri., Jan. 29, 2010

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THIS EVENING TO 3 AM EST SUNDAY.LOW PRESSURE OVER THE GULF COAST STATES TONIGHT WILL REDEVELOP OFF THE SOUTHEAST COAST EARLY SATURDAY THEN MOVE NORTHEAST AND OFF CAPE HATTERAS SATURDAY NIGHT. RAIN AND SNOW... MIXED WITH SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN WILL DEVELOP TONIGHT. THE WINTRY MIX WILL CONTINUE SATURDAY. THE PRECIPITATION WILL TAPER OFF AND END SATURDAY NIGHT. SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS OF AROUND 1 INCH WILL BE POSSIBLE BY LATE SATURDAY OVER THE INLAND SECTIONS OF THE MAINLAND COUNTIES AND THE NORTHERN OUTER BANKS. THERE MAY ALSO BE SOME SLIGHT ACCUMULATIONS OF ICE FROM THE FREEZING RAIN OVER THE INLAND AREAS.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW... SLEET... OR FREEZING RAIN WILL CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES... AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING TO GET MORE BEER.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEWPORT/MOREHEAD CITY HAS ISSUED A WIND ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 7 AM SATURDAY TO 7 AM EST SUNDAY.
AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL LIFT NORTHEAST ALONG THE COAST SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT. NORTHEAST WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH HIGH GUSTS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP SATURDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT WHILE SHIFTING TO THE NORTH AND NORTHWEST AS THE LOW MOVES EAST OF THE REGION. WINDS WILL GRADUALLY DIMINISH ON SUNDAY.

A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WINDS OF 31 TO 39 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS ARE EXPECTED. WINDS THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT... ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES DRIVING OUT TO GET MORE BEER.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEWPORT/MOREHEAD CITY HAS ISSUED A HIGH SURF ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 5 AM SATURDAY TO 7 PM EST SUNDAY. A COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY HAS ALSO BEEN ISSUED. THIS COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FROM 5 AM SATURDAY TO 7 PM EST SUNDAY.

STRONG NORTHEAST WINDS WILL DEVELOP LATE TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT AS AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE MOVES OFF THE SOUTHEAST COAST THEN LIFTS NORTHEAST OFF THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST. STRONG ONSHORE WINDS... BUILDING SEAS AND HIGH ASTRONOMICAL TIDES WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS SURF CONDITIONS AND MINOR OCEAN OVERWASH ALONG THE EAST FACING BEACHES OF THE OUTER BANKS THIS WEEKEND.

MINOR OCEAN OVERWASH WILL BE POSSIBLE STARTING WITH THE SATURDAY MORNING HIGH TIDE CYCLE. WINDS INCREASING TO NEAR GALE FORCE AND SEAS BUILDING OFFSHORE TO 10 TO 13 FEET BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND CONTINUING INTO SUNDAY ARE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE BREAKERS OF AT LEAST 8 TO 10 FEET IN THE SURF ZONE. OCEAN OVERWASH WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGH AT LEAST THE SUNDAY MORNING HIGH TIDE CYCLE. MINOR BEACH EROSION CAN ALSO BE EXPECTED. CONDITIONS GRADUALLY IMPROVE SUNDAY AS THE LOW PUSHES WELL EAST OF THE REGION.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A HIGH SURF ADVISORY MEANS THAT HIGH SURF WILL AFFECT BEACHES IN THE ADVISORY AREA... PRODUCING DANGEROUS RIP CURRENTS AND LOCALIZED BEACH EROSION. CARE SHOULD BE TAKEN IF YOU NEED TO SWIM TO GET MORE BEER.

The Other Side Of Fishing

2010-01-29T10:39:00.010-05:00

Fishing is not something we do just on weekends here on the Outer Banks, it's a way of life. We live it, breathe it, and of course, eat it. In one way or another we all depend on it. Much of our population goes to sea each day to do it, either recreationally or commercially. We crab, we shrimp, we scallop, we seine and we gig. We troll, we surf fish, we pin rig and we jerk jig. If it can be caught, we catch it. We know how to throw a "heaver" and we can tie a "haywire twist." We carry tide charts in our tackle bags and have Rutgers bookmarked on our computers. Fishing isn't a pastime, it's our livelihood.

A long comes Capt'n Marty. Marty Brill grew up in Ponce Inlet, a small fishing village just south of Daytona Beach, Florida. At the age of 9 he started working as a bait boy on the offshore headboats. He spent his teenage years flounder gigging, trout fishing, clamming and oystering in the backwaters of the inlet and also at Mosquito Lagoon in the Canaveral National Seashore. As a freshman in high school he switched over to the sportfishing boats. He learned and he dreamed about what could be.

I watched countless Carolina Sportfishing boats as they headed south in the winter and north in the spring and I made up my mind I was going to follow them to the Outer Banks one day. On the very night I graduated from high school, I packed my van, (it was the 70’s), kissed my mom and dad good-bye and headed north. On the very last day of that very first summer I was the mate on the Sea Whisper with Capt. Buddy Hooper when we landed that first blue marlin.

Two years later he migrated from Hatteras to Oregon Inlet and a stint on a brand new custom built Billy Holton boat, owned and captained by Nevin Wescott. It was the culmination of dreams he had as a bait boy walking the decks of headboats out of Ponce Inlet.

He's been on the Outer Banks ever since, running charterboats out of the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center for 16 years before opening a tackle shop in Nags Head. It was there that he began giving seminars that would teach others the "ins and outs" of Outer Banks Fishing. It was also during those years that he started the radio program, “The Other Side of Fishing” on Beach 104 where you'll find him today. He and the "crew" welcome all aboard and work hard to be sure you enjoy the voyage. So, when you're here on the OBX take a seat in the fighting chair, hook into the fighting harness and enjoy the fishing.

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Captain Marty

Capt'n Marty, 1st Mate Jody O'Donnell, Level 3 and a cast of characters make up "The Other Side Of Fishing" which is broadcast on several radio stations here on the OBX. It airs daily with an extended version on Saturday. Topics include beach access issues, the weather, what's biting, recipes, fishing & hunting regulations and nearly everything in between. If it's layin' around, they'll step in it. Subjects can be dead serious or deadpan hilarious. They're not shy, and though they may be opinionated, they're NOT boring. You WILL laugh and on occasion you'll laugh uncontrollably.

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Looks Like 10 Days Of Depression

2010-01-29T05:34:00.001-05:00

10 Day Weather Forecast for Kill Devil Hills, NC (27948) - weather.com

Before & After

2010-01-28T03:48:00.002-05:00

The vintage photographs were taken around 1950 and depict the Nags Head Fishing Pier and surrounding area. The aerial view shows the pier and area around it as it looks now. As near as I can tell not a single structure shown in the vintage photos remains today. All have been replaced my man, or Mother Nature over the last seven decades. Even the pier house has been replaced. Portions of the pier have been lost to time and storms, but amazingly is, for the most part, still intact.

These photos, and more like them, can be found at Outer Banks Vintage Scrapbook

Let There Be Light

2010-01-27T13:59:00.008-05:00

For the first time, the public will be climbing to the top of Bodie Lighthouse by early in 2011. Currently the structure is undergoing repairs to make it safe.

BODIE ISLAND

Nearly every corner of the Bodie Island Light Station site will soon be buzzing with restoration projects. Three historic buildings that were on the oceanfront off the highway were relocated last week to the station’s entrance road in preparation for rehabilitation. And workers this month are expected to begin removing the original First Order Fresnel lens atop the lighthouse before restoration starts on the 1872 tower and its lens. A new mile-long, 6-foot-wide wooden boardwalk from the lighthouse to the Pamlico Sound, a partnership with the state, is nearly finished. Soon, the roof of the lightkeeper’s station and its walkway will be replaced. Next year, the entrance road will be widened and bike paths will be added. Once the projects - which will cost about $4.5 million - are completed, visitors will be able to climb the Bodie Island Lighthouse for the first time in decades. The beacon might finally outshine the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the public eye, said Doug Stover, historian with the National Park Service Outer Banks Group. “This is going to be incredible,” Stover said. “It’s going to be much more popular because they haven’t climbed it and it’s closer to the urban area.” When two of the relocated buildings, the 1916 boathouse and the 1879 life saving station, are secured on pilings at their new homes off the west side of N.C. 12, the Park Service will prepare them for use in the near future. The third moved building, the 1925 Bodie Island Coast Guard Station, will be re-sided and boarded up until money is acquired to restore it. Before the buildings were moved, the entire station, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1960s, had been behind dunes just north of Coquina Beach, and was in danger of destruction by erosion. Stover said the life saving station, used as a ranger station, and the small boathouse, used as a garage, are expected to maintain the same purposes. The Coast Guard station may become a visitor center, lifeguard housing or an education center. “When we get close to the restoration, we’ll have a public scoping meeting to decide what the use of that building will be,” Stover said. “But the main point is, we won’t have to worry about it being destroyed by the ocean.” By then, improvements elsewhere at Bodie Island will be well under way.
From the ground, the 156-foot lighthouse looks well-tended, with some signs of wear and tear showing inside the oil house at its base. But inside the tower, windows are rotting and broken. Some steps are rusting and fragile. Off the lantern room, the gallery is held together with cables and chicken wire; large panes of glass are shattered or have cracks in them. One framed window with a large hole is patched with yellow caulking foam, blue Plexiglas and duct tape. “It seems like the lighthouse deteriorated more the further up you go,” Stover said. In 2004, four chunks of iron - one weighing 450 pounds - fell from the gallery. The public was not allowed into the lighthouse’s base until the tower was stabilized with the cables two years later. An innovative casting method was recently tested on three of the steps on the spiral staircase with much success, Stover said. By melting the original cast iron and blending it with zinc and steel, he said, the resulting product was stronger but still included the “historic fabric” of the stairs. A total of 21 stair treads will be replaced during the restoration project. When the lighthouse reopens, the winding spiral staircase will be strong enough to allow 15 people at a time to scale its 205 steps to the deck, where there is a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean and the marshlands stretching to the Pamlico Sound and Oregon Inlet. “Look at the view,” Stover said as he gazed out a window two-thirds of the way up the tower. “It’s still like it was when the keepers were here.”

Article taken from the Pilot on Line

Location: 4 miles (6 km) north of Oregon Inlet, Near Nags Head, North Carolina
Coordinates 35°49′07″N 75°33′48″W / 35.8185°N 75.5633°W / 35.8185; -75.5633Coordinates: 35°49′07″N 75°33′48″W / 35.8185°N 75.5633°W / 35.8185; -75.5633
Year first lit: 1872
Automated: 1940
Foundation: Timber, Granite, Rubble
Construction: Brick, Cast Iron, Stone
Tower shape: Conical
Markings/Pattern: White and black bands with black lantern house
Height: 165 feet (50 m)
Original lens: First order Fresnel lens, 1872
Range: 18 nautical miles (33 km)

Are Ya Ready For Some Football?

2010-01-26T06:57:00.005-05:00

The Vikings’ 31-28 overtime loss to New Orleans on Sunday in the NFC title game provided Fox with some huge ratings both nationally and locally.

In Minneapolis-St. Paul, the game had a 58.7 rating and 80 share on FOX9. That is the third-highest local rating ever for an NFC playoff game on Fox.

Atop that list was the 63.2 rating and 82 share that the New Orleans market delivered Sunday.That is the highest-local rating ever for a postseason NFL game, beating the home market rating of every team that has ever played in a Super Bowl.

Milwaukee was the No. 3 market (47.4/64), no doubt the result of curious Green Bay fans wanting to see how former Packers quarterback Brett Favre did.

The game had a 30.6 rating and 45 share and averaged more than 57.9 million viewers, according to fast national figures released by Nielsen.

That makes it the largest audience for a conference championship game since the Cowboys-49ers game in 1982 on CBS (68.7 million viewers). That game featured "The Catch" by San Francisco’s Dwight Clark.

Excluding Super Bowls, the average audience of 57.9 million for Sunday’s game makes it television’s most-watched program since the 1998 "Seinfeld" series finale (76.3 million viewers).

I believe there are a number of reasons this game was so popular and the ratings were through the roof, or "dome" if you will.

1. The love/hate relationship with Brett Favre. One of the reasons I viewed in (though not the no. 1 reason)was due to the fact that I hate Favre. I wanted to see him fail so bad that I would have suffered through chinese water torture just to be a witness to his demise. Why I dislike him I'm not entirely sure. You have to give him his due, and the nunbers don't lie; he is a top notch QB. Most people "in the know" place him high on their lists and his stats are tops in all but a few catagories.

Others think of him as a god. They love his durability and appreciate his love for the game. They believe his " I'm retiring, no I'm playing" routine is do to the fact he loves the game so much he just CAN'T let it go. I, on the other hand, think he's just a drama queen.

2. The feelings everyone has for the city of New Orleans, and it's residents, since the devastation following hurricane Katrina. They know what a boost a Super Bowl victory would be for a city still suffering, and for the people suffering with it. They also know how much the fans of the Saints have endured over the years, just how bad a football team can be. They know that being a fan of those earlier teams makes them true fans.

3. Football is the no. 1 sport in the United States. I don't know the exact figures, but wouldn't be surprised to learn that there are more NFL fans than NHL, NBA and MLB fans all rolled up in a tarp together. So, if you combine that love for a game and nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter you're bound to have decent numbers.

But I believe there's are underlying factors, reasons why the games drew such a huge following. Combined these factors led to ratings no one anticipated. HDTV and huge flat-screened televisions. What can be more fun than stretching out in your favorite recliner with a cold beverage and watching 52" of HD bliss. And nothing is more stimulating in high-def than sporting events. Mind you everything is better in HD, but sports just brings out the true quality of this format. Combine it with 5.1 Dolby surround sound and it can be sensory overload.

Seredipity Finds A New Home

2010-01-23T12:50:00.006-05:00

The journey of Serendipity, the “Nights in Rodanthe” beach house, resumed pretty close to on schedule on Monday morning, January 18, and once the hulking building got rolling it took just 22 minutes to get it to its new space down Highway 12.

People lined the highway taking pictures, and some walked along with the famous house the whole 2,500 or so feet to its new lot. A helicopter circled overhead.

“It was like a parade,” said Jim Charlet, manager at Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station and Historic Site, who was one of the onlookers.

Frenetic day-long efforts to get Serendipity off the beach at its old site, where it was threatened by the ever-encroaching surf of the Atlantic Ocean, were halted at dusk Friday just short of the highway’s edge.

The house is 45 feet high and 35 feet wide, and it weighs 83,000 pounds. Jim Matyiko of Expert House Movers and his crew scrambled from daylight Friday to let the house down off its pilings onto a trailer for the move, but the Dare County Deputy Sheriff’s Office ultimately judged that it would be too dangerous to take it out onto the busy highway in the dark.

Project manager Mike Price noted at the time that Serendipity should be safe on the trailer up off of the beach, away from pounding waves that had undermined its cribbing timbers Thursday night.

Matyiko thought it would take 45 minutes to an hour to make the short trip south to East Beacon Road in Rodanthe. His company moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1999 and is often called in on difficult jobs.

The new lot is situated a good distance back from the ocean waves that threatened the iconic beach house and drew concern and sympathy from beach lovers across the country for a number of years. Serendipity has two high towers, and since it was built in 1988, it has been the first beach cottage to come into the view of travelers headed south from Herbert C. Bonner Bridge across Oregon Inlet.

It became even more famous as the site of “Nights in Rodanthe,” a 2008 feature film that starred Richard Gere and Diane Lane.

But the ocean has been moving westward at the upper end of Hatteras Island for a number of years, and several houses have fallen into the ocean. People wondered after each new storm whether Serendipity was still standing.

Michael and Susan Creasy, of Champion, Pa., repeatedly repaired storm damage at the house, but finally agreed to sell it last fall after Dare County authorities declared it a public nuisance and ordered it moved or torn down. Ben and Debbie Hess, of Newton, in western North Carolina, bought the house to save it, they say. But they also hope its movie fame will attract renters and help pay the mortgage. And two renters had signed on before the move was completed.

Price had said all day Friday, in answer to questions from a shivering crowd of onlookers that reached 60 or so at one point, that the house was “going down the road.”

Today, as he walked beside the slowly trundling house, he could be heard saying to somebody on his cell phone, “She’s going down the road.”

Price had announced when movement stopped Friday that it would resume at 10 a.m. Monday. At 10, he was standing in front of the World War II tractor that was ready to haul the big house out onto the road, assuring North Carolina state troopers that Matyiko would be there any minute with the required permits.

Senior Trooper Chris Newbern, who is stationed in Manteo, joked with Price and a handful of onlookers while they waited, explaining that the permit would have details such as the width of the load and how many escorts would have to be provided. He said it was his job to make sure the document was observed to the letter.

“The permit tells you exactly what you’ve got to do,” he said. “If it says you have to stand on one leg and go down the road whistling Dixie, that’s what I have to see.”

Matyiko’s SUV with the mover’s trademark cigar poking out the window showed up at 10: 20 a.m., and at 10:37 the big tractor, driven by Jim Matyiko’s “big brother,” John Jr., puffed smoke and the behemoth moved.

Marsha Brown, of Marsha M. Brown & Company, who sold the house to the Husses, walked along the highway as the building moved, also talking on her cell phone. She was talking to Michael Creasy, who wanted a blow-by-blow.

Asked how he felt now that the house was finally out of danger, he said, “It’s bittersweet, I guess. It’s good for Serendipity. It’s very sad for Susan and I.”

But Creasy said he’s looking forward to spending his week a year in the house, which he and his wife were guaranteed in the deal. “I still call it my house,” he said. “Eventually I’ll stop doing that.”

Serendipity paused briefly at the corner of Beacon Road and the highway while workers got underneath and removed a concrete post they couldn’t miss, and then coasted to a stop alongside the new lot.

“I’m going to tell you those boys know what they’re doing. They deserve every penny they got,” Price said.

After that, it was a matter of making a big U-turn on the lot to put the ocean end of the house back toward the sea, and the land side back out toward Highway 12. It was an involved process because the new lot is all sand and large iron plates had to be laid ahead of the load as it moved.

But it didn’t take long. Matyiko squinted to line up surveyor’s stakes with the corners of the house, and stood up.

“Could it go back a hair?” Price asked.

The big tractor huffed again and the house moved.

“That’s good, Jim. Lock it down right there,” Price said. “I can live with that.” It was 1:45 p.m.

Next, Matyiko will raise the house with cribbing timbers to a point where Jeff Emanuelson of Emanuelson & Dad can get under it to insert 16-foot pilings into the sand below it. Emanuelson said he’ll dig holes with an augur down to the water table, then put the pilings in and use high pressure water to coax them a little deeper, and then use a vibrating hammer to “vibrate them on down.” Emanuelson said the pilings will be pressure-treated pine.

Once they are sunk they will be anchored with concrete, and the above-ground pilings will be tied to them with notches and plates. He said it will take about three working weeks to get the house back on its solid footing.

Price, meanwhile, has the job of putting the house back into the shape it was in for the movie. Hollywood dressed Serendipity up with some white porches and blue shutters that had to be removed after the shoot because they were installed under a temporary permit.

Interiors for the movie were shot at another house that is arranged a bit differently inside, but the Husses want the movie look to help carry out the “Inn at Rodanthe” theme.

“We’ll have this house ready by the first of April,” Price said. “There won’t be any stopping. It will be seven days a week.”

He said the cost of the whole project will be on the order of $700,000 to $750,000 when it is all done.

Island Free Press

Teaching Your Kids To Live On The Edge

2010-01-23T12:24:00.000-05:00

Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our new wave of overprotected kids -- and spells out 5 (and really, he's got 6) dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.

Today I watched a video that I found fascinating & enlightening. Mind you the presenter needs to spend the bucks to take a seminar in public speaking, but his message more than trumps his lack of speaking skills. It also was significant because just a few years ago we discussed with our son & daughter-in-law the idea of getting our grandson a Swiss Army Knife. I believe he was 10 at the time. There were several concerns voiced by our DIL: First - should he have a knife at all, Second: the SAK he wanted didn't have a feature that locked the blades in the open position, thus preventing the chance of it closing while in use and cutting the user. Both arguments had their merit and both were debated at length. Eventually we decided that the only way to learn how to properly handle a knife was to risk a few cut fingers. That Christmas our grandson received his first knife to the delight of his grandfather.

Mr. Tulley lists six things that kids should be encouraged to do. His feeling is they will prepare them for other ventures they will eventually encounter in the course of their lives. Mind you, he trusts that parents will supervise the activities, that should a hand be cut by a sharp blade, or if a child gets burned an adult will be there to administer first-aid.

Okay, without further ado, here's his list.

1. Play with fire.
2. Own a pocket knife
3. Throw a spear
4. Break the DMCA (I'll let you Google it)
5. Drive a car
6. Deconstruct an appliance - hopefully while using power tools.

Looking over his list I don't see much I'd change and can see the benefit to all of them, with the possible exception on no. 4. That I would exclude and off the top of my head replace with camping out in the woods unsupervised. Also, I might expand on no. 3 to include making a bow & arrow (with your pocket knife) and actually using it to hunt game. Looking back I can't recall anyone being successful, but it's still good to know just in case.

I grew up when every boy had a knife and wouldn't be caught dead without it. You couldn't get through a day without needing it for one task, or another. They cleaned fish, cut down sapplings to fashion bows & arrows, removed slivers and aided in the construction to traps, forts and fishing poles. I can't recall many days when I ddn't have a cut on my hands from their use, but it was a small price to pay. To this day I'm never far from one.

I'm sure others will have opposing views and that's okay. I think the point is that our kids need life experiences, need to learn how to adapt, and learn that life's day to day activities have consequences. They need to have the confidence that will enable them to handle situations when they do pop up. They need the tools to get through life.

2010-01-22T13:41:00.000-05:00

Recently I got the urge to get back into painting . . . no, not the house, but watercolors. A number of years ago while still in Billings, Mt. Malinda & I took lessons. We enjoyed it and now the idea of getting started again has some excitement to it. The fact that I might be able to incorporate the medium into my journal entries also struck a chord.

So, here it is. My first attempt at going artsy & crafty. I know you're thinking that it looks like shit. Well you're correct, but my thought process here was not to create a masterpiece but to see if I could actually paint on this stock without it curling uncontrollably. Also, could I write on it after painting. Success!

Drive-ins, Fogged Up Windows & The Emotions In Between

2010-01-21T11:43:00.005-05:00

Tonight Malinda and I went out on a date. We saw a movie at our local theater. Upon arriving home I got to thinking back to the days when we first started dating and evenings spent at the Lakeshore Drive-in. Forty + years later those nights spent in the back seat of her parents car still cause me to smile, still brings back memories of our youth and still . . . okay lets leave it at that.

They were good times, times when kids lived a more simplistic existence. When life wasn't complicated by gang violence, when you didn't need to be cognizant of the colors you were wearing, or if you were looking at someone the wrong way. We worried about our grades, what college we would be accepted to and how our graduation photos were going to turn out. When a car pulled up beside us at a red light and revved its engine we wondered how fast it was and if our car was fast enough to beat it, not whether the occupants might shoot us from its windows.

Mind you there were hazzards. Vietnam was up swinging from a "police action" to a full blown war. The civil rights movement was escalating and in many of our southern states people were being killed for their views. Major cities were aflame from race riots and college campuses were alive with protests and sit-ins. The events of the 60s would define us a nation and more importantly define us as moral human beings.

But evenings spent at the drive-in erased our concerns. When you pulled into your spot, rolled down your window and hooked the speaker onto it, those concerns became a distant memory. Problems would be put on hold and addressed at a later time. Right then there were bigger issues to solve, kisses to be exchanged, and as the windows began to fog up; emotions to keep in check.

Drum

2010-01-20T19:46:00.002-05:00

The drum bite continues. There are reports of fish being caught from Frisco to Oregon Inlet. Every slough and deep pocket is holding fish. There's no end in sight and fishermen are taking advantage of it. People in the know suspect that our extremely harsh winter and cold water in the sounds is forcing the fish to seek warmer environs. Whatever the cause, those that are able are enjoying the effects.

Nights In Rodanthe

2010-01-19T06:40:00.006-05:00

RODANTHE, N.C. — The Outer Banks beach house made famous in the movie "Nights in Rodanthe" has a new location. Serendipity was moved from its spot at the end of the Hatteras Island community of Rodanthe about 10:40 a.m. Monday. The house was moved less than a mile south to a safer location that's still beachfront and still in Rodanthe.

Sea Glass (Mermaid's Tears)

2010-01-18T08:26:00.006-05:00

We live on North Carolina's Outer Banks. To our east the Atlantic Ocean stretches as far as one's eye can see. To our west is the Albemarle Sound, and the mainland of the United States beyond. Our days are spent breathing salt air and walking barefoot along the Atlantic's shore. Treasures abound, each changing tide layering the sand with nature's bounty. Each storm erasing hundreds of years in time and replacing it with yet to be explored journeys. Always shifting, never stagnant. Footprints erased with each wave.

Our home reflects our walks. Shells, starfish, sea horses and jars of sea glass can be found in every room. All reminders of our days spent here and why we call this home. Momentos of time spent with family, friends and with each other.

Below you'll find a portion of our sea glass collection. And with it you'll see several pieces of jewelry that we create from it. Both Malinda & I use our finds to create pendants, ear rings, fan pulls and sun catchers. To us it's just another way to remember. Another excuse to walk the beach to see what has washed up.

Blitz

2010-01-16T20:34:00.002-05:00

We caught fish. Not just a few fish, but numbers of fish that would stagger the imagination. It was probably the single greatest day of surf fishing that I have ever experienced. When the blitz began there were a dozen of us fishing the slough, when it was nearing its end the number had grown to over a hundred and we had chased the schools of red drum nearly five miles down the beach. We left after nearly eight hours of catching and it was still going on. Never could I have imagined such an experience.

I've seen fish blitz before. I've seen schools of bluefish tear into pods of speckled trout so ferociously that the hunted literally beached themselves to excape the hunter. In recent years I've been involved in some of the best bluefish bites that have hit the beaches of the Outer Banks, and I've fished the big blitzes at Oregon Inlet back in the 70s, but never have I been fortunate enough to get into a drum blitz.

Below you'll see a video of just what it's like when bluefish catch a school of baitfish. Bluefish are the piranha of the ocean. They hunt in schools, ripping and slicing through anything that swims. The video below is a good example of what it's like for both the unfortunate bait and the fishermen who are fortunate enough to witness the carnage.

Dr. Henry, Report To Cardiology . . . Stat

2010-01-15T16:44:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was my appointment with my cardiologist . . . much dreaded and always feared. I've been delaying the inevitable and even went so far as to cancel an earlier appointment last fall. However, the numbness I've been experiencing in my left arm forced my personal phycisian to schedule this one.

I always dread our meetings because I know what he's going say. He sees my weight on the chart, gives me that "what the fuck are you thinking" stare and then proceeds to verbally chew into me. That's not to say I don't deserve it; I do. You'd think that a person who had gone through triple-bypass surgery in '03 would have enough incentive to try and save his own life, to work at lessening the possiblity of it happening again.

I fear our appointments because of what he may find. It's like the Grim Reaper is always looking over his shoulder rubbing his hands together waiting for the word to snatch me up. I fear the possibility of dying, of knowing that I pushed the odds too far and now I'm going to pay the consequences. I fear the grief my family will endure and the thought of no longer being with my wife.

Why I can't succeed at saving my life I don't know. I want to live and I certainly don't have a suicide wish; I just can't get it together. My only hope is that I can remain around long enough to finally realize, really realize, that right now I'm failing at living.

Friends Are Forever, At Least They Should Be

2010-01-15T09:51:00.003-05:00

The New Oxford American Dictionary has named its 2009 Word of the Year: unfriend. For those who do not have kids, it's a verb that means "to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook." An example from the dictionary: “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

Unfriend - as defined by the Urban Dictionary:

1. Verb - the act of removing someone from your friends list on any social network.

Synonym: defriend
Antonym: befriend

2. Noun - someone who used to be your friend, but you no longer consider them to be a friend, for any number or variety of reasons.

Today's Facebook Status Update - I disagreed with Steve O'Neil's take on the effectiveness of Paul Watson, and the Sea Shepherd, and he "unfriended" me. ME, can you believe it? ME. I'm devastated.

I guess I knew that it could always happen, that I've been known to piss off more than a few people and if pissed off enough unfriend was always an option. Still, the reality of actually being unfriended is hard to swallow. I just always assumed that I'd be the one doing the unfriending, that I'd be the one wielding the big hammer.

Now I'm on the outside of the Facebook window looking in. Me, Mr Personality. I've always prided myself in being everybody's friend, the one they could count on when the going got tough. The one who would take your back when you were backed into a tight corner; the friend friends could always count on. Okay okay, I'm going a little over the edge here.

I'll admit to having contemplated using the unfriend option on more than a few occasions. I'll admit to being set in my ways, to jumping all over those who I deem as idiots and those who fall into my definition as stupid. I can be relentless. More than once I've had by hand on the unfriend button, willing to push it for all it was worth and never looking back.

But now I've been the one deemed as an idiot, to being defined as stupid. Thanks Facebook! Maybe I'll unfriend you and see how you like it . . . damn idiot.

Father Time Is Not My Biological Father

2010-01-14T07:59:00.009-05:00

I'm tired.
I'm cold.
I hurt all over.
I'm feeling sorry for myself.

There's just no other way to put it. I'm feeling sorry for myself and hating most of my waking moments. Most of this I've brought on myself; self-inflicted. Some of it brought on by time. I'm getting old, and old is taking a toll. My days made tolerable by one pill or another. I begin each day by ingesting seven of them and complete my day by swallowing another two. For dessert there's gels, and creams and ointments.

Better living through modern medicine.

There's meds for high blood pressure, heart meds and meds for my thyroid. There's meds to counteract other meds and some I can't even recall what they're for. As bad as I feel most days I hate to think how'd I'd feel without them. I'm certain that I'd feel worse, and that eventually I'd succomb to one ailment or another. Over time something I'm taking pills for WOULD get me

I'm intelligent enough to know that time always wins out. We can do things to add to our life expectancy, but they're just delaying the inevitable. Time is going to get me; it's going to get us all. The average life expectancy for a male in the United States is 78.2, giving about 16 more years to walk, talk and feel sorry for myself.

That seems like a long time. I guess it is. I guess that if I was on death row and the governor offered me a stay of execution for that length I'd accept it and then begin to hoop and holler and launch into a series of backflips.

But, it's NOT a long time and don't let anyone tell you it is. It may be all you have left, but you don't have to like it. So, that's why I'm putting my money into pharmaceuticals. I'm wagering that Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Merck can hit the mother lode, giving me that stay I desperately need.

Better living through modern medicine.

Catch Of The Day

2010-01-12T11:26:00.004-05:00

Years Gone By

2010-01-11T08:47:00.019-05:00

We started coming to the Outer Banks in the mid-seventies. We'd come over Easter Break. We'd load the boys into the car as soon as they arrived home from school the Thursday proir to Good Friday and drive well into the night. Our thougth was that once we made it thru Detroit we'd all but eliminate the possibilities of any other traffic jams. However, the main reason was; the boys would be sleeping thru the majority of the night's driving and we wouldn't have to listen to their bickering in the backseat. Day Two was another matter

The first trip down was made in a Ford Fiesta. On it's roof was mounted a carrier that was nearly the same size as the car. We tented it. Well we tried to tent it but we were driven out by a nor'easter after three days. After loading up we headed north and home. Not sure of what convinced us to turn around, but we did, ending up in Hatteras Village.

The first postcard is of Nags Head Pier, probably taken in the mid-sixties. The difference between then and now would astound you. All the empty land you see in the background is long since gone. It's been replaced by a multi-lane highway, motels, restaurants and tourist traps.

This photo is of the Outer Banks Motel and is located just to the north of Buxton. The structures to the right have been replaced by a newer 3 story complex, but for the most part it remains the same.

A catch from "the good ol' days"

Below is the Waves Camground. We don't recall ever seeing it and assume it was already gone when we started to come down. It was located on what is now the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and we think it was demolished and the area restored to it's original condition.

In the distance is Kitty Hawk Pier. The pier was destroyed in 2003 when Hurricane Isabel hit the Outer Banks in September. In it's hay day it was one of the top fishing spots on the OBX.

Jennette's Pier was also destroyed by Hurricane Isabel. It is currently being re-built by the state of North Carolina. The new facility will consist of the pier hosue, the North Carolina Aquarium and a reception room/conference center. The pier itself will be over 1000' long.

Avalon Pier still remains. The parking lot is now paved and the pier house has been expanded over the years. It now houses a huge arcade/game room along with a small snack bar and fishing supplies.

This is another photo of Nags Head Pier. Between the highway and the pier is a dance hall and casino, both are now gone and replaced by million dollar vacation homes.

This photo was labeled as Jennette's Pier but it could well be the Outer Banks Pier.

1968

2010-01-08T08:50:00.019-05:00

Mid January found me boarding a bus in Sandusky, Michigan. I was 19, married and scared to death. Hours later I would be sworn into the United States Army and on my way to Fort Knox Kentucky to begin basic training. The Vietnam War was esculating and the scene I found myself a part of was being played out in every county seat in the nation. Kids who were just out of high school, and hours earlier were in the backseat of their cars with their girls, were now on the way to a country they new little of and cared even less about. Little did we know that the 12 months to follow would be the most significant of our lives. 1968 would define history.

Below you'll find the events that shaped me and shaped a nation. I'm sure some will be left out and there will be others that were more important to me than to others. There will be events that forced me to grow up and others that forged how I would live the remainder of my life. Others would nearly tear a nation apart, alienate friends and families, and create wounds that would never heal. Yet we've learned from them, grown as a nation and together we've continued on.

January 21 - NVA regulars begin the seige on Khe Sanh. The battle would rage on until April 8. The U.S. would suffer 730 KIA and 2642 wounded. Estimated NVA losses were 1600 KIA and 10,000 wounded.

January 31 - The Tet Offensive begins when 70,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, together with guerrilla fighters of the NLF, launched one of the most daring military campaigns in history. The Tet Offensive was the real turning point in the Vietnam War.

February 1 - A Viet Cong officer named Nguyễn Văn Lém is executed by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The event is photographed by Eddie Adams. The photo makes headlines around the world, eventually winning the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and sways U.S. public opinion against the war.

March 16 - American troops kill an estimated 347 civilians in what would later be known as the My Lai Massacre. The story will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.

March 16 - Robert F. Kennedy enters presidental race.

April 3 - The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his " I've Been To The Mountaintop" address. One day later, in Memphis, Tennessee he would be shot to death while standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel.

Basic Training was behind me. We had our possessions loaded into a Ford Fairlane and we were driving across the flat desolate landscape of the Great Plains when we heard the news of his death come across the radio. We were on our way to Fort Riley. It was pitch black. To this day I don't think I've ever seen it darker; the high-beams of the Fairlane the only thing slashing thru the nothingness of the drive west. Looking out the driver's side window I could see a huge prairie fire raging in the distance. I remember thinking I was in hell. Later I'd find out I was just in Kansas.

June 5 - Robert F. Kennedy is shot after giving a speech to supporters following his California Primary victory. He would die of his wounds in the early hours of June 6. His brother Ted would eulogize him with these words.

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'

July 18 - The semiconductor company Intel is founded.

August 5-8 - Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.

August 20-30 - Police clash with anti-war protesters in Chicago, Illinois, outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President.

September 7 - Mattel introduces "Hot Wheels" and Led Zeppelin performs for the first time.

"There are three types of soldiers in this man's army, Those that have been to Vietnam, those that are going to Vietnam and those that are in Vietnam." Those were the first words that I can recall our drill instructor, Sgt. Sharp, telling us when we fell into formation at Fort Knox. As I stepped onto the tarmac of Bien Hoa Air Base those words smashed into me like an AK-47 round. Up until we had boarded the Pan Am 727 we were only playing soldiers, when we disembarked 22 hours later we'd become soldiers. We were "In Country."

September 24 - 60 Minutes airs on CBS.

October 16 - In Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 2 black Americans competing in the Olympic 200-meter run, raise their arms in a black power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals for 1st and 3rd place.

Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."

November 5 - Richard M. Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace for the presidency of the United States.

November 14 - Yale University annouces it will begin accepting women.

December 24 - Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William A. Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

2010-01-06T10:34:00.004-05:00

Rest In Peace

2010-01-05T11:47:00.006-05:00

My father passed away on July 12th of 1998. Today would have been his 83rd birthday. In all honesty I don't think of him much. I do, however, think of him more fondly now than I did in years past. For many of my adult years it was hard to have him pop into my mind without me thinking about my youth and how I despised the man I knew as my father. Now, as I've aged, I seem to recollect more of the good times, though those were certainly in the minority. I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps it's a sign of maturity, or of the healing we all seek as we advance into the final days of our lives. Or maybe it's easier to forgive others after we've made many of the same mistakes ourselves.

When I was younger I believe I actually hated the man, not the hate one feels when your dad won't let you borrow the car, or when he makes you stay home on a Friday night and study despite the fact you have the remainder of the weekend to work on it, but real honest to goodness hate. He was a horrible father. He beat me unmercifully, showed little, if any compassion, for either my sister or I, and always seemed to have more time for others than for us. It's not like he was a drunk, or that he was never home or he didn't provide for his family. In fact, he drank very little and when he wasn't working he was always at home.

And he worked hard. He worked in a factory that made copper pipe and fittings. It was hot dirty mind-numbing manual labor. Even back then I knew that he earned every cent of his miniscule paycheck, but what drove that home to me was when I'd graduated high school and started work for the MDOT. I was still living at home, still trying to earn enough to buy my first car and save enough to finally escape what I'd always hated. I'd just brought home my first check and was proudly showing it to my mom when dad drove in. We were sitting on the front porch and I'm sure I'd never felt prouder than I did at that very moment. Dad walked in, sat down his lunch pail and lowered his frame down into the wicker chair that had always been there. He was smiling as mom handed him a cold PBR and my check. His smile disappeared. I'm not sure where it went, or to what exactly replaced it. All I knew is it was gone. He looked up to me and said, " I've been at Mueller Brass for nearly 25 years and your starting wage is more than mine is now."

I think it was at that very moment I knew that I might not be able to forgive him, but I could never really hate him. I knew that despite all his wrongs he deserved another chance at being a father. Maybe he would never be the best, or even the one I so desperately missed as I was growing up, but he was my father.

Looking back, I believe he may have tried. I believe he just never knew how, that he didn't know any other way. Back then there wasn't help he could seek out, nor the money to do so if there had been. There wasn't volumes written on "How To Be The Father You Never Had." He was forced to fall back on what he knew, on how he was raised, and that turned out to be the catalyst that led to his failure.

He never really had a chance.

Hoops

2010-01-01T06:30:00.007-05:00

I don't recall how it started. One day we were in 11th grade English together, the next we were shooting hoops at Baxter's. This morning, 44 years later, those days just suddenly popped into my head again. Unfortunately, most of what happened I just can't recall. Maybe the fine details aren't important, maybe the fact that I have any recognition of those days to fall back on is enough. Perhaps just the thought of old friends should be enough to bring a smile to my face, but this morning it just doesn't seem to be.

This morning I want to be shooting hoops with Baxter, Greg and Ernie. I want to be 17 again and playing 2X2 on a concrete driveway and a plywood backboard. I want to feel the worn out skin of a basketball that has seen too many pick up games to count. I want to live the joy of shooting a 15' jumper and watching as it just misses "THE" branch and hits nothing but net. To play so far into the dark that when the ball leaves your finger tips you "feel" it's good even though you can't see the hoop. I want to run and jump and laugh and be young again.

But most of all I want to be with Baxter, and Greg, and Ernie. I want the last 44 years to disolve and I want to be be sitting on Baxter's driveway, leaning against the garage door as we try to figure out what's going to be on Mr. Freeland's chemistry test. I wanna hear their laughs and see their grins as I brag about my Friday night date with Malinda. I want to share the cold of an autumn night with my friends. I want to sing along to the "Four Tops" and know that they'll always be there for me.

I wanna shoot some hoops.

It's Cold Out And I'm Doing The Ten Song Shuffle

2009-12-31T09:42:00.006-05:00

Last Christmas our youngest son & daughter-in-law gave me an iPod as a gift. Quite honestly I'd never thought that much about having one, or really understood their fascination. I knew all the younger generation seemed to have them and it was nothing to see kids singing to tunes only they were hearing as they went about their day. Whether riding their skateboards, laying on the beach or hanging around the street corners, they more times than not would have mini head-sets hanging from their ears and running into one piece of clothing or another. I did know they were capable of storing tons of songs, either songs purchased online, or songs you "burned" and placed on your computer. What I never realized is that once you downloaded the iTunes software to your computer, you not only could purchase songs, but you could download books, movies and podcasts. In fact, depending on which model you had, the sky was the limit.

As soon as we'd logged on that Christmas day, created an account and downloaded a few songs I was in love. Now I knew what the fascination was; why everyone but me had one. We purchased songs from iTunes, burned songs from Derek's cd collection and placed them on the iPod and copied cd's I had in the truck to it. I don't think I had it out of my ears the rest of the day. On our trip home I listened to it the entire way, and the next day I copied nearly every song from nearly every cd we had to it. 1297 songs later I finally ran out of material.

But, there were still avenues to explore; books, movies and podcasts to download. Some costing money (there's always a catch), some available for free. The possibilities are endless. Podcasts cover everything from episodes of "A Prairie Home Companion" to Zydeco. In between you can find "Malice 'n' Wonderland" and Queen's greatest hits. The only limits are your imagination.

What I like best about the unit is "how" you can listen to your music. You can listen to songs by a specific "Artist", or you can select an "Album", or a "Genre", or by composer, AND my favorite . . . "Shuffle". Shuffle is just what it implys. The iPod takes every song you have and plays them at random, which leads me to the title of this post. Here is the first 10 songs that my iPod is going to shuffle thru as I finish typing this post. Are you ready? Here we go . . .

1. Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan
2. The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
3. If There's Still a Ramblin' In The Ramble - YMSB
4. Sullivan Street - Counting Crows
5. Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix
6. Someday We'll Be Together - The Supremes
7. Not Dark Yet - Bob Dylan
8. Circle Of Steel - Gordon Lightfoot
9. Zombie - The Cranberries
10. The World I Know (Live) - Collective Soul

I'm not surprised that Dylan popped up twice, he's the poet laureate of my generation. Classic Rock dominates my 1297 songs. Here is a list of artists who show up the most.

1. Bob Dylan @ 120 - no surprise here
2. John Prine @ 51 - a bit surprising but when looking thru the songs I couldn't select any to eliminate
3. Rolling Stones @ 46 - greatest rock and roll band ever and there should be more.
4. YMSB @ 38 - I like blugrass
5. Acoustic Alchemy @ 35
6. The Who and The Beatles @ 27
7. Clapton @ 23 - this number could be wrong because he shows up as a solo artist as well as with Cream, Blind Faith, Derek & the Dominos
8. Led Zeppelin @ 19 - I'm sure there'd be a lot more, but in our numerous moves many CD's have been lost so these I actually purchased. Can't find any AC/DC either and their songs can't be purchased from iTunes at this time.

Okay, your turn!

Everyone, Meet JJ

2009-12-30T17:35:00.001-05:00

Today JJ came into the world and we can't wait to meet him and to hold him. We're so happy for Bridget and John.

Six Degrees Of Separation

2009-12-27T12:19:00.000-05:00

Six degrees of separation (also referred to as the "Human Web") refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth.

I'm nearly 100% certain that everyone who has a blog has clicked the "NEXT BLOG" option they see in the upper left-hand corner of their blog each time they access it. I, for one, do it everytime I go to mine AND every time I go to all those I follow. I do it for a couple of reasons: Number 1, because I'm always looking for interesting blogs to read and follow, and Number 2, because it never ceases to amaze how many blogs are out there and how many subjects they encompass.

So, this morning I decided to bookmark the first six I came to and post them here. I didn't select them because I found them to my liking, or did I select them because of their subject matter. I just took the first six. Below you'll find my results, but the most fascinating thing of it all is; YOUR RESULTS WILL VARY! So, if you don't click on the "NEXT BLOG" feature you will never know what you're missing!

Secret Notebooks . . . Wild Pages
Bloom
Magyar Haiku
Three Beautiful Things
On Cedar Ridge
Conjuring Sunlight

Ho, Ho, Ho-Hum

2009-12-25T16:03:00.030-05:00

Christmas passed without much fan fare. In fact I moped around the entire day with little celebration and alone. Malinda works alternate holidays which meant she put in a 12 hour shift at the hospital, leaving Libby, Henry and myself on our own. Mind you they did their best to cheer me up but there's only so much a cat and a dog can do. What little cheer I could muster was lost when I had to change the litter box.

It started to go downhill the day before when the USPS failed to deliver Malinda's gift. We had agreed that gifts would be kept at a minimum this holiday season because we'd recently purchased a Sony Bravia 46" LCD television. Malinda's one and only gift would be a Santa, a Santa that was hand carved by a dear friend in Norway, Michigan. It would be her 17th Santa and a much cherished addition to her collection. It could also be her last and the last one ever carved for her.

The Santas are created by Robert Martignon, who lovingly goes by Cubbie. Cubbie, spends much of his time working on the carving of his Santas. In fact if he's not in his garden he's probably in his basement with the tools of the trade and his love for creating Ol' Saint Nicks. Sadly, Cubbie's carving days are fast coming to a conclusion. His advanced years are quickly over taking his will to create. Even the last several years has seen the number he does dwindle to just a very few for family and friends. We are fortunate and blessed to still be on his list and long to see what each holiday season will bring us.

So, as the days leading up to Christmas slowly were checked off of the calendar so did my Christmas spirit begin to wane. Then when our mailman drove right past the box for the final time yesterday it all but disappeared. Not only was I very disappointed not to receive it but now I fear it could possibly be lost in the mayhem of the holiday mailing season. We haven't given up on it's arrival and can only hope our St. Nick is on his way.

Sudoku . . . The Art Of Passing Time

2009-12-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year while pin rigging on Nags Head Pier I noticed a friend working intently on what I assumed was a crossword puzzle. Pin rigging, without going into a long and detailed explanation, is a method used to fish live bait for cobia, king mackerel, jack cravelle, tarpon, etc. It's quite involved, and the people who do it generally fish from daylight to dark. So, in the course of the day we're continually looking for things to occupy the hours in between fish. That can mean catching bait, fishing for other fish, napping AND doing puzzles, so I wasn't surprised to see my fellow pin rigger working on one. What DID surprise me was to find out it wasn't a crossword but a sudoku.

Like most people who have ever read a newspaper, or purchased a crossword puzzle book from the magazine section of your local drug store, I've seen more than a few sudoku puzzles. I've even looked at a few while doing the crossword puzzle in my morning paper. For the most part they're found on the same page so they're hard to avoid. There's the crossword, word jumble and the sudoku. Also, like most people, I've never really attempted to solve one or to even try and figure out what was required to solve one. I just naturally assumed that it took a higher IQ than I possessed. And, despite their popularity, I've never known anyone who did them.

So, when I saw my fellow angler working on one I immediately asked if he'd take the time to give me a brief lesson on what it took to solve one. Imagine my surprise when I found out just how simple and how few rules were required to actually solve one. Now mind you they can be as complicated as they can be easy and when you purchase that first puzzle book that you've seen a thousand times while waiting to check out of the grocery store you'll find that they're usually divided into three catagories: easy, moderate and hard. However, the basic premise remains the same for all of them and the same strategies can be put into play to solve the easiest to the most challenging puzzle.

Below you'll find the rules required to complete your first sudoku. Look them over and then tackle one in your local newspaper or search out an online site. While online you can also find the help you need to get you started. Your jaw will drop when you see just how easy it is. You'll also smile and shake your head when you think about all those you passed up while you were working on the word jumble each morning.

It's the solution that's the challenge. Here are the illustrated Sudoku rules.

Rows

There are 9 rows in a traditional Sudoku puzzle. Every row must contain the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. There may not be any duplicate numbers in any row. In other words, there can not be any rows that are identical.

In the illustration at the left the numbers 5, 3, 1, and 2 are the "givens". They can not be changed. The remaining numbers in black are the numbers that you fill in to complete the row.

Columns

There are 9 columns in a traditional Sudoku puzzle. Like the Sudoku rule for rows, every column must also contain the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Again, there may not be any duplicate numbers in any column. Each column will be unique as a result.

In the illustration at the left the numbers 7, 2, and 6 are the "givens". They can not be changed. You fill in the remaining numbers as shown in black to complete the column.

Regions

A region is a 3x3 box like the one shown to the left. There are 9 regions in a traditional Sudoku puzzle.

Like the Sudoku requirements for rows and columns, every region must also contain the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Duplicate numbers are not permitted in any region. Each region will differ from the other regions.

In the illustration to the left the numbers 1, 2, and 8 are the "givens". They can not be changed. Fill in the remaining numbers as shown in black to complete the region.

In summary, the Sudoku rule is: Complete the Sudoku puzzle so that each and every row, column, and region contains the numbers one through nine only once.

There is only one solution to a properly designed Sudoku puzzle.

Thank You Santa!

2009-12-24T10:11:00.001-05:00

Christmas came early for us. Because my wife works alternate holidays, and this year it was her turn to work Christmas, we celebrated the holiday last weekend with our youngest son & family in Cary.

One of the presents Santa left under the tree for me was a camera tripod. Though small in stature this gem is a true work of art. What type of individual lays awake at night dreaming this stuff up is beyond my imagination, but my gratitude goes out to every one of them. There is no doubt in my mind that this qizmo will see more use than a roll of duct tape.

2009-12-23T07:34:00.000-05:00

We Wish You a Merry♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Christmas♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪We Wish You a Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♥ ♥ ♥We Wish You A Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪...And A Happy New Year!♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪...♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

Facebook . . . Or, It's Winter And I'm Cooped Up In The House

2009-12-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

Last November our daughter-in-law, who lives in the Raleigh area and has access to a wide variety of stores, purchased a laptop to replace our six year old Gateway. On their visit for Thanksgiving they brought it out to us and immediately signed us up to facebook. To the best of my recognition I'd never heard of facebook until then, thus I never knew what I was missing. They convinced me it was a must, that once I was familiar with it and my list of "friends" grew, there wouldn't be a day that went by that I wouldn't be glad they signed me up.

Well, they were correct. I find myself updating my "status" multiple times a day and checking to see what my "friends" are up to as well. Granted it hasn't taken over my life yet, but it is making a serious bid into just how I waste my time. I was pretty successful at avoiding it during the summer when I spend the majority of my time fishing, but now that I'm sitting around more, I tend to log on way too many times.

So, I thought it might be interesting to see just how my month has played out my looking at some of my day to day status updates. Below you'll find just a few of those in no particular order of importance.

Dec 1: Is watching a Storm Chasers Marathon, eating Cheez-its and sipping on a Fat Tire.

Dec 2 : Malinda is out of town and I'm thinking about heading to TW's Bait & Tackle. I have a rod that is screaming out for a new reel.

Dec 3: Libby & I are gearing up the RAM and making the transition from pier fishing to surf fishing. Now all we need is a few trout, stripers or blues.

Dec 4: Is working on a pot of Jamaican Blue Mountain's Best, re-watching Storm Chasers and waiting on Derek's update from the WSOP Circuit Event in AC.

Dec 6: is at the final table. ( I play online poker )

Dec 7: has given it considerable thought and decided to go back to bed.

Dec 9: Is thinking about Bridget, John and the upcoming birth of their son.

Dec 10: On this date in 1965 the Warlocks became the Grateful Dead.

Dec 11: Major David, Thanks for all you've done. We're honored to know you and to have you back home. ( David is a major in the United States Army and had just returned from serving in Iraq )

Dec 12: Go Army! ( Navy won 17-3 )

Dec 13: I hate starting out my day by finding yesterday's filter and coffee grounds still in the pot. However, there's no one to blame but myself.

Dec 15: is multi-tasking. . . watching Rachael Ray, drinking coffee and blogging.

Dec 16: For those following The Six Journals Project; the first two should be in the hands of those beginning the project today. One of the remaining four will be going to a teacher of a college composition class where he AND the class will be adding their ideas. Thanks to everyone.

Dec 16: It's nearly Christmas and time to read David Sedaris' "Holidays On Ice"

Dec 17: At 10:35, on the morning of 17 December, the "Flyer" a contraption of wood, wire and fabric rose from the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina and flew for 12 seconds, piloted by Orville Wright. It covered a distance of 36 metres (120 ft) -- the first controlled, powered flight in history.

Dec 18: Is shuffling thru the ipod and rolling down 64. ( on our way to celebrate an early Christmas with our youngest son and family )

Dec 20: Is that the sun I see? ( the sun had broken out after three days of rain )

Dec 21: X-mas in Cary is behind us and this morning we head back home. It's always sad leaving family, but also nice to return to the OBX.

Dec 22: is curled up with his afghan, drinking Blue Mountain coffee and watching 46" of pure HD bliss. ( we'd just purchased a 46" Sony Bravia )

Dec 23: is looking forward to having his first Alaskan Amber in over six years. Thanks so much Leann & Derek! ( When we lived in Billings AA was my beverage of choice. Leann and Derek ordered a 12 pk as my gift this year. )

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas . . . . NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-20T09:36:00.000-05:00

So, we're in Cary for an early Christmas with our son and family and this story comes on the morning news. Now in itself it wasn't shocking, or particularily noteworthy in the larger scheme of things. It didn't involve the blizzard that has perilized much of the eastern United States and snarled holiday travel. It had nothing to do with the healthcare bill currently in the legislature, or did it give us hope that our service members would soon be home.

What it did point out was the debate the city of Cary was having as to what to call their x-mas tree. So, now you're thinking; What the hell is so earth-shattering about that????? Again, on the surface, nothing. In fact in this day and age of "political-correctness" it is almost a given that settling on a name would guarantee that someone was going to be pissed off. And that's just what has occured. However, the degree of "pissed offedness" is what struck a chord with me.

What you need to remember is southerners have been pissed off since Sherman's "March To The Sea" and now a bunch of "libs" want to try and tell them what to call their tree. First you forced "Brown vs. Board of Education" down their throats, then it was "Roe vs. Wade" and now they can't call their tree a "Christmas" tree. Are you liberal a-holes out of your atheist minds?

So, with that as a backdrop I decided to post this story as well the response to the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CARY -- Several residents, including two Cary town Council members, are urging the town to reinstate the use of the word "Christmas" when referring to what Cary now calls its "community tree."

The town opted not to use the word "Christmas" when describing the tree that sits inside Town Hall -- the artificial one that hovers over wrapped boxes and is adorned with ornaments donated by community groups, including churches.

Ditto for the decorated, 30-foot cedar on North Academy Street, which the town has simply called "tree."

Officials say that the town wants to be respectful to residents who don't celebrate the religious holiday.

But some worry that Cary has gotten a little too politically correct.

"This town has gotten so P.C. that they're no longer P.C.," said Cary resident Steve Steinbeck, who sent an e-mail complaint to Town Council members this month. "It is politically correct to say Christmas, and it's politically correct to say Christmas tree."

Councilman Don Frantz wants to address the issue at the Town Council's first meeting in January.

"While we want to be all-inclusive and respectful of others' beliefs," Frantz said, "there should be a way to compromise and be all-inclusive while still honoring those who celebrate Christmas."

Other towns in western Wake have differing traditions. Fuquay-Varina calls its tree a Christmas tree. So does Apex. Holly Springs, which holds an annual Christmas parade, lights a tree that goes by no other name. In Morrisville, it's a "holiday tree."

Cary councilman Jack Smith is the Town Council's liaison to the Sister Cities Commission, which fosters relationships with foreign communities and promotes global understanding. He said critics often forget that Christmas isn't exclusively linked with religion, the source of much dispute over the use of the word in public celebrations. "It's a national holiday," he said. "We tend to lose sight of that fact."

Frantz, with Smith's support, said he hopes that his council colleagues will be open to a compromise on the issue. He said he's not asking for Christmas to replace words like "holiday" or "community" in the names of other town property or events, such as the seasonal Heart of the Holidays celebration.

"When we get together for our tree-lighting ceremony, it needs to be called the Christmas-tree lighting," Frantz said. "That's just what it is; it's a Christmas tree."

jordan.cooke@nando.com or 919-460-2609

"I'll stop calling it a Christmas tree when they pry my gun from my cold dead fingers"

We can't fly the "Stars & Bars" and now we can't have a Christmas Tree. Where's the KKK when we need them?

"Its a Christmas tree and if you don't like it get out of this country."

"Where did these people grow up?? All over the world it's called a Christmas Tree. What is their problem?"

"It is very simple, the song does not go, "Oh Community Tree, Oh Community Tree..." Keep Christ in Christmas, after all, that is what it is all about anyway!"

"What the f**k is a "Community Tree"? Does it have "community" ornaments hanging on it?"

" Get over yourselves already."

"maybe they are worried how the ACLU will react if they call it a Christmas Tree"

"evidence that cary's liberal population is growing."

"I am SICK TO DEATH of people whining because they can't handle that Christianity is by far the dominant religion in this country."

"Wish all you baby killin' liberal a**holes would get back on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line where y'all came from.

"This has to be Obama bin Laden's idea."

Sandcastles, The Art Of Being A Kid Again

2009-12-18T11:04:00.000-05:00

Gentlemen, We Have Lift-off

2009-12-17T08:33:00.000-05:00

At 10:35, on the morning of 17 December, the "Flyer" a contraption of wood, wire and fabric rose from the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina and flew for 12 seconds, piloted by Orville Wright. It covered a distance of 36 metres (120 ft) -- the first controlled, powered flight in history.

On July 20, 1969, a mere 66 years later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon. His Apollo 11 mission was powered my NASA's Saturn V rocket. To date it remains the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. I thought it would be interesting to compare the Wright Brothers first flight and that of Apollo 11.

Orville's fist flight was 120', or a little more than .02 miles. Apollo 11 traveled 238,857 miles to reach the moon. It would then turn around and travel the same distance back home.

The Flyer reached a speed of 6.8 mph. Apollo 11 reached 25,000 mph during it's quest to break thru earth's gravitational bond.

The Flyer weighed in at 625 lbs. Apollo 11 tipped the scales at 6.5 million.

The Flyer's wingspan was 40'. The Saturn rocket configuration was 363' tall and 33' in diameter, excluding fins.

The Flyer sported a state-of-the-art aluminum blocked engine that developed 12 horsepower. Saturn V's engines developed 160,000,000.

Fuel capacity for the Flyer was .45 gallons. Apollo 11 lifted off with 960,000.

The duration of man's first flight was 12 seconds. Apollo 11 took 3 days 3 hours and 49 minutes to reach the moon.

Hello, hello - I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello . . .

2009-12-16T12:05:00.000-05:00

“ This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now."

I don't pretend to be the religious type. In fact, just the opposite. I believe that a person needs to live morally correct, to be kind to those around them. However, those philosophies are more than tested come the end of May.

Here on the Outer Banks we have two seasons; Tourist Season and The Off Season. Officially, Tourist Season begins on Memorial Day weekend and ends Labor Day weekend. The Off Season is every day in between. Our economy depends on tourism and all of us "locals" know that without them we couldn't make ends meet. That doesn't mean we have to like 'em. Let me clarify that: As individuals most are very nice, as a group they're a pain in the ass.

They roll in like a swarm of locusts on their way to Egypt. While here they ravage our stores, restaurants and beaches. They eat everything in sight and leave nothing but devastation in their wake.

Well, devastation and LOTS of greenbacks. And in the words found in Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you . . .

Come the Tourist Season even a non-religious person finds these scriptures words to live by. When they knock, we open. When they seek, we make sure they receive. They ask, we give.

We give them beach umbrellas, sunscreen and towels. We make sure they don't run out of beer, seafood and beach balls. They in turn give us what it's taken them all year to earn. We take their greenbacks and their Visa cards. They ravage, we reap.

And then they're gone. Judgement day is upon us and Labor Day behind. We breathe a sigh of relief and begin counting the days until the next Memorial Day.

"As you sow, so shall you reap. "

A Glimpse Into My Life. . .

2009-12-15T09:30:00.000-05:00

This list was originally created on facebook. Not sure who started it, or who selected me to complete it, but below you'll find the finished project. I hesitated at first, but after several days, and much contemplation, I finally relented. Generally I'm somewhat of a secretive individual ( not sure that's the right word ) and don't pass along personal information. What people find out about me comes on a "need to know" basis. My doctor knows my medical history, my wife knows my passwords and the federal government probably knows more than I'd like them to. Other than that, my background pretty much remains unknown.

So, when this "note" began to get passed around fb I opted to ignore it. Then after reading lists posted by others my hesitancy began to subside. I was fascinated my what I "DIDN'T" know about people who I thought I DID know. This is how the list you see below came about. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be and took days to finally complete.

I'd all but forgotten about it until I was trying to figure out a way to give the few readers of this blog some insight as to who they were dealing with. It was then this list re-surfaced.

Twenty-five Random Things About Me

1. I believe that the older people get the more sentimental they become. You'll probably notice that in this list.
2. I wish that I had been a better parent and glad that my sons are.
3. I spent '68-'69 in Vietnam and have a grandson who often asked me about it. Some day I hope I can answer those questions for him.
4. I couldn't love my daughters (in-law) more!
5. I hate horses but worked on a ranch in Montana. Now I don't hate them as much but despise mucking out their stalls.
6. I once shared our high school record for the 100. Of course back then it was measured in yards, not meters.
7. I miss Montana but couldn't bear to leave the Outer Banks.
8. I wonder what I did to deserve having my high school sweetheart stick with me all these years.
9. I wish that John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King hadn't been taken from us.
10. I laugh more when I'm with family.
11. While shooting skeet I once busted 99 out of a hundred.
12. I wish I had learned to surf BEFORE seeing Jaws.
13. I love surf fishing.
14. My sons are two of the things I did right.
15. I once manned a fire tower in the Beartooth Range.
16. I create jewelry from sea glass.
17. I enjoy hockey AND NASCAR.
18. Excluding family, my two best frends have been a girl and a dog.
19. Malinda and I were at Cobo Hall when "Live Bullet" was recorded. Thirty-two years later my son took me to see Bob Seger & Silver Bullet in Charlotte - Thanks Derek.
20. I once taught bible school.
21. I know I'm going to sound like a teenager here, but I love my iPod.
22. Libby was a great find but don't tell Malinda.
23. I wept when Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 and again when he died there.
24. I hate being old, but love having lived this long.
25. My grandsons wear me out and I cherish every moment of it.

In The Beginning . . . . .

2009-12-13T12:07:00.000-05:00

To say we're in a precarious situation is putting it mildly. On one side of us is the Atlantic, on the other is the Albemarle Sound. Between them is a spit of land known as the Outer Banks. The "OBX" is known for many things, the most noteworthy is man's first flight. Less than a half mile from where I'm currently typing this Orville and Wilbur Wright's "Flyer" set in motion events that to this day are still beyond comprehension. That flight lasted a mere 12 seconds and traveled just 120' but paved the way to journeys that still test man's imagination.

We're also noted for our tropical storms, nor'easters and hurricanes. When we hear the names Hugo, Fran and Isabel we don't think of our kids, neighbors or friends, we think of the hurricanes that have ravaged the narrow strip of sand that we call home. Our homes are on stilts to allow the storm surge to pass under and we keep sheets of plywood and screws on hand at all times to "board up" should we be forced to evacuate. Rubbermaid containers hold our important documents and pet containers are always at the ready. We're well aware that if the storm surge doesn't get us the hurricane force winds can. We live on the edge and do our best not to fall off of it.