November 18, 2011
Florida Trip

Time for TAR and I to get away and spend a little time together, it's been a while. Left last Saturday for Bonita Springs, FL, made it to Daytona that night, nice upgrade to an oceanfront room on the 12th floor. Thank you Holiday Inn Priority Club. We got in about sunset, looked at the moon coming up over the ocean and immediately knew what our dinner choice would be......................

You can't hide class. Yeah, by the time I took the picture 2 were missing
Off to our AHRI meeting, I made a mental note of where the cougars were...........only to find out later they were panthers, not cougars. Hope those scratches heal before next year's swimwear season.

As always with AHRI the meeting was time well spent. and a lot of fun mixed in. If anyone wants to know how to run a meeting call me and I will get you in touch with the best.
While TAR shopped Tuesday afternoon I went out in the Everglades and made some new friends. I asked for an endorsement for a line of knit shirts, got no where with that. Really neat to get into the swamp and see these guys, always surprised at how dark they are.

Home in time, funny how I call a hotel "home"...................... for a cocktail party, yes, go figure....but also in time for a sunset that was unreal. I've been taking pictures of these things all of my life and still realize "oh this is good, this is better, this is the best" Wonder if Anyone else ever thinks the same?

One great plus from this trip was the elimination (pun, get it?) of many minutes, nay hours sitting in a parking lot waiting for you know who. I figure with this contraption, and convincing SWMBO to crawl out of the window at 75 MPH Sundance Kid style, I could shave hours off a trip. I think it is a wonderful idea and dub this contraption the Double Header. Any other thoughts for a name?

And this is in here because I like the picture. Funny I remember this day, I took Daddy to ride, Jackson was working in the parking lot at the Sheraton, I handed him the camera and told Daddy to wave. If that doesn't make you laugh I don't know what will. I miss that old car....................and that old fellow too.

So that's in from this old eastern shore, this year will be a very different but happy Thanksgiving. We're talking a food blog, food blog, food blog..................................

November 11, 2011
Veteran's Day

Last weekend my planned Hampden-Sydney motorcycle ride was changed due to rain, and the fact that my horns decided to quit working. Not as easy to fix as you might think; still going through the old bike with a multimeter. Got to be a short in here somewhere...........................In the by and by I'll just ride around with a freon horn and a whistle in my mouth. Hmmmm, better get that fixed.
Drove up to Durham and spent Friday night with the Highs and was as usual treated like royalty. Ate well, watched the truck race and exchanged lies with the FO. Good times indeed.
The next morning up for the short drive to Hampden-Sydney. Saw this guy sitting next to us, looked a little familiar. Recognize him? Look like anyone you know ?

Odd to be at a football game sitting with Jackson. They beat Washington & Lee and won the conference championship. Jackson admitted he "kinda" wished he played this year, but that is a whole lot of work. Think this week's game with Macon is important? Take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh9kEvu2f1Q

Take special notice around 1:16 of a good looking # 83 from Morehead City
Took off for VA and MD this week; this was my view Wednesday morning from my hotel. Made me wish I'd checked in before 9:00 PM that night. Pretty area

And this was my view Thursday morning. Made me think of old Everett Lytle from Trion daze. Worked with Burch Vickery and enjoyed a meal very late Wednesday night at my favorite restaurant. If you remember an earlier post they are still looking for the cockatoo but the picture below it has been removed.

Last Sunday I rode the motorcycle down to Cedar Island and back, 103 miles. Coming through Davis I saw this elusive wild creature which is proclaimed by many as the wiliest of all God's hunted creatures. He was walking down US 70. If you look closely you can see a "turkey crossing" sign in the background by the utility pole. A friend of mine shot a zebra in Africa last summer; I asked him if he fed him a sugar cube or an apple as he put a pistol in his ear; guess you need to feed this guy some corn?

And TAR and I are heading to FL Saturday for the annual AHRI meeting in Bonita Springs.
http://www.ahrinet.org/
For the first time in a long time I am not on the board! Committee work in two meetings should be productive, and maybe spend a little time in the sun Monday afternoon.
My numbers are down, send this blog to others!

November 4, 2011
Somewhere Chris Turns 57 Today

Oh grandchildren; it is so much fun to teach them while they're young and impressionable.

In town for Halloween, only had a few children to come by, and I had ice cubes ready for all of them. Turn down the lights and they love the noise ice cubes make hitting the bottoms of their little bags, now to clean up that egg splatter. Pygmy and I used to give away ice, hot dogs and old biscuits for Halloween. Man I'd like to have some of those biscuits now.
Then it was off to the big cities around Raleigh. I wasn't able to get a room at the Y; well I was able to get a room, but not the preferred corner room so I saved some cash for Skuttle and crashed with my grandson in Sanford. He is an interesting young man; I enjoy my time with him more and more. And my granddaughter smiled at me. Good times sleeping in Jackson's old bunk beds. I remember my father sleeping below Jackson years ago and Jackson talking his ears off after bedtime. Good memories.
Yeah, I don't know what this is, saw it close to my customer in Rocky Mount and found it intriguing; sorry I will not be able to attend although Las Vegas is betting my eyes will be red Thursday night.

And guess what? No not that. Got a little, no a lot of free publicity for dear old Skuttle this past week in The HVAC News:

http://www.achrnews.com/articles/117907-distributor-serves-customers-in-a-famous-way

Glad I said the right things. Maybe I didn't say the right things but Mike Murphy made it sound like I did. He's a good guy with a great publication, known him for many years now and always been first class; especially considering I'm with a small company which doesn't advertise in his publication.
If the weather allows I'll be cycling today to Durham and then on to HSC Saturday for their showdown with Washington and Lee. Winner takes the conference championship so say it with me: winner winner chicken dinner.
Maryland and Virginia next week and then off to somewhere close to Naples Saturday for an industry meeting. More on that next week, enjoy the ride

October 28, 2011
Man! it's Been A Week

Time warp going on this week in the office; hard to believe and comprehend how much happened in the space of a couple of weeks. We all have another big hole in our hearts.
Got the Pony Express started at church last Sunday; during the breakfast I massaged the Pony Express logo saddlebag and asked if everyone could hear me, I was feeling a little horse...............
At the end of he service I inspired the crew with those famous words given to us by Hedy Lamarr (that's Hedley!) to go do that voodoo that you do so well! The pastor looked at me and asked if I "planned" to use that during the 11:00 worship service; I hadn't.
Might be hard to believe but all of that was true
It was humorous to sit in church during the 11:00 service and hear the Associate Pastor announce that "Terri Riley's husband passed away last Sunday." I felt like Tom Sawyer there for a minute, hey wait a minute, does that mean I don't owe anyone money anymore? Guess not..........but the spontaneous celebration kind of pissed me off. Come on, who brings horns, confetti and party poppers to church anyway? Oh they do? My bad, sorry, I apologize to all of my friends and family in that tribe
After church I needed some head clearing so I took off on my old bike and motored to the Cherry Point ferry. From Arapahoe I went some way, not really sure which way but I ended up in Hobucken. It has been a really long time since I was there, they have replaced the drawbridge with a high rise. It has been so long I was not sure where we used to put the boat in; I found a place that has a landing but I still am not sure that was the place. I remember as a kid those mosquitoes were the absolute worst. Sunday as I pulled up to the ICW and took my helmet off I was swarmed by some flying objects the size of small honey bees. Yep, mosquitoes! Unreal.
Ended up in Oriental, and unbeknown to me at the time had my picture taken, well not my picture, but one of that old bike I ride. I must have been in the head at the coffee shop. Tank has a 175 mile range, my bladder goes for about 150.

It was a good ride although my left carburetor developed a slight leak at idle. There is a quick and easy fix (sometimes) to that problem; a strategically placed whack to the side with a heavy wrench frees the float and stops the leak. It has not leaked since Sunday.
Able to fish Wednesday morning for a few hours; low winds prompted my half-day of vacation. Unfortunately the fish did not cooperate. Went offshore to a couple of reefs with minimal results. It simply has not been a good year for fishing. But there is nothing I can do about the results, I remind myself to enjoy the efforts. It is all about the ride.
And ride I did! Thursday I went to Jacksonville to sign some VW papers (in the shop all month) and decided to keep going. Ended up at the Skylight Inn in Ayden. I don't know if that is the best BBQ I've ever eaten or not; but I can't recall better. Whole hog over coals, not a lot added. The slaw is OK, the cornbread is as close to Grandma's as you can get. If they could just put a little more crust on the edges.....................is your mouth watering? Bet it is!

October 21, 2011
Wow, That Was Fast

Like a lot of other people in Richmond County I was surprised at how quickly my father-in-law passed. But he did, after a tough few nights he slipped away at 1:10 PM Sunday. We had a viewing Monday night, and beautiful funeral Tuesday, and back to work on Wednesday. I was very proud of my niece who gave the eulogy. Jackson also did a mature job tending to his grandfather; he cared for him and stayed in his room all Saturday night and watched Sunday as he took his last breath. Pretty heavy stuff for a 20 year old, he did well.
So we will miss Harold, but like I said.....we go back to work. I passed that "wisdom" on to my brother-in-law a couple of weeks ago. I remember as a child I spent a lot of time in the city library. OK, I know a lot of you just threw the bullshit flag but I did. I used to read the newspapers from WW II and was always surprised to find that during total worldwide war, Belks had a sale. And someone got married. And someone was arrested for public drunkenness. And the bank board of directors met and conducted business.................the world keeps spinning.
At some point in my career with Emerson Electric I needed ankle surgery. My boss told me not to worry about the surgery, take my time with feeling better, and come back when I could. He told me that I had to remember that if I died today Emerson Electric would be open the next day. They might be sad, they might feel sorry for my wife and child, but they would be open for business without missing a beat. The world keeps spinning, 1000 mph on our axis, 66,000 mph around the sun as the entire solar system zips through the universe at 155 miles per second. It is all we can do to hang on.
I'll miss you Harold, you were a good man.

And now for that silliness you tuned in for...............
Took this picture last month in the Phoenix airport. WHAT? Shut the front door! Get the fluff out of here...........................

Pony Express starts Sunday. Oh and just for the record, I had surgery that Friday morning, checked out of the hospital Sunday morning and went to work the next Monday. I thought that if they knew what little I did they might fire me.........................
Sorry about the cursing Harold, I couldn't help myself; but you knew that already

October 14, 2011
Not Going To Be A Good Weekend

I think I will use capital letters and quotation marks to excess this week.
Last weekend was pretty nice. TAR went to Rockingham to visit with her father and the FO came down for some windy fishing. Our plans did not come off as ......................hmmm, redundant? Anyway the wind blew so we adapted. We caught some pretty fish in the inlet, enough for Bobby to take home 10+ pounds of filets, including one legal flounder! Have not seen many of those around in a while.

A good time was had, and then we saw this group in the No Wake Turning Basin going pretty fast. Look closely, these are not the guys you would want to yell "DEATH TO THE INFIDELS" to, or only once if you did. One guy made a "no wake" comment on 16 which brought a few chuckles.

Later we were up in the Haystacks and saw these guys speeding through. I could not help but notice their "I AM GOING TO SHOOT YOU" clothes they were wearing. Thanks guys, the world is a safer place because of you.

After FO left for home I rode 160 miles on the bike. Came through Trenton and saw an old mill pond which was destroyed and is now rebuilt. I remember that place from my teens, always wanted to fish in it and now at 56 still do. Maybe that should be on my bucket list.....let's see, add "fish pond in Trenton", scratch off "astronaut." Got it!

We went tombstone shopping Wednesday, picked out a nice one. On the way home Dink said she had never seen this, now she has. I noticed she took out her bucket list and scratched off "see CSS Neuse" and added "astronaut." That was coincidental.

And my father-in-law's health continues to decline. We will all be in Rockingham this weekend, and we will see what happens next. Ask a prayer for Harold Matthews

October 7, 2011
Had Better Weeks But Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

In Richmond for a doctor's appointment with Jackson this week, went for a late lunch afterwards and ended up near some of our distributors (not the finest of Richmond's old neighborhoods). While heading for Buz and Ned's BBQ joint (http://www.buzandneds.com/) we saw a used car lot. Circled back and found some old classics; cars you just do not seem to find on the streets everyday.
Nice MGA

Datsun S-2000; many people do not remember this economy sports car Datsun produced in the late 60's. Many people reading this do not know who Datsun is...................................

And Jackson sitting in a Lotus Esprit S4; first one of these I have ever seen. The S4 version had increased horsepower and a rear wing. Very Italian looking, not British at all. Hard to get that smile of Jackson's face; did not stop grinning until he sat in his Honda CRV, then reality set back in.

Oh, and the awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww? Yes our grandchildren were in town for the NC Seafood Festival last weekend. Cooper had his throttle wired to the floorboard and Keelyn stared at me a lot, and a good time was had by all. We spent a lot of Saturday downtown at the festival, along with 100,000 others; then the kids went back down at night to see Sister Hazel. I heard the audience singalongs were a little lacking; maybe next time they can use a karaoke screen behind them? Pictured below: Keelyn being very excited to see her Cappy!

She is pretty isn't she? Lucky she looks like her sweet Mama. Notice the earrings?
FO is coming down to fish Saturday, getting closer to the Pony Express kickoff at church in a couple of weeks, busy busy busy.
Taking Dink to Rocky Mount Wednesday to pick out a tombstone. What do you want on your tombstone? Want to meet us there? Should be fun