Hey Jay, It's Your Birthday..................Today!

July 5, 2013

Modern technology in the mid 1980's involved a 45 RPM piece of vinyl that featured an alien sounding creature singing a song to the birthday recipient. Jay wore it out. TAR thought it was such a good idea she bought one for Nephew Kevin. He was not entertained by the record................

So 33 years ago, in the middle of the Borg/McEnroe Wimbledon final we were given this little creature. I kept looking but found no operating instructions so we just winged it. Looks like our project turned out fine. Happy birthday young man, enjoy the day. 

And here is a good picture of the old bike in Deal's Gap going through the Tail of the Dragon. I talked with the new owner a couple of weeks ago, he did a 2,500 mile trip with his son while towing the small trailer he built. New paint job looks great!

Off to Montreat to be the male chaperon for a great bunch of young men next week. Didn't know it would take so many of them to look after me........................

Friday Afternoon: Long Way From Home
June 28, 2013

Friday afternoon and I have a lot of asphalt to go before I can get home, but it's all worth it to say so long to this old fart who retires today. I'll miss him, and I'll really miss taking money from him each and every time we play golf. He enjoys the game much more than normal people, and I hope he gets to play thousands of rounds now, and ride his little Yamaha scooter a bunch, so long to a tireless worker

And so long to a million mile BMW rider, 81 year old Ardys Kellerman died in an accident in Alabama this week. Now the 1,000,000 BMW Women's Club has only one member. So long Queenie

And hello Annabel, this week was Beach Week, the Sanford crew could only stay until Tuesday, but we all had a great time.

But somehow or another they forgot to take this one with them when they left, so he's been the King of the Beach all week. Heard about all of his adventures and look forward to seeing him tomorrow morning. See a common denominator here?

In touch with my old bike's new owner this past week, she's the gray beauty with the trailer. He's done a lot of work on her, including building this lightweight trailer for trips. He told me he doesn't even realize the trailer is attached. He and his son completed a 2,500 mile trip in late May, you think I'm jealous? New shocks and new tires, he tells me she rides like a new bike. Good news that his trip was a safe and happy one

And now here I sit, broken hearted (you know the rest I'm sure), 12:00 PM on a Friday and I'm in Ohio. Oh well, part of the job. I'll be in town all next week, we have to figure out how to celebrate Jay's birthday on the 5th. Hard to believe we have a kid who is now 33, boy oh by is TAR starting to get old. Maybe we should start by telling him the fireworks and celebrations the night before his birthday aren't really for his birthday................

Next Saturday I leave in search of adventure, more on that later

We Need A Bigger Boat

June 21, 2013

Six years today since we lost Jesse, still all good memories of the best dog God ever made, gee I wonder why we haven't got another?

Saw this poor guy in a hotel Wednesday morning, I honestly can not see how he could get that rig out on the Interstate to run at any speed. When I first saw it I thought he was broken down, but no, that was his setup for moving or vacation. Whatever, but buddy, you need a bigger truck. 

This cobia was recently found in our boat cooler. Nice 15 pounder, just the right size for the tastiest of meat. We need a bigger cooler. They come with bigger boats attached...........that water sure tasted funny all day

FO is shown here proudly holding the fish. Obviously there is some controversy as to who actually caught the fish as someone in the background appears to be disputing the claim. SWMBO once had her picture taken holding a real Oscar. But she didn't win one, just had her picture taken.........................

Oh well, there will always be that mystery.......mystery solved! I got up the next morning and was able to walk upright about and act normally, well my idea of normally, whatever that is. FO was in bed and took painkillers all day. Yes, he caught the fish. I conservatively estimate he fought the fish for about 50 minutes. We were lucky he wore him down with light weight tackle for so long, once gaffed and in the cooler he flopped around a couple of times and zonked out. That was good news, cobia have been known to take control once boated. Good supper that night and nice trophy for the FO

Beach Week 2013 begins today with an unusually undramatic entrance. Well, other than having the Dink hotline ring at 5:30AM, undramatic. I look forward to seeing everyone coming down here over the next few days.........................

Next week: Ohio, and pictures of grand-babies

Happy Father's Day

June 14, 2013

Made some calls on the way to Raleigh Wednesday and ended up on the floor at my old high school. I've been in there a few times since they made me leave, but only in the gym. We walked through the halls and classrooms, saw all of my athletic and academic trophies that I earned; yes each and every one that I earned was on display.....or should that be each and every one I earned were on display? That question should give you a clue as to where they is, ain't, are, or aren't. They're going to make a middle school out of this, fun to go through a quick walk through. 

Sum sum summertime, and the living's easy. Mixed metaphors there but you know what I mean. 

Speaking of the US Army and their 238th birthday today, saw nephew Kevin and his crew Wednesday night. Been a long time, but now that he is an officer in the US Coast Guard in Elizabeth City we hope to see him, Heather, Caroline and Grace much more often. That dog is so sweet, but I sense he has the devil eyes, the devil eyes I tell you, DEVIL EYES!

This weekend the weather will be absolutely perfect for offshore fishing, and the Fishin Optishin will soon be on his way. We don't have a chance, but it will be fun. Since we're all out of fathers around here we get to make our own plans for the weekend, and it involves going to a few artificial reefs off our coast. 

Maybe some pictures next week, but I'll leave you with a picture of a car model which would be a suitable replacement for the motorcycle.....someday, not today but one day in the future. It's a BMW Z-4, such a beautiful shape of a car, and of course as SWMBO has decreed, a convertible. So let it be written so let it be done! Anyway, this was seen in the parking lot of a customer in Williamsburg last week; could they have picked an uglier color? 

And what a great post! At no where in here did I post the video of my sister-in-law brushing the "icing she sat in" off the back of TAR's dress! Yea me!

Pictures? I Got Your Pictures Right Here!

June 7, 2013

In response to your requests for less writing and more pictures:

I call him Radio-Man, sent here from a strange planet to listen and protect

This is the Tuscarora-Nooherooka Fort site on Highway 58. 300 years ago our militia along with other North Carolina Indians attacked the Tuscarora fort and killed hundreds of men, women and children. They burned the fort and sold 392 Tuscarora Indians as slaves. Many escaped, tried to negotiate peace, and were sent to a reservation in New York. 

I'm sure this is sacred ground to the Tuscarora Indians but I wish it came with some explanation. The monument is made of what appears to be a beautiful brushed stainless material with several symbols. Maybe that is the way it was designed, or maybe it will come later. 

Stopped by my daddy's grave, the dandelions are in full bloom. Must be part of the sequestration process, although not intentional it actually looks pretty. There was a fresh grave close by that had been mowed closely. 

This is part of the Smithfield Ham processing plant in Smithfield, VA. Pictures that make you go hmmmmmm, wonder if this is a chink in their armor?

This seen in the parking lot at the Ferguson HQ in Newport News, VA. I call it The De-Volution of the Jeep

And congratulations to Cooper, finished the year with a Riley standard 4.0 GPA. OK, that was a stretch

Like the less-talky? Next week's travel plans are falling through so I might be around here to clean up after TS Andrea. 

Fast Short Week

May 31, 2013

We packed up and delivered one Jackson Matthews Riley to Washington DC last Saturday, up and back in one day was tiring but worthwhile Sunday morning when I got up to watch the Monaco Grand Prix. Unfortunately WITN-7 decided to show local news repeatedly while working in "we're hearing what you're saying on Facebook about the Formula One race and will join it in progress at 9:00 AM".  So much for the progress of having F-1 on one of the "big" networks. I never heard why this happened, or didn't happen as the was the case. Nonetheless it was a great day of motor racing, the Indy 500 was a great show for the third year in a row. I hope the fans will go back to that old speedway. 

Fished a little Monday and took the boat owner for a ride in the afternoon. Found some beautiful black sea bass, now if I can only find them again beginning tomorrow when the season opens. While I was offshore I saw a balloon with this note attached:

On the reverse side was the return address, a church in Danville, VA. For some reason or another (and by the way, who knows why I do things like this anyway?) I looked up the church on Facebook. Sure enough they did a balloon launch a couple of weeks earlier from Virginia, somehow it ended up in the Atlantic Ocean. It made me smile.

Later I felt bad about telling the pastor that I was with the Department of Marine Fisheries and that the tag caused the strangulation death of a dolphin. Sorry I did that, I really didn't mean to; no wait I did! I did it on porpoise. What a long way to go or a pun; but a good pun is its own re-word. OK I'll stop now. 

Hello DingBatters

May 24, 2013

Let's see where were we? Caught some fish last weekend, sorry, no pictures. Nephew Scott graduated from optometry school, sorry, no pictures. Went to Hershey PA for the annual OESP Expo, sorry, no pictures. But a good time was had by all, our names and pictures were not in the paper the next day; and MIL and SWMBO were out on the town in Memphis until 1:30AM, which by the way is 2:30 AM EDT. Come to think of it, just as well we don't have any pictures. 

This coming weekend is about more than the beach, picnics and family fun. It's morphed into remembering our deceased loved ones and race car drivers who died racing, a veteran's day, the start of summer and so on; but as I recall it was designed to remember those who died during service to our country. More often  than not that group was our nation's young and brave who came forward and paid the ultimate price. To say thank you doesn't even register on the scale of what you did for all of us, but thank you. 

From the South and 58 years old, hard to believe we didn't honor this day when I was a child. We remembered another day for another reason. 

I was fortunate to go to the Indianapolis 500 in the 1980's when the stands were full and the drivers included names such as Foyt, Andretti(s), Unser(s), Fittipaldi, Mears, Sullivan, Rahal, Bettenhausen, Rutherford, Vukovich, I guess I can stop now, but at the time it was a great mix of old and new in the greatest spectacle in racing. I was surprised at the crowd; I'm no prude but did not figure to see so many crazy drunks at 9:00 AM. Jim Nabors sang Back Home in Indiana, Linda Vaughn (Hurst girl) was in the parade lap, seems like Porsche even had a car there. And of course they dragged old Mrs. Hulman out to tell the drivers to crank them up;.What a day and what a rowdy crowd, but when the color guard blew Taps you could have heard a pin drop. Very emotional moment for 500,000 people

We move Jackson back to DC Saturday, so this picture is for you son. It is one of our refrigerator pictures and is one of my favorites. I never noticed that his "ride" is also featured in the background. He could spin a 360 on that on the terrace without hitting the wall. When he did it really well he would jump up and yell "Earnhardt." Have fun this summer, make a lot of money and enjoy those Ramen Noodles.  

Monaco Grand Prix early Sunday morning, Indianapolis 500 at mid-day, and the Whatever It's Called 600 in Charlotte that night. Racing's greatest weekend, safe travels