Anniversary

On August 20th Hazel and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by going to Charleston for a couple days, touring the city and eating well.






The bridge shown in these photos spans the north fork of the Charleston harbor to the pennisula holding downtown Charleston, something like San Francisco.

I believe the bridge is similar to the one being built to replace the eastern end of the San Francisco bay bridge. It is beautiful and a pleasure to drive.

Charleston has done a wonderful job of preserving and restoring its many historic buildings and this has done much, along with many fine restaurants, to insure a thriving tourist business. We took a carriage tour of the downtown and only as I write this do I realize that the last time we took a horse drawn carriage tour was on our honeymoon in Nassau, Bahamas. Seems especially appropriate and the trip, although short, was like a second honeymoon. It was hot, just like it was in the Bahamas but the heat didn't really dampen our pleasure.

I have wondered many times about the good fortune we had in meeting and making our life together. Of course there were difficult times but at no time did we seriously struggle to keep our marriage together, it has always been a central core of our lives. God has blessed us.

St. James Has no streets

I realized this morning that St. James has no streets. Kinda reminiscent of the days of yore when villages had little more then a cart path with hogs lying in the mud. Makes me nostalgic.

St. James does, however, have lanes, ways, drives, courts, circles and even boulevards. I guess streets are too pedestrian. Actually there aren't many walks so that makes sense too.

I think I'll check with the POA and see if I can raise some hogs.

Power of 10

Last night, on the TV show Power of 10, the contestant was asked "What percentage of Americans believe Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM?"

The answer: 28%

Lets hear it for public education! Yeaaaaaa

2008 Roll Royce

Hazel and I are thinking about buying a new car because our newest one (1999) has rather high mileage and although fine for local travel, it is getting a little problematic on longer distances. Thus I have been reading Consumer Reports, JD Powers, Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds to mention a few. As usual too much information so it will take awhile to process it all, make a decision, look at our bank account and start over.

Yesterday I checked out the 2008 Rolls Royce Phantom and was impressed by the engine. It has a 6.75 liter, 450 hp, 12 cylinder engine to move the 20 ft. 3000 lb land yacht. I was also impressed by the retractable hood ornament. On the negative side, there doesn't seem to be a place to plug in my Ipod. Still, at $374,000 I think I'll keep it on the short list to worry the competition.

NC DOT

Now that I live in North Carolina I tend to shake my head at the seeming ineptitude and snails progress of the NC DOT. However, I was amused to read this in today's San Jose Mercury News. It is a newspaper article written by Gary Richards under the pseudonym Mr. Roadshow. Dealing with bay area traffic issues, this particular article was written along the lines of trivia questions.

Q In 1985, Caltrans predicted that Highway 85 could be built in how many years?

A 18 or 19

Q How many years did it take to complete Highway 85, once local officials took control of the 18 1/2-mile freeway project from Caltrans?

A 10

Carolina Winter

I've lived through very cold winters in western New York and in Chicago and current conditions here in Southport remind of those times. Temperatures run in the mid 90's with the humidity in the high 80's which means a heat index of about 110 degrees. So, I dash from the house to the car, limit my activities outdoors to the essential, and the windows fog up with condensation. Sure seems to be much the same although gasoline doesn't turn to mush and pumps faster then in Chicago.

Still, give me a choice and I'll take Carolina winter. It is much shorter, comes in the summer, and I don't have to bundle up in heavy coat, hat and gloves.

Golfing Rant

I think I've mentioned that I get the Wall Street Journal. I don't get it for the financial information. I scan the financial headlines and if the news is bleak I quickly move on to other articles and wait a day for better news.

What I enjoy is such things as the article on belly dancing. Seems expectant mothers are taking up belly dancing to help them in child birth. Belly dancing was not always a night club act. Actually it was developed to help in the child labor process (no, not making them work, that would be the article on whips and chains).

The last Saturday-Sunday issue had an article in the sports section about "The Worst People to Play With." There was of course the non-stop talker, the coach and others. What really resonated was John Paul Newport's (the author) number 1 most annoying golfer. The guy who never seems to be quite ready. He hasn't prepared for his shot or is busy talking. Mr. Newport goes on to compare this guy to the little old lady at the grocery store. This is what resonated with me! I'll call her Nellie.

Nellie waits until the groceries are checked and bagged and only then does she start to fish in her pocketbook for her checkbook and pen. She is the person that also likes to chat with the clerk and pause in her check writing to dwell on a point of conversation. And, it is then that she remembers she has a coupon for $0.10 off the can of cat food she bought. The thing that gets me is the checker remains pleasant and cheerful through all this...this is the south folks.

Nellie really doesn't have to be old or, gasp, female. There is the Nellie at the ATM that waits to...yadda yadda...or sits at the stop light and seems to want the stop light to nicely say "you may go" before she inches forward. Or, Nellie is standing in line in McDonalds and...well you can imagine.

My god! This world would be so much better off if everyone was a yankee type A person like me!

Republican Debate

Mitt Rommey thinks answering questions posed by UTube snowmen undignified although he claims he hadn't watched it. I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't watch the Democratic debate to assess the type to questions and answers given by potential contenders. He has said has a scheduling conflict and cannot attend the September 17th debate. Rudy Giuliani seems to have a scheduling conflict too. CNN says it may reschedule.

The UTube type questions scare the candidates. I admit there were a couple in the democratic debate which I considered inappropriate. For example, asking them to criticise something about the person to their left. Never the less, I like to see politicians put on the spot and liked the flavor of the debate.

I found the Democratic debate earlier this year interesting, the Republican boring and closed. I was surprised by the difference in tenor There is little doubt that a Democrat will be elected - the Republicans can't get it together. Will it be Hillary? I think she gained major ground in the last debate.