Political coverage and ads have taken a back seat…

October 29, 2012

Ellen/Reid: We have a little bit of Hurricane Sandy’s tail nipping at us this morning.  The winds are pretty stiff but not bad.  I can only imagine what the folks further east and north are experiencing.  It was fairly calm along the coast at Myrtle Beach over the weekend but the storm was offshore a few hundred miles.  All they had was some mild surf and a little rain.  But they really got tagged along the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Just a couple of weeks ago residents there were complaining that insurance companies were about to raise their insurance rates by double digits because they felt the impact of storms was unjustified.  I guess they’ve found out differently the last 48 hours or so.  You live along the coast and this is what you get and you should expect to pay for the privilege.  Why people build homes, even on stilts, so close to the water’s edge is beyond me.  That just tempts fate.  I suppose it’s nice when you’re having a gin and tonic on the ocean-facing deck when the weather’s balmy.  For the first time in a long, long time the TV was on this morning as I tried to keep updated on events and the latest storm news.  They showed a map of compiled reports indicating that every state east of the Mississippi was going to feel the impact of Sandy.  One of the unintended, but welcomed, side effects is that political coverage and ads have taken a back seat.

We had a good time on the beach.  Not quite beach weather but still good enough.  We didn’t do much other than lounge around.  We donned our rain gear and walked the beach on Saturday.  Hardly anyone else out.  Just a handful of people on a beach normally crawling with them.  People pretty much hunkered down. 

Felicia on the beach with Sandy at her back. Minimal waves, some flying sand and a storm parallel to us but several hundred miles offshore.

We stayed at the home of Felicia’s sister.  It’s about 500-600 yards inland and you take a golf cart down to the beach itself.  Myrtle Beach is redneck central but it was just fine.  My guess is the greater Myrtle Beach area must easily stretch up and down at least 35-40 miles of 3-for-$10 t-shirt shops and water parks and every imaginable eatery and store and tourist come-on.  It is overrun with people in the summer and if it’s not South Carolina’s largest tourist destination then I don’t know what would be.  It’s just bizarre in its scope.  For some odd reason, people sometimes refer to South Carolina as ‘South Cackalacky’ although I’m not sure where that came from or why they use it.  You could Google it.

But it’s back to reality this morning.  Bob Hall had one of his hips replaced last week and I’ve been in touch with Betsy so see how he’s doing.  Everything sounds okay.  Mobility had been an issue for him, not that he was in a wheelchair, but you could see over the last year of so that it was just hell for him to get around.  Hopefully most of that pain will subside now that the surgery is done. 

I’ve been summoned for jury duty at the end of November and it will be an interesting process.  One of our citizen obligations it would seem.  No sense trying to duck out or shirk the responsibility.  It just goes with living here.  I don’t recall either one of you having to serve.  Is that right?

Well, not much else to share this morning.  I’m writing during an early morning lull in my preparation of a morning item sent out for employees to see.  Lucky them.  Right.

A period of relative calm…

Henry the Conehead is a picture of absolute despair. Ellen says he'd otherwise nibble at a wound on his paw. Poor guy.

Not a whole lot has changed in any of our situations; mom is the same (good), Ellen and Reid are getting on with things (more good) and the bank continues a drip-drip-drip process to condition employees for the inevitable before it lowers the job-cutting boom (not so good).  All in all, it is a period of relative calm.  Still, we three have our own brand of hurricane season.  Hanging over our heads is the omnipresent threat of heavy weather blowing in.  You know it will happen, you just don’t know when and with what force.

Caught in the calm was last week’s letter.  It reverted to the letters of old (before what is known as the “Betsy Admonition” to make the letters more meaty with less fluff so as to keep her – and anyone else’s – attention).  Fluff was apparently in vogue last week.

Of note was the decision by my boys in Des Moines – Bob, Dave 1 and Dave 2 (I am Dave 3) – to make a courtesy trip to CLT.  As with Coeur d’ Alene last September, we will reconvene for golf and wine although not necessarily in that order.  Last year was something of a sympathy tour for them in terms of me (I will give them their due credit: they ponied up for virtually all the expenses) but this time is more of a guy’s trip where we’re all on more-or-less equal footing.  As Dave 3 has told chief organizer Dave 1, the caveat is how and when events will unfold in the Midwest.  That could derail the best laid plans.

As for next week’s letter, hopefully it will be de-fluffed sufficiently to meet the “Betsy” standard.

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September 12, 2011

Ellen/Reid: Now, the last few days of weather here are what North Carolina is all about.  Sunny and warm, but not too hot, beautiful evenings with low humidity.  If the state Chamber of Commerce wants to tout nice weather as an enticement to those wanting to relocate to the South, they can start with this past weekend.

Haven’t heard from your uncle in the past couple of days which I take for a sign that nothing much has changed for your grandmother.  It’s good if she appears to be holding her own.  She’s always been a fighter.  My friend John at Caldwell has asked me about her situation regularly.  He’s very good about that.  Several others there have commented, too.  I suppose that just shows the relatively small size of the church community.

Apparently there will be reprise of the trip to Coeur d’Alene from last fall.  Bob Furstenau, Dave Hemminger and Dave Dahlquist will come down to visit Bradley Acres here in Charlotte in early November for a four day weekend, and we will drink wine, tell stories, and venture over to Pinehurst to play course #2, the track where the U.S. Open has been held and will be held again in a couple of years.  We will use caddies, which is always fun.  Pat D. still does a land-office photo business with Pinehurst so it will be fun to walk in the Pro Shop and see the work on display.  We’ll play another course over that way on Friday, drink more wine on an overnight stay in Pinehurst, get up to a hearty breakfast and Advil and then play #2 on Saturday morning before resurfacing in Charlotte.  This time Jane is relieved of any planning duties.  It’s on the broad shoulders of the rest of us.  It’s nice of those guys to want to come down for a long weekend, given the hectic pace of their working lives.  That doesn’t apply so much to Dave H. as he spends lots of time down on his farm in southern Iowa.  I think Bob is gearing up for retirement.  He uses all his vacation time to good advantage; motorcycle rides through the Rockies and just this week, a golf escapade in Scotland.  I think Gordie is on that trip but I’m not altogether sure about that.  Lucky stiffs.

Looks like my next college teaching gig on writing for newspapers may fall through.  Doesn’t look like we will reach the minimum number of attendees (which is only seven or eight or something like that).  For some reason I thought the attendance would be very good but that’s not the case.  I was actually pretty excited about teaching this course.  Given that newspapers are falling through the floor, maybe budding writers can read the tea leafs and see there aren’t many newspaper jobs.  Perhaps, too, it should be renamed “News Writing.”  That way, we can cover print, online and broadcast.  As Felicia says, “We’ll see.”  Hopefully the college will give me another crack at it.

Felicia is out on the Outer Banks this week with some of her past cronies from Shelby and other North Carolina cities.  After the summer she’s had, she deserves the R&R.  As far as can be told, they are riding bikes, walking, and drinking wine.

Reid, I’m sorry to err in not booking our Thanksgiving flight arrivals closer together.  That was totally boneheaded on my part.  I had the chance to make things uber convenient and blew it.  Since you get in earlier than me, and Ellen, if you’ll indulge him, you could get picked first at noon and then come back to pick up your old man at 4:33 on U.S. Airways.  I’m really excited for the T-Day trip and to have something to look forward to.  As much as I grouse about not wanting to travel anymore, it’s one trip I’m looking forward to.