North Carolina Update

Maureen has made tremendous progress on unpacking boxes.  We are down to oddball stuff that you have to decide what to do with.  Several boxes with Liam’s name on them that we really don’t know what to do with.  Pictures that have to be hung.  Stuff from our office at the old house that we haven’t made a place for mainly because there is no space for a designated office in our new house.  And, stuff that is going to be ultimately stored in the (upper) garage anyway.  Which brings me to my topic.  I finally got to break out my shop equipment.  I built two sets of simple shelving/storage racks to hold tubs and boxes that will remain stored in the garage.  Sports equipment, camping gear, holiday decorations, and the like.  My (lower) garage and workshop is still in need of attention.  I’m digging out all of my woodworking books looking for that perfect workbench plan.  I’ve already got an idea for the first cabinet for my shop area and my goal is to get started building and organizing early in December.  First I want to paint the shop, and I hate painting.  I dislike painting so much I’ve been putting off picking a color.  Subconsciously (and apparently consciously as well) I know if I don’t pick a color I can’t buy the paint, ergo I don’t have to paint!  I’m thinking about a light green like they use in operating rooms.  You know, if you stare at the color red (blood) too long it’s the color of the spots you see in front of your face immediately after.  I’m not that bad with my power tools but I’m always scraping, scratching, getting splinters, and the like when I piddle around the shop.  The way my arms and hands are scratched up you’d think I worked for a living!  I did paint the shelves in the (upper) garage which brings me to my next; “What I learned from my Uncle John” installment.

2.  You can clean and dry a paint roller with a garden hose!

You read that right; you can dry a paint roller with the stream from a garden hose.  I painted the garage storage shelves semi-gloss black.  I used one 12” roller and one 3” inch roller and you can look at those paint rollers now, and except for maybe a speck or two on the end cap or handle you can’t tell what color I used on either.  When using this method, until you get the hang of it, I highly recommend that you remove all jewelry, watches, eyeglasses, and don’t wear anything that you don’t want splattered with stray water/paint spray.  You can do this without getting spray all over yourself but it takes a bit of practice.  It’s all about the speed you can get the roller spinning and centrifugal force.  Get the paint soaked roller good and wet with the hose, set the hose on a hard stream, and then apply the stream to the edge of the roller so that the force of the stream gets the roller spinning at a high speed.  Work the stream up and down the roller and “wa la”, it’s like magic!  After soaking and spinning the roller a few times working the hose stream up and down, reversing the direction of spin a couple of times, you will see all of the paint expelled from the roller.  Then, get the hose stream out to the edge of the roller as far from the center as possible with the stream still contacting the nap of the roller, and the high speed spin will also expel 99% of the water.  When you are done, the tips of the nap will be ever so slightly damp, but the roller will be essentially dry and ready for use with any other color.  One thing Uncle John never did teach me was how to paint without getting paint all over me and my clothing.  You know, like Tom Hanks in “Turner and Hooch.”  Hank’s character paints an entire hallway and does not get a speck of paint on himself.  Of course, if you look at Uncle John’s collection of t-shirts and shorts, I don’t think he has the hang of that either.  And if Uncle John can’t do it, it probably can’t be done!  “Turner and Hooch” was fiction after all.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving the in-laws headed back to Cleveland after a ten day stay.  Both of them will attest to the quality of the accommodations we have ready for you in our newly remodeled and furnished downstairs apartment.  Anne helped Maureen and they were able to unpack about half the remaining boxes that were in the garage.  Between their hard work, my new shelving/storage racks, and a little judicious rearranging of the leftover boxes and tubs, all three vehicles can now spend the fast coming winter in-doors overnight.  Jim, God bless him, went after the leaves in the front yard.  I have to say that the front of my house looks as good as it has since the leaves started falling.  But Jim was after every last leaf and the leaves were falling and the breeze was blowing the whole time he was raking.  And the leaves don’t stop falling and the wind doesn’t just stop blowing more leaves in behind you just because you think you’ve finished an area.  Talk about the definition of futility.  I wouldn’t even let him start in the back yard.  It’s just way too discouraging.  Once again I had to remind Jim and Anne both that I am the “Number One” son-in-law.  Not just because I was the first and have longevity on my competition.  There are lots of other reasons, not the least of which was my recent reverse “Beverly Hillbillies”; packing up the family and moving back from California so they could be closer to their daughter and grandson.  It’s no secret that all of the Neligan women are strong willed and outspoken.  However, during this discussion of what should be my elevated status among the spouses it was brought up that I may not have landed the most challenging of the three daughters.  It seems my closest competition for no. 1 son-in-law has an exceptionally close relationship with the almighty.  The two most common answers to questions about his wedded bliss are; “It’s a miracle!” and “God only knows!”  No matter, I’m still the number one son-in-law, although this thinly veiled attempt at anonymity may not be enough to make it safe for me to show myself in Cleveland after this update is published.

For those of you who have only lived in Southern California, getting your vehicles inside overnight might not seem like a big deal.  Last night it got down to 28 degrees.  Not the 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) that you’re used to, but the 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 degrees Celsius) which is below freezing.  And it’s just Thanksgiving.  When it gets that cold (and it will get colder) you have to think about things like frost on the windshield.  You have to be careful not to just run out and switch on your windshield wipers to get the frost off.  If the wiper blades are frozen to the windshield it’s quite possible to rip the rubber blades off the wiper arms, or even break the wiper motor if you are not careful.  It looks as if the local tire store is going to get some business from us as well.  Those skinny little sissy Southern California tires on Maureen and Liam’s cars are just not going to cut it.  I see a new set of “All-Weather” tires in their future.  Because we definitely get all of the weather here.

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year.  The last time I was home for Thanksgiving was 2009 according to the family tablecloth.  Each Thanksgiving my family has a tradition that whomever attends our family Thanksgiving dinner signs the tablecloth.  Then my mother embroiders the names and dates permanently into the tablecloth.  There are hand prints from the younger ones, signatures of guests, and of course family members from about 18 years of Thanksgiving dinners.  

Our plan is to spend the New Year in Cleveland but we will spend our first Christmas on the east coast in our new home.  It was a challenge to find a space for the Christmas tree.  Our home has lots of windows and doors which makes for a nice airy feeling but wall space is at a premium.  And with all of our furniture in place there is just no manageable space for the footprint of a normal sized 6 foot Christmas tree in our living area.  Introducing the "Pencil Tree."  "What the heck is a "Pencil Tree" you ask?"  At least I had to ask.  Apparently the pencil tree has been popular for a couple of years now.  Of course no one has ever accused me of being up with the times.  Anyway, here is our "Pencil Tree."

Maybe the small footprint will just leave more floor space for my, I mean our, presents!

I have some stuff going on with my shop, my mother is visiting with us through Christmas, and Liam will be starting his in-door track season this coming weekend, but I think I will save all of that for my next update.  We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that no one got trampled at Wal-Mart on "Black Friday".

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Rick, Maureen and Liam

Email from 11/12/2015

“Can you hear me now?” 

 

Does that give you visions of a dark haired spectacled nerd riding a donkey through the west repeating over and over; “Can you hear me now?”  That was our constant mantra with our cell service especially at our new home, and the answer was most frequently; “no!”  We had to change our cell phone provider.  T-Mobile just does not have a viable footprint here in the Western North Carolina Mountains.  Some of you have made attempts to call us and can testify to the poor quality reception we get at our house.  To send a text I would frequently need to walk to the front door and occasionally out onto the front porch.  To actually talk I’d have to continue down the driveway and sometimes I would just continue up the hill and down the street.  My extended walk might get me two bars.  And as frequently as we water our lawn out here, like this morning, walking down the street is just not a practical option to make or take a phone call.  Our choices are Verizon, of course, and US Cellular.  You can get Sprint service in this area but you are advised to check the coverage map first.  If you have to check the coverage map that means you are going to have spotty coverage at best in this area of the state even if you have decent service at your house.  So we’re back to the two big players.  The better deal is definitely US Cellular.  They are prominent in this part of the country and apparently have roughly 80% of the cell towers in the Weaverville area.  I don’t care for the Verizon pricing structure and the Verizon phones and service plans are definitely the more expensive option.  So our choice is US Cellular, however.........................apparently US Cellular does not provide service in southern California except through their partner, Verizon.  Because they don’t have a base in SoCal they don’t have access to the 951 area code.  So even though our existing numbers are portable to another service, US Cellular is NOT one of our options if we want to keep our old cell phone numbers.  So, “Can you hear me now?”  Yes, despite my objections to Verizon’s costs we have ported over to their network.  Keeping connected with all of our friends is too important to haggle over a few dollars or a few extra gigabytes of data.  All our friends are so special to Maureen and I that we are not willing to chance loosing touch over something seemingly as innocuous as changing our cell numbers.  If you are reading this and don’t already have our cell phone numbers you can ignore this paragraph.

 

Just kidding!

 

Many of you may not have our new address and since you are all invited to descend upon us at any time (with a little courtesy notice if possible but not mandatory) here is our contact information.  We also have a VOIP landline that we don’t have a reception issue with at all as long as our internet is up.  You can ship all our Christmas gifts to:

 

(This information omitted to minimize sales calls due to internet phone number mining.  If you contact me by email or through this blog I'll provide you with this information.)

 

We saw the Google Earth car parked in Asheville this week.  You can Google Earth or Google Map our address with the satellite view and see our house.  Although we are remote enough that you will not be able to get a street view of the house.  You can’t even get a street view of the street leading to the street that we live on.   

What you won’t see in the Google Earth/Maps image is the ton of leaves that have fallen into my yard.

 

Before & After: (sort of...)

I think this might be the last time I try to hand rake an acre.  Liam came home over the weekend and helped rake.  The leaves in the yard were wet and so thick I could not run the lawn mower over the yard more than 20 feet or so without it clogging.  Liam and I got the yard to a point that if it ever stops raining long enough to dry out a bit I should be able to mulch the rest.  I got tired of trying to bag the leaves, cart the bags to the woods, and then dump them.  That blue thing you see is a giant tarp.  We just raked the leaves onto the tarp and then dragged the tarp into the woods and dumped the leaves into a big pile.  I think it’s common to burn the leaves at the end of the season and I’m going to have to look into that.  I’m imaging that even with a half acre of woods I’m bound to fill it up with leaves eventually if I can’t do something with them.  The beautiful but excessive amount of leaves present another problem.  They have filled my rain gutters.  This is not really an issue on three sides of my house.  But on one side I have a roughly 30 foot drop onto asphalt.  I got on amazon this morning and ordered a safety harness.  I don’t have an issue getting on my roof to clean the gutters but a minor mistake ten feet above my lawn could cause a fall that would hurt, maybe even break a bone.  A minor misstep 30 feet above asphalt and you wouldn’t be receiving my NC updates anymore!  After Liam and I finished raking the lower 40, we watered the lawn for a couple more days.  Wednesday, our first sunny day for a few days, I broke out the lawn mower, hopefully for the last time of the season.  No matter how hard I try I just can’t seem to get all of the big rocks out of the lawn off the end of my patio and drive.  And with the left over leaves and leaves that have fallen since Sunday, I can’t see anything still lurking at blade height.  Because of the high blade RPMs, lawn mower blades have to be balanced.  Apparently I’ve hit enough large rocks that my blade actually bent slightly.  Then I ran over some raised earth over a mole tunnel and got this:

Keep in mind that what you see is after I took a small sledge hammer to this blade until I was convinced that I was not going to straighten the blade much less balance it.  The replacement blade is less than $18 and it costs somewhere between $40-$60 each time to have the lawn cut by a service.  So even if I go through a blade per cutting I’m dollars ahead.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.  I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

 

Liam’s Cross Country season is over now.  The Western coach intended to take the school’s two top runners, Liam for the men’s team and Kaitlin for the women’s team, to the NCAA Regionals but Kaitlin was injured in her last race, the SoCon Championships, and I guess the coach did not want to make the trek to Charlottesville, VA for just one athlete.  There was one additional 5K race held at WCU last weekend that started out as an end of the season time trial to let the athletes see how much they’d improved over the season that ended up as a mini-invite with UNC Asheville and Wofford College in attendance.  Liam won the Western Carolina Fast Cat Invitational with a personal best time for 5K of 15:23.8, 21 seconds better than his 2nd place finish in the 5K season opener.  To lend a little different perspective, at the beginning of the season he ran 3.1 miles at roughly 5:05 per mile.  His last race, Liam ran 3.1 miles at 4:58 per mile.  Liam’s best 8K (4.95 miles) time of 25:13.62 at the Southern Conference Championships works out to a 5:05.76 per mile pace.  Almost two additional miles at roughly the same pace he ran for 3.1 miles at the beginning of the season.  Liam has a week off to rest.  Next up, the Indoor Track Season.  It will be interesting to see how Liam does.  He has never run on the mini-oval banked indoor tracks before.

 

My high school (assistant) coaching job is over for this year as well.  Our team made the State Playoff Tournament.  The North Buncombe Blackhawks, ranked 25th in the state, faced off against the Winston-Salem, North Forsyth High, ranked 8th.  The team fought valiantly and maintained a 0-0 score through 80 minutes of regulation and 19:30 of overtime.  Unfortunately the overtime went to 20: minutes and NFH scored with about :30 seconds left leaving no time on the clock for the Blackhawks to come back.  There’s always next year.

 

We have had a couple of chilly nights but the temperatures are surprisingly mild.  I was up early this morning and bundled up to take the dog for his walk.  It was so nice out I had to de-bundle before the walk.  That’s all for now!

 

Have a great day!

 

Rick, Maureen & Liam

 

PS  A couple of you have called but were not able to leave a message because my new Verizon voicemail box was not set up.  It is now.

Email from 11/2/2015

Good afternoon all!

 

I love driving to the dump!  Some of you (if you are old enough) may remember, 35 years ago when I first came to California the freeways were lined with trees, and some like the 10 freeway into Redlands had oleanders so thick down the middle that you could not even see the opposing lanes of traffic.  Yeah, my drive to the landfill is nothing like that!  By comparison, that drive through Redlands 35 years ago was akin to a barren wasteland and is even more so today.  But let’s start at the beginning.  As with any new house we were looking into all of the utilities; electric, cable/internet, water, sewer and trash.  We happen to be on a private well and septic tank so that just left trash.  In the city everyone is required to subscribe to the city’s trash service.  In the country you have a choice.  I’ve attached a satirical article describing the general consensus of the quality of service you can expect from the local trash collection vendor (And don’t overlook the “Briefs” on the side).  So after looking into our garbage collection option I chose to just load up the truck and hall all of our trash, packing material, and cardboard boxes to the dump myself.  After we are done with our unpacking and setting up the house, with just Maureen and I in the house, we shouldn’t be generating all that much trash and the landfill fees are very reasonable.  As the crow flies the landfill is only about 4.5 miles away but it is a 17 minute drive (according to my GPS).  But the drive is incredible.  Once I cross over the main highway I’m meandering through farmland and eventually following a stream out to the French Broad river.  I get to follow along the river for a couple of miles before I turn off and head up the hill to the landfill.  The tree covered slope on one side and trees lining the road on the other are just getting into their full fall regalia.  The French Broad river 30 yards away is not so much obstructed by the trees as it is framed by them.  And on my trip back I always find an excuse to run by Lowes, the grocery store or the post office, because then I get to drive along the river for a little more than twice the distance.   And this is just my drive to the dump!  The week I wrote this (paragraph) we took a drive down a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway out to the Arboretum.  Except for not having the river at my side, the Blue Ridge Parkway drive at this time of year is just incredible, better than my drive to the dump.  Buddy also loves the trip to the landfill.  Not only does he get out and about riding in the truck with me, but the attendant at the landfill always has a dog treat in the tray for him.

 

Maureen and I have made a ton of progress unpacking our stuff.  I was talking with a neighbor yesterday and said it was my goal to have all the cars in the garage before the first snow.  That’s when my neighbor informed me that the first snow last year came on Halloween!  I guess we better get cracking.  Not that it matters because I’ve been informed that if snow is in the forecast I need to park at the top of the hill in front of our house because there is no way I’m going to be able to drive up that grade.  Actually, Halloween came and went this year with no snow.  It did rain lightly but we sat out in the driveway with our candy at the ready in front of a nice fire as we always have for the past decade or so.  We had exactly two trick-or-treaters.  I think they may have been lost.  The harsh reality is this is not a good Halloween neighborhood.  The hills between the houses would be daunting for small children and the driveways are long.  The best I can offer is that you would not have to be concerned about your kids gaining weight from the candy after traversing our neighborhood.  They would make themselves sick before they could eat enough candy to offset the calories burned by walking this street and up and down the driveways.  By contrast, the town of Weaverville is relatively flat and is a much more target rich environment.  I understand that is where all of the Halloween action is.

 

We can’t seem to get Liam to respond to our texts in a timely manner.  I can’t convince Liam that in his mother’s mind, if he doesn’t reply immediately to our texts, he must have been kidnapped by terrorists and shipped off to a foreign land to be sold into slavery.  And I can’t convince Maureen, just because he didn’t reply immediately, doesn’t mean Liam has been kidnapped by terrorists and shipped off to a foreign land to be sold into slavery.  Maybe if Liam wasn’t such a knucklehead Maureen wouldn’t worry so much.  Liam’s cross country season is almost over.  The Southern Conference Championships were held Saturday at Furman University.

 

http://www.catamountsports.com/sports/c-xc/recaps/103115aaa.html

http://www.ptgrouponline.com/Live/2015/SoCon/151031F001.htm

 

Liam improved his time by over a minute for the Furman University’s course, set a personal best time for an 8K (4.95 miles) of 25:13.5, finished 16th overall out of 82 athletes from 10 Division I schools, and made the Southern Conference All-Freshman team with the second best freshman time in the Championship race.  Coach Williamson has informed us that he is only sending a couple of the cross country athletes to the NCAA DI Regional race November 13th, in Charlottesville, VA, and that Liam will be one of them.  All in all, not a bad first season.  Liam also seems to be keeping his grades up so Maureen and I are happy, except for the whole; “kidnapped by terrorists and shipped off to a foreign land to be sold into slavery” dilemma!  Oh, I almost forgot.  Liam had to submit 15 names and email addresses for a fundraiser for his track team.  I’ve already apologized to the 15 victims that randomly came to mind first.  I thought we might be past all of that team fundraising burden but apparently not.  Anyway, if any of you did not receive my “apology” email last night but would like to support Liam and his track team with yet another fundraiser, please let me know and I’m sure his team will be more than happy to include you in this latest effort to extort funds.

 

As much as we miss our friends Maureen and I are making a concerted effort to make new friends here.  I’ve still not tackled that invisible fence so Buddy gets multiple walks each day and that is how I’m meeting my neighbors one at a time.  So far I’ve met Stella and Chris, the older couple that pointed out who we can invite over that drinks and who doesn’t drink; Alan, my immediate neighbor who’s letting me encroach on his property with Buddy’s invisible fence and who’s girlfriend I thought was his daughter (and yes, she was very flattered by that); Reid and his son Easton who, based on the look on his face every time I stop by, is still not too sure about that old guy that’s always walking that little dog down the street; and a couple of others including the WCU alumni at the entrance to our street, who’s name I can’t recall just now, and who I’m going to have to explain why I didn’t actually go to the WCU homecoming football game a couple of Saturdays ago.  Anytime we’re out at a pub Maureen and I make a point to talk with the person, couple or group next to us.  And we’ve met some interesting people just doing that.  Just last week we were in Blue Mountain Pizza, the local Weaverville watering hole and it was packed.  Maureen and I ended up at the end of the bar with the cash register in front of us leaving us about 6 inches of counter space for our beer and pizza.  We ordered anyway.  Just about then I noticed one open table with a sign; “Reserved for parties of six or more.”  I told Maureen we should go out on the porch and grab two other random couples and petition for that table.  It couldn’t have been two minutes later when some guy walked up and asked if I were Rich?  I told him “I used to be rich but I just bought a house and a bunch of furniture and stuff to put in it and now I’m not rich anymore!”  I had put my name in for a table under “Brooks” so I wasn’t the Rich he was looking for but he had the same idea as I and was randomly looking for a couple to join his party of four in order to snag that table for six.  Maureen and I did sit down to dinner with them and we had a great time.  Can you image that happening at the Olive Garden in Orange or a Chilli’s anywhere in California?

 

I think that the local Lions club is a bit put out with me.  Maureen and I introduced ourselves early on but then I took on this volunteer soccer coaching job with the local high school and the team’s weekly Monday night soccer matches conflict with the Lions meetings so I haven’t been to a single Lions meeting in a couple of months. 

 

We are watering the lawn again today.  Not to rub it in but here is the view out my back deck.  And yes, at some point I’m going to have to rake those leaves! 

 

 

 

I’ve been using the rain today to practice “Activity Avoidance.”  I have a fire going in the den with the door open to the back deck and Maureen and I are enjoying some reading time.  In truth I’m waiting for a call back from the CA DMV but that is just reinforcing my excuse to not actually accomplish anything productive.

 

And last, for those of you attending Shirley’s Christmas party this year, I’m just going to apologize now for the excessively wrapped gift for Shirley’s party game.  Shirley was worrying that even though I was last years winner I wouldn’t come through so I spent a little extra time and effort so as not to disappoint.  The package should be arriving any day now!

 

Best to all!

 

Rick & Maureen

Email from 10/8/2015

Good day everyone!

First, let me thank all of you for your warm birthday wishes that I received both on Facebook and by email.  I was busy yesterday and away from my computer most of the day so I did not respond to the many notes so I’m taking this opportunity to say “Thanks for remembering me.”  For those of you that didn’t remember or didn’t know it was my birthday, don’t sweat it.  I have to be the absolute worst at remembering birthdays, even my own.  We are still trying to get the house together and make it a home so I spent my birthday working like it was any other day, cutting the lawn, running errands, putting stuff away, etc...

Speaking of cutting the lawn, remember that geometry that you had to learn in high school that you were sure you were wasting your time because you would never use again?  I filled up the oil reservoir and gas tank on my new lawn mower yesterday and although the mower was already assembled and I’ve cut grass all my life practically, I leafed through the operator’s manual.  Did you know that mowers come with a “slope gauge” because some yards may be too steep for “safe operation”?  Apparently I have one of those yards, at least a portion of it.  So part of my yard is sloped greater than 15^o and it is “unsafe” for me to traverse it back and forth with the lawn mower.  And I absolutely don’t want to have to push the damn thing straight up the hill a gazillion times!  “Self Propelled” helps get the lawn mower moving but it doesn’t do much to help get my butt up the hill.  So here is where the geometry comes in.  You start calculating the compound angles necessary to minimize the uphill vs cross slopes to achieve the maximum compromise so you can push the mower across as much of the slope as possible and climb the least steep slope possible.  A couple of other things I learned about maintaining my new acreage:

1.      I have rocks, and big ones occasionally hiding in the grass.  I’ve used the mower once and I’ve notched the blade already.

2.    I started bagging the grass clippings.  I filled two bags and only did the front of the house and that’s the smallest portion of lawn.  I think Maureen is going to have to put that Master Gardener’s certification to work and start composting.

3.    I have a portion of yard beside my driveway that is so steep I can’t even stand on it to use the gas powered weed eater I inherited from my dad!  I’m having a premonition that our local Lowe’s is going to sell out of their low lying, low maintenance ground cover sometime early next spring.

4.    My dad had several gas powered weed eaters that worked.  I took the oldest one and it fired right up.  Now I understand why his subsequent weed eaters were smaller and lighter (see the health club references below).

So, I’m finishing up the back 1/2 acre and grousing to my contractor that; “this is my wife’s idea on how to keep me healthy!”  He was completely unsympathetic and only offered to “extend my health club membership” over to his yard when I was through.  He even graciously offered to waive the club membership fee if I did a good job on his lawn.  I’m thinking; “come on winter.” 

Many of you asked about the weather here with all of the tropical storm news, primarily regarding South Carolina, being broadcast nationwide.  Every time it rained over the summer I teased my friends in California that I was “watering the lawn again.”  Well last week the “sprinklers broke” and we over watered a bit.  Asheville/Weaverville was on the outskirts of the tropical storm and just got three or four days of wet weather although we had at times an inch of rain per hour over a three day period.  Do the math and that’s a whole lot of inches of rain.  There was no flooding in our area, it was just wet.  Last Saturday we did travel down to South Carolina to watch Liam run.  The rain was in full force and it was cold Saturday morning so I was concerned that Liam might be having a bit of a challenge adjusting.  I caught up with him just before he started warming up and he was wearing a black trash bag as a poncho.  I asked Liam if the conditions were tough and he just replied; “no, we’re loving it” (I’m assuming “we” meant the entire team but I’m sure that there must have been at least one or two sensible runners that were a least a little uncomfortable, maybe on the women’s team?)  I was informed by more than one race participant that on the back side of the course the water had accumulated such that there was an area that the runners had to traverse, and depending on their height, the water was up to their knees.  As you can imagine the times were about a minute slow for both races, men’s and women’s.  Liam had another good outing, finishing 15th overall and first for Western Carolina University (Recap).  Liam was supposed to be competing in Charleston the weekend of October 16th.  Maureen and I were going to make a mini-vacation of it but I just read an update that because of the flooding in Charleston the meet has been moved to Rock Hill, SC.  Is anyone familiar with Rock Hill?  I suspect it may not be the vacation spot that Charleston is but what the heck?  For those of you who’ve not already checked out the attachment, you can play the mp4 file to see what happens “When it rains in LA!” (Cutesy of my Uncle John)

 As I type we have painters in the house again.  Our contractor has just about finished remodeling “your” apartment downstairs and we’re getting the last touches taken care of.  Maureen and I will be sooo happy when all of this is done.  And, our new washer and dryer were delivered today.  They are the wrong color of course!  And poor Buddy; we’ve had so many people through the house lately he has gone from High Alert, to Extreme Defensive Posture, to Cautiously Guarded, to just plain exhausted!  This morning he was howling and baying at everyone that came through the door.  Right now he’s just conked out in resignation on the loveseat.  Of the four of us, Buddy has been the most sensitive to the cold, and it hasn’t been cold yet!  Not really.  Maureen has been a little cool in the evenings but Buddy just shivers.  So mom to the rescue!

I know he looks just a little like a green and yellow bumble bee, but he’s really just a died-in-the-wool (sweater) Packers fan like me!  Buddy took off on us the other day.  The contractor was here and we were walking in and out with the door open and then Buddy was just gone.  I yelled for him, I drove up and down the road, I looked everywhere in the house and yard to no avail.  As I’ve said before, never name a dog something you not willing to run down the street yelling.  I was just about to give up hope when Buddy comes loping out of the woods covered with burs.  One good thing about his short wiry hair is that the burs just popped out with a simple combing.  Maureen went out on the front porch and noticed one of the chair cushions had a circle of dog hair.  She suspects that Buddy was just sitting on the porch most of that time watching me run up and down the street yelling and looking for him.  I’m having another premonition.  I see an invisible fence in Buddy’s future.  I won’t have to walk him as much so I won’t be getting the same amount of exercise but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for Buddy’s sake!  Because I’m sure I’m going to kill him if he keeps scampering off.

I’m trying desperately not to be too put out with my “friends.”  For the last two years and more that I’ve attended Thursday afternoon “choir practice”, mostly at BJ’s, with Keith, my friends John O’Doherty and John Dalzel attended on just one or two occasions.  It appears that since I moved they haven’t missed a single practice.  And even George Guyante has started showing up.  I’ve also been assured that everyone has agreed that I’m back on the choir practice notification list.  It’s Thursday evening and I’ve not received my notification?  And, I’ve been offering for the better part of 15 years to install a ceiling fan over the dining room table for my Aunt Shirley.  As soon as I’m 2,400 miles away my Uncle John breaks down and buys her the ceiling fan.  What, did everyone wait for me to leave so they could get on with it?  I’m assured that everyone misses me and that I’m frequently the topic of conversation.  However, now that I’m not available to participate I don’t know if I should be concerned about the context of those conversations?  Maybe it’s not true and all of this is just subterfuge in an attempt to get me to come back to find out exactly what’s going on. 

But you know, if everyone’s out to get you, you’re not really paranoid! 

Until next time, 

Rick, Maureen and Liam

Email from 10/18/2015

Good evening all!

We all have stories about things we learned from our dads.  I personally can go on and on regarding projects about electronics and electricity that I did with my dad that have given me a confidence with electricity where I’ll do things that a couple of general contractors I know wouldn’t attempt.  And really there are many other areas I can dwell on about the things I learned over the 50 years I had with my dad.  But all of that is for another time.  This update is the first of what I expect to be several updates that include an excerpt about “What I learned from my Uncle John!”  We all call him “my” Uncle John but he’s really everyone’s Uncle John.  Close to 30 years ago we were introduced by a couple that had long since moved away but John and Shirley have never been able to shake us loose.  Anyone who is familiar with “our” Uncle John knows that he will do anything for anyone, as long as he can finish in a day!  And Uncle John has helped me many times without question from repairing a door jamb on a rental property that was broken into, to rebuilding a portion of a downed fence on a killer slope, to replacing a water heater, each done in a day or less.  So when Uncle John (or more likely Aunt Shirley) decided he could use some help trimming back the tree in the back yard I was more than happy to help.  Apparently when you get into your seventies it’s time to stop climbing into trees with sharp heavy objects.   So instead, you call your adopted nephew in his fifties who’s apparently just matured enough to be climbing in trees with heavy sharp objects; my hypothesis based on the fact that this was the first time I was asked.  So here is the first installment of “What I learned from my Uncle John!”:

1. You can cut firewood with a skill saw!

So anyway, I’m up in John’s tree trimming branches when Uncle John brings out two skill saws.  One of the skill saws was a big heavy cord connected Craftsman with so much torque that it turned your wrist when you squeezed the trigger.  This Craftsman was made before we were so concerned with “light” and “portable.”  You know, when men were men!  Uncle John proceeds to use his skill saw to reduce this huge stack a branches into a stackable pile of 18” kindling.  And in no time at all, certainly less than a day, we were done.  So what brought this less than intuitive but practical gem to mind?  Maureen has been after me to get some firewood under cover so it can dry before Halloween.  She wants to sit out front with a nice warm fire to hand out candy in our new neighborhood and invite some neighbors to come join us for some holiday cheer.  Some of you will recall our big cast iron fire place with a nice warm crackling fire on our front drive in Corona on Halloween.  Just like that.  There was this big stack of branches just over my property line where a tree was cut down recently which I volunteered to clean up because my neighbor is allowing me to extend Buddy’s new invisible fence onto his property (right through that area) so I can avoid a stand of trees that are close to my house.  I gather the branches and drag them down around the back of the house, get out a couple of saw horses and two (hand powered) tree saws of my dad’s I brought back from my mom’s house, and start to size up my task and wondering how long it was going to take me to hand saw all of these branches, when it dawns on me; “you can cut firewood with a skill saw”!  I go seek out my trusty Black and Decker corded skill saw (practically my first power tool) and an extension cord that was  also pilfered from my dad’s garage, and in an hour and a half I’m stacking neatly cut logs and kindling and packing away my tools.  I was just walking through my little patch of woods wondering when I might get the chance to reduce some more of those downed limbs for future community fire opportunities.

For those of you keeping up with Liam’s college running career, this past Friday evening, Liam was the Division I and overall winner of the College of Charleston Classic Cross Country Invitational.  This was his second win for the year (the first was the UNC Asheville Cross Country Carnival back in September).  The College of Charleston Classic was relocated to Rock Hill, SC (for reasons described in my last update).  This course, like the Furman College cross country course, was laid out on the Winthrop University’s golf course.  I can’t seem to get over the itch to get my clubs out every time I’m trekking around one of these golf courses watching one of Liam’s meets.  Liam finished first, ahead of the second place finisher by a little over 30 seconds (more than 100 yards).  The Western Carolina Men’s and Women’s teams finished second in the NCAA DI group (Recap).  Liam’s next outing will be the NCAA DI Southern Conference (SoCon) Championship to be held at the Furman College course on October 31st.  Liam currently has the 17th best time for the 8K distance (4.95 miles) and is the only freshman in the top 20 of the NCAA DI Southern Conference. 

We have been dying for some cooler weather.  Not that it has been over 100^o for days like some of you have been experiencing in October.  But what is the point of living in the mountains if you can still wear shorts and t-shirts all fall.  The past week or so has been cooling off in the evenings enough that sweatshirts and long pants were in order.  This weekend however we’ve seen some fall mountain temperatures in earnest.  It has dipped down close to freezing Friday and Saturday nights and we had to unpack the winter wardrobe, as much of a winter wardrobe as we have anyway.  Here is Maureen decked out in her Disneyland hat and gloves courtesy of Aunt Shirley. 

I had frost on my windshield Sunday morning.  I’m going to have to be careful to check that the wiper blades are not frozen to the windshield before I turn them on from now on.  Better yet, I’m going to have to finish unpacking our stuff so we can get to all of our winter gear and I can get the cars in the garage before the freezing temperatures become an issue.  This just might be one of those “be careful what you wish for” winters.  My knucklehead son actually slept outside out in the wilderness Saturday night.  I spoke with him on Sunday morning (to make sure he didn’t freeze to death or get eaten by a bear) and he told me; “yeah, it was uncomfortably cold” that night.  Duh!  And all of our camping gear, including his nice below 0^o sleeping bag is still boxed up in my garage.  I know he made it into college and he has been doing well with his studies so far but sometimes I wonder about that boy!  On the plus side, as cold as it’s been I’ve yet to turn on the heat pump.  We have a propane gas fireplace that gets so hot even on the low setting that we can only keep it on for short periods before it heats us out of the room.  The fire heats up the rock wall around the fire box and even after the fire is off the heat radiates off of that wall for hours.  I just turn on the FAU fan and try to spread the heat throughout the house.  I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before but this house was custom built, for himself to live in, by someone who works for an insulation contractor .  Just based on what we’ve experience so far I don’t anticipate having a problem keeping this house comfortable this winter.  Having to go outside, now that’s a different story!

Odds and ends:  It’s been just over four months now since we arrived in North Carolina.  I’ve still not received a single piece of mail forwarded from the United States Postal Service.  Between the post office’s error sending all of my mail to Weaverville, CA, our two different physical addresses and a post office box, I don’t have much hope of seeing any mail in the near future, or ever.

I just checked the weather forecast for tonight.  I suspect our heat pump just might be put to use tonight after all!

Our best to all of you!

Rick, Maureen and Liam

Email from 9/19/2015

Good day everyone!

This month’s update is being sent to you from our secret lair hidden deep in the Western North Carolina woods.  Actually, we are only about a couple miles off the freeway, less than that as the crow flies.  However this is as much in the country as I have ever lived.  Maureen and I slept here for the first time Tuesday night.  There are no street lights in our neighborhood and when I took Buddy for his nightly walk the night sky was like a magnificent celestial map.  And light pollution is not the only negative thing we’ve given up with our move (sorry, I never really acclimated to the desert and this place is just lush and beautiful).

In preparation for our occupation we had the house painted, which is not finished; the floors sanded and refinished, which is finished; and some remodel work downstairs, which is not finished which is why the painter is not done.  Do you have any idea how much dust is generated when you sand over 800 square feet of wood floor?  In the main living room there is a full height stone wall around the fire place.  I think that is where most of the dust went, in each and every ledge, nook and cranny.  I offered to throw a couple of tarps over the furniture and hit the wall with my air compressor when it arrives.  I didn’t get quite the reaction from Maureen that I expected.  I thought it was a good idea!  I guess we will be ridding the dust from that stone wall her way, which I’m confident is going to be a lot more work for me.

We have received most of the furniture we purchased to fill the house.  I’m sure I mentioned that Maureen and I got rid of the majority of our furniture from the old house.  I spent Wednesday night putting those little round felt buttons on the feet of all the chairs, tables, stools, etc...  Anything that touches the newly refinished floor got a felt button.  Our dog Buddy was not amused.  I guess he thinks he would prefer getting his nails trimmed every other day to having a little felt stuck to his paws, because I’m sure that is what Maureen is going to expect, one or the other.  Friday Sunday (just one more thing that has been postponed) we are expecting our delivery from Lowes, including my new lawn mower.  I picked out the nicest $4,000 zero turn radius riding lawn mower Lowes has to offer.  When I went off to order the doors for the downstairs what Maureen purchased was the nicest little $400 push mower.  The sales lady convinced Maureen that this was a great choice for any lawn under .5 acres.  And of course I have to cut roughly .4999 acres and that sales lady is not the one that is going to have to push the mower up and down my little side slope.  I suspect that Maureen is always looking for ways to get me more exercise.  At least the mower is a self propelled model. 

Poor Buddy is completely traumatized.  First we packed him up and drove 2,400 miles sleeping in a different place every night for the best part of a week.  Then within a couple weeks of arriving in Asheville and settling into our apartment we drove to Ohio for a week.  A couple of weeks after that we drove to Virginia for a few days.  After that it was almost a week in Normal, Illinois.  And just when he thought it was safe to get settled again we start packing boxes, suitcases and bagging up everything in the cabinets to move into the house.  Buddy is a smart dog.  Don’t think for one minute that he didn’t know what was coming.  The only constant for him has been the back seat of my truck.  And that is where Buddy sat the whole time I was packing my truck.  Buddy was not inclined to help me pack but he was certainly going to make sure that he was not to be left behind.  Buddy has been growling at everyone he’s met this week, not that I blame him.  Don’t let on, but in about five days we’re packing suitcases again for another trip to Virginia.

Liam still seems to be doing well.  I think he is warming up to college life and even likes Western Carolina University despite having left his friends behind.  He has had three collegiate cross country meets so far and is turning out to be a respectable NCAA Division I runner.  In his first meet, The Western Carolina Invitational, Liam shook off his 5K curse (despite doing great at 3 miles, Liam never was able to post a good 5K time which is just a tenth of a mile further) and finished second to his teammate with a time of 15:44.47.  Western Carolina finished with three runners in the top ten and won the men’s team event as well by a single point over local rival UNC Asheville.  WCU’s second meet was a much tougher affair, The Furman Cross Country Classic, with 296 runners from over 30 colleges and universities including Auburn, Wake Forest, Clemson, and a bunch of other names you might recognize.  Liam’s first 8K (4.95 miles) time running for WCU was a respectable (for a freshman runner) 26:14.59 placing him 61st overall and again as the number 2 runner for WCU.  And this Saturday, with a little extra motivation from his coach, Liam managed a personal best of 25:25.49 for an 8K course at the UNC Asheville/Asheville Christian Academy Cross Country Carnival.  Apparently Liam overslept Saturday morning, was 25 minutes late arriving and missed breakfast with the team.  While addressing Liam’s tardiness his coach threatened that if he didn’t run a fast time that day Liam would not be able to join his friends on an outing planned for the next weekend because he would be having an extra “special” practice.  Liam responded with his first individual win at the collegiate level running away with a six second lead at the finish.  It was also Western Carolina’s second team win beating 2nd place UNC Asheville by 14 points this time.  So far we’ve been able to attend all of his meets and plan to continue.  The team has a meet coming up in Charleston SC in the near future.  I think we’ll make a weekend of it.

One more note about Liam.  It may be too early to conclude that he is maturing but at the very least Liam is beginning to pay attention.  This weekend’s meet was local to where we live now so Liam did not take the van back to WCU and spent the day with us after the meet.  For a change he was somewhat talkative about his classes, his friends and what they are doing, and world current events.  It’s somewhat encouraging and Maureen was tickled pink that he was sharing so openly with us.  I did say he was “beginning” to pay attention which is not to say he is always “actively” paying attention.  Case in point:  It took Liam a while to figure out that the attractive young lady that cut his hair Saturday did not give him a Fantastic Sams business card so he could schedule his next hair cut, but a hand written card with her name and personal phone number.  Although Liam eventually did discover the significance of the gesture so maybe there is hope for him yet!  Only time will tell.

We’re starting to meet some of our neighbors.  The first day I met Reid and his son Easton.  We have Josh and Christina’s bucket and step ladder at the house now (until our own stuff arrives).  I met Stella and her husband Chris while I was walking Buddy one evening.  I was explaining our plan to invite our neighbors over for drinks as soon as we get things situated enough so that we can at least hide all of the unopened boxes of stuff from plain view.  Stella then began filling me in on which neighbors drank, which one’s partied, and which ones didn’t drink at all, which apparently there are quite a few.  Although Stella did assure me that her and Chris did drink!  With the manner in which Stella made that statement, I suspect they may be one of our closest neighborhood friends.

Maureen begins her teaching her first English as a Second Language class in Asheville on Monday.  It’s a little earlier than she’d like but not everything can be on our schedule I suppose.  I’m still helping out with the soccer team at the high school although I don’t really have that much in the way of responsibility or influence but the head coach is good about letting me chime in if I want to make an observation.  Mostly what I’ve observed is the quality of the High School referee pool is...OMG!...unbelievably horrendous.  One of the reasons I chose to get involved in coaching over refereeing here is I’m just out of shape.  There is no other way to say it.  Except for the humidity out here, I would win the HS Referee Olympics without breaking a sweat.  Apparently, the circle in the center of the soccer pitch is to indicate the limits of where referees are supposed to travel, I’m guessing to keep them from having heart attacks.  And there is not enough space in my little news letter to begin to describe how much some of these individuals don’t understand about the practical application of the Laws of the Game.  I’ve been told that there are a few quality referees in the pool just not enough to cover all of the HS matches that are contested each week.  I’m hoping to see one of them in action before the season is over.  After ten years of personally refereeing soccer and having to deal with critics (basically everyone that might be watching the match) I know better than to be this critical of referees in general but I can’t help myself.

Well, I think that is all of the news that is news, at least for now.  You’ll notice that “This Week’s North Carolina Update!” is actually titled “This Month's North Carolina Update!”  I’ve been a little busy getting stuff done and our computer was down for a while during our move from the apartment and while waiting for our internet to be hooked up at the house.  But the truth of the matter is it takes a bit of effort to generate a weekly newsletter especially when you go from “everything is new and exciting” to “we’re staring to get into something of a normal routine.”  And to be perfectly candid, I’m just not that clever...at least not over the long haul.  So don’t be too surprised if my reports become spaced more and more inconsistently over time.

We miss you all!  Until next time.

Rick, Maureen and Liam

Email from 8/29/2015

Good afternoon everyone!

It has been a slow couple of weeks for news around here.  Maureen and I seem to be just sitting around waiting for our home purchase to close which is finally just around the corner.  We have an appointment at 12:30 PM, Tuesday, September 1st, with an attorney to complete the transaction.  Did I mention that in North Carolina, all real estate transactions must be completed with an attorney.  Is there any doubt that there was an attorney or two on the legislature that pushed that law through?  Nothing like a little guaranteed business to put food on the table when there is no one around to sue!

Last weekend, when I should have been writing last week’s update, Maureen and I traveled to Normal, Illinois, to see John and Veronica O’Doherty and spend their 35th Wedding Anniversary with them.  We made arrangements for our dog Buddy to stay at a local kennel, but since he’s been such a great traveling companion, at the last minute we decided to take him with us.  More on Buddy later.  So Normal, Illinois is the quintessential small town farming community with fields of corn and soy beans for as far as the eye can see.  I’m sure it is quite different from what they remember with all of the auto malls, shopping centers, chain restaurants and the like that have popped up outside of the main towns over the last 35 years since the O’Dohertys got hitched.  Actually the older downtown was very nice and still had that Fußgänger (pronounced fussganger/translates from German to English as “pedestrian” or foot-passenger) appeal with the small shops and family owned restaurants right on the sidewalks.  Maureen, Buddy and I were able to spend that Saturday in town at the “Sweet Corn Blues Festival”.  I forget how many bushels/ears (tons) of corn were consumed over the weekend but I do remember it was an impressive number.

That strap you see on Buddy’s nose in the picture above is not a muzzle.  Despite his diminutive size, Buddy can pull like a sled dog.  That strap is part of a “Gentle Leader”, and I love him to death but that device is quite likely responsible for my not strangling that dog.  Buddy is not always happy about having it on but I’m much happier having him around without him constantly trying to drag me down the street.  It works great and I highly recommend the gentle leader as a means of maintaining harmony between you and your own miniature Clydesdale.

Sunday was the big anniversary party.  35 years ago John and Veronica were married in a small but beautiful country church just down the road from the Larkin (Veronica’s maiden name) family farm.  And then immediately after, the O’Dohertys and Larkins, both being of Irish decent, migrated across the street to the Merna Tap Bar & Grill.  Now as the story goes, at least as I understand it, on some unspecified date after the wedding, a tornado came through Normal, passed by the Merna Tap, crossed the street and reduced the church to kindling.  I would have loved to have been able to see the church but I was just as happy (maybe more so) to spend their anniversary with them in the pub that catered the reception!

Buddy was in puppy dog heaven.  We went out to the Larkin family farm a couple of times.  Just the portion of the property carved out for the house and barns was so large that even Buddy was content ranging within the confines of that acreage.  Although he disappeared from view a couple of times he trotted back to the group almost every time he was called which is unusual for him.  I think he might have been afraid of getting left behind.  When we finally get settled I’m going to have to get him into an obedience class. 

John took some pictures of the Larkin farm with his phone camera which he as asked me to share with you.  I will as soon as he shares them with me, which I’m informed will be sometime this weekend.

(The Larkin “Field of Dreams” baseball diamond)

I finally got to attend a practice with the North Buncombe High School soccer team that I’m supposed to be working with as a volunteer assistant coach.  Initially I was told that I had to undergo a background check and complete an on-line “Concussion in Sports” course.  The background came back Ok, thank you to everyone who didn’t give me up, and I thought I was done.  But then I was instructed to get a physical so I had to go find a doctor in our new health care network and get that taken care of.  Then I received by email a packet to be completed with my financial information, checking account for direct deposit and W-4 tax withholding forms.  And yes, you are remembering correctly, I’m volunteering my time.  So I get all of this paperwork done and then I get a call from the Athletic Director.  Before I can interact with the student athletes I have to come into his office read and sign another concussion protocol form and watch a power point presentation on high school athletic participation.  First thing the next morning I’m in his office taking care of business.  And oh by the way, state law requires that I complete the National Federation of State High School Associations on-line “Fundamentals of Coaching” course.  OK, I’m on it.  But first, the principal interviews all new staff including volunteers.  I get to meet the principal, and all-in-all it was a pleasant interview.  At the end of the interview, the principal shakes my hand and says, “welcome aboard.”  So I get back to our apartment, log on to NFHSLearn.com and bring up the Fundamentals of Coaching course.  OMG!  You get 12 hours of credit for completing this course.... because it takes 12 hours to complete the course!  Actually I finished in about 11 hours so I cheated them by an hour, but OMG!  Anyway, I finished the course, emailed my certificate of completion, and just showed up to the away match that evening without asking if there was anything else.  I figured I was welcomed aboard by the principal, and if they need anything else from me they’ll find a way to let me know.

Maureen starts Monday evening as a volunteer teaching an English as a second language class.  As far as I know she hasn’t had to do anything to get started.  What’s that all about?

As I alluded to at the beginning of this update, we are scheduled to close on our new home Tuesday, this week.  We have a general contractor, painter, carpet installer, wood floor refinisher, new furniture delivery, moving van all lined up ready to rush in and make this house our own right away over the next two weeks.  However I just can’t seem to get an electrician lined up.  Either the job is too small or they are all too busy to be bothered.  It’s starting to look like I’m going to be the one moving that light switch so the door can be widened downstairs.  And the can lights are just going to have to wait.  Depending on how our move-in goes, getting utilities, cable and internet set up, and whether or not I get electrocuted or burn the house down, it may be a couple or three weeks before I have the opportunity to provide another update.  And you never know, there just might be one more 12 hour coaching course I have to complete....

Wish us luck!

Rick, Maureen and Buddy