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