More than a year really! We left California in June of 2015. September 2nd, was the one year anniversary for Maureen, Liam and I in our new home here in Weaverville, NC (not that Liam has spent any time here). So how are we doing?
Liam is back in school and back on the cross country course. Maureen has set herself up as a substitute teacher in our local school district. And me; despite my best efforts to stay unemployed, I managed to make some money the last couple of weekends refereeing a local club soccer tournament. It doesn't pay great but I'm just doing it for beer money, and I don't drink that much beer!
I'm also back at the high school helping with the varsity men's soccer team again this season. I feel I'm a pretty good youth soccer coach and my primary motivation for volunteering with the high school team in the first place was to see up close the "next level" of competition and evaluate if I wanted to actually coach (head varsity or jv coach) at that level. What I've learned is "I feel I'm a pretty good youth soccer coach" but I'm not really interested in getting involved where the competition is taken so seriously. Especially in a sport that is not supported by the Athletic Director even though it's the only winning sports team on campus for the last three years. I've always been of the opinion; "if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong." And I can't take myself seriously enough to be as intense and driven as most of the high school soccer coaches I've been exposed to. And, I almost got fired the other night from my volunteer gig. You'd think I'd have learned to keep my mouth shut by now. I guess it's all those years I got paid to voice my opinion. I've never been accused of being a yes man but sometimes my feedback is just not required. Go figure! Besides, aside from the fact that you take a little more abuse, as a high school referee I can choose my assignments and work only as much as I want; and, I've also learned that high school soccer referees get paid better (than referees at the club level). The head coach I'm working with has announced he will not be returning next season. I think that might be a good opportunity for me to move on as well and shift over to the referee ranks. I'm certainly in better shape than most of the referees that have been assigned to our matches and I'm certain I can do just as well (or better) calling the matches.
I've also had the (dis)pleasure of having to deal with the California DMV this past year. You think it's bad having to go to a CA DMV office to do business. Try getting anything done from 2,400 miles away. In a nutshell, I needed a duplicate title for my truck. The request form states clearly that if the address on the title is different from your current mailing address you must come into a CA DMV office in person to request a duplicate title. I attempted to preempt any objections with a detailed letter describing my situation and all of the documentation I could muster verifying my previous address as matching the title address with all of the forwarding documentation for my new address. The CA DMV and I (snail) mailed back and forth numerous times. I sent several checks, some were cashed and some returned with requests for additional documentation. I even ended up with a partial refund check from the state at the end of the process. But each time the CA DMV corresponded, no mention was made about my being out of state or that there was any problem with my address being different from the address on the title. Finally after about nine months of back and forth I received a letter and form from a different division than I'd been dealing with. It turns out that with the proper form you can change the address on a title by mail (no need to show up in person), for a fee of course which I happily paid, tremendously simplifying the whole duplicate title request process. After completing that change of address form, three weeks later (+ eight and a half months) I had my duplicate title. I'm not a big proponent of privatizing government functions but in North Carolina the "License Plate" offices are private businesses and you can choose which office to give your business. The customer service in these offices is night and day compared to the CA DMV. I had already registered my truck in NC last December and so I took my duplicate title, a completed form (which the Marshall License Plate office had prepared for me at that time), and my check book back to that office today to request the title be converted to the NC title. The whole process took about three minutes and there was no fee. The empirical evidence suggests that some government regulatory functions can be better handled through privatization, especially simple registration functions that can be more efficient and still lend themselves to a positive customer experience. Oh, and the reason I drive out to the License Plate office in Marshall instead of mailing in the forms is because the drive is just as beautiful and relaxing as my drive to the landfill, maybe even more so!
Having been in Weaverville for more than a year now we are discovering all of the little surrounding towns in the area. We are just about twelve miles north of Asheville which is the real tourist attraction around here but the small towns all have their charm and appeal as well. Downtown Weaverville itself is just Main Street with one stop light and small local businesses down both sides of the main drag. Marshall, where the license plate office I give my business, is about eight miles away in Madison County and is about half the size of Weaverville. Maureen and I attended a rodeo in Marshall this summer. The Marshall rodeo is to the Norco rodeo what the Norco rodeo is to the Rodeo Championships in Las Vegas. At the rodeo I sat next to (I'd guess) a nineteen year old young man who looked me in the eye and said; "yea, I'm a bull rider!" Considering that the bull riding event was in progress when he said that to me and he was in the bleachers beside me at the time, I'm guessing he was not a top contender. I can't really say he looked like much of a bull rider. If you were to compare his and my physical characteristics I would say the main difference between him and me (besides age) would be that I'm smart enough not to get on the back of a live bull! There is also a small town on the way to the Cherokee reservation named Maggie Valley. As I'm driving through Maggie Valley I'm looking around and thinking to myself; "this could be Mayberry RFD." Pretty as you please, just as I had that thought I passed a small business with a big sign; "Aunt Bee's." Weaverville, Marshall, Maggie Valley, Brevard, Mars Hill, Burnsville, Waynesville, Sylva, Cullowhee, etc... All small towns with their own histories that are all just variations of a theme, and I'd recommend a visit to any of them.
The Cherokee reservation is one of those places that you can't get there from here. The drive is off the beaten path and through mountainous winding roads. The main attraction is Harrah's Cherokee Casino. I'm not a big casino guy but two or three times a year the World Poker Tour (WPT) holds satellite events at our Cherokee Casino. Poker in North Carolina is strictly prohibited. Charities may not have poker or casino fundraisers and even home games are specifically illegal. Welcome to the bible belt. The one exception is Harrah's Cherokee Casino. And the nice thing about tournaments is that your maximum loss is your entry fee. I managed to sneak away one Sunday during the WPT event to enter the Senior Tournament. Yes, I know it's hard to believe but I can enter the senior events. Now in the "Big fish in a small pond" environment I've proven I can hold my own. In our Corona Host Lions Texas Holdem' Tournament (100-120 entrants) I've been to the final table multiple times, cashed a couple of times and won it outright once. I also won a home game in the back room of a cigar shop for a nice chunk of change. But in my first live casino tournament, including re-buys, there were 877 entrants. That's a lot of players to have to get by and requires more than just a little bit of luck. I think I fared reasonably well my first time out. Out of the 877 entrants I finished somewhere around 130-140 (the tournament started paying out at 90th place). We started at 9:30 AM and I was done at 4:30 PM. I really only believe I made one mistake (got to clever and overplayed my hand) and that mistake did not put me out of the tournament but it did cripple my chip stack which made it tough to hang with the ever increasing blinds. The WPT will be back in November and if I drink a little less beer maybe I can take some of that referee money and give it another go!
I'm driving to Virginia this weekend to bring my mother back to Western North Carolina so she can attend the Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Festival. You just can't make this stuff up. I'll let you know how it goes.
Don't forget the special edition of "What I learned from my Uncle John" in early October.
Until then!
Rick
I'm driving to Virginia this weekend to bring my mother back to Western North Carolina so she can attend the Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Festival. You just can't make this stuff up. I'll let you know how it goes.
Don't forget the special edition of "What I learned from my Uncle John" in early October.
Until then!
Rick
