What is This Stuff?

Are the gods angry? Why do they send white flecks from the sky? Do we need to sacrifice something? Wait a second... I lived in Ohio for most of my life, I think I've seen this before. I think they call it snall... no bwall... that's not right sn-ow? Yeah, snow!

The weather guys actually got the weather right for once and we currently have two to three inches of snow and to be honest, it feels strange. I moved here to get away from all this. Then again, I don't have to work in it... WOO HOO! So, The Wife and I are going to hang out and watch movies all day. For me that's not a lot of deviation, but for her it will be a nice change of pace.

One thing about the snow I was not foresure about was Lucy. How would she deal with it? She loves it, she has been outside for most of the morning. We keep bringing her in, but within minutes she is at the door wanting to go back out.

I've seen people here freak out over the threat of snow, I can only imagine what the roads and stores look like. I'm envisioning Mad Mad with a little bit of snow.

What's That Smell

If you have not heard there is a raging forest fire near the coast line in North Carolina. For the most part, I knew about it, but... it's over on the coast, no big deal. Well, until I did a story in Rocky Mount, NC yesterday (one hour eastish of Raleigh). As The Serg and I sat down to eat dinner at Pizza Hut we were asked by the hostess was there a fire near by causing all the smoke. The Serg said it was from the forest fire, because of the slightly cooler front (I'm sorry you can't have a cold front when it's 90) and are now blowing inland.

This made me think a little, how close are we to the fire? Come to find out the fire is less than a two hour drive away. HOLY CRAP! THAT'S RIGHT ON US! Also if we don't get any rain this fire could last for months. I'm now getting a little worried, we are closing on a house and forest fires could be coming. Then on my way to work it looked like early morning fog and it's 3pm! It's smells like Raleigh is having a huge ass barbecue.

The closest I ever came to a forest fire prior to this was when I was a sophomore in high school and there was a fire in Wayne National Forest and while heading to a band competition and we saw smoke and we found out the fire was two ridges over. It never threatened Ironton so it was cool to see, but harmless. Now, I'm worried yet I have a feeling I'm just panicing because we are so close to buying this house. All will be fine... and if it does get close I've already thought out my evacuation plan... Save the dog, the computer, photos... what am I forgetting... Oh yeah and The Wife.

This is Old North Carolina

The area of North Carolina I live in is called the Triangle, because of the three main cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Like most in the area, I am not originally from here, and I learn about the area little things make me laugh. I know Ohio has a lot of weird little towns (like Rudolph and their special Christmas stamps), but to me those Ohio towns are normal, because I grew up with them. Then I move here and laugh at all the little things the locals never thought of. Like Seymour Johnson Air Force Base near Morehead City.

Now the latest quirk is the town of Wendell. According to the towns website, it was founded by Granville County farmers looking for better soil. Once there and a school was build the people thought, hey maybe we should name the town. They asked the school teacher and he loved the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes and thought Wendell would be a fitting tribute to the man.

The story does not end there, a train track was laid near by and the porters on the train would yell out the towns name as they passed, but they said it a little different than Wendell, they yelled out WIN-DALE!!!!! So instead of correcting the porters and have then say win-doll they changed the name to win-dale.

I don't know why I love that story but I do. Everyone is calling the town by the original name and then, hey, lets change the way we say it, I like that porters style. You have won a place in my heart Wendell or should I type Win-dale.

How Time Flies

I don't know why, but I've been putting of this post. I've just not been in the mood, it might be the fact that I'm doing two blogs and the other one is taking up my creative energy or just plan laziness.

As of last week I have been in North Carolina for a full year. I am amazed at how different things are for The Wife and myself. Instead of doing a post that is a look back at the last year, I thought I'd just ell how things are different.

The biggest thing for me is that I am not working as much nor driving as much since I left The Network. The working less thing is great, I actually get to life a half way normal life. The driving is great, but I did catch myself complaining about driving to Chapel Hill which is 45 minutes away. At The Network that is a short drive, I felt like I was either going to the statehouse or driving 2 hours and I'd get out of work exhausted and tired, just from the driving. Now when I am tired it's because the desk drove me insane and didn't plan well and I had to go crazy to make things work.

Financially things are better, we don't have to work "as much" about paying bills. We are still paying for transgressions of the past (as I call it 2005), but once those are all cleared up we might actually be able to create this thing called a saaaviiiingsss aaaacccouuunt. Even though cost of living is a little higher here we have been able to make some wish choices and have almost similar expenses as we did in Columbus. It also helps when our heating bill is about $100 less, yes the air conditioning is worst, but our house is designed in a way so that the master bed and living room do not get direct sun light... SCORE!

I feel I am also in a slightly better working environment. I hear about a sports photographer opening at The Network and at first I kept thinking, why didn't they create that when I was still there, I might have stayed. Then I started to think about it more, and I realized I'd still be unhappy. Is the current job a bed of roses... no, it's news I have days where I want to kill someone or burn down Chapel Hill's police department, but overall it's better. I've got two really good reporters to work with, one is an old pro from Boston and knows how to make a story, the other is a young talented reporter who is great to work with. Even when I go to dayside I've got a great story teller there and an we just hired a new reporter who is great. Right there, I get a good story at least one a week, I think if I made a resume tape today it would be better than the one I sent here.

Do we miss our family and friends we left behind? Very much so, but we had to do this, The Wife needed away from her family and I needed to get my head on straight again and realize that even though news will probably be the end of me one day, I still enjoy doing it. Oh yeah and it's warmer here... it's suppose to be in the 70s tomorrow! Who would have thought it, 70s... in November!

My Car Hates North Carolina

For the last two weeks I started to notice every time I turn my steering wheel to the left I would hear a little grinding and over time it kept getting worse. Since we are going to be making the usual three Ohio City tour (Ironton, Columbus, Dayton) I thought it would be a good idea to make sure you know a wheel won't fall off and we go over the side of one of the mountains in West Virginia.

I was hoping for just the alignment to be off, but of course not it had to be something else. I get a call at 8:30 this morning, I stagger to find my cell phone and find out that it is the wheel bearing and it is completely worn out. What the hell! Since we have been in North Carolina I have had to replace my breaks, spark plugs (twice) and now the driver side wheel bearings. There could be another thing. They thought the axle was OK, but they would have to check it out. Great an axle replacement! Well if the axle is fine we will only have to pay a little less than $300. I just have to be thankful that we have a credit card that we keep fairly empty. A year ago I would never have been able to do any of the repairs without going into horrible horrible debt and owing a lot more than we do now. I just hope this is the end of repairs for the year.

That Road ain't Free

The Wife and I are trying to finish up our conversion to North Carolina we needed to get new license plates. We stand in line and finally get to the counter, we start the process and we forgot The Wife's title. We proceed with my car and get to the all important how much we owe time. "That will be 234 dollars." I handle this with my usual calm and cool. "WHAT THE HELL! 234 DOLLARS! WHY SO MUCH?" I'm informed that in the state of North Carolina has a tax for the privilege of driving on their roads.

Yes a tax for the privilege of driving on their litter filled roads. The privilege of some really bad back roads that are gravel. What is it with this state and taxes and fees? I know a lot of people move to North Carolina, but a fee of over 100 dollars and then the next year drops to 30 is exploiting new people. Maybe I'm just upset at having to shill out that much money to drive on some roads the day before were free. Stupid taxes for stupid things.

Offically a Tarheel

I am not abdicating UNC Chapel Hill, but I have passed my driver's license test. I am now official a resident of North Carolina. If you have never been to the DMV let me tell you that you need to avoid that place. Up until now I have had a pretty decent experience with Ohio's DMV. I grew up in a small town, so it wasn't that crowded. In Toledo I found an office that was pretty empty and in Columbus if you went into the "sketchy" part of town, the lines moved fast. Here in NC though, it was rough, I guess Wake county only has two offices for driver's licenses. So 400,000 people per office.

After waiting for 2 hours and having to deal with them being short staffed and DMV lunch breaks I finally go take my test. ACES BABY ACES. I missed two questions but they were tricky, I have never taken a test that seemed like it wanted you to fail it. One lady in front of me has failed it three times now.

After The Wife had to bring me our wedding license because nothing I own has my middle name on it. For some strange reason North Carolina freaks out over middle names. "You have to have it. It decreases fraud. You have to have it." I thought the opposite, if don't know it how can you verify that you are me?

Finally I get my license and now the fun begins, I need new tags. As you can see above I can get personal tags. They are much cheaper here and why not. Lets take a look at some of my favorite that are still out there.



I was thinking news whore, but it was too many letters and didn't convert well when abbreviated.





Come on, we have all wanted to kill a hobo, I'm just wanted to put it on a plate.





My personal favorite. It's true on so many levels.






Well not for me, but I think it would be pretty sweet.




It's sad, I could do this all day.