Packing and Hurricane Irene

We spent two weeks in Everett sorting through 23 years of accumulation (multiple trips to the Goodwill and dump were made), moving Cassie & Evan out of the house into an apartment in Ballard, doing home and yard maintenance and cleaning the house for the new renters. If we didn't get a chance to see you, I apologize. We'll try to connect on the next visit, we barely had time to sit down on this one. In fact, we need a vacation after that last visit!

I knew I was back in SC when I left for work at 6:30am and it was over 80 degrees. The other indicators were that I (kind of) ran a red light and cars were passing me on the freeway (speed limit 65) as I was doing 70 mph like I was standing still. Yup, that's SC for you, the land where you don't stop for red lights or you'll be rear ended and travel at 20 mph over the posted speed limit. Mel and I have acclimated to the driving practices here extremely well as evidenced by the tickets received on our last visit to Washington state where driving like a bat out of hell is frowned upon.

Another part of life in the south is tracking and preparing for hurricanes. Mel has been in constant communication this week with the Boeing South Carolina’s Incident Coordination Team (ICT) to track Hurricane Irene and develop emergency contingencies for the Charleston site, should it hit here. Although initially Charleston was a possible target,the current tracking takes her east of Charleston through NC and up the east coast. Never fear, we aren't out of the woods yet, the end of hurricane season isn't until November.

Greenville and Cowpens Battlefield

Mel and I took a road trip to Greenville, SC over the weekend. What a great town! I would recommend seeing it if you're ever in in the area.

There is a variety of historical, cultural and shopping options to enjoy from funky clothing shops to art galleries, theater and museums; there's even something for baseball fans - the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library and a plaza where a life-size bronze statue of Joe stands.

My favorite part of town is the 32 acre Falls Park in the center of the city. This park was recently redeveloped in an area of town that was run down and neglected. They did a great job to make it a pedestrian friendly gathering and walking area. The park is built around a river that runs through town, now lined with hotels, an ampitheatre, restaurants, walking paths, bridges, play grounds and seating areas. What a great place to enjoy a hot southern night! People were out in abundance that evening including bridal parties being photographed, runners and families with kids cooling off in the river. I love the warm evenings in the south where wearing shorts, and flip flops is the norm - it still feels like I'm on vacation after so many years of cool evenings in the northwest where wearing a sweater (or parka) in the summer is the standard.

The following day we walked the Cowpens Battlefield. It seemed appropriate (on 4th of July weekend) to learn about this battle that took place on January 17, 1781. On that day, Daniel Morgan led his army of tough Continentals to a victory over Banastre Tarleton's large force of British regulars. It is considered by many historians to be a major turning point in the war. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Monticello / Graduation

We took a trip up north this month to attend Eric's grad school graduation in New York City.En route, we toured Monticello, a 5,000-acre plantation, and the only historic house in the U.S. on the United Nations' World Heritage List. Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. Monticello is situated on a mountaintop outside Charlottesville, Virginia, and has an outstanding territorial view - that is until the thunderclouds rolled in and not only obscured the view but made us duck for cover to avoid getting drenched!

The countryside in Virginia is beautiful with rolling hills, quaint shops and a scattering of wineries - A good place to go for a long weekend. We miss the wineries in Washington, it felt like a little piece of home.

It was a happy occasion to see Eric graduate from Columbia and great to have an opportunity to catch up with Eric, Lis and Cassie. Their lives are all busy; I appreciate spending a little time together with them. They even made me a belated "mother's day breakfast". (Hmmm, I think whining about making my own breakfast on mother's day paid off!)

Cassie returned to SC with us. We accompanied her on a "haunted tour" of Charleston where we were entertained with stories of local folklore. Cassie managed to bring a little SC sunshine (in the form of a sunburn) back to the northwest with her when she left. Hopefully she's recovered - she hadn't seen sun for so long, I think she forgot about using sunscreen.

Kitchen Remodel

We are in the finishing touches of our kitchen remodel. Here are a few before and after photos (finally)! Pictures to the side show the work as we tore the kitchen apart and the various stages of disaster we lived in since we started last December. Just in case you can't tell, we remodeled and stained the cabinets, tore off old tile and retiled the walls, put in a hood which included running a vent to the outside, (hidden in the false beam above the column)and added new appliances including my favorite - a wine fridge. Mel also removed a big square light fixture, added soffits, can lights, and built columns and display cabinets. We are really enjoying the new kitchen.

Mel accepted a job here last week so it looks like we'll be here awhile longer! Guess I'll be learning southern cooking in my new kitchen. Y'all come for a visit.

Thank you

The flowers are starting to fade, but thankfully so are the bruises! Thanks so much for the cards, flowers and good wishes. I headed back to the scene of the crime (work) Monday after 5 days of recuperation, but my back started to spasm, so I ended up at an Urgency Care Clinic for muscle relaxers and pain pills. I was seen immediately and had great service. Another "southern experience" though - it was a Christian Urgency Care Clinic. There were scripture quotes and piped in Christian music in the examination rooms. . . not that there's anything wrong with that . . . it was just another example of life in the south, where manger scenes sit in government offices and "Have a good day" is replaced with "Have a blessed day" at most retail check out counters.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good now - off the muscle relaxers and pain pills and back to drinking red wine, so you know I'm feeling better! Enough laying around - I've got painting to do. The good news is that it's 75 outside; I think I'll get out and enjoy it - I may even go for a walk, but I'll be much more cautious about obstacles in my path.

A hard day at work

I checked out the local ER Tuesday. After spending four hours there, I can report they were good, but slow. Maybe that's the case for all ER's when you arrive for treatment of a non-life threatening injury. Here's the story. . .

I decided to bump my exercise level up this week by adding a walk to my lunch break. Monday was great weather and walking felt so good I was looking forward to my new lunch walk routine on Tuesday. As I was walking briskly on the Boeing plant sidewalk next to a construction area, a gust of wind came up. The loose orange snow fence (that was not properly secured) blew out and grabbed my back foot. It happened so quickly, I didn't have time to catch myself, and I hit full force on my nose smack dab on that concrete sidewalk. That net had such a hold on me that it actually pulled my shoe off.

Anyway, you can see the results in the picture above. The irony of this accident cannot be escaped. Mel is the Program Manager for all the on site construction at Boeing and has been in numerous discussions with the contractor about their attention to detail. The contractors all felt badly when they heard there was an accident due to an improperly installed construction fence. I can only imagine how they felt when they heard the accident victim was Mel's wife!

The good news is, no broken teeth or concussion. The x-ray shows two slight fractures on the tip of my nose and the ER doc didn't think surgery would be required. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he's correct. I visited a plastic surgeon to have my nose stitched yesterday and I'll see an Ear, Nose and Throat doc later this week. Not that I'm superstitious, but I had my pedometer on to log my steps that day, as it turned out, I had walked 13 minutes when I hit the pavement! How's that for luck?

February in Charleston

Just want to let you know we are still alive. Between work at Boeing and work at home, there hasn't been much time for anything else. We did take a little time off from working on the kitchen for sight seeing with my friend Hasina when she visited last weekend. Mel and I are standing in front of Boone Hall plantation and Hasina and I are pictured in downtown Charleston. As you can tell from the picture, it's beginning to warm up; I had to break out the capris. I hear you've had snow in Everett this week; ya'll should come for a visit - we have sun! Next post I'll show the kitchen remodel we've been working on all winter - we're almost done, just in time to get outside and enjoy the weather before it turns too hot.

Happy New Year / New Job

This morning I heard the freezing rain hit the windows and realized they weren't just "Whistling Dixie" on the news last night when the Winter Storm advisory flashed across the TV screen. I decided to heed their advice and stay home this morning. People drive crazy here in the best of conditions, I can't imagine what it's like when you add ice to the roads.

We had a great holiday with all the kids in Everett and thankfully everyone arrived to and from their destinations (New York, Charleston and Moscow) without delays. We arrived back to SC New Years day. We've been told it's traditional in the south to eat Collard Greens and Hoppin' John (a dish with black eyed peas and rice) for good luck and fortune in the coming year. Although it's a little late, y'all might want to give it a try, personally we passed on the collard greens.

My job at Boeing is going well. No, I am not a pilot for the Dream Lifter (in the picture above), but it was fun to see the inside of it on a tour. I'm actually helping organize Boeing Team Wear (providing Boeing workers with Boeing logo shirts). I work with great people and it's fun to be productive on something besides house projects again.

The patio is done and we started the kitchen remodel the week shortly before Christmas. It's going well, the wine fridge was installed last weekend - I'm pretty excited about that! I'll post before and after pictures after it's done (hopefully in the next month or two). In the meantime, Happy New Year everyone!

Road Trip

Mel took a week away from the insanity at Boeing and exchanged it for the craziness of Manhattan last month, where we may have been the only people walking the streets of NYC and NOT checking our cell phones. It was a beautiful drive north through the cotton fields of North Carolina to the fall color of the northeast.

We stopped along the way in Richmond, VA , home of the Confederate White House, and Monument Ave, a street lined with statues honoring Confederate war heroes. On the city Canal Walk, we saw the original piers from the bridge burned to prevent Union soldiers from entering the city during the civil war. (That didn't work out too well, did it?).

In Washington DC, we managed to (walk for miles and) see the memorials and a small portion of the Smithsonian - another visit or ten is needed to see it all!

Finally on to New York, we toured the city, including the statue of Liberty, a Broadway show, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Central Park and had a great time with Eric and his girlfriend Lis. They live in Brooklyn and love it. Although they're both west coasters, New York is in their blood now - luckily it's only a 12-1/2 hr drive from Charleston (I know because we drove it all on Saturday). I guess there's a reason we don't vacation often; it took a week to recover from all that fun!

Bull Island

It was another beautiful day here in Charleston. I joined a Boeing wives group and we embarked on a ferry to Bull Island, part of the 62,000-acre Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.

Along with being a wildlife sanctuary, Bull Island has an interesting history. During the Revolutionary War, British warships used the island as a restocking station. A fortification for protection was built in the early 1700's on the island because Bulls Bay and the creeks behind Bull island were sometimes used by pirates. The ruins remaining are believed to be what is left of that fort, destroyed during the Civil War by Union troops.

So much for the history lesson . . . We spent the ferry ride watching dolphins and birds feed and the day hiking on the beach and collecting shells. It was a great day and we all agreed an island worth visiting again. Fingers crossed, on our next trip we will spot a loggerhead turtle.

Sightseeing

After a visit to Everett in September, I returned "home" to SC, and soon thereafter to guests. Evan arrived for a short visit Oct 1, followed by our friends John & Margaret Downing on Saturday. As you may know, Evan is heading to Moscow, Russia to teach English for nine months later this month, so we took advantage of one last (Boeing paid) flight to SC to get some grits in him before his long journey. The weather was in the 80's all week; perfect for sightseeing.

John, an avid sportsman was anxious to try deer hunting in SC. Our neighbor (thank you Darrell) took him hunting at the local hunting club. Although no animals were shot, John had a great time, experienced true southern hospitality and returns to the pacific northwest rich with stories of his "red neck" hunting experience. He states it's good he took pictures because his hunting friends back home wouldn't believe his stories of hounds and souped up trucks racing around the hunting club property.

While John was hunting, Margaret and I explored a plantation, historical sites, beaches and sampled great local cuisine. There is so much history here in Charleston, I'm sure I'll learn something every time we have visitors (and probably relearn what I forgot on previous tours)! As you can see in the picture above of us under the Angel Oak tree, it's still shorts weather here - hard to believe it's the middle of October.

Alligator Hunting - Really!

What can I say? Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Here is a portion of an article from the local paper last week.

Be careful when you’re around them.

An alligator can still “get you” even when they’re dead.

With that cautionary note from DNR alligator agent Dennis Matherly on Saturday, more than 1,200 excited people can get ready to take to the public waters of South Carolina for the annual alligator hunt.

The season opens Sept. 11 and closes a month later, with each licensed hunter allowed to capture one alligator.

And don’t think the sport isn’t popular in the Palmetto State. The number of permits sought by enthusiasts and granted by the state has grown each year since it became legal two years ago.

“Alligator hunting is like fishing and (land) hunting at the same time,” said Mary Pernell of Summerville, who is both an alligator hunter and taxidermist in the Lowcountry. “We have a bunch of alligators, and they need management, just like deer or other species.

“I don’t think it’s barbaric at all,” the 48-year-old said. She and her husband snagged their first alligator last year in Goose Creek Plantation — a 91/2-foot reptile with a head and jaws the size of … well, big. Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2010/08/22/1428169/sc-getting-ready-for-gator-season.html#ixzz10t3KdX5c

Hmmm Goose Creek, that's my neighborhood. Guess I'd better go get me a gator!

What's the Buzz?

There are all kinds of critters down south; one insect we don't have in the pacific northwest is the cicada. They love warm weather so this is the place for them! Their mating call sounds like an electronic hum to me - and they are loud! Check out these websites to hear them (copy & paste).
http://www.cicadamania.com/audio/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mah26og11ms&feature=related

Cicadas are probably best known for their buzzing and clicking noises, which can be amplified by multitudes of insects into an overpowering hum. Males produce this species-specific noise with vibrating membranes on their abdomens. The sounds vary widely and some species are more musical than others. Though cicada noises may sound alike to humans, the insects use different calls to express alarm or attract mates. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/cicada/

I have been learning all about gardening in the south. As quickly as plants grow here, they can be eaten overnight by insects, worms, deer and rabbits. As soon as I find a repellent for one, another pest comes along to take his place and they are all voracious eaters. However, not all the critters are annoying, I love to listen to the birds sing in the morning, the crickets chirp at night, watch the hummingbirds at the feeder, and multiple colorful butterflies and birds like the eastern bluebirds in the back yard.

Anniversary Party, Family and SC in Summer

Hi Ya'll. I'm back in SC after a short trip to the pacific northwest for Mel's folks 60th wedding anniversary. It was a nice party, and good to see family and friends. A visit from Mel's cousins Cindy and Debbie from CA surprised us all and a jet lagged Eric fresh from his two month internship in Africa put all our kids on the same continent and in the same time zone for a couple days! My brother Roger and wife Sue, in the states for a short stay also made it to Everett for a quick visit while we were in town, so we were able to pack in some quality family time with them as well. It's hard to believe we were sitting on our patio with family Wednesday night drinking wine and wearing sweatshirts to keep warm. 10 pallets of wall block were delivered this morning to our driveway in SC. Too bad we won't have some of that pacific northwest cool weather while we're unloading the wall block this weekend. Heat advisories every day in the extended forecast; that's SC in the summer for you! Better make sure I have plenty of sweet tea ready.

Severe Weather Warning

After a little yard work in the morning (while there was still shade), I headed out to run a few errands yesterday afternoon. In route, the radio station was interrupted by the emergency broadcast warning beeps and a "Severe Thunderstorm Warning". I listened to the warning which didn't "specifically" list Goose Creek, looked up at the sky, which didn't "look" terribly threatening, disregarded the warning and continued on my journey. After all, I needed some paint for my next project! First stop - paint store, second stop - Lowes where I began to realize the sound I was hearing was not heavy equipment being moved through the store, but distant thunder. I thought to myself, "Hmmm, maybe I should head home".
I quickly finished my shopping and headed out to my car as the rain drops began to fall. Within a few minutes there were loud claps of thunder and multiple lighting strikes all around me. I only had my prescription sunglasses with me and the dark clouds had quickly turned day into night, making them essentially useless. The water was coming down in buckets; the drains couldn't keep up and the streets had standing water everywhere; needless to say, the short drive home was pretty scary! Lessons learned: 1. If you hear a severe weather warning, LISTEN and heed the warning! 2. Keep a pair of regular driving glasses in the car. 3. Painting can wait. 4. Run errands early in the day in this weather, the thunderstorms arrive in the afternoon on a regular basis with this hot, humid weather. Yes, I'm missing the beautiful weather you're having in the pacific northwest right now!