Life in the Triangle

Mogastone Vanity Top Granite

2013-05-29T20:11:00.000-04:00

If you haven't read my previous review of Mogastone, you should read it before this post - most of my praise for their services is there.

Anyway, we found the opportunity to remodel our bathroom recently, and the first name to come up for our granite was Mogastone. In fact the ONLY name that came up was Mogastone - they did such a great job on our kitchen granite that we would have gone to no other company.

Moga has not lost a smidgen of their professionalism, courtesy, helpfulness, or willingness to work with the customer since doing our kitchen. Even though it's been nearly eight years since our kitchen remodel, Anca Moga remembered me and our project. I know companies who would not remember a repeat customer just a few months after providing service.

As we have already come to expect, Nick Moga and family has worked their magic again for our bathroom. Nick came out in a timely manner, measured and estimated our vanity costs. I was not surprised that the figure came in under our budget. We had our new granite vanity top installed within days of measurement. I cannot promise that Moga will always have such a great turn-around, but for us, they did - both times!

We not only had our bathroom vanity done, but also the curbing for our frameless shower and the thresholds under the doors of the bathroom. They didn't even have to come measure for the extras - they were able to fabricate them from templates I had supplied to them. In spite of the critical dimensions of the curb, etc, the pieces fit perfectly! What other granite company does that? As a matter of fact, I can imagine that most granite shops would not even attempt such a project. But not Moga - they will go out of their way to provide top-notch customer service.

If you're reading this review, you're probably in the market for granite counters or vanity tops. Please let all the research I had done prior to choosing Mogastone save you the trouble and just give them a call. They will be very pleased to speak with you and work to help you create the stunning kitchen, bathroom, or other project into the vision you've always dreamed of!

Again, I urge you to read my previous review, Mogastone - Granite Countertops for a really great launching point for your next granite project.

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Sha ZAY amm, Ma'am

2012-02-04T14:27:00.003-05:00

I am still adjusting to the Southern dialect. The other day, the Kindergarten teacher talked about meteorology. First of all, can you believe they are teaching aspects of meteorology to Kindergartners?? When I was in the second grade, I was still saying, "I gotta go potty!"

Anyway, she was talking about different forms of precipitation, and all the kids started laughing when she said the word "hail," because in the South, "HAY-ell" is how they say "Hell."

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Southerner: "It looks like it's going to hail."

Me (thinking) : "What's going to hell?"

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The Sleep Inn of Boone, NC – Review

2011-07-07T21:25:00.002-04:00

My wife and I struggled to find last minute accommodations over the July 4^th holiday after other vacation plans fell through. All the beaches were booked, so we thought we’d try the mountains. Boone seemed to be an interesting city, so using one of those Veloci-Pedia hotel room finders, I came across The Sleep Inn, one of the Choice Hotels line of hotels (Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Clarion, and others.) The hotel was within our price range for the accommodations we desired.

Upon arriving at the hotel, I found it to seem much nicer than I had expected for the money over a holiday. The lobby reminded me of the high-end hotels at which I’ve stayed during business travel. Oak permeated the area. Over the few days we spent at The Sleep Inn, we visited or called the front desk about seven or eight times, not for problems – just for information, extra towels, etc. On every occasion I felt the front desk and housekeeping staff went the extra steps to be courteous and helpful. They always made us feel as if we were the only guests at their facility.

When we first entered our room, once again I found it to be nicer than I had expected for the price. In fact, we’ve stayed at much more expensive hotels with rooms not as nice as this room. First, it was very spacious. How many times do you remember rooms for which you overpaid yet found yourself tripping over all your belongings? Both our bedroom and bathroom felt large. Even the walls were painted a nice color rather than the typical drab colors found in most hotel rooms in which we’ve stayed. And to add some space, our room had a large-radius curved wall rather than a corner one usually finds in a hotel room. A design of form and function.

I think the thing that impressed me the most about the room was the genuine granite vanity in the bathroom rather than the off-white cultured (fake) marble one usually finds. Even both night tables and the large work table were of the same pleasantly colored granite. The doors were heavy and resembled oak, rather than steel.

Of course, no room is perfect. Our refrigerator was VERY small. Though it looked like a full sized hotel refrigerator on the hotel’s website pictures, on the inside we noted that a great deal of space was “missing” - about the size of a 12 pack of beer cans. Though the door held a lot, there was hardly any shelf space at all. And forget about the freezer. It was just one of those flimsy metal boxes covered in about a half inch of frost with a drip tray underneath, also taking significant shelf space. It was large enough only to hold an ice tray, which was missing in our fridge. The remaining space barely held a small container of leftover wings from Bandana’s.

The TV was fine, though somewhat “dated,” but the WIFI was really a nuisance. It was slow, which, to the hotel’s credit, was probably due to the holiday traffic. Also, and this is probably Choice Hotels’ practice rather than a fault of The Sleep Inn of Boone, was the complexity of getting to the Internet. After calling the front desk to find out the userid and password and entering those to login, we were taken to another screen to agree to the terms, and then, of course, taken to The Choice Hotels website. Finally I was able to get to Google, though sometimes it took two iterations of this routine to do so. But the real pain was that the session would time out if you were away from the computer for a while. I guess in this day of others “stealing” WIFI time, all this is necessary, and it doesn’t specifically ding The Sleep Inn of Boone or Choice Hotels, but it was no less a nuisance. I’ve certainly gotten better response at our local donut shop.

Oh and by the way, if your idea of family fun is to hang out at the hotel pool, you may not find so much here. This outdoor pool was about the smallest I’ve seen at a hotel – only seeming about the size of a large home living room or two standard bedrooms. It felt smaller than an 80+ room hotel should have – almost just big enough so the ads can say, “We have a pool.” The irony is that our view from our room included the nice, large indoor pool at the adjacent La Quinta Inn.

The Continental Breakfast area was typical, but very nice. A suggestion for this hotel, or for that matter ANY hotel, would be to help sleepy-eyed guests by providing enhanced directions to get coffee or to make waffles. This is a rant, I know, but it is not natural for one to approach a coffee pot with black PRESS HERE embossed on a large black button atop the unit. How many times did I hear guests say, “Just press the top,” to other dazed, confused, and otherwise decaffeinated guests. Paint the letters white or put a fluorescent sticker on the top that says PRESS HERE. And although the waffle machine has instructions on a tiny plate with burnt waffle mix stuck to it, it wouldn’t hurt to put a big sign on the wall that says, “To make a waffle …” How many times did I hear, “Just flip it over.” They have signs three feet tall that say, “No Lifeguard at Pool,” but you can’t get a darned waffle and a cup of coffee.

But seriously, and with those nit-pickings aside, The Sleep Inn of Boone was a great hotel, a terrific value, and a lot cheaper than the hotels at the beach. By the way, if you go to Boone, be sure to check out The Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. It’s only about 20 minutes from the hotel, has fun memorabilia, and great merchandise as well.

The Sleep Inn of Boone – a great value, and I recommend it for your next visit to the mountains of North Carolina.

I learned my Olympus E620 – using the Manual!

2010-07-09T21:06:00.006-04:00

This doesn't apply specifically to the Triangle region of NC, but I had no other of my blogs to put it, so, here's to reading the manual!

There's a tired old expression, "When in doubt, read the manual." I was of the type who would say," Well let me try this first …" before opening the manual. However, I knew that the Olympus Instruction Manual would be of great value in order to master this "newfangled contraption" of DSLR. Here's how I learned my Olympus E-620 - using the manual!

As did many others, I too came to DSLR from the OM film camera days. I didn't need to learn the dynamics of shutter speed priority, F-stops or backlighting, - I needed information specific to my DSLR.

When my new Olympus E-620 arrived, and while the battery was charging, I started familiarizing myself with the overall layout of the manual so I would know how to get to the correct section when I would need it.

While holding the manual in one hand and the camera in the other, I located and identified the various external controls. I had no idea what many of them did, ("I wonder what IS is,") but I practiced "pushing the buttons and turning the wheels" anyway.

Once the fresh battery was installed, I did all the preliminary tasks, (loaded the card, set the time/date, etc,) shot and viewed the first few photos, deleted them - you know, the basic stuff.

Then I casually perused the manual to find out what individual controls did. I'd look at a button on the camera, oh, let's say the 'flash' button, flip to the page cross-referenced from the parts and functions chart, and briefly scan to get a "look and feel" of the chapter when time came for me to study it more closely. I wasn't there to learn yet, just to walk the hallways and peek into the classrooms.

I'd select another button, say ISO. I remember using ISO, (I believe they called it ASA,) for the film camera, so I jumped to the ISO section, skimmed over it, and said to myself, "I think I'm going to enjoy DSLR."

Upon browsing the instructions for the AEL/AFL button, I said, "Uhhh … I think its time to move on to the viewfinder." Basically I performed the same steps for all the major areas of the camera: locate - scan the manual - move on, with the viewfinder, the Super Control Panel, the menu structure, etc, just to see what I was in for.

Once my high-level overview was completed and a bunch of test shots were taken, I was ready to dig down and deep into the manual to get a more comprehensive understanding of the controls. As I became more comfortable using the camera for common tasks, I studied the manual on some of the less familiar functions.

Eventually it was time to attempt/practice some of those features that were new to me to see if I understood how they worked. I must have taken about 68 pictures of my stocking feet and the back of a chair while learning things like white balance, live view, navigating, setting and testing menu options, etc.

Outdoors, when I saw incidents that would make good practice for certain camera settings, let's say C-AF or maybe sequential shooting, I'd see how rapidly I could setup and take the shots. I might end up with a bunch of photos of the neighbor's dog coming to lick my face or the passing of a stranger's SUV, but at least I was practicing.

Today, I'm surprised at the agility with which I can navigate the controls on this camera - it's starting to feel like an extension of my hand. I still make mistakes though, like pressing the 'drive' button instead of 'flash' and missing the baby kissing the dog, but you can't get them all. And as can be expected, I still return to the manual many times to better my understanding of certain functions.

Of course, the Olympus Owner's Manual isn't the epitome of perfection and clarity. When certain topics just didn't make sense, I located and began asking questions on Olympus forums. Also from the forums came pointers to a bunch of sites that had reviews and/or further explanations of the camera. Sometimes the aggregation of three or four different references helped me grasp concepts I just wasn't getting. (So THAT'S how to use that button!)

I've had the camera for only a few months, but the manual already looks tattered. In my opinion, (having formerly been a technical writer,) the Olympus E-620 manual was very well written, illustrated, cross-referenced and organized for as complex a product (for me) as is this DSLR. Anyway the point of all this, as mentioned by several forum members, is that "it's all in the manual!" I can only add, "And while you're studying the manual, practice, practice, practice!!

That's how I learned how to use my Olympus DSLR - by using the manual!

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Diversity Concerns in Chicago Schools

2009-12-22T04:45:00.008-05:00

Well boys and girls, it would seem that Wake County is one of many across the country struggling with reassignment to achieve diversity. Check out this article about Chicago's take on this concern:

School officials have turned to socioeconomic data to assign students because research suggests a close association between race and those measures. Still, parents fear that the shift in admissions policy, accompanied by a decision to give siblings and neighborhood children preference for admission to magnet schools, could erase even the modest gains in school diversity.
Parents of minority children also fear that the changes will reduce the chance that their children will gain admittance to high-performing schools.

Well, I suppose they could always move into a poorer neighborhood.

Experts in social policy say the use of social and economic factors does not compensate for the fact that the neighborhoods from which special-enrollment schools draw their students are themselves not integrated.
“Until we have a world in which housing is more integrated, it’s natural to believe we’ll see schools pretty segregated regardless of the intent or the policy actions of school administrators,” said [....] a professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University.

So is this professor suggesting that some citizens may be forced to live in poorer neighborhoods, while some others may be assigned to live in the richer neighborhood's houses??

Neighborhood Schools

2009-10-29T05:35:00.003-04:00

Well, congratulations, Wake County, you just may get your neighborhood schools. Since you don't want your kids bussed to the county's existing schools, I guess WCPSS will just have to build schools in your neighborhood.
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You Think Wake County School Reassignment is Bad?

2009-10-13T07:59:00.006-04:00

If you think Wake County School reassignment is bad, be glad you don't live in Chicago.

Since 2005, dozens of Chicago's public schools have been closed and thousands of students reassigned to campuses outside their neighborhoods - and often across gang lines - as part of Renaissance 2010, a program launched by Mayor Richard Daley

So imagine this: Your kid is caught up in a reassignment that puts him and a group of his classmates who happen to belong to, let's say the RED gang, in a school mostly attended by members of, oh let's say the BLUE gang.

That's crossfire that NO parent would want their kid caught in.
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Crystal Ball Knew About Recession??

2009-10-06T05:41:00.005-04:00

A reader of the News & Observer observed that a "letter-writer criticized Wake County schools for missing the mark on 2009 enrollment forecasts, which were used as a basis for the 2006/07 bond referendum. Somehow (back in the day when the Dow was approaching 12,000, the school system was growing by 6,000 students per year and unemployment was half of what it is today), the school system was supposed to forecast our current recession and the effect it would have on student population growth." She further states that she would have liked to borrow such a crystal ball "before my 401(k) took a nosedive."

Very well said!

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Let's Be Patient, Shall We?

2009-10-03T09:13:00.006-04:00

This, from a Letter to the Editor in the News & Observer, after an incident at an intersection in Apex:

Traffic had slowed and then stopped for a scared, confused puppy trying to find her way to her house nearby.

The brief wait proved too much for one driver who sped around the waiting traffic in the wrong lane and proceeded to strike and kill the puppy.

The owners watched in horror as the incident unfolded. And then ... the driver checked his rearview mirror and sped away.

My heart goes out to the owners of that poor, unfortunate dog.

And to the driver, well, may you never become impatient while waiting for a stopped school bus.

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Ninety-nine and fourty-four one hundredths percent pure

2009-05-06T06:44:00.004-04:00

Do you remember those old Ivory Soap commercials that stated their product was 99 44/100% pure? 99.44 is a pretty high number in my opinion. Darned close to 100%, don't you think?

North Carolina State Employees were told they're getting a mandatory 0.5% cut in their salary this year. So let me do the math: Job layoffs across the state yields salaries of zero percent. Job preservation by the state of North Carolina yields 99.5% salaries paid to State employees.

Those State employees who complain about not being able to absorb a pay cut that amounts to all of five dollars per thousand they earn should get over themselves.

UPDATE: The new State Health Plan rates have just come out. Family deductibles for the Standard 80/20 plan have doubled to $1800 over last year's $900. A pay cut of one half of 1% of a State Employee making 40K a year is $200. Yet when the same employee is asked to cough up an additional nine hundred bucks for health care deductible, where's the outrage over that??
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Large Class Sizes

2009-04-29T07:08:00.005-04:00

The good news is that we have finally completed Attendance. The bad news is that the bell is about to ring, so get ready for dismissal.

Crazy North Carolina Weather

2009-03-15T10:31:00.004-04:00

What a crazy week we had last week in the Triangle Area. Monday it snowed, (a rare "treat" here in the South,) and schools were closed. The following Saturday temperatures hovered around the 80°F mark. In less than a week, snow to eighty degrees. All this in a region that normally sees about 60-65° temperatures this time of year. Wacky.

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Discrimination by Amendment

2009-03-09T06:57:00.003-04:00

In North Carolina, homophobes want to write discrimination into our state constitution by amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman ONLY.

Why stop there? Let's define a family as a married couple and their naturally born children ONLY. No in-vitro fertilization, "Octomom." And no adoption, either.

So if you are unable to have children, you're out of luck. Should've thought of that before you decided to become barren.
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Competing with Father

2009-02-12T06:26:00.012-05:00

We had one of those "Father-Daughter" dances this week here in the Triangle. You know the type - Dad's getting the opportunity to connect with their daughters - often in an age where Dad's too busy trying to hold onto his job, and the girls are too wrapped up in a digital world at the expense of quality time with Dad. From the News & Observer:

The 12th annual Father-Daughter Dance was a sequined study in contrasts, part high school prom, part wedding reception, part disco romp. The event ... was intended to give fathers and daughters an opportunity to spend an evening together.

But since it was held in a church one week before Valentine's Day, it had the additional mission of modeling for girls what courtship, chivalry and dating are supposed to look like.

"It's a good opportunity for girls to get a standard," said Gerry Hubbell, a member of Millbrook and one of the organizers. "It sets a bar."

For the dads, that meant being on their best behavior. Nearly all the men wore jackets and ties, or even tuxedos and corsages. They opened the door for their daughters, indulged them at the reception tables with all the cookies, M&Ms and popcorn they could eat, and generally allowed them to be princesses for the evening.

That's great and all that dads can get together with their kids for a few hours of father-daughter time. What's distressing is to consider it "setting the bar as a model of what courtship, chivalry, and dating are supposed to look like."

How many young men could come close to such a standard? So let's say these girls start dating, some as early as thirteen. If they were to compare the boys' attitudes and behaviors to those of their fathers, the kids are in for a big awakening.

I'm not against the holding of get together events for dads and kids, and I'm certainly OK with girls spending quality time with their fathers. What I'm uncomfortable with is to present the occasion as some sort of "bar" or "standard" against which the girls' future dates are supposed to look like.

So guys, if you're reading this - beware of your first few dates with girls who may have attended events such as these with "dear old Dad." You may be expected to act like a prince.
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Wake vs Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Policies for Disadvantaged Families

2009-02-08T12:57:00.006-05:00

Much has been said in recent months about which policy is better at assisting disadvantaged students in the county school system: Wake County School System (WCPSS) with its reassignment program based on family income and a heavy reliance on bussing at the cost of fractured communities in the name of diversity, or Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) with its increased spending on education for the academic needs of low-income students, and community based schools which help to foster community harmony.

Reassignment vs better spending

The Sunday (02/08/2009) edition of The News & Observer has a front page article Whose Schools Work Better? subtitled "Wake disperses low-income students with busing; Charlotte gives high-poverty schools extra money."

The article seems swayed towards having the reader believe that Wake County's solution is better. Consider the graphics within the paper edition of the article:

Even though WCPSS exceeds CMS in passing math or reading EOGs by 9.4% overall, the bar graph illustrates that the difference for black students was only 1.8% higher for WCPSS, and for low-income students only 1.3% higher for WCPSS. The difference for Hispanic students was actually 0.4% lower for WCPSS. As the article states, "[T]here's little difference in how minority and low-income students are doing in either school district."
In the "By the Numbers" table, funding from the county for WCPSS is 90% of the county funding for CMS; an indicator that Mecklenburg County is spending more for education.
Even though WCPSS has 18% fewer bus riders than CMS in the table, and CMS spends 20% more per student for bussing than WCPSS, the bussing cost per mile is 4% greater for WCPSS.
The table also tries to show WCPSS superiority by claiming greater SAT scores by only 5% and high school graduation rates greater by 18%.
That the article tries to demonstrate the benefits of the WCPSS diversity policy by illustrating in the circle graph that the number of schools with a passing rate of state exams above 60 percent is 83% for WCPSS vs 46.5% of CMS schools is debatable.

Other numbers to look at

Whether or not The News & Observer's article sufficiently justifies which, between reassignment or greater spending in high poverty neighborhood schools, is the better method, there are other numbers that can be telling.

It may seem that one indicator of which is the better way to educate our children is to look at the job rates between the counties. After all, what do our educated kids do after leaving the school system? They get jobs, of course. Granted many who graduate from school may go off to college in another state, and some who leave school may get jobs out of state or may even remain unemployed.

According to the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina, the employment rates for this past December for Mecklenburg County was 91.7%. The county had a labor force of 447,953 in December, and 410,948 of them had jobs.

Wake County, on the other hand, had a labor force of 439,480 and 412,468 of them were employed. This rate of 93.9% represents a difference of only 2.2 percentage points from Mecklenburg.

Conclusion

The school systems and their families may never agree on the best way to educate the next generation of future salaried employees and wage earners in Wake and Mecklenburg Counties. Is reassignment in the name of diversity better than spending more in high-poverty schools? Who can tell. But numbers can be revealing.

Let's "Do the Math," as they say, shall we?

SnowBama

2009-01-22T07:11:00.002-05:00

According to our local paper, The News & Observer, the Triangle Area had a good percentage of viewers watching the Inauguration:

What do you get when 6 inches of snow collides with a historic presidential inauguration? Eye-popping television ratings in the Triangle.

Nielsen numbers show that more than 51 percent of the households in the Raleigh-Durham TV market were tuned in for the daylong festivities -- the highest concentration in the nation and a higher percentage than even in President Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago.

Here we go again

2008-08-03T09:09:00.001-04:00

Once again, the Triangle Town Center is the stage for controversy.
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Triangle Town Center Brawl is Gang Related

2008-07-27T17:16:00.008-04:00

There was a big fight among what's been reported to be over 200 teens this week at the Triangle Town Center in Raleigh. Police have indicated the altercation was gang related.

Yeah. Who could've seen THAT one coming, eh?

Walk into the Triangle Town Center any Saturday evening and this is what you'll see. If you're in any of the stores, you'll find the typical mix of people: age and gender appropriate shoppers for whichever store you're observing.

Walk through the corridors of the shopping complex, however, and you'll see a different picture. Over-represented by a significant degree are teens and young adults who seem to be doing anything but shopping. One might even describe their behavior as loitering.

I mean, how can anyone call this presence other than loitering? After all, if they're all shopping, how come only a small percentage are ever seen carrying bags containing purchases?

Next time you're at Triangle Town Center on a Saturday night, (if you dare,) stand in the central part of the mall by the fountain and escalators where you can see both levels. Observe how many actual shoppers you see compared to the number of teens and young adults walking around, (somewhat slowly, I might add,) with no purchases in their hands.

I cannot help but imagine that this incident will have an impact on the merchants in the Triangle Town Center. Hopefully they'll beef up security, at least until this whole 200 person gang related altercation thing blows over.

And if you're a teen or young adult roaming the walkways of the Triangle Town Center on a Saturday night, be prepared for a level of scrutiny like you've never experienced before.
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Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre, Henderson, NC - "Drive-in Movies" Review

2008-06-04T11:53:00.004-04:00

Do you remember the old days when you'd take your sweetheart to the drive-in theater for a few hours of hugging and kissing? Or perhaps your memory of the drive-in is more likely to contain scenes of your children swinging on the swing set under the big screen.

Maybe your history contains a bit of both.

Anyway, today the drive-in theater has pretty much gone the way of the VCR - a distant memory of the bygone days.

Well, if you live in the Triangle region of North Carolina, you still can enjoy one of the last vestiges of what was once a Saturday evening staple in many of our pasts. Kathy and I live in Wake Forest, and the Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre in Henderson, NC, is just a short half hour drive from our front door. Here are our experiences from our first visit to this blast from the past, where we saw the latest Indiana Jones iteration, followed by a summary and details of the theater.

Welcome back to the Drive-in!

As soon as we drove up to the entrance we were thrown back to the days of hot, sticky summer nights when we saw that marquee on street level inviting us in to see no less than two movies for a price that's about what some pay for a single ticket at the megaplexes at your local shopping mall.

The Raleigh Road theater has a down-home atmosphere and a friendly, courteous staff. When we pulled in, we saw one of the ticket takers engaged in conversation with what appeared to be some regular attendees of this establishment.

In the drive-in theater's heyday, you would pull up to the dual speaker pole and hook one of those heavy, grey, crackly, monophonic speakers onto one of your windows. Not any more. The Raleigh Road theater uses state-of-the-art FM broadcasting to bring the movie into your car in as clear and robust stereo sound as your vehicle's sound system is capable of delivering. (However, they will let you borrow a radio if for whatever reason you cannot use one in your car.) You might not get much of an effect watching some weepy chick flick, but listening to Indiana Jones through our six speaker stereo adjusted to my specifications, (loud and bass-heavy,) was a blast and made the experience a much more personal one than that of the indoor theater.

They had signs for separate parking for cars versus taller vehicles such as SUVs and trucks. This helps to prevent today's popular taller vehicles from blocking the view of ordinary sedans and coupes; a point I found myself needing to emphasize to a family in an SUV who pulled into Row #1 in front of us, and who later left after our brief dialog. Of course you also had your usual cars pulling in backwards with lawn chairs set up to face the screen.

The Playground

No drive-in theater would be complete without a playground underneath that great big screen and the Raleigh Road theater was no exception. This arrangement contained swings and a jungle gym style playset with a roofed play area among other things geared towards the younger crowd. The playground was filled to capacity with kids tossing Frisbees and softballs, and there were even kids working a hula hoop and a pogo stick. A couple kids were throwing a football back and forth, and I suspected it was only a matter of time before that ball hit a car. But at the Raleigh Road theater, I imagine the driver of such a victim car would have just smiled and waved at the kids as they rushed to retrieve their errant ball. Of course there were the requisite pair of lovers smooching in a seating area within viewing range of the big screen.

The only thing I missed was that "twirl table," for lack of a better description, I remember from my youth. But other than that, this play area was amazingly reminiscent of the days of going to the drive-in, both as a kid and as a young adult.

The Bazaar

One thing this theater had that I do not remember from other drive-ins is a bazaar. After parking our vehicle we got out and walked towards the concession stand. Before we got there, two boys approached us selling punchballs, soccer balls and wristbands in support of cancer research. They also had tables with a bunch of people selling raffle tickets, shirts, and other items in further support of that worthy cause.

The Concession Stand - Visit One

Our first visit to the concession stand really emphasized that we were going to have a memory of a lifetime of the Raleigh Road theater. Once the line finally got us into the building, we were hit with the hustle and bustle we remember from our youth. They had an amazingly robust selection of food and soft drinks and a cashier with a dead-on memory of what everyone ordered and which patrons were waiting for which food items as the staff busily hurried to get all the orders filled. We ordered a hamburger, a hot dog, drinks, and popcorn. (Gotta have popcorn at the movies, right?)

Before the movie started

While we waited for the latest Indy flick to begin, I decided to take up the theater's website invitation to tour the projection room. There one of the staff members courteously showed me the "works" of the movie presentation system. When I saw the size of the horizontal platters on which the movie reels resided, (about three feet in diameter,) and the yards of film stretching across to and from the projector, I mused about how everything seemed so quaint, specially in these days of full featured films on a single compact disc. I can't imagine running this equipment in such a noisy, hot, and cramped environment.

Outside the projection room some kids had set up lawn chairs to watch the features. Only now, in an updated version of days remembered, this generation of youth listens to the movie through earbuds connected to portable FM radios tuned to the theater's movie station.

A staff member talked to us through a wireless mike to give announcements, such as the one to let us know this Saturday show, (over the Memorial Day weekend,) was the first sellout crowd in the three years they have been managing this theater. All 250 or so vehicle spots were taken.

The Concession Stand - Visit Two

While Kathy continued to enjoy the movie, I found myself making the requisite second visit to the concession stand for our mid-movie snack. It was at this time I noticed there was a second, mobile concession stand present. (Was that there all along, or did they wheel it in to handle the crowds!) Speaking of crowds, there was quite a line at both concession stands, and at both bathrooms.

Once inside the stand, which was still bustling as before, there were barefooted kids waiting to purchase their goodies. Where else but at an old-time drive-in can you let your twelve year old kid safely stand outside at 10:30 at night unattended with no shoes on? I got a drink and some Raisinets for Kathy and for myself an ice cream cone. (For me, no drive-in theater experience would be complete without a Nutty Buddy.) When I departed the stand, I heard a roar of laughter simultaneously emerging from the open windows of dozens of nearby cars over one of Indiana's antics, which brought back another wave of distant memories I thought had long past.

Intermission

After the first feature ended, the theater showed intermission clips from the old days of drive-in. Think of the vintage scene in Grease of a gyrating hotdog in the background while Danny bemoaned in song his loss of Sandy and you'll know what I mean. They even had the classic one with cartoon characters entering the concession stand and leaving with armloads of goodies while a deep-voiced announcer counted off "Three Minutes Till Showtime," and a great big "3 MIN" displayed, presumably so people who are actually at the concession stand knew how much longer they had.

Intermission is also the time when the whole atmosphere changes at the drive-in. After two hours or so of sitting in your car pretty much undisturbed, now you have splashing across the screen headlights, shadows of walkers in front of the projector, and the perennial no-no laser pen, along with dozens of people walking past your car to get to the stands.

One other event the Raleigh Road theater had that I don't remember from the past was to play games during Intermission. We couldn't see from where our car was located, but they played some sort of game involving frozen t-shirts. The players stated their names and hometowns, (which invariably included Henderson and nearby Youngstown, further emphasizing that most of the patrons are probably locals.) They also announced that this was the sixteenth birthday of a local lad who had chosen the drive-in theater this evening to celebrate with his friends.

The next feature - almost

Kathy and I intended to leave without watching the second feature, but out of curiosity we stayed just to experience the transition. However, that transition got off to a few false starts, as there were some glitches in getting the next film up and running. As I generally enjoy "behind the scenes" moments when I can find them, I sauntered over to the projector room, expecting the door to be closed while they fixed the film. The door was open, and as this theater seems to have an "open door" policy with regards to their projection room, I imagined I'd hang outside and watch, at least till they chased me away. (They never did.) What started off with one guy madly working to refeed the footage turned into five guys, including the manager, all desperately trying to get the machine to cooperate. In the meantime, 16 year old birthday boy and his pals fretted over whether the second feature would be shown. After some reassurance from management, they resumed their 16 year old playful antics.

When it became evident that this was turning into a fiasco, I left to return to the car to prepare for our departure. As I walked to my car, I was reminded of yet another memory from our old days at the theater - cars honking their horns in dismay when there was no picture on the screen. However, I was most amused when I saw two kids sitting in chairs near the projector room. Wanting to be a part of the festivities, they shouted "Beep Beep," while the projection team worked fervently into the night. They giggled when they realized I had heard them.

Summary

Kathy and my experiences at Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater really made our Memorial Day Weekend something to remember. The drive-in is located at 3336 Raleigh Road on the left one mile after turning left onto Rte 1 Business exit off Highway 1 in Henderson. It is within a 60 minute commute to most of the Triangle via Hwy 85 or US-1, and within 90 minutes from more remote areas. Trust me, it is worth the trip.

Visit their website at raleighroaddrivein.com to learn more. And be sure to call their Movieline at (252) 438-6959. If you're lucky, you may get one of their classic announcements that last about three minutes and will surely bring back memories. But don't bring your own food and drink! In order for Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater to keep providing old-time family entertainment for years to come, they depend on you making visits to their concession stand for much of their operating expenses.

If you want to experience once again the charm and pageantry of the drive-in theater, (or want to introduce the thrill to family members unfamiliar with the drive-in,) come to wonderful Henderson, NC and enjoy a blast from the past you and your family will never forget at Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater.

Triangle finally shows drought relief

2008-05-12T18:49:00.002-04:00

We can wash our cars again! And no more need to reserve "flushes" for special occasions.

Of course you remember the poem they wrote for us:

Let it Mellow if it's Yellow,
Flush it Down if it's ...

well, you get the idea.
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Disappearing From the Face

2008-02-26T16:28:00.001-05:00

For those who may be interested, here's where I've been the past few months.
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Selling a Used Car

2007-12-02T16:46:00.000-05:00

I had an interesting experience recently while trying to sell a car on a particular free on-line classified ads facility that rhymes with dregslist. I got a response from a guy, let's call him Jerry, that said, "would like to see your car, please call jerry at xxx-xxxx or page at xxx-xxxx thanks"

So I called the guy and he stated he's retired from the automotive industry but he helps his brother who is currently still working with cars here in the Triangle Area. He and his brother occasionally help customers who are looking for good cars by searching ads and pre-inspecting well-maintained candidates on behalf of those customers.

I asked him if he was a dealer, and he said, No, he was just helping a customer who wanted to buy her daughter her very first car.

So he came to my house to see the car. He was very personable and easy going. While he went over my car, (with a fine toothed comb, I might add,) he was telling me about how he had retired after having had three heart attacks, and other related maladies he and his loved ones had suffered.

He told me he provides this service because many cars he and his brother had seen advertised privately are somewhat "less than" what the sellers are representing. I said I believe my car is a good one and is adequately represented by the wording in my ad and by my asking price.

At one point in the inspection he had asked me if I had had the timing belt replaced. As that job is usually recommended at about 90K miles for my car and mine only had 76K, I had told him it had not yet had that part replaced.

After a bit more careful inspection and a test drive, he stated that this car was a fine example, and that I did a great job of caring for it and presenting it as such. He told me he's prepared to pay cash for the car, and whipped out two wads of hundred dollar bills to prove his point. So began the process of negotiation.

As we discussed price, I noticed he kept bringing up the timing belt issue. He said that he would feel bad about having sold a car to this woman only to have her daughter need to spend another $500 on a timing belt soon after. Also, she has to pay for the three Ts, (taxes, title, and transfer.) I presume he wanted me to lower my asking price to account for these costs.

I'm thinking, first of all there's no way I'm paying in advance for a future repair on a car I will no longer own, specially a repair that's 14,000 miles into the future. And how is it my problem she has to pay the three Ts? Everybody who buys a car has to pay the three Ts. But I figured this is just part of the negotiation process. Every buyer wants to chew you down by giving their sob story. I had a price range in mind and I stood by that range. Eventually we shook hands on a deal that was within that range.

In North Carolina, you need to have the title signatures notarized, and that's usually when the transfers of the payment and the keys take place. He said my wife and I could come to his brother's shop where we could complete the sale using their notary. I said, I hope you're not going to change your mind once we get there. He said, "No, my handshake is my word. You'll get what we agreed upon for your car."

After a horrendous drive in two cars through several agonizing detours after a major truck accident in the city, we finally arrived at the shop. Jerry invited us to sit and wait a short time for the notary to arrive.

In the mean time, and this is where it gets interesting, he told me his brother, let's call him John, (the proprietor,) wanted to put my car up on the lift to check it out.

I'm thinking, Check it out? For what?? We had already agreed upon a price after a careful inspection; there should be nothing additional to check out. I asked Jerry, You're not going to change your mind, are you? He assured me, No, John just wants to determine what he will need to do before turning it over to the woman for her daughter.

So there we sat. Soon after, the notary showed up, and she sat with us and waited. And waited. I kept getting up to see what was taking so long with the car. The notary's here, so Let's Go! Jerry was nowhere to be found.

It Needs What?!?

After several more minutes, a very big man storms into the room and declares, in an equally big voice, "Your car will need brakes all around so there's three hundred dollars right there and there's also a leak in the power steering hose so that will have to be replaced as well for another hundred or so." At this point, Jerry joined us.

I'm thinking, So?? How's that my problem? You buy a car, you fix it up for YOUR buyer. Let's get this paperwork signed and give me my agreed upon cash so we can get out of here.

I said, "And you are ..."

He said, "I'm John, the manager. I realize no car is perfect, but I wouldn't feel right selling this car to this woman for her daughter needing brakes and a timing belt at the price you are asking."

I looked over at Jerry, and he was looking down with a sullen, downtrodden look as if to say, Well, what can I tell you? My brother makes a good point.

I said to Jerry, "So. You've changed your mind." He said nothing. I asked, "Where is my car?" He said, Right out front. I asked, "And my keys?" He held them up into my view.

I took the keys, SHOOK HIS HAND and said, "Thank you," and my wife and I walked out, got into our two cars, and drove back home through that horrendous series of detours due to that accident in the city.

UPDATE:

I took the car to Sears the next day to have the brakes checked out. The brakes were fine. I guess that "woman" will have to find another car for her "daughter."
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Who Let the Dogs Die?

2007-08-27T06:31:00.000-04:00

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina animal shelters are strained by incoming dogs seized from fighting operations and held as police evidence.

The shelters are euthanizing adoptable animals to make room for these fighting dogs, which they are required by law to shelter, sometimes for months, at much greater costs than the adoptable animals whose cages they're occupying.

"The Johnston County Animal Shelter housed 47 pit bulls seized in a giant dog-fighting case last year,

"The shelter, which could hold 65 dogs, euthanized 15 to 20 animals after the pit bulls arrived for lack of space,"

Most of the animals seized in dog fighting raids eventually get euthanized.
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Overcrowding Expected at Several Wake County Traditional Schools

2007-08-23T10:19:00.000-04:00

This morning The News & Observer reported that the following elementary schools would feel the most significant overcrowding as measured by a percentage of capacity:

153% Olds
132% Underwood
127% Dillard Drive
125% Hunter
122% Cary
122% Bugg

One hundred and fifty three percent of capacity. That's over half. So a school with, say, 16 grade level teachers would need to add eight new teachers and two to three teacher assistants to handle the crowd. They'd have to find room for five to eight additional classrooms via converting teachers' work areas, the gym, the media center, the cafeteria, the computer lab, the art or music room, the broom closet, or by adding modular units.

Those schools gaining a fifth to a third more students would face similar dilemmas.

Myth:
The Wake County Board of Education, (BOE) is trying to punish parents and students by making the transition back to traditional schools as unbearable as possible.

Theory:
I don't believe the BOE has little better to do than to plot revenge on the populace. I think the School Board is bound by budgetary restrictions that hamper necessary changes. It costs money to convert 22 schools to Year Round and this late in the game, much of that money had probably already been spent or was allocated.

It was most likely not an option to abort the conversion, specially considering the fallout when the 2007-2008 budget is looked at and the BOE has to answer to the lost funds due to a halt in the production.

Considering the possibility that those 22 schools may have eventually converted in the coming years anyway due to undeniable growth trends this county has seen, I couldn't blame the Board for wrapping up the expenditures in the nearly completed conversion, even if it forced them to scramble to fulfill their commitments to the parents wanting to remain traditional.

Face it - Here We Are. Pointing fingers will help nobody at this stage. Work with your Board as they struggle to make ends meet with overcrowded (and undercrowded) schools, teacher and other resource shortages, and hammered bus schedules. I may be in the minority with this belief, but I feel that the Wake County Board of Education is on the right track in their attempts to make the system work for ALL our kids. Let's cut them a break, shall we, and let them attend to the matters at hand.
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Griffin Ceramic Tile

2007-08-20T10:56:00.000-04:00

Along with brand new kitchen countertops and new appliances, we also had a new tile backsplash installed.

After working with design consultant Laura Eaton at Byrd Tile to put together a fantastic pattern, I needed to find a qualified installer to do the job. Laura presented me with a list of installers with which her customers have had good luck, and the one I selected was Eric Griffin of Griffin Ceramic Tile.

His mature demeanor and professionalism seemed evident in my initial consultations with him. The quality of his workmanship was apparent when he showed me photo samples of his work during his first onsite visit.

Eric took away drawings of our backsplash pattern and some measurements, and e-mailed me a few days later with a bid that came in about $100 lower than the average of other installers I'd contacted.

On installation day Eric arrived well prepared to spend the entire day at our homesite. He carefully laid out paper over our new granite countertops and across all areas of our hardwood floor upon which he would be traversing. As I happened to be off of work that day, I watched as he carefully and competently laid all our tile.

As our design presented what I thought was somewhat of an intricate challenge to an installer, Eric managed through without missing a beat. In this case, he handled the positioning of many random stones in such a manner as to avoid making unnecessary cuts. Discount tilers would have just done it the easy way.

He also had some clever maneuvers to tame some of the trickier aspects of laying tile. For example, he made the pattern sort of "bend" around a corner so it was less evident that a change in direction was present. Not all installers are willing to go the extra mile to make the results so attractive but you can tell that Eric takes pride in his work and doesn't see it as just a job. There is a certain artistry that a good tile installer should possess, and it's clear that Eric's a master.

When he was finished for the day, he pulled up all the paper and cleaned up after himself. When he returned the next day, he started by again laying out all the paper on our counters and floors. The grouting job went well, and when we saw how the pattern jumped out at us in the finished product, we knew we would have a tile backsplash we would enjoy for years to come.

If you live in the Triangle Area and are looking for an expert tile installer who's not afraid of a challenge, look no further than Eric Griffin at Griffin Ceramic Tile. Eric can be reached at (919) 359-3042.
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