February 2006

There were 30 posts published in February 2006 (this is page 1 of 3).

Retirement

I will say one thing before calling it a night. My dad worked his last day at IIBM today, putting the cap on a 37-year career. IBM put food on our table. It allowed us to take nice vacations. Gave us great health care. It took us to many new and exciting homes around the southeast. My dad even finagled one of those new IBM PCs for us not long after they rolled off the assembly lines for the very first time. The blogging greatness you see here is owed to my dad’s career.

He’s hanging up his wingtips for golf shoes now. I’m happy for him, and very proud of him.

Bravo Zulu, Pop! Well done!

Back From Chicago

I’m back from a business trip to Chicago. Fortunately for me and my family, this was just an overnight deal. I’m putting the brakes on any more traveling for the next few weeks.

I don’t really have much else to say at the moment. Gonna just take it easy for the rest of the evening.

UAE Ports Deal

For once I have to side with George Bush, hard as it sometimes is. The deal allowing Dubai to run U.S. ports isn’t a threat to security. The controversy is nothing more than a few idiot Congressmembers grandstanding to the media in an effort to show they’re tough on security.

I visited Dubai during one of my naval deployments. It is the Las Vegas of the Middle East: a Westerner could feel right at home there. Dubai knows its future depends on doing business with the West.

Horseshoe Farm Park

Today’s weather promised to be mild, so after breakfast we packed up into the car and explored a new park in our neighborhood: Horseshoe Farm Park. Horseshoe Farm Park gets its name from the bend in the Neuse River which surrounds the park on three sides. We’d heard about it in the news lately but decided to see for ourselves what it was all about.

The park has been in the news because of controversy in determining what to do with it. The city is currently working through a master plan for the park, which is where the controversy lies.

Members of the Horseshoe Farm Park Master Plan Committee were tasked with coming up with the best use of the property. They were obstensibly supposed to do this with the public’s best interest at heart. Instead, they got a push in a developer-friendly direction when they were nudged to make it an “active” park: with ballfields, tennis and basketball courts, a dog park and a gynmasium. This put local activists in a snit, who then proceeded to push their vision of the park as a nature preserve . Throughout the planning process, public comment on the park has always strongly favored this natural approach.

Some have questioned why Raleigh first pitched this park as a nature preserve, then changed course and pitched an active park to the planning committee, only acquiescing when the public let its nature park preference be known. I think the answer came this week when Raleigh revealed the gift from Dr. Annie Louis Wilkerson, a wealthy obstetrician who left her 155 acres to the city with the stipulation that it remain a nature park. Most importantly to the Horseshoe Farm park saga, Dr. Wilkerson’s deal hinged on the City of Raleigh keeping it a strict secret. Members of the Parks and Rec advisory board weren’t even aware of the gift.

The city (or at least some in the city) has known about Dr. Wilkerson’s gift for almost a decade. The question they have to grapple with is this: does Raleigh need a 155-acre nature preserve less than five miles from a 140-acre nature preserve?

Not having been to Wilkerson park (because it’s not yet open), I can’t say what it has to offer. On the other hand, Horseshoe Farm with its rolling pasture area, open hay barn, wooded trails near the riverbank, and abundant wildlife, seems perfect just the way it is. Try as I might, I just could not picture gyms, tennis courts, or any other urban-oriented buildings going there. I love playing sports, but there are plenty of places for that stuff. Horseshoe Farm Park isn’t it.

The park’s planning committee meets again at 7 PM Wednesday night, March 1st at Durant Nature Park to continue hammering out the park’s future. Among the audience will be Kelly or me – two happy converts to the “nature park” cause.

Links:
City of Raleigh: Horseshoe Farm Park Planning Committee
Friends of Horseshoe Farm Park
Indy: Battle over Horseshoe Farm Park heats up
Indy Blog: A Big win at Horseshoe Farm Park
N&O: Tennis, gym, dog park nixed
N&O: Two park planning committee members resign, spur email war
Durant Nature Park: site of March 1st committee meeting

Warm-Up Act

I fired up my laptop to show Travis some pictures today. As we’re waiting, I nonchalantly told him “hang on now, we’ve got to wait until it warms up.”

I blinked and realized how that phrase dates me. Few kids remember when you had to wait for your television or stereo to warm up.

So you wet-behind-the-ears, solid-state generations know what I’m talking about, once upon a time electronic switching was done with vacuum tubes instead of today’s transistors. The tubes had to warm up in order to function, and when they were warm, they were really warm. They chewed up electricity and air conditioning and often wore out, inviting a visit from the TV repairman. Remember TV repairmen?

Now its rare to even see transistors. They now live with millions of their tiny friends on integrated-circuit chips, putting a handful of parts into a product that once took a suitcase-sized number of tubes (or transistors, for that matter). Imagine an iPod Nano rendered in vacuum tubes. You couldn’t fit it in your garage!

Hmm, maybe I should add a “geezer” category to my blog!

Floating An Idea

I’ve got a neighbor who is always out flying a remote control plane. He’s got a glider as well as a motorized one. The planes don’t disturb anyone and are in fact really fun to watch, especially when he’s doing acrobatic maneuvers.

Another neighbor runs an aerial photography company. He’s got over a thousand hours logged above Raleigh, taking photographs for real estate and law firms. His photo collection numbers in the tens of thousands.

One fun project I’ve been mulling over involves a remote control aircraft – perhaps with more “remote” than “control.” I’ve seen these balloons for sale from Edmund Scientifics (a fantastic company, by the way). I’ve also seen 2.4Ghz cameras for sale at The Home Despot for a hundred bucks. Wouldn’t it be fun to launch a camera to see what can be seen?

There are lots of similar, interesting projects out there already, so a lot of the way has been paved. The cost would be minimal – especially if care is taken to safely recover the payload.

I have meterologist friends who can provide information on the winds aloft. I’ve got plenty of geeky friends who can help. So, come on! Who’s with me here? Who wants to launch a camera with me? Let’s put something together for a summertime launch!

Sleep

Been a bit too eager to burn the candle at both ends lately. More details later. Now its time for some sleep.

Traffic Cones Banned From Airlines

Is it just me or is this protest particularly weak? I mean, here are some Indonesian kids attacking the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and all they can find are rubber traffic cones?

Really, now, is that any way to riot? America’s most timid college students can mix it up better than these kids. Heck, even geeks in engineering school could throw down better.

If traffic cones are now weapons of mass destruction, what’s next? Should orange barrels be outlawed? How about those portable flashing road signs? Al-Qaida could send terrorist messages or something.

Come to think of it, I’ve never really trusted the guy holding the stop sign at road construction sites. While he looks bored out of his mind, I bet he’s really planning an embassy attack!

Where’s the Department of Transportation … er, the Department of Homeland Security when we need it?

A Few Consecutive Days At Home!

I’ve managed to spend a few consecutive days at home! It’s been an enjoyable weekend, one which was much-needed after all the travel I’ve done recently.

I got back from San Diego early Friday morning. I had decided earlier to work from home that day, so that’s what I did. It sure was nice being close to the family, even if I couldn’t play the whole time. Miracle of miracles, both kids – each of which is on the mend – slept soundly through the night. It was the first time Kelly has had a full night of sleep in days.

I went to a talk Friday evening, getting back home around 10:30. Another good night of sleep followed. I gave Kelly a break from parenting so she could run errands. The kids and I watched the sleet and rain fall from the comfort of the playroom. After taking Travis up for a short nap, Hallie and I made a loaf of tasty bread.

I did some work cleaning up my desk and computers before getting ready for my dad’s birthday party. It was our first night leaving the kids with a hired babysitter and things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. We were surprised to hear the babysitter had them settled a bit earlier than we could have done it ourselves. The kids seemed to like her, too.

Dad’s birthday party was a lot of fun. My sister and her family came up from Shelby to take part. The conversation was filled with wisecracks and jokes. The food and wine were excellent, too. We had to cut short her celebrating in order to relieve the babysitter. With Kelly at home, I drove the babysitter home and then went to my parents’ house for the “after-party.”

For Dad’s birthday, many of us had prepared some sort of tribute to him. My brother Al recorded a catchy song for the occasion. My neice wrote a charming poem. I wrote a little toast of sorts. Everyone enjoyed the performances! I was amazed to have left after midnight, as there was still so much energy. Good thing birthdays come every year.

Today was a typical Sunday for us, except for the chilly weather outside (19 degrees at sun up). The kids were in happy moods as were Kelly and I. After breakfast, we headed back over to my parents’ for more visiting with my sister’s family. Hallie and her cousin Victoria had a blast chasing each other around the house. Travis wasn’t quite as mobile, though he enjoyed taking everything in. It was nice seeing my sister again. We just don’t get together often enough.

After getting lunch, the family and I took a quick, chilly walk around the neighborhood. Naps followed, which were then followed by more organizing the home work area. Kelly cooked a tasty meal for dinner, after which we horsed around with the kids until bedtime. Man, its good to be home!

Tomorrow I stick around home while Kelly runs a few important errands. Then I’m back to my desk at the office – a strange place to find me as of late.