July 13, 2009

There were 5 posts published on July 13, 2009 (this is page 1 of 1).

Finding a Southerner at the flea market

The family and I went to the flea market at the fairgrounds Saturday morning to window shop for some furniture. We enjoyed looking around at all of the wares for sale and chatting with all the people there. While talking about furniture with one man I felt myself comfortably slipping into my old Southern self, with plenty of friendly y’alls and an added accent.

It made me appreciate again how rich my heritage is; how I can slip back into this friendly Southern mode without thinking about it. It’s not forced, it is who I am. The bigger surprise to me is that I tend not to talk Southern most of the time. I tend to be a bit of a chameleon with accents, as I’ve mentioned here before. Maybe it’s because Raleigh has such a mix of people from all over. Still, I’ve enjoyed those visits I’ve made to the deeper South (and to flea markets) and the chances they provide to reconnect with my roots.

Dog as weather forecaster

Kelly and I were amused at our dog Rocket’s attempt to hide himself in our closet at bedtime last night. He’s usually banished to the den so that we aren’t kept awake by his snoring. Occasionally, he’ll park himself outside our door when he wants company but his sneaking into our closet was quite unusual. Four hours later, at 2:30 AM, thunder first rumbled outside. Like most dogs, Rocket is terrified of thunder.

Today I’m left wondering: did our dog somehow know about the thunderstorm long before it arrived? If so, how? Was it the drop in air pressure? If air pressure is the answer, why doesn’t he react similarly when fronts move through that don’t cause thunderstorms?

In other news, I’m thinking of selling my weather radio. 🙂

RTP: Rude Technology Park

I don’t know what it is, but I’m growing tired of the rude drivers I encounter every morning on my way to work in RTP. There’s so much tailgating, people cutting other people off, line cutting, and the rest that it raises my blood pressure. I don’t know if it’s too many Type-A personalities, too many people who bring their bad driving habits from (ahem) places they used to live, or too many just plain jerks but it’s really annoying. It’s definitely in sharp contrast to what I experienced when I was working downtown (or working in west Raleigh).

Hey, I’m happy with my job, too, but I’m not going to run everyone else off the road to get to it. Sheesh.

Revolutionary Rocker

dan_zanes2A few weeks ago, Netflix delivered Revolutionary Road to our DVD player. During the middle of this excellent film is a bar scene with a band. As the camera focused on the characters in the foreground, I noticed the guitarist in the background looked oddly familiar.

Then I suddenly knew who it was: musician Dan Zanes, his trademark spiky hair combed into a pompadour for the role. In real life, Zanes has perpetual bed-head at all times, so it was just as amusing to see him spike-less as it was to see him at all.

Raleigh will host the spiky-haired version of Dan Zanes when he plays Saturday at the N.C. Museum of Art in a rare show this far South. It should be a good time.