Checking In

A catch-all, catch-up post

There are 1,132 posts filed in Checking In (this is page 11 of 114).

17 Years of wedding bliss (well, mostly)

Yesterday marked 17 years of marriage for Kelly and me, still going strong. We celebrated by hauling ourselves and our kids off to multiple practices, meetings, and events, so pretty much a typical day. We Turners have lots of interests and solving the logistical challenges take up most of our time. It’s all good, though. We’re busy but happy. With many friends reaching Stage Empty Nest now, I know that the frantic pace we keep won’t continue forever and I’m sure to miss is once it’s gone.

Kelly and I are going out for our celebratory dinner this evening. Of course, it will occur between taking one kid one place and then taking the other kid another place. Ah, life!

Dix Park Advisory Committee chosen

Raleigh city council approved the members of the Dix Park Advisory Committee yesterday. My son Travis and I did not make the list. I was disappointed about this for a little while until I recognized how much time I now won’t be spending in meetings. I had cleared the decks to devote the proper time and attention to this but now I am free to pursue other initiatives. Now, how to fill it?

Aunt Beverly and Uncle Bill

My uncle, Bill Turner

My uncle, Bill Turner


Up until recently I’ve been fortunate not to have any of my friends and relatives die. Sadly, this has not been the case recently. My Aunt Linda died last spring and in the past two weeks I’ve lost both my Aunt Beverly and my Uncle Bill.

Aunt Beverly was married to my dad’s oldest brother, Jimmy. She was a longtime Spanish teacher in Birmingham and raised two of her three kids on her own after Jimmy died in the 80s. I didn’t know her too well.

While I was making plans to attend her funeral I found out Uncle Bill was in serious condition. Bill died last week. I was unable to attend Beverly’s funeral but was able to get away for Bill’s, also in Birmingham.

It’s an 8+ hour drive to Birmingham from Raleigh, so my brothers and I carpooled there. We spent the next few days eating barbecue, catching up, and attending services. Then it was a long trip back.

Uncle Bill was just a fun guy. He always had a funny story to tell, the result of a keen sense of observation. He worked as a service manager at a car dealership for most of his career but filled his retirement with golf and trips. He was also the only other member of my family to be a veteran of the Navy. Like me, Uncle Bill only spent four years in the Navy but those four years transformed his life. He was fiercely proud of his service and his Navy. I hope my service was up to his standards!

The occasion did give me the opportunity to spend time with my family in a way that has become increasingly rare. I just hope the next occasion is a more positive one.

Rosie the Seaboard Station ghost?

Does Rosie the Riveter have a doppelganger at Seaboard Station?

Does Rosie the Riveter have a doppelganger at Seaboard Station?

I needed a part to fix our broken dishwasher so I drove over to Seaboard Ace Friday morning before work. On my way out of the store, I spotted an African American woman slowly walking toward me from the north in the parking lot. I did not want to keep her waiting as I backed out of the space so I wasted no time in getting going. Sure I was out of her way, I headed towards the lot’s exit. In the time it took me to reach the stop sign in front of Logan’s Trading Company the woman had somehow made it into the next parking lot, where the Phydeaux store used to be.

I was stunned. I was sure I backed out of the space before this woman could’ve reached my car, and somehow she had beaten my car to the stop sign? How?

Not wanting to seem like I was stalking her, I continued left to Halifax Street, then turned right to go back down the little one-way alley between Phydeaux and 18 Seaboard. The woman was still in the Phydeaux parking lot, this time slowly walking west.

Just to make sure I hadn’t mistaken the woman for another one dressed similarly, I drove back down in front of the hardware store. No other similarly-dressed women were around. I turned around just past Peace China and headed back towards the woman.

This time when I reached the Phydeaux parking lot the woman was gone. I drove the counterclockwise loop from Logan’s back to the one-way alley but could not find her.

I still couldn’t believe what I had just seen. How did this slow-walking woman suddenly leap ahead of me? And where had she gone? What had just happened here!?
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Too busy to blog

I’m hoping to catch up at some point with documenting all of the stuff that’s been going on lately. We’ve had a trip to Savannah, a trip to Puerto Rico, and a work trip to Boulder. I’ve been pretty exhausted in-between, too. Hopefully tonight and tomorrow I’ll have time to properly write it all down. Stay tuned.

Highlights of 2015: Family time

At Hanging Rock State Park

At Hanging Rock State Park

We had a lot of good family time in 2015. The biggest family time item was our trip to Alaska, which will be discussed in a future blog post. But we also didn’t have to go far to have a fun time together.

Thumbs up for Thunder Road

Thumbs up for Thunder Road

In May, we took a family trip over to Charlotte for a day at Carowinds. Hallie’s friend Suzanna joined us for a day of roller coasters and water flumes. It was fun showing the kids around the park where I once worked, though it’s changing rapidly. Many of the attractions have been removed to make room for others. Also, we discovered after we left that the park’s premier wooden roller coaster, Thunder Road, would be dismantled later that summer. I’m so glad the kids got a chance to ride it while it was still around. For the record, they really enjoyed it, proclaiming it their favorite. The apples don’t fall from the tree, do they? Continue reading →

Highlights of 2015: Health investment

Back to my Highlights of 2015 (it’s March, right?).

I made a lot of investments in my health in 2015. Working on Centennial Campus, I began to take regular walks around campus during lunchtime, often clocking 20 minutes or more of walking that way. When I took my new job in October, my office was within easy walking distance of my home. I began walking to work on a regular basis. Add this to a morning dog walk most weekday mornings and an occasional evening dog walk and I routinely clock over an hour of walking each day.

I also got on board with the Veterans Administration healthcare. This was spurred on by my ususal health issues that I suspect are related to my Gulf War service. As I mentioned recently, the VA has taken pretty good care of me. I am also now in the middle of a drug trial for prednisone for treating Gulf War illness, but that started in February and not 2015!
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Hallie to the rescue

During a recent school event, one of Hallie’s classmates suffered a medical emergency. While her other classmates stood around and watched, gripped with panic, Hallie leaped into action and performed first aid (the amusing thing is that up until now she considered the first aid class she took to be a waste of time). Once her friend had recovered, Hallie continued with the event as if nothing happened, and didn’t even mention it to us afterward. We were clueless when the child’s parent passed on her praise Hallie for her reaction, not knowing anything about our daughter’s quick thinking (and acting). It was only last night that we managed to pry the details out of her. To Hallie it was no big deal.
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Winter storm Jonah dumps ice on Raleigh

After watching this storm as it formed over the past week and hearing talk of potentially 13 inches of snow falling on Raleigh, all we get is ice. Sleet began falling between 6 to 9 AM before changing to freezing rain after lunch. I watched in wonder as the rain on the screen outside my window solidified into ice. I also watched he crape myrtle tree build up an impressive glaze of ice right before my eyes.

We’ve made it until 9:16 PM now without any power issues. The lights flickered a few brief times about 6:30 tonight but we’ve had no other issues. I was feeling confident this afternoon that we’d get through without any further problems but I am hearing that our neighbors down the street in Belvidere Park have just now lost power. We could be next.

I have an industrial-sized UPS that needed batteries. Anticipating power issues, I ordered a fresh set of batteries Wednesday night that got delivered less than 24 hours later. We now have two separate sources of inverter power that we can use to keep warm. The plan is to power the blower fan on our gas fireplace should we the ability to run our central heat.

It may be an interesting night. We’ll see where we stand this time tomorrow. I hope everyone else who’s dealing with the weather tonight gets through it safely and securely!

Highlights of 2015: investments in health

Waiting to get my septoplasty

Waiting to get my septoplasty

After returning from Jamaica in August 2014 with muscle twitches that wouldn’t seem to stop I decided it was time to take my health more seriously than I had been, so last year I decided to invest more in my health. I began daily walks at lunchtime at work, doing a circuit around N.C. State’s Centennial Campus for about 20 minutes a day. I installed a fitness tracking app from Google called Google Fit to help me keep pace. My goal was an hour of activity per day and I’m proud to say that I regularly exceeded this. Not only that, but I continue to exercise daily. My current job puts my office a little over a mile away, so I frequently walk or bike to work. I love doing this!

2015 was also the year I took advantage of my health care coverage from the Veteran’s Administration. I had several tests done to determine the cause of the twitching (so far nothing definitive, though several baddies have been ruled out). I have to say I’m impressed with the VA. It gets knocked quite a bit but the people are courteous, I’m always whisked back to see the doctor during my appointments, and the quality of care is good or excellent. The only real concern I have is that the majority of useful appointments must take place at the Durham VA hospital. Raleigh has a VA medical clinic but cannot perform most of the most useful tests or procedures.

Driving to Durham for VA appointments is not convenient for me. I can only imagine what veterans with fewer resources have to put up with.
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