Checking In

A catch-all, catch-up post

There are 1,132 posts filed in Checking In (this is page 35 of 114).

Checking in from over South Dakota

We’re in the air over central South Dakota now on our Midway-Seattle leg of our flight, with two hours of flying to go. The Southwest WiFi that I thought was so great before has turned out to be pretty sucky today.

The trip’s been smooth so far. We had plenty of time to board our flight in Raleigh and found combined seating on both legs of our flight. In Raleigh we had a really nice chat with a friendly TSA officer at the gate who’s a Chicago native. He gave us a tip on the only Chicago-style pizza he will eat in Raleigh: the Gino’s East brand that only that Harris Teeter sells. We’ll have to check it out.
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Checkup

I got a physical this morning; the first one I’ve had in a few years. There are a million other things I’d rather do than get poked and prodded by a doctor so I put it off for as long as I can, but I figured I was now overdue.

I’m pretty darn fit for a 42 year old, it turns out. Blood pressure is an excellent 114/68, pulse 74 (though I took my pulse last week and clocked it at 50, lower than my previous best – ha!). Even my cholesterol is trending very nicely in a healthy direction, with only a slightly elevated LDL.

The one thing I’m looking at is a low white blood cell count and a low platelet level. Outside of my initial visit as a new patient it was the first time the doc quizzed me on my family history. That raised my eyebrows a bit, and later I found that these numbers can sometimes indicate something bigger. My doc didn’t seem overly worried, though. I’m due to get another lab run next month and hopefully these numbers will be back to normal.

On another health note, I reached my target weight today! I set a goal last year to drop back to 170 pounds and this morning I was there. I feel great!

Happy birthday, Miss Ruth!

Miss Ruth


Oh, I wanted to share a photo of our amazing neighbor, Ruth Gartrell. “Miss Ruth” is an amazing woman, posessing more energy at 80 than some people half her age. She has such grace!

This weekend she celebrated her 80th with a big birthday party at her home, and we were truly honored to have been invited. She said a few things about us at the party that were so sweet they put a lump in my throat, to be honest, but we’re as happy to have her as a neighbor as she is to have us!

I’ve said that the folks in my neighborhood are some of the friendliest in town, and our Miss Ruth is proof!

CERT disaster drill

A goner


Saturday was a long, busy day for the Turners! Wake up was an unheard-of 6:15 AM so that we could get the kids off to their 7:30 AM (ouch – it hurts just to write this) swim meet at Optimist Pool. Kelly took the kids to the meet while I got ready for an event of my own: yesterday’s CERT disaster drill at 9 AM.

The drill was designed to show us a little of what it would be like to experience a disaster rescue. We had had a few hours worth of training up to that point as well a thick binder of information so it wasn’t like anyone felt like an expert. At least I didn’t! But as Scott Adams’s Dilbert points out, one is always promoted to one’s level of incompetence. When our instructor Marc Duncan asked for a volunteer to lead our team (acting as the “incident commander”) I raised my hand. I guess in four years of Navy life I never learned the old joke that Navy stands for “never again volunteer yourself!”
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CERT training

Tonight was my first night of CERT training. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team and it’s a free program designed to get people trained to help their neighborhood in the event of an emergency.

Tonight’s topics were disaster preparedness and CERT organization. The next class will go over fire safety and disaster psychology. There will be other fun things to do as well.

Being in tonight’s class convinced me that I already know a lot of this stuff, having helped out in disaster events before. I know I still have more to learn, though, and I’m looking forward to improving my knowledge.

Tonight’s class also reminded me that I still have to blog about the lessons I learned from the April 16th tornado. There are plenty of ways the response could’ve been improved and I made notes of this immediately afterward but never shared them. That’s a blog post for another night, though, folks!

Grayson Highlands State Park

Along the Virginia Creeper Trail


We got back this evening from a three-day weekend spent camping at Grayson Highlands State Park in Mouth of Wilson, VA. Highlights include a deluge of rain Friday night that started as we were setting up our tent Friday night and didn’t let up until 9 AM Saturday morning.

We took our bikes with us and drove to Damascus, VA Saturday morning, where we arrived in time for lunch at Quincey’s Pizza, a fine eating and drinking establishment, indeed. After a tasty meal, we drove over to the bike shuttle place, where we boarded a van and were driven with our bikes up to our starting point for the Virginia Creeper Trail in Whitetop, VA. The next 17 miles were spent chasing the kids down the trail at breakneck speeds, with me stopping only as long as I dared so that I could snap photos of the beautiful scenery.

We arrived back at the campsite around dinner time, so Kelly cooked up a tasty turkey chili to recharge us. Then after listening to a musician play in the park amphitheater, we sat around our campfire roasting marshmallows until about 10 PM. Unlike Friday night, sleep came quickly and easily this time!

My view, most of the way!


After an excellent night of sleep, we enjoyed some hot oatmeal for breakfast, broke camp, and drove over to one of the many trailheads in Grayson Highlands. We hiked the Rhododendron Trail up to a scenic overhang, where we met a man and his two young daughters and stayed for a while. Peering through binoculars, we could see groups of wild horses on the hills surrounding us. It was cool.

We then ventured down a loop trail and made it back to the van in time for lunch (and just before the heavens opened up again). On our way down, though, we flushed a wild turkey out of the woods mere feet away from us. What a surprise that was to see this huge, startled bird bust out of nowhere!

The ride was an easy one back and we’re now in for the night. In spite of the spotty sleep I got during Friday night’s non-stop rain, it was the best camping trip I think I’ve ever been on. We’re already making plans for our next trip out this summer!

Phone reunion!

Back on March 19th, I took the family to a local arcade for a Saturday of fun and wound up losing my new mobile phone. Though the next day I realized where I’d lost it, I called the business the next day and no one had seen my phone. I gave it up for lost and canceled the Net10 account it used. The phone cost $50 so it wasn’t a big loss. I went back to using my previous phone and that was that.

Yesterday, though, my parents got a call out of the blue from a woman claiming to have the phone. “Brenda” had called a few contacts in the phone’s memory until she found one that knew me, apparently. My dad called Kelly with the information and soon I was on the way over to the place near WakeMed where Brenda was waiting.

We met at a Wake County Human Services office. Brenda, who was there looking for a job, handed over my phone with a sheepish grin. I thanked her profusely for her honesty and gave her a small reward as well as my business card.

I asked her what kind of job she was searching for and she told me she was trained as a phlebotomist, rattling off medical terms I did not recognize! Brenda told me quietly that she was living in a group home for recovering substance abusers and was behind on her rent. I told her to contact me if there was anything I could do for her.

Meeting Brenda was the highlight of my day yesterday. This morning, I contacted a friend I know in the medical field who might be able to find her a job. I just know there’s a business out there who could use an honest and hard-working employee.

Area 51

I’m reading a good book about Area 51 from Annie Jacobsen. Called Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, the book peeks into the secret and bizarre activities that have taken place there.

One thing I find fascinating is the accounts of how the base dealt with the multiple nuclear detonations that took place near the base over the years. One of the key environmental elements which helped maintain Area 51’s secrecy also put the base and it’s staff in jeopardy on a regular basis. There were many blown-out windows, warped steel hangar doors, and other frightening damage. I’m not sure exactly what goes on at Area 51 but being that close to ground zero would be my least favorite part of the job.

I’ll write a fuller review once I’ve plowed through it, but needless to say the book is eye-opening.

Update 11 Jul: Review posted!

Fourth away

We spent the Fourth of July at Kelly’s parents’ home, taking the backroads to avoid the holiday traffic. There, we spent Saturday on a geocaching hunt around Sky Meadows State Park. We also spent time at the pool, built hula-hoops, and watched the kids put on puppet shows.

Another highlight was visiting our friends from high school. We had dinner at the home of Jamie and Jim Neel along with Leigh Taylor. Kelly was friends with both Leigh and Jamie in high school and I was friends with Jamie, eating lunch together many days. It was good to catch up with them and to meet Jamie’s husband Jim, with whom I have a lot in common.

Sunday night as we were driving back from dinner, a strong storm passed through, breaking tree branches in the neighborhood and briefly knocking out power.

We enjoyed our visit. It’s tough getting back to work after that kind of fun!