Checking In

A catch-all, catch-up post

There are 1,132 posts filed in Checking In (this is page 48 of 114).

Writing in the background

I spent some time this evening writing some of my next installment of Where I’ve Worked, this one about my choosing to enlist in the Navy. It’s already longer than I anticipated but I want to get it right. That means unlike most of my posts here I’m actually putting these through a couple of drafts before posting them.

It also means I’m beginning to get intimidated by these posts because of the need to get them right. Like the saying goes, the longest journeys begin with the smallest step, and simply putting something down about my Navy days has helped considerably in getting this huge topic organized in my mind.

Enough for tonight, though. I may have something ready to read in the next night or two. Or not.

Snow stopped short

In spite of the massive snowfall predicted we wound up getting two inches last night – and even that stopped after 9 PM. After that the precipitation switched to sleet which pounded the house until mid-morning. The snow was only 1 1/4″ deep when the sleet hit it.

We woke up with snow-crazy kids, so when we had stuffed them with as much breakfast as we could (which wasn’t much), we turned them loose outside. After a while I wandered out and shoveled the back steps but quickly opted not to shovel the driveway as it looked like a losing effort.

Instead, we headed to our local Lions Park with our sled in tow, picking up a few neighbors along the way. We spent the next few hours sliding down the hill near the tennis courts, outlasting all of our friends.

After some lunch and naps, we hung out inside as the snow and sleet on the ground turned to ice. Then it was dinner and bed. Overall, a pretty fun day.

Irrational exuberance


I was attending a climate change forum in DC Wednesday and walked out of the Dirkson Senate Building for a walk during a break. As I’m waiting at the intersection for the walk signal, I notice I’m standing near a limo. Crossing towards the limo from my left walks Andrea Mitchell, whom I try to ignore. I have a pretty low opinion of national news media figures and certainly don’t look up to them (not after Walt passed, anyway).

In spite of my clear indifference to her, she offers a cheery hello. In fact, it was overly cheery, to the point of being … um, a little creepy. I could swear the wife of hall of fame former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan was hitting on me.

Now I don’t consider myself to be dazzlingly handsome and my man AG’s got more bank, but Greenspan makes me look like Tom Cruise. Regardless if her intention, though, it was a little disconcerting.

Weekend (and week) recap

Let’s see. I had a birthday this week, turning 41. Had an after-hours meeting every day except Friday, when I took Travis to his piano lesson. Monday evening it was a meeting with the head of a major local institution. Tuesday it was a city council meeting. Wednesday it was the Raleigh CAC meeting. Thursday it was a contentious Parks Board meeting.

Saturday morning I had a conference to work in Durham, but cut it short to watch the end of the kids’ basketball games. Kelly’s parents arrived around that time and we spent some time visiting with them. Travis and his grandfather built a dinosaur out of the trash can and parts found around the garage. Kelly’s parents took the kids to dinner while we headed out to Papa Mojo’s for Cajun dinner and dancing. We got back late but had fun doing it.
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Soon to be spotless

Artist rendering

It’s not every birthday that I’m as excited about losing something as I am getting something, but today is one of those birthdays. I saw the dermatologist today to get the mole on my face looked at after I noticed last month that it had grown a bit. Dr. Burton took a close look at it, declared it safe, and then promptly zapped it right off my face with a hand-held freeze bottle. For fifteen years this Alaska-shaped spot has taken over my temple and a five-minute dermatologist appointment has put an end to it.

It will take about 10 days for the scab to fall off my face, but after that I should be spot-free. Woohoo!

Light blogging

Photo by Oleg Volk, www.olegvolk.net

It’s a busy week for me, with many after-hours meetings taking place. Yesterday, I met with the CEO of a local hospital. Tonight I went to an important City Council/Planning Commission meeting. Tomorrow I have my Raleigh CAC meeting. Thursday I have my Parks Board meeting. Few of these allow much blogging time afterwards, and the ones that do don’t leave me much time to rest. I actually fell asleep at 9:30 last night!

It’s all good, though. The work is its own reward, and doing good things for our city and community is something I love doing. It’s energizing to be around people who feel the same way.

Chugging through things

I haven’t done much blogging lately, which is usually (but not always) a sign that things have gotten busy for me. Such is the case this time around. At $WORK, I have been asked to pitch in for a sick coworker who’s out for the week. This entails learning the stuff he does from the ground up, and that has kept me busy. On the other hand, time at work flies by when I’m deep into solving a problem. I don’t consider being busy to be a bad thing.

Outside of work, there is also a round of meetings coming up. I’ve been planning my CAC meetings like normal but there was also a weekend Parks and Rec meeting. Tonight I had the Mordecai board meeting and next week it’s RCAC and the Parks Board. Then the following Monday I conduct my East CAC meeting. While it’s fun to get stuff done, I have to say that the holiday break spoiled me a bit. It was nice to relax for a change and spend some time with the family. Still, it’s all good.

Next up for my “Where I’ve Worked” series is my stint in the Navy. I have to admit I’m a bit intimidated at the thought of having to distill four years of twenty-four-hours-a-day-seven-days-a-week Navy life into a post, or two. The old ad campaign is true: the Navy isn’t just a job, it’s an adventure. It will probably take me a few weeks to hammer out a post on it. Stay tuned.

Chilly, active weekend

It’s been a chilly but quite active weekend for me.

Saturday morning, I slipped out of the house and hopped on a Parks and Rec bus for a tour of the proposed Honeycutt Creek greenway. It was quite an enjoyable tour of the proposed greenway routes, though when we got out of the van to view a particular site more closely we got cold quickly. My toes felt numb for the first hour. The tour gave us new perspective on the issues and nice to see the neighbors out in the cold with us, expressing some of their concerns. I think we all want to do the right thing with this project and I think folks will be satisfied with the outcome.

Well after noon I returned home to thaw out and get some lunch. Kelly brought the kids home from Marbles not much later and we hung around inside for a bit. It was fun watching an episode of Mythbusters with the kids – their first one.
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Highlights of 2009: Municipal internet

I got a whole new education in politics in 2009 with a few visits to the North Carolina General Assembly. Now-Former Rep. Ty Harrell sponsored H.1252, a bill written by Time Warner Cable that would effectively prevent municipalities from offering Internet service. Because this was the second time in two years we’d seen this activity and it happened right as Time Warner Cable was moving to cap its users’ Internet usage, I felt I had to get involved.

What did I do? I teamed up with others to get the word out about how bad a bill this was. When word got out that Chapel Hill would officially oppose this bill, I successfully convinced Raleigh to do the same. With a lot of hard work, a little luck, and some big friends, we got the bill shelved. For now, at least.
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