Friday is the night of the Reverend Horton Heat show in Carrboro. I’m really looking forward to the show!

I came upon the term “Dutch Uncle” on the Interweb the other day and decided to learn more about this curious phrase. That led me to a site with excerpts from the Culture Shock! Netherlands book, where I’m learning about all things Dutch. It’s pretty fascinating, actually. I was quite impressed with the Netherlands when I visited for business a few years back and though I’m not due to return any time soon I do admire the Dutch people and culture.

As a sailor I appreciate that the Netherlands has one of the world’s richest maritime heritages. Also the Dutch’s penchant for travel, and personal freedom. Hmm … maybe I was Dutch in a former life. Who knows?

I had to look up the definition of sleep this morning because I certainly didn’t learn about it last night. The dog opted not to do anything at his final bathroom break of the evening and then proceeded to whine all night long when he decided he had to go. Then I heard Hallie say something to him when she got up in the night to go to the bathroom, so I had to check on her.

I offered the dog a chance to go out but he sat there looking stupid, so I went back to bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, the back yard motion light came on, compelling me out of bed. I grabbed the flashlight, checked out the yard, and then shooed the dog outside where he finally relieved himself. With everyone happy again, I finally went back to bed.
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Kelly and the kids returned yesterday afternoon. Boy, did I miss them! It was lonely around home for the past few days.

I took Rocket out to Lake Gaston Saturday afternoon and attempted to sail with him. He was a great sport and really seemed to enjoy checking out the lake and wildlife there. Unfortunately for us I had to be back in Raleigh in the afternoon, so our trip was cut short. At least he’s got his “sea legs” now.

This is my “busy week” this month, though my meeting don’t all line up the way they usually do. Ordinarily I’d have had my CAC meeting last night, followed by the Raleigh CAC tomorrow night, followed by my Parks meeting Thursday night. As this month’s third Monday happens next week rather than this week, my CAC meeting will actually come after my other meetings, rather than before like it usually does.

Sounds like a lot, I know, but I’m having fun!

Friday morning on the way to work my 2001 Honda CR-V finally crossed the 100,000 mile mark. Up until only recently I’ve left it in the driveway as I’ve either worked from home or I’ve biked to work. Since I began working in RTP I’ve put about 40 miles a day on it.

It’s a good car and hopefully will be around for years to come.

Well, the fun week at work alluded to in my last post hasn’t happened yet. I’m still stuck with one ticket that is proving difficult to resolve. My fun project has had to wait in the meantime.

I hope to work more on it tomorrow so that I can show it off this week.

Where to start about our weekend?

Saturday morning the family and I met 14 other neighbors to pick up trash all around the neighborhood. We collected over a dozen trash bags of litter and cleaned out creeks that feed eventually into the Neuse river. I got doughnuts and coffee for participants and vests and tools loaned from the city. It was a great turnout and a great way to make an immediate difference in our neighborhood. I’m happy to say that we did not have nearly as much trash as last time. I don’t know if that’s because the last trash clean-up kept recurring trash from collecting, or if the recent non-stop rain simply washed it all downstream. I’m thinking the rain just cleaned things out for us. Ah well.
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Someone must be playing a trick on me. How did it get to be April already?