Geezer

There are 384 posts filed in Geezer (this is page 21 of 39).

Highlights of 2012: Neighborhood happenings

It was a year full of interesting happenings around the neighborhood.

The year started off with a bang (fortunately not literally) when I helped catch a burglar as he was breaking into a neighbor’s car. Unlike other suspects I’d seen who were up to no good, I got no subpoena for this incident because a police officer witnessed it, too. If only an officer was always just around the corner whenever a crime occurred it would make things so much easier.

A few months later I was surprised to see a number of police cars entering my neighborhood. My neighbors became the victim of a mid-day breakin, with the thieves having enough time to neatly stack their booty behind the home before the cops rolled up. Fortunately for everyone but the hapless crooks, the cops blocked the getaway car in the driveway, which provided not only a wealth of fingerprints but a curious parade of passersby, all unusually interested in a crime that hadn’t been publicized. The perps were caught a few weeks later, their getaway car having belonged to someone they knew.
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Highlights of 2012: Jupiter the Cat

Jupiter the cat


This past year was a notable one for the way the feral cat that occasionally appeared on our doorstep wound his way into our lives. Jupiter the cat not only came back to us after I put him through the traumatic process of getting fixed, he basically adopted the whole family!

I bought a heated pad to keep him warm in the cold and put out food and water for him. He has taken to spending long stretches parked in the lap of whomever sits in the rocking chair, purring up a puddle of drool in the process.
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Highlights of 2012: Hopscotch


One thing I had to look forward to for almost all of 2012 was Raleigh’s Hopscotch music festival. Kelly gave me Hopscotch tickets as a Christmas 2011 present and for months just thinking about the show made me smile. When September showed up I was ready to go. And you know what? It lived up to its hype!

I scoured all the local websites and picked the brains of my musically hip friends to find out what bands to see. Some of those suggestions were unbelievably good while others were so-so. With a festival as big as Hopscotch you can usually find something that you like.

I decided at the end of the festival the perfect plan for picking what to see at Hopscotch. I will take all the band suggestions gathered from friends and music authorities and then go see all the other bands! I found the most interesting bands were the ones that no one was talking about. Those gems made it all worthwhile.

I hope we can go again to this year’s Hopscotch so it can make next year’s list of highlights!

Golden age of comics

During this past weekend’s joint family effort of cleaning our playroom, the kids discovered my book of Calvin & Hobbes comic strips. Before long there were peals of laughter ringing out around the home, followed by insistent requests that I find my “other” (nonexistent) Calvin & Hobbes books. Soon my collection of Bloom County comics joined C&H, along with a Dilbert book I own. To my delight and amusement, my kids got the humor instantly.

This was all such a happy scene that it was sad that I felt compelled to explain how the comics page of the newspaper used to be worth reading. I would say the 70s and the 80s were the high point for comic strips. We had Peanuts (fresh, not recycled), Ziggy, The Far Side, Bloom County, Doonesbury, Calvin & Hobbes, and Shoe. I was also a fan of the late North Carolina cartoonist Doug Marlette and his strip, Kudzu. As for Shoe, I believe I already told the story of how I once stalked cartoonist Jeff MacNelly as he shopped in the hardware store where I worked. He was a good sport, though, and humored me with an autograph that I treasured.

I know I’m old and frequently chase kids off my lawn, but I just don’t think today’s comics measure up. Still, I’m happy that my kids can enjoy the same comics that kept me entertained as a kid. That’s how you know something is a classic.

Last man standing

Two things happened at Thursday’s Parks board meeting/holiday social. We bid farewell to long-time board member and previous chair Jimmy Thiem, who has served his full six years on the board. It’s been great working with Jimmy and we will certainly miss his parks expertise. I hope we can put him to use on upcoming parks committees like one for Dix Park.

There’s another aspect to Jimmy’s “retirement” from the Parks board that I only realized afterward: I’m now the senior member of the board. This boggles my mind as it seems like only yesterday that I was a fresh-faced newbie on the board. Now I’ve seen all of the previous boardmembers rotate off to be replaced by fresh faces.
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Where I’ve Worked: State Employees Credit Union

It was August 1992. I had been in school at N.C. State for about two months, allegedly studying computer science but really spending time in the computer labs downloading commercial software like IBM’s OS/2 operating system. One day I saw a posting on the university’s job board for a part-time computer operator at State Employees Credit Union. The pay was pretty good and I knew the credit union would have some interesting “big iron,” so I went for an interview and was soon hired.

The job entailed monitoring the credit union’s statewide network of ATMs in case … what … I don’t know. I’m not sure we were trained much on how to identify or fix problems, though we could reset an ATM machine if a member called in to report a jam or malfunction. Rumor had it that the prior pair of ATM operators had used their positions to embezzle $250,000 from the credit union. I never found out if that was true or not but I do know that the display in front of us listed every transaction as it took place and included bank account balances, too. Having been bonded before from a prior job selling jewelry and being fresh from holding a security clearance, there was no question about my trustworthiness.
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Hornbeam Hill, 2012

Hornbeam Hill swing and pavilion


We just got back from a visit to Kelly’s parents and a weekend spent at Virginia’s Twin Lakes State Park. I wrote this post last night.

On the way down to the park on Friday, we detoured to visit Hornbeam Hill, the rural patch of land where Kelly and I got married 13 years ago. It had been probably a decade since we last saw it, Kelly’s parents having sold it soon after our wedding due to their desire for something more suburban. The kids had never seen it and we had no particular time schedule so we turned on to Bell Farms Lane in Palmyra and brought the van to a stop along the side of the property.
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One year of being Mr. Mom

It was a year ago today that I started at my current gig as a part-time system administrator. It was the start of an unusual schedule for me as I’ve taken care of the kids before and after school while getting in a few hours of work in-between.

While Kelly and I didn’t know how it would turn out when we began this adventure, the truth is that it’s worked really, really well. Kelly has a full-time job that she loves and I can work as much as I want part-time while helping out at home and in the community.

I told Kelly when she took her job that I would fully support her and would do whatever it takes to help her succeed. After one year we’re on the right track!

Introducing two friends from across the country

I got an unusual message on my Facebook wall this afternoon from Jacob Chitsaz, a friend who is the brother of my close friend, Mandy Reid. At first I thought it must be a joke:

In a car with Matthew Feath in Palm Springs… Small world 🙂 he says hi.

Matt and I served together in the same division on the USS Elliot back in the early 90s. We trade messages almost every day. Jacob had taken a limo in Palm Springs that just happened to be driven by Matt. Upon learning Jacob was from Raleigh, Matt probably asked the one-in-a-million question, “do you know a guy named Mark Turner?” Boom, instant connection.

Raleigh’s population is approaching half a million residents. Any one of those residents could’ve been Matt’s passenger. Instead, Jacob was and both of them figured out they knew me in common.

What’s amusing is that I know both of these gentlemen well enough to have attended each of their weddings. That puts them in a very small circle of friends. Small world, indeed!