Geezer

There are 384 posts filed in Geezer (this is page 22 of 39).

First Date anniversary

With all the anniversaries I’ve been mentioning, I figured today’s warranted a mention. It was fifteen years ago today that I finagled a trip up to visit my future bride, Kelly, in Boston where she lived. It was our first date and took place only weeks after we’d met at our high school reunion.

At the time I swore up and down that I originally booked the trip to visit my friend, Gordon, who lived in Beacon Hill. Funny how I never got around to seeing him. It was only years later that Kelly actually began believing me when I said he existed!

Thirty years of computing

I was at a dinner this evening and shared a table with two retired IBMers. We began trading technology stories and I bragged about being one of the first to use the IBM PC. My dad bought it for the family back in 1982.

Only after getting home did I realize that this year marks the 30th anniversary of my use of computers. Our first PC lasted a year or two before my brothers and I upgraded it with a new motherboard, doubling its speed to a blazing 8 MHz. A subscription to Computer Shopper magazine and few years of part-time-job salary saved up and we had added our first hard drive, an incredibly fragile 10 MB model. Then it was two truly ahead-of-their-time 19.2 Kbps Fastcomm modems, two phone lines, and we had our own bulletin board system in 1987 (another anniversary at 25 years ago this year) with over 300 users.

Thanks again, Dad, for bootstrapping my career!

State fans: treat visiting fans with respect

My nephew posted a link to this Letter to the Editor from an Florida State fan who was treated rudely at the recent NCSU-FSU football game.

My friends and I were just four of the 11 FSU students who bought tickets for the NC State game last weekend. We made the 10 hour trek and had a great time, besides going to the actual game. Sure, the loss was tough but what truly ruined the experience was the hatred we received from NC State fans.

This letter may have simply been a “sour grapes” response to the Wolfpack’s win but I think there’s more to it than that. I can also say that I’ve been appalled at how some N.C. State fans have treated visiting fans, particularly before football games.
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Please stop letting kids wear short dresses

Kelly and I joined our friends at this weekend’s homecoming game at our old high school. At halftime, the school held its traditional homecoming queen ceremony (for some reason neither Kelly nor I can remember there being a homecoming king). We were both a bit shocked at how short all the homecoming queen contestants’ dresses were. They were not much more than tight-fitting shirts. One girl’s mother was down there in a dress just as short as her daughter’s. Neither one was rocking the look, to say the least.

We saw a glimpse of this look as we drove past an N.C. State football game earlier this year. A stream of girls walked by wearing cowboy boots and hats and dresses that barely covered their butts. It screamed “desperation” to me and I didn’t find it at all attractive.
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Cheesy sports bar anniversary

Kelly mentioned that yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the high school reunion at which we met. I pointed out that we actually met for the first time at the icebreaker the night before the reunion, at a sports bar called Champs in Reston, VA. Thus, Wednesday was the anniversary of our meeting.

I’m sure I blogged about this before, but Kelly and I chatted only briefly that fateful night before she bailed on me to go to another party. So Wednesday was also the anniversary of Kelly dumping me at a cheesy sports bar!

Col. Bob Ley

Col. Bob Ley, US Army retired


I just mentioned my former boss Bob Ley in my last post, so I want Google searching for him. I turned up this obituary of Col. Ley from last year. I’m sad to hear of his passing.

I worked part-time for Col. Ley in the hardware department of Hechinger store in Sterling, VA. His influence on me went far beyond what the part-time nature of my job suggested.

He was an outstanding mentor and I’m undoubtedly a better person because of him.

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Time for Gen. Tata to fall on his sword

Some friends and I were recently discussing the Wake school bus fiasco. Some thought that through his resignation, Don Haydon, Wake’s long-time operations and facilities manager, might be accepting responsibility for the debacle. And he is. It has been his job for 12 years to get the buses where they need to go. I wondered, though: how could a seasoned administrator with over a decade of experience foul things up so badly?

Then I recalled the military bureaucracy I once served in and got an idea of what most likely happened. Haydon was almost certainly given an impossible task to move more kids with fewer buses. I can imagine that his boss wasn’t too keen to hear that a train wreck was imminent and Haydon had no choice but to step down.
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Raleigh Union Station

Raleigh’s Union Station, circa 1940s. Photo by John F. Gilbert.


This morning, federal, state, and local officials gathered in the Dillon Supply Viaduct building to announce that Raleigh’s proposed new Union Station is now fully-funded. The chance of Raleigh getting a new train station anytime this decade looked remote until Raleigh won a $21 million federal grant. The Feds are kicking in $15 million of stimulus money and the state is kicking in an additional $6 million. Raleigh is funding $3 million from its earlier transportation bond and Triangle Transit is contributing the $1.3 million property.

Above is a circa 1940s photo of Raleigh’s former Union Station, which still stands at the corner of Dawson and Martin streets facing Nash Square. Raleigh’s station was an “end-station” with stub-end tracks, meaning trains stopping at Raleigh had to back either in or out of the station.

Backing up trains takes a lot of time, so when the Seaboard station and Southern station (both through-stations) opened up it spelled the doom of Union Station. Now the building houses offices. I believe the station’s tracks are still embedded beneath the surrounding roads.

Taking to the stage?

One of the many things on my bucket list is to play a role in a musical. A friend let me know about upcoming auditions for Theatre in the Park’s production of A Christmas Carol. With encouragement from Kelly, yesterday I made an appointment to audition for a spot in the ensemble.

My last audition was over 25 years ago, at South Mecklenburg High School for a role in the musical South Pacific. I think I did well because there was discussion about me playing the lead role of Lieutenant Cable. Ultimately I opted not to be in the play because drama was the realm of my brother, Allen, and I didn’t want to crowd him. Probably more accurate, though, was that I was still extremely shy and had little self-confidence.

The kids were excited when I mentioned the play and now they want to audition, too! Picking out good audition songs for them is proving to be difficult but they sure have no problem performing before crowds.

While Kelly is sitting this one out, she has enthusiastically agreed to join the kids and I as we reprise our roles as zombies for the Haunted Mordecai trolley ride again this year. Boo!

Closing in

The Weatherford property as seen in Raleigh iMAPS, 2012-09-12.


I should’ve known it was too good to last. Word is that the Weatherford property, the 10 acre property across the street from my home, is under contract. I also learned yesterday that the wooded lot behind my home was sold last week.

As for the Weatherford property, the surveyors left marking tape on Monday and Kelly and I talked with executives with the buyer (presumably KB Homes) Tuesday. Their plans include single-family homes around 2500-3000 square feet. They’re said to include “environmental features” that sounded intriguing but weren’t elaborated upon. The lot sizes will be smaller than the 1/3 acre lots that my neighborhood, Bennett Woods, enjoys. This was due to the rising cost of land.

The rep who we spoke with said that our street, Tonsler Drive, made the property “especially appealing.” That means our days of being the last home on the street are probably numbered, though I assume we’ll be the last home on Tonsler proper (due to the existing street numbering) and a new street will begin at the end of Tonsler.
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