Sinking sun

Stepping out this morning on my daily dog-walk, I noted that the sun was no longer awake before I was. We’re facing the end of summer and in spite of the mosquitoes and oppressive, record-setting heat the thought makes me a little sad, I have to admit.

It’s been a great summer. We’ve seen the kids through swim meets, T-ball games, soccer games, and sleepovers. We’ve spent many afternoons at the pool and had a wonderful time building our garden and enjoying the bounty it’s provided. We’ve taken trips to see Kelly’s parents and gone on the best-ever camping trip to Grayson Highlands. Soon, we’ll be taking our biggest trip of the summer as we head off for a week on Orcas Island in Washington state.
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Piling on the sugar

One of my pet peeves is the habit food companies have of piling on the sweeteners. Some take the position that anything they sell can be made better with a double-dose of high fructose corn syrup. What results is a society with an obesity epidemic.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Take yogurt, for example. We’ve long been looking to buy a brand with less sweetener added. What we’ve found is it’s harder than you think.

You’d think that by buying brand-name food, or food that touts its health benefits most prominently, you’d be picking the healthiest, right? Wrong. Let’s take a look at three different yogurt brands in our refrigerator right now:
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Robert’s Rules of Order not just for meetings!

I came upon a brilliant idea yesterday to keep the kids from constantly interrupting each other around the house: Robert’s Rules of Order! I’m used to using the Rules of Order to run my East CAC and Parks board meetings, why not apply them to my kids?

As chair of the household, I will formally recognize our kids as speakers and allow them the floor. Should the other wish to interject, I will ask if the current speaker chooses to yield. This will keep the squabbling down to a minimum and ensure the household runs smoothly.

(My tongue is firmly planted in my cheek here. But I can dream, can’t it?)

Chris Tedesco arrested for rape

Chris Tedesco


Chris Tedesco of Garner was arrested Saturday on charges of second-degree rape, among other very serious charges:

  • KIDNAPPING 1ST DEGREE 14-39
  • SEX OFFENSE 2ND DEGREE 14-27.5 A
  • RAPE 2ND DEGREE 14-27.3 A
  • BREAKING AND ENTERING 14-54 (F)
  • ASSAULT W/DEADLY WEAPON 14-33

Chris Tedesco is the younger brother of Wake School Board member John Tedesco.

I don’t know what got into this guy but judging by the charges it looks like he’s got some serious anger-management issues. I hope the victim is okay.

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!

Keeping dogs calm during thunderstorms

Rocket


The N&O wrote about a new product to calm dogs during thunderstorms. Called the “Thundershirt,” it professes to soothe a jumpy pooch during thunderstorms and such. My neighbor bought one for her Labrador and swears by it.

This got me thinking about other proposed solutions. Kelly said she had heard people express success by rubbing a sheet of fabric softener on the dog, the idea apparently being that this would remove the storm’s static electricity from the dog’s coat. So, during the next storm I thought I would give it a try.

The other night a storm approached. The dog got nervous again, panting heavily and pacing around. I fetched a sheet of fabric softener and dutifully rubbed it on the dog. Sure enough, he seemed to calm down. But was that from the fabric softener or was it because the storm had come and gone? I can’t really say. After a second storm came by I tried it again. This time I didn’t see much of a difference.

The verdict? Sheets of fabric softener will indeed help keep your dog calm during storms, but only if you stuff them into your dog’s ears!

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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Ultimate neighborhood compliment

In the midst of a challenging day at work today, I was delighted to find that my neighborhood received the ultimate compliment today. A police officer is looking to move into the neighborhood. Why is this a compliment? Because cops know crime and they don’t want to live near crime.

We as a society ask an awful lot of our men and women in uniform. Our officers work long hours for low pay and frequently get no thanks for what they do. As they like to say, if an officer visits you you’re usually having a bad day. Also, their work can be intense. And dangerous. They deal with dangerous people every day so the rest of us don’t have to.
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‘Pilots could have saved’ Air France plane

A new report on the Air France 447 crash confirms that the pilots did not take proper action to recover from a stall, pointing the nose up when instead they should’ve pointed it down. Even beginner pilots know how to recover from stalls.

Again, there’s still no clear idea why the pilots didn’t follow this simple procedure.

The pilots of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 ignored repeated stall warnings and failed to follow textbook procedures, French investigators have found.

The updated account confirmed an earlier finding which said the crew responded to stall warnings by pointing the nose up instead of down.

“It seems obvious the crew didn’t recognise the situation they were in, for whatever reason, and more training could have helped,” said Paul Hayes, safety director at UK consultancy Ascend Aviation.

An aerodynamic stall — not to be confused with stalled engines — is a dangerous condition that occurs when wings are unable to support the aircraft. The textbook way of responding is to point the nose downwards to capture air at a better angle.

via ‘Pilots could have saved’ Air France plane – Europe – Al Jazeera English.

When is a parking violation not a parking violation?

My neighbor Mike Stenke runs a food truck business, Klausie’s Pizza. Recently there’s been a battle between the food truck operators and some downtown restaurants, who want some rules put in place on operating food trucks on public streets.

While I can sympathize with the restaurant owner’s arguments, I find it curious that no one’s raised a stink about the hot dog vendors that operate around town. I figure if a hot dog vendor can operate his food establishment on a public street, why not a food truck? Also, why should a required distance be placed between a food truck and a restaurant when no rule would keep a brick-and-mortar restaurant from opening right next to an existing restaurant? Do the existing restaurant owners want to legislate buffers between all potential competitors? If a restaurant owner is going to have a competitor, one would think he would prefer a competitor that could go away once in a while.

Anyway, the City Council heard the issues in a session last week and Stenke, because his livelihood depends on it, was also present for the discussion. After the meeting, though, someone pulled a dirty trick on Stenke, calling the cops about how his truck was parked.
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