Thanksgiving reunion day 5 – Thanksgiving Day

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Thanksgiving Day began with the clearest sky we’ve had yet here at Panama City Beach. The humidity level dropped tremendously, making the horizon look razor sharp. The wind had also picked up, however, and was blowing quite strongly all day long. These conditions lasted throughout the day.

We began our day with a family walk on the beach, and like before, we stopped along the way to write whimsical messages in the sand. Hallie led the charge on this but soon we all participated. Being Thanksgiving, our messages took a decidedly holiday theme, with a turkey emerging as the main subject. Future walkers would find these messages along with turkey-like tracks dotting the white sandy beach.
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Thanksgiving at the beach

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It’s a nautical-themed pashmina Thanksgiving this year. We’re meeting many generations of Turners later today for a hearty Thanksgiving meal. Until then we may take a walk or two along the beach. Maybe we’ll wade out to the sand bar and watch for stingrays to swim by. No matter what we decide it promises to be a fun day.

Hope you enjoy yours!

Thanksgiving reunion day 4

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Day 4 of our Thanksgiving reunion/beach vacation began a bit tamer than the previous ones. We had a leisurely breakfast and marveled at the glassy Gulf: the calmest we’ve seen it yet. The smooth water allowed us a perfect view of the passing marine life and while we watched from the balcony we saw a couple schools of stingrays and one small pod of dolphins amble by.
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Thanksgiving reunion day 3

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I got up early this morning to tag along with our family friend Carl for a day at his office. Carl’s company has the contract at Tyndall Air Force Base to recover the drones used by fighter planes for target practice. The drones, known as BQM-167s, are rocket-launched, turbofan-powered, unmanned aircraft about 20 feet long with an 11 foot wingspan. His crew clears the launch range and stands by to recover the drone, if needed.

After Carl picked me up at the hotel we picked up Jim, one of Carl’s workers. Together we drove to a diner near the base where we had breakfast. Then Carl gave me a tour of his office and the boats, both located a short distance from the end of the Tyndall runway.
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Thanksgiving reunion day 1

We finished up our first full day in Panama City Beach, Florida today. So far its been a fun trip.

Yesterday we got up well before daybreak and made the long drive from Raleigh. The sun was just rising as we passed South of the Border and into South Carolina. We made good time all the way until just north of Florida, when we took a detour to Folkston, Georgia, to see the Folkston Funnel.

The Folkston Funnel is one of the busiest stretches of train track in the country, with up to 60 trains passing through each day. Being a family of railroad fans we looked forward to seeing it in person. Three freight trains went roaring through this stretch of track while we had lunch on the viewing platform. It was a good distraction from the day of driving.
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Camcorder crash

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Once again we’ve had a Sony camcorder mysteriously die on us. Our almost-new Sony DCR-TRV280 gave me a “reinsert cassette” error this morning all of a sudden and would not accept the tape no matter how many times I put it back in.

We purchased this camera about 3 years ago in an effort to have something that would play the dozens and dozens of Hi8 8mm videotapes we have in our collection. Like our last video camera this one has apparently suffered a failure of the tape transport system, essentially rendering the whole camera useless. The cost to replace the tape transport mechanism exceeds the value of the camera.

I’ve been jonesing for this Panasonic HVX 200 HD camcorder I’ve seen on Craigslist but I don’t have the bank to buy it now. That’s probably for the better because if I owned it I would be tempted to buy a beefy Mac and a few terabytes of storage to make beautiful videos with it.

Hmm. Maybe I could buy it and make it the centerpiece of a new business doing video production. Yeah, that’s it!

This makes me sad

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Saw that a 21-year old kid got charged with armed robbery today. Kevin Lightsey, Jr. was charged with kidnapping and armed robbery.

I always like to see where suspects live, so I punched up Lightsey’s address in Google Maps: 4828 Forest Highland Drive. He lives not in the ‘hood, but in Hedingham: a fancy golf course community. Nice house, too.

Just for fun I looked up Lightsey’s voting record. He registered last year and voted for the only time in the last presidential election.

So how does a kid living in a good neighborhood and who was a one time enough of a citizen to vote turn into an armed robber? He had no prior record. He had better opportunities available to him. What led him to be accused of a serious crime?

Real wheels

We had to take the van in for some last-minute repairs before taking it to Florida so our friends were kind enough to loan us their BMW 328 for the day. I drove it to work today.

The car is 15 years old and is filled with “quirks” but it didn’t matter. It is a stick shift (which I missed as I haven’t driven one in years), it actually hugged the curves, and it had a little power! I didn’t have to slowly creep up that daunting hill on NC 540 over N.C. 54 today – heck, I didn’t even have to downshift!

I’ve been driving the Honda CR-V (and Odyssey) for so long I forgot what it’s like to have a car that’s actually fun to drive. It’s sad that I had to give it back tonight. If only that pot of gold were to appear . . .

My NBC 17 interview

Due to my role as the chair of the East CAC, I was interviewed today by NBC 17 regarding WakeMed and a nearby club, Black Tie. You can view the interview on NBC 17’s website.

Longtime MT.Net readers know what a huge fan I am of WakeMed. Our daughter spent seven weeks there as a preemie and is thriving in every way thanks to the incredible care she got from WakeMed. Even so, I have to admit I don’t think I’ve heard one complaint from residents about Black Tie over the past year. I’m hoping both parties can agree to work together to help strengthen our community.