Fay to the rescue?

Western North Carolina is so dry now. During last week’s vacation, we stirred up huge clouds of dust as we drove up gravel-covered mountain roads. We failed to find any critters on Chimney Rock’s Nature Adventure trail. In fact, the only critters we saw during the whole trip was perhaps two deer, one bat, and one hummingbird. Nature up there is hurting right now.

That’s why I’m glad to see Tropical Storm Fay on a course that will take it over our mountains, especially since the winds that accompany it should be weak enough not to cause much damage.

Dog-cloning lady: fact or fiction?

Does anyone else get the idea that Joyce McKinney, the dog-cloning lady, is playing the press? This just has to be some kind of publicity stunt.

McKinney gets worldwide press when she allegedly clones her dog, but provides reporters with a bogus address. Then word gets out that in the 1970s she allegedly kidnapped a Morman man to be her sex slave. Oh, and she’s wanted in Tennessee for allegedly talking a teenager into breaking into homes so she could use the loot to buy a leg for her three-legged horse.

Come on, this lady is a walking punchline! She can’t be for real. Somebody’s being played here, I tell you.

F-street parking

I think Raleigh officials botched the parking layout of Fayetteville Street. The city should’ve made its parking spaces angled. There’s all this wide, unused sidewalk, another four or five feet of which could’ve added a huge number of parking spaces to this area of downtown. The sidewalk wouldn’t have even missed it.

While I’m a pretty big tree-hugger and no fan of the concrete behemoth that used to be the “pedestrian mall,” inadequate street parking limits the growth of downtown business. If one wants a vibrant city core, good parking is a must. There’s enough room on F-street for plenty of parking and sidewalks. What we have now is the result of a botched decision.

Media stickiness

The problem with deadline-driven media is that once one’s printed “all the news that fits” there is precious little room for follow-up stories. Media outlets will chase each others’ reporters around town, hoping to scoop each other on the next breaking story, while few newsrooms provide updates on the stories that aren’t breaking. There are exceptions, of course, such as the Duke Lacrosse case or a notorious murder trial. In general, though, once a story gets bumped off the front page (or the metaphorical front page for broadcast news organizations), it tends to be forgotten.
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Volunteers needed to go to the moon

A local company is seeking volunteers to go to the moon. the volunteers won’t themselves go the moon, but they will help in the effort of local group TeamSTELLAR to win the Google Lunar X Prize by being the first private company to land a rover on the moon.

TeamSTELLAR is made up of a number of local businessmen and N.C. State engineers. The group is seeking volunteers to assist in a number of tasks, including administrative, fundraising, legal and engineering roles.

If you’d like to find out more, TeamSTELLAR will hold a presentation from 7 to 9 PM Tuesday, August 19th, on the first floor of Engineering Building II, Centennial Campus, N.C. State University (map here).

You’d have to be looney to pass up this opportunity.

New flag for the City of Raleigh

A few days with my toes in the sand made me realize the perfect new flag for the City of Raleigh was right under my nose. Or in my hand, more specifically. I held a water bottle from the Raleigh Parks and Recreation department, and on the side was Parks and Rec’s distinctive, cool logo:
Raleigh Parks and Recreation

Why not make this the official city flag? Imagine this oak tree logo emblazoned on a white-and-green flag (with no text, of course, as befitting a proper flag). It would be so much more attractive and distinctive than Raleigh’s current, tired old flag.

Home again

We are back again after three days at Carolina Beach. Our beach house was great except for two things: the blinds in the master bedroom leaked like a sieve and there was no Internet access.

I’ll post a more complete update over the weekend. For now its time to get my book and relax.

Home tonight

We got back this evening for an overnight stay in Raleigh before heading to the coast. Our timing put us into RTP right before 5PM, meaning we ran smack into rush-hour traffic. Gazing at the sea of brake-lights heading east, I thanked my lucky stars once again for my bicycle commute!

We stopped by Linville Caverns on the way home. The caverns didn’t disappoint, being sufficiently dark, damp, and stalagtite-y to keep us entertained. I expected there to be bigger rooms here and there but that’s not the way caves work. Still, it was a fun diversion.
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Chimney Rock

We had a great day today at Chimney Rock, the pseudo-state park here with a wonderful, chimney-like, er, rock. We started our tour of the park with the Hickory Nut Falls trail, winding our away around the mountain to reach the waterfall. Since Western North Carolina (WNC) has been suffering from a drought, the waterfall wasn’t much more than a trickle. One unimpressed visitor called it “some guy pouring a bucket over the top.” The water did reach the ground, however, and provided a nice backdrop as we snacked on trail mix and watched idiot park visitors attempt to scale the sheer cliffs near the falls.
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Whoa, that ain’t no mountain laurel!

Perusing this headline at WRAL made me think of a funny incidence on our arrival here Friday. Kelly went into the local grocery store to pick up some food. When she got back into the car, the smell of marijuana followed her. And it wasn’t just a whiff, it was very strong. Kelly of course doesn’t partake but it didn’t stop me from kidding her about it!

Driving back towards I-40 with the windows down, we were smelling it just as strongly, though there wasn’t anyone around, nor could we see any smoke from possible law enforcement burns.

It was really odd. The moonshine culture is alive and well here, so I’m sure the forests are full of it. Even so, I didn’t expect to be greeted by it when we arrived!