I’ve been thinking this weekend how the past year has flown by faster than any I’ve ever known.
Horseshoe Farm Park
Today’s weather promised to be mild, so after breakfast we packed up into the car and explored a new park in our neighborhood: Horseshoe Farm Park. Horseshoe Farm Park gets its name from the bend in the Neuse River which surrounds the park on three sides. We’d heard about it in the news lately but decided to see for ourselves what it was all about.
The park has been in the news because of controversy in determining what to do with it. The city is currently working through a master plan for the park, which is where the controversy lies.
Members of the Horseshoe Farm Park Master Plan Committee were tasked with coming up with the best use of the property. They were obstensibly supposed to do this with the public’s best interest at heart. Instead, they got a push in a developer-friendly direction when they were nudged to make it an “active” park: with ballfields, tennis and basketball courts, a dog park and a gynmasium. This put local activists in a snit, who then proceeded to push their vision of the park as a nature preserve . Throughout the planning process, public comment on the park has always strongly favored this natural approach.
Some have questioned why Raleigh first pitched this park as a nature preserve, then changed course and pitched an active park to the planning committee, only acquiescing when the public let its nature park preference be known. I think the answer came this week when Raleigh revealed the gift from Dr. Annie Louis Wilkerson, a wealthy obstetrician who left her 155 acres to the city with the stipulation that it remain a nature park. Most importantly to the Horseshoe Farm park saga, Dr. Wilkerson’s deal hinged on the City of Raleigh keeping it a strict secret. Members of the Parks and Rec advisory board weren’t even aware of the gift.
The city (or at least some in the city) has known about Dr. Wilkerson’s gift for almost a decade. The question they have to grapple with is this: does Raleigh need a 155-acre nature preserve less than five miles from a 140-acre nature preserve?
Not having been to Wilkerson park (because it’s not yet open), I can’t say what it has to offer. On the other hand, Horseshoe Farm with its rolling pasture area, open hay barn, wooded trails near the riverbank, and abundant wildlife, seems perfect just the way it is. Try as I might, I just could not picture gyms, tennis courts, or any other urban-oriented buildings going there. I love playing sports, but there are plenty of places for that stuff. Horseshoe Farm Park isn’t it.
The park’s planning committee meets again at 7 PM Wednesday night, March 1st at Durant Nature Park to continue hammering out the park’s future. Among the audience will be Kelly or me – two happy converts to the “nature park” cause.
Links:
City of Raleigh: Horseshoe Farm Park Planning Committee
Friends of Horseshoe Farm Park
Indy: Battle over Horseshoe Farm Park heats up
Indy Blog: A Big win at Horseshoe Farm Park
N&O: Tennis, gym, dog park nixed
N&O: Two park planning committee members resign, spur email war
Durant Nature Park: site of March 1st committee meeting
Warm-Up Act
I fired up my laptop to show Travis some pictures today. As we’re waiting, I nonchalantly told him “hang on now, we’ve got to wait until it warms up.”
I blinked and realized how that phrase dates me. Few kids remember when you had to wait for your television or stereo to warm up.
So you wet-behind-the-ears, solid-state generations know what I’m talking about, once upon a time electronic switching was done with vacuum tubes instead of today’s transistors. The tubes had to warm up in order to function, and when they were warm, they were really warm. They chewed up electricity and air conditioning and often wore out, inviting a visit from the TV repairman. Remember TV repairmen?
Now its rare to even see transistors. They now live with millions of their tiny friends on integrated-circuit chips, putting a handful of parts into a product that once took a suitcase-sized number of tubes (or transistors, for that matter). Imagine an iPod Nano rendered in vacuum tubes. You couldn’t fit it in your garage!
Hmm, maybe I should add a “geezer” category to my blog!
Floating An Idea
I’ve got a neighbor who is always out flying a remote control plane. He’s got a glider as well as a motorized one. The planes don’t disturb anyone and are in fact really fun to watch, especially when he’s doing acrobatic maneuvers.
Another neighbor runs an aerial photography company. He’s got over a thousand hours logged above Raleigh, taking photographs for real estate and law firms. His photo collection numbers in the tens of thousands.
One fun project I’ve been mulling over involves a remote control aircraft – perhaps with more “remote” than “control.” I’ve seen these balloons for sale from Edmund Scientifics (a fantastic company, by the way). I’ve also seen 2.4Ghz cameras for sale at The Home Despot for a hundred bucks. Wouldn’t it be fun to launch a camera to see what can be seen?
There are lots of similar, interesting projects out there already, so a lot of the way has been paved. The cost would be minimal – especially if care is taken to safely recover the payload.
I have meterologist friends who can provide information on the winds aloft. I’ve got plenty of geeky friends who can help. So, come on! Who’s with me here? Who wants to launch a camera with me? Let’s put something together for a summertime launch!
Sleep
Been a bit too eager to burn the candle at both ends lately. More details later. Now its time for some sleep.
Traffic Cones Banned From Airlines
Is it just me or is this protest particularly weak? I mean, here are some Indonesian kids attacking the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and all they can find are rubber traffic cones?
Really, now, is that any way to riot? America’s most timid college students can mix it up better than these kids. Heck, even geeks in engineering school could throw down better.
If traffic cones are now weapons of mass destruction, what’s next? Should orange barrels be outlawed? How about those portable flashing road signs? Al-Qaida could send terrorist messages or something.
Come to think of it, I’ve never really trusted the guy holding the stop sign at road construction sites. While he looks bored out of his mind, I bet he’s really planning an embassy attack!
Where’s the Department of Transportation … er, the Department of Homeland Security when we need it?
A Few Consecutive Days At Home!
I’ve managed to spend a few consecutive days at home! It’s been an enjoyable weekend, one which was much-needed after all the travel I’ve done recently.
I got back from San Diego early Friday morning. I had decided earlier to work from home that day, so that’s what I did. It sure was nice being close to the family, even if I couldn’t play the whole time. Miracle of miracles, both kids – each of which is on the mend – slept soundly through the night. It was the first time Kelly has had a full night of sleep in days.
I went to a talk Friday evening, getting back home around 10:30. Another good night of sleep followed. I gave Kelly a break from parenting so she could run errands. The kids and I watched the sleet and rain fall from the comfort of the playroom. After taking Travis up for a short nap, Hallie and I made a loaf of tasty bread.
I did some work cleaning up my desk and computers before getting ready for my dad’s birthday party. It was our first night leaving the kids with a hired babysitter and things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. We were surprised to hear the babysitter had them settled a bit earlier than we could have done it ourselves. The kids seemed to like her, too.
Dad’s birthday party was a lot of fun. My sister and her family came up from Shelby to take part. The conversation was filled with wisecracks and jokes. The food and wine were excellent, too. We had to cut short her celebrating in order to relieve the babysitter. With Kelly at home, I drove the babysitter home and then went to my parents’ house for the “after-party.”
For Dad’s birthday, many of us had prepared some sort of tribute to him. My brother Al recorded a catchy song for the occasion. My neice wrote a charming poem. I wrote a little toast of sorts. Everyone enjoyed the performances! I was amazed to have left after midnight, as there was still so much energy. Good thing birthdays come every year.
Today was a typical Sunday for us, except for the chilly weather outside (19 degrees at sun up). The kids were in happy moods as were Kelly and I. After breakfast, we headed back over to my parents’ for more visiting with my sister’s family. Hallie and her cousin Victoria had a blast chasing each other around the house. Travis wasn’t quite as mobile, though he enjoyed taking everything in. It was nice seeing my sister again. We just don’t get together often enough.
After getting lunch, the family and I took a quick, chilly walk around the neighborhood. Naps followed, which were then followed by more organizing the home work area. Kelly cooked a tasty meal for dinner, after which we horsed around with the kids until bedtime. Man, its good to be home!
Tomorrow I stick around home while Kelly runs a few important errands. Then I’m back to my desk at the office – a strange place to find me as of late.
Misery
This doesn’t indicate my present mood at all. It’s just a cool song.
Misery
Soul Asylum
They say misery loves company
We could start a company and make misery
Frustrated, incorporated
Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you’d pay to see
Put me out of my misery
I’d do it for you, would you do it for me
We will always be busy making misery
We could build a factory and make misery
We’ll create the cure; we made the disease
Frustrated, incorporated
Frustrated, incorporated
Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you’d pay to feel
Put me out of my misery
All you suicide kings and you drama queens
Forever after happily, making misery
Did you satisfy your greed, get what you need
Was it only envy, so empty
Frustrated, incorporated
Frustrated, incorporated
Zip-RDU-Dah, Zippity-ay
During our Christmas travels to Virginia, I flew back to Raleigh via the last of our Independence Air vouchers. Cooking up some jazz in the middle of RDU‘s Terminal A was the Tim Smith Trio. Though they were really grooving, I was one of only a handful of people paying attention.
After a moment a petite brunette sidled up to Tim Smith and whispered for the microphone. She then proceeded to belt out a spirited rendition of the Wilbert Harrison classic “Kansas City.” I thought “wow, she’s damn good for just having wandered off the street.”
Of course, she didn’t exactly wander off the street. After spinning a Zippers CD today, I identified the mystery singer as Katharine Whalen, whose quirky voice (and virtuoso banjo picking) helped vault Chapel Hill’s Squirrel Nut Zippers to worldwide stardom (and unexpectedly spark a renaissance in swing music). Tim and Katharine were bandmates in the Zippers. Their music added a wonderful treat to an otherwise boring wait for my plane.
When not playing holiday gigs at airports, the Tim Smith Trio plays at Raleigh’s Stonewood Grill Wednesday evenings. Check ’em out.
TriLUG Transition
I resigned my position on TriLUG‘s steering committee tonight. My work schedule didn’t allow me to participate to the extent that I would have liked. The other committee members were feeling the pinch, and that isn’t right. It’s a shame it had to happen, but them’s the breaks.
Even so, I’ve had visions of an interesting new special interest group I am thinking of starting. It will be focused on technology and membership will consist of those people paving the way for the others: people who don’t know the meaning of “it can’t be done.” I, of course, will be the cult leader. Being first has its privileges, you know.
Look for more details soon … or not. You may not be kewl enough to get them. 🙂