After Friday morning’s tragic fire that killed two N.C. State students, I promptly checked both our smoke alarms to make sure they work.

When was the last time you tested your smoke alarms?

The elections were yesterday. Saying no one cared would be close to accurate: less than five percent of voters bothered to vote. When Kelly and I voted at 8:30 yesterday morning, a mere 39 people had been there before.

This just goes to show that MT.Net needs more readers, of course. Because y’all voted, didn’t you? You did, right?

Meeker wins reelection. Kekas, Stephenson and Craven take seats on the Council. Other members won their seats back in July when no one chose to run against them. It seems to me that voter apathy is at an all-time high.

Perhaps I’ll reconsider toying with the thought of running for office some day. It doesn’t look like anyone but me would care.

Everybody knows this stuff goes on. Can it now be proved?

There’s an election tomorrow. Don’t forget to vote.

This time around, I’m voting against road bonds. Too much sprawl and too much tax. The guys at Below The Beltline have shown me the light.

In the garage I’ve got four bales of hay and five boxes of IP phones. Can you tell I’m from North Carolina?

It turns out that the remnants of Hurricane Tammy were just what I was looking for to help relieve the drought. Chez Turner got about three inches of rain over the last four days.

On Friday, I pulled a receipt out of my raincoat that was dated June. It made me think: had it really been that long since we got a good drenching?

By conincidence of scheduling, we had our long-time grading problem fixed on Thursday. Water had a history of ponding up in the corner of our yard, but no longer. A new drainpipe, a few dump truck loads of dirt, and a bit of grading moved the water correctly from one end of our yard to the other. Kelly and I gleefully waded out in Friday night’s rain to watch the water drain. The things that pass for entertainment nowadays, huh?

Now to seed our newly-reclaimed yard and put even more water on it until our grass is back to normal.

Seeing that Halloween is approaching, its time to turn my attention to a question that’s been vexing me. Namely, do magic spells have to rhyme? I mean, do they lose their effectiveness if they don’t? Are you a poor conjurer if you can’t find words that sound the same?

Take “bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.” Would it be less effective if it was “toil and difficulty?” Or “toil and problems?” And what if you’re in a hurry? What if a boulder’s about to fall on you, or a piano, or an anvil – and you just throw together whatever you can spit out?

Do they rhyme because they work better that way, or just because it makes the person saying it feel clever?

I bet a wizard or witch that can’t rhyme gets busted on all the time. It’s gotta be embarassing.

I got curious today to learn the fate of my old home, the USS Elliot (DD-967). The last I knew, it was fated to become a target in a SINKEX. That SINKEX occured this past June, during Operation Talisman Sabre 2005, a joint exercise between the U.S. and Australian militaries.

According to this Australian notice to mariners, the Elliot was sunk off the eastern Australian coast at 25 degrees south, 155 degrees east. Here’s a picture of what the Elliot might have looked like when it was taking a hit. Standley was the other ship sunk during this SINKEX.

Its sad to see Elliot go, but at least I know where she’s parked. Should the ship be resting in shallow enough water, perhaps I could someday go dive her.

[Update]: Whoops. That picture is from November 2004. It’s not the Elliot nor the Standley, but the ex-USS Hayler. I should have known by the choppy, cold-looking waters that it wasn’t the Coral Sea. 🙂