A very different day

In one day, the temperatures dropped about 40 degrees and the snow rolled in. It was a big snow, but it sure was an abrupt change. We got about 3 inches, but a lot of it melted on the toasty ground and roads as it came down. Alta got 12" at the highest peaks.



The clouds were making some interesting patterns with the changing leaves.



A little color with the Park City ski runs in the background.



These aspens are just down the street from our house. So pretty!



Even the little guys take part. This is a sedum plant growing at the top of our retaining wall. Sedum looks a lot like little cacti. I had no idea they changed colors in the fall.



It's 23 degrees here this morning. I hope to get up to Guardsman's Pass in a bit to try and get some pictures up there. Should be gorgeous.

Fall in Park City

I didn't have much time to get out yesterday and take pictures, but I did shoot a handful when taking Jasper up the hill. The aspens are really cranking along with their brilliant yellows.



And while most of the maples are done and have dropped their leaves, some are still at it.

Flying American Airlines

Now that the buggers at Delta have taken away the direct Salt Lake to Raleigh flights, we look at all airlines as alternatives. Both Julie and I are million-mile fliers with American, so we have permanent Gold Status with them. That's a definite plus.

Flying back to Utah on Monday, our plane had mechanical problems and they had to wait on a part. I ended up getting in the Salt Lake four hours later than scheduled.

Today I got an e-mail from American saying "Sorry we screwed up. We added 5,000 frequent flier miles to your account because we feel bad." OK, not their exact words, but the right sentiment.

Thanks American for caring a bit more about your customers. Delta never did this for me.

Playing a real team

Julie and I went to the NCSU-Pitt football game this weekend. We brought our friends Jim and Carmella Saunders. After two weeks in a row of beating up on small teams, this was billed as a decent test.

State came out playing terribly. Offside penalties seemed non-stop. Two missed field goals. Dozens of missed tackles. The good news is that they never got more than 14 points behind.



NCSU managed to score the last 21 points of the game and hold on (barely) to win. It was a win, but a sad ugly win. I hope next week is better.



This out neighborhood gang: Tom, Carm, El, Barbie, Julie, and Jim.



The entire game seemed to be waves of cloudy, light drizzle, heavy drizzle, repeat. It never poured on us, but you needed something to stay dry. Carm's little poncho seemed to put up an excellent fight.



Julie and Carm at the seats.



Nice to see a win. Not sure if I will be back for any more games this season. We shall see.

Cruising the neighborhood

When Julie and I are back in Raleigh, we go and visit my uncle Sam over at Mayview. One activity I enjoy (and I hope Sam does) is to grab the wheelchair and go out for a walk around the neighborhood.

Here's Sam after we had gone to the Highwood Park restaurant for lunch. Notice that he has an umbrella in his lap. For whatever reason, every time we do this it wants to rain.



I thought it was great that as soon as my camera came out, Sam took off his glasses. I guess they don't fit the style he wanted to portray.



Julie and I agree that one of the biggest downsides to living out in Utah is not getting to see the family as often.

Life in Raleigh

We seem to have gotten about 4 or 5 inches of rain in the past two days. That guarantees that the humidity never drops below 110%. My 8 mile run yesterday was disgusting.

A few days ago, before the rains started, I noticed a little wren trying to get a drink out of our empty fountain. I felt sorry for him, so I rinsed it out and filled it up. Figured it would make a nice little bird bath.

The next morning I walk out and find some lovely little birds using the fountain.



Three big Black Vultures.



Once I scared them off, they went to hang out on the roof.



I'm pretty certain that this won't help sell the house!

Last night we had a visit from Jim Covaleski. He was on his way from DC to Charlotte, so we grabbed dinner and then spent the night with us. It was nice to see him again, even if so briefly.

Off to have lunch with my neighbor and IBm co-worker form days gone by, Chuck Terrien.

Beating on a high school team

One thing I miss about being in Utah is getting to go to NC State football games. Back in NC, I got to catch the Wolfpack playing the mighty Running Bulldogs of Gardner Webb. It was supposed to be an easy win, but you never know with State.

From left to right are Darrell Baber (my college roommate and best man), Jay Shive, and Jason Shive. Jason lived on my hall in the college dorms and has been an original member of our 20+ years of golfing trips.



I like the fact that they can do fireworks in the stadium when the team runs out. At some point, someone somewhere will get hurt with a stray spark and everyone everywhere will have to call it quits.



NCSU killed the bulldogs, 45-14 and it wasn't really that close. The highlight was State's quarterback, Russell Wilson, setting the NCAA record for most passes without an interception. He's at something like 330 and still going. What makes this more special is that the quarterbacks we've had for the past few years threw an interception about every third snap.



This Saturday will be a much bigger test. We play Pitt, which is picked to win the Big East and is currently ranked somewhere in the top 25.

What has brown done for you?

Right before I left for NC, we stopped at Bill and Loris Benson's house. Seems they had some nosy neighbors hanging around the front door. A momma moose and her two calves were napping by the front door. I didn't know where they were and accidentally disturbed them.



One calf was wandering around to the side while the other hung out with the Benson's deer statue. I wonder if the moose figured it was a good hideout because that deer always seemed to be safe hanging out there.



Julie called last night and said the deer had moved up the hill and were eating trees at our house. It's fun to see them, but they sure can be destructive.

More odds and ends

For those familiar with Park City, we just lost another restaurant that had been around for decades. The Stew Pot is closing up this week due to slow business. Not our favorite place to eat, but unfortunate to see the long-running businesses go under.

Get your flu shot soon. We heard there is likely to be a shortage of the normal seasonal flu shots because companies switched to making swine flu vaccine. Think the whole swine flu thing was blown out of proportion? Here is something from the Raleigh newspaper:

For the first week of September, the state reported 1,125 cases of flu-like illness through its network of doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals that participate in a surveillance system. Most of those illnesses are attributed to the H1N1 virus. At its worst last winter, seasonal flu hit 719 people in North Carolina during one week in February.

I'm heading back to Raleigh today. I'm hoping to catch up with lots of friends and catch two NCSU football games.

Boating on the Jordanelle

After years of thinking that it would be a good idea, we finally went boating out on the local Jordanelle Reservoir. Thanks to Loris Benson for setting this up!

We rented a pontoon boat and headed out with Bill, Loris, and Hollie Benson. Here's captain Bill with Julie.



The leaves are starting to change and there was some nice color up on the mountainsides. It still has a long way to go.



As we headed to the end where the Provo River dumps in, you could look back and see the ski runs at Deer Valley.



Julie is hanging out on the boat while Loris (the human) and Hollie (the dog) are on shore.



Hollie and Jasper spent a good two hours romping around in the water and along the shoreline. They came home as two tired dogs. Here we have coordinated stick fetching.



Jasper, waiting for the next throw.



The trick was to avoid being next to this. Easy with one dog. Much harder with two.



This turned out to be the apparent stick of choice. They both seemed to enjoy fetching it and Hollie eventually trimmed off all the extra branches (with her teeth).



Timing turned out to be perfect. Today was the last boat rental day of the year. The reservoir was almost empty of other boats. The weather was gorgeous. On our drive home, the storm clouds started moving in and we had thunder and lightning. But we were home, warm and dry by then.