More yard beauty

No more dead birds this time. Just a few pictures of the flowers in the yard.







Ever wonder what happens to asparagus if you forget to pick it when you should. It gets quite tall and looks like a naked tree. I don't have my size comparison dog in the picture, but these are all about 6 feet tall. Oops.



Now, off to Pinehurst for three days of golf. Hoping the rain is polite enough to only come at night.

The X-Files come to Duxford

WARNING: ugly, sad pictures in this post.


Fox Mulder will probably be stopping by any time now. I went down to get the newspaper this morning and saw a lump on the driveway. After chasing Jasper away from it, I saw it was a dead Blue Jay. You couldn't tell what killed it, but it definitely hadn't been eaten. We have hawks, owls, fox...



Then things got weird. I looked about 30 feet away and saw this.



and 10 feet from that one was the third and final bird.



I can't tell what happened to them. It is just too weird for three birds to be dead in such a small area, in one night, and yet it doesn't look like it was a predator. I checked for signs of alien space ships, but found none. I looked for secret defense weapons, but none there either.

Just weird.

Beauty and the beast

I planted this azalea a few years ago. It was a spare plant, a runner from an azalea in front of our house. All I wanted was some year-round greenery to block the ugly electric utility box. Now it has become one of the prettier bushes we have.

As is often the case, Jasper was brought in as a size reference. He is sitting on the utility box, although he wasn't quite sure why.



When I resurfaced the deck with Trex last year, the Carolina Jasmine took a big hit. I generally just ripped it off the old decking and then just stuck it back up when I was done. It certainly seems to be quite happy with its new Trex environment. Now that most of the blooming is done, it is growing its new vines at a rate of about an inch a day.



And now for a #%*&!!(# lesson in physics. A few years back, I put in this fountain. Very pretty, but quite the challenge at 800 pounds. Filled the fountain. Started the fountain. Very pretty, but very splashy. If you let it run for a day or three, it slowly, relentlessly splashes out enough water to be a problem. If you let the water get too low, the pump can burn out.



No problem for me. I are smart. I had an irrigation system and figured it would be handy for the plants around the fountain. I ran a few of the little irrigation lines into the fountain. This means that every few days, the irrigation system kicks on and the fountain should refill.



Even after doing this, the fountain was emptying quickly. I figured I must have a leak where the electric line runs into the base of the fountain. It's underneath so you can't look to check.

Before filling the fountain after the winter, I sealed around the electric cord. Fill the fountain. Start the fountain. Watch the fountain drain again. How can this be?

I sit down on the front porch and stare angrily at the fountain. It takes me a good while, but I finally get it. When the irrigation starts, it fills all the pipes with water. When it turns off, the lines downhill from the fountain act as siphons. They slowly, imperceptibly, suck water back out of the fountain. Not enough to see unless you already know exactly where to look and what to look for.

The answer was to hook the irrigation lines to the side of the fountain so they can pour water in, but not siphon it all back out. Perhaps this lesson will help someone, somewhere, somehow. If not, just enjoy my suffering.

Logging my first marathon

Since I have been back to Raleigh, I have started running again. My goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but I have to start slowly (being part slug). Today I logged my first marathon of the spring. Of course, it took me the last 17 days to accomplish this feat. On my 4 mile run this morning, I brought my total to 29 miles so far.

Now all I have left to do is cut 16 days, 20 hours and 30 minutes from my current "best" and I will be golden!

The damn dam is now damned

I went over to my dad and Colleen's place today to help destroy a dam that Mother Nature built. Drop a tree across a creek and after a while, lots of wood piles up behind it. In the lowlands around their house, even a small dam can cause flooding. This one wasn't that high but had built up about five feet thick.



We attacked the dam with a chain saw, one of man's greatest inventions. It was a bit awkward trying to run the chain saw, standing on top of wet logs and piles of debris, hoping not to step down into several feet of water.



The idea was to break up most of the support of the dam so that when the next big rain comes, it floats the lumber and the dam travels down the stream in small chunks. We shall see. Colleen promised to send me a picture.

My business hero

Just outside of Park City there is a very large subdivision called Promontory. About a year ago, the developer was suffering from the housing market downturn. He went to Credit Suisse and tried to renegotiate his $275M loan. They weren't interested.

So, he declares bankruptcy. Credit Suisse can't find another owner so the bankruptcy court holds an auction. There is only one bidder, the original developer. He buys the whole thing back for $75M.

Builder: shrewd
Credit Suisee: "What the hell just happened?"

Showing the house

Wow. Two showings in two days. That means that both home buyers in the Triangle have now seen the house. Now we just wait for a third buyer to enter the market.

The pains of owning multiple homes

It has been nice getting to live where the weather is best. We spent the last five springs and falls in Raleigh and the summers and winters in Park City. We love coming back to Raleigh to see friends and family, enjoy golf, NCSU football, and blooming flowers. However, there are lots of downsides:

• You have to do all the repairs at both ends. Neither house seems to feel obligated to take care of itself while you are gone.
  
• Traveling with pets is awkward and very expensive. We are very limited flying Jasper because it can't be too hot or too cold at either end. Flying them costs more than our airline tickets.
• They canceled our direct flight from Salt Lake to Raleigh.
• Every time we leave a house for a few months, we have to go through a long cycle of clearing out the pantry, fridge and freezer. This means that we are always coming back to an empty house.
• You never can remember what you have where.

So, it is time to try and sell our house in Raleigh. Click the picture of the house to go see the sales info on realtor.com.



Anyone want to buy a house?

We will miss living in Raleigh, but after 25+ years, it is time for us to wander on and have a full time house somewhere else. Without the house, we will be able to get back to Raleigh more often, without pets, and without a house to work on. Sounds like vacation!

Now maybe I can work at being the mayor of Park City. :-)

Unbelievable bike riding

This simply shouldn't be possible. This video lasts about five minutes but it is worth watching. It is some of the most incredible bike riding I have ever seen.

Click on it once to watch it here. Double click and you will go to Youtube where you can see it a bit bigger.

Red and White game

The NC State spring football game was held today. I went with Tony Hudson and his son Jackson. It was either a fairly slow game or a good defensive showing. It was nice to see a few guys make some star plays but it is hard to judge the team based on such a controlled game.



The spring game was played in the honor of Kay Yow, NCSU's long time coach of women's basketball. She recently lost her battle with breast cancer. You can see the pink breast cancer ribbon on the field. The crowd was asked to make donations to the Breast Cancer fund on the way into the game. We had a great turnout and they raised over $28,000.



At the end of the game, the players stayed around to talk to people and pose for pictures. Lots and lots took advantage of the opportunity.



I like what coach Tom O'Brian is doing with this team. They show some promise. My biggest hope is that we can avoid so injuries to so many key players this year.