Red Rocker
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Mary has been looking for a wood rocking chair to compliment our red front door and the Japanese Maple tree on our porch.

After several unsuccessful trips to flea markets, furniture stores, junk shops and yard sales, we finally found one at an antique store next door to Sweetwater Flea Market.

Our new chair had obviously been neglected and left out in the weather but the wood was sound and the price was right so we chucked it in the back of the truck and brought it home.nbsp; Mary sanded the old peeling varnish and cleaned the dust off before we broke out the Fire Engine Red paint for the coup-de-gras!  Three coats of paint and the rocker was ready to assume its rightful place on the front porch along with the Red Door, Japanese Maple Tree and our Welcoming Loon. Ya’ll come on in!

 

Welcome!

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Voter confusion, ballot overcrowding, and frivolous candidacies?
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In a decision fraught with circular logic, the North Carolina Supreme Court has rendered a decision insuring that political minorities will continue to be discriminated against in North Carolina elections.

“Here, the avoidance of ‘voter confusion, ballot overcrowding,’ and ‘frivolous candidacies’ is an important regulatory interest,” (Justice) Timmons-Goodson wrote in the first constitutional challenge to the ballot-access law the high court has considered.

Isn’t it interesting that we live in a country where our governmental bodies supposedly applaud democratic elections in other countries that have dozens of parties and hundreds of candidates but here at home our courts make statements like the one in red above?

In North Carolina, nearly half of the congressional races have only one candidate because a “Major” party has chosen not to run in the race and write-in candidates are not counted without first having been vetted by the local boards of elections.

That sure reduces “Voter confusion” – give them but a single choice and they will not be confused at all!  Oh, a ballot with only a single choice is certainly not overcrowded, and, lest we forget, those evil “Frivolous candidates” that might actually bring a fresh idea or a new perspective to the process.

I say shame on the North Carolina Supreme Court and State Legislature for actively working to disenfranchise a very large percentage of voters.  Most of all, I say shame on the citizens of North Carolina who do not demand that their elected officials correct this wrong.

Jim Crow is alive and well in North Carolina, it just wears a better disguise than in years past.

Pirates, gold and mystery.
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A Single Deadly TruthA Single Deadly Truth by John Urban

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have a weak spot for independent authors because I have often found their works to be fresh and compelling. John Urban’s debut novel was another pleasant discovery recommended by another Indy I like, Mike Jastrzebski. This tale has action, mystery, treasure, betrayal and all the gritty stuff that makes good story. Give this one a read, it is worth your time.

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The Thunderbolt Kid strikes again!
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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A MemoirThe Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My Rhode Island kids gave me this for Christmas. As a child of the 50’s, I couldn’t help relating my own personal history to the middle of the USA portrayed in this wonderful book.

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Tennessee Snow
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Snow on the roof!

Significant snow is somewhat uncommon in our part of East Tennessee.  We are in the Little Tennessee River Valley at about 800 feet of elevation with a large lake to moderate the temperature.

A bit of sleet and a dusting of the white stuff is about normal for winter precipitation in Tellico Village so we were surprised this past weekend when the local weather folks quit hedging their bets and started talking in certainties and inches.

By noon on Monday, we had over 6 inches on the ground with light snow still falling – a real blizzard by local standards and an opportunity to see our home from a different perspective.

Snowy triangles

 

Our driveway retaining wall displays a beautiful pattern of triangles reaching into the distance as the snow hides the imperfections and every day patterns to present us with a new perspective.

Birdbath snowy frosting

 

The bird bath takes on the look of a well frosted cake. All around me are sites and items presented in a beautiful new way and I am pleased to pause a few moments to reflect on my good fortune.

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Delta Queen in Chattanooga
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The Queen

Our cruising club scheduled a two night trip to Chattanooga in January and Mary & I decided to celebrate our 22nd anniversary a week early on the trip.

The Delta Queen is a real stern wheeler built in the 1920’s for service on the Sacramento River between Sacramento and Oakland, California. It was built in Scotland and then disassembled and shipped to Stockton, California where it was reassembled and placed in service.

The Queen served in WWII as a support vessel in San Francisco and eventually was refitted as a cruise ship carrying passengers to most ports on the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers through 2008 when her exemption from some safety regulations was not renewed .

View from our stateroom

The Delta Queen appeared headed to the scrapping yard when she was rescued and transported to Chattanooga, Tennessee to be used as a floating hotel. The view from our main deck room was spectacular with Downtown Chattanooga directly across the river, sunsets to our right under the Market Street Bridge and sunrises to the left behind the pedestrian bridge.

If you find yourself planning a trip to Chattanooga, you might want to consider staying on the Delta Queen Hotel: it is a unique experience. If you like Trains more than ships, try the Chattanooga Choo Choo at the southern end of the free trolley line – stay in a real sleeping car from the heydays of rail travel. You’ll have fun, we certainly did.

Touring the Queen

North to Rhode Island.
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The mayhem begins!

With all the shuffling of our family this past year, we decided to head to Rhode Island to visit the northern contingent of our clan.  Looking at the weather, a clear week was forecast and long-term predictions looked good!  (Remember the boat parade?)

Well, we arrived on the 23rd a beautiful day and spent Kas’ birthday (the 24th) with him and Christmas day with the grandkids – fantastic.  I bemoaned the fact that Knoxville (our new home) and Winston-Salem (our old home place) were both having a white Christmas while we were in New England and hadn’t seen a flake.

Sunday morning arrived with a dusting of snow and a Blizzard Warning from the weather folk.  Monday morning brought a foot of new snow and a lesson to be careful what you wish for.  We watched Nico and Nadia play in the snow while Kasumbu and Kate kept them dressed warm and dry.  Thumper went ballistic in the snow.

We’re safe and warm but now looking for a weather window to head South in.  We may have to hug the coast and cross North Carolina to get home.

The morning after.

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Boat Parade December 2010
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Winning Boat!

Last year (2009) we practically froze in out first outing with our decorated boat – 25 degrees and high winds put wind chills in the teens as we plodded outr course.br /br /This year, I was overly cautious as decorating day came – forecasts were for cold weather and possible snow on parade day so I decided to pass on this year’s parade.

As you might expect, parade day was warm and sunny with almost no wind!  We ended up watching from the Clear Creek launch ramp as beautifully decorated boats cruised past without us.  Oh well. maybe next year we’ll get it right.

Sunday at the Zoo
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Ever since we moved to East Tennessee last fall, Mary has been wanting to visit the Knoxville Zoo so we planned to do so on Thanksgiving day.

A call from our Tellico Village friends Kathy and Keith inviting us to feast with them precipated a change of plans so we decided to make our zoo trip on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

We bought our tickets on-line and on a blustery November morning, we drove to Northeast Knoxville to the zoo.  Now understand that our North Carolina Zoo was huge and the habitats often requires binoculars to study the animals.  The Knoxville Zoo occupies roughly 1/4 of the area of the NC zoo but much to our suprise, the habitats were fairly large and had little of the “Caged animal” look of the zoos of our youth.  We really enjoyed our stroll through the various areas and noticed a significant amount of work on new habitat areas for a number ofnbsp;nbsp;animals needing more space to roam.nbsp; The turtle bog was a favorite of Mary’s as she never met a turtle she didn’t like.nbsp; br /br /It was chilly and a number of animals were not on exhibit due to the weather but all-in-all, a great day and we’ll be back.

Day 10 – Washita Battlefield

After a 3 hour drive from the dry and missing attractions in Texas, we arrived at the Washita Battlefield National Historic site near the town of Cheyenne, Oklahoma.

Long before Custer met his end at the Little Big Horn, he led his troopers to attack Chief Black Kettle’s camp along the Washita River in Western Oklahoma.  In the pre-dawn hours, Custer and his 700 troopers attacked and routed the 100 or so Indians in Black Kettle’s camp.  Two hours later, 30-60 Cheyenne lay dead and 53 more were taken captive.  Custer then had his troops kill about 800 horses and mules the tribe had and destroyed all their posessions and supplies.  Black Kettle was supposed to be under the protection of the Army at the time but that made little difference, he and his wife were among those killed.

Washita River

There is an excellent visitor center with fine displays and presentations and paths throughout the battlefield with educational markers.  This is a beautiful place with tall prairie grass and a peacefulness about it that indicates nothing of its past.  More pictures of this area can be found HERE and the video below will give you a sense of being in the sea of grass.  We left the battlefield and traveled to Weatherford, Oklahoma for the night.