I brought home an interesting purchase today, makes quite an orange neon glow on the walls. John suggested we crank up the record player and listen to a little Jefferson Airplane while lava watching. Impossible, while I have a Jefferson Airplane record, I no longer have a record player.
Home again after a couple of days in Mayberry, USA. It was a rather uneventful trip, the weather was good and the drive quite pleasant. I had no business taking the trip on my treadless tires but the trip came up quickly and well..... Anyway, I have new tires on high priority before before I take off again.
John and I are off in different directions for the next couple of weeks, so we took advantage of the only evening we both have available and headed to The Strip for dinner. Most restuarants were overflowing with basketball fans (UT vs AL) but we found a table at Moe's Southwest and settled in for a cheese quesadilla and an "Art Vandalay". Much to our surprise, we spotted Barbara (of retirement party fame) with a friend in tow. Since we thought she left for Arizona over a week ago, we couldn't quite grasp the fact that she was sitting at a table nearby. After a few moments of conspicuous starring, I finally circled the table and caught her attention. We joined her and friend and listened to her trials with some household plumbing issues and last minute trip preparation. She is committed to be off early in the morning and will be in Arizona in plenty time to start her "summer" job. We admit to being just a little bit jealous of her summer vacation!
The Whitesell family came a' callin' yesterday for a mini family reunion of sorts. Auntie Sue was here, Uncle Joe, Vicky, Steve, Eric and China (Vicky and Steve's pup). We had a fine time eating lots of food, talking and laughing uncontrollably! One of the highlights of the day was watching an old 8mm movie of the family from around 1952-1959. What an incredible treat to share a slice of family history with the elders (who were the youngers at the time of the film) and to listen to their comments and family stories. Many thanks to my brother-in-law, Mike, who patiently transferred some of Daddy's extensive collection of 8mm film reels to DVD!
Mother, Auntie Sue and Uncle Joe
Hostess gifts from Cousin Eric. Eric has taken up home brewing wine. "The Medicine" he calls it. Read into that as you will.
Cooking in the kitchen with Uncle Joe and Cousin Vicky, clearly the best cooks in our family although Eric gives them a strong run for their money. Joe treated us to the favorite foods of generations of Whitesells...country ham rolls (ham he cured using Granddaddy's old family recipe), fresh fruit Whitesell style and corn, stripped from the cob and frozen moments after picking. He reconstituted the corn with 2 sticks of Land O' Lakes and milk. He was a bit disappointed that my refrig contained only skim milk. We were thankful, our collective waist lines can't take much more!!
from left: Leslie, Eric, Vicky, Steve and Mike
Leslie listening as Uncle Joe spins his stories, throwing all of us in fits of laughter! 
Bother and sister, Eric and Vicky
Daddy and Carol listening and laughing, must be Uncle Joe telling another story
The camera is turned on us 
The Whitesell family (John is taking the photo), front row from left: Vicky and China, Mother, me, Leslie. Back row from left: Eric, Carol, Daddy, Sue, Joe and SteveGr-r-r-r-r! I am fed up with the problematic nature of Internet Explorer. After a computer shut down several months ago while trying to download the new Internet Explorer 7, I have been very careful about downloading newer versions of anything (except the army of protective software that maybe part of my problem). Several nights ago while trying to talk on the phone and work on Smithposts, I accidentally hit the download button for the new Blogger software. When I discovered I couldn't log back in, I had a few days of serious aggravation.
In the "old" days of Blogger, I could research the help section and, if an answer wasn't found, send an email. In a few days, a response would appear in my mailbox and I could fix the problem. But now that Google has purchased Blogger, things have become a bit more complicated. The Help link sends the reader on a problem solving deadend. Even the "Write Us" link does not lead to an email address but another series of instructions. I spent several evenings applying all sorts of tweaks and twists as directed by Blogger. In a weak moment, I even went as far as researching and ordering a new tower for my computer. This was an expensive knee jerk reaction and I came to my senses before the tower arrived at my front door.
John finally provided the solution by suggesting I try opening Blogger with another Internet explorer. I remembered that I had downloaded Foxfire while having an earlier problem with Internet Explorer. Foxfire was the solution, I am back on Blogger problem free...for now anyway.
A rather large Friday evening gathering at Will's house to officially celebrate the retirement of friends Barbara and Ron. It was a gala affair with lots of vegetarian goodies and hours of conversation and stories.
Ron and Barbara have been smiling big since the day they retired, Ron at the end of December, Barbara at the end of January
Ron with wife Ginger, to his right and hmm, George's attractive friend, whose name I didn't get, to his far right
Dave and Robin
Will and Kim in Will's library...
Bill and Silke
Judy and John, with Silke and Cheryl
Will, Cheryl and Ron
Priscilla, Judy, John and Dave
George, Robin, Steve, me and Barbara
Barbara, Will and RobinThis morning I woke to a humming noise I couldn't identify. In a strange hotel room and slightly disoriented, I fumbled for the alarm clock, only to discover it was 4:20 am and not the alarm clock disturbing my sleep. The humming noise continued and I realized my cell phone, on the far side of the room, was emitting the offending noise. With John's father in intensive care, I struggled to shake the sleep out of my head and stumbled across the room to grab the phone, hoping for no bad news.
I hit send to redail the missed call. Instead of John on the line, I got the India branch of Delta Airlines who wanted to inform me that my 7:35 am flight had been canceled and I could be rescheduled on the 6:00 am flight, if I could leave for the airport right now. I vaguely remembered that my boss was on the 6:00 am flight, so I quickly called to see if he had checked out. He was still in his room and offered to wait 15 minutes (the latest he could leave and still make the drive to the airport, drop off the car and navigate through a very picky security inspection).
I called Delta back and again the phone was answered by the India branch. It has been my experience when dealing with India based service centers, that some of the representatives speak and understand English better others. Unfortunately for me, when I needed someone who could move through the process quickly, I found myself on the line with a young woman who struggled to understand my very mild southern accent. So, while she asked me to repeat the same information over and over and over, I scrambled to dress and pack and talk on the phone. Finally we had some sort of breakthrough and she transferred me to the Delta medallion office where an American voice (southern I might add) answered the phone and took care of the flight in minutes. Yeah...down to the lobby and off to the airport in the allotted 15, well maybe 18 minutes. A ridiculous experience at 4:30 am but it was great to get home early!
Delta might want to reconsider that offer from US Airways, at least from my perspective anyway. Another day of traveling, another day of delays. Mechanical problems plus an inoperable toilet on the flight to Bentonville. I threw away my the Diet Coke with that announcement.
This time it wasn't just my plane, but at the far, far end of Atlanta's Terminal C, most of the commuter planes were experiencing some type of delay...weather or mechanical. People were sprawled on the floor and spread out on the furniture. Every few minutes a monotone voice read the latest delay. Busy working on materials for an afternoon meeting, my flight's hour delay passed quickly and I was wisked away on a very uneventful flight!
Duane, Bill and John stop close to the top of Jane's Bald 
Endless mountains visible on the horizon
John, Duane and Bill coming down the rutted Appalachian Trail on the backside of Jane Bald
Sunset at our campsite low in the saddle off the backside of Grassy Ridge Evening fell around 5:30 on Grassy Ridge. Our tents were up and we donned our warmest winter clothing for the anticipated falling temperatures. Everyone gathered around the fire ring and we were quite pleased to discover that others before us had left wood. Since we carried up a number of small fire logs for a " just in case" situation, we burned them so we would not have to carry them down.
Aside from the commotion caused the a grass fire set by Will's Seva stove, dinner was uneventful. John and I had our usual pizza with an after dinner hot chocolate. The temperature dropped quickly and the wind became very gusty as the sun disappeared.
Fire set by Will's stove, fast foot work by Will and John averted a possible disaster in the wind
We woke to a winter wonderland ("Yes, it's cold out here," says John) The wind gusts were tolerable as we stood by the fire after dinner and watched the twinkling lights from Beech Mountain ski resort (several ranges away). Finally the bitter wind found its way into the layers of our clothes and we headed to the tent around 8:00 pm. I couldn't wait to get out of the icy atmosphere and into my very comfy down sleeping bag.
The night was interesting. High winds put our 3-season Mountain Hardware tent to the test as gusts slammed into the side countless times during the night. I woke from a restless sleep on numerous occasions with the fabric of the tent blown against my face. Sometime around 3:00 am, we heard ice hitting the tent. Getting up and out in the morning would be a challenge.
Oh so cold breaking camp
Cold and windy as we broke camp on Sunday morning. The clouds swirled low on the bald as we hurried to pack and get on the trail. With the temp no higher than 20-degrees and the winds gusting at 30 mph, we figured the temperature around 0. Br-r-r-r-r!
The hike to the car went quickly as we skirted icy patches on the trail. Somewhere on Round Mountain, the icy wind turned to a blowing snow. Ah, the car heater never felt so good!
Yours truly, very cold on Grassy Ridge!!
Spent part of the afternoon with Daddy. I really enjoyed sitting around his studio, talking and looking at some of his projects. Currently he is working on a collage-painting concept. This project is in the experimental stage and below are some pictures I took as he worked on his practice board.
Yesterday I participated in the annual SC planning meeting at David and Willa's lovely home in the country. With a smaller than usual group, we blew through our agenda by 3:30 pm...several hours ahead of our scheduled dinner hour. While several people were willing to stay for a short hike or come back at a later hour, most were anxious to get home and get on with other obligations. As a result, we missed one of the finer aspects of the annual meeting, the potluck dinner. Guess some people are eating warmed up casseroles today!
Around the table after lunch: David, Axel and Will
John and Allan listening
Axel, Will and Cheryl
We don't have a lot of great kit flying days in east Tennessee but today was perfect...warm temperatures and 20 mph wind gusts! We headed to Lakeshore Park, staked out an open field (yes, I realize the photos show power lines and trees), laid down our blanket and unfurled our kite. A strong breeze caught the kite immediately, lifting it high as we let out line. The kite took enough free falls to keep things interesting, but everytime we pulled it in toward us, the wind would grab it and take the kite up, up and away! It never did touch ground.
"Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height"
"Lets go fly a kite and send it soaring..."
Hang on tight!
Reeling in the kite.
Home after a roadtrip to Mayberry...err, Mt. Airy, NC to visit the corporate offices of the company that acquired ours in November. I rode shotgun with my office mate in her "El" (Element), which was not a bad way to travel. The car is a bit of a rough ride but carries a bicycle upright in the back with wheels, seat and handlebars firmly attached...a very reasonable trade off according to my office mate.
Our route took us through Kingsport-Bristol, to Wytheville, VA where we took a right and dropped into North Carolina. Along the way we discovered that global warming has not affected Virginia just yet. The 10 minute snow storm that blew through Tennessee on Tuesday morning left a fine ground cover of several inches on the hillsides in western Virginia. (Oh course, pre-global warming, this could have been a foot)
Snow in the countryside somewhere past Damascus, VA
Snow covered hills as we turned right and dropped steeply into NC. Lots of salt used to keep the roads clear resulting in a very grimy, salty El.
We arrived in Mt. Airy around 12:30 pm and considering the fact that Terri arrived to pick me up 30 minutes early, I was relieved to discover that I had my work, samples and clothes in tow...everything but my computer plug. We spent the afternoon working with our counterparts and getting to know more about our new company, a very nice afternoon. At 5:00 pm, everyone left the office, so we did too.
After struggling to decide whether to walk on a dark greenway (a foolish idea to be sure) or walk in downtown Mt. Airy, the lightbulb finally went on and we headed downtown under the street lights. It was cold, we were not really dressed for the weather but we walked briskly pausing on occasion to look in a shop window or browse through the bookstore-soda shop. We stopped in a restaurant on Main Street, Pandowdy's, to get warm and consume a delicious dinner of grilled red trout. We watched the locals who were probably watching us and I even talked a little TN football and basketball with the owner when he noted that we were not familiar faces.
I pause here to tell you about Mt. Airy. Through a Google search, I learned that the population is about 8,500, 85% white, 54% female. Through my own experience I learned that smoking is welcome, nay encouraged, and everyone does. Mt. Airy is also the hometown of Andy Griffith and the model town for the TV series Mayberry RFD. Mt. Airy has built a business around their Mayberry image, autographed photos and life size cutouts of the cast can be found in most every establishment. "Down the street" from Mt. Airy, about 30 miles, is Pilot Mountain, aka Mt. Pilot in the TV series. Unfortunately, we were not here to explore the trails on and around the mountain, but to work.
I return to the story with two directionally challenged females lost on the roads in Mt. Airy calling the hotel for the 3rd time in the same day to figure out where we were in relation to where we wanted to be. Remember, I said the population of Mt. Airy is 8,500 people, this is not a big town. By 9:00 pm we were safely tucked in for the night with the realization that a map would be a very good idea. (Map-#1 on the ten essentials list for car tripping as well as backpacking)
We departed today about an hour past our target. Terri was tied up, then I was tied up and we couldn't break away. Of course there was our 4th tour of the city (in daylight this time), while we struggled to figure out where we were and where we wanted to be. Finally we were on the road for what turned out to be a long, tiring drive home. All in all, the town is lovely, the people are nice and we had a fine visit.
Floyd's Barber Shop. I understand you can have your picture made with Floyd and hung on his wall of fame. Guess we were lucky the shop was closed when we walked by, I might have been tempted.
Main Street, Mayberry RFD
Tiny green things are pushing out of the ground everywhere, crocus, daffodils and unfortunately tulips, day lilies, Siberian iris and hosta leaves. Yesterday, another in a series of above average temperature days, I decided to rake my neighbor's leaves off my lawn and out of my front gardens. This particular waste of a good afternoon was compliments of my neighbor's oak that drops leaves all winter and my neighbor who utilizes wind energy wind to clear them away.
The process of removing the leaves led to uncovering the hapless tender sprouts, which resulted in the dirty task of adding another layer of mulch. But the effort also uncovered one of winter's great beauties, Lenten Rose bushes laden with buds. Below are photographs of the first of many blooms to come.
Morning shadows along the Will Skelton Greenway
Reflections on a very calm river
We almost brought the New Year in with friends. Will and Kim had a grand New Year's Eve party but 12:00 am is way past our bedtime and we were tired so we said our good-nights a little early. We turned out the lights just as Time Square erupted with shrieks and confetti. Getting up this morning was tough!
Cold weather finally arrived today in the form of mostly overcast skies and a cold wind. We celebrated the new year by taking an early morning walk on the greenway and later, a movie. It was a silly movie, "Night in the Museum" with Ben Stiller, but we laughed a lot and enjoyed getting out and doing something we don't do enough of. A nice warm fire and sleeping through some really bad football finished off a pleasant beginning to 2007!
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