Really big snow

The boys in the snow on Saturday afternoon.

Looking at the house from the intersection of Kerlee Heights and Old State Ten

The orange color is the lights on the deck stair handrail

We were warned. A week ahead of time word was out that snow was coming near Christmas Day. At church the big fear was that it would interfere with Christmas Eve services. We managed to avoid that scenario. But it started snowing about 7AM on Christmas Day and didn't take a break until Sunday. We did have ot cancel services on 12/26. We stopped counting at 8 inches. Plus, with the wind that kicked in on Sunday afternoon and evening, it was impossible to tell what was new snow accumulation and what was blow-off. These are some pics from Saturday. Today is supposed to be cold again with wind, but Tuesday should bring higher temps and a nice thaw.

The pecan tree and the intersection of Old 70 and Kerlee Heights

Seated one day at the organ

It wasn't actually me at the organ, but rather Eli. I had to fix a badly out-of-tune pipe today. And while I had the casework opened up, and since I was already dust-covered, I decided to touch up the tuning of the reed ranks.

I took care of the one note myself in the early afternoon. I used a pencil to hold the key down while I climbed up and fixed it. To do the reed touch-up, though, I decided to wait until Eli arrived at church off the school bus and let him hold keys for me.

All that went just fine. The reeds had suffered as we have been alternating between seasonably cool weather and bitterly cold spells. They sound much better now. As I was finishing up, Briggs asked to see inside the casework. I don't think he ever had before. Briggs was the perfect size to maneuver around the casework; I just wish he could handle the tuning! Then it was Eli's turn, though it was not his first peek at the ranks of pipes.

As we were finishing, a choir member showed up, and she and I sat down to chit-chat. Briggs ran off to find a basketball. Eli sat on the organ bench and experimented. I wasn't listening too closely as he drew one stop and another to hear the highs and lows and so forth. But as a few minutes passed I realized he was picking out the tune New Britain (Amazing Grace). I kept my focus on my conversation, but eventually had to pause because Eli was playing the melody on the pedals! My chorister had noticed the same thing at about the same time. Eli had pretty much figured out the basic melody and was beginning to add the grace notes too, mostly in rhythm.

His pedal technique was awful but I was struck by the fact that he deliberately chose to create the melody using his feet instead of using a manual. I demonstrated a soft, sustained chord for his left hand to accompany the melody and let him play the whole thing again. It sounded pretty good to me and to the singer!

Today Eli's band was doing its goodwill concert tour around the local elementary schools. It seems at least one choral group was also in the mix (maybe they were singing at the mall where the band had lunch), because he says that was how the New Britain melody had gotten in his ear: a group sang it today.

Who knows what this little experience may lead to, if anything. But it certainly was a nice "aha" moment in the midst of an otherwise ho-hum day.

Famous first words

Tonight at supper, we got talking about baby-talk. We circled around to early words the boys have created.

One of Eli's best was "dippit" which was his way of saying "ketchup." I remember the first time he used the word at the McDonalds in Ashland, VA.

Briggs' best new word was "wee-too." That was his version of "thank you." It was followed pretty quickly by "wel-tum" for "you're welcome."

Calvin hasn't got any really famous ones yet, but he is just on the cusp. Right now he's saying "buhmamma" for "banana." We're waiting for the really creative neologisms to start spewing forth.

You can still hear any of us using "dippt" and "wee-too" in conversations amongst ourselves. Luckily for us, the two older boys still find remembering, talking about and laughing over this sort of thing funny. Eli was slightly embarrassed, but managed to see the humor in it all.

This one did not

The second weekend in December was predicted to be messy weather-wise. We tried to prepare ourselves for it. It was a "big" weekend at church with special music in the morning and our big dinner theater in the evening. The weather was supposed to be rainy Saturday evening changing to snow and freezing rain at some point on Sunday. We figured we'd have church but would have to take a wait-and-see attitude with the evening event.

We woke up Sunday morning to 4 inches of SNOW! First service and Sunday School and the dinner theater got canceled right away. It was bitterly cold. The snow kept falling and we ultimately canceled our second service also. (Though at 11AM when I awoke from a mid-morning nap, it was SUNNY! Blue sky sunny, and the snow was melting!) Luckily, for the sake of my guilty conscience, it started snowing and sleeting again in the late afternoon.

It was supposed to be rain, but this was the scene early on Sunday morning. Two-thirds of the boys decided to make the most of it. While we missed the worst of the winter weather the first weekend of the month, we got slammed the second weekend!

Later that day

Later on the day we got our Christmas tree was the Black Mountain Town parade. We encountered clear and sunny skies, snow, rain and sleet, all of them, on the 60 minute ride back to Black Mountain!

This year for the first time we had two boys marching in the parade: Eli with Scouts and Briggs with Cubs. Because the two units are associated with the same church, they linked up on their parade float. Briggs got to ride on the float; Eli carried a flag. (You can almost make him out in the lower right corner of the photo above.) It snowed and rained (freezing rain) the whole time. This snow storm took it easy on us.

The famous tree hunt of 2010

A couple of years ago we went to Yancey County for a live Christmas tree. We had a lot of fun: the weather was sunny and nearly 60 degrees. Libby wanted to do the same thing this year. The weather was snowy and 25 degrees.

We set off anyway. We got to Burnsville just as their Christmas parade was finishing up: got stuck in traffic and everyone was doubly anxious because snow was falling like crazy and sticking everywhere. We stopped for lunch to mull it over. We decided to persevere on, with the proviso that we would turn around if there were any driving issues. We started up (UP) Highway 197 to get to the farm we wanted to revisit. About a mile in the road was slicked up and a couple of cars ahead of us had stopped, dead in the road. We slid around a little also and ground to a halt. A salt truck came by and salted the other lane; didn't help us a bit. We sat for about 20 minutes until volunteer fire fighters pushed us off our snowy spot. We turned right around and crept back down the hill.

We stopped for a tree at another farm near town, in the valley. We'll try to get back to our first choice farm another year. When it's warm; and when it's sunny.

Cousin Martha

Libby's cousin Martha and her friend Russ got written up on an information page for MerleFest. Awesome!

Funny and ever-so-slightly unnerving

Calvin has enjoyed the "what does the _____ say" game for quite some time. But for that reason, it seems to have become slightly old hat for the three brothers. It seems that E and B have devised a way to keep the spark in the game. Heard this weekend:

Eli: What does the dog say?
Calvin: Woof.

Briggs: What does the kitty say?
Calvin: Meow.

Eli: What does the duck say?
Calvin: Quack, quack.

Briggs: What does the dinosaur say?
Calvin: RAWR!

Eli: What does the cow say?
Calvin: Eat more chicken.

Reading

I grabbed the wrong book at the library recently. I have been enjoying reading books by Lee Child. Especially his "Jack Reacher" novels. Last time I was the library though, I got a book by Lincoln Child instead. Didn't look very carefully obviously. "Deep Storm" was okay; enough so that I got a second book my most recent trip. Not quite a good as Lee Child in my opinion, but good enough to fall asleep to.

PARI

Eli has been working on the astronomy merit badge. He's also had an interest in things astronomical and meteorological for some time, thanks in no small part to his mother. And we've heard several folks talk about PARI. So for yesterday's school holiday (a teacher workday) we decided to make the jaunt.

PARI is 75 minutes from Black Mountain, on the other side of Brevard. The scheduled tour was billed for 2PM; we got there about 1230PM and the docent was kind enough to begin with us then rather than make us bide out time. We did the galaxy walk. (If our Sun is four inches in diameter the next nearest star is in Arizona!!) We also got to poke around in most of the buildings. One of the highlights was the 950' tunnel from one building to one of the satellites. We didn't walk the whole thing, but it was awesome.

We spent a lot of time looking at old glass slides of outer space and learned about how they are being digitized (by a fellow named Thurman Barker!). The site has two 26-meter radio telescopes that are fun to see; we missed by minutes seeing one move. But all-in-all it was a nice visit.

Cake thieves

One birthday; two mooches.



Yes, that piece of cake is indeed about three times the size of his mouth.



Later in the evening, Calvin went back for more. He pulled the cake off the counter. It stayed in the box, but was upside down. Didn't seem to bother Calvin.

Thirteen

Eli hit a milestone last weekend, turning thirteen. He was born at JW in Richmond, a little before one in the morning, lo these many years ago. I remember the nurse remarking as his head was starting to poke out, "Wow, look at that red hair." Little did I know.

Biker

We've had a bag full of costume pieces for some time. Briggs gets it out now and again. This weekend he discovered this green bandana. Today he put it on and ultimately almost never took it off the whole day. Between the bandana, the two missing teeth and his general grubbiness, he looked like he was ready to get on his hawg after leaving a bar brawl. The first one of you moops who suggests a tat had better just watch out!

Show me your belt

Briggs recently got a belt to wear with his Tiger Cub Scout uniform. So he and Calvin have been big into the whole concept of belts this week. Today Calvin slipped on an old belt (the shorts have no belt loops, mind you). At our first stop on the Parkway I noticed it and asked him to show it to me. He preferred showing me his belly, his shoes, his knees, looking at the belt himself: anything except the belt. Finally, he showed Granny.

A simple comparison

I don't want to hear any complaining about the hardship of leaving the Outer Banks of North Carolina because of Hurricane Earl. Or having to loose a couple of days of vacation. Or about how horrible the traffic is. Just shut up.

Moore Cove Falls

We hiked to Moore Cove Falls this afternoon (me, Eli and Briggs). I saw an article in Mountain Express this week that mentioned it.

To get to US276 near Brevard using NC280 is about an hour. Moore Cove Falls is about 6.5 miles up 276 from 280. It's not got a prominent sign, so we drove by it first time; it was easy enough to turn around and get back. The river passes under 276 at this particular point in the road, so there was that to enjoy after the hike to the falls itself.

The first 200 yards were the toughtest: a pretty decent hill to begin with. After that it was a breeze. Because of rain yesterday there was plenty of mud. There are some places where they have had to construct elevated wooden walkways, but nothing much more remarkable.

The falls are pretty nice. The best part is that one can walk behind them. There is a nice-sized crevice with lots of head-room. The falls were a little slick (none of us fell, once we got respect for the rocks). There are un-official trails to the top of the falls, but a boy fell and died from there in 2007; that was enough for even Briggs and Eli to consent to remain at ground level. There were plenty of places to sit and enjoy, and obviously one can dress for the ocassion and let the falls rain down on oneself. Briggs enjoyed that immensely. Obviously, when the weather has been dry, the falls will be minimal; today they were respectable, if not gushing.

We made a journey of it and came back via the Parkway: another 8 miles up 276 to the Parkway and then 30 or so to get back to Asheville. The Parkway is now re-opened through the Mt. Pisgah area, though there is a section of one-lane road, with a traffic light controlling the flow (on a busy day it could lead to traffic backup). Not bad at all today.

Spencer Shops

We went to the NC Transportation Museum today.


Sure, we rode the train. Sure, we had a picnic lunch the midst of a thunderstorm. Sure, we rode the turntable. Sure we got to see more than 30 train locos and rolling stock. Sure we got to watch them working on an old passenger car.





But nothing, Nothing, NOTHING compares to see the collection of die-cast models of fire and police and rescue vehicles in the "Bumper-to-Bumper" exhibit. Eli especially was in total bliss. Sure, we have more: at least a hundred as reported in Briggs' quest for 100-something in K-garten. But these were in pristine condition, artfully displayed. The boys were in awe!

K-ville

We spent the day in Knoxville, TN Saturday. We stopped by the Ijams Nature Center, rode the TN Riverboat, played in the fountains at the World's Fair plaza and went to the top of the Sunsphere. Not too shabby for 7 hours.

We were in town while an anti-immigration rally of some type was going on. Apparently Neo-Nazis from Wisconsin decided to drop in. Law enforcement was present in spades! Cars, bikes, special ops vehicles: all over downtown. Plus a helicopter buzzing overhead the whole time we were there.

There were no apparent food options near Ijams; we had to fortify ourselves with chips and water and caught a late lunch on the way back downtown. We were on the TN River while a "wakeboarding" event sponsored by MasterCraft was being run and taped for later television broadcast. There's nothing like a thunderstorm to clear out the fountain area. People were leaving in droves as we pulled up. We waited a few minutes and had the place nearly to ourselves. Same with the Sunsphere.

Knoxville felt a lot like Richmond: the riverfront, the humidity, the big-city vibe, the humidity, the history, the humidity. There are a lot more things to do there, so I feel certain we'll head back to enjoy the humidity.


When planning the day, I noted that there is a steam train in Knoxville. This particular weekend was their rail-fest. Tickets for the event were way out of our league. However, we espied a couple of the locos tanking up on water. That was a nice serendipity while we waited for our cruise to depart.

Gap-acious!

Briggs lost the other front tooth today. He looks pretty goofy.

Briggs is in the top of one of the cabooses at the NC Transportation Museum. That thing on the right that looks like an eye is actually a light fixture inside the caboose!

Summer Conference Reflections

I've been attending the "Church Unbound" conference in Montreat for these couple of days. I actually led a seminar last year at the same event. I went just to listen this year.

Every few years I have realized it's a good thing to use continuing education time and funding for something other than music events. This year my registration for the PAM Worship and Music conference in Montreat was gratis because we loaned them handbells. So I had some spare funds.

The speaker this year was Brian McLaren, about whom I've heard a lot, but whom I've never heard or read. It's been very nice and enlightening. The only singing has been an ice-breaker at the beginning of the plenary sessions. They have offered a seminar on "unbound worship" which was interesting. The leadership for that came from the Covenant Community.

Last year when I was teaching, I also took in the plenary sessions. They were led by Shane Claiborne. They were very exciting also, and totally unrelated to music.

A colleague asked via Facebook who I would recommend to seek to hear, were she to try to engage in this sort of non-musical education event. My best answer is that it doesn't really matter. What matters most is that we church music professionals recognize the need for growth in our non-musical/spiritual/theological lives. Like many of us I attend a huge national event, teach once or twice for a local or regional event, and very quickly can be drained by all that leadership. That is unless I take commensurate time to get refueled at an event in which I can think in other ways than notes and rests and sharps and flats and toe and heel.

I suppose I'm a little unique in that I hold an MDiv degree. That may make it for likely that I get a kick out of non-musical and theology-related seminars. But I think any church professional would be well-suited to take in a similar event, outside of their usual area of expertise. This began years ago for me by taking in a retreat led by Richard Foster, who was big into spiritual disciplines and the contemplative life.

And for the record, I don't attend every session when I enroll in these events. It's not my personality style (as SJK has rightly noted). I pick and choose and spend plenty of time reading and watching hummingbirds.

Guitar Calvin

He doesn't know many chords,

but he can bust a move!

Erudite Calvin

Libby caught Calvin perusing the paper while waiting for his lunch today.

Last week the church nursery worker commented that Calvin said barely two words to her the whole time he was there. She was certain he knew a whole lot more than he was letting on. We assured her that, with chatterboxes like Eli and Briggs, Calvin does indeed know many, many words. He was just shining her on for effect.

Other veggies

This was this week's tomato haul. Libby fussed at me for picking before they were red. My argument is they they have been splitting badly on the vine.

There are two of these melons. We still are not sure what they will ultimately be.

Carrots

We planted two rows of carrots. We checked them at the beginning of July and they were not much at all. This weekend they look very nice.

This is the remaining row in the garden (getting a little weedy).

This is how they look straight out of the ground (hard to tell without pulling them up whether we'll get a nub or a 5-inch specimen).

This is how the first row cleaned up.

Here they are waiting to be cooked.

All that remained...

Cover with chicken stock, simmer for 60 minutes; add 1/4 cup of cream and a tablespoon of sugar and return to temperature. Righteous.

Briggs' awesome summer

This week Briggs lost another tooth...

learned to swim better...

and learned to ride on two wheels.

Not a bad week for a six-year-old.

Two- (or four-) wheeling fun

One of the nice things about "no-TV" days the past couple of weeks has been that the boys have gotten reacquainted with some old friend-toys. This evening it was bikes.

You can't enjoy the best part of this image: Calvin making his own sound effects!

Briggs started working on riding without training wheels a couple of months ago, but claimed he wasn't quite ready. Tonight it all came together for him. A few times around the yard built up his confidence to add his helmet and move onto the street.

Eli was very nice and sacrificed his own riding (for a while) and pushed Calvin around the yard.

What a difference a haircut makes.

Everyone got haircuts this weekend; here's one example of the improvement!

Thursday evening................................................

Sunday evening....................................................

Doing what boys do...

Three boys...

Quarters everywhere

I finally have 99% of the state quarter that I wanted. I have one complete set issued from the Philadelphia mint. I have 49 of a second set that I hope to trade somehow for a complete set of Denver mint quarters. (All I need is an Arizona (P) coin to complete the second set.) Along the way I've managed to pick up on my own 3-4 Denver mint examples.

Then late last year I encountered an American Samoa quarter, and learned that there was an additional set of six quarters for DC and five US territories. Checking just now I have two of those (including US Virgin Islands).

Now, over the weekend I encountered something else new: the obverse of the quarter reads "Hot Springs." I thought I had been gypped with some sort of token. But no: come to find out beginning this year there is a new set of 56 quarters commemorating National Parks and Historic Sites. One each from the 50 states, plus DC and plus the five US territories. It's a multi-year project, much like the state quarter series. NC will have its issued in 2015, noting the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Quick trip to SC

While Eli was at Massanetta this week, the rest of us scooted to Columbia, SC overnight. (Eli's been before, so he didn't miss anything.)

We got a nice deal on a room with dinner included, plus two free passes for the zoo. (I figured since it was a family package, they'd comp us one child and one adult, but they comped us two adults, saving us $24; we of course spent the savings on souvenirs, something we usually forego save for a magnet.)

We went to Edventure on Saturday evening. Calvin found it overwhelming and only wanted to watch. It was a little young for Briggs. So, not the greatest experience, but okay.

We were at the Radisson, and the restaurant was Columbo's. Not the most family-oriented place, but they were nice enough. The pool was a big hit with the boys.

Sunday we went to Riverbanks Zoo before it got too hot. Lots of fun for all. Above, Briggs is milking a pretend cow in the petting farm area.

We finished the trip with Libby's friend Meg and 2/3 of her family for lunch. We bolted when a crowd of Spaniards descended on the place (compete with vevuzulas) to watch the World Cup final game.

Drive time from Black Mountain was 3 hours going down and 2:45 coming back (via Interstates), mostly because I dared to go faster on the way home.

Diary of a green bean

Growing verdantly in the garden...

Having been cleaned and sorted...

Having been tipped...

Having been cut into delectable bite-sized pieces...

Eli engaged in said cutting...(we know: they're "snap beans" and you're supposed to snap them into pieces. Well, Eli had a lot to do, and needed to work on his vegetable prep skills. And he's a Scout after all. Scouts must use equipment.)

Simmering fragrantly in the pot along with bacon (of course), salt, pepper, onion, sugar, water and vinegar...

After one hour of cooking, with some diced potatoes added...

Having been eaten by bean-boy...

A short but happy and fulfilling life.