links for 2009-05-12
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What Mother Wouldn’t Love Star Trek?
So how did the Lowders celebrate Hallmark Mother's Day? Well the kids were at a church youth retreat all weekend and didn't return until 2:00 on Sunday and Mom Lowder was at a weekend getaway at High Rock Lake with a couple of other moms and didn't return until 2:30 Sunday. That gave Dad Lowder a whole two hours to buy a few books at Border's and some flowers at Costco to add to the snow crab legs that had been requested by Mom Lowder for her Mother's Day dinner and had been purchased by Dad Lowder on a separate Costco trip on Friday. Of course Mom Lowder ended up doing most of the meal prep herself, but who's quibbling? Finally Dad Lowder had the genius idea to go see the new Star Trek movie as a family and packed everyone in the car and took off for the 5:20 show at the Grand. Mom was oh so excited! Thankfully she was pleasantly surprised and the movie worked out okay. BTW, it's one of the best popcorn flicks I've seen in a while.
Amidst all this Dad Lowder forgot to call his own Mom, who's the one who originally convinced him that Hallmark created Mother's Day but Dad Lowder believes that was to make him feel better on another occassion that he forgot to call. Yes, yes, he's a schmuck. Dialing now…
Cool Winston-Salem Habitat for Humanity Program Involving High School Groups
I came across this item from a news site in Loudoun County, Virginia and it piqued my interest since that's right down the road from where I lived much of my life before moving to the Winston-Salem area. Essentially it's a story about 10 high school football players from Park View High School spending a week at the Winston-Salem Habitat for Humanity assisting on some of the houses. Here are some excerpts:
The Habitat trip began April 5 when the participating players and chaperons departed from Park View. On the drive to Winston-Salem, players were given the opportunity to visit four colleges (Liberty University, Virginia Tech, Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest University).
After arriving at the Habitat Forsyth office, players were shown their living quarters for the week — a loft above the Habitat Re-Store that featured two large rooms with military-style cots for sleeping, a kitchen, a table tennis room and a living room with a TV and DVD player. Below the loft were bathrooms with showers and a laundry room. While the living facilities were not luxurious, it held an aura of tradition as every group to have volunteered and stayed in the Habitat loft had left a wall mural representing their school.
The Park View football players went through an orientation where they learned a little about the Habitat process and the people for whom the Habitat houses are built. Many players were surprised to learn that Habitat did not simply provide homes for free, but offered financial responsibility classes for homeowners and actually sold the homes at an extremely low price with a no-interest mortgage…
The second day saw the group work on a different project, the Youth United house. Youth United is a volunteer program that was intriguing to the Park View group. Ten high schools in the Winston-Salem area banded together to raise $55,000 to sponsor the building of a Habitat house. They also worked to provide volunteers to help build the home…
Many of the members of the Habitat trip will be returning to the Winston-Salem area this July when they plan to participate in the Wake Forest University Passing Camp. One of the houses the players worked on may be ready to be handed over to a family by July, and the home dedication ceremony could be when the Patriots are in town.
I really like a few things about this story. First, it's a great way to get kids involved in Habitat projects. Second, it's a great way for Habitat to get more hands on deck for their projects and get the word out to the next generation about their programs. Third, it's a great way to introduce the Piedmont Triad to kids from other regions. Fourth, it's a great way for some high school kids to do good while also working on their own futures with visits to universities. Finally, it can't hurt the local schools' recruiting that they had those kids visiting their campuses (not to mention Wake's football program).
Biggest surprise of the story to me? The fact that Habitat houses visiting groups in the loft over the Re-Store. I had no idea.
Why I’m Mud Man
This is what it looks like when you put in a new septic drain field. I really had nothing to do with it other than contributing to the, uh, effluence that led to the old field getting saturated. BTW, I highly recommend Frank Transou if you need to have septic repair, installation or replacement done.
The Faces of a New Car
About 2 1/2 years ago I thought I was getting a new car, at least until Celeste called me and gave me the news about how much braces for the two oldest was going to cost. Bye-bye car, hello metal mouths. Michael got his off a while back, I think almost a year ago, but as luck would have it Erin, the one who actually cared what her mouth looked like, had to keep them in until yesterday. Below are pics of the kids the day they got their braces in the fall of 06 and today. I think you'll agree that more than their teeth have changed. I'd say the Ferrari whatever beater I can afford was worth the wait. Oh, and we still have one more to brace-face so it won't be any time soon.
links for 2009-05-06
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Guilford County Planning Board procedures, schedule, etc.
Another WXII Headline
WXII headlines are proving to be the gifts that keep on giving. Today's special:
Call Me Mud Man
A couple of weeks ago we had a new septic field put in our front yard. Why the front and not the back yard like 99% of the world? You'll have to ask the original homeowner why they situated our lot the way they did, but my guess is that they wanted to place the house farther back on the lot away from the road. Whatever, the result of having the work done is that a little more than half of the front yard is dirt which means for the first time in my life I'm trying to grow a lawn from scratch.
Celeste and I talked about getting a landscaper to put in sod, but after plunking down a chunk of change on the septic system we decided it would be financially prudent to try and seed and grow the grass ourselves. Easier said than done.
First we needed to get the ground prepared and let's just say it was more than one man and his three unhappy teenagers to do with a few rakes, at least if you wanted it done in less time than it took to build the Great Wall. So we called Zeke Mock and asked him to come over with his tractor and get the ground nicely even and raked for us. He had to wait for the ground to dry after last weeks rains so that the tractor wouldn't damage our brand new septic lines so he showed up last last week and did his thing.
Of course we needed grass seed. The weekend before last Celeste picked up a couple of bags of Scott's Turf Builder Heat Tolerant Blue Mix at Lowe's and a seed spreader to go with them so that meant that Saturday morning I was up and rarin' to go in my role as Jon-ny Lawnseed. Spreading the seed took about 20 minutes, which was great, but upon reading the instructions I realized that once the seed was down I was going to have to water the dirt twice a day. What a pain in the butt!To understand how much I dislike yard tending you need only know this: I actually like the fact that we have lots of weeds in our yard because if I set my mower at its lowest setting you can't really distinguish the weeds from the grass unless you're standing on it and the lawn stays green pretty much year round and during the most sever droughts. Bonus! So the idea that I have to actually water my dirt just seems, well, sucky.
Oh well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Celeste had also purchased a sprinkler, the kind that sends about ten streams of water in a nice gentle arc (the kind that kids jump through on hot summer days), but after I hooked it up and it did its thing for about five minutes it decided that it wouldn't rotate and would just spray in one direction. Damnit! So I put a sprayer on the hose and started spraying our massive dirt patch by hand. Unfortunately I didn't plan well and got the hose all kinked up and I kind of sprayed myself into a corner which means I had to walk through mud to get everything straightened out. By the time I was done my shoes weighed approximately 52 pounds each, and I could swear there were sprouts coming out of the toes.
It gets better. Yesterday I woke up early so I could water the dirt before church. Seems kind of Biblical, no? After fighting the hose again I went inside to take a shower and when I got out I noticed that it was raining quite nicely. Most people would have checked the weather before going out to water their lawn, or maybe even looked up while outside, but not me. In my defense I hadn't had coffee yet so I really was semi-comatose. But still.
And of course this morning I was out there once again at 6:30, bed-head and all. Neighbors politely honked as they departed for work or taking their kids to school, but I was inclined to reply with a one finger salute because watering dirt at 6:30 is not my cup of tea. I refrained and just gave 'em the "neighbor nod" but I was sorely tempted to take out my dirt rage on them.
Thankfully this isn't supposed to last forever. The seed bag instructed me to water twice a day for a week or until I see my first sprouts, and then I can scale back to once a day. I'm hoping that our septic field will contribute lots of nutrients so that the process is expedited, but I'm not banking on it. In the mean time if you're driving through Lewisville and you see a tall, disheveled, mud splattered man you'll know you've found me.
Sonic Shakedown
I think today must be "show the world how many people in your family are more talented than you" on the blog day. Actually that would be damning my relatives with faint praise since I set an exceptionally low bar in terms of talent. Whatever. My last post I shared one of my daughter's poems, and with this post I'm going to share my cousin Jeff's new local band, Sonic Shakedown. I've posted one of their videos below and you can check out their Myspace page here. BTW, Jeff's the bass player.
The Words I Love You
The following is a poem written by my daughter Erin (15) and published here with her permission.
The Words I Love You
by Erin Lowder
The words I Love You,
Are meant to make,
Someone fall head over heels,
The Words I Love You,
Are meant to make,
Someone's heart skip a beat,
But sometimes,
The words I Love You,
Are said out of pure habit,
And sometimes,
The words I Love You,
Are said to make conversation,
It needs to be understood,
That the words I Love You,
Can be mumbled through a child's mouth,
To their mother,
And that the words I Love You,
Can be said to a teen's significant other,
Or to an adult's love of their life,
But when the words are said,
The meaning behind them
Should mean one thing,
And one thing only,
They should mean:
"You are the best thing,
that has ever happened to me"
Befuddled 