Challenges of Blackberry Blogging

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I’m in DC for a conference and for once I didn’t travel with a laptop. Since I have my Blackberry I have no problem keeping up with email but surfing Ze Web ain’t exactly easy. It’s also a pain to blog this way, but it beats toting around a laptop so I won’t complain too much.
Really the biggest hassle is that I can’t figure out how to link to anything with the mobile version of Typepad. I’ll bet it’s possible but I’ll be darned if I can figure it out.
FYI, if you’re in DC and are looking for a great dining experience you should check out Fogo de Chao on 11th and PA Ave. It’s a Brazilian restaurant that features 15 cuts of various meats (beef, lamb, pork and chicken) that the servers bring around and slice for you. They keep coming until you tell them to stop and unless you’re a vegetarian you’ll have a hard time asking them to stop. Honestly it’s some of the best meat I’ve ever eaten. Oh, and the salad bar is insane; hearts of palm, asparagus spears on steroids and vegetables I’ve never heard of before. I also highly recommend the dark Brazilian beer that I think was called Xingu. It’s not heavy at all and has a really unique flavor.Of course dinner and drinks tasted even better because the tab was being picked up by a sponsor. Believe me I enjoyed it while I could.

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March 7 is a fun day for me every year. Why? Because it’s Celeste’s and my anniversary and for 17 years it follow has followed the day that I almost have a heart attack at 11:00 P.M. You know, that’s when I have my “Oh crap” moment as I realize that once again I almost forgot the occassion and that I’ll be scrambling the next day to find an appropriate gift.
In the past we’ve celebrated our big day by having dinner at Zevely House as a couple or by taking the kids and celebrating as a family at River Birch Lodge to name just two. This year it will just be the two of us at Ryan’s. We’ve lived here for four and a half years and we haven’t eaten there yet so we’re looking forward to it.
Of course the weather is gorgeous today because I ordered it up as part of the celebration. You can all thank me later.

New Gig

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If you're a regular reader of this blog (I think there's about four of you) you might have noticed a drop in volume of posts this week.  There's a good reason. Actually, from my perspective there's a great reason.  After spending the last eight-ish years as a consultant I've re-entered the world of the gainfully employed.  On Monday I was offered, and accepted, the position of Executive Director of the Triad Apartment Association.  Since then I've been scrambling to get my ducks in a row before I start on Monday.  I'm very excited about the opportunity, although it means some fundamental changes in lifestyle.  To wit:

  • No more working in pajamas or sweats from the home office. 
  • Commuting to Greensboro. 
  • Shaving every day. 

Seriously, this is a very good thing for me.  I've long thought about taking on an Executive Director position and this is a great opportunity.  Wish me luck!

Playing Quarters (Not the drinking game)

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One of the problems with having a saturated septic field is that you really want to avoid putting any more water into it.  That becomes problematic when you have three teenagers, so we've been taking measures to limit our water use.  This week that's meant making a couple of trips to the laundromat to do mega-loads of laundry.  Consequently I've come to a few conclusions and realizations:

  • Our kids have too many clothes.  Seriously, how many sweatshirts does one boy need?  How many pairs of socks can one girl possibly use?  Sheesh.
  • Having your own, properly functioning washer and dryer at home is one of the great luxuries of modern living. 
  • Using a laundromat launches you out of your little cocoon of comfort.  Watching the people who obviously use the laundromat on a regular basis, evident by their systematic use of the machines to optimize both time and quarters, makes you realize exactly how easy you might have it. 
  • My habit of throwing my change in a box on my bedstand every night over the last couple of years has resulted in me accumulating something like $451 in quarters.  Those come in quite handy at a laundromat. 
  • I'm going to be pushing our septic contractor hard to get our system fixed ASAP.  Dragging clothes to the laundromat and worrying about every flush of the toilet is no fun.  
  • We've used the laundromat in Clemmons that's right next door to the food pantry.  Seeing people who are truly struggling definitely puts things in perspective.  All things considered having a funky septic system isn't really that big a problem so I'm going to stop whining about it. 

Recent Rain Fills Reservoirs and My Front Yard

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According to this story at WXII the rain over the past weekend combined with the snow has gone a long way to catching us up on our yearly rainfall totals.  Local reservoirs are approaching full which is a good thing.

Here on the home front the rain fall has exacerbated our septic issues.  To catch you up on what I'm talking about:
  • During the really rainy spell in December and January we notice a muddy patch in our lawn near the road that runs in front of our house.
  • Muddy patch occassionally smells a little funky. 
  • We get septic tank pumped and that seems to help. 
  • We notice that whenever it rains a lot we get the return of the funky smell.  
  • Three weeks later we notice that the patch is still there and call a septic repair guy who's the friend of a friend.  He recommends we have the county come out to look at it.
  • A very helpful representative from the Forsyth County health department comes last week and says that while our system isn't failing our septic lines are saturated.  Basically we don't have enough septic lines for the number of people living in our house.  That's actually good news compared to what we were worried about (total failure and system replacement). 
  • He lays out a plan for more lines in our yard (thankfully we have plenty of room) and pending a test showing that our soil percs well we will get a permit to put in those lines some time in the next five years (if the system was failing we'd have 30 days). 

So that brings us to this weekend.  I'd dug a hole about two feet deep and three feet in circumference to get to the lid of our septic tank so that the county guy could access it if he needed it.  I decided to leave the hole in case I needed to call the septic pump guy to empty our tank again.  Well, when we got the monsoon over the weekend that hole started to fill with water and I worried that a couple of bad things might happen: one, the concrete lid might start leaking some of the stuff inside the tank into the water in the hole, or two, that the water would freeze overnight and crack the lid.  So guess what?  Sunday after church I was the idiot bailing water out of a hole in the middle of massive rain showers and then filling it with mud.  I'd love to know what my neighbors were thinking when they drove past.

Here's where we stand now:  We're waiting for the permit from the county so that we can get the septic contractor out here to put in our new lines.  We're probably looking at a couple of weeks before everything is done, and in the interim our yard is saturated.  Luckily it's not sewage, it's just that the gray water has nowhere to go so it sits on top of the ground and provides us with the occassional whiff of putridity (Is that a word?).  It smells kind of like swamp.

While the good citizen in me realizes that we need the rain the selfish homeowner is hoping for a three week drought.

Warren Buffett on Housing

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This excerpt from Warren Buffett's letter to shareholders should be required reading for everyone involved in the housing and financial industries:

Commentary about the current housing crisis often ignores the crucial fact that most foreclosures do not occur because a house is worth less than its mortgage (so-called “upside-down” loans). Rather, foreclosures take place because borrowers can’t pay the monthly payment that they agreed to pay. Homeowners who have made a meaningful down-payment – derived from savings and not from other borrowing – seldom walk away from a primary residence simply because its value today is less than the mortgage. Instead, they walk when they can’t make the monthly payments.

Home ownership is a wonderful thing. My family and I have enjoyed my present home for 50 years, with more to come. But enjoyment and utility should be the primary motives for purchase, not profit or refi possibilities. And the home purchased ought to fit the income of the purchaser.

The present housing debacle should teach home buyers, lenders, brokers and government some simple lessons that will ensure stability in the future. Home purchases should involve an honest-to-God down payment of at least 10% and monthly payments that can be comfortably handled by the borrower’s income. That income should be carefully verified. 

Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal, shouldn’t be our country’s primary objective. Keeping them in their homes should be the ambition.

Snow Day and Why I Won’t Qualify as a Good Samaritan This Week

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Last night's snow was easily the most significant of my family's five winters here. There's finally enough white stuff to actually do some real sledding or snowball fighting.

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I have a sad admission to make: last night after we went to bed we heard a truck go by the house and then we heard some spinning wheels for a minute or two.  My wife asked me if I thought it was the neighbors and I said no that it wasn't one of their cars because I would have recognized the sound.  The sound went away so I figured that whoever it was had gotten firm traction and taken off and after that I didn't think much of it.  Then this morning I went out to get the newspaper (yes it was delivered on time this morning so big time kudos to our newspaper delivery folks) and saw that a pickup truck was stuck in my neighbor's yard.  Now I'm feeling guilty that I didn't get out of bed to check it out and see if someone did indeed need help.  Of course if they need help today I'll be all over it since guilt is a powerful motivator.

Rumor Mill: Ask SAM Quits

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Rumor from a very reliable source: Rhonda "Ask SAM" Bumgardner has resigned from the Winston-Salem Journal effective Monday. I'm sure details will follow from the newspaper in six point font at the bottom of page A23 next to the funeral home ad. 

Not exactly surprising news since the paper laid off her husband not too long ago.

Free Pizza Downtown in One Hour! Oh, and BTW the Oral History Project is Coming to Winston-Salem

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WFDD is holding a press conference in about an hour to officially kick off the first day of the StoryCorps oral history project that will be in residence here in Winston-Salem until March 21st. If that doesn't excite you this might: Mellow Mushroom's providing free pizza at the kickoff.  From the press release:

88.5 WFDD, the National Public Radio affiliate licensed to Wake Forest University, will hold a press conference this Thursday, February 26th, at 11:30am, at Winston Square Park. The press conference will officially kick off opening day of the StoryCorps national oral history project, in residence in Winston-Salem until March 21st, 2009. While in Winston-Salem, StoryCorps will be collecting the stories of everyday residents of the Piedmont Triad and surrounding region. These stories will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and some may be selected for broadcast on WFDD, as well as National Public Radio.

At 11:30am, Mayor Allen Joines will read a proclamation officially renaming North Marshall Street between Second and Fourth Streets "Honorary StoryCorps Boulevard" for the duration of StoryCorps's visit. Remarks from WFDD General Manager Denise Franklin and StoryCorps Site Supervisor Sara Esrick will follow. The first two interview pairs of the day will be present. H'tuyet Rahlan, a member of Greensboro's Montagnard community will be interviewed by her sponsor; and James Ballew, a well-known area piano tuner, will be interview by a long-time friend. The Mellow Mushroom will provide pizza for attendees.

StoryCorps's Airstream trailer, now a sound-proof recording booth, arrived in Winston-Salem last night. Parked in Winston Square Park, near Winston-Salem's iconic Sawtooth Building, it makes for a striking visual. 88.5 WFDD is proud to partner with StoryCorps to bring the mobile recording booth to the community. It is an honor for our area to be selected as a stop on the national tour.