The Great Beer Quest of 2012 was a smashing success! Just look at these four beauties! Last night at 11PM, I met Oz, Derek and Dan in Hillsborough, they piled into the Beast and we roared over to W/S to Foothills Brewery. We hung out at the release party for the Sexual Chocolate Stout and [...]

This morning, Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout on the North Carolina coast as a Cat 1 hurricane. We’re about 180 miles (290 KM) inland from Cape Lookout and so Irene was not a big threat to us. Still, we stocked up on food, gas for the grill and gasoline for the chainsaw. Just in [...]

Today, at 1:51 PM I was in the bathroom getting ready to take a shower after a long run this morning and an hour of horseback riding, when the damn house started shaking. “Wow – that’s an earthquake” I thought. I was right – it was a 5.9 earthquake in Virginia that was felt all [...]

July was a scorcher. Today we hit another record high temperature of 104 Deg. F (40° C). Last week was even worse, due to the high humidity we had the heat index reach 115 Deg. F (gefühlte 46° C) . On those days you just could just go outside and stand there …  and sweat. [...]

Yesterday, two NC DOT workers carefully measured the clearance of the crash beam of the 11foot8 bridge. The question as to whether the signage is actually accurate – especially after the recent re-paving of Gregson St – has now been settled. The actual clearance is 11 feet and 10.8 inches (or 11.90 feet or 3.63 [...]

Nothing says “summer is here” more than a couple of muggy mid-90 days over Memorial Day weekend, building a tree house and catching fish in the pond. Last weekend, I completed our treehouse. Well, it’s not so much a “house” as a platform in the tree – about 15 feet (5m) above the ground. It [...]

We are proud to present the 11foot8 Team @Overheight When Flashing@! This intrepid team of athletes will take on the Doughman Race on May 28 – a challenging eating/athletic competition right here in Durham. This race is also a fundraiser for SEEDS – a local nonprofit that builds community gardens and teaches kids to grow [...]

The pair of wild Canada Geese in our back yard had 4 goslings last week. Today, on Easter Sunday, I got close enough for some pictures and some video.

Last week, a producer from MSNBC’s “Caught on Camera” contacted me about using my truck crash footage and about doing an interview.I was not so sure about doing a TV interview, but I couldn’t really think of any good reason not to do it, except that I probably would look like a dork. So I [...]

This weekend was supermoon weekend and the weather was beautifully warm and clear here in NC. We stayed up late with the kids and the horses playing in the moonlight. Click on the photo above – it links to a gallery of some of my recent moon-lit night photos (including the shots from this weekend).

Ah … the Irish. What can I say – they know how to party. Dain Phelan and Zack Wheeler yesterday at Dain’s Place in Durham: I don’t much care for catholic saints, but David Plotz’ story about Ireland’s patron saint is pretty interesting: According to Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization, Paddy’s [...]

Time for a new truck crash video compilation. This is the Sergio Leone remix of the 2010 truck crashes at the Gregson St. railroad trestle. Enjoy! Es ist mal wieder Zeit fuer einen Kompilationsfilm der LKW-Enthauptungen an unserer beruechtigten Eisenbahnbruecke hier in Durham in North Carolina. Diesmal ist der Film Sergio Leone gewidmet undf seinem [...]

Today I went to the Durham Police Department to file an identity theft report because someone took out a payday loan using my name. When you research ID theft, most advice emphasizes the importance of filing a  police report. However, the officer I spoke with said he cannot do a report because the crime did [...]

It’s fall and the snakes are on the move. A while ago, Laura and I saw a (we think) Northern Watersnake by the pond and recently, I had to kill a big Copperhead near the horses shelter (and hay storage). A few days ago, I caught a juvenile Ratsnake inside the hay storage, and today [...]

Today was the hottest day this year, so far: 96 Deg. F / 35 Deg. C and max humidity at 90%. Summer has begun in Durham!

Although Memorial Day is a a bit of a somber holiday, to most Americans the long weekend at the end of May is less about death and patriotism and more about celebrating the beginning of summer; about cookouts, parties, fishing trips and other family fun. For us, last weekend was all bout bonding with our [...]

This evening, Laura tried out her new waders in the pond, and as she was poking around the edge of the pond she met the pond’s resident turtle: a 10-inch yellow-belly slider. The poor turtle protested some, but did not seem too worried overall. At her size (10 inches/24cm) she is pretty much as big [...]

Tomorrow, the Togolese anti-RPT diaspora in the US will demonstrate to protest the ridiculous “election” that confirmed Togo’s president earlier this month.  Apparently a North Carolina representative has arranged for a meeting of representatives of the protesters with President Obama. Not that I expect much of that. Obama has got bigger fish to fry right [...]

Endangered Durham has a great post about the Watts and Yuille tobacco warehouses, nowadays known as Brightleaf Square. The post includes this aerial shot of the warehouses (this is just a cropped version). I was looking for some evidence of how old the trestle is. This question keeps coming up when people ask why the [...]

Last Thursday around lunchtime a truck with a huge industrial freezer crashed into the Gregson St railroad trestle – the “truck guillotine”  as some are calling it. This time I was there and I had my camera with me, so in addition to the actual crash footage I also shot some footage of the crash [...]