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 […]

The North Carolina constitution actually bars atheists from public office – in Article VI, Section 8: Sec. 8.  Disqualifications for office. The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God. (…) NC Constitution, Article VI, Section 8 This, and all other religious tests for public […]

Not sure if this is funny or just sad … a middle school in Goldsboro, NC had the brilliant idea to try selling grades as a school fundraiser. Yes – $20 gets you 20 point on your next test. That can turn a B into an A or an F(ail) into a D (=pass). Jay […]

Today, I ran 3 one-mile stretches on the beach. Sand is a great training tool because your feet give you instant feedback at every step. On asphalt you get feedback, but sometimes only too late, when you already got that blister. In sand you can feel how deep your feet sink in and where. That […]

Last Saturday I participated in the second edition of the Doughman – but not in the competition this time around. Instead I helped document the World’s premier Quadrathlon  as one of four volunteer videographers. Due to our trip to Togo I was a bit late with the registration, and by the time I got serous […]

Not to dwell on the weather, but this is pretty intense, even for North Carolina. Last week, the official low temp. was 18 Deg. F (-7 ° C) and today the high was 81 F (27 °C). In the 50 hours from Wed AM to Friday PM temperatures went up by 50 Deg. F. Right […]

Sunday night central North Carolina was blanketed in 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) of snow. This is our third snowfall this winter, which makes this a pretty “wintry” winter for NC. Last year the temperatures hardly dipped below freezing. Last night it was 14 Deg. F (minus 11 Celsius). The kids enjoyed building their first snow-person. […]

An inch of snow on the ground and, as usual, most of Durham shuts down. And since no one here owns a set of snow tires, I think it’s a pretty reasonable decision to stay at home. So we made some waffles and coffee and settled in to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as […]

2008 was a pretty good year for us. We stayed healthy, sane (more or less) and employed. Jacob and Julia grew a lot. We had a great family vacation in the mountains of North Carolina and we did a couple of short trips to the beach. Both kids changed schools. Jacob and I started learning […]

This is sweet! Today I am especially proud to be a Tar Heel! North Carolina turned blue for Obama. It looks like the Democrat won by a few thousand votes in NC. This is the first time since President Carter that a Democrat won this state. The map above shows results county by county and […]

Right now I am in Atlantic Beach, on the North Carolina coast. I am sitting on the deck of a friend’s beach house with a drink, waiting for the last load of laundry and the dish washer to get done, so I can pack our stuff and head back to Durham. I can hear the […]

Meet Joey – he’s a 18-hands Clydesdale and a member of the Express Clydesdales Team. When the team visited Durham last weekend, we were lucky enough to know where they were staying. so we got a special, personal encounter with these amazing hoses. (see below)

Wednesday morning I rode my bike to work for the first time. It was a nice morning for a bike ride, and it took me about 40 Minutes to get to work – no big deal. However, riding in traffic is really not very enjoyable and many drivers passed me with just a few inches […]

Ugh – I’m melting! North Carolina in August is certainly supposed to be hot, but tripple-digit temperatures are still unusual. Yesterday we hit a new heat record for the day and came within one degree of the all-time highest temperature ever recorded at RDU airport. It was 104 Fahrenheit – 40 Deg. Celsius – and […]