Blog Note

I misspelled "Ocracoke" on the last post so it flagged in the spell check. So I corrected it; and it still flagged. it wanted me to replace it with "karaoke" .

Winter Rain

If I were good at writing poems, I would write one about today here on Ocracoke. It is the type of day that deserves a poem.

We are having a winter rain. The chilly and damp air feels good after a couple of days that were too warm for winter. This morning, we all got up before 7 AM. We were able to see mist rising from the marshes. Beautiful site -- the cool mist dispersed among the warm golden glow of the winter marshes.

Geologic Change

I used to think that changes in the Earth took eons. Yet, we can see them easily within our lives. Sand drifting due to the wind. Mud washing away after a rain. Leaves rotting to make soil each year after they fall.

This area of beaches, the barrier islands, is constantly under going change due to the weather; even what most of us would consider typical storms.

Hmm...

It was not an emergency when the dishwasher stopped on Christmas Eve so we did not call the rental office until today. within 30 minutes a very nice gentleman showed up, looked at the dishwasher, tweaked a few things and said "Hmmmm."

He came back with another gentleman, they both got down on the floor with flashlights, etc. and then stood up and said "Hmmmm."

So we went to the grocery store and bought paper plates.

You Know You Are In Ocraoke When...

You know you are in Ocracoke when:

• ...your graduating class from high school has three people.
• ...the main food brand at the grocery store is Our Family.
• ...when you ask if the ground beef is fresh, the grocery man says that he ground it that morning.
• ...cheese packaged by the grocery store has no expiration date.
• ...only one restaurant is open in the winter.
• ...there is no McDonalds anywhere.
• ...any way off or onto the island is by ferry.
• ...when they do road work, the detour is for four-wheel drive vehicles only as it is onto the beach.
• ...the weather channel has the orange and blue graphics from ten years ago on the local forecast.
• ...every other local mailbox has some version of O'Neal or O'Neil or O'Niel.
• ...because of no zoning you can duck hunt off of your back porch.
• ...one of the local folk group's sings of the evils of computers.
• ...the only place open 365 1/4 days a year is for the "bubba type" surf fisherman.
• ...the power can go out at any time and it's not worth finding out for how long it will be out.

Toilet Seat Types

As I sat down on the toilet seat this morning, and felt the hard chilled surface motivating me to leave it behind soon, I thought...."I wonder how the rest of the family feels about toilet seat types. What who be people's favorite?"

So, what is your favorite type of toilet seat cover? They come in padded, painted wood, heated, even digital. clear plastic.....

Gravity's Night Before

Twas the night before leaving
and it was taking a long time
getting ready for two weeks is not sublime

The people were frazzled, nerves were flaring
We'd have to wait a day. The decision was glaring.

We finally left, wonderful trip
We had the kayaks and everything, nothing was left

We made it, Christmas tree too
But lo and behold the house had one; what to do?

We decided on two trees!, our is bigger
Tonight we do ornaments but not with glitter.

I suck at this poetry stuff, what can I do
Oh well, I tried, maybe I'll clean out the flu

We Made It!

After a 24 hour delay, we made it to Ocracoke. The trip down was a good one. And we got a surprise -- the house has a Christmas tree....and we brought one, too. So there is a lot of Christmas spirit here!

Tonight, we are watching the episodes from the first season of the TV show House. The show has very interesting medical cases. Tomorrow. one the the things we do will be to decorate the tree that we brought with us.

It is good to be here. It is warm, too warm; but the weather is bound to change.

Wish Bones

Do wish bones ever split right down the middle so the two parts are equal?

Ocracoke Here We Come!

All of us are ready to go to the beach. This fall has been hectic, hectic. During the break, Esh will need to do college applications and Gravity usually does some work for his clients, but salt air, the promise of kayaking, and the view of the marshes will be a special treat. We will miss the cats and dogs, but it will also be nice not having to care for them. And we will be able to walk through the nature trail without having to use Deet!

Ocracoke here we come!!!

Home Movies

The other day, as I remembered fondly the movie "Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation" I thought about Chevy Chase getting stuck in the attic and watching home movies to pass the time.

Then it hit me! We had not watched home videos in years. So we are gong through them in random style (Ian is 1 year old, then 7 years old, then 3 years old, etc.). I has been a great holiday experience!

So Wha' Da Ya Thenk?

This was part of a posting on Cosmic Variance blog (see links):

What is the arrow of time? http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/12/03/arrow-of-time-faq/

The past is different from the future. One of the most obvious features of the macroscopic world is irreversibility: heat doesn't flow spontaneously from cold objects to hot ones, we can turn eggs into omelets but not omelets into eggs, ice cubes melt in warm water but glasses of water don't spontaneously give rise to ice cubes. These irreversibilities are summarized by the Second law of thermodynamics: the entropy of a closed system will (practically) never decrease into the future.

What do you think?

Room Ideas

So our house is already a bit odd...with models of DNA, sucrose, graphite, and diamond, five skull reproductions showing the evolution of Man, compasses, abacuses, fossils, six mobiles hanging from the ceilings of various rooms, magnetic poetry on the walls of the downstairs bathroom, murals demonstrating the warping of space-time and the digits of Pi, 16 foot sculptures in the front yard....we are now going to top it all by making the master bedroom suite into a giant (the room is bigger than the family room) work room. It will have a computer desk area, an art studio area, and white boards for thinking! What a bonanza; and who needs to sleep anyway? [There will still be a small dressing area....every house needs a tiny bit of the conventional after all.]

Math Proof

Okay everybody, prove the following:

Theorem 4.3:

Given distinct points P and Q, a segment AB , and points R
and S such that R and S are on −! PQ , PR = AB , and PS = AB , then
R = S.

P 6= Q & R, S are on −! PQ & PR = AB & PS = AB ! R = S.

Just kidding! I stare at this stuff all day long.....no wonder I go nuts!

Twelfth Night

We went to a showing at UVA's Culbreth Theater of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

The play was really well done. The one disappointing thing (in general) is that it is
hard to find any Shakespeare play where the actor's dress from the time period.

This one was modernized in dress but not in language. They really did some neat things with
sound and lighting during scene changes.

Of course reading Shakespeare can be hard enough, hearing it can be even harder but I am glad it was the original language, even if it made it a bit hard to follow. (We went to one at a high school production a couple of years ago where they tried to do Shakespeare in modern southern language and southern dress-weird!)

The acting, sets, and sound were exceptionally well done-very professional. Wonderful theater.

So far we have seen (at UVA) The Pirates of Penzance done by the Music Department
and Twelfth Night done by the Drama Department.

Looking forward to more!